Alien Dragon (12 page)

“Of course,” I whisper. This is where he tells me to fuck off and find a new planet. This is where he tells me to get lost. This is where he tells me I was horrible in bed and I need to go away.

“Come here, Riley,” he doesn’t pat the bed next to him to motion me over. He pats his lap.

How can I deny him that?

Zeke is my King.

Just a few steps over, then I stand in front of him. I don’t hesitate, don’t make him wait, don’t play coy. Instead, I make myself cozy on his lap, curling up into him. My head rests on his shoulder and he strokes my hair.

Like it’s exactly where I belong.

Like it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.

“I haven’t seen you in weeks,” I whisper. “Where did you go?”

“I had business to take care of.”

“You didn’t say goodbye to me.”

“I know.”

We sit in silence for a few minutes, but it’s not uncomfortable. It never is with Zeke. I don’t feel the need to fill the air as we sit in my tiny bedroom. I’m just happy he’s back. I’m happy he’s touching me.

It hurt when he was gone.

“I need to tell you something, Riley.” My body tenses, tightens. This is it. This is where the bad news comes, but he keeps touching me until I relax again.

Then Zeke speaks.

“I pushed you away. It was wrong of me, but I had my reasons.”

“What are you talking about? I thought you hated me.” Only it hadn’t felt like hate when he’d kissed me, played with me, fucked me.

It hadn’t felt like hate when he’d taken my virginity.

“There’s been intelligence that suggests someone is going to try to kidnap Star.”

“What?” I turn to look at him, but he tightens his hold on me. My body is still tense, but I try to relax in his lap. I think of May’s words:
The guest list will be carefully vetted.
“What are you talking about? Why are you telling me this? Can’t you stop them?”

“We don’t know everyone who’s involved. Riley, I wanted you from the first moment I saw you. You’re fucking gorgeous. Your curves, your hair, your smile. Fuck. When I caught Dane with you, I almost punched him in the fucking nose.”

I can’t help but laugh a little at that because he
did
look mad. Still, this doesn’t explain his behavior.

“You treated me really poorly,” I whisper.

“I had to make everyone believe you were only my human. Everyone had to believe it, even you.”

“But…why?”

“Because you speak Drakonai, little human. Because you can go places I cannot. Do you really think a king can wander freely in his own castle? Never. You hear things others do not. You know things others do not. You speak with people who would never talk freely to me. Most importantly, you can eavesdrop without anyone realizing what they’re giving away.”

“You want me to be your little spy,” I say, finally understanding. This is why it was so important for me to learn Drakonai and cultural relations. I knew that, yet when Zeke pushed me away so many times, I questioned it.

I questioned everything.

“I need you to come to the party tomorrow. I need you to be my eyes and ears. If anything seems strange, I need your help, little one. No one will be looking at you. Everyone will be paying attention to Star.”

“What do you need me to do?” I ask. I have a feeling it’s going to be something specific, something I probably won’t want to do. I get the feeling that whatever happens at this party is going to be difficult to deal with.

I’m going to have my work cut out for me.

But more importantly, I’m not a spy.

I was trained as a luscious sex doll: not a warrior. I can’t fight. I can’t even
really
be stealthy. I learned history and language and culture, but spying?

Not so much.

“All of my servants are vetted before coming into the castle. Even if I buy one at an auction, I only buy from Hal. Ever.”

“Hal wouldn’t double-cross you,” I say firmly.

“No, but that doesn’t mean someone couldn’t have sneaked mischievous servants into the castle. There are ways. People have ways of getting what they want, and if what they want is Star, they’re going to try to nab her tomorrow.”

“This might sound like a stupid question, but why not just cancel the party?” It would be easier.

“It’s her coming-of-age ceremony. It cannot be canceled. She’ll be presented as an eligible woman and will be able to take a mate of her choosing.”

The mating ceremony includes biting, blood, and an exchange of bodily fluids. It’s messy. It’s gross.

It also doesn’t have to be consensual.

“Zeke,” I whisper slowly. “Why would they wait until tomorrow to try to take Star?”

“Because if they can get her along, if they can bite her mid-fuck, they’ll be mated to her and the crown prince of Hanayemm. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop that.”

