But he was right. How many times had she just had to brush aside things men had done or said to her? Things they would never have said to a man?
She smiled as she remembered Marina, fiery and violent as any man could be as she dealt with the drunkards.
Maybe she should take some MMA from Kai, too.
She leaned in against Seaton, resting her head on his chest. Maybe she was also just safe here by his side.
Seaton wondered what Jenny was thinking as she leaned in next to him. He hoped she felt safe with him, hoped she knew he would always protect her, that his worries weren’t because he was afraid he wouldn’t be strong enough to counter other men.
No, he was worried he would do too much, go overboard. Were men really so wicked always? He spent so much time on the sea, fighting monsters, he hadn’t really thought about the monsters on land. He’d always seen humans as so harmless and weak, and even the gemstone land dragons had never seemed particularly worried about them.
Still, as much as he wasn’t sure how to deal with the dangerous things in Jenny’s world, he decided to just focus in on the moment, the beautiful moon on the ocean, the clouds in the distance, the curvy woman in his arms.
They were alone now, as he’d been wanting to be all day. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his family. It was just that he was starting to look forward to a future with Jenny. To having a family of his own.
Maybe Kai was right and he was jumping the gun, but he was following his heart, and that was all he could do.
“I missed you today,” he said, brushing her hair back, loving the feel of the soft strands on his fingertips.
She leaned back to look at him. “We were together the whole day.”
He pulled her in against him in a hug. “I missed having you to myself, then.”
She wrapped her arms around him, and the night air seemed to grow warmer in response. “Oh, I get that, then.” She chuckled. “I have to say I’m so flattered by all of this.”
He dipped to kiss the hollow of her shoulder, and she gasped and the nails of one hand bit into his neck. “Flattered?”
“Oh, you know, someone like me. I’m no Marina.”
He pulled back abruptly. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m no great beauty.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to hear you say that again. You are the most beautiful woman in the world.”
“To you,” she murmured.
“Do any other opinions matter?” he asked, lightly kissing the base of her neck again.
“No,” she gasped out. “Not right now.”
Not ever, he wanted to growl, but even he knew that was socially inappropriate. From the TV he had watched, he knew humans didn’t talk of mates. They talked of marriage and dating and even lived together without having commitments. Something he couldn’t fathom as a dragon.
He’d heard about mating before, about the total urge to bond with only one person, but he’d never imagined it would be like this.
He kissed his way up her neck to her mouth and captured her lips in a harsh embrace, sweeping his tongue in possessively and wrapping his arms around her all at once.
She was his, and he wanted her to know it. No one could ever make her feel like this. If they ever had, they wouldn’t ever again.
Mine.
He pushed her back on the bench, pulling down her jacket to access more of her shoulder and the tops of her breasts. She was gasping now, breathing hard from just his kisses, and she shook her head.
“Should we really be doing this here? In the open?”
He lifted his head and looked around them, satisfied when he saw no one. He would sense someone long before they showed.
On the other hand…
Her eyes looked nervous, and her comfort mattered to him more than anything, so he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the car.
“In here?” she asked as he opened the door and set her on the backseat.
“Yes,” he said, taking a deep breath as he crawled in over her, one foot on the ground and one leg kneeling on the other side of her on the seat cushion so he could sort of straddle her. His back bumped the roof of the car, and she giggled.
“Are you going to shut the door?”
“I’m not sure I can.” He grunted.
“Oh, well,” she said, clasping her hands around his neck. “I appreciate the effort.”
He growled and kissed the tops of her breasts, dragging his lips down her cleavage and then lifting her shirt so he could kiss down her stomach. She was soft and curvy, and her hands moved down as if to try and pull him away. Was she embarrassed?
“Stop, I’m fat there.”
He scowled. “I want to touch all of you.” I want to love all of you. He moved her hands away and held them at her sides as he bit down lightly on her stomach, playing with the skin there. She gasped as his tongue found her belly button and he played there, swirling this way and that as she writhed, gasping.
“No one has ever done that,” she said, struggling against him. “So embarrassing.”
“Every part of you is beautiful,” he said, releasing her hands so he could run his fingers along her curves, her rib cage, her waist, her soft tummy that she seemed so nervous about.
Everything about her was perfect to him. He couldn’t imagine her any other way.
He licked at her belly button again and then trailed down to the top of her pants. He looked up at her for permission, and when she nodded hastily, he flicked the button open, lowered the zipper, and pulled her jeans and panties down just enough to give his mouth access to her most sensitive areas.
He’d wanted to do this last night, but he’d thought if he submerged for too long, she might become a little bit suspicious of his ability to breathe underwater.
He felt he was underwater now as he licked over her center and she arched back with a small scream, setting pleasure off inside him. Making her happy was his happiness, and he kept going eagerly, licking and sucking as her movements became more frantic, her hands scrabbling at the leather car seats as she got closer to coming.
