I felt Nicole tense up next to me and she looked to me for help but just as quickly turned to him and smiled tightly, “Hello.” That was all she said. She didn’t even call him her father. He sat at the other end of the table and our paths didn’t cross for the entirety of the brunch, but even I could feel his eyes on us.
“Are you alright?” I whispered in her ear.
She didn’t look alright even as she made casual conversation and her eyes were shining when she turned to me and nodded curtly. When I covered her hand with mine on the table, intending to comfort her, she smiled softly.
I didn’t move my hand for a while.
“Justin King!” Scott Schuler was the retired CEO of a financial firm. He loved to talk to me all the time for some reason even though he wasn’t much of a player anymore beyond some personal investments here and there. He sat down across from me as soon as the seat was vacated and leaned forward, grinning.
“Scott!” I laughed and introduced him to Nicole. She was just as charming as she’d been all morning. I finally managed to move my hand from hers and I hid it under the table. My blood felt as if it was buzzing. Even as I talked to people, I keenly felt her presence next to mine. The scent of her was driving me crazy.
“I have something for you,” Scott said, he reached into his jacket pocket and frowned. “I was just in Switzerland. You remember we were talking about the craftsmanship of gold craft? You mentioned this one maker of decorative gold spoons in Zurich…”
“Ah…” I flushed and glanced at Nicole who was smirking to herself and looking down at her mimosa. I did remember that conversation. It didn’t exactly come up often. But I know a lot about gold craft, being a dragon with an impressive hoard. Somehow I’d talked about it with this guy. To him it was talking about his weird little hobby. To me though it was like talking about porn. Gold is an intense aphrodisiac for a dragon. “Yes...I remember that.”
I felt like Nicole’s gaze was boring into me. She was going to tease me about this later, I could tell.
“Yes, well I picked one up for you in Zurich,” Scott beamed and reaching into another jacket pocket, he extracted the most magnificent golden spoon I’d ever seen (and I’d seen a lot of golden spoons).
Scott handed me the spoon and it took all of my self-control, with Nicole sitting right there, not to betray how turned on I was, though I could feel my cheeks burning. I heard Nicole’s breath catch next to me and my other hand shook under the table where it rested on my knee, only inches from her.
The spoon was small and engraved with filigree. The shine of the gold was flawless. I held it in my hand and it felt warm immediately and I saw Nicole’s face in the reflection, my cock swelling under the table. I heard Nicole’s breath catch next to me and that didn’t help matters either.
“It’s exquisite,” I said softly.
“It’s yours,” Scott said, grinning and looking jovial. I had heard that he was a magnanimous sort, always buying lavish gifts for friends and acquaintances. He was absurdly rich. The gift had probably been an impulse, casually picked up on a trip with other high-end souvenirs. He couldn’t know that this would go into my hoard. He certainly didn’t know that handing it to me was like handing me porn in the middle of brunch.
“Scott, thank you,” I finally said, dragging my gaze away from both Nicole and the spoon. I gave him a long look and he only nodded just before somebody else pulled him into a conversation.
The weather was warm, even under the shade of the pavilion, but that didn’t entirely explain how hot I was now. Nicole was aroused. My dragon could sense it. I turned a little in my seat and held the spoon in the palm of my hand. I was treading on dangerous ground but my mind was buzzing with want as my gaze rose to meet hers.
“Do you want to touch it?” I said quietly.
Nicole’s cheeks were pink and when her tongue flicked out to rest between her bottom lip, I shifted in my chair, uncomfortably erect. She reached up with her delicate hand; warm brown skin and nails painted peach. She covered the spoon with her hand and when her fingers entwined with mine, I gasped a little.
