Dragon in Denial: Bad Alpha Dads (Taming the Dragon Book 3)

by Tami Lund

  When he next touched her skin, his hands were coated with soap, which he spread across her shoulders, down her back, and around to her belly. As he massaged her breasts, she said in a breathy voice, “Having sex in the shower?”

  He kissed her neck. “No, although that’s certainly a happy bonus. I’ve wanted to take you from behind. Fuck you like this until you scream.”

  “Oh…”

  His hands moved lower until they slid between her legs. She spread them as wide as they would go and pressed harder against the tiles. His fingers stroked her while his thumb rubbed circles over her clit, and then she groaned and dropped her head, leaning her forehead against the wall.

  He slid two fingers into her, pushing in and out in a steady rhythm while keeping up the attention on her clit. Her legs started shaking. “Ketu, oh gods, Ketu…”

  With one hand still working her, he waved the other near her face. “Open it,” he said, indicating the foil packet he was holding. With shaking hands, she did as she was told.

  She let out a gasp of protest when he pulled his hand from between her legs, presumably so he could sheath his cock. But then he was back, his body pressed against hers, his fingers once again dancing along her most sensitive nerve endings, setting them on fire, until light exploded behind her eyelids. And then he thrust, filling her, and the orgasm she’d been on the brink of hit her with its full force.

  And, yeah, she screamed, her nails scrabbling at the tiles while he pounded into her, his hands clutching her hips, his frenzied actions dragging out her climax. He dropped his head until his face was buried in the crook of her shoulder, and then he froze. She could feel his cock pulsing deep inside her as he came, pouring everything he had into her, until he sagged, snaking his arm around her waist and clinging to her while the water continued to beat down on them and their hearts felt as though they were trying to gallop away together.

  Oh, she could definitely get used to this.

  ***

  Antoinette sat cross-legged on the bed, a tray laden with assorted breakfast foods in front of her, Ketu seated across from her. He’d ordered enough food to serve four people, and all that was left were a few scraps of hash browns and a couple of grapes.

  He’d tugged his gym shorts back on, and after she’d dried off and pulled her errant curls into a ponytail, she’d snagged his T-shirt to use as loungewear.

  “Gods, I officially feel like a dragon again,” Ketu said on a gusty sigh as he dropped onto his back and curled his arm behind his head. He looked so delicious laid out like that, his chest bare, his face covered with dark stubble, those shorts outlining her new favorite play toy; she wanted to enact her fantasy of licking him from head to toe.

  “Which means it’s time to come up with a plan to bring that motherfucker down,” Ketu added.

  Apparently, she was putting the fantasy on hold.

  “I assume you’re talking about Darius?”

  He nodded.

  “What happened?”

  He looked up at her, his gaze steady. “I need to tell you something.”

  Oh hell, he was about to admit he planned to go back to Detroit soon. She wasn’t ready for this conversation. She was still basking in the afterglow of amazing sex.

  “My reeve sent me here to shut down the dragon’s blood trade.”

  She stared at him. “That’s it?”

  His brow furrowed. “What do you mean, that’s it? I’m talking about destroying your livelihood, Antoinette.”

  “Oh, for the love of the gods.” She threw up her hands and climbed off the bed, paced partway to the window and then turned around. Thrusting out a hip, she crossed her arms and snapped, “I’m not a dealer, Ketu. And by the way, I can’t believe you’d believe that for even a single second.”

  He shot into a seated position, pressing his hands against the wrinkled sheets. “What?”

  “Yeah. Let’s talk about this, shall we? Did you seriously have sex with me this morning and still assume I was a dealer?”

  His face flushed while he averted his gaze. Oh yeah, he sure did.

  “I can’t believe you.”

  “I figured once we were mated, I could force you to quit.”

  Well, there it was. One of them had finally spoken it out loud. “You think you can force me to do any damn thing? Ever?”

