by Jill Haven
“That’s a lot of words for ‘we got a big whomping guess but we’re not sure why something works’.”
“You have a good bullshit meter,” I said with a laugh. “It is a guess, but it’s more like a scientific guess. We have some evidence. Haiden, for example.”
He stilled. “Haiden’s good then, right? He’s being treated okay by that mook who has him?” He studied my eyes like he’d be able to tell if I was lying or not simply by staring right through them into my soul.
“Carlisle? Yes, why?” I couldn’t help my irritation. “He couldn’t be mated to a better dragon.”
Seth shrugged and looked away. “No real reason. Just, he was all right, you know? I’d hate it if he were in a dicey situation with a baby and no way out. You keep saying mated. What is that?”
“I swear Carlisle’s a good guy, and we can talk about that later.”
Seth grunted at me noncommittally, and I had the feeling he would need to see Haiden with his own eyes before he would be satisfied on that account. He heaved in a deep breath and held it for a few heartbeats before he said in a rush while staring at his curling toes, “So, on those hard drives was about a mill and a half worth of Bitcoin.” He smiled at me and I got the feeling he expected that to mean something because he frowned when I just sat there.
I hated this. It was like the first time trying to use a damned computer all over again. What a learning curve that had been. “And… so what?”
“That’s… Jesus, do you know anything about Bitcoin?”
“I’ve heard of it.” I poked at my bandage, but it was secure, so I stretched my arms up over my head to give me my hands to look at instead of his baffled face. “Once or twice, I think.” I shrugged and lowered my arms. “It’s some type of fake money, right?”
He smacked his hand to his cheek and stared at me. “No, I mean, it’s fake if you count things like credit card credit to be fake. It doesn’t exist physically, but it’s real.”
I frowned at him.
He leaned forward with that same spark I’d seen on the fire escape ledge gleaming in his eyes. He licked his lips and I followed his tongue raptly with my gaze.
“Listen, so what that means, is… well, the price fluctuates. Maybe it would help to think of each Bitcoin as more like a stock. You know, the stock market?”
“I do.” I glared.
He smirked. “Just checkin’. One Bitcoin equals about $7,000 at the moment.”
“What?” My stomach flinched like I’d taken a sucker punch and I sucked air.
“Yeah. It can exist in cloud storage—like a fake vault on the internet—or on hard drives, like the ones we just lost.” He smiled again but his lips stretched too taut and he looked ready to jump out of his skin with the way he jittered his knees. “So when the hard drives are trashed, the Bitcoin ceases to exist.” He held up his hand and blew into it like he was shifting away smoke.
“That makes no sense. Money can’t vanish.”
“Even so. I just let about a mill five of mob money die on a fire escape. My grandfather is going to be so pissed. I, uh, relocated those hard drives from him… to me. I fuckin’ stole them, okay? Don’t look at me that way. It’s not like he got that money selling ice creams to nuns or anything.”
My mind spun and I had to count backwards from ten twice to stop myself from saying things I shouldn’t as I contemplated the implications of all that. “Wait, that’s why you were trying to go back to the rubble? Aren’t they broken?”
“I could have taken them apart and tried to recover the coin, but yeah, they were good and smashed. Those guys who were chasing us probably knew enough to scoop them up, though. My grandfather might have forgiven me for stealing the money, but he’ll never forgive me for fuckin’ losing it. That’s just… not okay.” He shivered and rocked forward, slipping his arms around his stomach to give himself a hug.
I understood that. I didn’t enjoy that I understood the mentality of a mob boss, but in a dragon clan there were very few things that could get you ostracized as quickly as mishandling resources we all needed to survive. “Was that money to do something for your family?”
He snorted. “Yeah, probably buy Grandpa his fifth yacht.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, right?”
“You don’t even have a winter coat.”
“Well, I woulda been able to afford one if we hadn’t broken my money toys.” He gave me a lopsided grin and leaned back so far on the tub rim that I thought for sure he was going to tumble backward, but he managed to keep his balance. “That’s about right, though. I should have known better than to think I would be able to cash in a bunch of coin and hide somewhere livin’ my best life. That’s a pipe dream.”
