“Is this what people call ‘Netflix and chill’?” he asked her, sounding amused.
“Pretty much,” she said, picking the pajamas up and heading for the bathroom.
“I just want the record to show that I’m not asking you to change in here. Just pointing out that I know I shouldn’t ask,” he said, as she made her way to the bathroom. She leaned out the door and stuck her tongue out at him.
“I’m changing in here so I can steal your towel. Even if we break up, it’s mine,” she called out, flinging the wet towel over her shower door.
“Duly noted. Not that I’m going to let you break up with me, though,” he called in as she pulled on the pajamas, as soft as kitten bellies.
She walked into her bedroom, petting herself. “These are amazing.”
“I’ll tell Mills,” he said, dismounting the bed to hold out his hand.
“We’re just walking down the hall,” she laughed, taking it.
“What? I’ve never seen the rest of your place. I might get lost,” he said, whirling her around the bed to lead him.
“No, you’re thinking of your weird magic cat fun house. There’s no possible way that can happen here.” She smiled and pulled him down the hall, nonetheless.
Chapter 9
Thirty minutes later, they were snuggled together on the couch, watching a documentary about a serial killer with half of a sushi restaurant’s delivery menu incoming. Andi was leaning into him, feeling the comforting rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, the way her hair caught a little on the shadow of a beard on his chin, and one of his arms was wound about her body to hold her hand. He was intently watching the TV while she was watching him.
“Oh…no…don’t do that,” Damian said, as a woman’s abduction was reenacted on the screen. He looked down at Andi. “Why did she do that? He was clearly lying!”
Andi bit her lips not to snicker.
“Is this really what you watch for fun?” he asked, sounding concerned.
“Yeah,” she said with a laugh.
“Why?”
“Uhhhh…I don’t know, really. They’re interesting? And I’m morbid? And…not everyone dies. If you watch one of these to the end, usually the guy gets caught.”
“Not if the police don’t listen to that one woman who escaped,” Damian muttered.
“It’s a two-hour show,” Andi chuckled. “They’ve got like ninety minutes left.”
“Wait…then how many more people does he murder?” His eyes widened in horror. “I have to admit, Andi, I thought earth was a lot safer than this—”
“Oh my God, now you’re not going to let me go outside—”
“I can think of so many more things worth doing inside, it’s true,” he said, leaning meaningfully toward her, as they both heard feet upon the stairs.
“Dinner!” Andi cheerfully laughed as keys slid into the lock, and Sammy let herself in.
Sammy stumbled into the hall, kicking off her shoes, and shouting, “Andi!” out of habit before spotting both of them. “Oh…um…hi?” she guessed, letting her expression slide into a shit-eating grin.
Andi groaned over dramatically. “Get it all out now, sister.”
“All what?” Sammy asked, feigning innocence, before walking over to introduce herself to Damian, one hand out. “I’m Sammy—”
“Andi’s beautiful Irish roommate who’s into cars,” Damian said, leaning forward over Andi to shake her hand warmly. “I’m Damian. We briefly met the other night.”
“Yes, but that was before I knew you had a Pagani,” Sammy said. She perched on the last remaining couch cushion like she wouldn’t be here long, but Andi tucked her toes under Sammy’s thigh because they were cold, and she knew Sammy’s posture was lying. There was no way her roommate was going anywhere until she’d secured a future drive.
Andi listened to Sammy and Damian discuss cars, enjoying the easy way with which they spoke to one another. Two more murders were committed on the TV in the background, as they discussed RPMs or RPGs—Andi didn’t really know or care. She just liked that two of the people who mattered to her had a thing in common. Sandwiched in between them on the couch, with Damian’s arm around her, feeling the bass rumble of him speaking in his chest interspersed with Sammy’s lovely lilt, she felt safe and warm and like maybe she didn’t need the rest of her family.
Maybe she didn’t need her uncle’s answers, either.
