But did she have to be an urban sophisticate? Surely what mattered was how she felt. And how she felt was hurt and neglected. Why continue doing what you had been doing if it didn’t work for you? She was certain that feeling as if you were being sliced open wasn’t how being in love should feel? And yet here she was fairly humming with anticipation of seeing her neglectful suitor tonight.
* * *
Roland had a huge arrangement of purple lupines and white rock daisies in his arms when Kayla opened her door at six forty-five.
“I know I’m early,” he said stepping in, “But I couldn’t wait.” He bent and kissed her open mouth lazily. A brief and tender kiss, but the kiss of a returning soldier claiming his forsaken lover.
Cindy and Josh were entwined on the couch but they looked up curiously and Josh disentangled himself to get up and wander over to Roland. Kayla juggled the wide blue glass vase the flowers were arranged in while she tried to compose herself and get the front door closed.
Roland turned his broad back to Josh and reached around her to take care of the door and help her balance the vase. “Why don’t you put that in your room?” he murmured.
With a sideways glance at their audience, Kayla wordlessly obeyed. She put Roland’s arrangement on her desk where the yellow roses still bloomed in their jar. She added a swipe of lipstick and checked her hair and re-emerged in the living room with the roses.
Roland stared flinty-eyed at Josh and Cindy’s exhibition. Cindy was spread out on the couch as if waiting to resume her clinch with Josh. Her mouth was half-open and she traced her red lips boldly while she looked Roland over from head to toe. Her lashes fluttered. Unlike Kayla’s thick homegrown set, hers had come out of a box and been inexpertly applied. Josh bristled with indignation at Cindy’s antics. Roland chose to ignore them both. Josh’s wanton bitch held no charms for him.
He smiled as his sweet Kayla joined them again. He switched his green gaze to the roses in her hands and his already narrowed lips thinned out a shade more. Who the hell had given his woman flowers?
“I’ll just put these on the dining table,” Kayla said, looking around for a place mat to set them on.
Josh looked like he wanted to shake hands, but Roland had decided the other two people in the flat did not exist. Wordlessly, his hand at the back of her waist, he ushered Kayla into the hall.
“Does that young boor live there?” he demanded as they waited for the elevator.
“Josh?” Her surprise was plain.
“Yes, Josh.” Roland’s lips were barely moving.
She shrugged. “Not really. He sleeps over occasionally, but the deal is he has to be gone by breakfast because five is too many for one washroom.” She looked up at Roland’s darkening face.
“And do they routinely make love on the couch?” he continued.
“They make out more or less continuously,” she admitted. She chuckled. “They like an audience, so I try not to look.”
“It is unacceptable,” he ground out. “Completely unacceptable.”
“What is?” Kayla stared at him.
The elevator doors opened and he escorted her out to his black limousine. Waimarie Te Paka opened the door for them and bowed politely. Kayla gave his handsome, young Maori driver one of her radiant smiles. “How are you today, Waimarie?” she asked softly as she got in.
“Very well, miss,” Waimarie replied austerely.
Roland waited until Kayla had her seatbelt on and he had closed the glass panel before he spoke. He was always conscious of the sensitive dragon hearing of the Maori driver, but his question could not wait. “Where did those roses come from?” he demanded fiercely.
“I beg your pardon?” Kayla’s voice was icy.
“The yellow roses,” he specified, ignoring the warning in her voice.
“My roses,” she said carefully, “Were a gift from the department. The other grad students clubbed together to buy them for my oral.” Kayla turned to look directly at Roland.
He picked up her hand and kissed it open-mouthed. “Forgive me,” he said. “I was jealous. Tell me about your defense.”
“It was two days ago,” she said tightly. “Do you really want to go so far back into history?”
“You’re angry,” he said as if it was a foreign concept.
“You bet. You didn’t even call.” Her voice rose an octave.
He still had her hand and now he stroked her knuckles tenderly with his thumb. “I was on a little island off the South Island and I had no service until this morning. I texted you from the helicopter.” He glared at Waimarie’s back. The other dragon’s suppressed laughter was beyond annoying, but he had to attend to Kayla.
