Dragon's Curvy Dilemma

by Mychal Daniels

  The man was an angel in the flesh. When he found out about the good faith payment and bank accounts, Daryl had been embarrassed. Instead of making a big deal about it, Asher had increased the deposit to twenty-five thousand dollars and the line of credit to the same, removing the secured money requirement. His reasoning was that she’d need the money to order materials for fabrication of the prototype she delivered. Daryl had never had that much money in the bank or tied to her name. Asher made it easy for her to finish the project without having to worry about the money to deliver a great-looking prototype. He’d made her laugh saying that if she delivered a butt-ugly prototype like the first one, he’d make her take pictures with it and post it on all her social media.

  Asher Princeton was funny, charming in a natural way, and way more than she had realized when they’d first met. A little over a week and she’d fallen hopelessly in crushing lust for him. The answer was to stay away and work, and that’s what she did.

  Sunday—The Princeton Summer Vacation Home

  Daryl had finished eating and had settled down to work on recalibration data for the new lighter materials she’d received in the mail when she heard them. Brock’s signature giggles, accompanied by splashing water, floated into her living space. That maternal urge that always surfaced when that kid was around brought a smile to Daryl’s face. He was happy and must be finally in the pool. The pool had been another area where he and his father had clashed.

  Asher had stalled, waiting for a child safety installation before allowing Brock to go anywhere near the pool. As an adult, Daryl completely understood. As a friend to Brock, she’d been able to see how tempting it was to look at a pool every day and not be able to go in. Thankfully, he’d been distracted when she’d made him her helper with her work. She’d even gotten him to help her with breakfast and lunch—that kid never turned down food—and he’d loved it.

  Today was her day to chill out, but she was working of course. She was deep in scenario calculations for various extreme weather impacts on the new outer casing materials when Brock’s little fists pounded on the window pane of a French door. Through the closed shutters, she could still see him, dripping wet, and wearing floaters—so darn cute. Unable to ignore him, she answered the door.

  “Hi Daryl, can you come out and play with me?” he asked. His hair was slicked down from the water and swim trunk shorts that rode low on his little narrow hips.

  “Hey buddy,” she stalled. There was a less than slim chance she’d get into a pool, but didn’t want to dash his hopes. “I could come out and watch you play in the pool for a little bit.”

  “I wanted you to play with me in the pool.”

  “I don’t have a swimsuit, and unlike you, I can’t swim all that well either.”

  His eyes grew large. “You can’t swim?” His question seemed like the notion was a travesty.

  She had to laugh at how seriously he looked.

  “Nope, I took a few classes when I was a child, but never got the hang of it.”

  Before she could figure out his next move, Brock yelled, “You can’t swim? Maybe Dad could show you.”

  Daryl wanted to clamp her hand over his mouth. There was no need for him to get Asher involved. She needed to stay away from him. Her cycle must be coming soon because her libido was in full rage. All her dreams had been of Asher doing amazing things to her body. Many mornings she woke sexually frustrated and aching for him. And, her daytime thoughts were not much better. She had them in various situations and levels of undress as her lust was fulfilled by him.

  Shaking her head to come back to the conversation with this cunning little boy, Daryl hurried to speak.

  “Hey there, no need to get your dad involved. I’m cool—we’re cool. I’d love to watch you play for about an hour. Then, I must get back to what I was doing. How does that sound?”

  Brock looked back toward the house and then up to her. “Cool—I’ll take it! Hurry up, Dad’s talking to Monique about something, and I don’t know how much longer he’ll be gone.”

  Confused, Daryl had to ask, “And, why does that matter?”

  A cute impish grin spread on Brock’s face as he answered, “Oh, no reason.” Grabbing her hand and tugging, he said, “Come on, Daryl. Let’s play!”

