by Susan Arden
“And you promise, this isn’t some trap. Not from them … or you.”
“Shannon,” he whispered, tipping up her face, and whipping away her tears. “There’s no trap being set. Trust me. I wouldn’t lie to the mother of my children.”
Her golden eyes held his, flashing green fire in the dim light, forging an electrical connection that ripped through him, and he couldn’t step back, not in a million years. Sweet Jesus—she was changing into a dragon mistress right before his eyes. He lowered his mouth to hers, fusing their lips. He had to withstand his hunger to do more than kiss her and ran his hands down her body, holding her aloft by squeezing his fingers around her hips. Difficult when she opened her mouth and pressed her tongue across his. So sweet, she had the power to dissolve all his anger, rage … and even his hurt over the fact that she’d disappeared and left him.
“Drake, I do believe you,” she moaned, reaching her arms up and around his neck.
“I respect your need for rules, but you’re living by a few that are difficult, if not impossible to ignore. Let me know what you need, I’ll get it for you. Anything. Just tell me.” He didn’t want to come right out and say he had needs. A very hard one at the moment.
“Please, stop talking,” she murmured against his mouth, then nipped his lip, drawing it between her teeth before flicking her tongue back into his mouth, teasing all of his senses. She threaded her fingers into his hair, crushing her breasts to his chest, eroding his last vestige of self-control.
A roar worked his throat muscles and holding back from Shay became impossible. He promised himself one pump of his hips against her softness, just to relieve the mounting pressure in his cock. He rubbed his hands down her lush ass cheeks, plump and round and begging for him to do more.
She melded to him, the temptress of his dreams materializing when she arched her body to fit perfectly to his. “That’s it,” he said, overtaken by a bone-shattering urge, and he hauled her hips up to his, nudging her mound with his aching crown.
Without warning, she reached down and gripped his cock through his leathers and squeezed him. “Like this?”
“For the love of all that’s holy,” he groaned. “Perfect.”
“Cowboy,” she replied, stroking her fingers against his fully aroused shaft. “There is something you can do for me.”
He lifted his head and stared down in the golden pools of her shimmering eyes, framed by long lashes spiky from crying. “Anything. What do you want to do?”
“To get in touch with my parents and let them know I’ll travel back.” Looking down at his zipper, she squeezed his cock within her palm. So fucking amazing, but then she stopped, releasing her grip on him.
“Baby.” He gritted his teeth now that his balls were beyond blue.
“Listen to me.” She tapped her fingers along his belt, so close to where he needed her fingers to be. “But only for a couple of days and I don’t want them to know where I’m at—not yet. I should have known something happened. I phoned and my dad’s cell went to voicemail. But I’d thought … ” She shook her head, her chin quivered and she blinked rapidly. “I thought he didn’t want to take my call.”
“No one knows you’re here. Did you leave a number? From here?” he asked alarmed.
“I wasn’t born yesterday,” she replied, steeling her expression after she clearly had decided to veil her features—powering back up into smarty-pants mode. Was she trying to hide something from him? “I called when I had to make a run to gather some supplies. Up in Chicago.”
His brow tightened. “What on earth did you need to get up there?”
“Does it matter?” she asked, too flippant for his taste.
“Very much. Now tell me or I’ll get the truth from you one way or another.” Christ almighty—he’d read the reports of shifters being killed left and fucking right in Flint, Detroit, and Chicago.
She narrowed her eyes. “No. Don’t you dare try to dive into my mind!”
He stared at her and shook his head. “I wouldn’t. I haven’t … is that what you think?”
“Don’t try and act like you haven’t—”
“Shay, on all that’s sacred. Fuck, yeah—I did. Once at the villa but not afterward. Not once afterward. Now before I lose what little cool I still possess, tell me why you were all the way up in Chicago? Shit, did you at least have an escort?”
“I’ve learned how to take care of myself. So no. Just me, myself, and I went up north.” She stared back at him, her eyes wide as if in shock. “Don’t jump down my throat ’cause I did what I had to do.”