Then there was a knock on the door as the sushi arrived. As they worked on appetizers, Sammy finally stopped pumping Damian for stats on his vehicles and eyed the TV. “Oh! I watched this one last week! That throat-slicing, brrrr!” she said and shivered, popping an edamame into her mouth to shell it with her teeth.
Damian looked between them both—mystified—and Andi laughed.
* * *
By the end of the murder show, which both Andi and his dragon were actually watching—his dragon fascinated by the fact that they would re-enact murders on TV for viewing purposes—and which, for some reason, her roommate was content to watch a second time, Damian saw Andi yawn. If it’d just been the two of them, Damian would’ve picked her up and carried her back to her bedroom, but he didn’t want to do anything untoward while her roommate was watching.
“Did he ever confess to the other three?” Andi asked Sammy while loading all of their leftovers into one plastic clamshell.
“Not yet, the asshole. I looked it up on Wikipedia. But you know he did them,” Sammy said, taking everything from Andi to put it into their fridge. “So,” she announced, returning to the living room. “I’m going to bed now,” she said in a leading fashion.
Andi grinned. “Damian…close your eyes, okay?”
He blinked between both of them. “Are you going to cut my throat?” he teased.
“Yeah, me and these chopsticks are going to get right on that,” Andi said, sitting upright. “Also, don’t listen.” She put her hands over both his ears.
He heard the murmur of quiet conversation and some bargaining, and then felt Andi shudder with laughter before saying, “Okay, okay.”
“Love you, girl…night!” Sammy said, then added. “Nice to meet you, Damian!” as her voice retreated down the hall.
Andi released his ears and reached for the remote, turning the TV off. “What’d I miss?” he asked.
“Usually we have a ‘no strange men’ policy here because this place is too small to be running into strangers in the morning. But, same as everywhere else, being rich has its privileges, and I basically promised her three rides in your car,” Andi said, and he laughed. “It was that, or she was only going to let you spend the night so she could steal your keys.”
“Just three rides?” Damian grinned. He couldn’t say the idea of driving Sammy around filled him with glee, but if it made Andi happy—
“Three drives, rather,” Andi corrected. “As in, you in the passenger seat. And you’d better buckle yourself tight. Sammy used to rally race.”
Damian laughed. “Your roommate drives a hard bargain.”
“Well, she knows what I’m worth,” Andi said, beaming up at him.
“I do, too,” he told her.
Her eyebrows arched. “And what’s that?”
“Everything.” He brought his hands up to catch her face and then kissed her.
If she had tensed even for a moment or pulled back, he would’ve stopped. He knew she’d already been through so much today, but her lips opened and her tongue met his as it pushed in, just as eager to taste him as he was her. His arms ran down to encircle her body, pulling her on top of him as they made out, listening to Sammy make politely quick trips between her bedroom and her bathroom down the hall, both of them freezing and quietly laughing as the faucet ran and Sammy presumably brushed her teeth, while his hands ran over the soft fabric separating him from the heat of Andi’s skin.
Then they both heard Sammy’s bedroom definitively lock, and the kissing began in earnest as she rose over him, pressing him back into the couch with her m
outh as his hands slid underneath her top and up her ribs to cup her breasts, and he felt her shiver as his thumbs played over her nipples. She gasped and pulled her head back, whispering, “Bedroom?” but he shook his head. Confusion clouded her. “Why?”
“Because I want to fuck you here, princess,” he whispered, kissing up her jaw. He knew why, even if he didn’t want to say it—because he wanted to claim her every which way, in every space possible. He wanted her to know she’d been taken on every surface of this room. He didn’t want her to look so much as sideways without remembering him in her and the way he’d made her feel.
She moaned as his lips reached the spot right below her ear, then whispered, “But it’s kind of rude.”