  Daryl looked back at the laptop and work spread out and then over to the beautiful pool area with waterfalls, fire pit, and other nice amenities. The decision was quick. She could spare an hour to make Brock happy. Allowing the little boy to pull her out of the guest house, Daryl padded out to the area that had been designated as Brock’s to find a seat. She wore no shoes and had on shorts and a t-shirt, but was surprisingly comfortable and glad for the lawn chair she spotted.

  She was about to sit in it when Brock said, “No, Daryl. Sit here. You can put your feet in the water. You don’t have to know how to swim for that part.”

  He was right; she didn’t have to know how to swim to do that. Easing herself down to sit on the edge of the smaller section of the pool that was littered with blow up toys, swimming noodles and inflatable lounge chairs, Daryl watched Brock smile hard.

  “Watch this, Daryl!”

  Before she could catch him, Brock took a running start and launched himself into the pool like a flying squirrel. Her heart leaped to her throat in fear as he tucked his legs into a ball and landed close to the middle of the pool with a huge splash. Water doused her, wetting up the front of her hair and clothes.

  “Brock! Didn’t I tell you not to do that?” The voice coming from behind her was deep and authoritative—Asher.

  Asher’s mini me gave him a sheepish grin and said, “I know, but I had to show Daryl real quick. Dad, she can’t swim, and I wanted to let her know some of the cool stuff she can do when you show her how to swim.”

  Embarrassment washed over Daryl. Brock did have a way of cutting to the quick of a matter. Nothing he’d said was untrue. Wanting to hide, Daryl felt herself slouching. Asher came to stand next to her. She couldn’t help stealing a quick glance to see powerful legs that were bronzed a golden hue. The man was built like a physical fitness model. He was barefoot, like them and wore swim trunks that were like Brock’s. They looked like shorts, but Daryl saw the drawstring waist. On Asher, the navy trunks looked like danger if he continued to stand this close to her. Her breath refused to resume deep breathing patterns as he remained close enough for her to lean over and touch.

  “I know you went and disturbed Daryl after I asked you not to.” The little boy looked down to hide his face from Daryl. Asher continued, “Keep being disobedient and I’ll make you go inside and take a nap. Do you understand me?”

  Daryl wanted to disappear too. This was the first time she’d seen Asher correct Brock in such a direct way. She felt sorry for the little fella. But, looking at how Asher handled the situation, she knew he did it out of love for his son. Brock had to learn boundaries and how to obey his dad. She totally agreed with that. It was so hard seeing Brock squirm from getting in trouble in front of her. It took everything not to grab him up and hug the little fella.

  Instead of joining Brock in the pool, Asher sat down next to her. His eyes drifted to her t-shirt. It was wet, and Daryl could only imagine what she must look like with the top clinging to ever bit of her upper body. She’d play it off and act like nothing was out of order. She continued to look out at Brock as he paddled fast, making little circles in the middle of the smaller shallow part of the pool. She looked to see the depth only went up to four and a half feet, but that was still taller than Brock. Instinct to protect him washed over her anew.

  Unable to stop herself from worrying, she turned to Asher and said, “Is he able to swim enough to be in deep water like this?”

  Asher returned her gaze, and for a split second, she could swear she saw hunger. The sun glinted off his eyes, and the mirage was gone. Great, now she was projecting her feelings onto this man. When he spoke, there wasn’t a hint of attraction or interest, only clear eyes that could hypnotize her if she s
tared at them for too long.

  “He’s not that great of a swimmer. The floaters make him more confident than he should be. As for the pool depth, I couldn’t get all the toys he wanted in the three-foot area. We compromised, and he was supposed to stay out of the pool while I ran in to take a quick call from Monique.”

  “Oh, I see.” Chancing it, she said, “Monique, is she your sister? Brock called me by her name the first time we met. He thought I was her, but I don’t understand how she can be his aunt.”

  “Oh, I guess I can see how that could have happened—remotely. Monique is, how can I say it, closer than a sister and my assistant. She’s the glue that keeps me and Princeton Technologies together. And, she’s eager to meet you.”