“Which was?”
“Come with me.”
“Where?”
“Follow me.” She pulled away from him—or tried to—before he hauled her back.
“How far are we going?”
“Now who’s lagging behind?” She rolled her eyes. “Silly dragon boy. Come with me down the hall. I went there to pick up stuff. What’d you think I was doing?”
“There are delivery companies. I don’t understand why you’d risk traveling to Chicago of all places in your condition—” He stopped talking.
She led him down the hall and paused by the last doorway. “Take a look.”
At the threshold, a pastel green and yellow room beckoned him. “A nursery,” he said.
“Not just any. Fire retardant.”
“Ah. Chicago. The Fire Safety Board capital.”
“Bingo. I attended the conference on safe fire retardants that don’t impair health. Everything in this room was tested, approved, and is dragon baby safety rated.” She picked up a blanket and held it out to him.
The blanket was downy between his fingers. A small giraffe had been embroidered near the edge. The built-in shelving held another folded blanket, exactly the same but with a duck, next to sheets and towels. Another shelf held tiny articles of baby clothing. These were his children’s possessions. Correction. He shook his head. Things that she’d acquired under the radar for their children.
“I guess I haven’t thought much about fire safety. I just blow my stack and deal with the fallout.”
“Oh brother. What does your bedroom look like?” she blurted out and then he enjoyed the pink blush that stole across her cheeks before she spun on her heel, and approached the slates of wood propped up against the wall. “I need to assemble the cribs. That’s my next project. Little by little. But I think their nursery is coming along.”
He watched her pat her stomach and then rub a hand down the curve of her belly, giving him the first real glimpse of her pregnant profile. She stopped his heart. Gripping the blanket, he reminded himself to not overreact. He set it back on the shelf and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I can do that,” he murmured.
“So you’ll do as I asked? Relay to my parents I’m returning, without blabbering to them my whereabouts. I mean besides telling me that Shawn needs me, you don’t need to hang here. Don’t you have a job somewhere?”
“Shit, Shay, I’ve got my own business,” he replied, not seeing how he’d be able to take her back to Denver and let her face Shawn on her own unless he wrangled an agreement out of her to let him protect her—night and day. He trusted Shawn; he just didn’t trust any of the other shifters who were currently seated on the justice council. Namely Dimitri Necrodemas and two of his grown children who were spoiled and acted like the whole idea of a justice council was beneath them. According to Drake’s underground intel, they were in league with dark forces, but there was no evidence in which to have them removed from their positions—only gossip. “I’ll do as you ask on one condition.”
“As if,” she scoffed. “I still have connections in Denver. I don’t need to agree to anything.”
He reacted without meaning to fly off the handle. He crossed the room and stood inches from her, staring down into her open mouth and wide eyes. Gently, he took the tip of his forefinger and closed her mouth. “Kitten, listen closely to me. I once tied you to my bed, and I have no problem doing it again if it m
eans keeping you safe.”
He allowed her a moment to digest his level of seriousness. His muscles contracted as he kept himself in check from drawing her to him.
“Oh I bet you’d like to do that again. Wouldn’t you?” She jutted out her chin defiantly.
His cock twitched at her spirited rebuttal. Inhaling her scent deep into his lungs, he fought to remain levelheaded. Fuck. He clenched his jaw. “So much, you have no idea. But that isn’t the exact point I was driving home.”
She arched her brow but remained silent, her chest heaving. He allowed his gaze to trace her body and fondle the curves since he had to keep his hands to himself.
“Well, exactly what is the point you’re trying to drive home? Besides the one straining your zipper.”
“Darling, things have gone haywire in Denver. No joke, Shay. It’s not the same city as when you lived there. Down here, in this tiny town, things aren’t changing as rapidly. But surely you have kept up with the news in the larger cities.”
