by Callie Rose
“Oh, I know! You went through one of those hedge mazes and got lost, right? I saw that movie.” Hannah’s eyes laughed as she sipped her drink.
He blew an impatient breath out of his nose. “Not at all. I was pacing the garden when I heard a woman scream. I… went to investigate.”
The way he hesitated made me wonder if he had actually run in the other direction.
“And then?” I demanded.
“Then I woke up with horns, wings, and emerald-colored scales,” he said coolly. “I was also about thirty feet long from snout to tail. I figured out how to shift back from dragon form to human, but I couldn’t always control it. And I couldn’t allow myself to be seen by anyone I knew in that condition. So I went to a shaman in Africa. The Custodians met me upon my arrival and informed me of the facts of the situation.”
“So you what, flapped your wings and flew all the way to Africa?”
He sighed. “No, Piper. I went in human form. And I took the jet.”
“Oh. He took the jet,” I groaned, rolling my eyes at Hannah. Great. I was hooked for life to a spoiled brat with a bad attitude.
“What would you have done with the company if you had been able to inherit it?” Jayce leaned forward with interest. I wasn’t sure if it was his acting background or what, but he was interested in everybody. In everything. Curiosity radiated from him like sunshine.
“Run it,” Kingston replied shortly.
“Just the way it’s always been run?” Jayce asked, looking startled.
“Of course. With a few improvements, perhaps. I don’t believe the company is running at peak efficiency. I feel a couple of good tweaks would increase our annual profits by half a billion at least.”
“Half a billion… annually… and you would just, what, sit on it?” Jayce had the look of someone whose entire worldview had just been called into question. I felt bad for the poor guy.
“Of course not,” Kingston sniffed. “I would invest it.”
“In what?”
“Oh, diamonds, oil, politics, that sort of thing.”
The blond-haired surfer was beginning to turn red. I touched his hand, and he took a deep breath, letting some of his anger siphon off. “Well, at least you’re here now,” he said begrudgingly. “On the right side of things.”
“You call this the right side?” Kingston scoffed. “Out in the middle of nowhere, cut off from the entire world and all of my connections, surrounded by monsters? This is… is… bullshit, is what it is. I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“You won’t be cut off from the world forever.” Jayce shoved an exasperated hand through his hair. “When we’re finished here, we’re going to help save the world! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“And who gets the recognition? It sounds like a lot of hard work for no payout, if you ask me—but I didn’t hear anybody ask me anything. I had a kingdom at my fingertips. An empire. Now I’m expected to walk away and never look back just because some dragon decided it wanted a midnight snack and didn’t quite finish the job? How is that fair?”
“It’s not about the recognition!” Jayce was speaking through his teeth now.
I’d had enough. They were never going to see eye-to-eye on this, no matter how hard Jayce tried. I shook my head and pushed away from the table. Hannah reached out a hand to stop me.
“I’ll be right back,” I told her, giving her a look that said for the love of God, give me a minute. She nodded and put her hand back down. I’d spotted the bathroom when we came in and I made for it now, casting a disparaging look at Kingston as I passed.
I could tell he was following me. Each of these guys’ scents were like blips on my radar, letting me know exactly where they were anytime they were in close proximity. I only made it into the dark hallway leading to the bathroom before he caught up to me.
“Wow.” I turned around to confront him when he was less than a foot and a half away from me. “Personal space, dude, personal space.”
“What was that about?” he demanded, ignoring my words.
“What was what about?”
“That look you gave me! Why are you being such a bitch?”
“Maybe because you’re a complete dick.” I crossed my arms and tossed my hair back as he took a step toward me.
“What the hell do you expect me to be?” He narrowed his eyes “The Custodians throw me in here, you cast your spell on me—shit, Piper, I didn’t do anything to deserve this!”
“You’re damn right you didn’t! If it was a matter of choice, I would have left you where I found you!”