As he set his mouth down and kissed her deeply, she finally came, rising up to grab his head as she curled in to bear the waves, calling out as each one hit. Her face was intensely focused. Her eyes closed in rapture but then opened for a bit, at the end, and looked at him with sheer gratitude.
And maybe something like love.
He wondered if it could happen that fast for humans like it could for dragons.
He had to hope.
“That was… that was…” She fell back against the cushions, but he wrapped his hands around her thighs and spread her so he could kiss her again, swiping his tongue this way and that as her legs worked frantically beneath him.
Her gasping became more heated, and she called out his name, as if she thought he would stop if she didn’t keep calling for him.
His name on her lips was making him drunk, along with the taste of her, the scent of her, the way she moved and sounded. He was underwater, completely overwhelmed by the strength of his love for this woman.
Love he felt so deeply when he gave to her like this.
Kai would call him stupid, but Seaton didn’t care what anyone thought about him at this moment. In his past life, he had always done his duty. He’d never thought about himself or what he wanted.
Right now, it felt as if the universe were making it up to him, giving him something, someone, all his own.
Someone he could make happy forever and who would be happy with him.
He swiped his tongue across her, and she came again, arching back this time on her elbows, her face lost in rapture, her eyes closed tight as her body shook.
Her pleasure was everything. He could do this forever and never get tired.
As she fell back against the seat cushions, looking exhausted, he felt suddenly protective and pulled up her pants, doing the zipper and looking around them.
“Is everything okay?” she asked
. “We aren’t done, you know. We still haven’t—”
“I think so,” he said, pulling her in against him as best he could in the tight space. “Sometimes I just get overprotective.”
“That’s not a bad thing in a man,” she said, running her hands over her chest. “You know, I thought I was rescuing you when I brought you home for the beach that day, but you seem hell bent on rescuing me.”
“Can’t we rescue each other?”
“I suppose so.”
“That sounds like the best way to me,” he said, running his fingers over her back, drawing little patterns. His heart was still hammering, he was so affected by watching her orgasm. He’d never known anything could feel like this.
“Should we do you next?” she asked.
He shook his head. “We should probably get back. I didn’t even mean to do this. I just meant to talk to you. I don’t want you to feel like you owe me.”
“It’s not about owing you,” she said. “It’s just that I like to—”
They were interrupted by the buzzing of a phone.
“We’ll ignore it,” she said, stroking his face again. After a while, the phone stopped. Then it started up again. “I’m sorry,” she said, sitting up on the seat and reaching for her purse in the front seat. “Whoever it is, they’re just going to keep calling if I don’t pick up.”
Seaton thought he might want to have a few words with this person, but he sat back on his side of the backseat as Jenny answered the phone.
Her face changed from one of relaxed pleasure to irritation almost immediately. “What do you mean someone called the police?” She put a finger up to Seaton as if asking him to wait and then opened the door and got out. He watched her pace back and forth, holding the phone, growing angrier, and clenched his hands into fists.
He wanted to go help her. Wanted to intervene with whoever was on the phone, but it wasn’t his place yet. She hadn’t agreed to be his, and she wasn’t the type who liked giving other people control of her problems. That much he knew about her for sure.
So he sat there with his arms folded, silently fuming, until she came back and opened the door on his side.
“Who was it?” he asked, getting out of the backseat.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It was Drew. Someone reported an assault to the police. Those jerks from today that Marina took out. Luckily, Drew has friends in the police department, so they’re willing to hear my side of the story. Drew is coming over.”
“Why don’t you talk to the police, then? Why talk to Drew?”
“They won’t listen to me like they will him,” she said, folding her arms. “Just trust me on that.”
“I don’t like having you talk to him.”
She sighed, looking irritated. “It’s not really your decision.”
He frowned and walked a few paces from the car, not wanting to say what he thought about that stupid statement. So he was good enough to make love with in a car, but not good enough to listen to?
She came up behind him, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. “I’m sorry. He puts me on edge, and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. It’s just the bar is my dream, and for a second, he made me think it was threatened. It was threatened. I know Marina didn’t mean any harm. In fact, she was in the right. But still, sometimes the world doesn’t see it that way.” She squeezed his hand again. “I appreciate you always backing me up, and I know you’re right about Drew. But I have to do this. Can you trust me on that?”
He nodded. “I want to be there.”
“It would really be better if we met alone. I don’t want him knowing that I’m living with the three of you. He has contacts in the police, and I know Marina’s afraid of them. He was jealous enough just seeing you once.” She shook her head. “And he’s never been like he was that one day. He must have been drunk. He sounded totally sober just now on the phone. And I’ll just be out in front of the house so I can easily just run back inside if something goes wrong.”
His lip curled at the thought that he would ever just let her face that alone. Good thing he had the ability to cloak, because if that bastard Drew thought for one second he could pull something on Seaton’s mate, he had another thing coming.
