Dragon in the Rough (Elders Enterprises Book 1)

by Jo Vanz

  Katie finally found her voice again. “Yes, I am fine. Your brother called and asked me to come in early. It seems they have some new information on how they can find you,” Katie managed to squeak out before Paul walked in and closed the door behind him. He stopped a few inches in front of her.

  “I do not like the idea of you working with them.” He reached out and brushed a strand of hair off of Katie’s face. “Especially when they interrupt us.”

  Katie’s breath quickened. “I am not going to turn you in, at least not yet. If that is what you are worried about then there is no need to be.”

  Paul leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Good, but that is not why I am worried.” Before Katie could say anything more, Paul covered her lips with his. Their “dreamy” kiss had been amazing, but this was earth shattering. Katie had never experienced a feeling like this in her whole life. She was drowning in the need to deepen it and take more. Before she got the chance, Paul pulled away.

  Once Katie got her breathing under control, she asked, “So what is worrying you then? I can take care of myself.”

  Paul laughed. It was music to Katie’s ears. “Yes, I have seen just how well you can handle yourself. But make no mistake, Katie, you have never had to deal with our kind yet. Just be careful and remember, do not tell anyone that you are one of us.”

  “I promise not to say anything…as long as you promise to kiss me again tonight.” Katie winked at Paul.

  “Oh, I can do you one even better, sweetheart.” Paul reached down and picked Katie up, allowing her to wrap her legs around his waist. He turned them so that Katie’s back was pressed up against the wall then with one hand, he quickly freed the towel that was wrapped around her, letting it fall to the floor. Then just as quickly, he undid his pants. Katie was wet and ready for him. Having a strong man take control was a major turn on for her. Placing the head of his throbbing cock at her entrance, he asked, “Are you sure you want this, Katie?”

  Katie could not find the strength to put words together so she just nodded her head eagerly. Paul did not wait a second longer, he pushed inside her. Katie moaned. This felt so good. So right. She never wanted it to end.

  Paul pulled out and then slammed into her again, bringing out a scream of pleasure. With every thrust, Paul picked up the pace, slamming into her over and over. There was nothing sweet and romantic about it. It was a need that had consumed them both, and it felt so right. Katie needed it fast and hard.

  Katie did not know how long they had been going at it and really did not care. The end was coming, she could feel it building deep inside of her. Paul moved fasted as their breathing quickened, then everything exploded. Katie screamed out with ecstasy as she dug her nails into his back. A few seconds later, Paul threw back his head and screamed Katie’s name as he pounded into her one last time.

  After a few moments, Paul let Katie slide down so that she was standing on her own two feet. She was a little shaky, but managed to hold herself. Her hand slipped down Paul’s back, but she quickly moved it when he hissed. She looked around him to see what was wrong, then she saw her claw marks. She felt the blood rush to her face. “I am so sorry, I really did not mean to. I have never done that before.”

  Paul ran a hand through her hair while tilting her head back so that she could look into his eyes. “Do not ever apologize for scratching me. Truth be told, I kind of liked it. Plus, now I have proof that I can make you lose control. I will wear it as a badge of honor.” He winked at Katie. “Now, I do believe I should go so you can get ready for work. I have probably already made you late.” He leaned down and gave Katie a quick kiss. “Until tonight, my love.” Paul turned and left, leaving Katie staring after him.

  Chapter 10

  Katie stood there looking at the door for a few moments, trying to wrap her head around everything that had just happened. When that did not work, she just pushed everything aside. She glanced up at the clock hanging on her wall. “Shit!” She was running extremely late. Katie hoped that Mark would not be upset when she did not walk in there in five minutes.

  Katie ran to her room and got dressed as quickly as she could manage. She wanted a shower but knew that was out of the question now. It took her ten minutes to get dressed and brush her teeth. Then she raced out, grabbing her bag and heading out the door.

  As Katie walked swiftly down the sidewalk, she ran her fingers through her hair. She was trying to hide the fact that she had just had hot sex with the man that she was supposed to be bringing in. If Katie was being truthful, she really did not want to have to arrest Paul. Not just because of the amazing sex, but because he was helping her find out who she really was. No one else even thought that there was a chance that she might be a dragon, but Paul did.

  Maybe they could help each other out? During the day, she would make sure that the Elders did not get too close to him. Then in the evenings, he could help her figure out her past. But even as Katie thought about it, she had a gut feeling that it would not last very long. She would have to bring Paul in, sooner rather than later.

  Katie just about passed the Elders building, but stopped when she saw a man with silver eyes. She looked around and sure enough, she was standing in front of a tall sky scraper. There was not much about it that stood out, but then again the dragon race did not seem like they really wanted people being nosy. It looked to be about thirty stories and there was a sign that hung above the entrance - Elder Enterprises.

  Well, at least she knew she was in the right place. Shaking her head, she tried to calm her sudden rigid nerves. Katie let out a sigh and forced herself to walk through the front doors. She stopped right inside the doors and looked around in awe. Black marble covered the floors and the counter at the front desk and the walls were painted in gold. It was all just so gorgeous.