  She snorted and rolled her eyes. Not exactly the way she imagined discovering her fated mate would go. She hadn’t expected rainbows and unicorns, but certainly something more romantic than this.

  He shook his head. “No. I just…shit, Antoinette, what the hell was I supposed to think? You had half a dozen dragon’s blood vials in your pocket. So if you aren’t a dealer, what the hell were you doing with so much dragon’s blood? Or, frankly, any at all?”

  Uh-oh. Her turn to flush and avert her gaze. Did she admit her deepest, darkest secret to him? Could she trust him?

  He is your mate, her dragon whispered.

  She sighed. The damn beast was right. If they were going to make a go at this mates business, she needed to be honest and forthcoming.

  Before she could open her mouth, Ketu shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is so fucked up. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I doubted you.”

  She cleared her throat and looked around at the walls, wishing the proper response would be written there so she could simply recite it and be done with this awkward moment.

  “I went to the reeve’s house yesterday,” Ketu said, relieving her of the responsibility of figuring out where to take the conversation from here. She wanted to kiss him for that, but she was distracted by his words.

  “Why?”

  “Because you mentioned that there’d been a colony meeting without the reeve. That makes no sense. That’s not how dragon colonies work. You never have a meeting without the reeve. Not unless he’s dead or excommunicated and the Elders are announcing a new one. And even then, the new one would step up and run the meeting.”

  She nodded. “I may not have been to a meeting since, but I’ve heard Darius has been running them. Your parents say they haven’t seen the reeve in years.”

  “Hell, at this point I’m wondering if he’s even still alive.” Ketu paused and canted his head, staring at the blank television screen perched on the dresser across from the bed. “What if Darius killed his father and didn’t tell anyone?”

  “Why bother?” Antoinette said. She returned to the bed and sat down next to him. “He’s the heir. Why lie about his father’s death, even if he was the cause?”

  “Because if he’s the cause, the Elders would likely determine he’s not fit to take over as reeve, and name someone else.”

  “Everyone’s scared of him. No one will cross him.”

  “They will if it’s the Elders making the decision.”

  “Why haven’t they stepped in already?” Antoinette mused.

  Ketu shrugged. “Maybe Darius is doing a good enough job of convincing them everything is fine.”

  When she was younger, the Elders had been a bunch of older Rojo dragons who seemed to care more about fishing and playing dominoes than actually paying attention to colony politics. Their complacency had certainly set the stage for Darius to get away with running his drug trade uninhibited.

  “We need to get close enough to figure out if the reeve is still alive,” Ketu said, slipping out of bed and walking over to the window. He tugged the chain and opened the curtains, flooding the room with sunlight. The effect created a halo around his body, outlining his bitable ass and muscular back.

  Gods, two go-rounds with the hot dragon and was suddenly sex-starved. Focus, Antoinette.

  “Tell me more about the half-dragon, half-witch,” she said.

  “Gabe’s mother?” Ketu glanced over his shoulder, his eyebrows raised.

  “Yes. Pongo implied she’s somehow connected to Darius.”

  He nodded. “She is. She’s the supplier.”

  “The supp—dragon’s blood?” Antoinette was certa
in her eyes were so big they took up half her face. “Your reeve’s mother?”

  Ketu lifted his hands like he was surrendering. “Gabe has nothing to do with it. He just found out last fall. Before then, he didn’t even know who his mother was.”

  “So that’s the connection with the gargoyles.”

  Ketu snapped his fingers and practically leapt from the bed, heading over to his suitcase. “We need to talk to Argyle. He should be able to shed some light on their relationship.”

  He grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt and headed toward the bathroom, but then stopped and reached down and scooped her into his arms. She yelped and clasped her hands behind his neck. “What are you doing?”

  Shrugging, he said, “Holding you. I like it when we’re touching.”

  She smiled. “Me too.”

  He placed her on her feet and kissed her forehead. “Now get dressed because you are distracting as hell wearing nothing but my T-shirt.”

