Hugo laid the deaths of his great-grandfather's heirs to the machinations of the House of Landor. Either that or the House of Sarkany lay under a curse. Hugo did not believe in curses or in fate. He was a dragon of the twenty-first century ruled, not by passion, but by reason. He was going to find a fecund mate and breed many sons upon her, while he watched his back for treachery from Prince Maximilian of Landor and his swarm of cousins.
If the old stories were true, his mate would transform into a dragoness and fall in love with him and he with her. They would be true to each other forevermore. If the legends were just a pack of lies, well he was a dragon lord and heir to several fortunes. His mate could pass her days in splendid captivity at the Schloss Sarkany bearing him firelings. He could continue to sate his gargantuan appetites on a variety of females. Nothing need prevent him from keeping a mistress—or a hundred. Certainly not taking a bride.
Could he persuade the upright Miss St. George to be that mistress? Now where had that thought come from? He didn't do mistresses—he preferred variety over the tedium of a permanent courtesan. Once he had sampled the lovely Leah's ample charms, he would get bored. He always did. He would want her gone. That was why he had already bought her farewell gift.
Tonight he would have her, and tomorrow he would send her away, swathed in pearls with her bonus deposited in her bank account. He would assign Holden to protect her until this present danger had passed. His mind cleared, his body satisfied, he could concentrate on Landor.
In all probability he would forget Leah as swiftly as he had forgotten that actress he had had in Atlanta three weeks ago. Melissa, wasn't her name Melissa? Or perhaps Miranda? She was an Academy Award Winning Actress, or she deserved to be, if her performances in his bed were any indication. Soon Leah would be just another such dim memory.
His obsession was merely the result of being denied. Leah wasn't faking her reluctance—she was as naive and proper as she appeared to be on the surface. He could not be fooled by mere pretense. Her prissiness was quite genuine, as was her instantaneous response to him. His masculinity called to her, as her femininity called to him.
The novelty in the situation was that Leah St. George sincerely found his body more exciting than his wallet. He anticipated great pleasure in seducing this sweet and sultry beauty. It was a thousand pities he would not have more time to enjoy her. But once was better than nothing.
* * *
It had been a much less fraught day than Leah had feared. Sarkany had been glued to his computer screen here on Isle Balaur, in a way that he had not been in Atlanta. Not that he had told her what the crisis was. She was just the temp. And if he had explained? She was a computer programmer, not a financial wizard or an MBA. She knew exactly nothing about how to manage his empire.
Most of all, she had not had to fight off any more of Sarkany's advances. Her panties might be soaking wet, her lady parts might be swollen with desire, her nipples might be chaffing inside her concealing bra, but she was still in control. Her defenses were solid—just so long as he didn't attack her virtue. Because if he made another pass, she feared all her good sense would go up in smoke and she would eagerly participate in her own ravishment.
Because having tasted him once, he was all she could think about. She pressed her thighs together wishing she could alleviate this throbbing yearning. The trouble was he was just so damned hot. It didn't seem to matter that she knew he was a jerk where women were concerned.
Not even watching while he used women like paper napkins could stop her from responding to him. Instead of keeping his hound dog attitude in mind, she was thinking of how his staff adored him. Of how Gloria had confided that he was paying for her son to attend medical school.
“Mr. Hugo send my Ambrose off to America. My Ambrose is studying in Boston. That's in the USA,” Gloria confided. “Mr. Hugo pays for ever't'ing. Food, clothes, apartment and his books. If you can believe—two t'ousand American dollars every term just for books!”
“That's very kind of Mr. Sarkany,” Leah had responded. “How much longer does your son have to go?”
“T'ree years. And then he have to come back to Antigua and Barbuda and work here.” Gloria had sounded totally delighted.
“He can't stay in the States?” Leah had asked.
“No, miss. Ambrose have to come back and work right here. Mr. Hugo put it in his papers. I just hope he come home and marry a nice girl from St. John's.”