Really, he had never known a woman so resistant to his charms. It seemed that every time he left her alone for a few days, his spells wore off. It was disconcerting to have to keep renewing his magic. Not that she wasn’t worth it. He had forgotten how lovely Kayla smelled. She wore no perfume. Her heady fragrance was her own sweet smell with just a touch of bar soap. Delicious and worth much trouble.
He leaned across the seat to look at her stormy eyes with their thick fringe of dark lashes. He breathed gently on her face and waited for the fury to leave her expression. It seemed to him that she fought the spell, but eventually her features relaxed and she smiled.
“I spent the day out at the reef,” she said as if she had forgotten her annoyance.
“What reef?” he returned gently, grateful she was pacified.
“The one off the harbor.”
“Aren’t there sharks in the Tasman Sea?” he asked in horror. What the devil was she doing swimming with sharks?
“Yes. But we didn’t see any today.”
His heart clenched in terror. Words forced themselves past his stiff lips. “But you sometimes do?”
“Oh, sure. If they show up, we have to get back into the boat. But if there are no sea lions around, they leave the reef alone.” Kayla told him casually. “It’s a pain when it happens because it interrupts our time and you don’t get a credit for lost time. If you spend your four hours of launch time in the boat, you just lose your dive time.”
“Better than being eaten.”
Kayla chuckled richly. “Sharks don’t want to eat people. We’re too lean and bony. What they’re after are nice, fat seals or sea lions. It’s just that in a wet suit we look like sea lions to them.”
He had a vision of some shark deciding to taste his Kayla’s limbs and blenched. His throat tightened.
“Where are we going?” she asked patently oblivious to his fear.
“Statlanders.” He named the restaurant he had first taken her to.
“Great,” she grinned at him. “I wasn’t expecting a chance to dive today, so I didn’t pack a lunch and I haven’t eaten since breakfast. You should have seen the lab this morning. We had an octopus escape and wreak havoc last night.” She began to tell him about the disaster in the marine lab.
“Dave says that even if you don’t start out studying intelligence, that sooner or later if you study octopuses, you wind up with enough data to write a seminal paper,” she concluded.
“I don’t understand how that creature got loose,” Roland said.
“That’s just it. Dave thought he had an octopus-proof lid, but the critter obviously figured out that there were fish in Tank Four and how the lid worked and opened the latches from inside. Octopuses are really, really smart,” she said as Waimarie opened Roland’s door.
Kayla opened her own door and got out. Waimarie looked reproachfully at her as he hurried around the side of the vehicle to assist her. She placed a hand on his broad palm and let him help her out. Roland stood behind his driver feeling grim.
“What was that all about?” he asked in the lobby.
“I don’t like crawling across the back seat,” she said impatiently. “It’s awkward scrambling across the width of a backseat get in and out of a car. I’m sick of doing it.”
“Huh,” he said eloquently.
<
br /> CHAPTER NINE
Kayla’s complexion was lustrous in the subdued candlelight of the restaurant. Her day on the water had painted rosy highlights on her high cheekbones and touched her forehead and chin with deeper gold. Her soft black curls had been allowed to tumble every which way but were still bewitching.
She was the opposite of the sophisticated women Roland usually enjoyed. At a guess she spent ten seconds a day thinking about her appearance, and rather less money. And yet she was utterly captivating. This beautiful, intelligent young woman was at once completely open and yet mysterious. It had been a long four weeks of waiting for her. But now that she had her doctorate, surely he could expect her to concentrate some of her fierce intelligence on him?
The waiter brought him a box which he passed to her. He had chosen her gift more carefully this time. He watched her as she slowly unwrapped the paper and then opened the small square case. Her gasp of delight was balm to his affronted dragon soul.
“It’s just what I wanted,” she exclaimed taking the dive watch out. She removed her plain wristwatch with its shabby leather strap from her wrist and slipped the big black timepiece over her hand. She moved it from side to side and inspected its dials and knobs with ardent eyes.
