Dark Dragon Daddy

by Abigail Raines

  “Yes,” I mumbled.

  “Wow!” Jessie looked shocked. “I was joking. I never would have guessed. I mean you’re so…”

  “Broody,” Justin said.

  “Broody,” Jessie said, nodding. “Yeah. Well, good. Is there something there?”

  “I don’t know,” I said darkly. That was all I could manage to say apparently. I wasn’t used to talking about things like women and relationships but my friends looked at me expectantly.

  “There’s something there for you,” Justin said. “Clearly.”

  I shrugged, staring down at my shoes. I sat back in my chair, the soft, black leather and scent of cigars comforting during a conversation that was filling me with anxiety. I could practically feel Justin and Jessie exchanging long suffering expressions.

  I started to say, “I don’t want her to feel obligated-”

  “Tell her how you feel,” Justin said. He said it as if it were so easy. With a careless shrug of his shoulders. “Trust me, I’ve been in exactly this position. Assuming you know how she’s feeling about you is a fool’s errand. You have to hash it out. Otherwise the two of you could end up alone and unhappy because you were too afraid to put yourselves out there.”

  “That’s not my strong suit,” I mumbled. “Talking about...feelings.”

  “Yeah,” Jessie said, chuckling. “We’re well aware of that.”

  “I think you should try to tell her about what happened to you,” Justin said, looking at me almost accusingly. “I mean you’ve barely told us really. Might be time to talk about it with someone who seems to really care about you. She trusted you with her past. Trust her with yours.”

  “Hmm.” I frowned, and yet I agreed. I’d already been thinking it. But saying and thinking was a whole easier than doing.

  “I think we’ve lectured him enough,” Jessie said lightly. He held up his glass. “How about you get me a refill of this brandy and then you can tell me more about your little late night escapades you go on?”

  Justin and Jessie stayed longer than I’d intended but I was glad for that. It was nice to have them and too easy to forget, when I tended to fall into my hermit-like ways, that I could talk to them so easily. They were comfortable, especially just the two of them. Sometimes when it was all six of us from the club (which was somewhat rare), it got to be a little too much for me. Although I was sometimes also able to lose myself in a larger group. Now it was the three of us with no big expectations and just casual conversation. By the time they left, it was nearly dinner. I’d been unable to convince them to stay, only then realizing they could have met Dana, who had apparently gone upstairs to take a late afternoon nap. I’d spent most of my day just hanging out. It was an aberration for me. Jessie promised me he’d do whatever he could to track down Darien and I was grateful to have such devoted friends.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said softly.

  Dinner had been Miles’ beef bourguignon and cheesecake for dessert. Afterwards, Dana and I went outside to the patio to sit and Miles, sensing that we wanted to be alone, had gone off to watch his documentaries.

  Dana was leaning on the railing between two trees that looked out on a partial view of the city, all twinkling at night. I wrapped my arms around her waist and whispered in her ear.

  “Of course,” she said, tipping her head to the side, encouraging me. I kissed her neck and it would have been easy to get swept up so I stopped and merely held her there, letting my eyes slip shut, and focusing on her breathing.

  “What’s the matter, David?” Dana said, turning around in the circle of my arms.

  I’d thought it would be harder with her looking at me. But now I was lost in the depths of her sparkling eyes. There was such trust there. It made everything a whole lot easier.

  “I want to tell you what happened to me,” I said. “But it’s not easy.”

  “I want you to tell me.” She wrapped her arms around me and I squeezed her tight, gaining strength from her embrace.

  We sat down on a bench and I took a breath. There was so much. I hardly knew where to start.

  “I grew up here,” I said slowly. “In this house. As I’ve told you, my parents go back in New York a long time. We were well respected and wealthy shifter aristocrats but we mixed well with the human population too. My parents weren’t the warmest in the world but they raised me well and I never doubted their love for me. But when I was fifteen…”

  I found myself stopping as if I’d hit a bump in the road but Dana’s gentle hand on my arm made me relax again. “It’s okay, David,” she said softly.

