He squeezed her hand. “Even if it weren’t for Lilah, I should remind you that I have been with Jasper longer than any of you. I spent years running myself ragged to keep him contained. The least you could do is give me a few days to help her figure out her beast.”
Lilah didn’t dare look back for fear that her surprise was still visible. She didn’t know how to reach Ashton’s silence without reading his face. It dragged on, and while she wanted to go back to making breakfast, Griffin held possession of her hand.
Ashton sighed. “You’re right. I’m not happy, but you’re right. Know that the rest of us are damn exhausted. So, as soon as Lilah can fly on her own, you’re being put back on duty.”
It was Lilah’s turn to laugh. “Looks like you’re getting a permanent vacation.”
Griffin scowled, unamused. There was no way she was going to fly. Sure, she’d give shifting another try even though just the thought of it filled her with panic. At least it wasn’t flying.
“You’ve got your work cut out for you,” Ashton said. “But I hope you don’t mind if I stick around for breakfast. It smells amazing.”
Before Lilah could say anything, Griffin released her hand and grabbed his cousin by the back of his shirt. He carried the adult shifter out of the house like a child and tossed him out the front door. There was still a snarl on Griffin’s lips when he returned, but it melted away when he turned to Lilah.
“I’m sorry I’m causing trouble for you,” she admitted.
“Your presence was always an excuse to avoid work,” he told her. Instead of claiming a kitchen chair, he moved to stand beside her again, like she drew him in, and he didn’t want to resist the pull. “Take all the time you need because I cannot stand to look any of them in the face anymore.”
“Except for Kennedy,” Lilah reminded him. A pang of jealousy hummed through her heart. “I’ve seen the way you act around her.”
Griffin watched her. His attention made her uncomfortable, especially while jealousy still hummed in her chest. She didn’t dare look back at him in case he could see through her.
“Do you see me skipping work to hang out with her?”
Ah, no. He had a point. It made a slow smile curl over her lips. She laid the first piece of custard-soaked bread into the buttered frying pan and couldn’t stop grinning. They ate breakfast as each slice of toast came out of the pan. While she cooked, Griffin cut the pieces with a fork and fed them to her. Every now and then, he made it look like he was offering a bite and then would steal it away.
Time with Griffin was nice. She couldn’t help but enjoy it. Though she told herself over and over again that this was a job, she wished it could go on forever. She wanted to say friends, at the very least. Maybe, if she was lucky, Griffin had been right about his mate. She knew it was an evil thought, cruel even, but she wanted him to remain free if only so that she could continue this charade.
It didn’t help that he still hadn’t put on any clothing. It allowed her to take in his inky tattoo, the perfect lines of his shoulders and arms, and the soft silver hair of his chest. If Lilah just let herself lean into him, if she let herself touch his lips again…
She shook the thoughts from her mind.
It wasn’t her place. They put on the act for his family, but it stopped there. Her daring kiss from earlier had been an indulgence and nothing more. Even if she thought she saw his eyes dropping to her lips every now and then. Lilah imagined his attraction only because it was what she wanted to see.
“Tell me,” he said. “I want to know more about this family curse of yours.”
“Oh, you remember that?” Lilah turned away, trying to hide her face. She hadn’t meant to bring it up. It’d slipped out of her. Now that Griffin knew, he was going to throw her out. She was sure of it.
“I don’t think a curse is something someone forgets. Do you have a list of things you need to accomplish before you can break it? Like leaving a glass slipper at a ball?”
She pretended to laugh at him while looking him in the eyes, deadpan. As much as she wanted to curse him, every moment with him showed her a new side of the brooding dragon man that she never would have thought existed. He was soft and funny and gentle.
“It’s not something I can break,” she said, spreading her hands wide as if to show that they were empty. “I just have to live with it until it…”
Kills me.
Griffin was not amused, nor did he look convinced.
Lilah started at the beginning, regaling him with the tale of her great-something grandmother who seduced the husband of a witch. From there, every generation of James women had suffered, like an aunt whose plane crashed not long after takeoff. It carried on right up to Vivi and Lilah.
“Vivi has the worst luck with love,” Lilah said as she dropped into a chair. “My sister hops from one man to the next, always thinking that true love will break the curse. Each man has led her down the wrong path. One guy had her stealing purses for him. Another introduced her to prescription drugs. I got her into rehab after that guy, but the list goes on and on.”
“I take it the curse doesn’t like letting you have a job.”
She nodded. “Or a house or food. Oh, and apparently a phone. Around the time I was evicted, my neighbor dropped five months’ worth of bills that had been delivered to the wrong address into my lap.”
His brows furrowed. “Are you telling me you’re afraid to fly because of a relative’s plane crash?”
She stared at him. “I tell you all this and that is what you get hung up on? Of course, I’m scared to fly when this curse is haunting me. It would be my luck that I’d get into the air and a wing would stop obeying me and I’d crash head first into the ground.”
“Have you ever considered that this could all be just plain bad luck?”
“How much bad luck can a person live through before it feels like a curse? I don’t believe for a second that everything I’ve lived through has been just fate. It has to be the curse. My life wouldn’t be this bad by itself.”
