by Jill Haven
Haiden sent me a smile and squeezed my hand before he let it go. I patted him on the back nice and hard, to convince myself I was still a man and we hadn’t just held hands for no reason.
“Can Vince’s nephew come visit us here?” Haiden asked.
I nearly hit the floor from shock that he would just come right out and say that to Carlisle, what with the way everyone acted all fuckin’ weird about anything that involved us omegas. Carlisle’s head shot up and he stared for a second, first at Haiden, then at me. I had trouble looking back at him. It just dug in under my skin to keep eye contact, and I thought maybe he didn’t like me too much either, sometimes.
“Evan Fiske,” Carlisle said, and I frowned. When had he gotten the guy’s last name? “I’m fairly certain that Vince won’t allow that. Even with Bishop and his men helping them, they’ve had trouble finding the Cloud dragons. They’re good at hiding themselves in plain sight and the ones who are left are not stupid or weak.” Carlisle frowned. “He wants to keep Evan hidden.”
“That’s a real nice fuckin’ life for him,” I grumbled, and Haiden actually elbowed me, taking me by surprise.
“Do you want to visit him?” I stilled when Carlisle shifted his gaze from Haiden to me.
“Uh…”
“Seth thinks that Evan is isolated there. Carlisle, it’s no fun feeling alone.” Haiden frowned at his mate, and I saw the magic working. Carlisle wavered and bounced his attention between the two of us. I would have tried to go for innocent, but he’d have never believed it, so I just embraced my inner asshole and crossed my arms over my chest.
“Evan isn’t under my control.”
“See, control,” I pointed out really quick.
Carlisle sighed. “Vince would let you two visit. I know he would. That’s probably the best we can do. If you’d like, I can try to arrange it, though I would prefer if everyone waited until the situation we’re having was cleared up. I don’t want you two put at risk.”
“I’m an adult,” I said.
“And I’m the Princeps Draco,” Carlisle said, loud enough that the baby squawked.
“What the hell is that?” I asked.
Haiden laughed.
“Hey, can I join the party?” Jade crept into the room and like that, the tension flowed away, well, the one where we were all worried about Evan, anyway. Haiden began babbling about how often to feed Charlotte and burp her and change her and what to do if she made this face or that face, and “never mind, just call me if you don’t know what to do,” and then I was out of there. Carlisle started trying to talk Haiden off the ceiling, but he’d have to do some pretty fancy footwork to get Haiden out the front door, I could tell. They didn’t need me hanging around. I hoped that I’d never act that way, and I really never wanted to have a kid, so that was just fine. I couldn’t imagine a life where I could take care of a baby and let the little terror grow up happy and healthy.
I backed out of the room and went and hid in mine. Mostly, what I did that night was miss Mason. Sometime overnight my chest started to ache, nothing terrible that I couldn’t survive, but I didn’t like it. The nasty feeling didn’t start to ease up until the afternoon of the next day and wasn’t gone again until I was standing on the front porch of the house like an idiot waiting for Mason to pull into the driveway, which he did a little after sundown.
Calling myself a thousand different flavors of stupid, I ran down the steps and directly into his arms the second he was out of his car. He caught me up and held me tight, and it was too good to be real. I buried my nose in his collar and pulled big sniffs into my lungs, loud enough that he laughed.
“We need to talk,” I said with my cheek smooshed against his chest because he was holding me too tight, but when he eased up, I just pressed closer.
“Okay.” He kissed the top of my head. “I felt bad too, if that’s what you want to know.”
“I hate that I feel like I have to be with you. Like, I hate that I feel like I don’t have a choice,” I mumbled into Mason’s chest.
He pressed a hard kiss to the top of my head. “Why fight instincts?”
“They’ve only ever gotten me into trouble.” I laughed and felt shaky inside. “My instincts are to bullshit and steal.”
He leaned down and said directly into my ear. “No, you’re a survivor, and I’m glad of that.” His warm breath tickled and sent goose bumps rippling over my skin.