  “When I was fifteen, I was kidnapped,” I said, my voice cracking a little. I sat back on the iron bench and let my eyes slip shut for a moment, focusing on the cool breeze that blew my long hair around and Dana’s warm hand. I just wanted to remind myself of where I was for a second. Sometimes when I even thought about this stuff very much, it could take me back there and I’d forget myself. “I was kidnapped by a wealthy human who had his fingers in the magical world. He had an obsession with magical things and people, and especially shifters. He was called The Collector. I was playing in Central Park late one night…” I shook my head, remembering how carefree I’d been when I was that young. “I felt like I owned New York. It was like my own personal playground. I never ever felt unsafe there. I was shifted when they shot me with a tranquilizer dart. There is a ward over Manhattan that protects shifters. I know because my ancestors put it there though it’s kind of a family secret. The Collector broke through it somehow and found me. He took me to his estate in Germany and kept me as a pet. Except no person of any moral worth would treat a pet the way he treated me. He kept me chained up all day and only took me out to show me off and make me do tricks. If I disobeyed, he tortured me…”

  I licked my lips. The worst of it had been said, I felt. And I somehow felt so much lighter, as if several anvils I hadn’t known I’d been carrying on my shoulders had suddenly been lifted away. When I looked back at Dana she was crying and she squeezed my hand, leaning on my shoulder.

  “How long did he keep you, David?” Dana said softly.

  “Eleven years,” I said quietly. Of all the crimes against me, that had been the largest. It was the time that had been stolen away from me. The time that was supposed to have been my most vibrant. My youth had been stolen and was still left back in that dungeon in Germany.

  “Oh no,” Dana whispered, burying her head in my shoulder. She wrapped an arm around me and I stroked her arm. “Oh no no…”

  “My escape was a lot of luck,” I said, so quiet I wasn’t sure she could hear me. “Got lucky one day. I’d been well behaved so long, my guardians became a little lax. They’d forced me to drink a tonic to hold back my fire but one day they forgot. By then my fire had grown hotter and more powerful than an average dragon’s. Though my growth was badly stunted. Anyhow, they skipped that one day with the tonic and I burned my way through my chains, through the guards, through the whole estate… Killing my captor was the best moment of my life.”

  Dana sniffed and clasped my hand in hers. “I’m glad you got away.”

  “So was I,” I murmured. “But when I got back, I discovered that my parents had passed away in those eleven years. My father to a car accident and my mother to cancer. Some shifters are susceptible to human cancers, it’s just bad luck of the genes. But they’d never stopped looking for me even though they’d never found me. Miles remained, overlooking the estate and waiting for the heir to return. I was so thankful to see him when I found my way back here… I cried on his shoulder for hours.”

  “I’m glad you have Miles,” Dana whispered. “And I’m glad you told me all this.”

  “I haven’t told anyone a lot of this,” I said. “Even my friends just know I was taken away somewhere for a long time. I’ve only been back for two years. I met them through Miles actually. He knew one of their domestic servants and sort of matched us up. I owe Miles everything.”

  “I’m so sorry that happ
ened to you,” Dana said. We held each other for awhile and finally Dana stood and tugged on my hand. “Come to bed?”

  In the bedroom, that night, everything felt different. We had been having heated and sometimes vigorous sex but tonight there was a new kind of vulnerability. We knew all the darkest parts of each other. We knew each other’s pain. I stood before Dana and kissed her chastely, feeling suddenly a bit like that wide-eyed fifteen-year-old playing in the park.

  “Make love to me,” Dana breathed.

  She was wearing a dress with thin straps and I leaned in and kissed one shoulder, curling my finger around the other strap. Ever so slowly I took one strap down and then the other, and her dress slipped to the floor, leaving her there in her bra and panties. Dana kissed me long and slow and unbuttoned by shirt, pushing it off my shoulders. I unhooked her bra and slipped it off her body and for a while we just stood there, kissing, and pressing up against each other, enjoying the sensation of skin on skin.