So Sarkany treated some of his employees well. It was just his CFO and his temporary PA he was sexually harassing. It sure didn't seem like he was using his household staff like a harem. The maids varied in age and attractiveness, but none of them seemed to think he was a lech.
Of course, Tina Townshend didn't think her boss was a lech. She had pursued him as much as he had pursued her. And when he had tired of her, she had got her diamond and emerald bracelet and kept her C level executive suite and salary at Sarkan. Whereas Leah felt quite sure that if Hugo Sarkany had just one taste of her virginal charms, she would be going home with neither jewels nor bonus.
She didn't have any moves. She read a lot. She had a good imagination and she was an athlete. But practical experience was always superior to book learning when it came to anything physical. Just as a rollerblader who had never spent any time doing laps, wasn't going to win any derbies, a virgin wasn't going to take any prizes in the sack.
It would be different if your partner loved you, she thought wistfully. Love would be patient with inexperience. Love would accept ardor in place of technique. But if Sarkany did seduce her, he was doomed to disappointment. Huge disappointment.
* * *
The call from Zurich came in at five forty-five island time. It was now almost ten in the morning in Switzerland and the Sarkan plant had not opened at eight as was its custom. His chief of security, Anders Brust was far from his usual phlegmatic self. Brust's face was almost animated.
“Gas canisters, M. Sarkany,” he reported in his native French. “Contents unknown. They were set to deploy at eleven hundred hours. The entire building would have been exposed to the gas. I have dispatched them to a lab for analysis, but they are the correct shape and size for tear gas.”
“How many?”
“Twelve.” Anders paused. “I think that probably is all. The saboteurs probably got hold of a case. But I am having the ducts searched by drones just to be sure.”
“Excellent. Keep the place closed until you are certain. I want the lab reports a.s.a.p. Night or day.”
“Yes, monsieur.”
Satisfactory. He had forestalled Landor. The situation in the Philippines had also been resolved without casualties. And now that Sarkan Industries was on high alert in every facility in every country, he had probably pulled Landor's teeth and hacked off his claws. For today. Probably.
He smiled across at tender, industrious Leah who was bent over her keyboard. She had worked in her usual efficient manner all day. It was time for her reward.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Come,” Hugo said extending one huge hand.
Like a dazed rabbit Leah put her hand in his and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. Hugo headed for the big double doors of his office. He keyed in a code and turned the handle. Outside a panel had opened beside the door frame.
Hugo placed his entire palm over the glowing screen and then permitted his irises to be scanned. He entered more numbers into a digital keypad. A steel grille descended from the ceiling and blocked access to his office.
“Where are we going?” Leah asked breathlessly. She tried to regain her hand. Hugo tightened his grip. He spun her against his chest and pressed her against his rock hard body. “Hush,” he whispered huskily as he claimed her mouth.
Sitting beside her boss all day had been like an extended session of erotic foreplay. Leah's entire body had felt sensitized to Hugo's presence for hours. The dizzying potency of his kiss should have been no surprise, but it was. It flung Leah into a place she had only visited in
her most private fantasies.
Every nerve thrilled as Hugo tangled his tongue with hers and his big hands swept down her back to her buttocks. He kneaded them as if their size and resiliency pleased him. His tongue thrust deeper into her mouth and he raised her by those splendid globes and ground her throbbing delta against his stiff sword as if to assuage his own agony.
She could smell his masculine fragrance now as passion heated his skin and moisture sprang all over his body. It fueled Leah's arousal. Nothing had prepared her for the reality of being desired by this tall, dark man. It was as if every cell in her body was attuned to his. As if they resonated together.
She returned his kiss with passionate intensity, thinking only of his pleasure. She tasted the inner recesses of his musky mouth, chasing his flavor up behind his lips and sliding her tongue slowly alongside his to savor every drop of the musky testosterone flooding his system.
Hugo groaned into her mouth and wrenched his away from hers. He held her hard against himself and looked down into her stunned and needy face with satisfaction. “Are you finished playing games?” he asked.