“It isn’t.”
He sighed and righted himself, and I didn’t like the way his eyes seemed flat and less full of life than they had a second ago. “Dad always said we’d do that someday. The people following me would give up. I don’t know why he thought that would happen, but he always said that as soon as it did, things would be fine. He was really positive, my old man.” Seth cleared his throat and met my eyes.
I leaned forward and clasped my hands to his knees. “Listen to me.”
He cupped a hand behind his ear and raised his eyebrows. I smacked his knee lightly and something amazing happened. He let out a peal of real laughter, the kind of thing that you couldn’t help but chuckle along with. The bathroom lights gleamed on some blond highlights in his dark hair and I wanted to freeze him like this. He deserved to be happy all the time.
“I’ll protect you. We need to leave the city. I think you’re right and they’re going to be out for blood no matter who you’re related to with that amount of money on the line. Why did you think you could get away with it?”
He grinned. “Why not?”
My mouth worked itself into a smirk. “You’ve got class and sass, Mr. Preston.”
“Don’t you forget it.” He leaned closer. “And one more thing.”
“I’m almost afraid if there’s more,” I quipped, and he laughed.
“I don’t need protecting. I’m just fine on my own.”
“I literally just pulled you from a hail of gunfire.”
“Yeah, but if you hadn’t interrupted me, I woulda been long gone before the goon squad arrived, so, you know, that was all your fault.”
“You little—are you serious?” I braced myself to get to my feet, but Seth leaned forward and planted his sweet, pretty lips on mine, devilry in his eyes, and I groaned into the heat of his mouth.
7
Seth
Mason tasted as good as he smelled, if not better. I lunged toward him, but he didn’t give ground, I just ended up pressed against his front. He slid a hand into my hair and tightened his fingers there. The sting as he tilted my head made me feel like giving him what he wanted, and I let him move me around. The energy that lived in my chest was flashfire frantic, the little electric fireflies in there going out of control and making me all jittery. I humped forward and gasped, my hard-on more like a pole than flesh, pulsing and throbbing and driving me nuts. Mason slapped a hand to my ass so hard that it stung, and I whimpered as he kneaded my ass cheek.
He bit my lip until white light sparked in the darkness of my closed eyelids, and I cried out. When he sat back, I opened my eyes. His flushed face and sharp fangs when he smiled at me had me pressing my hips harder against him. It made me so hot to rub on him that I did it again. I had thought we would talk, he seemed like the type to yap things to death, but he shocked the hell out of me when he owned my lips again. My groin tightened with every flick of his tongue over mine. He slid his fingers between my ass cheeks, my pants still in the fucking way, and stopped to rub over my hole. I trembled and cried out, my rim alive with sparks, my asshole achy and empty. I slid my hand between us and grabbed the bulge in his jeans, tracing the outline of him with my fingers.
He hissed out a growl and stilled.
“In me, now,” I dema
nded against his lips.
“Oh, god, I’m gonna fuck you so hard,” he grunted out as I stopped to trace the big, fat cockhead I knew he’d be pushing into me sooner rather than later.
“Promises, promises.”
He stood straight up and slung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I laughed, and let him do it, even though it kind of hurt my stomach a little bit to be over his shoulder that way, because the sheer power of the move sent my head spinning in a good way. He stopped to dig around in his medical bag and then in a few long strides we were in the bedroom and my head was spinning as he tossed me onto the bed. The old springs in the thing creaked and protested.
“Shirt,” he growled, and stared at me nearly unblinking as I fumbled my layers up and over my head. When I tugged my shirt free of my face, he was already bare on top, his clothes a rumpled mess on the floor. His cut chest and abs had me licking my lips, but then he was on me again, mouth latched to my neck. I barely had time to brace myself before my back hit the mattress, and I loved the way he scraped his teeth on my neck and then sucked hard.
