But now Lucy had pulled away, and she was flushing in the most attractive manner. “I must be crazy,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.
She looked so cute and bashful suddenly. Jack found it endearing. It was a far cry from the angry woman who had so justifiably accosted him upon learning she was kidnapped, but he found he liked these little shifts and endearing betrayals of insecurity. She was tough and feisty and she was also adorable. He held her just a little tighter, and she seemed to melt in his arms. They did fit perfectly together.
“Maybe kissing is good for the egg?” Jack said, his suggestion barely above a whisper.
“Maybe it is,” Lucy replied, and breathed in just as Jack kissed her back.
This kiss wasn’t chaste. He didn’t let go. He held the egg with one hand, cradling it to his chest, and wrapped his other arm around her as she threw her arms around his neck. It was a little awkward with all shifting around at first and then they were joined at the mouth, their lips sliding together. Lucy tasted like cinnamon and Jack couldn’t figure how that could be but it made sense to him. Sweet yet fiery. Her tongue licked at his and he groaned into her mouth.
He both heard and felt her little moan in response and it went straight to his cock and he wanted her. He wanted her so badly, he felt a kind of static in his brain.
This woman, he thought. This woman…
But then she was pulling away, her eyes darting around the room.
“I-I didn’t…” She licked her lips. “That was for the egg!”
She looked at him in all seriousness with narrowed eyes. He had a sudden urge to burst into hysterical laughter. She was a complete kook, this girl. It was incredibly endearing to him. He found himself utterly charmed.
He grinned, his tongue between his teeth. He made no move to hold her again and let her cradle the egg in both hands as she gazed up at him with wide eyes, as if she couldn’t believe herself or him.
“That was for the egg?” He asked softly, his voice sounding like they’d already slept together and just woken up in each other’s arms. He saw her sway a little on her feet. She had the sharp and refined features of a classically beautiful woman. She was statuesque and blonde and blue-eyed, with legs up to there. She was an absolute vision. And right now she was simply adorable, her mouth parted, her big blue eyes blinking. She looked dazed.
“Yes,” she whispered. “For the egg.”
He was getting to her. He took one little step closer. “What else should we do for the egg?”
“Oh…” She licked her lips and seem to shake herself into reason. “The book said you should shift and curl up around it. I can’t. Because...because I can’t shift. Because...because-”
“Because you’re not a dragon,” Jack said.
So adorable, he thought. He had not expected that.
“Right,” Lucy murmured.
“Okay,” Jack said, nodding.
Whatever you want, he thought. Just stay here. Be safe and be with me.
Jack shifted again and this time he curled up like a cat. He didn’t miss her happy smile at what was probably an awkward sight; a big scary dragon cuddled on the carpet. She set the egg in its blanket and nestled it between his tail that wrapped around him and his flank, the glow of his fire shining through his scales.
Jack rarely ever shifted just to sit around as a dragon. But he found himself quietly comfy now with the egg sitting there, as his fire kept it good and warm. It surprised him when Lucy sat on the floor and leaned against him, his breathing making her move slightly every few seconds. She looked good sitting there, he thought, cuddled up against him with his egg. She looked like she belonged there. He found himself wanting her to stay.
10
Lucy
The thing about Lucy was that as angry as she had been at Jack, she also understood anger in other people. Anger, to Lucy, was the most relatable type of emotion. She casually took it on and off like a jacket in spring. She’d grown up in a house where people yelled and then joked around seconds later. To Lucy’s mind, getting mad was just a step towards friendship. As much she’d always hated Jack, or done a decent job of convincing herself she hated him, once she’d pitched a fit at him for being dumb enough to think kidnapping her to save her life was a good idea, she’d felt closer to him. It was all just part of getting to know someone to her mind.
