Kiss of a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 1) - Paranormal Fairytale Romance (7 page)

“It’s very clear to me, Arabella Sharp, what kind of woman you are.” He seemed to be holding his breath.

What the hell did that mean?
“Women aren’t toys, Lucian. They aren’t playthings for you to use and toss away.”

“No, they’re not.” But he was shutting down, getting quiet. And of course, he had basically kidnapped her and was holding her hostage until he got what he wanted—a mate. Maybe she was making him feel guilty about that.
Good.

“If you believe that, why not just let me go?” she asked quietly.

He was staring at his hand, the one that had fallen to rest on his thigh next to her on the bed. A strange marking was on the back of it, and it moved as she watched. Almost like it was pulsing under his skin. She didn’t know what it was, but it reminded her of all this magic she never knew existed, not really. And how she probably didn’t understand a fraction of it even now.

After a long moment, he looked up at her. “You’re right, I should probably let you go.”

She held her breath— would it be that easy? “Why don’t you?”

A flash of pain crossed his face. “If it were entirely up to me…” He was searching her face again. Then he lifted his hand, and suddenly he was touching her, stroking her cheek. She felt the rush of blood to her face and had to actively stop herself from leaning into his touch. What was he doing? And why? He dropped his hand. “You’re a good person, Arabella. I’m glad I stepped in and saved you in that alley. I won’t apologize for that. The world needs more people like you. But I
am
sorry that you were caught up in this magical world of which you have no real part. You’re the kind of person I’m supposed to protect, not draw deeper into my own personal problems.”

She’d been holding her breath the entire time, during that whole breathtaking moment of openness, but then he pulled back and put distance between them again, dropping his gaze to the tablet that had fallen, unused, on her lap.

“But the fact remains,” he continued, quietly, “that I can’t let you go without some assurance that you won’t tell the human world of our existence. Especially now that you know, at least approximately, the location of our House.”

She had already promised she wouldn’t tell. And, truth be told, helping him find a mate was a pretty small thing for her to do in repayment for him saving her life. And, as a lawyer, she could see how, once she was complicit in bringing another human to a dragon’s lair, into their magical world, it would be hard to argue that she was a victim in all of this.
She was helping him.
Maybe it was coercion; maybe not. Maybe there was a part of her that
wanted
to do this for him. Maybe it was the part that didn’t like to have unpaid debts she owed to people.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Too many times, she’d been manipulated by someone—
by a man
—into believing she
owed
him. Sex. Money. Support of some kind. That she deserved whatever he dished out if she didn’t give him what he wanted. She wasn’t that person anymore.
She wasn’t.

She opened her eyes. Lucian was refusing to look at her, just scowling, darker and darker, at the tablet. He wasn’t that kind of man, in spite of the strange situation they found themselves in—she was convinced of that. She had been tucked away in his mountain mansion for the night, vulnerable to him for hours and hours. He was impossibly strong, far more than any normal man. He could have tried any number of things. He hadn’t. And there was a deep well of something… sadness… that lay just under the power he exuded whenever he walked or spoke or flew on golden dragon wings outside his lair.

She dipped her head, trying to get his attention again. “Tell me more about this mating process.”

He flinched but didn’t look up. “Like I said, there are some complications.”

“Tell me.”

He pulled in a breath and slowly raised his head. “There’s the sealing—a magical dragon flame that binds the female to the male. It makes her body immortal like his. Quasi-immortal, at least. Very long lived. They’re bound together. If he dies, she dies.”

Male. Female.
He was using very distant language, but the pain in his pale amber eyes was viscerally close.

“That’s pretty damn intense.”

“Yes, it is. But it’s a necessary part of the sealing, in order for the bond to take. And this is why I need a female who will love me—a true love, no less. Because only through a True Love will the bond take hold. Only then will the sealing be fixed. And the sealing
must
take—she must be made immortal—for her body to endure the birthing of an immortal dragon.”

“Holy shit.” She was pretty sure her eyes were as big as they ever got.

