But whatever it was she felt, he felt it too. Suddenly unable to keep her other hand to herself, she turned to face him and touched his shoulder.
Gian stirred under her touch. His muscles flexed, and he stared into her eyes. His gaze was intense, difficult to read. Then something in his expression shifted. Like he’d made a decision.
His gaze was again full of sharp and angry fire.
She blinked. She hadn’t seen real fire dancing in his gaze. Her imagination ran away with her. But she’d seen something there, some passion so fierce it was almost unreal to her.
Then Gian stood, tugging her along with him. And forced her to look up to meet his gaze.
“You understand that this isn’t a temporary thing. I’m not the kind of man who will let you go after I’ve claimed you.” His voice was steady, calm. But she could sense the heat beneath it. The passion. He wasn’t just saying something meaningless. When he said leaving him wouldn’t be an option, he wasn’t exaggerating. Certainly wasn’t kidding.
And yet… Something inside of her responded to it. Responded to him.
“That goes for you too,” she said by way of an answer.
His lips twisted with dark amusement. “Good.”
He’d agreed too easily. This was what he’d wanted, plain and simple. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense to her. Betting on her right now was a losing gamble. Her father had been kidnapped. On paper, Gian had no reason to want to help her. In fact, he had every reason to get rid of her.
Her father’s Capo would try to rid the world of her very existence. She had no doubt of that.
No need to remind everyone of the old Don they may have liked better. They may have more loyalty to their new leader. And there was no reason that she could fathom for Don Spadaro’s son to be willing to help her now. She had no real allies. No true friends. And as a daughter, no real way to challenge Biagio for her father’s mobster throne. As a woman, it wouldn’t be a lasting position, anyway. Even if she somehow managed to wrestle away control.
But her father was an enemy to Giancarlo. A rival to his father so fierce that they constantly challenged one another.
Helping her get her father back would likely win the good will of Don Spadaro’s son from her father. But her father simply being gone offered just as good an opportunity to overcome his old, still-settling regime.
“You’re thinking too hard. Deciding that this doesn’t make sense,” Giancarlo said, never losing his dark smile. “And you wouldn’t be wrong.”
“I can’t see what you have to gain by it. And yet, I can see several opportunities for you to lose. Lose face. Lose men. Possibly even lose positioning and power. And yet…” She shook her head, unable to put a voice to the other side of her evaluation. Something inside her chest, inside her head, even inside her gut told her that she could trust Giancarlo after he’d given her his word. But the lack of logical reasoning behind that made it difficult to believe.
“I’m not a man who breaks his word,” Gian said, voice low. A promise and a warning. “Do not doubt me. Even if you aren’t farsighted enough to understand why it was given.”
“Forgive me,” she said, dryly. “But I live in the real world. And I have a hard time understanding what the fuck is in this for you.”
“You,” he said, his voice rough. His words echoed against the stark walls around them.
“Why?” The word ripped from her, more sound than an actual question. Half of her thought that it would be better to simply shut up. Go with the flow. But she couldn’t. She’d never been able to, and that was half the problem she had in the world.
His expression softened. “Because I need you. I want you more than anything I’ve ever desired. I may not understand where this need comes from—because even I’m willing to admit that it’s far beyond anything normal—but I won’t fight it. You are a desirable woman. A smart, beautiful, challenging person. And it would be an honor to fight for you.”
The yearning that had been building in her chest rushed through her like a bolt of lightning. Gian’s expression darkened into something fierce, and then he kissed her.
He devoured her mouth like a man starving. His tongue dipped between her lips and it was all she could do to hang on for the ride.
She found herself climbing him, kissing him back with equal fervor. Her heart thundered in her chest, and heat rushed through her body.
How could this be real? After the night at the club, she’d half-convinced herself that what she’d felt that night wasn’t real. That it had been hormones. Or alcohol. Or some magical combination of those things.
She’d been lying to herself.
They tore at each other’s clothing. Buttons popped off her vintage blouse, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was him. His tongue caressing her. His hands all over her body, caressing her skin. The hard cock she could feel straining against his pants.
The back of her mind, she knew that this wasn’t normal. She wanted him more than she wanted her next breath of air. But she didn’t care. It felt like her whole life had led up to this moment.
Gian pulled her shirt off. Then her bra. She was half naked before him.
He growled at the side of her breasts, an inhuman sound. “So fucking beautiful.”
Almost roughly, he grasped one of her breasts. He massaged it and took her mouth again, then pinched her nipple gently. Then he lowered his head, taking her other breast in his mouth.
She threw her head back in pure bliss. Needing to feel him, she reached between them and gripped his hardness. Holy hell was the man well endowed.
He groaned, his mouth still against her breast. She loved that. Loved making him feel as out of control as she did.
“I need you, now,” she said. Rough, and full of need, her own voice didn’t sound familiar to her. But she didn’t care. All she cared about was Gian. Joining with him. Coming with him. Being taken by him.
“As you wish,” he murmured. Then, eyes locked on her, he stepped back and pulled off the rest of his clothing.
His naked form stunned her. Magnificent. Muscular and sexy, strong. The impressive cock that she’d only felt before stood at attention, as if reaching for her.
