Chosen By The Dragon (2 page)

The conference room in the hotel was filled with the din of dragon shifters talking quietly amongst themselves. The break was much needed; they’d already negotiated for six hours that day. Along the far wall was a long table filled with deli meats, cheeses, fruits, and every manner of simple hotel food that could be provided in a small town like this.

As Jacob went down the line putting together a sandwich, Timothy, a friend from a neighboring clan, came up beside him. Plucking a slice of turkey from the platter, he popped it in his mouth. He spoke around it, his words muffled and sloshy from the chewing.

“So how’d your date go last night?”

Jacob looked at him, his face pinched in annoyance. “That’s none of your business. What, are you following me now?”

“Keeping an eye on you,” Timothy said and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “As your friend. This isn’t the time to get distracted.”

Jacob rolled his shoulder to remove the hand. “I’m not distracted. It was one date.”

“One date? That’s the only time you saw this girl?”

Jacob set the plate on the table and turned to face the other dragon shifter. “You really have been following me! I’m older than you by half a century. I don’t need you babysitting me.”

“You’re in the middle of negotiations,” Timothy said, poking Jacob’s chest with a finger. “You clearly do need someone to keep an eye on you. You’ve been chasing after this girl. How you spend your nights is your business, but I see it. I see you drifting off during the talks. You missed a land grab an hour-and-a-half ago for other no reason than the fact you weren’t paying attention.”

Jacob waved a hand dismissively and turned back to the food. “They would’ve won that bid anyway.”

“No,” Timothy said, and turned Jacob back around to face him. “That bid was yours by right. All you had to do was speak and you didn’t. Because you weren’t
here.
”

“I know what I’m doing,” Jacob growled.

“You
did.
What if it had been the Drathmirs? What do you think they would’ve done with that bid? You can’t give them an inch, and right now, you’ve given them the whole mile. Your clan has more clout than mine; I can’t keep them in check. Seven of the other clans are either allied or sub-allied with them. We can’t afford to lose ground to them. Not this time. There is just too much riding on this.”

Jacob worked his jaw. Inside, he wanted to argue the point, but that was his pride talking. He knew Timothy was right. The negotiations were more important than anything he was feeling for Wendy.

“If you want to have your thing,” Timothy continued, “do it. But save it for when you’re not here. When you’re in this room, when you’re in these talks,
be
in these talks. We need you.”

Jacob looked over to Tristan, representative of the Drathmirs, and saw him glaring over at he and Timothy. “He really is a prick, isn’t he?”

“I’d say he’s a huge prick, but that would be giving him too much credit.” Timothy smiled over at Tristan, held up his pinkie finger, and waggled it at the man.

Tristan’s glare turned into a snarl and he turned away from them. Jacob and Timothy chuckled and turned back to their food.

The conversation died as they went along putting together plates of food and eating, but Timothy’s words rang in his head. These were The Negotiations. He couldn’t afford to let his mind drift. Wendy was incredible, a treasure in a sea of rotten trash, but he needed to be present during this. One misstep and the current state of things could crumble. If that happened, it’d be his fault, just because he was…

That thought stopped him. Because he was what? Even though his brain refused to form the word, to answer the question, he knew what he was avoiding: love.

Wendy and Jacob walked along the side of a mountain road. The sun had slipped behind the mountains, but it wasn’t quite dark yet. The world was devoid of the bright reds that had lit the sky just moments before and was now various shades of blue. They had a bit longer before it got dark, but Wendy wasn’t worried about it. She felt safe with Jacob.

Their shoes crunched along the gravel road. Their steps were slow, relaxed. They weren’t trying to get anywhere, just moving with the simple goal of not staying still. They drank cheap beer that had gone warm. He had a couple of extra bottles shoved into the back pockets of his jeans.

The conversation lulled, but she wasn’t worried; a comfortable silence stretched between them. In a way, it was all surreal. Who was this guy? Handsome, obviously rich. Why was he walking with her drinking cheap beer? Shouldn’t his type be in the city eating caviar or something? Even as she thought about it, though, she knew that was her own insecurity speaking. He never did or said anything to make her feel unworthy. If anything, he praised her so much that it made her doubt his intentions, as ridiculous as that sounded. Even as they walked along that quiet mountain road, however, she felt that his intention was just to walk with her and talk, to just spend time around her. That, for him, seemed enough. It was crazy. People didn’t do this and enjoy it normally. Did they? She always saw this kind of stuff as something you did because you had to. She was surprised to find she was actually enjoying it. There was no pressure, no stress. Just long, slow steps, warm beer, and the night cooling around them. She couldn’t be more content.

