by Jada Cox
Billionaire Dragon
A Dragon Shifter Romance
Dragon Mansion Book 1
Jada Cox
Copyright © 2020 by Jada Cox.
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of the book only. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form, including recording, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1 - Malcolm
Chapter 2 - Violet
Chapter 3 - Malcolm
Chapter 4 - Violet
Chapter 5 - Malcolm
Chapter 6 - Violet
Chapter 7 - Malcolm
Chapter 8 - Violet
Chapter 9 - Malcolm
Chapter 10 - Violet
Chapter 11 - Malcolm
Chapter 12 - Violet
Chapter 13 - Malcolm
Chapter 14 – Violet
Chapter 15 - Malcolm
Chapter 16 - Violet
About Jada Cox
Books by Jada Cox
Chapter 1 - Malcolm
It wasn’t the house so much that impressed me but the property that went with it. Sure, it was at the end of a cul-de-sac, but behind the house, or so the advertisement said, the property went on for a couple of miles, including a trail that went down to a private lake.
We’d chosen Rock Creek because it was a mountain town that felt enough away from the busy life but was an easy commute to the city if we needed it. It was nestled in the woods, and despite having neighbors, perhaps closer than I would have liked, this particular spot was a little more isolated, giving us space to stretch our wings.
Quin, Dain, Wyatt, Julian, Cory, and I parked up our bikes at the end of the drive, leaving our helmets on our seats. It was early, very early, but I didn’t mind.
“This the place?” Quin asked, rubbing his hand over his growing hair. It had been over a month since he shaved it last, and having hair again was getting to him.
“Matches the address,” Wyatt replied, pulling his phone out of his leather pocket and checking it.
“Hm,” Dain said. “There are neighbors. I wasn’t expecting neighbors.”
I nodded. “I wasn’t either, not the way the property was described.”
“Could be a problem,” he grumbled.
He was right, it could be a problem, but we had been living out of tents and hotels for the past few years, so anything permanent at this point sounded alright. I just wanted someplace where I could park my bike at night, maybe have my own car, and could call home.
We had been what one might call American Nomads over the last decade and a half. About thirty years ago, we took note of some of the advances in tech, pooled our money together, and invested a little bit into everything: Microsoft and Apple? Why not. We knew they were both going to take hold. Google? That was a drunken gamble, to be honest. We heard the name and thought it was hilarious, and went for it. Who knew it would get so big? Amazon was a no-brainer.
Little by little, we invested, expanded our investments, and expanded some more, until we reached a million collectively. Then we ran the ultimate gamble: our own company. Every penny we earned on the stock exchange we threw into one idea: handheld tech. We hired people for the code, the parts, everything. We created Fire Flight, one of the most sophisticated phones on the market, at the time, at least. Then we sold it, getting a very pretty penny for it. We took our billions and left to live a life of freedom on the back of motorcycles.
We lived off little, compared to most. We didn’t require a hotel every night, and the nights we wanted a bed to sleep in, we had no problem finding one. We hunted when we were hungry and drank most nights. Our bikes carried us from one end of the country to the other. We went from the Florida Keys to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. We zig-zagged across the country in no particular order, migrating with the seasons and hitting up festivals along the way. We even went up to Alaska a few times, and right on down to the Panama Canal. Wherever our bikes could go, we went.
But now that we had hit 147 years old, we were starting to feel our age. We decided that, at least for a little while, it might be a good investment to find a house. We had visited a couple of elemental dragon friends of us recently. They were five brothers who owned a large estate, and visiting them had made me realize that I wanted something like that, too. Gino, one of the elemental dragons, had told me that the space provided them with privacy and opportunities to shift. Once I’d seen their estate, I knew what I wanted for me and my friends, too.
While we had already bought up properties in Atlanta either to flip or rent out, we needed a place of our own, nearby but still in the woods where we could retreat until needed. Rock Creek was just the place or, at least, so it seemed from the brochure. What I hadn’t counted on, like Dain, was neighbors.
“It’s fine,” Julian said. “We can just look at this place, and if it’s not for us, then we’ll look at the next place. Wyatt, you found a few more, right?”
“Sure did,” Wyatt replied, spitting on the ground.
“Do you have to do that?” Quin moaned.
“I’m chewing on an eraser here,” Wyatt said. “I don’t know why it works, but it’s helping me lay off the smokes. Side effect, it makes a lot of spit. I didn’t realize you were so squeamish.”
I chuckled. “Right,” I said. “I’ve got the code for the key box on the door. Let’s check this place out.”
The house was quite impressive at four stories—three above ground and one below, meeting up with the garage which supposedly allowed for five cars. I didn’t know that was possible. If this house was meant for us, we’d have to argue over who got to stash their vehicle down below.
There were eight bedrooms, all but two were en suite, and all but one had their personal hot tub in them. There were only six of us, but it meant that we had space for some guests if we needed. It had large windows, but they were all tinted, allowing us privacy during the day.