***

When I’m done freaking out, Zeke kisses me again to calm me down. We don’t stay in my room, though. He picks me up and carries me to his, making sure the door to his room is closed. It locks automatically with a biometric code only he can open. He programmed it so I can open it now, too, only that wasn’t because he liked me.

It was so I could bring him snacks after he fucked someone.

He lays me beside him on the bed and we just look at each other.

“You don’t know anything about me. Why do you like me all of a sudden?”

“I don’t have to know everything about you to see the beauty in you, Riley.”

“But you don’t want a wife.”

“I want you.”

“What do you mean? You hated that I knew your name. You’ve insisted for weeks that you don’t want to get married. Has it all been for show?”

He grimaces, and I know I’ve caught him.

“I liked you the second I saw you, Riley, but I could never admit it. Not to Lee, not to anyone. If someone knew how I felt about you, they could use it against me.”

“So you’re never going to try to love anyone because you might get hurt? That’s super fucking ridiculous, Zeke. Pardon the language.”

“I’ll never get used to the way you say my name.”

“I can stop.”

“Don’t. I love it.”

“You were mad I knew your name.”

“I was surprised. Who told you?”

I smirk. “Lee.”

“The fucker. I should have known.”

“Don’t punch him. It was an accident.”

“Is it hard?”

“What?”

“Being so far from Earth.” He looks like he genuinely wants to know, like he’s really curious about my life before coming here. What is there to say? What can I possibly say to explain what it was like?

“My whole family is dead. They have been for a long time now. I left the night my father…” Only I can’t say it. Not to Zeke and not to anyone. I ran the night my father died and I don’t regret it, but part of me feels like I should.

Part of me feels like I should have played the part of the good daughter and given him a proper burial. Part of me thinks I should have waited before I ran.

Then reality kicks in and I remember that if I hadn’t left when I did, I never would have overheard Tank and Elf.

I never would have talked my way onto the ship.

I never would have had a chance.

Earth is gone, but I’m very much alive, very much yearning to have my own adventures in the world.

“Mine is, too.” Zeke whispers. I know they are. His family was killed during one of the wars. He wasn’t supposed to take the throne at such a young age, which is probably why he’s receiving so much pressure from the council to take a mate. His father was still king and his brother was next in line, but they were killed.

So Zeke stepped up.

“No one says my name because I don’t like to remember them.”

“Hearing your name reminds you of your family?”

“I thought it would. I was scared that it would. When you say my name, though, Riley…it just feels right.”

“Then I’ll say your name as much as you want me to, Zeke.”

“Aren’t you the little minx?”

“And you’re my big bad dragon.”

Zeke climbs out of the bed and motions for me to come with him.

“Where are we going?” He’s on one side of the room, standing in front of a bookshelf. He pulls one of the candlesticks. One of the
candlesticks
and a panel in the wall slides to the side.

“Are you kidding me right now?” I ask. This feels like a bad Earth movie from long ago, but he just shrugs.

“A king might need to escape from a dangerous situation.”

“What’s the dangerous situation you’re in right now, Zeke?”

“Thinking about the past.”

He takes my hand and I follow Zeke into the dark.

We walk quietly through a series of tunnels. They’re pitch-black. There are no lights. I can’t see a damn thing, so I finally just close my eyes and let Zeke lead me. I grip his hand with one of mine and touch the wall with my other.

“You and your dragon eyesight,” I murmur. “What I wouldn’t give.”

“Shh, it’s not that great,” he whispers.

“Really?”

“No, it’s amazing. I was trying to make you feel better.”

I like this side of Zeke. I like the playful banter and the sweet persona. It’s comfortable and sexy and fantastic. I like the alpha side of him, too, but I get the feeling that not too many people get to see Zeke being normal.

They only get to see him being the heartless king.

After awhile, we come to a dead end.

“What happens now?” I ask. I hear him fumbling around, but again, I can’t see anything. I think he presses a button or touches a stone because the wall in front of us slides open and I see we’re behind some bushes.

“Are we in the garden?” I ask.

“Yes,” he takes my hand and leads me from the passageway. He touches one of the stones on the outside and leads me away from the castle wall.

“I was just here with May,” I tell him.

“I know.”

“How do you know?”