Chapter 12
Jenny sat on the porch steps as she waited for Drew, hoping this would be over soon so she could go back inside with Seaton.
She could tell he wasn’t happy when he’d gone upstairs with Kai and Marina, but there was nothing he could do about it.
She’d been dealing with Drew for over a year now, and she could do it again.
She didn’t think he’d ever pull something like he did that day Seaton interfered. Even then, he’d only grabbed her hand and not let go of it, which wasn’t exactly a huge crime.
Oh no, she was justifying it. What else could she do? They owned a business together, and she wasn’t about to give it up just because of his harassment.
She didn’t have to wait long until Drew’s car pulled up, a luxury sedan he obviously expected would impress her. He stepped out, adjusting the tie he was wearing, and she suspected he had purposely not changed after leaving his office because he thought his business dress looked more intimidating.
Or attractive… or something.
He shut his door and walked forward, and she wondered how she had ever thought him tall and intimidating. Compared to Seaton he looked practically normal.
Then again, Seaton and his siblings were nowhere near normal.
But they were her friends now, real friends, unlike Drew, who had only pretended to be one. She could face him knowing she had people at her back. She wasn’t alone out here anymore.
“So,” Drew said, standing in front of her with folded arms. “I hear you hired some help.”
She looked up at him in surprise, standing up so she could face him from the steps on a more even level. “Where did you hear that?”
“Oh, just the complaint was that a female employee hit the guy,” Drew said. “But I’m sure I can make all of that go away. I’m just surprised you hired someone without telling me. After all, I am your partner.”
“In name only,” she said, folding her arms and matching his defensive posture. “Look, I thought you were going to take a more active role in the restaurant. I waited for that. But you didn’t, and I needed some help. And I found it. So what?”
He walked forward, and she walked forward as well, not wanting to get pinned back against the door or something. She lifted her chin, staying defiant.
This was Drew. She wasn’t afraid of him.
He sighed as he tried to take her by the arms. “At first, I thought owning the restaurant together would bring us closer. When it didn’t, what was the point?”
She shoved away from him, eyes blazing. “Running a restaurant. Helping people have a good time when they came to the beach. Making something.”
“I might still be willing to make some effort,” he said. “If you’re willing to ‘make something’ with me.”
“What?” she asked, discomfort curling through her as she raised an eyebrow.
“You know,” he said, catching her by the elbows again, pulling her in toward him against her will. One of his hands brushed along her face in a gross mockery of what Seaton usually did. “We could be good together. I always thought so. I thought if I was just your friend long enough, you’d come along.”
He leaned in, and she turned her head away, but then he caught her chin and pulled it toward him, dipping in.
She heard a shout and some rustling in the bushes, but whoever it was, they would be too late.
Remembering how badass Marina had been, Jenny jerked her face out of his grip, planted both her hands on his shoulders, and brought her knee up as hard as she could into Drew’s groin.
He howled and sank into a heap on the ground almost as soon as her knee made contact, and she stepped back, brushing off her hands in satisfaction.
She turned to Seaton, who had just run up behind her. “I
did it!” she said happily. “Did you see that? I did it.”
He stopped, hands on his knees, breathing heavily. “I thought I was too late.”
“Were you spying on me?”
“No,” he said. “Yes. Sort of.”
She grinned at him. She couldn’t get mad at him for actually caring. “Well, thank you, but I took care of it.”
“Sort of,” Seaton said, looking at the moaning lump on the ground.
Drew looked up with a hiss. “It’s you, the one from before. You are whoring with him.”
Seaton stomped over and placed a booted foot right on Drew’s neck, shoving him into the ground on his face even harder.
“Stop it,” Drew mumbled.
“Get out of here. Don’t come back. If you come in the bar to bug Jenny, I’ll kill you.”
Drew looked up with an evil smile. “You can’t tell me that. My friends are the police. And I own half that bar, fair and square. I can come if I want.”
Seaton’s mouth curved in a snarl, and Jenny ran forward, getting between them.
She pushed Seaton back with a hand on his chest. “Stop it. He’s learned his lesson. Right, Drew?”
Drew just scowled at her as he stumbled to his feet and walked to his car. Just before he opened the door and got in, he shook a raised fist. “No one can keep me off my own land.”
Then he got in his car and sped away.
Jenny relaxed with a sigh, sagging against Seaton, just glad it was finally over. “Phew.”
Seaton stepped back and looked down at her. “Phew?”
“Glad that’s done.”
“It’s not done,” he said, his brows drawing in warily. She didn’t know why he was making such a big deal of it when she just wanted to go in and have a good rest of the night. “As long as you two own that place together, he has access to you.”
She bit her lip. “But I showed him I’m not just going to take it.”
“I don’t think he’s going to stop.” Seaton shook his head. “I don’t like it. Why can’t you just sell it to him and start over?”
Zircon (Awakened Sea Dragons Book 1) Page 9