Danburn: The English Dragon ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance (10 page)

“You want me to come by?”

He’d told him no, he would handle it. Then he’d made his way in to talk to her. He wished now that he’d let Jake handle it. Louisa was all over him the moment she saw him.

“I was wondering when someone was going to come by and help me move in with you two. You will have to have Kendrick give me her number. I can’t be talking to that man all the time. He’s not giving her any of my messages.” Danburn had told her that he wouldn’t either. “We’re sisters. You can’t keep us apart. Or is it that you want me...? Oh, I get it now. You and me, we’re going to be getting it on while my sister is up there. You should have had someone tell me. The place is a mess now. I’ll need a maid service—”

“I’m not sleeping with you.” She asked him why not. “Because I’m going to marry your sister, and I don’t particularly care for you.”

“So? We can still have some fun. And if you pay me really nice I won’t tell anyone either. I have to tell you, I did wonder why she was giving me this place to live in. And her telling me to get a job. Like that’s going to happen. It’s kind of silly to think that I’d need one once I’m living in the castle with you. Why would that matter? But now I understand…I have to be here for you, right?” He told her that he wouldn’t be coming by. “Then you want me to come up to the castle. I understand we’ll have to keep it quiet. I can do that.”

“I’m not going to ever sleep with you, Louisa. Nor are you ever going to come to the castle to visit, much less live. You’re here because you’re Kendrick’s sister, and that’s all.” She nodded and asked him how they were going to get it on, whatever that meant to her, if she wasn’t to come to the castle right now. “I’m not sleeping with you.”

“I’ll need more things. As you can see, I’ve had to help out some of my friends. The bed—it wasn’t really nice anyway—is going to a friend of mine who didn’t have one, and then there is the couch and love seat. Another friend of mine didn’t have any for his new place, and he loved the ones you put in here for me.” Danburn had said nothing, but watched as two men struggled to get the bed into the back of a piece of shit truck. “You think I can get a bed tonight? With all your money, I bet that won’t be any trouble. Or is this a good time for me to be coming up there to the castle? Kendrick said she had to get ready for me. It’s all right if things aren’t perfect yet.”

“You gave away the only bed that I’m ever going to supply you with.” She asked him where they were going to fuck. Just like that, where are we going to fuck. “I’m not going to touch you, not now, not ever.”

“You mean because I don’t have a bed. I bet you have a really nice one up at the castle we can use. Firm and everything.” He’d turned to leave, but she grabbed his arm and it was all he could do to keep his beast under control. “I need some money too, if you have any. I’m going to talk to Kendrick soon about it, but since you’re here and you’re the one with the money, can you give me some until I speak to Kendrick?”

“No.” He peeled her fingers off his arm and took a step away from her. “You’ve had your allotment for the month, Louisa. You’ll have to either get a job or try to figure out what to do until then.”

As he made his way to his car, she followed him. At first he thought for sure she was going to get in with him, just to make her way to his home, but she stood near the window and smiled at him. It wasn’t the kind of smile he would have thought of coming from the shark she was, but one of sincerity. It occurred to him that she honestly believed that she was going to get her way. He drove home thinking about the way she’d made him feel so dirty.

“You look so serious.” Danburn looked at Kendrick as she sat up on the couch, pulling him from his nightmarish thoughts. “Are you thinking of the old women and orphans you’re tossing out this time of year?”

“No. I do that before lunch so that it doesn’t interfere with my dinner plans.” He watched her face and knew that she was still upset about today. “Come over here and sit on my lap. I want to tell you a story about when I was younger.”

“I have a better idea. Why don’t you come here, strip me out of my clothing, and make love to me?” His cock jerked in his pants. All day he’d thought of ways he wanted to take his new love, and that was when he realized that he had fallen in love with her. “I have on this new panty and bra set that I got today. And some other pretties that I want to tease you with.”

“Show me.” He smiled when she started to unbutton her blouse. Then she spread her legs wide enough that he could see a hint of yellow silk between her legs. “I love silk. Especially when it’s on you.”

