by Amelia Jade
Ivore lifted his eyebrows. “Pardon?”
“You’d think a financial advisor would do smarter things than spend government money on a lonely cupcake shop that may or may not succeed. Don’t you think?”
The big man smiled, perfect teeth glinting in the dim light, looking just as white as his hair. She yanked her gaze away before his deep, dark blue eyes could lure her in. She was not falling for that trick with him.
“Who said I was spending the government’s money?” He winked at her, and Violet had to be careful not to splash her newly delivered water as her stomach flip-flopped on her.
“Well, shouldn’t you be smarter about your money then?” She carefully focused her attention on her arm so that it wouldn’t wobble as she lifted it to her mouth, irritated at the reactions he was able to garner from her with little more than a gesture.
Ivore waved off her objection. “Everyone should be free to indulge in their vices every now and then,” he countered. “After all, what good is money if you never spend any of it? I didn’t acquire my wealth simply to hoard it. I earned so I could spend it.”
The way he finished his last sentence seemed off. Like he’d intended to say more, but had cut himself short abruptly. What was it he wasn’t telling her about spending his money, she wondered?
“Well if you’re already wealthy, then why are you so interested in a little cupcake shop?”
Ivore sipped at his own water. “Unlimited free cupcakes.”
“Right. You realize you could buy that for the amount of money you’re going to put into this, don’t you?”
“Not ones as good as those I had the other day. They were some of the best cupcakes I’ve ever had.” Ivore was smirking now, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why.
“If you say so.” She refrained from saying any more as the server returned to take their orders.
***
Dinner itself was amazing. She ordered the prime rib after Ivore insisted he was paying for the meal, and she thoroughly enjoyed it. They signed some documents and made small talk about the next steps, but for the most part it was an uninteresting dinner. True to his word, Ivore didn’t try a thing.
He was perhaps a little overzealous in jumping out and opening the car door for her after bringing her back to the house she shared with Andria, but Violet wasn’t about to dwell on it.
“Goodnight, Ivore,” she said as he closed the door.
“Goodnight, Violet.” He stood next to the car, arms dangling at his sides awkwardly, as if he wasn’t sure what to do with them.
Shit. Was she supposed to hug him? Was that what he expected to happen?
“Thank you for dinner.” This was getting uncomfortable. Could he just leave and go get in his car?
“You’re very welcome. I’m happy to be in business with you.” His eyes darted around everywhere, and then without warning he stepped in close to give her a hug.
Violet closed her eyes and lifted her own arms. Did they really have to do this? She didn’t want to hug him…did she? Well, her ass certainly wasn’t out. And now they were holding the hug.
Still holding it.
His body was so warm in the cooler fall evening she suddenly didn’t want to let go. She wanted to pull him in tighter, to suck his warmth from his body. Violet was ready to drape him over her like a blanket, feeling the heat from his firm, muscular body pour into her.
She pulled back abruptly, the thought of him in a sexual manner spurring all sorts of self-hating thoughts in her head. This wasn’t right. She couldn’t be doing this.
“Goodnight,” she said in a rush, hurrying up the front walkway to her house, leaving Ivore standing there without any sort of explanation.
The truth was, she wasn’t entirely sure she had one. Too much was going on in her brain, and she needed to sort out what was truth, and what wasn’t.
Chapter Six
Ivore
The humans never ceased to impress him.
He looked around his surroundings. The store was gigantic. Absolutely massive, dwarfing any expectations he may have had when they’d entered. It was a restaurant warehouse store, though it was much more warehouse than store. Huge vaulted ceilings stretched seventy-five feet into the air, and there were racks upon racks lifting high, packed with a variety of equipment beyond imagining.
Truthfully, he was a little overwhelmed. Violet however, was all business. She’d grabbed some sort of scanner device, and as they’d worked their way up and down the aisles she’d directed a red beam of some sort at a sticker on each item. Apparently this was compiling it in a list somewhere so that she could assemble her order and not have to carry it all.
Technology was just fascinating. Until he’d met Violet it was by far the most interesting part of waking up nearly six hundred years in the future. He snorted, still remembering how apologetic Cowl had been at first. Which was only right, considering it was he who caused the avalanche that buried them under the snow, exhausted and with no way out until they recovered.
Thankfully his little brother seemed to have matured over the sleepy centuries, until he now acted his 216 years of age. Or was it 214? Ivore could never remember. The important part was to remember to always remind him that it had taken him eight hundred combined years just to be able to act like he was two hundred. And never let him live it down.
“So, how did you come to know Andria?”
Despite having spent several hours now wandering the store they had said very little to each other. Ivore was almost positive this was because of his ill-gotten attempt to hug her the night before. He’d guessed wrong when it came to how comfortable she was with him, and now he was paying the price.
Patience. He’d had to preach patience to himself over and over again after he’d come home. Things with Violet were going to take time, and he needed to be okay with that. His dragon of course wasn’t. It was constantly urging him to just take her. Even now he had to tamp down on the urge to sweep one massive arm across the shelf next to him, clearing it of debris so that he could set Violet upon it.