He growled, and his skin shimmered golden green for a moment. He was on the verge of losing control, but so was I. Arguing with him in this tiny enclosed space had me drowning in his essence. My body ached to touch him while my mind was screaming that he needed to be knocked down a peg or three.
“Watch yourself before you blow our cover,” I snapped.
“I shouldn’t have any cover to blow! I don’t want to spend the rest of my existence as a fucking dragon shifter! What the fuck is wrong with all of you? How can you just accept that this is—”
He never got to finish his thought, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t listening anyway. My gaze had fallen to his lips as he spoke, and something inside me finally snapped. I had been boiling alive from the inside ever since the three guys walked into the bar—hell, since long before that—and I needed him desperately.
I grabbed him by his stupid collar and smashed my mouth against his stupid lips, drinking in all of that stupid moneyed essence until my bones vibrated with power.
He responded with angry passion, wrestling my tongue in a way that sent shocks of hot energy down through my torso. I ground my hips against him and raked my fingers through his unreasonably soft hair, and he groaned at the contact. Breathing hard, he grabbed my waist like he was trying to crush me in his arms, his fingers gripping me with bruising intensity as he attacked my mouth with his.
Long before I was finished, but after I’d had my fill, he broke away with a gasp and stared at me with big, stunned green eyes.
He took a step back, nearly flinging his body away from me.
Then he turned on his heel and stalked back toward the light and crowd of the bar.
Chapter Twelve
“Has Kingston talked to you yet?”
Nope. Not for the past month.
Not since the night I’d kissed him at the bar.
Hannah and I were getting ready for class. I was looking forward to my lunchtime study break with Jayce and made a face at the very mention of Kingston’s name.
“He acknowledges me occasionally when he deems it worth his time,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’m not too broken up about it. If I’d known what kind of guy he was before all this, I never would have bonded with him.”
“You say that like you had a choice,” she commented, slipping her light pink tunic over her head.
I shrugged. “Yeah. I like to feel like I’m in control of something around here.”
“Yeah, I get that. Oh, did they ever end up taking you out of Spell Casting class?”
I nodded. “They moved me to Mind Control. Now that I know what I am, there’s no point in trying to learn that kind of magic. I would just keep lighting feathers on fire and accidentally seducing the class pet.”
Hannah laughed. “Fair enough. I’m having a blast in that class. Literally. I’ve been practicing with energy balls all week and yesterday I smashed the hell out of a desk. Accidentally,” she added quickly. “But, oh my God, was it fun.”
“You should spar with that next time you’re paired with one of Sonja’s minions.”
She gave me a disapproving look but her eyes were twinkling. “I wouldn’t want to actually hurt them.”
“Singe their hair?” I asked hopefully.
She laughed at me. “Come on, let’s go before all the sausage rolls are gone.”
I followed her down to breakfast. Jayce had seats saved for us, and I was
delighted to see that Xero was with him too. Kingston sat at the far end of the table. He’d started doing that lately, staying close but not interacting. It was infuriating, but it wasn’t as irritating as it could have been. Kai, for example, had made a habit of leaving every room I walked into.
I caught his eye from across the dining hall as I sat down next to Jayce. Yup. Right on fucking cue, Kai got up and took his breakfast into the hallway. I ground my teeth together but I let it go. Either he would come around or he wouldn’t, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
Jayce put his arm around me and kissed me, and my whole body melted into his touch. “Good morning, Pipes. How’d you sleep?”
“Like the dead. Seriously, I feel like I just crawled out of my coffin.”
He slid a steaming hot cup of coffee to me. I took a drink and sighed happily. He’d doctored it perfectly. Jayce acting like a proper boyfriend took a little of the sting out of the others’ rejection. Not to mention the fact that he was pretty much single-handedly keeping me alive.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Like Cassandra had said, I could replenish my power from the sexual energy of someone who wasn’t one of my four—it just wouldn’t be as powerful.