When he’d left, she’d collapsed on the bed. He’d gotten so angry so abruptly that he’d scared her for a second. But she knew grief when she saw it. Whoever Sean was, he’d been important to Jack. And he’d only just died. Somehow, Lucy’s life had mattered to him too. She didn’t know why. Maybe he was just a decent guy after all. But she’d found herself sorting through her feelings while he was off taking care of his casino and coming around to the inevitable conclusion that maybe Jack Damon wasn’t a douchebag after all. It had been a startling revelation.
She had been thinking about that and then she examined the egg which had lightened in color. So she’d rubbed the egg in olive oil like Jack had said and then read over all the information in the notepad twice. It had all fascinated her. It was either an insane delusion or it was real. Either way, it was something to occupy her mind. She’d set the egg back under its heat lamp and then taken a nap, only to wake up and stumble on that dragon book out of nowhere. The book had really changed everything. It was convincing, kind of funny and informative. She learned all about dragon shifters and the care of eggs.
By the time Jack had returned, she was too fascinated by it all to stay angry.
And now… Now she didn’t know what she was.
But she was starting to think she was into Jack Damon. That was a disaster. She couldn’t think of anything worse. He’d always been horribly attractive. She’d never been able to deny that. Yet attraction and interest were two different things. But then he was opening up, being vulnerable, showing that he understood and genuinely seemed to want to keep her safe… That was not to mention that he’d turned into a damn dragon. She felt like she was falling and she didn’t know how to get back up again. Jack’s bedroom eyes and bedroom voice didn’t help either.
Now she woke up, blinking slowly and finding herself cuddled up with a dragon. She and Jack had fallen asleep. At some point, she had moved and ended curled up with the egg, atop Jack’s tail as she half-hugged his flank, soft 80s rock playing in the background. It was unexpectedly warm and cozy, even considering the scales. Jack wasn’t soft exactly, but he had enough give. He was nice for napping on. Now she hopped to her feet, blushing and feeling ridiculous as Jack stirred. She grabbed the egg which was a bright navy blue now and seemed to have a very nice sheen happening. She felt like that meant it was particularly pleased. The book had said a “sheen” was a very positive sign.
Jack’s great dragon head lifted from where it had been resting atop his front feet and he turned to look at her. The sight of a very fierce-looking black and silver dragon blinking sleepily was too funny and Lucy giggled and saw him smile softly (for a dragon). She grabbed the egg and trotted back upstairs to put it in its box under the heat lamp.
There was something about the expression on his dragon’s face that made her pause. His best friend had died. He’d reacted...poorly. Kidnapping was not ideal. Yet it had been with the best of intentions. Now he was looking after his best friend’s child and keeping one of his showgirls safe from getting murdered.
Jack was a good guy. She found her heart aching a little as she made her way back downstairs. If she were honest with herself, she’d often mistaken a nice demeanor with a nice person. It wasn’t hard to misread people. She’d misread Jack all along.
And that kiss…
Her heart was pounding as she walked back downstairs. She knew what was about to happen. She wanted it to happen. She found herself wanting it to happen so badly, her throat felt tight with the tension of it possibly not happening. What if he was sorry he kissed her? He was a powerful man. What if she was just a nothing showgirl to him, what if-
; “I’m sorry I kissed you,” Jack said. He had shifted abruptly and now he stood before her, looking like he was apologizing for murdering her puppy.
“I kissed you too,” she said, only now remembering that minor detail.
“I’m just saying, I’m not trying to take advantage of…” Jack Damon sputtered. His hands flailed a little as he tried to get his point across. She had never seen him so uncertain. Jack Damon was never uncertain. He was a confident, strong, powerful dude. He knew what he wanted, and he took it. It was something she’d envied about him and it had also attracted her. But this Jack who actually seemed afraid that the cute showgirl would turn him down made her want to take him right now.
“I know that,” she snapped. “Jesus.”