He leaned back and drew in a slow breath. Lilah had the distinct feeling that she was going to hate whatever he was about to say. It was in the way he watched her, as though he was gauging her reaction. She was ready to get up and start putting away the dirty dishes so she could drown out his words with the clang of ceramic on ceramic.
“Bear with me,” he said. “What if everything seems horrible because you believe in this curse? By letting the idea into your life, you could have welcomed all this bad luck.”
“Are you blaming me for being evicted? For losing my job?”
He cringed but didn’t let up. “You were late to work. A lot. I get the feeling you’re not late to this job because you live here.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but nothing came out.
Griffin inched closer to her. The heat of his beast washed over her and roused the creature living inside her. An animal desire blossomed in her core. It made her fingers twitch and crawl closer to Griffin. Lilah wanted to be angry at his suggestion. She wanted to hold onto her frustration, but the things her beast was making her feel drowned everything until all she could do was stare up at his silvery eyes.
This close, he had to look down at her. She felt like the only thing in his world.
“Okay, maybe you’re right. I’m late to work. A lot.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Griffin said with a shrug of his shoulders. “It just means you know what’s more important. Like the day you rescued Bumble. You knew his life was more important than wasting hours at work.”
The cat had leapt atop the counter and was in the process of stealing a chunk of French toast. Lilah leapt at Bumble. He flung the scrap of toast and launched himself off the counter, scrambling out of the room before she could catch him.
“And he repays me by stealing my breakfast.”
Griffin’s laughter was a sweet reward. Lilah chalked it up to part of her job. She was
supposed to make him happier as his fake girlfriend, but she couldn’t help but take pride in those soft smiles. She would have loitered in the presence of them for the rest of her life if he let her.
“Not everything in your life is awful,” Griffin said.
She put her back to the counter again, this time standing so close that their shoulders pressed together. The searing heat of him seeped into her and loosened everything she’d gripped tight. It was like breathing for the first time. Her lungs relaxed and left her feeling light.
This wasn’t right. She shouldn’t let herself indulge in such things. Lilah knew she was walking herself down a path of pain, of heartbreak, and yet she couldn’t seem to stop herself. She stepped away from the counter, intending to leave the conversation.
Before she got far, Griffin grabbed her wrist and spun her around. He pulled her tight to his body and made her heart race. She looked up at him and found the silver of his eyes had melted. The beast swirled in them. The air suddenly smelled of Griffin, heady and intoxicating.
She saw the intent in his eyes and panicked.
“Oh, I have to…” She danced away from him and stumbled toward the doorway. “Get ready. For the day. I have to get ready for the day.”
She fled the room and every bit of desire that had swelled inside her. Pressing the heels of her palms to her heated cheeks, Lilah reasoned with herself. She’d misunderstood the situation. That had to be it. Griffin was not in love with her. There was no way he could be.
Everything she felt was the animal part of her that was slowly taking over. As hard as Lilah pushed against the beast in her mind, it came back with hellish fury. Her core throbbed as she made her way to the bedroom. Her breasts scraped against her t-shirt, tender and aching after that interaction.
She was trying to distract herself with athletic wear options when his scent returned. She hadn’t heard him follow her. He spun her around. His touch brought a groan from deep in her throat. The beast in her purred with pleasure. The creature wanted him. Lilah wanted him.
The way he pressed into her space, hovering over her, backing her into the bed, she couldn’t help but think he wanted her, too. It had to be pheromones. Two dragon shifters locked in the same house all the time. It was bound to happen. Tension was bound to rise. It made sense that this would be the way it snapped, into lust.
She wound her arm around the back of his neck and let him peel apart her legs before he set her on the edge of the bed. The bed they shared. Of course, this lust had gotten to them.
“Your life can have good things, too,” he whispered into her skin. His teeth dragged along her neck. He nipped her shoulder, and a shudder raced through her.
Lilah wanted to give herself over to it. She wanted to drown in everything she felt for Griffin, but it would end badly. He claimed that life could have good, but not when Lilah was involved. If she let herself love him, it would only end badly. She didn’t want to love him. Because loving him also meant losing him.
Because she couldn’t be his mate.
“This is just…” She searched for the right word. “We can do this to get it out of our systems. Alright?”
Griffin tensed. For a while, he didn’t move, didn’t breathe. Then, finally, he bit the side of her neck. His teeth sank deep, but it wasn’t pain that flowed through her. It was pleasure. Beginning in her neck, the ripples bled in every direction until they consumed her entire being. Lilah could no longer think.
Her beast hit the surface. It whispered to her what Griffin would want, what it wanted. Lilah slid her hand between them and felt the full growth of Griffin’s cock through his thin boxer briefs. He groaned, and she tightened her hand around him. The sound he made turned to a growl, greedy and hungry. It sent shivers over her skin.
He lifted her and tossed her back onto the bed. She bounced, but Griffin was already crawling over her. His hands slid beneath her shirt. She wanted to push it back down and hide the soft stomach that was still there, but Griffin bent his head and laid a trail of kisses over the sensitive skin, and her mind shattered.