Leah's blue eyes were wide and shocked. She shook her head in negation of her desire and her bun gave up its struggle against gravity. Blond curls cascaded down over her round shoulders and framed her cheeks. “I guess so,” she said reluctantly. “But you, you can't get me p-pregnant,” she stammered as a tide of red suffused her face. She had to retain some common sense.
Hugo laughed. “Not a problem,” he told her. Which was true. Dragons were infertile with human females. And shifters were immune to human STIs. Leah would get neither baby nor disease from him.
Leah swallowed her pride and her protests. She ached for this man. Even if it was only for a brief time, she was going to have her fantasies fulfilled. When she was back in Georgia making do, at least she would have some memories.
Hugo picked her up in his arms. His hard face was triumphant and his gold eyes glowed with victory. He carried her as easily as if she were a child. He had intended to take her to her own room, but now he thought he would take her to his quarters. That string of pearls was there and he very much wanted to compare their pink and mauve iridescence against the opalescent skin of her lovely breasts. The recollection of those swelling mounds almost undid him right there in the hallway.
Leah acquiesced to his demands and laid her head against his shoulder as he carried her. She didn't say anything but she snuggled closer and shyly sniffed him. Oh, what a delight his prize was. She was enjoying the earthy smell of his sweat. It was a primal gesture that charmed him. He was very used to women who faked desire, but there was nothing fraudulent about his Leah's ardor.
The doors to his room stood open. He took time to shut them, ensuring that they would not be interrupted. He carried Leah straight down the wide hallway to his sitting room. He wove his way amongst the armchairs and tables, and ignored the view through the open shutters in favor of looking at his woman.
When he reached his bedroom, Hugo tossed his precious burden into the center of his enormous bed. Leah bounced a little and sat up on her elbows. Her blonde fairness stood out against the saturated blue of his coverlet. His staff had strict orders not to suffocate it with decorator cushions. Only the pillows he slept on graced his massive bed.
The dark wood shutters at the windows had been opened to admit the late afternoon sun. It slanted over the bed, striping Leah with gold. He followed her down and began to unbutton her dress. Her prim bra was white lace over a thin layer of foam. A workaday foundation garment, but he thought he had never seen anything so sexy. He pulled her dress down over her arms trapping them, and reached behind her for the catch to her bra.
Leah was blushing softly. Her breasts exploded into his hands and overflowed them. He did not know whether he had ever held such exquisitely pillowy flesh as hers before. The tightly furled nipples were a deep rose—indicating her arousal. When he set his mouth to them and lightly raked her flesh with his teeth she squirmed with pleasure and very nearly came.
She was a sensual delight. He instantly resolved to make her lose control. It would be a new sensation to bring a woman to climax without so much as touching her between her legs. His tongue swirled around her nipples as if they were an infinitely delicious ice cream cone. She rewarded him with a moan and the flush of desire mantled her beautiful face and breasts.
He sucked hard on her stiff aureoles. She bucked beneath him, and lying there on his bed, still almost fully clothed, with two layers of clothes between them, she came with a shriek of joy. As she had in the sea, she lost herself in la petite mort. Hugo looked down at his limp girl feeling a peculiar mix of pride and frustration and possessiveness.
If Leah had passed out from pleasure, he should set the scene for their bed sport. He removed her dress and underthings, patting her golden delta gently, but not making any further attempt to provoke her. He stripped off his own clothes. Naked and hard, his staff of life dripping as if she really were his mate, he went to his wall safe to retrieve her pearls from his hoard.
He had been correct. These pearls were not more beautiful than Leah's glowing skin. When he wound the long strand of beads around her breasts their pinkish overtones glimmered green against her rosy skin, and complimented her plump aureoles. Those soft nipples might themselves have been rich jewels of the orient selected to adorn. The glowing strand of pearls a mere background for their splendors.
His pearls matched the earrings bestowed upon her by her former lover. He would replace them with others of his own gifting. He looked at them and reached assessing fingers to touch them. He frowned. Whoever had given her these had loved her dearly. No matter. He would drive all memory of that lover from her heart.