  I wanted to worship her tonight. She would have said that I had done so much for her, but to my mind, she had done so much for me. She’d brought me out of myself. In making me care about her, she’d made me care about the world too. I missed the world. I wanted to see it again. I’d spent eleven years locked away. Why was I now locking myself away when I didn’t have to? It was foolish really. But I’d needed a companion, someone whose soul could meet mine to go out into the world with.

  “David,” Dana whispered. “David…”

  That was all I needed. Just hearing her say my name did so many things to me. I walked her slowly back to the bed and gently pushed her down to lie on her back with her legs apart. I wanted to make her feel so good, better than she’d ever felt in her life. I wanted to taste her.

  I saw the curve of her smile when she realized what I was doing as I knelt before her. I leaned down and kissed the swell of her stomach and trailed soft tongue kisses down to the waistband of a pair of lacy peach panties. The sensation of the lace against my tongue and the warmth of her skin beneath it, the feel of her body moving beneath me as she breathed, was getting me hard and I unbuckled my belt and unzipped my fly, letting my engorged cock out just to be a little more comfortable.

  “Yes, David, please…”

  But I didn’t give Dana what she wanted right away. I was going to tease this out. I began with her thighs, so thick and soft, I licked and nibbled on the skin. I sucked lovebites on the inside of her thighs, drawing near her entrance that I could smell now and it made my mouth water. I pushed her legs apart and kissed my way closer, closer, just a bit closer… She squirmed around me and I smiled against her skin, gripping her hips, my cock leaking where it pressed against the duvet.

  Finally, I sat up a little and looked down at the swollen little mound beneath her panties. I licked my lips and all at once I mouthed at her, feeling her moan and writhe as I held her down, my grasp on her hips firm. I licked that lace with the flat of my tongue and worked my way further down until I was French kissing her pussy through her panties, quite enjoying myself and that rough lace on my tongue. I could already taste how wet she was.

  Dana squealed and reached down to shove down her panties and I batted her hand away, chuckling into her.

  “Bastard,” she breathed. Her voice was so low and sexy. It made me feel like I was doing my job quite well. I drew it out a little longer, grasping the soft globes of her ass that I loved so much, only gradually, bit by bit, drawing down her panties. I clawed my fingers through the dusting of pubic hair there. My mouth was watering so heavily I was like a panting jungle cat after his prey, the fire within me raging, as I finally leaned down and plunged my tongue inside her. She cried out helplessly, arching her hips up to meet me.

  I had teased her enough now, so I went straight for her clit and I heard her muffled screams into her hand. I chuckled into her. She was squirming so much I had to shift around to get a better grip to hold her still but I didn’t mind when she began to buck her hips into my mouth. My cock was throbbing for her and I finally reached down to give it a few strokes, moaning into Dana’s pussy as I ate to my heart’s content. I truly loved the taste of her. Dragon women taste different than human and I admit, I prefer dragon. It’s so fiery and powerful. I could have eaten her out all night if I hadn’t felt like I was going to come everywhere. And I didn’t want that. I wanted to come inside of her.

  “I want you,” Dana said brokenly, tugging on my hair. I looked up and saw her flushed, eyes wide, and breathless. “Please, David...I need you…”

  I shed myself of my pants and didn’t waste any time pushing her legs back and climbing on top of her, sheathing myself inside her as she gazed up at me, her wet and swollen mouth wide open. I pressed my thumb to her lips and pressed the pad to her tongue as I thrust inside her, deeper and deeper. She sucked on my thumb and bucked up against me and I ducked down to kiss her as the two of us became one, finding a slow, deep rhythm. This was my mate, I was sure. No one would ever make me feel this way. There was only Dana.

  Dana...

  Chapter Ten: Dana

  “Maybe he tracked you down to my place,” David said slowly. “And then decided he was wrong?” David frowned even as he said it. He was trying to look on the brightest possible side. But he wasn’t very good at it and why should he be? After the awful things he’d been through, I couldn’t blame him for assuming the worst.

