Rising Dragons Omnibus

by Ophelia Bell

  Geva was already standing by the office window when she made it down. She paused in the doorway for a second, taking him in. “Wow, you really aren’t screwing around, are you? Did Benjamin help?”

  “I can dress myself, you know,” he said with mock offense, but lowered his eyes and then smiled and nodded. “I called him when you abandoned me to my own devices. The suit was Warik’s—father’s would be too small and the one I bought last week was…not suitable for wearing after this morning.”

  “And the hair…?” Erika gestured wide-eyed at the now short-cropped russet hair on his head. It was a far cry from the tousled red mane she was used to.

  Geva self-consciously ran a hand through his gelled hair, causing it to rise into spikes. He grimaced at his hand and tugged a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe off the sticky residue. “I want to look professional. Serious. This is important. Rowan is important.”

  Erika smiled and stepped closer to comb her fingers through his hair, straightening it with a few swipes. “And green eyes, too,” she said, peering up into his eyes that were normally a dull brown. “Be still my heart.”

  “Mother’s color. It seemed right to honor her in some way when I’m about to appeal to her successor for help.” His gaze lingered on hers, perhaps seeking approval.

  Even in high heels she still had to stand on tip-toe to kiss him. She caressed his cheek and gave him a swift peck, pulling away before she could get sucked into the passionate whirlwind that was their sex life. She had work to do. Not her favorite kind of work, but perhaps even more important.

  She took a deep breath and turned back to the desk, mentally preparing herself for the posturing and competitive volley she knew would happen once she was face-to-face with Corey.

  Too big for his britches, she thought before reprimanding herself. If anything, her old friend’s new role seemed to agree with him. He was finally in charge of a group of people who had to do what he told them. A rather large group, at that, comprising the entire tech team of the Aris Technical Corporation the new Queen was CEO of.

  With a swipe of the mouse, the wide, flat monitor of her computer came to life, the camera scanning her features and logging her in via facial recognition. The video conference app activated from her vocal command, transferring her desktop along with her figure to one half of the massive flatscreen on the office wall. The outline of an anonymous avatar was displayed in the inactive half of the call.

  “Jesus, your parents didn’t fuck around with tech,” Erika commented.

  “Mother was always ahead of the trends, particularly if she could make money with them, but it was Benjamin who did all this. Part of Mother’s final instructions to him.”

  “Dial Aris Tech,” Erika said out loud. Geva came around to her side of the desk and stood within the camera’s wide frame just behind her. Her skin tingled at the brief, delicate warmth of his fingertips through the thin fabric of her blouse when he brushed her hip. She caught a glimpse in the widescreen of both of his hands starting to reach for her then clench into fists before he shoved them deep into the pockets of his trousers.

  A terse, female voice answered. “Good morning, Aris Technical Corporation. How may I direct your call?”

  “Hayden Antiquities calling for Mr. Monaghan.”

  “Thank you. One moment.”

  A split second later, Corey’s handsome, smirking face appeared, filling the void in the other half of the screen. “Somehow I knew it would be you, Erika. Geva. And judging from the getup, this is a business call, am I right?” He eyed them both from the top down.

  Erika hadn’t known quite what to expect, but the last thing on her list was the sight of Corey in a suit and tie, seated comfortably in what looked like the corner office of a skyscraper. The late afternoon vista of the Boston Harbor out Corey’s expansive windows caused a fresh pang of homesickness to twist in her belly. She quickly gathered her wits.

  “You in a tie. Wow, Racha’s really turned you around, hasn’t she? Nice view.”

  Corey chuckled. “It’s my job to look the part for clients, but since it’s just you…” He stood and slipped out of his jacket, loosened his tie, and rolled up his shirt sleeves. “That better?” His bright smile caused the corners of his eyes to crinkle attractively, the only remnant that showed his age. All in all he actually looked younger and more at ease than usual. He leaned forward onto the desk, an expectant look on his face. Somehow he still looked slightly amused at receiving the call.