But the only problem with that was, I didn’t want anyone else.
That aura of sexual energy, that feeling of being on ecstasy, stayed with me pretty much all the time, although I’d learned to live with it and control it well enough to function. I was made of sex, literally a creature who fed off of it.
But there were really only four men my body truly craved.
I scooched closer to Jayce, my clit throbbing pleasantly as he rested a hand on my leg, running it casually up my thigh.
“Combat exam today,” Xero reminded us. He sketched that small smile in my direction and I returned it. Xero hadn’t been nearly as eager as Jayce to take part in our—whatever it was—but at least he hung around. Having the two of them close by always made me feel better, psychologically and physically. It was never enough, though. No matter what I did, it always felt like pieces were missing from my soul.
We finished breakfast, and I went to class flanked by Hannah and Jayce. Xero and Kingston had Demonology with Kai first thing in the morning, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Jayce was the most attentive of the bunch, I might have asked to have my schedule switched. It made me feel stupid and weak, but I needed my men around me.
“Welcome, class. We have a lot on the agenda today, so stay with me. No daydreaming.” Sven gave me a sharp look when he said that, and I sketched a sassy salute in his direction. I’d gotten myself a reputation, apparently. Fortunately, I’d been passing all of my tests anyway, but only because Jayce and Hannah were incredibly supportive. Morning was not my friend.
At least History was starting to get more interesting. We’d moved past fallen activities during the agricultural revolution and were coming up on the dark ages. Even human history had stories of battles with wizards and dragons during that time, and I assumed that fallen history was even more colorful.
But then Sven started droning… and I started drifting. You’d think a man who looked like a Viking would be a more colorful speaker. Jayce’s presence and the absence of the other three got my mind spinning in an erotic direction born of unsatisfied need, and I drifted into a daydream involving my four men in that empty room at the top of the tower.
Jayce pinched my thigh, and I had to bite back a moan. “Pay attention,” he whispered with a twinkle in his eye.
“Okay, okay.”
“Which is why humans eventually forgot that these creatures were real,” Sven concluded.
Goddammit. I could have kicked myself. That sounded important. I looked helplessly at Jayce, and he slid his notes across his desk in my direction without even looking at me. I grinned as I copied them. What did I need the other guys for, anyway? Jayce was great.
But I did need them. So fucking much it was driving me crazy.
I kissed him goodbye in the hallway after class and nearly lost myself in his embrace again. We’d had sex less than twenty-four hours ago, but my new sex drive was getting completely out of control. I was grinding and groping as his tongue slipped between my lips and tangled with my own, and I would have torn his clothes off if he hadn’t stepped away.
“See you at lunch,” he said breathlessly. “Your room?”
“My room,” I murmured, tugging my lip between my teeth. “See you.”
The next few hours were torturous. Not only did I not have my guys with me, but I was so incredibly turned on I thought I might actually die if I didn’t get some action. When we were finally released for lunch, I raced up the stairs toward my room. Who needed food anyway?
Jayce was already waiting for me at the end of the long corridor leading to the alcove where Hannah’s and my room sat. He was leaning against the wall, one foot resting against the dark stone behind him, and the sight of his casual, muscled body made a flare of lust shoot through me.
He looked like a fucking movie star chilling out between takes as he shot a new summer blockbuster.
And I got to bang him during my lunch hour.
So, okay, there are a few perks to this whole “becoming one of the fallen” business.
He glanced up as I approached, and the look on his face mirrored everything I was feeling—relief, desperation, and blazing desire.
It spurred something inside me, and I picked up my pace as he pressed away from the wall and began moving down the corridor toward me with determined strides, like he couldn’t fucking wait for me to reach him.
We collided in the middle of the hall, and his lips were on mine immediately, picking up right where we’d left off downstairs a few hours ago. Only this time, we didn’t have to stop, and that knowledge drove us both on.