  Chuckling, she reached for her jeans. Clearly, she wasn’t the only one struggling to focus.

  ***

  Argyle, it turned out, was the gargoyle who’d led her to Ketu last night. When he wasn’t assigned to protect living beings, Argyle resided as a stone statue, guarding the tombs in the City of the Dead.

  Antoinette and Ketu entered the cemetery, the morning sun beating down on them as they made their way to his perch. Ketu stood, arms at his side, staring at the carved creation. After long seconds, the statue began to tremble and the weathered, gray stone turned to dark skin, the winged creature shifting into human form before he easily hopped from the top of the tomb to the ground and straightened.

  “Argyle,” Ketu said. “It’s good to see you again. This is Antoinette.”

  “Ah, yes,” the gargoyle said with an inclination of his head. “Your mate.”

  Antoinette’s laugh was nervous as she shot Ketu a glance through her lashes. Was it that obvious they’d recently had sex?

  Ketu said, “We’re here seeking information about Delilah.”

  “I told you I have no awareness of her whereabouts now that I am no longer beholden to her.”

  “We’re looking for historical information,” Ketu explained. “I want to know how she got involved in the distribution of dragon’s blood.”

  Argyle waved at the haphazardly laid slate pavers that weaved around the aboveground crypts, and they followed his lead as he clasped his hands behind his back and began meandering along the path.

  “I did not become beholden to her until after she purchased the antiques store,” he explained as he walked. “So I do not know precisely how she came into contact with the reeve’s son, the one who created that drug.”

  “You still know more than we do about the situation,” Ketu pointed out.

  Argyle inclined his head once. “She bought the shop deliberately to use as a front for her dragon’s blood trade. She had recently moved to the status of distributor and sought a central location that would make it easy to provide her product without human authorities questioning the interactions.”

  For all these years, Antoinette had been so focused on taking down the dealers, it hadn’t occurred to her to track down their distributor and take her down instead. In fact, she had assumed there was no middleman between Darius and those who sold the drug to other dragons.

  “Is Delilah the only distributor?” she asked.

  “In the beginning, no. But Delilah thrives on control. It was while she was methodically stealing the dealers from the other distributors that I and the other gargoyles came into her service.”

  “How?” Ketu asked, while at the same time, Antoinette said, “Why?”

  “Gargoyles exist to protect others from evil spirits,” Argyle explained. “Hence the reason most of us reside in or around cemeteries and religious institutions. However, that concept has evolved over the centuries. Today, some act as hired bodyguards, taking payment for protection, but only if the person paying them is worthy, of course. Others, like myself, are part of an organization, and we are assigned to protect beings when they are threatened.

  “Delilah knew this, of course. Gargoyles and witches have a longstanding relationship; our magic has been intertwined for centuries. Her mother, Ginger, is a good person, worthy of protection. She convinced Ginger to work in her shop, and then she came to me and asked for protection for her mother. You see, the other distributors had begun to rebel against her attempts to steal their business, and were retaliating.

  “As Ginger was a good person caught in the middle, I agreed to protect her. My fellow gargoyles came along as a favor to me, thinking this would be a short-term assignment. Once we were committed, she cursed her mother, forcing her to be bound to both her and that plantation.” He glanced at Ketu, who nodded, apparently understanding what he meant by “that plantation.”

  “We, too, were bound by the curse. Connected to Delilah through our commitment to protect Ginger. Delilah is a very clever witch. She had done her research and understood precisely what she was doing.”

  “That’s not very encouraging,” Ketu muttered.

  “Hang on,” Antoinette said. She grasped Argyle’s arm. “You said she thrives on control.”

  He glanced down at her hand, like he was surprised she was touching him. “Yes.”

  Turning to Ketu, she said, “But she’s the middleman, right? Those warehouses where we, er…”

  “Flew together for the first time?” Ketu supplied.

  “Yeah. Anyway, those warehouses are owned by Darius. I’m pretty sure that’s where the drug is being manufactured.”