“Don’t leave me again,” I whispered, feeling all dramatic, but I actually meant what I said.
“I have to go to Charleston probably once a week, at least, but you’re always welcome to come with me.”
I nodded. “Next time… next time I think so.”
He slid his hands down my back and when his grip landed firmly on my ass, he lifted me into a kiss. I melted against his front, feeling all sappy and weepy and just not really myself at all. I did not suckerfish onto my boyfriend this way, not that I’d ever had anyone before Mason to compare him to. He sucked on my bottom lip and a funny warmth slithered through my insides and made me all loopy and even clingier. I curled my fingers around his shoulders, and it would have probably taken a jackhammer to remove them. Normally we got rough with each other after we hadn’t gotten off for a day, and I’m not sure if he sensed my mood or what, but instead his kisses were sweet, and he was soft with me in a way we hadn’t really been with each other yet.
He wrapped his arms around me and walked me into the house. We didn’t stop to talk to anyone else, just went straight to our bedroom. I felt better with him here but didn’t realize I was shaking until he stripped me out of my clothes and we climbed under the blankets to huddle together. I shivered in his arms and we kissed, slow and easy, the heat between us slowly building until the ice that had taken over in my veins while he gone melted away leaving me hard and achy and excited. I rubbed my wood against his thigh, and he moaned into our kiss, sliding his hands down my lower back to encourage me to rock on him.
“Love it when you get yourself off on me,” he whispered against my lips, and I laughed. He pressed his hard-on against my hip when I moved a little faster, the heat gathering low in my abdomen.
He eased me onto my back, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, tilting my ass high so that he’d have no questions about what I wanted. We were both ready, but this was less about a fast fuck and more about the way he stopped to kiss along my cheeks and run his fingertip along my eyelashes when I closed my eyes. He nuzzled his nose against my neck and flicked his tongue out there, sending hot bolts of need in a rush through my stomach. He leaned back and smiled at me, and the last of the chill from him being gone lifted and I was able to take a deep breath for the first time since he went away.
“Don’t leave me again.”
He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against mine. “Anything you want.”
“That. Just don’t. Even if I say I don’t care. I really fuckin’ do.”
Mason smiled and eased his lips onto mine, licking and sucking and teasing. He treated me like I was made of glass, and since I kind of felt like I was ready to crack up around the edges, I didn’t mind that tonight. He was gentle with me when he finally slicked up and eased inside me.
It was pure relief to have his body snug in mine, and the energy that buzzed between us, that I barely noticed anymore because it had become so normal, came roaring alive again and we both gasped. I laughed as he started to move, and all at once it was like someone flipped a light on in me because he rubbed just right in my ass, and I was writhing in his arms and rocking up to match his thrusts, rushing toward bliss with him. He pistoned his hips, going stronger, faster. My dick rubbed against his abs and the delicious friction on my sensitive head sent me hurtling over the edge. My muscles clenched. I couldn’t breathe. Overwhelming tingles raced over my skin. We both gasped into each other’s mouths and then I was coming. He buried himself deep and I could tell by the way he gasped and moaned that he was unloading deep in me, and then came the best part, him being
locked tight together with me, so that I knew he wasn’t going anywhere.
12
Mason
“I don’t know about all this going out stuff,” Seth murmured from where he sat slouched in the passenger seat of my car wearing some new clothes that I’d bought him only this morning. He held himself a bit stiff. He was… well, pouting, and I couldn’t get enough of how good it looked on him. He was handsome as hell in the nice sweater he had layered over corduroy pants that should have looked outdated, but somehow were so well-fitted that they were perfect on him. They clung to every curve of his thighs and made me stare too long at his lap.
“Why? It’s fun to go out. Carouse a bit.”
“Why do you need to do that if you’re taking me?” He glared, and I chuckled under my breath.
“Figure of speech. I’m not on the market anymore.”
He let out an amused snort and went back to jiggling his knee and staring out the window as I navigated us through the downtown traffic in Charleston. He’d slowly become more at ease with me while we were at Haiden’s home, and I hated to see him winding back up to the way he was when we first met—untrusting and on guard.