  “Wait, what? How?” A lump formed in Daryl’s throat over meeting the woman.

  “I told her all about you, and she’s excited to meet the great Daryl Livingston, Junior. She’ll be here in July. The only issue is that guest house is hers.”

  A tinge of jealousy at how Asher spoke about Monique flamed in the pit of her stomach. Daryl had mixed feelings about meeting this Monique woman.

  “Oh, I see. Do you need me to move out then?” Dread and worry that he’d changed his mind about their agreement picked at her confidence to continue the conversation. She wanted to retreat and regroup. Daryl was never good at thinking on her feet when she cared a lot. It was true, she cared about Asher and Brock more than she’d like to admit, and it was impairing her logic and reason.

  “Move out of the guest house for the week she’ll be here, but away from here, no. I’ll set you up in a first-floor guest suite in the house. You won’t have much of a barrier from Brock, being in the same house, but I’ll do my best to keep him from bothering you.”

  “Brock could never bother me. I love—I mean I like having him around.”

  Asher looked at her with his famous stare. Wheels turned making Daryl self-conscious again. He said, “I like how much you’ve shared with him. Because of you, he’s adjusted well to being up here, away from his normal routine. Neither has it escaped my notice how much you do with him each day. You have my appreciation. The time you spend with him in the mornings has helped me get a lot of work done before taking over in the afternoons.” He continued to hold her focus. His eyes did something cool, getting a little darker as he grabbed her hand and said, “Thank you, Daryl. You’ve been a true friend to Brock. It’s good having you here.”

  Hyperventilation—was that where you can’t breathe?

  Daryl lost all ability to maintain normal breathing patterns. Asher Princeton was touching her on purpose, and she wanted to pee, shout, and faint at the same time. This wasn’t about him helping her get in and out of a monster truck. He’d initiated touch and held her hand in his. Daryl wanted to pull him into her and plant a kiss on those lips that haunted her dreams.

  Then common sense rode back in to the rescue. Instead of focusing on how sensual and strong his grip was, she’d focus on a particularly pesky calculation that she’d need help with. It meant that she had to simultaneously calculate four dimensions of impact speed, much like the math used to launch rockets.

  A few seconds of this and she could respond to Asher with a semblance of sanity.

  “It’s nothing. Brock is a special kid, and I like spending time with him.”

  Asher’s hand sent radiant heat into her own. The longer he held it, the more aware she became of how hard it was to concentrate on those stupid calculations and act normal. Her body was magnetized to his. Even though her mind screamed “no don’t do it,” her body drifted inward, closer to his constellation. He didn’t release her hand and kept his eyes locked on hers.

  What was happening here?

  Daryl could feel the heat of his body closer to hers, and it felt damn good. Her imagination wasn’t playing tricks on her, she was driving closer toward him, and he wasn’t stopping her. Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips. This was enough of a gesture to get his eyes to focus on her lips. He stared at them like they were foreign but interesting. She felt her teeth bite into her full lower lip. Daryl couldn’t predict or stop what she did. It was him and being this close. His bone structure was chiseled and manly. Up close she could see that his lashes were abnormally long. This added to the brilliance of his eyes.

  Closer.

  What to do? How could she stop herself before it was too late? It was obvious, at least to her, that she was leaning in to kiss him. Daryl wasn’t a kisser. She could count on one hand the kisses she’d participated in. All had been gross disasters. Here she was about to commit a kissing crime by not being able to deliver the goods. Help! She had to stop this before it was too late and he rejected her advances. His kid was mere feet away—wasn’t he? Daryl couldn’t tell anymore, the only sound she heard was the rapid beating of her excited heartbeat.

  Closer.

