by Shannon West
Dmitri’s father gave me a look, as surprised as if Dmitri’s suitcase had made a cheeky observation. He arched a brow and looked down his nose at me. That’s actually at thing, apparently, just like in the books I’d read. He opened his mouth to say something, but once again Dmitri rode to the rescue. “He’s right, Father. Besides, we need to talk about this later. Luca and I have been traveling for what seems like a month and I, for one, would like to get some rest.”
He turned to his mother and said, “Luca is my guest and will be staying with me in my suite. I promise that we’ll be down for dinner, but right now, we really do need to get some rest. Jet lag and all that. You’ll have to excuse us.”
He turned and started pushing me toward the door leading to the entry hall, not giving either of them a chance to say anything else. I let his momentum carry me through the door as I tried to absorb his exchange with his parents. It certainly wasn’t what I was used to, I can tell you that. He’d made it clear that that he had no intention of discussing anything until we’d rested, but without all the yelling and drama that I was used to as a family dynamic. I really thought his mom and I could have given it a good shot, too.
We walked together up a wide staircase and when we reached the top, he gestured to the right. “My rooms are this way.”
I followed him a short distance down the hallway until we were standing in front of a heavy, ornately carved wooden door. He leaned around me and opened it, standing back to let me enter. When I walked in, I saw that it was a living room with a fireplace, not a bedroom like I had expected. I gave him a confused look.
“This is my apartment, Luca. Well, ours now, since you’ll be living here from now on.”
I jerked my head around to look at him. What did he just say? “Now wait a minute. What the hell are you talking about, from now on?”
I tried to keep the fear out of my voice, but when he’d said that, it came to me in a flash that I was stuck here in the middle of nowhere with no means of escape. And following closely on the heels of that realization was the awareness that I might not even want to leave Dmitri, which was in many ways, much more frightening. I was beginning to trust him, and I’d learned never to do that, so what was my problem?
He must have heard something in my voice, because he sighed heavily and gave me a sympathetic look. “Luca, we’ve talked about this. You’ll never truly be safe anywhere except here with me. At least not until we can get all this sorted out. I wish that you would try to accept that.” He put his hand on my cheek and looked deeply into my eyes. “Besides, what is there for you back in the States? Family? Friends?” His voice deepened a little and his eyes flashed. “A lover?”
“No.” I said, shaking my head. Well, that was depressing as hell, but it was true. Maybe Mr. Alvarez would wonder what happened to me, but he was an old man and once he was gone there would be nobody who would miss me all that much. A few of the customers might say, “What ever happened to that boy—old what’s-his-name? Luke or Duke or something, wasn’t it?” So yeah, not too many people would be lining up to say they missed me. Still, the States were my home. I felt a little lost.
Dmitri must have seen my crestfallen expression because he moved his hand to the back of my neck, pulling me to him. He leaned down and gave me a kiss which was sweet and hot at the same time. It was impossible not to respond, but just as I was getting into it, he lifted his head and looked down at me with a smile. “Ah, Luca, if you left me, I would miss you very much.”
“You-you would?” And just like that I was putty in his hands. God, he was good. Or else I was just stupid and pathetic. He knew exactly how to play me, and I even knew he was doing it, but it didn’t matter. One thing did nag at me, though. I pulled back and looked up at him. “But what if I’m not worth much like you and this Eldor seem to think? What happens then?”
“Luca, please try to believe me when I tell you this. I don’t care about the treasure when it comes to you.” My disbelief must have shown on my face, because he smiled at me and said, “Now, don’t get me wrong, it would certainly be a bonus, but I don’t really need more money. As you may have noticed, I’m already quite wealthy, as is my family. My personal hoard is quite large, and I protect it with my life. I’ll protect you with my life too. My most valuable treasure.” He reached out and took my hand. “Now, come with me and I’ll show you around.”
“Not sure I like being lumped in with the rest of your loot, but whatever.”