  “I knew there was something suspicious about that place,” Ketu said.

  “Darius is supplying the drug to her to sell to the dealers at street level,” Antoinette pointed out.

  It made sense. Didn’t it?

  Ketu nodded. “You’re right. So if Darius is providing the drug, she’s not truly in control.”

  “Exactly,” Antoinette said. “Now all we need to do is make her aware of this.”

  “You play a dangerous game,” Argyle warned.

  “No, hear me out.” But before Antoinette could continue, Ketu said,

  “If we point out to her that being the distributor is not really being in control, she’s going to want to destroy Darius.”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding vigorously.

  “That will not stop the sale of that mind-altering substance,” Argyle said.

  “It will if we also convince her that’s not the way to be in control, not really,” Antoinette said.

  “I’m not following you,” Ketu said.

  “There’s a better way to control a colony of dragons,” Antoinette pointed out.

  Ketu stared at her.

  “We convince her she wants to be reeve.”

  Chapter 11

  She was fucking crazy. Ketu was mated to a woman who was loony tunes.

  They’d hooked up, the sex had been off the charts, they’d cleared the air, they were getting along better than ever, it was obvious they were both happy with the turn their relationship had taken—and now he’d discovered she was off her rocker.

  “Antoinette, you don’t know this lady. She’s not a good person. She distributes drugs, for fuck’s sake.”

  They were seated in the back of an Uber, heading toward his parents’ house. The driver gave him a curious look through the rearview mirror, but Ketu ignored him and focused on the woman seated next to him.

  “From everything you and Argyle have said, I can’t help but wonder if she’d be willing to give it up in exchange for actual, real power.”

  “You don’t understand. You weren’t there when she lost her fucking mind because Rahu said we were here to take down her drug empire.”

  Antoinette’s arms were crossed, her leg folded over her knee, and her lips were pursed. “Do you have a better idea?”

  “No, but—”

  “Let’s just talk to her. That can’t hurt, can it?”

  Antoine
tte definitely hadn’t taken her crazy pill today.

  The driver guided the car to the curb and shifted into park. Ketu thanked him and clamored out of the backseat, then stood next to the door waiting for Antoinette. The driver made the sign of the cross and sped away.

  “First of all,” Ketu said, following Antoinette up the driveway, “we have to find her. And need I remind you we have literally no clues regarding her whereabouts?”

  When she reached the carport door, Antoinette turned to face him. “Yes, we do. We know where the drug is being manufactured. At some point, she has to get a new supply, right? So we need to stake out the place until that happens.”

  He stared at her. “When did you become a private detective?”

  She laughed and swatted his chest. “Come on, let’s go reassure Henri that I’m not going to make it a habit of spending the night away from him. And then I have to get ready for my shift at Mitch’s.”

  Ketu snagged her arm, stopping her from entering the house.

  “What?”

  Still holding her arm, he cupped the back of his neck with his other hand. “Listen, Antoinette. We need to talk. About us.”

  “I know. But first I need to spend a little time with my son, and then I have to go to work. And we also need to start watching those warehouses, keeping an eye out for Delilah. We have a pretty big to-do list, don’t we?”

  She patted his cheek and smiled and pushed open the door.

  “Manman,” a child’s voice cried out. Ketu expected Henri to slam into her with such force that she was pushed backward into his arms. Or maybe he sort of wanted that to happen.

  Either way, it didn’t, and after a few seconds he became aware of the fact that Antoinette hadn’t moved any farther into the house nor had Henri rushed into her arms.

  The reason, he suspected, was sitting at his parents’ kitchen table, smiling cheerfully, a bright red gemstone perched before her, glowing dully.

  A witch with long, black hair, pale skin, and lipstick that matched the glowing ruby in front of her. Oh shit.

  Delilah.

  “Well, hello,” she said, and then she waved. “Do come in. Go ahead, the spell won’t hurt as you pass through the barrier.”