She made no protests about its value, he noted. Possibly she was unaware that it had cost roughly double what the necklace she had spurned did. “Congratulations,” he said. “I hope you will find it helps you with your research, Dr. Cooper.”
To his horror, behind her glasses, her eyes filled with tears. He breathed enchantment harder. There was no way she was going to reject this present.
“This is the best present I’ve ever had,” she said blotting her tears with one forefinger and gazing mistily at him.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said keeping all triumph out of his voice. He picked up box and extracted a booklet. “There’s a complete manual online,” he told her, “But this should get you started. There’s a camera on board, and a flashlight built in.”
Kayla began to read aloud from the booklet, listing each feature with the joy of a kid at Christmas. Only the waiter’s presence made her put both dive watch and booklet in her purse. “Thank you,” she whispered.
After that their meal progressed as pleasantly as he had intended. She told him about her defense and the party afterward and explained that she was now going to be looking for a permanent academic position—if she could find one. Indulgently he let her prattle on until he found the right moment.
“I want you to come with me to the South Island this weekend,” he said as she was beginning her dessert.
Her hand stopped with chocolate mousse half-way to her open mouth. “The South Island?” she managed.
“I have a beach house,” he informed her casually. “I thought you might enjoy a little holiday to celebrate your triumph. Do you think you could get away for a full week?”
“Probably. My people live on the South Island,” she confided shyly. “They have a small sheep station up in the hills.”
“We could stop by, if you wish,” he said as if he was not well aware both of the Goffs and their property. “We’ll go by helicopter. There should be a place to land on a farm.”
She nodded. “I’d like that.” Her eyes were dark and luminous in the candlelight.
“Can you leave on Friday morning?” he pressed.
She nodded eagerly. “I’ll try. I don’t have any classes to take anymore. And I’m sure Professor Whitcomb will give me time off from the lab.”
“We’ll leave early.”
Now that he had that settled, he would make sure that Kayla remained enchanted. He leaned across the table and breathed a suggestion into her dreamy face.
“Would you like a taste?” she asked shyly.
“Hmm.” He opened his mouth to her spoon. “Delectable,” he murmured. “Utterly delectable.”
* * *
It had felt like the most excruciating bit of foreplay to scoop a morsel of the delicate chocolate mousse into her spoon and feed the wide, laughing mouth of the big man across from her. Before he had tasted it, she was aware that her panties were soaking and her nipples had ruched painfully. His green eyes never left her mouth while he savored the soft, sweet dessert.
She had agreed to her first dirty weekend. But after what felt like a month of foreplay she was aching to progress to sex with her handsome suitor. She was a shade nervous about doing the deed, but his consideration in providing a venue that was neither her crowded flat nor his hotel calmed her nerves. Whatever happened she would not have to do the walk of shame before an audience.
* * *
Roland flew them to his beach house himself. That surprised her. She had expected him to have a pilot for the helicopter, just as he had a driver for his limousine. Even when he met her on campus, there was usually a big, brawny guy tailing him discreetly. But they were quite alone— just the two of them.
His beach cottage was overwhelming. The elegant glass and timber structure was no simple cabin by the ocean, but a mansion with twelve bedrooms and thirteen bathrooms. It made her feel shy and self-conscious again. Not that the house wasn’t beautiful. Not that the setting overlooking the surging ocean wasn’t sublime. But its expensive simplicity was altogether out of her frame of reference.
She realized that somehow she had let herself be drawn into a fantasy. And equally that she had overlooked her anger at Roland’s neglect. She came rudely down to earth after dinner when he led her out onto the balcony overlooking the shore. Through her blouse, his bare muscular arm was hot around her waist.
He stood behind her holding her lightly against his muscular body. Her chest felt so tight, she could barely breathe. He turned her into his granite hard body and let her feel his fully erect cock against her mound for the first time. Deliberately he pressed himself into her softness.
