Dark Dragon Daddy

by Abigail Raines

  My mind raced but we only cuddled like that for a while, seemingly content in the silence. His right hand rested between my knees just under the hem of my skirt and I liked it there; it was both affectionate and sexy. I leaned my head on his shoulder carefully, as it was his bad shoulder and let my eyes slip shut, enjoying the beats of our hearts together.

  I could almost pretend he was my mate.

  I have to tell you something, I would say. But you have no responsibility here. It just seems fair that I tell you now…

  But he would feel a responsibility which was ridiculous. He was just that type of guy.

  “Dana,” David said softly. I looked into his eyes and they were sad and soft.

  This is just sex, I told myself. He’s your boss and a kind person and a sex god. But that’s it.

  “Yes?” I murmured.

  But he never got to finish his sentence because his phone started vibrating wildly where it sat on the side table next to his untouched lunch. I reflexively moved off of his lap, feeling more than a little embarrassed at the sight of my torn up panties on the floor where they’d apparently fallen. I grabbed them as I got to my feet and David wiped his hands on his pants before casting me an apologetic look and grabbing his phone.

  I said, “I’m just going to…” I gestured vaguely to the door and he nodded, blinking a little dumbly. I made my way out but I saw his eyes still on me as he picked up his call.

  It felt like a small walk of shame, though I couldn’t help but smile, as I made my way back to my room on the other side of the house. I was nervous the entire time, a considerable few minutes considering the size of the place, that I would run into Miles and he’d catch me walking a little carefully with a torn up pair of panties in my pocket. But I was blessedly on my own the whole way and I went straight to the bathroom to clean up a little. I changed into fresh panties and smiled to myself as I made my way back to the library to get a couple more hours of work done before dinner.

  That night David was a little more comfortable at dinner. If anything his awkwardness and tone had altered considerably. Now he kept looking up at me with fire in his eyes and every little look made my body respond. I wanted his hands on me again. Miles seemed unaware and rambled on about getting his suits tailored and David nodded along to his story as we quietly ate our Chicken Diane. But under the table my foot found his and I saw him smile. I felt like I rarely saw him smile but he looked a little lighter now as he smirked and drank his wine.

  We ate dessert and hung out on the patio for a bit but finally David announced he was turning in with a significant look back at me and I felt heat rush through my body.

  “I think I will too,” I said quickly. “I’m a bit tired.

  “Of course,” Miles said mildly. Apparently, he was obsessed with some British period drama. He was probably just as happy to go watch that as hang around with us. But I talked to him for another minute as David made his way back up to his room. I felt too much like I was being obvious. Not that there was anything wrong with what we were doing. But I suppose the two of us felt shy.

  I went inside, my eyes peeled for David, but I didn’t see him anywhere until he caught me by surprise at the top of the stairs near his room and suddenly there were arms around me and my heart raced as he caught me in his arms and whirled me around. I hummed into his mouth as he kissed me and smiled against his lips when he picked me right up like I was nothing and pressed me against the wall. I wrapped my legs around him and we made out like horny teenagers, his hands sliding up my legs and up under my skirt.

  “Is this alright?” He breathed into my ear. “Can we-”

  “God, yes,” I said.

  Only minutes later we were naked on his bed and this time David was on top of me, holding himself carefully as big and heavy as he was and I clutched at those quivering biceps as he looked up at me. He pushed my knees back and thrust into me hard enough that I saw stars in the best way and I threw my head back. Somehow David managed to make me trust him enough that his gentleness could turn to an overwhelming power and it was only more arousing. He took me hard and I could see how he was coming apart, trying to hold himself back so much it looked painful. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him closer, tears of pleasure sliding down my cheeks. I was in the midst of some long orgasm that came in fits and starts. As soon as I thought it was done, David’s sizeable cock plunged into me again and I cried out, undone, yet again.

  I fell asleep with David wrapped around me. I was getting too used to that feeling of him protecting me, keeping me safe and warm. What would I do when I couldn’t have it anymore?

  The next couple days passed in a blur of gourmet meals, digital archiving, and mind-blowing sex. David and I couldn’t seem to keep our hands off each other. I found myself continually shy, certain that he was about to give me the brush off and then he’d come up behind me as I was shelving a book and kiss my neck and I’d melt into him, my body pliant and willing for him. In two days he ended up taking me from behind up against the bookcase in the library three times. I was sated and delirious with it, not to mention walking a little funny. If I’d been a human I might have even wondered if this was the best thing while pregnant (though I’d heard in general that sex was good for pregnancy) but dragon shifters, I well knew, were different anyhow. My pregnancy was likely making me even hornier than usual and there was no danger at all, I knew, in even rambunctious sex during pregnancy for shifters.

  “I want to show you something,” David whispered in my ear one night. We were in his room but hadn’t made it past the door and his hand was already inside my panties, fingering me with agonizing little twists as he teased my clit and my hips thrusted to meet him.

  “Okay,” I breathed. For some reason, perhaps given David’s general demeanour, I thought for sure he was about to break out some bondage gear.