“Indeed.” He sucked air in through his teeth, the pain on his face easing a little. “It’s a permanent, centuries-long choice. This is why it has to be the right woman, Arabella. So please, I’m very serious about wanting to find a woman who can love a man like me. This isn’t about sex, although… the sex between mates is supposed to be amazing. And pleasing my mate—well, that’s everything a dragon lives for.”

A warmth was building low in her belly. These words were working a strange magic on her body, like an incantation that said
have sex with this man right now.
She could feel her pulse throbbing with a crazy amped-up need. Was this guy for real? Were there really any men in the world who thought like this?

But he wasn’t a man. He was a golden dragon.

It was impossible, and yet here she sat with him. His eyes were intense on her face, waiting for her reaction.

She dropped her gaze to the tablet, clearing her throat and tapping with a shaky hand to bring up the WildLove app. “Well, that’s a hell of a proposition.” She swallowed and looked up when she thought she could face him. “Let’s not lead with that, okay? Let’s start with coffee.”

A glorious smile broke out on his face, and she could swear she felt the heat of it down to her core.
Damn,
this man was beautiful.

“Sounds very sensible.” His eyes were blazing at her, so she dropped her gaze again.

She tapped through the app. “It’s very simple to set up. You identify yourself as a shifter, upload a picture, put your one-liner in about what you’re looking for in a match, and then you start swiping.”

“Swiping?” he asked, leaning close again and washing that masculine scent over her. He had a touch of the mountain air on him now, plus just a hint of muskiness, probably from the exertion of taking her on a magical dragon ride around his castle. Or keep. Or lair.
Whatever.

God, the heat was pooling in between her legs. She crossed them. Then she leaned back and held up the tablet between them, a barrier between her and the gorgeous man who was wrecking havoc on her body… all without even touching her. “All right, give me your sexiest
I want to mate with you and have your dragonlings
smile.” She tapped until she brought the camera up. Then his face loomed large in front of her again, but he wasn’t looking at the camera. He was studying the bedspread. Or her legs. Or something, but he wasn’t looking her way. She opened her mouth to harass him when he slowly drew his gaze up, inch by inch, and by the time he was staring into the camera, he was giving her hot flashes between her legs that had her squeezing them tighter.

She spastically tapped the button and took about twenty shots of his smoldering hotness.
Jesus.
If that didn’t get him about a thousand matches, she didn’t know what would.

“Okay then,” she breathed out.

“I forgot to smile.” There was a dangerously sexy undertone to his voice that
forbade
her from looking at him while she fussed with the camera. If she did, her legs were not staying shut, and she’d be jumping his body in two-tenths of a second flat and embarrassing herself in the extreme. Not to mention taking an incredibly stupid risk with her heart.

“No, no, that’s… great. Great shot.”
God,
her voice was unsteady. She focused on uploading the
fuck-me-now
picture and paged through to the part where he entered a line about himself. “Okay, what do you want to say on your profile?”

“How about,
I’m interested in a strong woman who speaks her mind and wants to share her life with me?”
The hotness factor had stepped down a notch, but
good grief.

“How about
Let’s have coffee and see how it goes?
Good God, Lucian.”

“Too intense?” He was smiling now, so it was safe to look at him. Barely.

“You covered
intense
in that photo.” She shook her head and went back to the app. Swiped a few times and submitted. “Okay, you’re live.” She set the tablet in her lap and peered into his very attentive eyes. “This is how this works. If they like your profile, they swipe right. If they don’t, they swipe left. You do the same. When there’s a match, you can message them. Then we set up something from there.”

“A date?” he asked, eyes sparkling.

“Well…” She pursed her lips. “To be honest, I’m pretty sure this is a hookup app.”

“So we’re talking sex right away.” He didn’t seem put off by this.
Obviously…
he was a man.

“I thought you hadn’t done this in a while.”

“I haven’t.” He smiled a little. “But I’m not oblivious. And my House is filled with dragons for whom hooking up is a full-time occupation. Not least, my brother.”

“You have a brother?”

“Two, actually. We’re triplets.”