The sensation made her lose her grip on reality. His kiss was no tender brush of lips to lips but the hard, plundering kiss of a pirate. Kayla clung to Roland’s thick biceps in an attempt to keep from toppling over from dizziness. When he moved to nuzzle her behind her ear, she was past thought.
He brought her down to earth with a crash. “Will you live here?” he asked bluntly. “I am often busy, but I will return as often as I can.”
She swayed and he caught her close. “W-whaa?” she stammered inelegantly.
“Will you live here and wait for me?” Roland repeated, smiling dangerously down into her bewildered face.
“I don’t understand. What are you asking?” Kayla tried to think, but her pulse was beating so hard and fast she was dazed.
A big hand caressed her cheek tenderly. “I’m asking you to be my woman,” he purred. “To live here in my house.”
She stepped away from temptation. “I couldn’t do that,” she said huskily.
Blond brows rose. “I would take good care of you, my darling,” Roland said persuasively.
“I’m not for sale,” she snapped.
“Come on, Kayla,” Roland deep voice throbbed with impatience. “You came out here prepared to have sex with me. I simply want to make it permanent, instead of a fling.”
“I’m not mistress material,” she said with dignity, her heart full of disbelief. She was desperately in love and all he felt was lust!
For answer he pulled her back into his arms. His mouth overwhelmed hers. In moments she was clinging to him once more. When he picked her up she barely noticed, so intent was she on returning his kisses. When he laid her on his huge bed, her hazel eyes barely opened before he was again ravishing her mouth.
His big hands undressed her so fast, her clothes seemed to vanish of their own accord. She could never remember how he took his off — or whether she had done it for him in her besottment. But suddenly they were writhing on the silky, Nile green coverlet, limbs entwined. His cock was like a hard and pulsing pole against the plushness of her dark delta. Her sex was hot and swollen and throbbing. The stroking of his fingers on her vulva, and
the pressure of his thumb against her clit was the culmination of her desires.
She shot into an orgasm so intense she felt as if she were flying. Her soul felt as if it were welded to his by molten emotion. By the time she regained her body, he was thrusting into her and urging her round thighs to clasp his hips. She was tight, but oh so hot and wet and ready for him. He surged forward and began to plunge.
Her passage began rippling fiercely and her buttocks clenched as another searing paroxysm seized her and speared through her whole body. Roland came with a prolonged and triumphant bellow. At that moment she knew she had found her soul mate and her love was returned.
Sleep pulled them both under — still clasped tightly in each other’s arms. She woke. She was voracious. Not just for food. For him. Her man. She felt reborn. More feminine than she had ever felt. Complete. In love. She nestled rather closer and his claws raked her arm.
His claws? Her eyes popped open. Moonlight flooded the room with silver. She was curled up lovingly within the embrace of a long and serpentine creature. Silver scales winked from massive limbs. Silver horns as long and curved as scimitars glinted in the moonlight. A long and terrible snout with two massive nostrils burbled as the monster slept.
She pulled away and her scales rubbed along his. Kayla looked down at herself in consternation. She glowed like an ember in the moonlight. Her arms were thick and heavy and her hands ended in blood red claws like grappling hooks. She pulled further away from the dragon and backed off the bed. The silk coverlet ripped with a noise like a scream.
Her tail overbalanced her and she fell to the floor on her enormous scaly haunches. Her skirmish with the bed clothes woke the monster she had been sleeping with. Green eyes snapped open. A long, forked, red tongue flickered out of massive jaws lined with ivory daggers. Kayla suppressed a shriek of horror.
The dragon began to disappear. Within moments Roland Voros stood before her — once again an immense Norse god. His blond hair wasn’t even mussed. His broad chest glistened like marble in the dim lighting. A tattoo blazed like a shining, red badge over his heart. His penis began to grow from the golden thicket covering his pubes until it slammed against his rock-hard six- pack.
Dragon's Successor (BBW/Dragon Shifter Romance) (Lords of the Dragon Islands Book 2) Page 7