  “Spit it out,” he said.

  “Geva and I would like to formally submit our petition to—ah—assemble the Verdanith.”

  Corey nodded solemnly. “Geva probably knows that as the Queen’s proxy I have to ask you a few questions. But we can save some time if you just answer one. Why?””

  “Jesus, Corey. What do you think? I’ve been in the field for years. My time’s running out. I want to carry on my father’s legacy.”

  “Hunting for things that don’t exist? No offense, Geva.”

  “No! I want to…” She swallowed. She’d never had issues lying to get what she wanted, but this particular excuse lodged in her throat. “I want a… a daughter to carry on Dad’s legacy.”

  “I knew it!” Corey sat back in his chair, then pointed at her. “But I don’t believe you. The others I believed. Hallie was obvious. Would you believe Camille wants to see if it’ll give her twins? One from each of them. Dimitri made the best case—honoring his brother, of course.”

  Erika blinked in surprise that bordered on humiliation. They had all called already? “What about Kris and Issa?” she asked dumbly.

  Corey waved his hand dismissively. “They don’t really need it, as much magic as they have between them. Kris still called as a courtesy.”

  Geva’s voice broke through behind her. “Prismatics have never had the same fertility issues as the rest of us.”

  “Ah, is that it?” Corey asked. “I wondered. But as much as I love you two, Racha—the Queen, I mean—well, she doesn’t trust you, Geva. I think she irrationally mistrusts Reds in general and there’s no talking her out of it.”

  “Her father was a Red,” Geva grumbled.

  “Does she trust me?” Erika asked, irritated.

  “Alone, yes. But as a couple she naturally assumes Geva’s the one in control. I tried to convince her otherwise, but...” He shrugged.

  “So, convince her! You have her trust, and you trust me, don’t you, Corey?” Erika asked, growing agitated at his flippant attitude.

  He grabbed a baseball off his desk and started tossing it into the air and catching it. Erika got the feeling he enjoyed having the upper hand for a change and wondered if he’d secretly hated having to answer to her since working together. But he still had to answer to Racha.

  Corey caught the ball and held it. His expression grew more serious when he looked at her. “I won’t lie to you, Erika. I know you and I think it’s a huge stretch asking me to believe that you ever wanted kids. If Geva really was the alpha in your relationship I might, but look at the two of you.” He gestured toward them.

  Shit. He was right. They hadn’t thought this through very well at all, had they? Given Geva’s intense personality, he might have been able to convince Corey if they’d spoken one-on-one. But Erika had already blown it merely by taking the initiative, something that was second nature to her.

  Geva seemed to sense her agitation and shifted closer. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and smoothed one palm up her back. The touch calmed her, but she was out of ideas.

  Corey’s smirk returned, mischievous now and entirely infuriating. “I’ll throw you a bone. Convince me you want it and I’ll tell the Queen.”

  “How the fuck am I supposed to do that if you know me so well already?” Erika snapped. “Jesus, Corey, after everything we’ve been through, do you have to hold out on me like this?”

 
; With a raised eyebrow, Corey glanced past Erika at Geva, his expression seemed to ask, “Is this is what you have to deal with?”

  “He can’t lie to the Queen, you know that,” Geva said. “If he doesn’t believe what he tells her, she’ll know.” His hand had drifted down her hip and squeezed comfortingly. The firm touch was just enough to send a pleasant warmth into her core.

  Erika sighed. “I know. What do you suggest, Corey?”

  “Well, you could tell me what you really want with it. You always have an ulterior motive when it comes to hunting for ancient treasures, after all. Or…Convince me you want the pieces reunited for the stated reason, the same reason all the others want it to happen. To help you get pregnant.”