“Actually, I haven’t,” she said. “Easier to accept this as my new life. Why torture myself with what isn’t going to happen in my future? Shawn’s the family star, starts and runs several businesses … what am I? Fired from my first job.”
He winced. God, how incredibly stupid he’d been to have turned his back on her out of pride. She believed it shameful to have been let go from some asswipe firm that kowtowed to the political forces that be. She could have been Warren Buffett and they’d still have kicked her to the curb. In leaving Denver, she’d actually saved herself. But she’d given up a lucrative career in which she could have literally and figuratively remolded her life if the shifter violence hadn’t reached epic proportions. Now she had to remain off the grid in hiding, and it would be still harder since she had to find a safe refuge while pregnant.
“All of what you’ve said isn’t necessarily true.”
“Oh really?” She pursed her pink lips.
“Yeah, really. Here’s a fact, you’re as stubborn as the day is long,” he muttered.
“No. I just decided to prioritize. Isn’t that what you do to deal with stress and energy expenditures?”
“So you have read up on dragons to some degree,” he replied. Hell, he’d need to broach birthing, child rearing, and dealing with wayward mates himself soon. “But that isn’t what I’m referring to. Denver is dangerous. The justice councils, for the moment, have joined forces.”
She gasped. “How?”
“Not by marriage, I can assure you. A vote to rewrite the by-laws and I don’t know the minutiae involved. You can quiz your brother, if it interests you. All I know is in order to permanently affect an international justice council, all the heirs must appear and cast their vote in a quorum.”
“Why? That makes no sense. I’m not political. Never have been. I haven’t kept up with the issues. Does any of this have to do with my parents and what happened to them?”
He exhaled, gritting his teeth at having agreed to be the sole bearer of bad news. “As I’ve said, I’m not sure of the facts. From what I understand, your dad didn’t leave specific instructions as to his wishes in the event he was incapacitated. Now, you and Shawn must cast a vote.”
“And if my vote runs counter to my brother’s?”
“My guess … sure they’re counted with equal weight, but they cancel each other out insofar as impact.”
She didn’t say anything, only stared at a small silver frame that contained a photograph of her family. “I never thought this is how my life would end up. Not that it’s good or bad. Just vastly, vastly different.”
“Who says that you and Shawn don’t see eye to eye?” he asked. If he weren’t careful, he’d relay how Necrodemas was being less than gracious in asserting his Machiavellian quest for dominance. This was the reason why, Drake suspected, that Shawn stood on the precipice from which the shifter and human worlds were poised for disaster in Denver. A cagey situation that fed into Necrodemas’ psychotic desires. That fucker had quite the underground reputation for a taste of destruction and mayhem, which he used to divide and conquer his opponents. Not the most sophisticated of tactics, but Drake could attest to others in history who’d used similar madman methods and brokered results.
Shay looked up abruptly, a blush creeping over her cheeks, and she exhaled. “What else do you know? Don’t go and spill dribs and drabs. Man up. I sure as hell can take the news.”
He’d had about all he could take with her sass. “If you want to know anything else, it’s going to cost you, little girl.” And with that he hoisted her to him, crashing his mouth down on hers to squelch the rolling barbs she was all too capable of flinging. He walked her back to the wall, planting his hands beside her head and caging her within his arms. Her pillow-soft lips opened to him with a breathy moan as she danced her tongue into his mouth. He held back from tongue fucking her, enjoying this tantalizing kiss that rocked every one of his sense. His fingers crept to her head, skimming along her luxurious hair that he wrapped around his hand. He yanked a handful, hiking up the sensation between them and giving her a taste of what he had in store. Just in case she was interested. The teasing feel of her body under his control tempted every dragon male instinct he possessed. All she had to do was give him a sign.
Come on, Shay. One blasted sign. He’d have her riding his cock, even if it meant he could only thrust into her sweet pussy part way. Fuck, he’d use only his crown in ways that would drive them both berserk.