We didn’t speak. Speaking would have ruined it. I was almost facing her now and the world seemed to disappear around us. Under the table, I lifted my hand and placed it on her knee. I waited for her to move away or say something but she only nodded slightly, her eyelids heavy. Our hands were tangled together, the gold of the spoon warm between us and heightening every sensation. I moved my hand under the hem of her dress and dropped my gaze to see her knees part a little. The implication was taking all coherent thought from my mind as I slid my hand up her bare thigh, her every breath as loud to me as a howl of pleasure. I moved slowly, lost to the feel of that smooth warm skin under my palm as my palm slid up, up, up…
“Espresso, sir?” The server’s voice sounded like a crack of thunder to me and I jerked, nearly knocking him over as he leaned toward us with a platter full of espressos. The gold spoon clattered to the table and I grabbed it, shoving it in my pocket and out of sight.
“I’m sorry, excuse me,” I mumbled, reaching up to help steady the server. I took a cup and thanked him Nicole made a little choking noise and moved to sit forward in her chair. Her chest was all flushed and I bit my lip hard, staring fixedly at the espresso as I added some sweetener and cream.
Nicole said, “That was just…”
“Yeah,” I said quickly. “I know.”
“It’s just...gold.”
I don’t really know what we were saying. We were trying so hard to act normal suddenly, that we probably looked a little weird staring into our espressos.
Just the gold, I told myself. It was like catnip. I shouldn’t expect anything from that. But I could still feel a pulsing thread of desire between us even as I sipped my coffee and tried without success to follow a conversation between Scott and Richard.
“We can go soon,” I said to Nicole out the side of my mouth.
She smiled, looking grateful. I wondered how long she’d wanted to get out of here and hadn’t said so. I’d thought she would. She didn’t seem like she was shy about saying what she wanted. But I had to remember that though she was outspoken, I was her boss two times over. Of course, she might not feel comfortable speaking freely.
“Do you want to go now?” I said, trying to catch her eye.
“Oh...we don’t have to.”
“Don’t start being nice to me,” I said, chuckling. “I won’t know what to do with myself. Let’s start saying our goodbyes, huh? That will take at least half an hour.”
It took an entire hour. We made our way around the table and I still couldn’t stop watching Nicole as she moved around the table making small talk and being charming and assuring every single person that it had been an incredible pleasure to meet them. She was like a First Lady. She pointedly skipped her own father who pointedly did not look at her either. It was as if the air turned icy around the two of them and it made me wonder.
Finally, we were back in the car and I watched Nicole immediately switch from First Lady to irritated coder. It made me smile. “Thank God for booze,” she said, sighing. “I wouldn’t have made it.”
“I’m sorry about your father,” I said, stripping out of my jacket. My erection was at half-mast but I was still uncomfortably warm. I tried to think about playing racquetball with Richard which was about the most un-sexiest thing I could imagine. I folded my jacket up and clutched it in my lap, hoping Nicole hadn’t noticed my problem. But she wasn’t watching, her eyes shut as she threw her head back and sighed heavily. “We should have talked about that before.”
“It occurred to me,” she said, softly. “I’ve run across him from before.”
“Can I ask what the bad blood is?” I said. I wasn’t any less warm in my t-shirt, only more keenly aware of a drip of sweat sliding down my spine as I imagined Nicole behind me, licking it away...atop a giant pile of gold…
“He wanted a son,” she said, shrugging. “You know dragons and their heirs. A m
ale to leave the hoard to. He treated me like shit because of it. I mean really. He was cruel to me. I emancipated myself when I was sixteen. I didn’t want any of his money or anything to do with him. That’s why I don’t want him to know about my son.”
“I’m sorry,” I said seriously. “Hmm. Ya know, he did always strike me as a real asshole. Glad I don’t have to deal with him.”
She smiled at me genuinely for that. I felt like we were really starting to get along the more we got to know each other. I felt an abrupt rush of affection and the desire for her to know me, even all the parts of me the dragon wanted to hide away. I pursed my lips and looked away.
“I...I know the spoon didn’t mean anything,” Nicole said. Her voice sounded small. She was crouching in the corner of the backseat, as if making herself small too. “I don’t want you to think...I mean we couldn’t help. Heh. Gold and all that.”
