High House Draconis Box Set

by Riley Storm

She was getting tense now just thinking about it. There had been a tension before, between them, and the kiss had confirmed that. Although Olivia knew she’d done the right thing in stopping it when she had, there was a part of her that had wondered “what if”.

  “So,” she said, leaning forward onto the table, squeezing her elbows together slightly to increase her cleavage. “Just why did you want to invite me to lunch?”

  Aaric hesitated. Visibly. That was incredibly unlike him and made her wonder if he was going to deviate from his original answer, whatever it might have been.

  “As I said. I felt bad about last night. It’s not normally in my character to leave anyone waiting when I say I will be somewhere at a certain time. I wanted to try and make it up to you.”

  “Well that’s sweet of you,” she said, giving him a big smile, trying to appear friendly.

  “If you say so,” he added with a laugh. “I just felt it was proper.”

  “Proper,” she said, rolling the word around her mouth and off her tongue. “That seems like a fitting word for you. Very proper. Except when you’re in a parking lot sticking your tongue in a woman’s mouth.”

  It was the most direct she’d gotten yet.

  Aaric, for his part, covered up a sudden coughing fit that appeared to have overtaken him. Olivia just remained as she was, leaning forward, watching him like a hawk. Eventually, he recovered and straightened.

  “Yes, well, about that…I, ah…”

  “You’re rattled,” she said, slightly shocked herself. “I didn’t think that was possible. You seemed so calm, so suave and composed. What’s going on?”

  Aaric’s eyes settled on her with a weight that surprised her. “I could ask you the same thing.”

  She was the first to look away, unable to stare into those strangely golden circles for long. Not when they were boring into her with such gravity behind them, at least. How did he do that? How did he manage to make his eyes look older than the rest of him by a good amount, as if they had seen this scenario play out hundreds of times over a life she could never imagine?

  A shiver ran through her body at the accuracy of her thought. That was exactly what it felt like. An old soul in a rather youthful-looking body then?

  “Well, last night I was the one who was rattled,” she explained. “Today, I’m not.”

  “I’ll give you that,” Aaric admitted. “You seem laser-focused on one thing today.”

  Her cheeks grew warm. Olivia knew she was blushing. Him calling her out on her forwardness wasn’t how she’d imagined things going today. Weren’t men supposed to enjoy this sort of attention? Why was Aaric rejecting her advances?

  Maybe he never truly was interested in you…

  “You seemed focused enough on it, last night,” she fired back, using her anger, letting it fuel her.

  There was something else going on here, something she couldn’t figure out. Where did his sudden change of attitude come from? Aaric was holding back, it was obvious. Last night, if she’d let him, he probably would have taken her right there in the parking lot.

  More than her face grew warm at that thought. Of Aaric’s big hands grabbing her waist, bending her over the hood of her car, the metal warm on the summer’s eve. He’d have hiked up her dress, exposing her to him in the most primal of ways.

  Her mouth grew dry as thoughts continued to fill her head. The sound of his zipper as he undid his pants. The pressure on her lower lip as she bit it in anticipation of what was to come, knowing it was going to happen, but not knowing when, unable to see as he lined himself up.

  Then the first touch, the sensation of his cock against her opening, covered by the barest hint of fabric, soaked through already, betraying her arousal to the man she’d just met. The man that was going to have his way with her in public. It was incredibly exposing and raw, and just the imagery alone had her insides pulsing with a need.

  A need that Aaric didn’t seem at all inclined to be fulfilling just then, much to her clit’s dismay. It craved his touch, his fingers, mouth and tongue, or even just the increased pressure from his cock as it filled her from the inside. Any or all of it would give her just what she wanted. What she needed.

  “I won’t say last night was a mistake,” Aaric was saying, she realized. “But I did not think it through. I just sort of…went with it. Though I don’t have any regrets either. You were on my mind later.”

  The warmth that had been growing between her legs exploded into a full-blown furnace.

  “You were? I mean, I was?” she asked breathlessly. “Why?”

  Aaric watched her, his eyes seeming to penetrate her exterior. She could see him filing away bits of information, like he was some sort of scientist and she was his experiment. How was it that a man like this had such sway over her? And so soon after meeting him?

  Wasn’t she supposed to be the one doing the seducing today?

  “I don’t wish to come across as arrogant,” Aaric replied. “But I’m not used to being turned down.”

  “I can understand why,” she muttered, running her eyes up and down his body.

  Aaric didn’t reply with words, but his lips did twist upward in a smile.

  Olivia sat upright abruptly, clapping her hands over her mouth. “Oh God. I said that out loud, didn’t I?” she asked, horrified.

  Aaric just nodded, sparing her further awkwardness by not using any words.

  “Um. Wow.”

  They were saved by the server returning to top off their waters—which they’d barely touched—and ask about their food, also barely touched.

  Reminded of the fact that they’d come here to eat, Olivia lost herself in the act of shoveling food in her mouth, grateful for the interruption.

  Things were spiraling out of control. She’d gone from trying to seduce Aaric, to acting like a sex-crazed fool who wanted to be spread open on the table right now like she was part of the buffet.