The sensations spiraled to a point in my belly and my shaft pulsed and tingled, and I shoved at his shoulders. “Mason, gonna… oh, fuck.” He dug his teeth in harder and I arched up off the bed, and it happened. My balls drew up, and a thousand good tingles danced on the tip of my glans, and then I was shivering and trembling my way through hot spurts as I unloaded cum into my boxers. I laughed, so embarrassed I didn’t know what else to do, but he only growled, a low sexy sound. He crept his way down my body, stopping to inhale deeply against my skin as he went.
“So fucking beautiful,” he said, his words slightly raspy through those sharp teeth.
“Mason, I just….” But he looked up at me and smiled, a knowing grin.
“I know.”
He worked my belt open and tugged my pants down, along with my ruined boxers. They were flying before I could figure out quite how he’d managed to get them off me so fast, almost like one of those magic tricks where the tablecloth went sailing and the dishes stayed put on a fancy table. The gloss of my cum was shiny on my skin and my dick had decided it liked this party. I was still hard. I closed my eyes and swallowed so loud I could hear it as he ran his tongue around my belly button and then fucked it. I slid my fingers into his hair and pushed him down. When I put some muscle into my grip, he groaned.
“You like that?” I asked.
Instead of answering me, he opened his mouth wide and let me move him to swallow down my cock. The feeling of being in his hot mouth brought me the whole way back to life. I gasped and moaned and bucked into the slick tight heat of his throat, but all the while he was being sneaky. He slid slick fingers between my ass cheeks.
“You don’t gotta butter me up, Mason. I want you to ruin me. I want it to sting and burn. Just get inside.”
He slid off my dick with a pop and eased two fingers into my hole, glancing up. He, his dark head between my pale legs, his lips red and slick with spit, was probably the most dazzling thing I’d ever seen. I stared and couldn’t stop, not even when he was easing three fingers into my ass.
“Mason, now,” I whined.
He didn’t listen. Instead, he turned and nipped at my thigh, hard. I nearly came again. The drag of his razor-sharp teeth, almost like knives, right there. It was such a different sensation from his lips, and it burned in a way that had me on the edge again. He laughed, a deep, perfectly fuckin’ wicked sound. He sat up on his knees and unbuckled his belt. I couldn’t look away.
He slid his pants and briefs down his hips, and I wasn’t disappointed by the thick cock that came into view, long enough that it sprang well up over his belly button when it was free. My mouth went dry and I squeezed my asshole.
“Maybe you better do four fingers.”
“Nope,” he said quietly. He moved around until he could kick off his pants and then that was it. He spread my thighs with rough shoves of his knees, and I was a trembling, sweaty mess fighting his grip—just because. I wanted to feel the burn as he had to flex his heavy biceps and shoulders to keep me in place. The look on his face went tight and deadly, and I moaned.
He nodded at a tube that must be the lube he was using, and I grabbed it from the bed beside us, squirted some out onto my hand and then I had that big, pretty piece of him I wanted to touch more than anything in my grasp. He was thick and hot and throbbed under my fingers as I got him good and wet.
“Enough,” he growled and pushed my thighs toward my shoulders.
“Mason, I—”
“What?”
“Go hammer me.”
He smirked and then the next thing I knew something wide and blunt and fucking delicious was tapping at my back door. I tried to relax, but he was massive, more than I’d ever had in there. I took a deep breath and he grunted and pushed, and all at once there it was—that magic moment when my body let him in. We both cried out at the sensation. He stuffed me good, splitting my body open in the best way. He rocked forward hard and I lost my mind as my eyelids slammed closed against my will. Blinding heat split through my stomach and trembled up my dick from the inside. I clenched around him and could feel the burn of his width.
“Yes,” Mason sighed and gathered me close, my calves resting on his shoulders as he ground his pelvis against my ass. He did what I’d told him and rode me like we were in last place at the Kentucky Derby. Every stroke in fired off pleasure so good it seemed like it was slicing through my insides. Every time he bumped my prostate, I whimpered like a bitch and he started up a chant in my ear that made me squirm with pleasure and embarrassment.
“So good, Seth, so sweet, so fucking hot. Come for me. Do you want to be my omega? Come on my cock. Use it to feel good. Come for me, darlin’.”