  “I can’t do that. Not if my word isn’t good enough.” She knew better than to try, even. He was so good at reading her, if he even caught her in a lie…

  “Oh, I think you should at least try. You know I’m from a big family. You’ve even met some of them. I have…” He held up a hand, counting his fingers. “Six nieces and six nephews. Kids are amazing. Believe me, Racha and I want this to happen as much as the rest, but it has to be unanimous among the Court before it has a chance of being approved by the Council. Tell me you never even thought about it. Not once when that huge Red’s cock was buried inside you. Tell me it never crossed your mind to share something that profound with him in the last six months.”

  Geva’s touch had grown distracting, the heat of his caress against her back sinking into her skin as deeply as Corey’s words into her mind.

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying show me how much you want it. Let me see the intent for myself.” He began unbuttoning his shirt.

  When it was halfway open, displaying the dark hair on his muscular chest, he pulled it apart. The large, green emblem etched into his left pectoral glowed slightly.

  He leaned forward and touched the glowing dragon mark, his expression fierce and intimidating. “This is what it looks like when you’re trying like hell to make it happen. When you’re primed and willing. Show me yours.”

  “Show you my mark? Now?” Hers never glowed except right as she orgasmed. The glow never lingered.

  “Yeah,” he said with a devious smile. “I showed you mine…”

  Geva’s lips nuzzled against her ear. “Show him, love.” He had one hand gripping her hip, the other splayed across her stomach with his thumb casually caressing the side of her breast. “If I tease you enough, we can make him believe it,” Geva whispered. When he pressed his steel-hard length against her backside she was done for.

  “Oh, God. Alright, alright.”

  Corey sat back with a self-satisfied smirk. “And go slow, if you don’t mind.”

  She glared at him. “Am I looking at the same man who refused to believe, or even participate in the ritual until he had no other choice?”

  “Call me a convert. Either way, I guess I just have a thing for getting spun up just before I go see my girl. Not that I need the incentive of course… Racha just likes it if I’m especially needy. Come on, I’ve seen you two going at it a few times already. Make it worth my time. And trust me, I will know if you’re faking it.”

  “Christ,” Erika muttered, but she’d already begun to glaze over from Geva’s attentive touch that had moved from teasing caresses below her breast, to a hand slipping inside her blouse and fingers squeezing her nipple.

  He pushed her hair aside and nipped at the column of her throat. He tugged the hem of her skirt up and slipped one hand beneath it from behind, rumbled a deep sound of interest at the sparse strip of lace he encountered before sliding his fingers between her legs.

  “You and your panties. I wish I could see you in these and nothing else,” he murmured behind her.

  Erika moaned as he deftly worked her clit between his fingertips. She bent forward, bracing her hands on the surface of her desk. She met Corey’s eyes in the video.

  “Fuck you, Corey.”

  “Oh, you must hate this, but trust me I’m doing you a favor. All it takes is wanting it just enough.”

  She caught a glimpse of her own captured video feed, as it displayed her flushed cheeks and her teeth biting hard against her lower lip while Geva attended her from behind. He still watched over her shoulder with his hand between her legs.

  He stopped stroking her abruptly and grinned, then reached around her waist and yanked at the front of her shirt. The tiny red buttons flew off and her blouse hung open. He grasped the edges of her lacy bra and tugged down, letting her full breasts spill over the top.

  “He wants a show,” he rumbled, tugging mercilessly at her nipples until she pressed her ass back against his erection.

  “That’s right I do,” Corey said.

  Erika watched the monitor distractedly, half aware of both sides of the exchange, but not quite comprehending either enough for anything to register. Only Geva’s hands on her skin and his breath in her ear mattered to her.

  “Get rid of the skirt,” Corey said in a thick voice. He took a long swallow from a glass of water and scooted forward in his chair. He hadn’t buttoned up his shirt and Erika fixated on the glowing emblem on one side of his chest. All it takes is wanting it just enough. How much was enough?

  She didn’t argue when Geva unzipped her skirt and shoved it down off her hips. Her panties went next, leaving her only in her destroyed blouse and dislodged bra.