Then he pushed her back onto the bed and relieved her of the rest of her clothing. He kissed and touched and licked and nipped his way down her body. As if he wanted to taste every inch of her skin. And when his mouth closed over her sensitive bud, she arched toward him and cried out.
She was hot, and wet, and ready. And she tried to pull him up so he would take her. But he resisted.
“I’m not done yet,” he told her.
There was definitely something about his eyes. They weren’t right. But she didn’t care. Because his mouth closed over her sensitive clit again, and he slipped a thick finger inside of her wet heat.
The orgasm rolled over her, sharp and unexpected. He continued to lick and rub and touch her, forcing her to continue to come for him. And then his body covered hers, and he positioned his cock at her center. With one smooth motion, he took her.
The remnants of her orgasm continued to roll over her as he thrust into her body, over and over. Then she moved with him. Faster and faster. Another orgasm unfurled, racking her whole body.
With a guttural cry, he thrust into her hard. Finding his own release.
Then suddenly, he was gone from the bed.
“Are you—” The question froze on her lips. Gian was hunched over in pain, a silent scream on his lips.
“Gian!” She jumped up from the bed and reached for him. He backed up a few steps, waving her away. “What is it?”
“I don’t—” he managed.
Holy hell, she hadn’t imagined it. His eyes were reptilian, and seemed to glow in the low lighting of the room. And holy shit, what was wrong with his teeth?
Gian growled, an animalistic sound, and arched his back.
Then Gian was gone.
Domenica screamed and ran farther into the room, toward the house, even as
Gian—or what had just been Gian—expanded outward. In the chaos, she could only make out claws and teeth and scales.
The exterior wall crunched, as did the ceiling. The giant beast who’d been Gian only moments before took a few steps back, then disappeared. Leaving a huge hole in the house where he’d been.
Then, silence.
Heart thundering in her chest, Domenica wrapped her arms around herself and edged toward the new empty space where a good chunk of Don Spadaro’s house had been. The huge dragon, now safely on the Don’s back lawn, met her gaze.
5
What in the ever-loving fuck had happened to her life?
Domenica stared at her reflection in the mirror, then started automatically fixing her makeup. No matter what she faced during the rest of the night, it couldn’t hurt to have her war paint on.
Gian was a dragon. A fucking dragon. If he hadn’t looked as shocked and appalled as she was at that knowledge, she’d be royally pissed at him—hell, even the two seconds she’d stared at him in dragon form, he’d looked stunned. Well, she thought so, anyway. How did you tell with a dragon?
But still, she felt like she needed to be pissed off at someone. The trouble was, she was almost certain that Gian was as surprised by the revelation as she was. So, for this little twist of fate, she didn’t have anyone to direct her anger at.
Frustrating.
After he’d changed into the house-sized monstrosity that had broken a good chunk of his father’s house off, he’d quickly changed back into a human. That shift, at least, hadn’t seemed as gut wrenchingly painful, but he’d been so dazed and confused that nothing had been decided. Gian’s father had quickly taken charge—sending her to a new room and whisking his son away for the night.
A fucking dragon.
“Stop that,” she muttered to herself. If she allowed herself to dwell on that fact, she’d hide in the closet and never find her father.
Everything happened almost too fast to keep up. And she’d had to make a snap decision. Shit or get off the pot. Ride or die.
She wasn’t one to jump ship if things got rough, but she had to admit Gian’s revelation had shaken her. But she had agreed to marry him. And, if she was honest with herself, not just in exchange for his help in finding her father, something about him tasted like the freedom she’d always craved. Had she just tasted dragon?
She shook off the thoughts. The doubts. Gian was her family now, and she would kill for her family. Shit happened, it was time to roll with the punches. Gian would need her now more than ever, and she needed him just as badly. Her father was still out there, somewhere. She was convinced of that. If he’d been dead—no, he wasn’t dead. She felt like she’d sense it if he were.
She plucked her mascara from her bag and applied it to her lashes.
No, she wasn’t about to let anything shake her from her chosen path. But she needed to do some damage control.
And she needed to do everything in her power—limited though it was—to find her father herself.
She put her mascara back in her bag and grabbed her phone. Then she hit the number for the man she knew most likely would be loyal to her.
“Hello?” Tony said.
“It’s me.”
Tony let out a sigh—of relief, she thought. “We were worried about you. You wouldn’t believe the fucking rumor mill around here. People are saying Don Spadaro’s son is a dragon.”
“People say a lot of things. Ignore it,” she ordered. “Has anyone tracked down Giovanni yet?”
Her father’s oldest bodyguard and friend would have been the first place she’d have checked, but she couldn’t count on Biagio to have that much sense, if he was actually looking for her father at all.
“No one has seen him. I sent a couple of guys to look but he hasn’t been around since the same time your father disappeared.”
That made sense. If Giovanni hadn’t been taken or hurt when her father disappeared, he would have been the first in line to track him down. “What have you found out?”