He simply smiled and shook his head. He thought I was joking. As I walked around with him, I was amazed at the size of this apartment, as he called it. Damn. I’d lived in houses half the size of this growing up. After showing me through the living room, he led me to a fully equipped kitchen with an eating area. It looked like it had never been used, actually, but then why would Dmitri cook when he had staff to do it for him?
There was a smaller room with a desk and some overstuffed chairs that he called his study, and we stopped at a large bedroom that I assumed must be his. But no. He turned to me and said, “This will be your room, Luca. As you can see, Viktor has arranged for your luggage to be put in here. It has its own private bath and a place to put your clothes, but I’m hoping that you will actually be sleeping with me in my room, which is right next door. I just thought that you might enjoy having your own space.”
I just nodded, because it was hard to take it all in. I’d never seen such luxury in my whole life. It was overwhelming, to say the least, but I figured if you had to be kidnapped and held prisoner somewhere by a gorgeous, sex god of a Dragon shifter, this was definitely the place to do it.
Dmitri took my hand again. “Come. Let me show you my room.” He walked over to a connecting door that opened into his room. “That door can be locked from either side, but I don’t anticipate that you and I will ever have a need to use the lock.” Again, I just nodded, having apparently lost the power of speech, but God, this room was even bigger than my new bedroom.
All I seemed to be able to focus on, however, was the king size bed and the thought of sleeping there with Dmitri every night. It beat the hell out of my old cot in the storeroom back in the States. Well, I might not have been totally thinking about sleeping since I could feel my cock making my jeans need an adjustment. Dmitri must have been having some of the same thoughts because I felt his hand slide down my back to cup an ass cheek and squeeze. I heard myself emit an involuntary groan, and then Dmitri turned me to face him, pulling me close.
He grinned down at me and whispered, “Do you have any idea what those little sounds of yours do to me?”
I shook my head and he began to undress me. Everywhere he touched me, I was on fire. As he removed my shirt, his fingers lightly grazed my nipples, turning them into hard pebbles and making me groan. By the time he pulled my jeans and underwear down, lightly caressing my ass before running his fingers teasingly up my rock-hard cock, I felt like I might come any moment. He pushed me back on the bed, removing my shoes so he could pull my pants off. Once he had me completely naked, he turned the comforter back and looked down at me with a smile. “Get into bed, Luca. I’ll join you as soon as I lock the door.”
I was still lying on my back, so I turned and crawled up toward the head of the bed. Suddenly, his black satin sheets were caressing every inch of my body. It felt so good I could barely be still, but I managed to focus on Dmitri walking across the room to lock the door. Truthfully, I don’t know if I could have looked away if my life depended on it, because he was removing his shirt as he went and revealing the muscles on his back and his abs. By the time he was prowling back toward the bed, he was pulling his pants and underwear down in one go. He straightened up completely naked and I could barely breathe. The man looked like a Greek god, with broad shoulders, strong arms and those muscular thighs.
And every inch of him was golden, from the light covering of hair on his chest to the treasure trail leading to the golden nest of curls at the base of his cock and the wiry curls covering his legs. God, I
was practically salivating. I couldn’t figure out what it was that was so different about this man that could make me practically melt just looking at him. I mean, I’m not exactly a troll myself, so I’ve never had trouble hooking up with handsome men, and the sex was always good, if temporary. This man was different. I absolutely couldn’t get enough of him and from the way he talked, he actually wanted me to stay with him. No one had ever wanted to keep me before.
I held out my arms, and he gave me the smile that melted my heart and crawled into the bed, taking me in his arms. Whoa. Wait a minute. Who said anything about the heart being involved? This was good sex. Okay, maybe great sex, maybe the-best-I- ever-had sex, but that’s all it was. No heart involvement. That was the quickest way for me to get hurt.