  “Tsk tsk,” Corey said, catching a glimpse of her mark just above her pubic bone. “I don’t see it glowing. You’re going to have to do better than that. Much better.”

  “You like getting off to watching me squirm, is that it?” she asked.

  He raised both hands. “Hey, no getting off on this side of the call. I’m just waiting for you to prove yourself. You want some help? Maybe the idea of your Red’s hot, potent spunk shooting into your wet snatch and taking root will get you hot enough to want it. He looks virile enough. It’s just the stupid magic that keeps him from knocking you up. How many times have you fucked him already? I know for a fact none of you bother with birth control anymore. Doesn’t it excite you just a little bit to feel like you’re throwing caution to the wind every time? That it might just happen but you don’t really care because dragon law says you can’t if you don’t want it enough.”

  God, he knew her well. And she did feel that way, now that she watched Geva quickly strip behind her. He gleamed a little redder than usual and her pussy clenched in anticipation. He would shift completely if she asked him to, but she wanted his hands on her still, his lips against her throat. And most of all she wanted that beautiful cock buried in her. Fucking her.

  It might have occurred to her to put a condom on him once after they left the Temple, but the truth was she had always enjoyed the thrill until the other day when he’d first broached the topic of actually conceiving. Now that the idea was a pure and present concept hanging between them she felt hotter, needier than she ever had.

  “That’s right, Erika. He hasn’t even made you come yet. You do want it, don’t you?”

  She tore her eyes away from the image of Geva behind her, and the distraction of his reverent kneading of her ass. She shuddered when he pressed his cock between her creamy folds and slid in deep.

  She looked back at the screen in a daze. Corey’s eyes were fixed on a location at the lower edge, near the desk. She followed the direction of his gaze and saw herself in disarray, bent over the desk, breasts pushed up obscenely high and hard nipples pointing directly at the camera. But below all that was her mark, glowing bright, neon red and pulsing with each thrust of Geva’s cock deep into her.

  “Oh, that’s right you fucking stud. Fuck her good. Sink that shaft into her hard. Make sure it goes deep so all your hot come gets up inside her.” Corey bit his lip and clenched his brow, his eyes now watching Geva’s fingertips dance over Erika’s clit, halfway o
bscuring the embarrassing brightness of her mark.

  She wondered with the tiny part of her brain that was coherent whether Geva had noticed, but decided she didn’t really care. She loved him, she wanted him, and she wanted more than anything to have something even more tangible to prove everything she felt, and to prove to herself that her life had some meaning beyond her work. That something beautiful and real could come out of the depth of feelings they shared, the all-consuming passion that gripped them in moments like this, would be a miracle.

  “Yes,” she whispered, and then moaned at the deep thrust of his cock and the way the thickening, ridged head of it rubbed along the sensitive walls of her tight channel. He paused at the apex of his passage and their eyes met in the video reflection in the widescreen above them.

  Geva’s brows drew together in confusion, and then he saw the glowing mark above the dark triangle of hair between her thighs. He buried his head against her neck, inhaling the scent of her hair and skin like he always did, but this time he let out a slight laugh combined with a moan and began fucking her in earnest.

  “You want this?” he asked, sounding almost like he didn’t believe her. “You want my seed to grow, you want…my child?”

  “Oh, baby. I didn’t think I did, but I do. I do. Fuck me harder. Make it happen.”

  Geva growled behind her, the urgency of his thrusts growing more intense. His skin seemed white hot against hers. He gripped the back of her neck and pushed, forcing her to bend further over the desk until her cheek was pressed flat against the polished antique wood, her breasts squashed against the blotter that protected the surface. She reached hands out to grip the edges, and darted a look at the desktop monitor that was still just within sight the way she had her head tilted. The monitor still displayed the images that were reflected in the widescreen above them. She smiled when she saw Geva’s half-shifted form behind her, his eyes glowing red and his skin erupting into jeweled scales. His huge horns cast shadows against the wall behind him. He was magnificent like this. And he was hers.