  He’d told me a friend of his was investigating Darien. That made me feel a little better. I felt so protected. Even if Darien knew I was there, living with David, I had no doubt that he wouldn’t get near me. Not with David looking out for me. I had seen Darien shifted. He was probably twice David’s size but David had trained himself to patrol and to fight and his firepower was greater than most. Plus, David would be fighting for me. I wanted to think that David would be fighting for love. But though we were so close now that I felt as if were sometimes somehow the same person, I found it hard to presume that much. I’d never been lucky in my life. I’d been raised expected to be contended and to accept the idea of being grateful for a husband who would take care of me as long as I made a reasonable wife. Love had never entered the equation. It was difficult now to imagine I could ever have that kind of happiness.

  Yet, the way David looked at me…

  “He’s probably plotting,” I said quietly. We were outside at the patio table, eating brunch. Miles had the day off and it was nice just to have things to ourselves for a bit. “He’s not impulsive. He’s strategic. He thinks carefully. If he knows I’m here, he’s not just going to attack the place and try to take me. He’ll be sneaky about it.”

  “That’s good information,” David said. He picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles. “We’ll be careful then. I wonder if I should get you a panic button?”

  “A panic button!” I burst out laughing at there mere suggestion. Panic buttons were for the children of presidents, for princesses, for heiresses… “I never go anywhere anyway. Do I really need a panic button just being inside the house?”

  “That’s true,” David said darkly. “You must have cabin fever being here all the time.”

  “To tell you the truth, I hadn’t thought about it much,” I said, shrugging. “The house is so big and the outside back here is so pretty and I can see out to the city. I don’t feel like a shut-in or anything.”

  “That’s good,” David said, nodding. “Obviously, with Darien out there… I feel safer with you here.”

  “What if we never hear back from him again?” I said carefully. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to be careful. Yet I couldn’t stay here all the time forever either. And the thought that Darien would still have so much control over me made me crazy. “How long before I can go out?”

  David licked his lips and leaned on his hand. I took the opportunity to gaze at his handsome face. It was fast becoming one of my favorite past times. He had that sculpted jaw and I loved the way his long, black hair brushed against it. I loved it when a tress fell over his eye and he
smiled up at me, looking like a young boy out of nowhere.

  I love him.

  “You can go out now,” David said. “But I’d want you with a driver and I want him to keep an eye on you… Unless, of course, you’re going with me.”

  “A bodyguard,” I said wryly. It probably wasn’t a bad idea. I was just grateful he wasn’t going overboard and trying to stop me from going out at all. I don’t like being imprisoned anymore than he does. But I think he understood that. He valued freedom just like me, even if he kept to himself in his big, lonely mansion most of the time. “Never thought I’d be the kind of girl who has a chauffeur and a bodyguard.”

  Growing up, they had told me over and over in the most dulcet tones that when I was sold off to a wealthy dragon who wanted an heir, I would be pampered. I might not be loved, but I would have every luxury and wasn’t that worth it? Growing up poor, I thought it was. But it hadn’t turned out anything like that. Even if Darien had ended up letting me live as a pampered guest, it still would have been a gilded cage at best.

  “I want to take you for a night on the town,” David said, kissing my hand again. “I want to take you shopping, take you to Tiffany’s and let you buy diamonds and gold… I want to give you every-”

  He stopped suddenly, looking pained, as if his mouth had run away with him. My heart was racing. I felt as if he’d been right on the verge of the kind of confession that I desperately wanted to hear.

  “David-”

  “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I get carried away…”

  “You can’t think I’m not falling in love with you,” I said in a small voice. I watched the breeze blow David’s hair around. For a moment, I saw that scared young boy who had been taken away from his family and locked up out of the sun, kept as a pet; tortured, beaten, abused, and made to think he was worthless…

  He had not been back in the world long. It would be a long time until he could properly process what he had been through. He probably needed help with it. If I was lucky enough to stay in his life long enough, it was something I planned to bring up. But to do it now would have felt presumptuous to me.