  The image in her mind, of Aaric ordering her to do just that, so that he could take her then and there, wasn’t helping her brain focus on the present.

  As if he could read her mind, Aaric looked up from his own food, his eyes watching her with an intensity that she’d never seen in another human before. It was startling just how much he could do with those twin golden orbs. Almost inhuman.

  “How’s your food?” he asked, interrupting her train of thought.

  “Delicious,” she admitted, for once not having to put on an act. “It’s actually really, really good.”

  He nodded. “Mine too,” he echoed before returning to his meal.

  Was she imagining it, or was he grateful for the interruption to their heated conversation?

  “I should probably get going back to the office shortly though,” she said, spooning the last bite of her eggs Benedict into her mouth, savoring the deliciousness.

  Aaric nodded. “I too, um, have business I must attend to.”

  “Thank you for lunch though,” she said, feeling awkward about not paying.

  Aaric just smiled and got up, leaving several large bills on the table that would more than cover their food. He’d made it clear on the drive over that he was treating her.

  “I can pay for my own,” she said, gesturing at the table in one last attempt to split the bill.

  “Next time is on you,” he said, gesturing with his hand for her to go first toward the exit.

  Olivia gladly took the opportunity, hoping he couldn’t see her face as she reacted to his insinuation that there would be a next time.

  Will there be a next time?

  She wasn’t sure she had an answer to that question. It hadn’t even entered her mind until he’d brought it up. After all, Olivia had only agreed to going to brunch today because she’d had it in her mind to try and seduce Aaric, so that he would sell the property to her instead.

  Now she was leaving without a property, and also without any sort of satisfaction. Everything was worse now than it was before, aside from the fact that she’d gotten to spend mo
re time with him.

  And even that was up in the air as to whether it was a good thing or not. When she was near him, she was either ready to strangle him, or jump on his face. There was no in-between, it seemed, and until Olivia could control her emotions and her hormones, maybe it would be best if she didn’t see him for a bit.

  “We’ll see,” she said, trying to give a light giggle that would keep her seeming mysterious and alluring.

  It came out as a sort of cough-honk, and several other patrons turned her way. Olivia covered her mouth and rushed for the exit, thoroughly embarrassed. Had she just done that? What was wrong with her today?

  “Please, just take me back to the office,” she said as they got to his car, pre-empting anything he might have been about to say. “I…I have a lot I need to do.”

  She got in and stared straight ahead, not talking or glancing to her left as Aaric drove them back to her office. The ride should have been enjoyable, the sports car was unlike anything she’d been in before. But she couldn’t focus on it. Couldn’t focus on anything that related to Aaric.

  Every time she did that, her body lit up and told her to jump him right then and there. Unzip his pants while he was driving and take his cock into her mouth. Expose herself, playing with her clit while he watched, forced to keep his hands on the wheel while she pleasured herself. So many raw, debased things that she wanted to do to him, or for him, and yet none of them were things she would ever actually act upon.

  How was it that he could elicit such reactions from her with nothing but a kiss and some extremely good looks? It was appalling how she turned to putty around him. Olivia Lawton was composed, a shark that others avoided. She was the one in control, always.

  Except around him.

  Her gaze strayed ever so slightly, taking in his chiseled features, perfectly swept back black hair, and the broadness of his shoulders.

  Always in control, but with Aaric, she wanted to surrender it all completely.

  How am I supposed to get this property away from him when I can’t even control my own body around him? This is a disaster waiting to happen.

  Chapter 11

  The next morning came and went, and it was well into the afternoon. All that time, and Aaric still couldn’t figure out quite what had happened at lunch with Olivia the day before. There was the obvious, but something else had happened. She had been…different.

  “That was her, wasn’t it?” he muttered to himself several times, trying to reconcile the woman he’d met at the property sale, and then at the restaurant Leblanc, with the one he’d taken to lunch.

  They looked the same. Had the same name, same career. That was about where the similarities ended.

  Olivia, the day he’d met her, had been calm, collected, driven, smart, and beyond gorgeous. She’d also been slightly reserved, yet open enough that he hadn’t felt like kissing her in the parking lot was a bad idea.

  The woman he’d taken to lunch yesterday was some sort of sex-crazed goddess that wasn’t able to take no for an answer until he called her out on it publicly. Even then, his nose had picked up her arousal. He’d seen the flush of her skin, the dilation of her pupils.

  Aaric could have told her to crawl up on the table and strip for him, and there was a decent chance she would have done it. At first, he was certain her attitude had been an act, and he’d called her on it. It had been faked, over-the-top sexualized in a way that he could not miss.

  “But why?” he muttered, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, looking out on one of the other properties he wanted to buy. He hadn’t gone inside yet, too busy trying to understand what was going on with Olivia, and also with him.

  It all came back to that damned property, the one that she seemed intent on getting him to sell to her. That had to be it, he decided. She’d basically thrown herself at him yesterday, in hopes…in hopes of what? That he would accept? What then? So they slept together. Why would he sell anything to her after having his way with her?