“Biagio doesn’t trust me a hundred percent. Hell, that squirrelly bastard doesn’t trust anybody, really. But he seems frustrated about something. If he had something to do with your dad’s disappearance, then something hasn’t gone perfectly with it.”
Relief hit her like a heavy weight, and she leaned against the bathroom counter for support. Nothing so cut and dry as seeing her father for herself, or hearing his voice. But it gave her hope. And hope was a powerful thing.
“Keep me informed. Keep your eyes and ears open. And shut people the fuck up about Giancarlo.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
She hit end on the call and looked up to meet Giancarlo’s questioning gaze. Damn, she hadn’t heard him come into the bathroom behind her.
“What was that about?”
She wanted to trust him. Ached to trust him. But while she’d thrown her lot in with his, he had to understand her priorities. “That was about finding my father.”
He closed the distance between them in a flash, pressing her back against the bathroom wall. Then he stood over her, dominating her with his size and his closeness. Her mind twisted, fighting with her heart. Pissed off and weak in the knees. A frustrating combination.
“I told you to trust me to do that.” His voice was rough, as though his dragon was close to the surface.
“And I told you I don’t trust easy.” How dare he manhandle her like this. As if she were some run-of-the-mill hoe he’d picked up at a bar. Granted, they had hooked up at a bar. But that was entirely beside the point. “Besides, you’ve got your hands full right now.”
His eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about you. Or your father.”
“I haven’t forgotten about you either.” And she hadn’t. She tried to squash the rumors, hadn’t she? But she had a strong suspicion that was a losing battle. Not many men had seen Gian turn into a dragon. But it only took one. This kind of news would find its way out quickly. “I’m trying to keep this… All of this, quiet.”
As to what to actually do about it, she had no freaking clue. Dragons hadn’t been seen in decades, while they’d once been as common as any other powyrful group.
“By all of this, you mean me shifting into a dragon after fucking you?”
The air in the room shifted, changed. And suddenly, she wasn’t so sure they were fighting. “Yeah, that’s what I meant.” Her voice was off, breathless. And something in her lower tummy tightened.
He took a long breath of the air. “My sense of smell was always good. But now… Honey, you smell delicious.”
Something serpentine flashed in his gaze, reflected in the mirror, and her breath hitched.
A light knock and the awkward sound of someone clearing their throat cut between them. Gian was the first to look away, over his shoulder at the intruder.
“What?” His voice was ice.
“Your father would like to speak with you, sir.” The man didn’t stutter. One of Gian’s men, and enforcer. A brave one, at that.
Gian’s gaze turned back to her. Yes. There was definitely something decidedly less human in his eyes. It should have scared her, and while it did just a touch, her overriding emotion wasn’t fear. She yearned to reach up, nip his lower lip. See what he would do. How far she could push him.
“We’re not finished here. You will wait for me.” With that, he turned and left.
Yeah. Like she had all the time in the world for waiting.
But she did wait. Only until Gian and his father were deep in a heated conversation before slipping out the front door. A touch of guilt hit her. But Gian would have to deal with his father alone for now. She had her own father to deal with.
The cab she’d ordered waited for her outside the front gate of Gian’s family home. She slipped inside and gave him the address. Then she tugged her phone from her purse and sent Tony a text. He confirmed that he and the men he was certain were loyal to her father would be waiting.
When th
e cabbie pulled up in front of her nail salon, she handed him a couple of twenties and hopped out. Nodding when he thanked her. Then she slipped in the back. Sure enough, Tony and three other men waited for her.
Only three.
She met Tony’s gaze and understood immediately. While there might be men other than these still loyal to her and her father, these were the only ones that Tony could be certain of their allegiance. And, just as importantly, the men that he knew would be likely to follow a woman.
“I think you all know why you’re here,” she said without preamble, and the men all stood straighter, their eyes locked on her. “Biagio is no Don. And I have no doubt that he is behind the disappearance of our true Don. My father will thank you for your loyalty.”
“No offense. But you got any idea about where we go to get the Don? I mean, his thanks is all well and good. But won’t help us much if Biagio sends us downriver before we can get him back,” one of the men, a newer guy named Danny, asked. A cousin, she thought. Maybe a second cousin.
“I do have an idea.” She almost smiled at the younger man to try to reassure him. But her father never would’ve smiled at a time like this. She had to show these men that she was strong, just as strong—no, stronger—than Biagio. If they sensed one bit of weakness from her, she’d lose them. These men admired one thing—powyr.
“And what idea is that?” Danny pressed.
“Biagio is the key to this. We watch him. Other leads are being followed, but I need you guys on this one. And I need everyone to keep an eye out for my father’s bodyguard, Giovanni,” she said. She kept her voice steely, but not harsh. Trying for the cadence and tone her father used when he spoke to his men. “We push hard on anyone who might know something. Patience, until we have more information. Then, we strike.”
As one, they nodded. Agreeing to her plan.
One battle down. A war to follow.
She crept forward, feeling silly hiding behind an SUV to peer at one of her father’s restaurants across the street. She imagined that Tony—big tough guy that he was—felt even sillier.
Dragon Mob: A Powyrworld Urban Fantasy Romance (The Lost Dragon Princes Book 3) Page 5