“How did the pitch go that you put to that company… the, uh, the one where they do the interactive stories?”
Seth cast me a long look across the small space. “Heartfelt Comics? The choose your own adventure place? I didn’t think you were actually listening when I talked about that since it involved ones and zeros.”
I shrugged. “I don’t really understand most of what you’re saying, especially when you start talking about code, but I do pay attention to you when you talk.”
The smile he gave me was small. “I don’t know yet. They haven’t gotten back to me. There’s a lot of competition, though, so don’t hold your breath.”
That was a down note, and not where I wanted to leave things, but I pulled into the parking lot of Sincero, a Brazilian restaurant that Carlisle had recommended to me before we left the country, ‘especially if you want to impress your omega’. I glanced at Seth, who had slid as far away from me as he could to cling to the door while he stared at the front entrance to the restaurant. So far that wasn’t working out too well.
“Hey, are you okay?” I put the car into park and turned it off but made no move to get out.
“Golden. Never better,” he said and opened his door. He slid out like butter, barely getting his feet under him in time, and he was still standing there staring at the building like it was built of poisonous snakes when I rounded the car to his side.
“Are you scared?” I asked, trying my best to get him a little riled, but not truly upset with me. “Of a little spicy food?”
He straightened up and squared his shoulders like someone had taken a whip to his ass. He reached over, snagged my hand, and practically dragged me toward the entrance. I fought to hold in a laugh. Seth wasn’t exactly predictable, but I liked that I could get a rise out of him every now and again.
When we got to the revolving front door, he came to a halt. The feature was fun and reminded me of a time when they were far more common. He gaped for a second as the stained-glass separators whirled past creating a fun rainbow of ceaseless color.
“What the hell?”
“Come on,” I said, squeezing his hand. “We’ll go together.” He gave me a look and frowned, but then his pretty bow lips twitched upward. “Okay. On three?”
“Wait, one, two and go on three, or one, two, three, and then go?”
He sighed. “It’s always on three. Anything else is pure assholery.”
We snickered together, counted, and rushed in the door, walking quickly so that we could get spat out on the other side into an eye-bending, brightly decorated room that smelled like roasting meats that had my inner dragon purring. Seth gasped and pointed with a little bounce at a mural of Quetzalcoatl, a beautiful feathered dragon on the wall to our left.
“See that?”
“Yes,” I laughed.
Seth tilted his head back and sniffed the air too. I loved the way he seemed to live in high gear. His hair was meticulously styled, and his pink lips were driving me slowly mad tonight, especially when he chased his tongue along the bottom one and cast a smoldering look my way. His deep eyes captured me completely when he turned to me.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re absolutely a masterpiece, and I’m the luckiest creature to walk the earth.”
His mouth fell open and rose coloring raced up his neck to blossom in his cheeks, something that I’d only really seen take hold of him so completely during sex. He ducked his head and tugged me toward the host stand. The young man there smiled at me when Seth wouldn’t make eye contact.
“Reservations?”
“Of course. Two for Hardwick.”
Seth cast a glance my direction from under half-mast eyelids. “You have to stop that,” he muttered as we were led through the maze of tables to one in a corner. There was lively music playing over tastefully hidden speakers, slightly too loud for my sensitive hearing, and the tables weren’t all that far apart. The restaurant was packed, and the food I saw on the tables we passed looked delicious.
“Stop doing what?” I asked as we were seated.
“You know.”
“No.”
The host left us to our mini argument with a subtle grin.
He grasped the tablecloth lightly in his fingers and then smoothed the pristine white material out again. “The thing where you tell me I’m great or whatever.” He kicked at my shin under the table and connected, but it didn’t hurt enough to stop me from laughing.
Not long later our waiter came and passed us menus. Seth flipped his open and blinked at it. “Why are there only three choices, and why aren’t there any prices?” he asked the waiter, whose jaw dropped. The man glanced at me in confusion. I shook my head at him, happy I could give Seth a new experience. When you lived as long as dragons tended to, something unique was a real treat.