“So have you worked at the bar long?” he asked. It was a lame question, but she knew he was just trying to start the conversation up again. She didn’t mind so much; she liked hearing the sound of his voice.

“A few years.”

“You like it?”

Wendy shrugged and took a sip of her beer. “It pays the bills and I can work my shifts around if I need to.”

“It must be nice to have that kind of flexibility,” he said.

“It’s helpful because my mom is sick. When she needs me I can move things around and be home with her.”

“Oh,” he said, “I didn’t know. I’m sorry to hear it.”

Wendy shrugged. Her mom had been sick for so long that it was no longer a sensitive subject for her. “It is what it is. She has her good days and her bad ones. When I’m working, we have a nurse stay with her. She needs constant attention and can’t be left alone. If her heart gives out or something, someone needs to be nearby to take care of it.”

“I see. That must be rough. But you seem to be handling it alright.”

Wendy took another drink from her beer. “You get used to it after several years.”

“Years?”

“Yep. Eight years now, I think. Or nine. I don’t know, somewhere in there.”

“Wow,” he said and drank from his bottle. “She sounds like quite the fighter.”

“Oh she is. Tough as nails, that one. What about you?” she asked, nudging him with her elbow.

He smiled at the contact and looked at her from the corner of his eye. “Me? No, my family dynamic is… unique. Estranged, I think, would be the best way to put it at the moment, but even that’s not really accurate.”

“So you don’t talk to your family?”

“Not really. Once every so often, but that’s just a general check-in to see how things are. We’re all part of the family business, so that forces us to stay in contact. Other than that, there really isn’t much keeping us together.”

“That’s kind of sad,” she said. “Family’s important.”

“To some,” he said, and she knew he was intentionally trying to be cryptic.

It was strange how much she didn’t mind. She knew he was hiding things from her, but she didn’t have the feeling that it was anything major or dangerous. She trusted him. Whatever he chose to keep to himself, she was sure he had his reasons.

Even so, when she pointed to a little side path leading away from the road, she was shocked at herself. “This goes deeper into the woods,” she said. “There’s a real nice view overlooking the valley.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked. “Let’s check it out.”

They walked down the path, the road disappearing behind them through the trees. It wasn’t long before they walked along, side-by-side, deep into the forest. At the end of the path was a hill. When they crested the top, a beautiful view of the valley below spread out before them.

Wendy leaned against a tree as she looked over the land. She’d been up here a hundred times before, but it felt different standing there with him. As she looked out, she felt him press up against her from behind. It was the most they’d touched, but she found herself strangely comforted. He slid his arms around her middle, and she hugged them to her.

“It is lovely,” he said softly, his head near her own, mouth beside her ear.

“I thought you’d like it. It’s beautiful. Very secluded.”

“I noticed that, too,” he said, smiling at her.

She turned her head to face him more, and he didn’t disappoint. Jacob leaned in and kissed her. She reached a hand up into the hair at the back of his head, pressing his mouth against hers. The fervor of the kiss ramped up with every passing second. She felt him grow hard against her rear. The sensation, knowing that she turned him on this much, aroused her as well.

She pressed herself back against him, which elicited a response in him. Their breathing quickened together. His hands, once so sweetly wrapped around her middle, now began roaming the front of her body. To Wendy’s surprise, she released his arms to roam where they would. Wendy was never someone to move too quickly, but she found herself wanting him to touch her. Wanting him to take her.

As his hands found her breasts, squeezing and fondling them, she reached behind to his erection and ran her hand up and down the length of him. He groaned against her ear, his hands squeezing her breasts more firmly as she squeezed him.

“I need you,” he said.

Wendy looked up into his eyes and nodded.

His nostrils flared and he positioned her to lean against the tree. Then, lifting her skirt, he gathered it at the small of her back and pulled her panties to the side. Wendy closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against the trunk. Was this really going to happen? Was she really going to let him take her so quickly? He was like an animal.

She felt the head of him press against the wet lips of her pussy, and she realized that this wasn’t a question. Wendy pressed herself back against him to speed him inside of her. His thick head pressed in and was quickly covered in her wetness. They both moved with one another, quickly building into a passionate rhythm. Wendy moaned against the tree, her voice echoing in the empty woods.