Jack looked mildly hurt at that and she only laughed before darting forward and throwing her arms around him again, kissing him soundly. For all his talk about being “sorry,” Jack responded in kind. His mouth was hotter and firmer than it had been before when the kisses were slow and sweet. Now they were going at each other, a little desperate and wild. Jack’s arms wound around Lucy and he walked her backward and up against the thick glass wall that looked out onto the gardens. She bit at his bottom lip and felt him smiling against her mouth and the promise of that smile made her throw her head back, so he moved to tongue-kiss her throat.
“Jack, please,” she whispered. “Please…”
She felt overheated. She scrambled to take off her cardigan, under which she was just wearing a thin white t-shirt and at the simple sensation of his hands, hot on her back though that thin fabric, she sighed, wanting more. He nibbled at her neck and she pulled him closer, feeling him hard against her. She realized now there had always been this tension between them. It was why she’d hated him whenever she’d looked across a room and seen him there, a king among men who made desire well up in her whenever their eyes met. She’d wanted to hate him so badly, she’d almost managed it.
She wasn’t managing it well now.
Lucy sighed and tugged Jack’s hair and he growled and pulled at her shirt. She pulled back again and stripped it off. He looked her up and down before pressing in to slide his hot hands up the plains of her tight dancer’s stomach and palm her breasts through her bra. She felt his cock, big and hard now through his trousers as he pressed into her and she moaned at the friction of it. He snapped off her bra with ease and she slipped it off, yelping when he pinched her nipples.
“Take off your shirt,” she whispered, “Jack…”
He nodded, breathless, and complied. She found herself grinning like one of those tourists when their slot machine hit a jackpot.
Jack was hot. She’d always known it but his pecs swelled under her hands and his tight abdominal muscles rippled as he looked at her with the fire of his dragon in his eyes.
“Get on the floor,” he said in that bedroom voice. He bit his lip ever so slowly and said, “Please.”
Shit.
Lucy obeyed and slinked down the floor and then he was crawling on top of her, his eyes fixed on her as if searching for the slightest sign that this was too much.
“Jack,” she said, smiling softly, “I’m saying yes. Take me. Please.”
“Okay.” Jack smiled at her rather mischievously and she wondered what that meant until he was sliding her pants off and mouthed at her through her panties as she arched her body, gasping in surprise.
Lucy loved this. It was just about her favorite thing in the bedroom. She hadn’t met many guys who seemed to enjoy it themselves as much as they wanted it on their end. But now Jack’s hot tongue was licking at her through the thin bit of lacy fabric as he gently pushed apart her thighs, attempting to hold her still on the floor. He teased her like that for a while, raking his teeth and then licking again and she was wet enough to almost be embarrassed as she clenched her fists, trying to contain her moans of both pleasure and frustration.
“Jack…” Her voice shook as she tried to speak with not too much success. “Jack, please…”
Jack ever so slowly slipped down her panties and when he thrust his tongue inside her with abandon, Lucy bucked her hips so hard she threw him back a little and he laughed, turning his head to lick and suck at the inside of her thigh. She flushed, her cheeks burning. But she was too turned on to be very embarrassed.
“You taste good,” Jack whispered. “You taste so fucking good…”
His tongue plunged inside her again and she cried out, spreading her legs farther apart to encourage him, feeling wanton as she lay there, naked on the carpet with Jack Damon’s tongue buried in her. He licked and sucked at her clit then, and she had always been exceptionally sensitive and now she shook and screamed, trying not to kick him by accident or throw him off.
“No, wait,” she said, her voice quavering. He stopped abruptly and looked up at her with red, swollen lips. “I want you,” she whispered. “I want you, please…” She knew herself. She was already right on the verge of coming. She felt tense with it as if she were holding it off with every bit of strength and he leaned down to stroke her cheek and kiss her gently on the lips.
“Long as you feel good, sweetheart,” he whispered.
“Please,” she murmured.
Jack nodded and he scrambled to get out of his pants and his box-briefs. When Lucy saw his cock, she threw her head back and laughed, absently reaching up to rub her own breasts and pressing her legs together.