He lay down on top of me and pulled me close, rubbing his cock against mine and trailing his fingers down my back to cup my ass, and I forgot about whatever it was that I was thinking. It didn’t seem to be important now, anyway. What was important was the feel of his groin against mine and his tongue sliding into my mouth as he kissed me. I heard one of us groan. Maybe him. Maybe me. I didn’t know. All I knew was that our bodies were touching from head to toe and it felt wonderful. He moved his mouth off mine and leaned down to take one of my nipples in his mouth, sucking and biting it until I thought that I’d lose my mind. He continued this sweet assault, but moved so that he could take both of our cocks in his big hand and he began to stroke as he sucked at me.
I heard myself groaning out, “God, Dmitri.”
He lifted his mouth off my nipple and growled, “Do you want me to stop?”
“Never. Are you crazy?”
He gave a little chuckle before latching onto the other nipple again and stroking our dicks harder and faster. I felt the orgasm teasing my spine and then spilling out all over both of us. He followed me almost immediately with a loud groan. After a long time of just breathing each other’s air, he leaned in and kissed me. “I’ll go get something to clean us up and then we’ll take a little nap.”
I remember nodding and then feeling a warm cloth on my chest and groin, but it was all very vague and seemed like part of a dream until Dmitri shook my shoulder. “Get up, sleepyhead. It’s time to get ready for dinner.”
I heard the whine in my voice as I said, “Oh God, do we have to go?”
He laughed and threw back the cover, giving my naked ass a little slap. “Yes, we do. Now, get up and stop whining.”
I opened my eyes and gave him a dirty look. “For your information, I do not whine.”
He quirked a brow at me. “Mm-hm. Well, get your non-whining ass out of that bed and into the shower. We don’t have that much time, and my mother loses her mind if anyone’s late for dinner.”
I crawled out of the bed and walked slowly toward the bathroom. I was so not looking forward to this dinner. Those people intimidated the hell out of me. Besides, they acted like I was a thing—a Wyvern and not a person.
When I came out of the shower into my room, the connecting door to Dmitri’s room was open and I could hear him moving around in there, getting dressed. I had just noticed the dinner jacket and pants he’d bought me in Moscow lying on the bed when he stepped into my room. He was wearing only some dress pants and no shirt, and I felt my cock give a little twitch. What the hell? All the man had to do was walk into the room partially dressed and my dick perked up and was ready to go.
I must have been staring at his muscular chest pretty hard, because I didn’t understand what he was saying to me at first. Apparently, when I looked up at him, he could tell that I didn’t know what he’d just said. Shit. He gave me a knowing smirk as and started over. “I said, Luca, that my mother insists that we dress for dinner, so I had your new suit pressed while you napped.”
“Okay. Thank you. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.” He walked back into his room and I began to dress as fast as I could, but with a feeling of dread. Dressing for dinner? As opposed to what? Eating naked? I didn’t want to ask, and knew it probably had something to do with the fancy dinner jackets. Certainly not anything I had ever been used to. Hell, I was lucky if I even had dinner most nights.
I was fully dressed except for my tie and my jacket, when Dmitri walked back into my room. I was struggling with the tie, and it must have been painfully obvious that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I was embarrassed, but when the fuck had I ever needed to wear a fucking bow tie anywhere? Or a regular tie for that matter. Without saying a word, Dmitri stepped up behind me, putting his arms around me and began the process slowly so I could watch what he was doing. Feeling his arms around me, and smelling his expensive cologne was enough to make me want to push my ass back into his groin. Honest to God, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. It was like I was in heat or something.
To my knowledge, Dragons didn’t have fated mates or anything like that and I sure as hell didn’t believe that I could be in love this quickly. Or at all, for that matter. Besides, there was no way Dmitri could be in love with me either. My father had made it abundantly clear that I was unlovable, and I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. I was just stating a fact. I learned early on to accept that shit and move on. Things like love and family were highly overrated, right?