The blouse was opened, but he could see little of the treats beneath it. When she sat up a little, using the back of the couch as leverage, she pulled the skirt she had on off and let it drop to the floor. Her legs opened for him, and he could see that she was wet, that she’d stained the silky material with her juices.

When she slid the blouse down her shoulders, she held it over her breasts. He wanted to see her, all of her, and reached down to stroke his cock through his pants. She moaned when he scooted down in his seat and opened his fly.

“I’d like to suck on your cock.” He nodded, not sure he was able to speak around his sudden need to feel her doing just that. “Would you like that? To come down my throat?”

“Yes. Come here.” She moved then, letting the blouse go, and he could see her dark nipples under the sheer material of her bra. “Take it off for me. Let me see all of you.”

When she reached behind her to unhook her bra, Danburn pulled his pants down to his knees and wrapped his hand around his cock. He was painfully hard now. Pre-cum was dripping from the tip in a long stream, and he used it to fist himself. But when she took her bra off and dropped it to the floor with the rest of her clothing, he nearly jerked his dick off as she cupped her full breast and licked at the tip of it.

“Christ, do that again.”

She did it to both her nipples, leaving them wet from her tongue. When she moved toward him, wearing only a pair of panties and her warm flesh, he wanted to beg her to let him eat her, but she was at his knees before he could make his tongue move to form words. When her hands moved to take his cock, he held onto the arms of the chair as she licked him from root to tip.

“You taste as good as you smell.” Danburn nodded, not caring what she was saying so long as she finished him. When she took his crown in her mouth and sucked, he nearly came up out of the chair. “Don’t touch me, Danburn. I want to explore you without you rushing me.”

“I want to come in your mouth. On your body.” Kendrick nodded at him and smiled. Then she leaned over him and swallowed him down past the tightness of her throat.

He came. He might have thought that he could hold off, perhaps make it last longer, but as soon as she tightened those lovely muscles at the back of her throat around him, Danburn knew it was too much. Curling his hand at the back of her head, he filled her. His cock emptied deep into her and filled again as she fucked him with her mouth. Christ, he’d never been one to take his enjoyment before a woman, but he had a feeling that it was going to be hard for him not to with her. When he came a second time, his balls tight against his body, he pulled her up off the floor and jerked her down over his cock. The look on her face, the look of pure joy, had him taking them both to the floor and him plowing her hard.

“I want to come.” He told her he wanted her to as well. “Please, fill me, Danburn. I want to feel you come inside of my pussy.”

He held her body to his. Fucked her harder than he had any woman before her, and knew that she’d be sore in the morning. But the harder he took her, the more he fucked her, the more she begged him for. And when she dug her nails into his back and he felt the blood as it trickled down, Danburn felt her body tighten around his and she screamed out her release.

He watched her face as she came. Danburn knew that for as long as he lived the vision of her coming, her entire being releasing for him, would be something that he’d never forget. Something that would keep him warm on nights when she was sleeping beside him. As he threw back his head, his own body letting go, his dragon roared inside of him. Complete. He was, and they were, complete with this woman.

Dropping down on her, his body spent, he rolled to his back, holding her over him. His heart was aching it was pounding so hard. His breath was hot, his dragon letting him know that he was pleased as well. As he lay there, holding on to the woman who had come to mean more to him in the last week than any had in all his life, Danburn fell as deeply in love with his other half as he knew he was supposed to. Fletcher Danburn English, the ninth earl of the English castle, was in love with his mate.

Chapter
9

“But you don’t understand, Kendrick is supposed to take care of me. She has forever.”

Noah rubbed at the pain that was beginning to take root between his eyes. For several days now he’d been dealing with Louisa Barrera at least a hundred times a day, and he was ready to throw in the towel. And when Kendrick came into the room with him, he had a feeling she knew he was at his wit’s end with the other woman. She asked him for the phone.

“Louisa?” There was a pause, but even with the phone no longer in his hand, he could hear the other woman talking loudly to her sister. “Shut up and listen to me. You are not, under any circumstances, to call Mr. Noah again today. If you do, then I will no longer support you in that house you’ve nearly destroyed.” Then she ended the call.