“I was watching you.”

“You were spying on me?” I don’t know if I should be impressed or creeped out. Maybe this should serve as a warning to me to spend more time focused on my surroundings and not let myself get distracted.

“I was making sure no one took you.”

“I was only with May.”

“That’s what I was worried about.”

“Zeke,” I turn to him. “What are you talking about?”

“May concerns me,” he says simply. “Did she say anything strange to you while you were in the gardens?”

“No,” I tell him. I can’t think of anything strange she might have said. She warned me about the possibility of a kidnapping or attempted abduction tonight, but that was it. “We just explored.”

“Maybe I’m over-thinking things,” he says calmly, and I squeeze his hand. Zeke’s touch feels good against my skin. He makes me feel safe in the darkness.

He makes me feel alive.

We walk a little more, and I can’t believe we went through a secret passageway. Zeke has given me so much information tonight that I might die if I have to take in any more. My body is alert and aroused now that I’m close to him.

My skin tingles in anticipation and all I can think about is touching him, getting close to him, feeling him.

I don’t want to think about danger or Star or my dead parents.

I just want to think about how he made me come and how he can do it again and oh, why isn’t he touching me?

“Because I want to show you something first, little human,” he says with a low growl, and I realize I’ve spoken out loud again. This seems to be a bad habit of mine.

“What do you want to show me?”

“This.”

Zeke walks about 20 feet away from me, and then he starts stripping off his clothes. He doesn’t do a dragon dance, but he does move slowly, tantalizingly.

He knows he has an audience and he’s using it to his advantage.

As if on cue, my body gets tight and my breathing deepens. My pussy clenches and if I were wearing panties, they’d be soaked. I can feel my own arousal on my thighs. If I can feel how strongly he’s affecting me, I know he can definitely scent me. Hell, all the dragons within a 2-mile radius can probably scent me.

“What are you doing, King?” I ask quietly, but he ignores me and keeps going with his little show. His shirt comes off, and he swings his hips around. He kicks off the shoes. Somehow, Zeke manages to take off his socks, and he makes it look sexy.

His hands roam his abs, tweaking his nipples just a little, then dive down to the waistband of his pants.

This is it.

I lick my lips in anticipation, but he’s going to make me wait. Zeke shakes his ass to a song only he can hear and turns in a circle. Oh yeah, my boy has got attitude. It’s taking every ounce of my self-control not to run over, yank his pants down, and slide that hard dick into my mouth.

Fortunately for me, he’s about to lose the pants.

He unbuttons the top button.

More.

More.

More.

Oh, please. Come on. More. My nipples are hardened, poking at my dress. He can definitely see them and from where I’m standing, it sure looks like he’s enjoying my reactions to him. His dick is about to tear through his pants. He’d better take them off soon.

He watches me as he slowly slides down his zipper. This is painfully slow, and I start to take a step forward, but he holds up a hand and motions for me to move back. I’m afraid the show is going to stop if I do, so I listen to what Zeke wants and I move back. Dammit. I don’t want to move back.

As soon as I’m in my previous spot, he continues taking down his zipper. Then he hooks his thumbs under his waistband, turns around, and slowly slides them down. As he takes them down, I can see that he’s not wearing underwear.

And I have a full, clear view of his gorgeous, naked ass.

His dick peeks through and I melt.

I want him inside of me again.

We’ve only fucked the one time. That was my only time ever, though I have taken to masturbating like crazy at night. It’s the only way I can relieve my stress. It’s the only way I can sleep at all. Still, when I close my eyes, it’s him I see. There was never a face to my fantasies before. Oh, I’ve had plenty of fantasies, but never about any specific. Not until there was Zeke.

I keep watching him, wondering what he’s going to do next. We’re out in the open, but there’s no one around. We’re still in the garden, surrounded by plants and hedges, but anyone could walk by.

Maybe there is a midnight gardener who hangs out here, I don’t know.

Then Zeke does something I don’t expect. He doesn’t start stroking his dick or dancing nude for me, much as I want him to.

No, what he does is so much better.

He looks at me and starts running toward me. He starts racing and I leap out of the way, but I didn’t need to because Zeke leaps into the air and then he’s gone.

Then he’s flying.

And he’s a dragon.