“Triplets?
Wow.” She didn’t know why that blew her mind. Yes, she did…
three
men on this planet as hot as the one sitting next to her? That should break some rule of equality in the universe. Too much hotness in one family. She shook her head to clear it and glanced down at the tablet.
Holy Christ.
“You’ve already got matches.” She lifted the tablet for him to see. “Well, damn. That didn’t take any time at all. You’ve got twenty women hot for you already.” She swiped up the first one and showed it to him—she was a very curvy blonde posing to show off her assets to maximum benefit.

“Right to accept. Left to reject. Correct?” he asked.

“You got it.” She watched as he made quick work of swiping through the women who had already tagged him. He hardly seemed to glance at them. By the time he had worked through the twenty, there were five more. He dispatched those as well… only he hadn’t accepted any of them. “Did you even read their profiles?” Maybe this was going to be harder than she thought. These women were
cute.
Did he want a supermodel or something? Did he need someone to make super-cute baby dragons with?

“I read quickly,” he said. “Is there a way for me to search?”

“Um… not really.” She frowned at him. What was he searching for? She tapped through the menus and brought up the options. “I’ve already entered your gender, human or shifter, and what you’re looking for, male or female. That’s pretty much it.”

“Okay.” But he took the tablet and started swiping again. It didn’t take long—he was swiping through at a furious rate. After a minute of watching him, she considered just leaving him alone with his tablet and his future-mate-picking, but then he looked up and handed the tablet back to her. “Three matches. What’s next?”

She frowned, but sure enough, he’d swiped right for three women, and all three had already messaged him, saying they were ready to hook up anytime, anywhere. Well,
yeah,
with that smokin’ hot face… then she noticed, as their profiles popped up, that they each had something in common.
Green eyes.

“What do you think?” he asked.

She was thinking that maybe he had a green eye fetish. And that it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that her eyes were green.
Nothing.
But she was kind of stalled out, and her mouth had been temporarily short-circuited from her brain.

She cleared her throat. “I’m thinking…” She looked up, and that intense look was back on his face. “I’m thinking that you should reply. Nothing too creepy. Don’t mention the mating. They obviously want to…” Her gaze drifted down to the tablet again. These women were gorgeous. And looking to get laid by a hot shifter. This was seriously their lucky day.

“They want to have sex,” he said. “Do you think I shouldn’t?”

She looked up. His earnestness was endearing. “Well, no. I mean,
yes.
You should absolutely have sex. And, you know, rock her world.” She bit her lip. This couldn’t possibly be more uncomfortable. “Just don’t show her your dragon, okay? Not right away.”

He frowned a little. “Is my dragon so awful to look upon?”

“No, it’s beautiful. It’s just… frightening as fuck.”

That gorgeous grin sprang back to his face. “Well, then. I’ll keep that part tucked away.”

She handed the tablet back to him, really hating on the part of her heart that was crumbling a little at the idea of him in bed with any one of the three women whose pictures she had just checked out. That was just Stupid with a capital S. “You should probably pick just one to start with.”

He nodded and tapped out a message to the woman. As he was still typing, the massive TV screen on the wall lit up and pinged a sound. Then it showed a video feed of some kind—a man standing before a door. He tipped his head up to look straight into the camera. “Come on, Lucian, get out of bed and let me in.”

Arabella flushed—they
were
in bed—but could this guy see them?

Lucian scowled at the TV and stood up, dropping the tablet on the bed cover behind him. “I’m otherwise engaged at the moment. And when I said
knock,
I didn’t mean hacking my security system feed.”

“Well, then don’t leave loopholes in your system, bro.” The man smirked up at the camera, and Arabella could see the family resemblance immediately—same chiseled cheeks and crazy-sexy smile, although his was more sly and less intense than Lucian’s. His eyes were blue instead of amber, but they were definitely related. “We can discuss your completely inadequate security measures another time. Zephan is here. And he wants to see you.”

Lucian’s scowl darkened. “I’ll be right down.” He flicked his finger at the TV screen, and it went dark. Then he glanced at the tablet. “We’ll have to continue this later.”