Some southern drawl that wasn’t usually in his words slipped in there and curled more heat into my stomach. I couldn’t stand listening to that shit, but it made everything hotter, and before I knew it, I was listening to him. My body clamped on his and I was spurting cum all over the place, making us a sticky mess while sparks lit up in my body and brain, and I felt like we jumped off that fire escape all over again. He let out the best moan right into my ear and buried himself deep in my ass. He got harder and seemed even bigger and then warmth hit my insides. I nuzzled his cheek and kissed him as I fell apart. I’d never felt that heat in me before, he felt so alive in there. My arms trembled where I had them wrapped around his neck.
And then I was caught totally by surprise. He rutted harder against me and something started happening. His cock swelled right inside my rim, got bigger somehow, and I squirmed.
“Shh, it’s my knot.”
“You’re fuckin’ wh—Oh, fuck,” I hissed as the sensations washed over me. He kept getting bigger and for a second I worried I wouldn’t be able to take it, but then it was pressing just right against my insides and delicious trembles rocked through my gut and kept going. He nudged in deeper and then it was pressing right there, on my prostate, and vicious pleasure clawed through my gut that had me coming again. I squeezed my ass around him, and he couldn’t catch his breath.
“Yes,” he whispered. I lay there in his arms, squirming and squeezing and coming for what felt like forever. Every drop of cum in my body was forced out of me. Eventually I had trouble breathing and Mason rolled me until I was on top, my legs spread on either side of him, still impaled and in fucking ecstasy.
After a long while his whatevermajiggy—his knot—went down.
“Dragon thing?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Fuck, I like it.”
He chuckled and I slid sideways off him and landed in a sweaty heap at his side with my head pillowed on his shoulder. He smiled and turned toward me, swiping the damp hair from my forehead. His hazel eyes were half-lidded and blissed out. I lifted my chin toward him, and he kissed me, slow, easy, and so fucking good. For the first time since we met, I felt something ease off in me, like a spring that had been coiled too tight but could fina
lly relax now. The way I was feeling was all tangled up with the sparkly energy that lived in my chest and seemed to buzz more happily when Mason was around. Touching him made it nearly purr. Was that the part of me that was a dragon too?
He slid his hand down my side and around to grasp my ass. I froze up with the way his grip made it seem like the room was smaller, not quite sure why it bothered me when I’d had such a good time, but anxiety wormed through my stomach. I eased away from him, and he tried to tug me back, but I rolled and practically threw myself off the bed. This was all too fuckin’ cozy and domestic. I tumbled and ended up sprawled on the floor, my sensitive asshole definitely twinging with the jolt, and then I sprang to my feet and scratched at the back of my head as I eased toward the bathroom. Mason sat up with a frown, and I could see the gears restart in his brain as his face went from relaxed to tense.
“I need a shower. After everything. I’m going to go, you know—” I jerked my thumb toward the bathroom door—a totally unnecessary explanation because it was the only place I could go other than the hallway—and bolted, my heart racing. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me, exactly, but I couldn’t stand to be in the room with him right now, even though the thought of leaving didn’t seem good, either. For too long I stood with my back pressed against the door, my heart jackhammering.
The shower seemed like a really good idea, so I stepped over and actually twisted the knob on and let the steam fill the air. I gathered soap and shampoo and a washcloth and then climbed under the scalding spray. The water washed away the past few days. As I scrubbed off, I crept my cloth-covered hand over my ass and lower back. The brush of the rough cloth over my used hole had me gasping. I did it one more time and then a bad thought hit me. I’d never really considered what it might mean, because I never planned to be with a dragon in my life, but my Dad had told me that when I was first born he was warned by someone from my Mom’s clan that I was an omega, and something the dragons called a Divine Omega.
That information had set the paranoid tone for my entire life, but in my Mom’s book that Dad had given to Grandpa for safekeeping, I’d read that it meant I could have babies. It seemed so farfetched at the time, but then I’d met Haiden. And I’d just fucking seen Mason’s face sparkle with scales today, and they were beautiful, with blue gem streaks. I saw part of his dragon… He had that extra good thing on his dick, that knot…