“Not very encouraging,” Jack said darkly. His cock jutted out, a long thick, pink member aimed right at her.
“I knew you’d have a big cock,” she mumbled, giggling into her hand. She squirmed and nudged him with her foot. “Of course Jack Damon has a big cock. You asshole.”
“Still an asshole, huh?” He hovered over her, giving her that shit-eating Jack Damon grin that had probably given him everything he’d ever wanted (or nearly).
“Only a little,” she said, reaching up to run her hands along his thick biceps, his broad shoulders. He covered her mouth with his and simultaneously pressed her knees apart and slid inside her. The surprise of it made her gasp into his mouth and then she froze; his cock so thick and full in her that she found herself hovering right on the precipice of a bliss she’d never felt before.
Jack rocked into her and then he rested his palm against her cheek, meeting her eyes. It was not the furious type of hot sex she had anticipated. Now he slowed down and she only trembled more as her ecstasy was drawn out while he looked at her with a soft expression, his mouth turned up a little and his eyes wide. He looked at her as if he actually saw her; the woman who had been at this rough Vegas game for what felt like too long but who still loved it, and the young girl who had a dream, and the vulnerable woman who just wanted somebody to lean on sometimes, and the girl who got pissed when she was done wrong. He seemed to see all of it. It was terrifying and yet when she looked back at him, she saw him too as he filled her. She saw this strange dragon-man who’d built himself an empire and still didn’t seem very happy and who was a magical and dazzling creature and somehow didn’t seem to know how special and deeply kind he was, even given his predilection for kidnapping.
“Jack,” Lucy whispered. “Jack… Ah…”
He pressed deep inside her and they both froze, shaking like two little leaves, staring at each other with wide eyes. She felt like she was floating, like the two of them were one person now and without him moving again she felt a kind of white-hot pleasure she’d never known before overwhelming her entire body and Jack shouted, burying his mouth in her neck as he pulsed inside. She felt his heartbeat alongside hers and she held him, the two of them entangled as they came together until they were finally still again.
11
Jack
Jack didn’t want to move. He was naked and curled up around the body of a beautiful woman with whom he’d shared an actual connection. He wasn’t even sure how that had happened. He put it down to some unholy combination of the crazy circumstances of them being together and looking after the egg and
Lucy being, in general, an endearingly kooky woman. He found he liked that about her. She was unpredictable but charmingly so. When he’d looked into her eyes, his cock buried deep inside her, he’d seen her in a way he’d never seen anyone. It was as if he were looking straight into her soul. He’d felt seen too. Then they’d fallen asleep. He was a little afraid he had imagined that moment of perfect connection, that communion of souls. If she hadn’t felt it too, he wasn’t sure he’d get over it any time soon.
His phone was buzzing as he mulled over everything that had just happened between them and he groaned, gently disentangling himself from Lucy. His phone was in his pants pocket and he rolled over and grabbed the trousers, fumbling as he dug the phone out. A cluster of slots was down at the casino. He had to go talk to the guy who didn’t want to come down because he was busy with something or other…
Perfect.
Jack put his pants on and his gaze slid over to Lucy, now curling up right there on the carpet, the heart of her perfect ass tempting him awfully. He needed to go attend to stupid hotel shit. He wanted to stay here with the girl who had looked inside him and seen him. He wanted to dance with her and the egg and pretend for a moment that he had a real family.
Instead, he sighed heavily and got to his feet before picking up Lucy in his arms. She stirred but only hummed happily, resting her head on his chest as he carried her out and up the stairs, back to her room where he pulled back the blankets, laying her down gently before pulling them up again.
“Oh shit,” he muttered and went back to his own room to retrieve Lucy’s phone which had been charging by his bedside. He felt like a jerk now for having taken it in the first place and he ran back to Lucy’s room, leaving the phone on her nightstand where she’d see it when she woke up.
He paused and looked at her sleeping there, a soft little smile on her face.
Vegas Baby Dragon Page 8