She was wearing a long-sleeve shirt unbuttoned over a simple halter, and he wanted nothing more than to pull it down from her shoulders, exposing the soft, tender skin to his hungry lips. He ached to spread her legs wide around his waist, her ankles locking together and pulling him in, the cool metal of the shelves a stark contrast to the heat he could feel pouring off of him.
The vision was so vivid and powerful his body was reacting to it. Blood was pumping at an abnormal rate, all of it circulating near his crotch, threatening to make things even more awkward between him and—
He stifled a groan as Violet chose that moment to bend over to scan something on the bottom shelf. Her hips were right there.
“Did you say something?” she twisted her head around to look at him.
Ivore looked away, knowing that if she saw into his eyes she would know the truth: that he’d just been checking her out, sexual images of her playing in his mind as he envisioned all the pleasure he wanted to give her once she was finally his.
“No. Just looking at all the options here.”
“Okay.”
“You never did answer my question,” he reminded her, having forgotten for a moment there that he’d even asked it.
“Right. Andria. Well that’s an easy and relatively uninteresting story.”
Ivore immediately knew that meant it was almost the exact opposite. He paid careful attention to her next words, searching for anything that would give him a glimmer of insight into her world.
“I was in a hard spot a few years back. Lots of drinking, that sort of thing. Found myself at Andria’s pub more often than was good for me.” She paused, lost in thought. “Way more often than was good for me. Anyway, things got out of hand one night, and Andria up and closed the bar.” Violet smiled, a sad, forlorn-looking expression that made Ivore want to reach out and lend her his support.
Listen. That’s what she needs you to do. That’
s the support you can give right now. The rest will come as she feels more comfortable around you.
“So there we are, the two of us just sitting in the bar. She gets good and drunk with me and we just talked about everything.” Violet shrugged, then reached out and scanned another item before resuming. This one was some sort of metal wire contraption. Ivore had no idea.
“That was awfully nice of her.”
“Yeah. It was. We’ve been best friends ever since.”
Ivore felt a brief spike of anger at whoever had caused Violet to feel such pain. If they were still alive he vowed to track them down and ensure they never hurt anyone again. It left him furious to see such a sweet and wonderful person as her be anything but happy and fun. He wanted to ask, to pry into her life and find out just what was going on, but he didn’t. Ivore kept his mouth shut and didn’t ask a single question.
If she was ever ready, then she would share with him. Not before, and certainly not if he started prying every chance he got. Something had caused her to close herself off to everyone, and only an alcohol-infused session had broken that down enough for her to talk to Andria. He was thankful then for his brother’s mate, and hoped that she would remain a constant in Violet’s life.
“What about you, Ivore? I still know next to nothing about you. You have a brother, Cowl, but what else?”
“Two brothers,” he corrected. “Caine is the eldest. We grew up together. I’m the middle child.”
“You are?”
“What?” He put on a false look of pain. “Of course I am. The middle child is always the best.”
She laughed, a delightful sound that he’d not heard from her before. It was explosive and clearly surprised her as much as it did him, because she clamped down on it right away. Ivore had yet to figure out why she was so against letting herself be happy, but it was quite clear to him that’s what was going on.
“And we’re also the most neglected,” he said thoughtfully, being completely honest. “That probably means I have issues I’m hiding deep down because of it. You know, the usual.”
Violet waited to see if he was joking, but when he didn’t start to laugh she nodded slowly in thought.
“So you became a financial advisor?”
“Sort of. In a way.”
“In a way?”
“I manage my brothers’ treasure for them, and I’m in charge of making it grow. It’s pretty much the same thing.”
“Treasure? I don’t understand. I thought you said you worked for the government?” Violet was facing him now, the restaurant equipment forgotten for the time being.
“It’s complicated. We’re sort of hired by them.”
“To do what?”
Shit. Why was she so interested in knowing all this?
“It’s a long story,” he said, trying to brush it off. “But I’ve been learning about capitalism and how to make my money get more money. That’s awesome, don’t you think? Incredible really how things have changed.”
By this point Violet’s jaw was hanging open, a half-inch gap clearly visible between her lips. Ivore started to wonder if he’d made a mistake.
“How the hell are you a financial advisor if you’re just now learning about capitalism? It’s sort of one of the underpinnings of society.”
Ivore laughed. “Let’s just say I’ve had a long time to learn how to adapt to new things with ease and quickness.”
“Really? Just how old are you then?”
“About as old as I look,” he said smoothly, well used to deflecting that question back onto the asker.
“Really. And in your early thirties you somehow escaped learning a thing about capitalism?”
Ivore just smiled. “Basically.”
She was allowed to have her secrets. It was about time he had his. Of course he was going to tell her the truth in time. Hiding the fact that he was a dragon shifter was not a long-term thing. But right now she wasn’t ready to learn about that. He needed a deeper, more trustful bond between them first.
“Fine, be all mysterious and shady then.”
“Okay I will.”