There was a bag on the door that contained little booties for us to put over our shoes. Each of us obliged, and I threw a glance over my shoulder to make sure we were all ready before unlocking the door.
It opened into a landing big enough to fit all six of our motorcycles, with a modern chandelier above our heads and an elevator to our left.
“Oh man,” Cory said. “Check this thing out.” He pushed the up button which immediately lit up.
“Let’s check out this floor first, and then we can work our way up,” Quin suggested, as always, methodically. “Or down.”
“I think there should be an information packet somewhere,” Julian said.
I wandered out of the landing, which opened to a living room made almost entirely out of glass. The view spanned out the back of the house, over the downward sloping treetops and there, just in the distance, I could make out the shimmer of the lake. I went straight to the windows and pulled at the sliding glass door that let me out onto the balcony, equipped with a twelve-person hot tub.
“Can you imagine this on a full moon?” I asked, thinking about sitting on the balcony, only hearing the sounds of the woods while the light painted my scales.
“I found the information,” Dain said from behind me. I returned to the living room and saw where the kitchen began. It was a beautifully large kitchen, perfect for preparing feasts. And with our appetites, regular feasting was necessary.
Dain read over the information before passing it down the line to Quin, who waited patiently. I had already read it. The realtor had sent me a copy via email. I had eyed the house and felt like I was home before I had even seen it in person. That feeling had only strengthened since arriving.
/> I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt that way. The guys and me had always gone where it was necessary but never really found a place anywhere. But then again, we couldn’t. Not with the way we were. We had to always keep on the move.
“The floors are heated,” Julian said. “That’s a must I didn’t even know I needed.”
“Imagine curling up on the floor after a swim,” Wyatt mused. “I think I’m in love with this place.”
“We haven’t seen it all yet,” Quin replied.
“Doesn’t matter. I want it.”
“It’s like a mansion,” Cory said. “We should call it Dragon mansion.”
“Oh my god, are you for real? Dragon mansion?” Wyatt chuckled, smacking Cory’s arm. “Jeez, that’s the lamest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I’m going to check out the basement,” I said. “I want to see what it’s like under the balcony.”
“If you do,” Dain said, “you’re not going to get a chance to pick which room’s yours.”
“It says here that the whole house has been insulated enough that sound hardly carries,” Julian said. “Imagine that, not having to make you guys listen if I have a lady over.”
“I never notice anyway,” Wyatt joked. “She usually leaves within a few minutes of arriving. You make quick work, there, Bud.” He made a licking noise and pointed a finger at him like a gun.
I left the guys to it as I took the elevator downstairs. I’d never been in an elevator in a house before. The door opened to a low-ceilinged room with a built-in bar. Mirrors lined behind it, and like the living room upstairs, it was almost entirely lined with windows on one side, two of which were French doors. There was a fireplace in the middle of the cream-tiled room, and I could see having winter parties down here, or—my eyes clocked what I was looking at. One wall had a built-in television that spanned the entire wall.
My eyes widened as I considered watching the Super Bowl on that thing.
I turned around and noticed a hallway on the same side of the room as the elevator. I wandered down it and found another small kitchen, a large walk-in pantry, and the laundry room, equipped with a massive washing machine and dryer. The hall continued on to the garage, which was more like an underground layer than a garage. There was ample shelving for storage and ample room for our bikes and maybe a couple of cars. It wasn’t as big as the information made out, but it was certainly big enough and bright enough that we could turn it into a small film studio if we needed to. Not that we did, but it was a nice option.
I opened the French doors of the basement and stood outside, taking in the smell of trees. The air was humid against my skin, but it didn’t matter. This felt like home. I thought about sitting out here in the morning, having my coffee, and reading the newspaper. I thought about drinking with the guys and going for a midnight swim in the lake.
Wyatt was right. This was it. This was home.
I found the staircase to go up and hopped up them all. The hall light came on as I made my way up. There was a motion sensor. Nice touch. I found the guys up on the top floor.
“I think we’re going to take this place,” Quin said. “We’re all pretty happy with it.”
I nodded. “I was coming to say the same thing. I think we should do exactly that.”
“Is it in the budget?” Dain asked. “I mean, if we’re going to be getting property in the city and up-scaling, we want to make sure that we’re not blowing all our money on this.”
“Blowing all our money?” Cory asked, laughing. “Have you seen our bank accounts yet?”
“Yeah,” Wyatt said. “Maybe we should just buy the neighborhood.”
“Well, we aren’t all children here,” Julian said. “We don’t need to be flashing around our cash.”
“I think buying this house is flashy enough,” I said, opening the door. “I’m in, though. I’ll call the estate agent when we get back and arrange the offer.”
I stalled for a moment on the porch, looking at the surrounding houses, as the other guys started to follow me out of the house. The other houses were all somewhat well-off, though nothing like this house here. I wondered how this cluster came to be and who allowed such a lavish building to be built so close to more affordable housing. But then again, I supposed that when you have a nice view like this one did in the back, you might as well capitalize on it.