  No, that’s not it. That’s not how she views it. This would have been a transaction. She was thinking you would fall for it, let yourself be caught up in her hyper-sexuality, distracted by the gorgeous curves of her body, and then when you were hot to trot, she would stop. Tease you. Make you ready to do anything just to have her.

  Anything, like selling his newest property of course. Yes, he was certain now that was the game he’d spoiled by not playing, by calling her out on it, and not caving like he was only capable of thinking with one of his heads.

  Two centuries of life, of adapting to changing cultural norms and being blessed with genetics that made most women attracted to him had taught Aaric a few things, one of them being how to resist sexual temptation.

  That’s why what had happened next, however, was even more confusing. He’d watched Olivia throughout lunch far more intently than she suspected. That was what had allowed him to see the way her pulse began to race harder. He’d seen the skin of her neck and upper chest ripple and tighten, tiny bumps rushing outward, followed by a slight flow of blood.

  Her fake arousal and overt sexual nature had transformed itself as they’d sat there, eating, talking. It had taken on a life of its own, and he suspected that not even Olivia had expected that to happen. He certainly hadn’t.

  By the end of it, he felt bad for leaving her so unsatisfied. It was obvious she was ready to explode. The slightest graze of his pinky finger would likely have set her afire, and it wouldn’t have taken much more than that to push her over the edge.

  It was then that he’d had to fight himself, waging a war inside his mind, trying not to give in to temptation. To keep his body under control. The second the doors had closed around them in his car, he’d seen her tongue flick out and over her lips, probably without Olivia truly knowing it, and Aaric had nearly lost it.

  Her fake sex act in the office and at the start of lunch had left him uneasy and uncomfortable. But as it morphed into true arousal, he’d found his own hormones rising to meet it, feeding off her, amplifying his need to have her. To take her.

  Maybe he still would, at some point, but not now, he thought, gazing in his rear-view mirror as if he could see her office building in the distance behind him, wondering if she was thinking of him at this very second the way he was of her.

  Inhaling deep, he blew out the air slowly, trying to send some of his tension with it. He wouldn’t be able to go home just yet. There were several more properties he wished to view and potentially acquire, including the one he’d been sitting outside of for an hour.

  For a long time, the dragons had been silent, and the other two great Houses had bought up much of the prime real estate of Plymouth Falls, establishing their control over the area. It was time the dragons began to challenge that. To show the young ones just how a city was truly built.

  The wolves and the bears still had a thing or two to learn about real power.

  Suddenly feeling like he needed more time to think, Aaric did up his seatbelt. Pushing the ignition button, he smiled as the engine came to life, the throaty rumble filling the inside of the cabin. A lot of changes had occurred in the century he’d been asleep, not all of them good—but some of them, he thought, putting the car into gear.

  Some of them were good.

  The dash lit up abruptly with the icon for an incoming phone call. Pushing a button on the steering wheel, he answered it.

  “Hello, Francis,” he said, greeting his steward. There was only one person besides Parre who had his number, and the old dragon and his mate spent most of their days sleeping now.

  It wouldn’t be long before—

  Aaric shook his head, focusing on what his aide and friend was saying.

  “You need to get over to the new property. Now.”

  “I was just there last night.” Aaric froze, something about Francis’ tone getting through to his distracted mind. “Did you find out something on the person that was there?”

  “No,” Francis said tersely. “But it�
�s on fire.”

  Aaric blinked. “Did you say on fire?”

  “Yes. I’m here now. It’s on fire.”

  “What the fuck!” he growled, accelerating out of the parking lot, weaving his way through traffic, going from a near stop to sailing past traffic in a few car lengths. “The place is mostly concrete and metal. How is it on fire?” he wanted to know.

  “I don’t know,” Francis replied. “But it’s burning real hot. It must have just started though, because the smoke is just starting to rise.”

  “Francis,” Aaric said, drawing out his name. “Did you start a fire?”

  There was an audible sigh. “Yes. I started a fire for no reason, now I’m calling you here to expose my arsonist inner self so you can just toss me into the fire and get rid of the evidence. That’s how much I hate working for you.”

  Aaric chuckled, despite the news. “Alright, alright. Sorry, my friend. I’m just trying to find out who would set fire to—” He fell quiet as he had an unsettling thought.

  “Aaric? What is it? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, Francis,” he assured his aide. “Just…I’ll see you shortly, I’m a few minutes out.”

  The old factory had been on the far side of town, usually ten minutes or more, even in Plymouth Falls. But Aaric wasn’t obeying the speed limits, his car dodging around vehicles as if they were parked.

  Less than three minutes later, he screeched to a halt besides Francis’ thickly-built luxury sedan, a House Draconis-owned vehicle. Stepping out, he viewed the factory.

  True to his word, the place was on fire. The blaze was licking up out of windows now, black smoke curling into the air.

  “The fire department?” he asked.

  “Another fifteen minutes,” Francis said. “Apparently, there was a house fire they were already attending to. On the exact opposite side of town.”

  Aaric frowned thoughtfully. “Well that’s awfully convenient timing, now, isn’t it? A house catches fire just shortly before a big abandoned factory with nothing else close by goes up in flames. I wonder which one the fire department puts a priority on.”