“Only if I don’t buy you a new couch afterward,” he said and nipped at her as he slid his hands down over the outside of her pajamas to cradle her ass and pull her splay-legged over him as he leaned back and pushed his hips forward, offering himself up for her to grind on. His cock was rock hard inside his jeans, and feeling the pressure of her grinding made him ache in a way that would’ve been intolerable if he hadn’t known all the pleasures that could come.
“This is so high school,” she whispered and giggled.
“Yes, tell me all about your high school boyfriends, so I can murder them for ever having touched you,” Damian said, not entirely lying, looking up at her with a grin as she kept slowly rubbing herself against him.
“And here you were horrified by serial killers?” she laughed, then closed her eyes and made a soft noise of delight, as she rocked her hips forward, settling in. Then her bright gaze was on him again. “But, I didn’t actually lose my virginity until I was twenty…because my mother would’ve killed me. When did you?”
He didn’t have to stop to think. “Fourteen.”
Andi stopped grinding and looked down at him with more horror than she’d shown for the entire time the TV show was playing. “That seems a little young.”
“It was what it was,” he said, pulling his hands away from her ass and putting them much more politely over the fabric at her hips. “My father decided that since I had my dragon, it was time. He put me in a room with a courtesan and locked the door and said he wouldn’t open it for anyone until we were finished.”
Andi gasped. “Oh, no.”
“Exactly,” Damian agreed. He ran his tongue along the line of his teeth, wondering what he should tell her. He’d never told anyone this story before, although he assumed that Max and Grim knew. “I waited a day. It wasn’t even that I didn’t want to have sex—although I am sure that up until that point, I didn’t really even know what it was—but I was mad at my father for controlling my life like that…again. But then the woman got thirsty and begged me and….” He shrugged, staring over Andi’s shoulder, fearing the look of pity that was surely on her face.
She took his chin in her hands and yanked him over to see her, and she was furious on his behalf. “That was not okay, Damian. That was awful. And you didn’t do anything to deserve that.”
And then I saved you, his dragon murmured, and Damian found that now that he’d started talking about it, he didn’t want to stop.
“My dragon was there. It knew what to do, so I gave in to it—to this thing, moving inside me—making me like an automaton.” He bowed his head at the memory.
Andi rose up and wrapped her arms around him, drawing his head to her chest where he could feel the soft fabric of her pajamas against his cheek and hear the thrumming of her heart beating. His hands rose with her and then wound about her waist, holding her tight, letting her stroke her hands through his hair and down his back, and then they just breathed together, each holding the other for support.
“If your father wasn’t already dead, I would figure out a way to kill him,” Andi muttered, possessively.
Damian snorted and shook his head against her. “I appreciate that. But it was a long time ago, now. Although when people wondered why I left the Realms—I have a hundred reasons why, each sadder than the next.” He looked up at her and swiped a thumb against her perfect lips just because he wanted to touch them. “The thought of ever going back there is intolerable.”
“Good,” she agreed, wholeheartedly.
“Now…where were we?” he asked, grabbing the backs of her knees and pulling her back down.
She stiffened her arms against his shoulders, pushing away. “Are you sure?” she asked, her eyes searching his.
“With you? Always,” he said, arching up.
“But you can’t be serious, not after telling me that,” she protested.
He reached up and cradled her head with a hand. “Andi…every time I do what I want with my body now, I win. And what I want right now is you.”
She blinked at him, biting her soft lips, and then nodded, rocking carefully against him, and whatever blood had evacuated his cock during his memories now came rushing back.
“That’s it,” he whispered to her, biting back a grunt, watching her as she started to grind in earnest, tilting her hips forward and dragging herself up and down. “That’s what I want to see.” She closed her eyes and made small soft moans, and he relished the feeling of her heat on him even through the denim. “Rub your clit and pussy for me, Andi. Rub on me until you can’t help it anymore. Come without me in you, get yourself hot and wet for me.” She made a small whine and leaned harder. “I can’t fuck you until you’re ready for me, Andi,” he whispered, arching up, giving her more of him to rub on. “I want your pussy to fucking ache to feel me.”