  His warm breath fanned her lips and chin. He smelled like clean citrus, outdoors, and spice. A dark five o’clock shadow of a mustache and full beard hovered under his skin. Asher was always clean shaven but seeing the shadow of the promise of a full beard if he desired upped his sexiness even higher. There was something about a mature man that did it for her. Was this even cool to be doing this? Instinct took over, and Daryl found her head tilted ever so, preparing to land and lock onto those full, gorgeous lips of his. She leaned in more closing additional inches, close enough to brush his large bicep with her shoulder. Hell, yes, this was happening, and he was allowing it. Woohoo! Their faces were mere inches apart as she opened her mouth to anticipate sticking the landing and going for the tongue.

  Closer.

  Body heat licked at her from him as she was about to connect. This was it. Daryl closed her eyes and allowed bliss to take over. The pressure of his lips on hers would be part of a sweet release she’d desperately wanted and needed.

  “Dad! Did you see that? I held my breath for a long time!”

  Brock’s voice was the douse of cold water that snapped them back to their original corners of space. Daryl heard Asher clear his throat before saying, “You did it, buddy! You put your head under water! Are you going to try it again?”

  Daryl looked out to see an innocent child, clueless that he’d saved her from a mistake she couldn’t come back from. Her first rule of Asher Princeton was, dream all she wanted, but never touch. She had to get out of here. Her hormones were on some hyper drive shit. Daryl had almost kissed Asher in broad daylight in front of Brock. He was a guy. Guys wouldn’t turn down free advances from any chick. She knew better and had to do better. There was no way she’d get the respect she or her father deserved if she came onto Asher.

  Sleeping her way to the top would never be a true statement that could be associated with her or her work if she could help it. Mustering up the strength to do the right thing, Daryl hopped up from the pool’s edge fast.

  “Brock, you’re doing it!” She gave the kid a thumb’s up. “Keep at it. I have to get back to work now, but I want you to do one for me too.” Tossing what must have looked like an apologetic smile at Asher, she added, “See you two later!” She waved and walked back to the guest house as fast as she could without breaking into a run.

  11

  Asher—The Pool Behind the Main House

  Shit!

  He’d blown it with Daryl. Against his better judgment, he’d let his need get the better of him and held her hand. It was better than he imagined all those times, allowing himself to touch her. That simple gesture had ignited his thirst for more of her. Fuck a business conflict of interest or forbidden fruit. The attraction between them was palpable. When she’d leaned in, he played it as cool as possible. He didn’t want to spook or scare her off with coming on too strong. Instead, he hung back, letting her take the lead on what happened. She’d been about to kiss him.

  His thoughts still lingered on how sweet her plump lips would have tasted. And oh God, when she bit her lower lip, he thought he’d come right there in his shorts. Did she know how s
exy she was? Every movement was like watching a vibrant fusion of poetry and seduction. And this from a chaste holding of her hand. His body vibrated with the notion of what it would be like when he held her and made love to her, like he wanted to.

  It had only been the grace of years of practiced restraint that helped him when he saw her wet t-shirt. Her breasts, so perky and full, had greeted him like they’d been prepared specifically for his pleasure. All he wanted to do was feast on them for the rest of the day. Her hardened nipples had been the last nail in the coffin that was his denial of his feelings for her. He had to have Daryl. There was no getting around it.

  His desire for her was more than sexual too. Not only was she a genius in the business sector of his company, but Daryl also had social grace, emotional intelligence beyond her years, and a magical touch with Brock. Everything about how she viewed the world, talked with him and cared about Brock made him want to spend more time with her. When she’d shown sincere concern about the depth of the pool and Brock’s safety, Asher knew this woman was extra special in his life. His dragon responded to her like no other woman before her as well.

  Around Daryl, he was peaceful. Yes, he wanted her but gone was the need to conquer and move on. Now, he wanted to be with her in every way for the long haul. He could see them being best friends and lovers, growing their businesses together and having a great family. Asher wanted to spend time getting to know her and learning about her world. He wanted to know her work process and what she did when he saw the light on in her bedroom as he went to bed. She held more than his interest. Daryl was acquiring more of his heart with each passing day.