  But David pulled away and bit his lip, looking a little roguish, his long hair falling over his eye, before he helped me strip off my shirt and reached around to unhook my bra, my nipples quickly pebbling in the cool air. He leaned forward to kiss them. He was still fully dressed but I rather like being helpless and bare before him like this. He reached into his pocket and drew out a long, thin chain made of gold and my clit throbbed just seeing it, the dragon in me practically purring with arousal. I’d thought a few times that David must have a nice hoard but I didn’t have much experience with using gold in sex like most dragons do.

  “I want to see you naked and wearing this,” he said in my ear. His voice was low and rumbling and he teased me, tangling the chain in his fingers and caressing my chest with it, the cold metal teasing my nipple. I shimmied out of my skirt and panties and kissed him hotly before taking the chain from him and padding over to the bed. I placed the chain around my neck and under my hair and spun to face him. The thing was long it not only draped between my breasts but fell all the way down to the bit of dark hair at my entrance.

  David looked stricken and I saw his eyes flash gold like a dragon’s and a rumbling sound came from him that wasn’t quite human as he approached me. I played it up, licking my bottom lip slowly before lying back on the bed and he watched as I traced my fingers along the thin chain of gold from my neck to my breasts and down to my pussy. I curled the chain around my middle finger and parted my legs teasing myself, refusing to be embarrassed as he unzipped his pants and took out his already engorged cock. He was breathless as he stroked himself, pre-cum leaking from him as he leaned against the foot of the bed and watched me. Gold was a powerful aphrodisiac for dragons and we were already so turned on by each other. My head was buzzing, that connection between us humming. He took off his shirt and I bit my lip, basking in the sight of his heaving chest as he knelt on the bed and slowly pushed my legs apart. I stroked myself with my gold wrapped finger, the sensation of the metal that sent an ecstatic thrill through me every time it touched my most private place become only more intense when my thighs were spread before him. I was wanton and shameless as David hov
ered over me, pushing my legs back. But he let me wait for it, reaching down to join my finger with his. He thrust two fingers into me and I cried out, throwing my head back, shaking now. All at once he pulled the chain away and then he was thrusting into me with one hard, fast push that shoved me up the bed. I screamed without intending to, loud enough to alarm the whole of New York I felt like. David ducked down to kiss my cries away as he fucked me, filling me, stretching my orgasm out until I was sobbing, my legs clenched around him, every nerve on fire.

  The next few days were more of the same.

  I was in a daze of sexual satiation but I was also rapidly falling for David. He was quiet most of the time, but he did open up now and then in the quiet of the night when the two of us lay exhausted and sweaty and I curled up to him, lazily raking my fingers through his chest hair. I read about his shifter ancestors and asked him questions at meals and we fell into conversation, Miles occasionally chiming in to dispute some fact or other.

  But I kept not telling him about my pregnancy. I still had time, I told myself. I wouldn’t really show for a bit longer. My belly had started to swell but I didn’t believe he knew my body well enough yet to be able to tell the difference between a few pounds gained eating his delicious food and a pregnancy.

  At breakfast one morning we were laughing over some strange true crime story we’d both read and eating our salmon and eggs when Miles asked David when his appointment would arrive.

  “Around eleven,” David said, taking a sip of tea.

  “Who’s your appointment?” I said.

  “I don’t really know,” David admitted. “His name is Jared Langley? My business manager said he wants to hire me to handle his investments which I don’t really do except for friends but I guess he was insistent about meeting me.”

  “Yes,” Miles said, chuckling. “I’m quite surprised you agreed. You never see anyone if you can possibly help it.”

  “I’m trying to put myself out there a little more,” David said, scratching his neck. He glanced at me and looked away again. “I’d like to...progress. I suppose. Move beyond that strange hermit behaviour.”

  I almost got the sense that he was saying he wanted to open up and get out more for my benefit but it seemed too much to hope for. I was probably reading into that.

  “Anyhow, I do like to conduct meetings in the library,” David said to me. “So you should just take the day off.”

  That seemed unnecessary. I could certainly just move a box of documents and the scanner and laptop to a different room, but I knew at this point how David liked to be magnanimous. I supposed I could rest for a day and do some reading. I hadn’t taken a day off yet. It wasn’t really the sort of job that require a Monday through Friday schedule.

  “If you say so,” I said lightly.

  “I do.” He smiled at me so warmly and genuinely. It made my heart swell.

  After breakfast, I made myself scarce, taking a book and a pitcher of lemonade to my favorite bench outside where I could read for a bit. At half past eleven I got it into my head to look something up on the laptop...which I had of course, left in the library. I made my way there, feeling a little tentative. I didn’t like to interrupt one of David’s business meetings, especially since apparently he never had business meetings, but I didn’t think anyone would mind if I just popped in to grab the computer.

  The door was ajar and I heard David’s voice talking about mutual funds or something and when I heard the second voice speak, every hair on the back of my neck stood up and my baby dragon writhed inside me as if they just knew.

  No, I thought. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t possibly be.