My hands roamed possessively over every inch of him as we tried to make our way back down the hall without breaking apart. We kept stumbling and running into walls, and at one point, Jayce gave up on moving us toward my door entirely, pressing me against the hard stone wall of the corridor and grinding his hard-on against me, groaning into my mouth.
Fuck.
We were so close to the damn bedroom.
You can make it, Pipes. You have some self-control left, right?
The answer to that was a resounding “no”, but when I wrapped my legs around his waist, prepared to fuck him right then and there, he pulled me away from the wall and hitched me higher against his body. Then he carried me the last few steps to my door and shoved it open.
As soon as we were inside the room, clothes started flying, fabric ending up strewn haphazardly around the room. Jayce and I were naked in seconds, and oh, holy shit, why did we ever spend a second of our lives any other way? We’d had sex so many times I’d lost track, but I could never get enough of the sight of his chiseled, perfectly golden skin. He looked like a surfer—the kind you wanted to snatch off the beach and lick all the sea salt off of.
Our bodies melded together again as we stumbled toward my too-small bed, laughing and panting as we tried to do everything at once, touch everywhere at once. He wrapped his arms around me and spun me around as I reached the bed, and I dropped backward onto the slightly lumpy mattress. He followed me down, his body covering mine, his thick cock driving inside me almost as soon as my back hit the bed.
I was ready for him. I was always fucking ready. My clit had been throbbing with an unsatisfied ache for hours, desperate for attention, and my pussy was slick with need. The feel of him filling me, slamming home in one hard stroke, broke the tension that’d been gathering inside me since our first class.
“Fuck, Jayce! Fuck!”
My walls clenched around him, and I rolled my hips as an orgasm swept through me, swirling and grinding against him to draw out the pleasure as he braced himself on his arms, panting and gazing down at me.
“Goddamn, I love how responsive you are, Piper.”
He drew out and thrust back in hard even as my wall
s continued to flutter around him, making my first orgasm roll into a second, smaller one. I moaned, and his blue eyes sparked with satisfaction at my response.
“More, baby? You want more?”
“Fuck yes. Hard. Fast. Don’t fucking stop.”
He grinned widely, and then he gave me just what I needed, setting a pace that made the bed frame shake. I hooked my legs around him, digging my heels into his ass, urging him on as he tipped his head and drew one of my breasts into his mouth.
The feel of his tongue swirling around my hard nipple shot a bolt of pleasure straight through me, and I arched my back, crying out loudly.
“Yes, Piper. God, yes.”
He released that breast from his sweet torture only to switch sides, repeating the action on my other nipple and making me whimper breathlessly.
Fuck. More. I needed more of that.
Pushing against his shoulders, I rolled us so I was on top, keeping him buried inside my pussy as we moved. We almost fell off the bed, but I was too far gone to care—with one knee braced on the mattress and one foot on the floor, I used the leverage to rise up and slam back down on his cock, riding him like my life depended on it. I played with my breasts as I did, squeezing and massaging the aching flesh and tugging on my nipples.
Jayce’s gaze zeroed in on the sight, and his fingertips dug into my hips as he guided me up and down, lifting his hips off the bed on each stroke to meet me. His cock impaled me so deeply it rode the line between pleasure and pain, edging toward pleasure as my body built toward another orgasm.
My eyes were about to roll back in my head from the intensity of the sensations buffeting me, but I forced myself to keep watching him. My gaze locked on his lust-filled, carefree, infectious smile as he fucked me the way he must’ve surfed back when he was human—with unbounded energy and passion, with powerful strokes and pure joy.
That gorgeous, seductive grin stayed on his face as he released one of my hips and moved his hand over to rub my clit, and I wasn’t sure if it was the pressure of his talented thumb or just the sight of the man beneath me, but I lost the battle against my impending orgasm. It tore through my body like a flash of lightning, and I collapsed on top of him, rubbing my chest against his as I rode out the aftershocks.