He was a connoisseur of the beauties of women, but none had ever pleased him as this female had. And he had barely begun to feast upon her. A thousand years of Sarkanys stood at his back telling him to claim this woman as his plunder. A thousand years of dragons warned him that she imperiled his heart. But that was foolishness. He was no green, impetuous youngling to be bedazzled by a beautiful courtesan. He was Lord Sarkany, Eldest Dragon of his ancient lineage.
Ignoring his whispering instincts, Hugo bent over Leah's nude body and spread her legs wide with avid hands. He kissed the inside of her knee and traced curlicues of desire up to her wedge of blonde fluff with his eager tongue. She woke and roused a little. Plump hands attempted to cover herself, but he held them away and soothed her modesty with an immodest kiss.
Her petals were wet and her lower lips were dripping. He parted her with his fingers and lapped up her sweetness. Her fingers drove into his hair and gripped hard. Her breathing turned to panting as his tongue rekindled his ardent girl's desires. He had to hold her thighs still as she threatened to buck his lips off her delicious garden.
He found her own priceless pearl, a hard and straining nub in the midst of her swollen petals. He kissed it and drew it into his mouth let her feel the barest scrape of his teeth against its sensitive nerves. She screamed even louder than she had before. Her whole body stiffened, her buttocks rose off the bed, and convulsive waves spread through her.
He came up on his hands and knees to survey his conquest. His victory was absolute. Leah's face was contorted with agonized pleasure. His hand kneading her mound was enough to rocket her into another fierce climax. She was his. He would drive from her heart the memory of every other lover and make her his forever.
With no further thought, while her eyes were still closed by her explosive orgasm, Hugo drove his spear home to her unguarded center. Leah was tight and he had to thrust hard, but after one shocked gasp her tender inner muscles softened to admit him fully. She wound her long legs around his hips and met his plunging cock with joyful squeezes of her rippling passage.
The reality was better even than his fantasies. He couldn't last long with such provocation. With a bellow he came and flooded her core with his cum. Her velvety tissues convulsed and sucked up his sperm like w
ater vanishing in a desert. With all his soul he wished that he could get a fireling upon this woman and keep her as his treasure forever. He relaxed as he never did with mortals and allowed his release to tug him down into sleep.
Leah could not believe her own behavior. She had had sex with her boss. Delicious, totally uninhibited sex too. She had not thought she would enjoy a man kissing her there. Far too inmate. But she had. She had lost her mind.
And she didn't think he had used as condom either as he had promised. For the briefest instant she allowed herself to dwell on the thought of Hugo's dark haired infant at her breast. But a baby was no way to keep any man's interest. Children were people, you couldn't use one as an anchor.
She had better not be pregnant. Hugo would be very angry indeed. And possibly vengeful. If he wanted to make things difficult for her, he was rich enough to succeed. Most of all she did not want to be a single mother. That was a hard road for any woman. For an orphan it was total insanity.
He had said it couldn't happen. Maybe he had had a vasectomy? He didn't have any children as far as she knew. But she hadn't looked that hard on the internet. He was unmarried now—but maybe he had been married once and had his kids and tied himself off.
Yet even this worry did not make her want to let go of Hugo's big, sweaty body. He was sprawled over her, his sleek chest rubbing against her tender nipples with each breath. His arms held her loosely yet securely and his legs weighed hers down. She should have been angry and worried, but what she principally felt was satisfied—and loved. The bastard had made her feel safe and loved.
She fell asleep stroking the hard planes of Hugo's back. And as she drifted into sensuous dreams, the hard body lounging against her softness began to change.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Leah came floating up from a misty dream. It was pitch dark in Hugo's bedroom but they still lay entwined together. Her head was resting on his neck and she was breathing in his delicious fragrance. He smelled wonderful. Spicy and masculine and desirable. She felt great. Vigorous. Remade. She was so in love.
Dragon's Treasure (BBW/Dragon Shifter Romance) (Lords of the Dragon Islands Book 1) Page 9