  The house was a little drafty near the library. Somewhere a window was open and the wind shifted so that I could smell him now. How had I not smelled him before? I must have been upwind walking up. His musk was unmistakable. My mind read it a bitter, almost metallic. I was sure that was because of the way I thought of him but whatever the reason the smell of Darien Hollis made me nauseated. I knew without looking and yet I peeked around the door anyway and saw him sure enough; the blonde, gray-eyed asshole of a dragon who had made my life hell before I’d finally escaped him. I realized at once that if I could smell him, he could definitely smell me, and I ran as fast as I could back down the corridor and to the nearest staircase to run up to my room and lock the door behind me.

  I wasn’t even sure what I was thinking. If Darien knew I was in the house, if he had come here because he’d found me or just sniffed me out, then hiding in my room wasn’t going to do much. And anyway, I knew David would protect me. I was just so panicked. I sat on my bed, my hands clasped protectively over my belly and tried to catch my breath.

  David would protect me, I thought again. I closed my eyes and thought it over and over, trying to make it sink in. I was not alone. I had David. David would protect me. The guy had been thrown from a building and literally taken a bullet for me and he hadn’t even known me yet. He was a fierce dragon and a strong man and he would keep me and my baby safe. I had to have faith in that. Still, even an hour later, I didn’t want to come down yet.

  Then I started thinking about what a horrible imposition I was. Maybe it was just hormones or panic or who knew what. But I couldn’t help thinking that as pure as David’s intentions were, I was putting him in an impossible position. He owed me nothing yet he felt compelled to help me. I was taking advantage of his kindness.

  I wasn’t thinking very coherently as I started packing up my things. I was crying, hot tears sliding down my face, and my hands shook as I threw open drawers to pack my stupid backpack that I’d brought with me on that first day. I was bawling big great gobs of tears as I stuffed my shirts and a couple pairs of jeans into the bag. Miles had bought me clothes but I couldn’t take those with me. They didn’t belong to me. None of this was mine at all. It was all just some big fairy tale I’d let myself believe in but it was wrong of me, so wrong of me to force David into my life. He didn’t even know there was a baby in the mix. I couldn’t do this to him.

  I was looking for my favorite sweater, tearing through the closet and drawers, still sobbing helplessly when there was a knock on the door before David stepped inside. He saw me and his brow furrowed, his mouth collapsing.

  “Dana?” He said softly. He walked over and cradled my face between his hands, looking so troubled. “Dana, what’s the matter?” He looked around the room and saw my packed backpack, a little. “What are you doing? Where…” He swallowed and said in a small voice that sounded almost like a child’s: “Are you leaving?”

  “I…” I shook my head. I didn’t want to lie anymore. I certainly couldn’t leave and keep lying to him. I had to tell him the truth even if it made him hate me forever. “I can’t, I…” Yet it was difficult to speak, I was crying so hard. David folded me in his arms and I collapsed against him, squeezing him tight, wanting to be safe in his strong arms forever if he’d let me.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d thought of it. There wasn’t a more dangerous thought I could possibly have. But every time I was in his arms, I never wanted to leave. I wanted him to keep me forever and I wanted to keep him too. Mates. What a wonderful thought.

  “Is...is that man still here?” I finally managed to say. I was getting tears and snot on his shirt, but he didn’t seem to mind. He just kept holding me.

  “Jared?” David said. “No, I sent him away. I had a bad feeling about him.” He pulled away and looked at me hard. “You know him don’t you?” He searched my eyes and I felt as if I he were seeing into my soul. “You’re terrified of him. Why? Dana, please tell me. Who is he to you? What has he done?”

  I wanted to talk but I couldn’t yet, but David, blessed David, who was broody and quiet and not good with new people, kept holding me and just waiting, giving me time.

  Finally, I took a deep breath and said, “His name isn’t Jared. It’s Darien.”

  Minutes later, we were cuddled on the bed and I stared straight ahead at the watercolor paint
ing of a forest that hung on the wall. It was calming somehow to look at the softly painted trees while I tried to speak.

  “My parents were poor,” I said, because I thought I might start at the beginning, though getting across the gist of the story would not take long. “They didn’t have a hoard. I mean my father had a few trinkets. He was too embarrassed to call it a hoard but it didn’t amount to much. I grew up in the country in Vermont. There’s sort of a hidden community of shifters there. It’s nice, except…” I took a deep breath and let my eyes slip shut. David was stroking my hair and it was so calming that I was on the verge of falling asleep. “Except that they have an old practice there that goes back centuries among the poorest shifters, especially among dragons. Selling the daughter to a wealthier dragon to make an heir…”

  “No,” David whispered. “I didn’t know they still did that anywhere? Except maybe remote parts of Eastern Europe.”

  “It sounds worse than it is sometimes,” I said. I still felt a little defensive about my family’s old-fashioned ways. In their own manner, they had been trying to do the best for all of us. I had been worth something, able to provide for the family. But they had looked at it as giving me an opportunity. I was to provide an heir, and I wouldn’t have the same position as a mate, but I was to be cared for, potentially pampered. They’d thought they were giving me a good life. But they’d been so wrong. “I went willingly,” I said firmly. “I was ready for it. Darien bought me two years ago. I had no reason to think he would treat me poorly. He wasn’t forcing me either. And for a little while all he did was ignore me, as having bought me was an impulse and he had buyer’s remorse. But then…”