There was something quaint about this neighborhood. No, it was not the neighborhood but a particular house, two down from the house that was soon to be ours, that had something about it. I felt drawn to it and wondered for a moment if my instincts were perhaps guiding me to look to buy that house instead of this one. It didn’t make sense. It was like any of the other ones in the neighborhood and, as far as I knew, was built with the same plans. Yet, I was just drawn to it.
“Shhh,” I hushed. I could feel him inside of me, twisting and turning, squirming and restless. There was something about that house that was exciting him, though I couldn’t make out in what way. All I knew was that my Dragon was growing hot inside of me and writhing expectantly.
Chapter 2 - Violet
I tied my hair up in a bun and checked myself out in the mirror, my curly hair for once obeying my fashioning skills. I tucked my white, button-up shirt into my slacks and gave myself another once-over before grabbing my purse and keys.
My sleep schedule had been thoroughly messed up. Daylight savings had screwed up my timing on everything, and even though I’d still managed to kick my own ass into gear, I was running a little later than I felt comfortable doing.
The nice thing about working for a private detective company was that they were pretty relaxed when it came to showing up at a designated time. Not that it mattered too much for me. After all, I was one of those people who felt like they needed to be on time somewhere, and it had the potential to ruin my day if I wasn’t. As a result, I left a full twenty minutes before I needed to in order to get to work on time. This allowed for any mishaps to occur along the way and still afford me a timely arrival in most cases, save for the time that I had a puncture and the AAA guy took two hours to arrive.
Seeing how well I’d done over the past few years, I knew the company wasn’t going to begrudge me a couple minutes of tardiness once every five years. I had made that place quite a bit of money in my time with them, given the fairly small and easy jobs they threw my way. I wasn’t anything higher up or anything, but for the level I was at, I was gold.
Except they were still treating me like I wasn’t. In fact, I was more often treated like some brand speaking new cop that had just filled out her first papers to get into the Police Academy. And I knew that feeling because I’d been there.
It was a little bit of a man’s game in the agency, and that was something I was just going to have to deal with forever, no matter how hard I worked to show my worth. I once made the mistake of showing my annoyance to my super, Don. That was a mistake I never hoped to make again. It had taught me a very valuable lesson: he was not going to help me one bit, no matter how hard I worked. It was a conversation that repeated itself in my mind whenever I was having a bad day or just feeling like I wasn’t up to snuff.
“But sweetheart,” he had said in a condescending tone disguised as paternal concern, “you can’t just go after any case. You’re too valuable.”
“If I’m valuable, then I need to be going after the harder cases, the big ones,” I had told him, perhaps in a more heated tone than was necessary. “I can’t just keep going after stupid stuff like missing pets, love affairs, and accounting scandals. I deserve more.” I had crossed my arms and leveled my weight between my feet, showing that I was unmovable on this point.
“Now you listen here,” Don had said in his Southern drawl, pointing a finger at me as he’d leaned over his desk. “You get what you are given in this company. We’re glad to have you, but you are in no position to bargain with us.”
I still felt the burn of anger in every corner of my body. “I have shown myself to be wor
th any of those cases ten-fold,” I had spat. “Not only can I take these cases, but I can do them better than anyone you’ve got on jobs. Don, give me a chance!”
“I will do no such thing, little girl,” he had said, a smile creeping across his face as he’d leaned back in his chair, enjoying that he’d managed to get under my skin. “We can’t have some woman in neighborhoods at night, sleuthing around where she might get hurt or worse. No, I will not have that happen in this company. We are investigators, yes. We take risks, yes. But our risks are measured, and we are not going to put you in danger.”
“Why the fuck not, Don?” I had demanded.
“You’re too easy of a target. Your bright red hair sticks out like a sore thumb. You can’t run worth the dickens and, lest we forget that you are a woman, you could be overpowered by men who won’t bat an eye at doing the unmentionable. Do you understand? Now, if we find a case where its likely to be all women, then sure, we’ll toss it your way. But until then, you’ll leave the dangerous cases to the big kids.”
I had seethed. Even in the airconditioned office with the blinds closed against the Atlanta afternoon sun, I was boiling as I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands. I had opened and closed my mouth, not sure where to start out with his blatant sexism, his patronizing tone, and his damn bulldog asshattary.
“You have no right—”
“I’m done talking about it, Miss Hill,” he’d said, opening a file on his desk. “You can go back to your desk. I know of at least two cases waiting there for your attention.”
“You mean the bullshit cases—”
“Goodbye, Violet,” he’d interrupted again, waving me away without even looking up.
I’d left angrier than I knew I could be, determined to walk straight out of there, to find another agency to take me on. But my feet had carried me back to my desk obediently, despite the fact that I had been aiming for the door. I had flipped open the files, still standing, and had tried to breathe my vision into focus. My feet had been right; I needed to be at my desk. I couldn’t up and quit, not when I had to make payments still.