Lilah could do nothing while Griffin explored her body. All she could do was linger in the sensations coursing over her. He took his time with her. His hands trailed down her sides and left fluttering trails on her skin. As he rose again, he lifted her shirt higher and higher until her breasts escaped.
Lilah once thought herself modest. She hadn’t been as proud as Vivi, but before Griffin she felt like a work of art. He stared in awe at her exposed breasts, biting his lip, and dropping to take a nipple into his mouth. She grasped his hair, holding on while his tongue worked magic over the tender skin.
This was more than she’d ever thought possible. It could be that Griffin paid her more attention than any other man ever had. Or, it could be the heightened senses that her new beast had given her. Either way, Lilah did not know if she could ever recover. No partner would ever make her feel this way again.
It was a truth she knew deep inside. Though she desperately wanted to hold onto Griffin and never let him leave her, she knew she had to make the most of what she had. This was an opportunity she would never experience again. After this, she would cut off all physical contact.
Oh, but she couldn’t. Not while she pretended to be his girlfriend. She would have to go on with the act in front of his family. She now had to pretend to be his mate. Knowing how smitten she now was, it wouldn’t be hard. What would hurt was every false kiss they shared from then on. Every practiced touch. Every lie they spoke.
Lilah wanted to keep him. Her heart demanded it. Her beast begged.
No. She shut it down and locked it away.
As quickly as she protected her heart, Griffin undid all her work. He released her nipple, letting the cold air sweep over it and making her shudder. He slid lower, fingers hooking in the waistband of her pajamas. He wiggled them over her hips as he licked his lips. Her heart stopped as she watched him.
Was the molten heat of his eyes reflected in her own? She didn’t know what it looked like, having ignored her beast for so long.
“You weren’t wearing underwear,” he growled, filled with surprise.
Lilah had to gather herself before she could speak. His hot breath over her lower bits scrambled her mind with each exhale. “I need to…do…laundry.”
It wasn’t because she was expecting sex. She hadn’t even been asking for sex. At least, she didn’t think she had. Her actions were fuzzy. She didn’t know what was the beast and what was her anymore. It could have been the beast that made her eschew underwear the night before.
She didn’t have long to think about it because Griffin’s tongue slid between her folds. Lilah cried out. She didn’t care who could hear. All of Jasper’s house could probably tell what they were up to, but that was part of the show. Right?
“You…don’t…have to do…this,” she said between breaths, between moans.
No man had ever done such a thing for her before. Griffin lapped at her moisture like it was ambrosia. His tongue swept over her most sensitive part and drowned her in another wave of pleasure. When he lifted his head, Lilah tried to memorize the way he looked. His scruff rubbed against her thick thigh, but it didn’t bother her. It sent tiny ripples rushing to her core.
“I want to do this.” He grinned. She adored that grin. Adored knowing that it was her that caused it. “I want to know every inch of you. If you’ll let me.”
Her breath caught in her throat. His words held a tone of something she couldn’t quite identify, but she didn’t have the brain power to process it. All she could do was give herself over to the pleasure of him. To the desires of her wild beast.
His tongue delved deep this time. She held onto his hair while he summoned waves of orgasmic sensation. She was close, so close. The pressure built in her core. It made her legs tighten around him. She had to control herself before she suffocated him. Her back arched and the cool air on her nipples doubled her pleasure.
&
nbsp; Lilah was about to warn him that she was close when his finger slid inside her. She cried out. The dam burst and washed her away into an ocean of pleasure. She buckled and writhed while it took her. Distantly, she was aware of Griffin’s soft chuckle.
This was not the brooding man she’d met on the street. This was not the sullen man who glared at his family. Here was the true Griffin. She’d awakened him, or so she told herself. Just as he’d awakened her orgasm.
When the wave became smaller aftershocks, she sat up and pushed him down onto the bed. Griffin’s silver hair splayed across the bed like a halo. She threw her knee over him and rocked over his cock, feeling the layer of fabric between them. He growled and gripped her hips.
Lilah was still riding a fine line. The curse could strike at any moment. It could come crashing through the walls and tear their happiness apart, but she cast it out of her mind and gave herself over to what she wanted.
She tore his boxer briefs, easily ripping through the elastic band with her new shifter strength. Griffin gasped, going still beneath her. At first, she thought she’d done something wrong, but the look he gave her was all heat and hunger. Now, his cock was free. It slid over her wet womanhood.
She groaned and let her head fall back as she rocked her hips. He was not inside her, yet, but he still felt oh so good. The ridges of his cock rubbed along her sensitive places and brought her to another small orgasm, leaving her shuddering atop him.
Griffin reached, as though he might lift her so he could position his cock, but she grabbed his arms and pushed them back onto the mattress. His growl filled the room, but he was not the only shifter in the room. She used her strength to hold him in place and take lead. Once, twice more she let herself slide over his cock.
He arched into her, obviously greedy for more. When she lifted herself, and his cock sprang up, his eyes lit with expectation. Slowly, she lowered herself onto him. At first, all she allowed was the tip. Up and down, she teased the head of his cock with her wet opening. Then, just when it looked like he couldn’t take any more, she slammed down over the rest of him.
Aurum Court Dragons: Boxset Books 1-5 Page 51