He grabbed her hips, his fingers digging sensuously into the meat of her hips as he pulled her against him. He was not a small man by any means; his shaft stretched her with every thrust. In little time, her orgasm built inside of her. The warmth contained in her belly spread throughout her as the pleasure increased. When it reached its climax and released, she cried out with the strength of it. Her cries encouraged him even further, and he began thrusting wildly against her. The skin of her ass slapped against his hips as he slammed into her. He let out a loud groan and she felt him swell inside of her seconds before releasing. Heat exploded inside of her, and she shook, her right knee threatening to give out as he thrust inside of her with every pulse of his orgasm.

They stood for a moment, shaking, panting. When he pulled out finally, she readjusted her underwear and lowered her skirt, then leaned back against the tree trunk. In her dazed state, she expected him to get dressed, make an awkward excuse and leave her there. She was kind of looking forward to it, as that meant she could enjoy the view a bit in solitude. It really was beautiful up there.

To her surprise, he did pull his pants back up, but instead of leaving, he came over to her, leaned a hand against the tree, and smiled at her.

“By far the best guide I’ve ever had.”

Wendy laughed and reached up to touch his face. “You should try my midnight tours.”

“I’d like that,” he said, as he leaned in and kissed her.

Wendy closed her eyes and let herself become swept up in the kiss. She couldn’t believe her luck.

She’d found herself a good one.

“My clan has rights by claim!” Tristan shouted.

All of negotiations had come to a screeching halt. Jacob had almost missed his opportunity to oppose the bid as his mind drifted off toward Wendy and the time they shared together. He could still smell her, still taste the sweetness of her lips. When Tristan had spoken up, however, his memories snapped abruptly and he came to.

“Your claim is unsubstantiated,” Jacob said.

The quiet that befall the room felt oppressive. Jacob stood from his chair, and Tristan stood from his.

“No one has greater claim than I.”

“I do,” Jacob said and stepped out onto the aisle.

Tristan scowled and stepped over people he tried to force his way free of the seating and meet Jacob in the aisle. “Your clan is nothing. You’re dinosaurs.”

Jacob laughed. “Cute.”

“I wasn’t being cute!” Tristan shouted. “If you stand in our way, you will be pushed aside.”

Jacob took long strides to close the distance between he and the Drathmir. “And who will do the pushing? Hmm? You couldn’t push your way out of a wet paper bag.”

Tristan made a high-pitched screech of anger and charged at Jacob.

Suddenly, Darren stood between them, facing neither of them, with a shoulder pointed at each. “Stand down!”

“He disputes my claim,” Tristan screamed petulantly. It was a dragon shifter’s version of “he started it.”

“Be that as it may,” Darren said patiently, “stand down.” Darren wasn’t just a representative of his clan, but the head of it. The power he wielded was something to behold, and one would be a fool, mad, or both to go toe-to-toe with him. Shockingly, Tristan glared past Darren to Jacob and looked none too ready to back off just yet.

“Perhaps,” another representative said, standing from his chair, “we should place negotiations on hold for a day or two. This is not the first near altercation we’ve had, and we’ve a long road ahead of us still. Perhaps some time to cool off and regain our composure is in order.”

“I think that is a perfect idea,” Darren said. “All in favor?”

The room was full of raised hands and “Aye’s. Tristan growled as a few of his allies came beside him to turn him away from Darren. Timothy came to Jacob’s side, and together they walked silently toward the front door.

Once outside, Jacob took a cleansing breath. “That was close,” Timothy said. “I saw your eyes. You were gone again. I was worried you weren’t going to catch it in time.”

“Yeah, well, I did, so calm down.”

“Oh, I’m calm,” Timothy said, popping a grape into his mouth from the handful he held. “That little bitch on the other hand—“

The rest of his sentence was cut off by the sound of the front door opening. Tristan and his little posse marched from the place. The second he saw Jacob, his face turned down into a scowl. His friends kept ushering him along, but Jacob was sure to keep eye contact the entire time.

“I don’t like that look,” Jacob said.

“I wouldn’t turn your back on him for the next couple of days with no witnesses around. If he finds any weaknesses, he’ll pounce.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Jacob said, holding up a hand for Timothy to stop. “I get it.”