The car sped back to the city and I stared at Nicole, having no idea how to respond. I should have just agreed.
No, I should have said. Of course, it didn’t mean anything. It’s just our dragon natures.
But I didn’t want to lie.
The spoon felt like it was burning in my pocket.
Chapter Seven: Nicole
I was in so much trouble.
The car was nearing my apartment now and if anything, I felt as if there was more tension between us than there had been before. I’d intended to alleviate it. I just didn’t want Justin to think I expected anything of him, even sex. But he hadn’t said anything and if he didn’t say anything before he dropped me off, I thought I might lose my mind a little bit. I just wanted to know where we stood exactly.
I’d felt so good at that brunch, for the most part. I’d done well and I knew it. I’d felt even better with my father right there as I pointedly ignored him. I’d kept his name out of sheer apathy but Perkins is a common name and few people knew he’d ever even had a daughter (that was how much he’d hated me), so there had been no uncomfortable questions. If there were, I’d deal with them. But it felt good to be confident and charming right in front of him as I ignored his presence. I’d felt sort of powerful. I hadn’t missed the way Justin was watching me either. He’d seemed so pleased. He wasn’t even being his usual smug self. I’d taken him by surprise, I guess.
But then the spoon…
I knew I’d be obsessing about it all day and night once he dropped me off. I’d wanted him to ravish me, I’d been so turned on. I’d wanted him to tear my clothes off and drag that spoon slowly down my body and follow it with his tongue…
He’d been just as turned on too. I was sure of it. I’d sensed it coming off of him in waves. I was pretty sure he’d had an erection.
“Well, here we are,” he said softly. “Um… I could walk you up?”
“Okay!” I bit my lip, feeling foolish for how eager I was. He was probably just being polite. But he got out first and came around to help me out of the car before the driver could even get there.
“You’re so chivalrous,” I said, smiling wryly, perhaps trying too hard to lighten things up. “I wouldn’t have expected it.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” Justin said. He smirked at me as we strolled down the sidewalk. It was the same smirk he’d been wearing on magazine covers and in interviews and Instagram videos as always. The smirk that I’d rolled my eyes at for such a long time. It looked different to me now. It felt different.
I wondered if it was the smirk of a guy pretending he wasn’t lonely.
What really killed me was when he rested his hand on the small of my back as we walked up the stairs. Talk about chivalrous. When he reached my door, we stood there awkwardly, the both of us seemingly clueless as to how this should go. It wasn’t a real date, and yet...it really felt like one.
“Listen,” Justin said, clearing his throat. “If I know your father is going to be at one of these things in the future, I can definitely let you know. I’ll try to find out.”
“It’s really not a big deal,” I said, smiling softly. “But...that would be nice. Thank you. I just...I’ve actually worried sometimes that if he found out about Tyler that he’d try to take him away from me. He’s got a lot of power. He could, I don’t know...declare me unfit for some made up reason or-”
“I’d never let that happen,” Justin said. He sounded so fierce. He sounded like...a mate.
I looked up at him and realized how close he was now.
Kiss me, I thought. Kiss me…
Justin didn’t kiss me but he raised his hand and stroked my cheek and I leaned into the touch just before he dropped his hand again and seeming sheepish, ran his fingers through his shaggy, dark hair, blinking rapidly.
“I’m gonna go,” he mumbled. “Um-”
“You’ll let me know when you need me again-”
“Yeah,” he said. He was already turning to leave. He tossed me a wave and one last ambiguous look. “Goodbye, Nicole.”
“Bye,” I whispered. I got inside as quickly as I could.
It felt almost physically painful to watch him walk away.
I was in very big trouble.
The rest of the day was pretty peaceful. I played with Tyler and read him some books. He was just starting to pick out small words with my help. It was very exciting. I sat him down with some toys and did some laundry, put dinner on, did the dishes the babysitter had left behind. I thought I might take Justin up on some free childcare as long as he was offering. I was using whoever was free and willing in my building who didn’t seem like a criminal but I was pretty sure Tyler was, at best, indifferent to them.