She lifted her leg, rubbing her calf along his, and he clenched his jaw, bringing his other hand down to her hip, farther down, hooking his hand under her raised thigh. “Baby, what do you want?”
“Oh I think you know,” she retorted. “You have got to promise to be careful.”
“Promising to be extra, extra careful,” he grunted out. His cock throbbed and he fought to remain sane in his desire to get her naked and on her back, legs spread, and screaming. “Where’s your bedroom?”
She reached up and feathered her fingers along his cheeks. “No smoke. No fire. Or we’re gonna have a big, big problem, muchacho.”
“Entiendo, mi vida,” he said.
Her brows rose. “You speak Spanish. High school?”
“My mother. She was from Spain and I spent summers in Barcelona. Why do you think I opted for the European tour?”
“Navy SEAL training,” She scrunched her face. “Hold on. You’re mother’s name is Katherine.”
He shook his head, tracing his fingers along her jaw. “Katherine is my stepmother. One of my father’s mates. My mother died in childbirth. Paloma O’Connor de la familia Draco Herensuge.”
“I’m sorry. How come I don’t know that about you?”
“Until now there was no reason to share that detail. I took my mother’s family’s name,” he replied. “But now, you’re carrying my children.”
“Are you saying your life is an open book, Lord Herensuge?”
“That would have to go both ways.” He held her unblinking stare. Didn’t she realize that’s exactly where they were headed if they claimed one another?
“Really now.” When she lowered her gaze and bit her lip, softly sliding one solitary finger down his chest, he sucked in his gut at the jagged piercing pleasure she unleashed in his body.
“Shay,” he hissed out a warning, catching her hand. His pulse kicked up like he’d gone ten rounds in a boxing match, but that did little to curb his appetite for her. If anything, his dick throbbed mercilessly in need of relief. A serious workout that only she could provide.
“Come with me.” She tugged on his hand. “That is, if you want to stay with me.”
“In a word, yes,” he choked and his cock swelled, getting stiffer by the second.
Wordlessly, she pushed her palms on his chest, causing his pulse to race if that were fucking possible. He had to get his head together and stepped aside, following her out of their babies’ nursery, stopping only to turn off the lamp. She walked to the next doorway down the ha
ll and paused. “This is my bedroom and not anywhere near the type of room I had when we first … you know.” She glanced down, breaking eye contact with him.
“I’m not here to compare thread counts. I can’t recall what your other bedroom looked like except for you being naked and under me. Ask me the color of your eyes or the way your voice hitched when I fucked you, and I can go on and on. But the shade of the walls, the floors, or the furniture? I have no idea.” He cupped and lifted her chin. “Shay, only you’ve filled my memory, tormenting me for five solid months. Only. You.”
“You don’t have to say that,” she replied, her voice soft, sexy, and breathy to his ears.
“Those aren’t just words.” He reached for her, lifting her upward into his arms, and flinging open the door. He clasped her against his chest and wandered inside the dim room. “Where’s the lights?”
“There’s a small lamp on the table. By the mattress.”
Mattress? Shit. He could make out a mattress with a quilt covering it and a rickety table that stood next to the single mattress. A collapsible chair with a neatly folded pile of clothing and that was it. The hardwood floors were bare and from what he could tell so were the walls. Austere came to mind. Fuck, he’d get to the bottom of what her needs were. Entirely. Tonight her body. And tomorrow, he’d sit her down and they’d sure as shit would have a come-to-Jesus talk. This girl was going to accept his help. Come hell or high-the-fuck water! The mother of his children was not going to bed down on a mattress on the floor. Or in the very least, not beyond tonight since he realized he couldn’t very well haul her out the door to a hotel.
CHAPTER 7
Within Drake’s arms, Shay drank from his power that flowed like the pink champagne she’d once sipped along the Rivera when they traveled down the Mediterranean coast last summer. His arms tensed around her as he walked into her immaculate but sparsely furnished room. She chanced a glance upward from beneath her lashes and her stomach muscles twisted.