It was like all those times as a kid that the Catholic nuns at my school used to tell me God loved me. Pray to Him, they said, and if I prayed hard enough and did my best to be good, He would answer me. So I tried that, and guess what? It didn’t make a damn bit of difference. Once I finally got it in my thick skull that God didn’t give a shit about me or about those little kids who died from leukemia or the ones I saw on TV from bombed out places like Africa and Syria, then I actually felt a little better. It wasn’t that He judged me and found me lacking. It was simply that He didn’t care in the first place. I was on my own in this life and I better toughen up and get used to it. Once I accepted that fact and stopped waiting around to be rescued by God or anybody else, I got along a little better.
Dmitri finished with the tie and held my jacket for me. I must have had dread written all over my face because he gave my shoulder a squeeze and whispered in my ear, “Come on. It’s going to be okay.”
I looked up at him. “I doubt it, but let’s get it over with.”
He smiled down at me. “Well, just so you know, you look gorgeous.”
I glanced at myself in the mirror over the dresser and had to admit that I did look good. To be honest, I didn’t look like the same person Dmitri met when he first walked into the grocery store. That old saying about clothes making the man must be kinda true.
****
Dmitri
I could feel the tension in Luca’s body as we walked out of my apartment. I knew that he was definitely not looking forward to this family dinner and I made up my mind to protect him from my parents’ interrogation as much as possible. Truth be told, I was not looking forward to it myself. My parents could be like a dog with a bone once they sank their teeth into something. Then, there was the problem of Luca and his temper. He had a short fuse. Very short. And diplomacy was definitely not a word in his vocabulary.
By the time we reached the dining room, my parents were already seated, but, thankfully, I could see that we were not the last to arrive. Sebastien wasn’t here yet, but I heard him running down the steps, his heels on the wood floors sounding like a horse’s hooves clopping and echoing throughout the entry hall. When he entered the dining room, looked around and saw that he was the last to arrive. He looked sheepish and muttered a quiet, “Sorry,” before taking his seat. My mother simply quirked a brow at him, but it was enough to register her displeasure. God, the woman was a formidable presence, and now she was in a mood, thanks to Bash. I frowned across at him, and he gave me a slight shrug and a guilty grin.
We made it halfway through the meal with only casual conversation about the weather before the interrogation phase began. My father gave Luca a long, studying look, and I felt myself tense up as he said, “Luca, do you remember
anything about your mother?”
“No. I’ve heard stories,” he looked at me and back at my father before continuing, “But that’s about it.”
My father nodded and turned to me then. “So, Dmitri, how do we know that what Eldor believes, that this boy is the last Wyvern, is even true? Have you seen any proof of him even being a Wyvern?”
“No, I haven’t seen proof, Father, and by the way, he’s a man, not a boy. I can only assume that Eldor was certain of his facts and that Luca was in grave danger. I witnessed an attack on him, in fact. I felt that the only way to protect him and verify that he is, indeed, a Wyvern was to bring him here.”
“And how do you plan on this verification?”
“I’ll have him shift into his Wyvern, which I plan on doing first thing tomorrow.” I felt Luca stiffen beside me, so I put my hand on his thigh and squeezed, hoping to calm him down some.
“I’d like to go with you,” my father said.
I shook my head. “I’d prefer that you didn’t. Luca says that he’s never shifted before, and I think it might be easier for him not to have an audience.”
“Never shifted before?” My father bellowed out. He turned his attention to Luca. “Is this true?”
Luca sat up straighter and looked my father in the eye. “Yes, it’s true. Why would I lie about that?” He turned his gaze on me and I could see the storm brewing in his eyes.
“What on earth, Dmitri? Neither of you know that he’s even Wyvern then!” He cast a contemptuous look at me. “He looks like Spawn to me.”
I scooted back my chair without another word and stood up. We hadn’t finished but this seemingly interminable dinner was over as far as I was concerned. I looked at my mother and said, “Mother, the dinner was excellent, but Luca and I need to go to my apartment. I certainly don’t intend to sit here and listen to Father run Luca down. Luca and I will both be shifting tomorrow, like I said. And we don’t need spectators.”