  “Katie, it is nice to see you again. I was beginning to think you would not make it.” Katie looked over to see Fabian walking toward her.

  She reached out her hand to shake his as he approached. “Yeah, sorry about that. I got a little lost trying to find it.” Katie tried to sound as confident as she could. It would not end well for anyone if they knew that Paul was the reason she was late.

  “No worries, you are here now and that is all that matters.” Fabian released her hand and turned toward the elevator. “If you would follow me, we have a meeting to attend and then I will show you to your office.”

  Katie followed Fabian into the elevators and watched as he pressed the button for the top floor. As the elevator lurched upward, Katie glanced over at Fabian and for the first time she finally could see the resemblance to Paul. She had not seen it before because honestly, she had not been looking. Fabian looked up at her and smiled when he caught her staring. “Do I have something on my face? Or are you just admiring my ruggedly good looks?”

  Katie blushed. “Actually, I am trying to figure out who you remind me of.” Katie hated lying but she knew she could not tell him the truth.

  “Ah, that. Well, we will discuss that in the meeting.” The elevator binged as it came to a halt. “After you.” Fabian held his hand out, waiting for Katie to exit.

  Katie took a look around as she stepped off the elevator. The floors were black marble, the walls a dark red lined in gold. At one end of the floor it looked as if there were a few offices, and on the other end the area was opened up and had a large table sitting in the middle. Sitting around the table was a group of men of all sizes, shapes, and ages. They all turned and looked at her as she stood there staring at them.

  Fabian walked up behind Katie and placed a hand on her elbow, giving her a little nudge as he led her over toward the table. As they approached, all the men stood in unison. This was the first time that Katie really got a good look at just how many there were. She would bet that there was at least fifty of them. They walked past them all and made their way to the head of the table. There, Fabian finally turned to face everyone. “I would like you to all meet Katie. She is the detective that was hired to search
for Paul. I know some of you have made it known that you do not wish for us to bring in an outsider but let there be no mistake, she is the only one in this room that has even come close to catching him.” Katie looked around at all the men standing around the table. Some were looking at her while others had their heads bowed.

  “She will be working for us,” Fabian continued. “She is now our lead detective, though for right now it is only temporary but if we like what she can do, then it will be a permanent gig.” The guys that had their heads bowed snapped their heads up to look at Fabian. Katie’s heart sped up. She got the feeling that these men did not take well to taking orders from a woman. “We will make introductions later. For now, will everyone take a seat? It is time we go over other matters.

  Everyone complied, including Katie. The next hour was spent listening to Fabian explain to her that they were dragons and everyone in the room sat on the Elders board because they did not have a royal family anymore. Katie did everything she could to pretend that she was surprised at what they were. Finally, he got to why everyone was called in so early.

  “It seems that Paul decided to contact his twin brother last night.” Katie’s eyes flew up to see Mark staring at her. This time she was shocked. When had Paul contacted his brother? “So I will step aside and let him explain everything.” Fabian stood and moved to the side so that Mark could sit down.

  “Last night, Paul reached out to me. He did so through our twin connection. For those of you that do not know, we can connect our minds, kind of like mates do. He did not want to talk about the book, but I believe he may have given me the key to finding him.” Everyone’s eyes were now on Mark. Even Katie wanted to know what information Paul had willingly handed out.

  “It seems that Paul is falling in love with a woman he believes may be a dragon.” As Mark spoke, Katie heard everyone suck in a breath of air. She could feel the tension run through the air. Something felt wrong. Maybe this was why Paul did not want her to tell anyone what she was.

  Katie could not take it any longer. “What is so important about this woman? I mean surely there are a lot of female dragons, right?”

  Mark smiled. “As a matter of fact, no. The only female dragons that we know of are already mated. So when a new female shows up, there is a frenzy of males trying to become her mate. If Paul has indeed found one, then we need to find her and get her into protective custody as soon as possible.” Mark paused and ran his fingers through his hair. He reminded Katie of Paul. “We found a woman a few months ago. Things did not end so well for her.” He looked down at his trembling hands.

  Katie could not help herself, she needed all the information she could get. “You said that Paul is falling in love with her.” Katie paused and did a little happy dance on the inside. “Would that not be enough to keep the others at bay?”

  “No.” Fabian answered this time. “Unless Paul can prove that they are fated mates, then the others will still hunt her down.” Katie’s little internal happy dance stopped.

  “How can he prove that?” Katie knew she was starting to ask too many questions about mating so she added, “And how can we use this woman to lure him out of hiding if we do not know who she is?”

  Mark answered again. “When a female has found a potential mate, more of her dragon starts coming out.” He paused as if trying to find the right words. “Say she has green eyes. The more time and sex she has with her mate, her eye color will start to change to gold.” He let that sink in before he continued. “If we can track her down and bring her in, that will force Paul to come to us. He will want to protect her.”

  “How do we track her down? We need some kind of information on her for us to track her down.” Katie was trying to stay calm. She did not know if she was actually a dragon, but if she was then this whole plane was going to blow up quickly. She needed to find out the truth as quickly as possible.