“We’ll have the chef’s choice,” I said, not bothering to check the menu at all. I took Seth’s from him and he stared at me like I’d gone around the bend into pure insanity. “Also, the dessert the chef recommends to follow that and the recommended wine pairing as well.”
“Very good, sir,” the waiter said, seemingly relieved. He nodded at me, ignored Seth, and rushed away again.
Leaning his elbows on the table, Seth frowned. “Why did you do that?”
“In a place like this there aren’t many choices because the chef knows his business. The more choices on the menu, the worse the food is.” I shrugged. “You don’t tell a surgeon how to sew your guts back in, why would I tell a chef his business?”
He stared at me and his nose slowly wrinkled, but he ended up snickering. “What planet do you live on?”
“The one where I want to take you out and spoil you because you’re amazing.”
There it was, the pink spread across his cheeks again. He narrowed his eyes on me. And since this was the first time I’d ever really had anything on him, I slid my hand across the table to snatch his. He let me have it after a small tug-of-war.
“Mason,” he said warningly and bared his teeth in my direction, but the color didn’t fade from his face this time. I swore his canines seemed pointier. Excitement tripped up my spine. I tried to kiss his hand, but he strained and kept it away from my lips.
“You know what else I like about you?”
“Don’t do this to me,” he whispered and slouched down in his seat, but he stared holes in me with those mystery blue eyes of his.
“You’re so smart. I have lived over three hundred years and haven’t met a man who can stump me the way that you do.”
He fluttered his eyes, not really rolling them, but still rude. “Great, I’m the wiseass of the century, and you managed to find me.” He glanced away, but the color was still high in his cheeks.
I leaned closer to him across the table and whispered, just loud enough for him, “Y
ou’re amazing in bed. I love the way you whimper when I’m inside you.”
“Mason,” he said through gritted teeth, and this time his eyes flashed with… something. I couldn’t help it. I’d always sort of liked playing at the edges of a fire, feeling the heat on my skin, smelling the smoke. He was getting mad, but he wasn’t quite there yet. Devilry rose in me and I wanted to keep him right here for as long as I could before he did something dire like douse me with his drink.
“I love the way you taste. The way you smell. The way you beg.”
He closed his eyes and I then I smelled the pure sweetness of his arousal. I brought his hand up to my lips to kiss it. He slowly opened his eyes, trapping me in the magnetic pull of them and then something painful, I suspected his toe, connected with my shin. I grunted.
“Stop or I’m leaving.”
“This is called flirting, sweetheart,” I said with a crooked grin.
“Yeah, well… I don’t know how to do it, and I don’t like it. Keep it up, and I’m out.” He didn’t rise, though, and more to it, he didn’t try to steal his hand away from me when I placed another lingering kiss on the back.
“I’ll behave,” I promised and crossed my heart.
He huffed. “You’re acting all weird.”
“I like you. I like being with you. I’m…” I searched for words, but this wasn’t something I ever thought I’d have to explain. “I’m showing you that I’m interested in you and that I care.”
He winced. “Well, lay off that crap, okay? It makes me feel all…” He patted his chest as if the gesture alone was an explanation, and maybe it was because there was an answering spark near my heart. I loved seeing him this way, happy, but trying to hide it, and even a little embarrassed, and I loved smelling how excited he was for me.
“You’re still doing it.”
“What?”
“Looking at me like I’m a pile of hundred-dollar bills.”
Grinning, I murmured, “You’re better.”
He tugged his hand free of mine to hide his face from me and kicked at me yet again. Thankfully, our food arrived fast since we didn’t do anything silly like make unnecessary special requests, and he was distracted by the plate settling in front of him. His eyebrows danced high for a moment as he sniffed at his plate and poked his fork into a pile of carnitas, but apparently, he had nothing to complain about. The spicy food was complemented perfectly by a dry red, and soon both our plates were cleared and replaced by dessert. He stalled halfway through the tres leches that had rounded out our dinner, licking at the fork.