She flashed him a pretend pout. “You’re so dirty.”
“You like it,” he said with a grin. “Hurry up and come, so I can fuck you.”
Her pout momentarily became real. “And you’re mean.”
He grabbed hold of her hips and stopped her grinding, and she looked at him, hot and flushed. “Not yet, princess. But, when I am…you’ll like that, too.”
She swallowed, and he could see her pulse pounding at her throat, and slowly and with great deliberation, he slid a hand into the waistband of her soft and chaste pajamas, fingers down the front of her stomach until he could crook them up into her soft folds. She gasped at his touch, and she was already wet enough to take him, which made his cock thump to be inside her, but first, he had a point to make. He pulled out his hand and licked his fingers clean, then reached for his belt with intent. Yes, his dragon urged him, already reading his mind.
She’d assumed he would pull himself out, but as he started freeing his belt from his waist, her eyes went wide.
“What’re you doing?” she whispered.
“Shhh,” he counseled, freeing his belt entirely, and holding it looped to the side like an empty bridle.
“Damian,” she warned, squirming on his lap in fear, which made him even harder.
“Don’t worry. I’d never spank you with it where Sammy could hear,” he teased. “Do you trust me, princess?”
She sat there for a moment, considering—he knew she wanted him, he could still taste her on his lips, after all—but he also knew that this was like nothing she’d ever done before.
“I do.” She said. “I think,” she added.
“Good. Now, have I ever withheld an orgasm from you?”
Her eyes narrowed in curiosity, then she shook her head. “Not that I would let you, though,” she muttered, and he laughed.
“Then trust me, princess. We’re just taking a different path to the same destination is all,” he said, holding up his black leather belt in front of her.
Andi looked between it and him, and then finally, hesitantly, said, “Okay,” and offered up her hands.
Just her agreeing to try twisted the knife of his need inside him, and he fought not to rush her. “Thank you, princess, but not that. No…this way, we’ll be ever so quiet and polite for your very understanding roommate, all right?” he promised, ignoring her proffered wrists to thumb the leather against her lips, running it around the back of her head where he buckled it and held ont
o the tail of the belt like a leash.
At that, her pulse went racing, much more than it’d been before.
“You still have access to safety. All you need to do is pinch me, and I’ll stop, I promise. I’m not tying your hands.” She frowned at him and made a sound like a question—likely to see if she could make a sound—and he smiled wickedly. “Open your mouth.” She did so slowly, her brow furrowed, and he saw the full edges of her lips appear on either side of his belt’s black leather. He pressed a thumb against it, creasing it in against her teeth. “Bite,” he commanded and felt the pressure as she did so.
Then he leaned back to take her all in. “Goddamn,” he whispered, and his dragon purred. His Andi in her white and teal striped pajamas was the very vision of innocence, only she was silenced by the black leather cutting across her face, straddling him, her scent thickening the air. Darkness roiled in him, the need to punish beaten out by the need to protect, but only barely.
He held the belt loosely behind her, and her eyes were as wild as her hair. “Are you okay?” he asked her.
One of her eyebrows quirked to let him know what she thought of that, and he laughed, grabbing her ass with his free hand and pulling it over him. “Let’s get back to where we were.”
She frowned, looking injured, but she placed her hands on his chest and did that thing with her chin, tilting it up so that he knew she ruled everything around her, even him, and that she was only humoring him was all.
“You are going to be such a handful,” he murmured to himself, and she looked offended at that. “You are already such a handful,” he amended, and he watched her chest rise and fall in a sharp laugh. He grinned at her, and his free hand went for the buttons of her pajamas, unsnapping them one by one as she bowed her head to watch him, then he arched his hips up, reminding her of why they were here. Her hands became small fists against his chest, and as he finished opening her top and reached to cup a breast, she finally began to grind again.
Dragon Fated: A Billionaire Dragon Shifter Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds) Page 15