  “Paul had said last night that she just figured out that she was a dragon. So this leads me to believe that she was not raised by her parents, or any other dragon for that matter. The only other possibility is that she somehow ended up in the human foster care system.” He took a deep breath which allowed Katie to absorb everything that he had just said. “Your job now is to comb through their files looking for any kid that might stand out.”

  “I can do that.” Katie said. “But I will need to know what to look for. We might also look in surrounding states. Just because she is here now does not mean that she lived here her whole life.”

  “That will not be an issue. I will send you an email when we are done here. You will also have access to any government system that you need.” After Mark was done talking, he stood and switched seats with his father again.

  Fabian took over and talked a little while longer about issues with their businesses, but Katie did not pay much attention. Her mind was whirling with everything. Since she was the one investigating the foster care system, then she could keep her name out of the reports. But if she really was a dragon, then the smart thing to do was stay away from Paul. At least until this investigation was over with. The only issue was that she wanted to be around him. She needed to have his arms wrapped around her again. She only hoped that this would all be a nice, slow process. She nearly laughed out loud when she thought that. Fate had never been kind to her and she doubted that it would start now.

  Finally after another hour, the meeting was called to a close. Katie stayed where she was until almost everyone left. As she stood up, Mark, Sam, and Fabian came over to stand around her. “Well, you took that a lot better than we thought you would,” Sam said with a half-smile. Katie got the feeling that he just really did not like her.

  If they were trying to get a reaction out of Katie, they were out of luck. “Please tell me how one would react to finding out they were sitting in a room full of male dragons? Did you want me to scream and run out the door? I was a human that worked for the Vampire Council. I had heard rumors that there were other races out there, so it is not a big leap of faith to accept that you all are dragons. I knew from the moment that Paul’s file came across my desk that I was not dealing with vampires. So unless you have any more question, can you please show me to my office so I can get some work done?” Katie smiled at the looks of shock she was receiving.

  “Actually,” Fabian started, “I have a request. If you see or hear from Paul, come directly to me. He is my son and I would like to help him in any way I can.”

  “That I can do. Anything else?” Katie looked over to see that Sam was still staring at her. She got the feeling that if anyone was going to cause any problems, it would be him.

  “Not that I can think of, but if you need anything just contact any of us. Our information is already on your computer in your office.” Fabian looked over his shoulder at Mark. “Would you please take Katie to HR and then show her to her office?” When Mark nodded in response, Fabian and Sam turned and walked out. She looked over at Mark and for a split second, her heart fluttered. He looked so much like Paul.

  “Do not worry, I am nothing like my twin.” He smiled and Katie’s heart melted. Of course he was not like Paul. Paul was so much better in Katie’s mind.

  “Excuse me?” was the only thing Katie could think of to say.

  “You were staring. I figured it was because of how much I look like Paul. We may have the same face but we are polar opposites.” Mark placed his hand on Katie’s back and started to lead her toward the elevators.

  “Sorry,” Katie finally said. “I did not mean to stare. I guess everything is happening so quickly.” She paused. “Do you miss your brother?” she blurted out.

  Mark gave her a quick glance before letting out a small laugh. “Yeah, I guess I do. I know he was starting to grow tired with life here and we were not spending much time together anymore but yes, I do miss him. I wish he would just turn himself in. It would make things so much better for everyone.”

  Katie did not know what else to say so she just kept quiet as they waited for th
e elevator.

  Chapter 11

  Paul spent most of the day trying to translate and understand some of the book. He had successfully translated another chapter but was having a hard time understanding what it meant. Finally, he gave up and paced his apartment, thoughts of Katie filling his mind. He had not wanted to let her go see the Elders but in some ways it could give him the advantage, which Paul was more than grateful to take.

  But that did not mean he had to like the idea of Katie being in a building full of male dragons. If they even thought that she might be one of them, they would be all over her in no time at all. Paul slammed his fist through the closest wall to him. “She is mine!” he yelled, scaring himself. When had he started think of Katie as his? He did not know the answer but it scared him.

  Paul did not know if he could even handle a relationship. Sure, he had slept around to take the edge off, but he never got to know them, let alone care about them. There was no point in doing so. He could not have a family with them. Even if he had married someone, she would grow old and die. He would never put himself in that situation.

  Paul had always held out hope that he would find his mate one day. Even after watching so many friends and family give up, he never lost faith that he would find her. Yet now that he might have found her, he was scared shitless. He was scared that he would screw this up. With a quick glance at his watch, Paul knew he had about two hours until Katie got off work. That gave him enough time to get to the store and back before Katie got home. Without another thought, he grabbed his wallet and keys and headed out the door, making sure he locked it on the way out.

  ***

  Katie was glad when she looked up from the paperwork that she was drowning in and saw that it was just about time to go home. It had been a very long day. After the meeting, Mark had walked her down to HR so she could get her I.D. and pay situated. Katie almost had a heart attack when she saw just how much she was getting paid. She had to ask Mark to look it up to make sure that it was right. He did so with a smile on his face the whole time. When he looked at her and told her that it was correct, Katie did a little happy dance before realizing that people were watching her. She would have everything she ever wanted with a paycheck like this.