But that night, once I put Tyler to bed, I was left alone with my thoughts.
My thoughts were of Justin, that golden spoon, his hand on my thigh and his thumb stroking my cheek…
I took a cool shower, as if that was going to help anything. Instead I found myself turning the dial up warmer and warmer and pouring some body wash onto a loofah as I thought about Justin’s hot hands. My own hands wandered over my body and I thought about what Justin might be like in bed. I’d always imagined he’d be a selfish lover, too used to people telling him he was good at everything and too entitled to be giving. But maybe not. He was being so kind and understanding with me. It only made his confidence seemed earned rather than egotistical. It’s not as if he didn’t have anything to be smug about in the looks department either. He had those fiery brown eyes that seemed to burn with passion for whatever he was doing or talking about. He had that sharp jawline, sometimes dusted with dark stubble. He filled out his clothes too nicely for me to think that he didn’t have a gorgeously muscular body underneath. When he’d taken off his jacket in the car, I’d seen that lovely vein running up his forearm to his bicep that bulged through the thin sleeve. There had been more than one paparazzi shot of Justin King splashed across my computer screen that showed him coming out of a gym or returning from a rock climb wearing leggings that showed off thick thighs and calves.
In the shower, I got all worked up. That had been the opposite of my intention.
I supposed it didn’t matter. I could at least give myself some relief. It didn’t mean I expected anything from Justin.
Out of the shower, I quickly dressed for bed and dried my hair. I turned out the light and under the covers, I thought again of Justin’s hand on my thigh. I let my hand wander under my nighty and into my panties and I teased my entrance as I remembered our hands clasping that golden spoon and the fire in his eyes as he looked at me. I wanted to tease things out, but I couldn’t stop myself from fingering my clit as I massaged my breasts and shut my eyes, thinking about Justin dragging that spoon down my body and kissing me like he meant it.
I came absurdly quickly, much more quickly than I usually do. But the orgasm overwhelmed me. I thought of Justin inside me, my legs wrapped around him, how I’d feel the fire of his dragon as he fucked me and made me his…
I had to bite my hand not to cry out.
Chapter Eight: Just
in
After the brunch, I felt more mixed up than ever about whatever was going on with Nicole. I wanted to put it all down to the weirdness of the situation we were in. Maybe it was natural to feel like a fake relationship was real? The gold spoon certainly didn’t help. I got home from dropping off Nicole and jerked off twice, clutching it in my hand and thinking of her flushed cheeks and the way she parted her knees, letting me slide my hand up her thighs…
On Sunday, I texted my dragon bros. I needed to meet and be around my buddies. Maybe they could even give me some advice. It had been a while since I’d seen them. I didn’t really expect anybody to be free that night on such short notice. I figured we’d make plans for later. But three of them were available and agreed to come over to my place for drinks.
I spent Sunday morning working out and on the phone. Joanie had left me three voicemails so I called her and gave her a rundown on the brunch (I left out the part about the golden spoon). She still seemed a little put out over my choice to use Nicole instead one of her selections for a phony girlfriend, but she was trying to go with the flow, I could tell. She kept asking me why. I told her there was “something special” about Nicole. I could hardly tell her it was because Nicole was a dragon shifter.
At six o’clock, David arrived. I expected that because David was always the most punctual...that is, when he actually left his house. He was rich as I was and he lived in a mansion in Brooklyn and as far as I knew, he only left to hang out with our little club. He was a complete hermit and he was barely thirty-four. We all worried a little about David’s odd habits, but he’d been like that for a couple of years we had known him, and when he was with us he seemed content enough. I knew he had sort of a dark past, but I’d never learned the details.
“Justin.” David nodded at me, smiling warmly and I shook his hand and clapped him on the back as I led him inside from the massive foyer and the elevator that serviced only floors.
Dragon's Fake Mate Page 6