They walked on for a few minutes longer, but he could tell the day was rapidly coming to an end.
“I think I’m done for today,” Violet said moments later, practically reading his brain. “I’m going to start missing stuff. Let’s mark where we went to, and come back tomorrow or another day, if your mysterious government job will allow it.”
Ivore laughed. “I think that can probably be arranged. Let’s head on out.”
They dropped the scanner off at the front and got a printout of everything they were going to want. It was a rather long list, and he began to wonder if perhaps he was getting in over his head. Just how much did a cupcake shop need? Some ovens, some trays and bowls. What else? He glanced at the list. Mixing tools, registers, counters, racks, chairs, tables, and a dozen other things all popped off the sheet. Okay, so there was more than he thought.
“When are we meeting with the agent to sign the papers by the way?” she asked as they headed out to their cars. She’d insisted on driving herself today, yet another sign that he’d overdone it with the hug. What a stupid move that had been on his part.
“Tomorrow afternoon at the sandwich place next to where the shop is going to go.”
“Perfect. See you then.” She waved at him and headed off toward her car.
Ivore watched her go, admiring the curves of her body, emphasized by the tight leggings she’d worn today. Fire raged within him, but he fought it back, the icy cold of willpower calming all but the last few flames. He would need to remain in control to win over Violet. Turning into a lustful beast would have to wait until she let him into her life.
Then, and only then, would he be able to show her just what she was missing.
Chapter Seven
Violet
Some things in life are too good to be true.
It was until the real estate agent was half an hour late that Violet truly began to accept that this might be one of them. She’d been positive that Ivore was on the up and up. That he’d not been messing with her. After all, she knew Andria and Cowl. Why would they have let her continue to associate with Ivore if he was a grade-A douchebag?
No, that wasn’t right. She looked over at him now, and he looked just as agitated as she was, though he hadn’t actually said anything yet. The tightening at the corners of his eyes and the near-constant flexing of his right hand were the only giveaways indicating he was stressed or bothered. Something was wrong.
“Where is he?” she asked at last, tired of the silence between them. They were both thinking the same thing.
“I don’t know. Hopefully just traffic?”
They both knew it was a lie. What she couldn’t figure out was why there was an issue. If the problem were with Ivore, or his money or what have you, then why would the agent be late? No, something else was going on.
Fully an hour after they were supposed to meet Ivore stirred from her across the table. She looked over her shoulder to see a male of medium height and skinny build come scurrying inside the restaurant. He wore a business suit at least two decades out of style. If the elbow patches didn’t give it away, the beige coloring and faint plaid styling did. How did people not realize they looked so out of date?
“That’s him,” Ivore confirmed.
Violet had yet to actually meet the agent behind the deal, but her first impression now was not a good one. He looked agitated and…sweaty? It wasn’t very warm out, especially with a full suit on. There was no reason for him to be sweating. His brown eyes looked around frantically before they found Ivore, and he hurried over to their table.
If his jerky movements and sweat-lined face weren’t enough to tell her that something was wrong, she knew it the instant he didn’t sit down.
“What’s going on, Bob?” Ivore asked slowly, keeping his voice even.
Violet made a note to do the same. This Bob person was on edge about something, and if she
started laying into him about his lateness or asking why he was sweating and looking fearful she might end up doing something she regretted.
“Nothing’s wrong.” Bob sounded like he was trying to convince himself of that more than either of them.
“Are you sure, Bob?”
Violet watched the agent’s throat bob as he swallowed nervously, eyes switching from Ivore to her and back again with extreme frequency. Was he high? Maybe that was it; he was coked out of his mind or something perhaps.
“Have a seat,” she offered, gesturing to one of the two empty seats at the table with her and Ivore. Maybe the polite gesture would help things out.
“Um. No. It’s okay. I don’t need to sit. I just came by to tell you that you don’t get the property. I mean, you didn’t get the property.”
Violet reached out to grab Ivore’s arm, her touch restraining him as he tried to lunge to his feet. The big man froze instantly, then slowly sat back down into his seat. Violet removed her hand, trying not to let herself get too focused on the electric shock that had ripped through her system the instant she touched him.
“You need to explain yourself, Bob.” Ivore’s voice was little more than a feral growl, rattling nearby cutlery and dishes as he spoke.
“Someone else bought it.”
A ceramic mug shattered as Ivore’s fist closed around it, the sharp edges digging into his palm. Violet stared as blood began to well up, before it stopped. Was his skin healing itself already? Those cuts should have been bleeding all over the table…
“Tell me something, Bob.” Ivore’s voice was a deceptively calm now. Violet could tell he was angry. Furious really, and doing everything in his power to contain his temper which, she imagined, was probably rather frightening.
“Y-Yes, Ivore?”
“How is that someone else bought the property when our offer, as you told me over the phone, was already accepted? That doesn’t make any sense, Bob. And you really need to start making sense right about now.”
Fresh sweat beaded across the agent’s brow. If he had a briefcase Violet wouldn’t have been surprised to see him clutching it to his chest in some sort of defensive action.