When Kendrick handed him back his phone, he sat down when she asked him to. He knew as surely as he was sitting there that things were not going to go well for the older woman. He decided to come clean with her.

“The apartment manager is ready to toss her out on her ear. The people who live across from her, hardened cops I’m to understand, have decided that if it comes to it, they’ll gladly send her to Bullock if asked to. I doubt they really would, but you can understand where they are coming from.” She said she did. “There is little furniture in the house, save the things that she wasn’t able to give away, and the money that was to last her the month was gone, or nearly so, the first day.”

“Have you given her any more?” He said that he had not. “Good. Don’t. If you do, then she’ll have won and you’ll be broke in a week.”

He wanted to assure her that he had plenty of money, but felt she might be right on this. Her sister was nothing like the young woman in front of him. When she got up to pace, he watched her with a new respect. She was his master’s wife, or soon would be, the woman who ruled the household, and she wasn’t afraid to admit that she didn’t have any idea what she was doing.

“Three days ago I got a call from someone that you might know.” He asked her who. “Julia James. She said that she and Danburn had been lovers, and that he made promises to her that she would like for me to take care of. She claims that he promised her two million dollars for her part of being his…his fuck buddy, she said.”

“I don’t think that—” Kendrick looked at him, and he leaned back on the couch. “They were lovers, I know this. For some years, but there was never any kind of agreement with her on that. She and her brother tried to scam Danburn just recently. He, Conrad Cortland, owned a housing development, and Danburn bought it from the bank. The loan. It’s what he does.”

“So this guy, Cortland, he tried to say what? That his sister was in love with Danburn and that he wanted money for her to go away, because of me?” Noah smiled. Kendrick’s insecurity was showing through again. “I had nothing to do with that.”

“No, my lady. Cortland wanted to continue on as the owner of the development, but for Danburn to foot the bill. He claimed that he had something that Danburn wanted in the form of Julia, because he’d kidnapped her. He wasn’t aware that we knew they were related. But we knew differently.” Kendrick sat down and asked him to tell her the story. “We were investigating the development, you see, because a friend of his had bought a home in the area. After several months of trying to get his home complete, to move into it safely, he called Danburn.”

“You mean they were selling houses on spec?” He nodded, loving that he could have a conversation with her and not have to explain every detail. “So these houses, they were half-assed and not fit to be sold, and this man wanted to take Danburn to the cleaners so that…so that he could have his cake and eat it too sort of thing.”

“Precisely. But there was a hang up. You see, Julia was starting to tell Danburn that she was broke. That her investments were not going as well as she had hoped. Her late husband had left her very well off, you see, so she should have been set for some time. Danburn had me look into what had happened.” Kendrick smiled at him, and he knew she had figured it out. “I found that not only was her brother a part of the poor development planning, but the two of them had done this before. Bought land, put up a very lovely spec home as you called it, and then started the other homes with no intentions of finishing them. No cabinet tops, bathrooms with no shower or toilet. Some of the rooms would have no carpet, but others would only have half a room. It was terrible.”

“Okay, so this guy, he does his little scam thing and has his sister try to get more from Danburn to help them start their next little game. I’m missing something, aren’t I?” He nodded and laughed when she told him to give her a moment to see if she could figure it out. Noah watched as her mind seemed to work it out. “Okay, so this guy has this scam. But his sister is working her own, namely against Danburn. Then he unknowingly buys the note from the bank and the scammers figure out they can really get his ass and his money. So they…the Feds would be involved, because basically if they borrowed money from the bank in a fraudulent way, then they would be on the hook for that. And blackmail too. I’m assuming that is what they were trying again, blackmailing Danburn in the way of…you said he wanted to continue on as before, so this guy wanted to sell the houses after Danburn fixed them for him, and he used Julia in that plot somehow.”

“He claimed that he had kidnapped her and that she would be returned to Danburn once the contract between them was signed.” Noah hadn’t had this much fun in ages. “But his lordship was already aware that they were related, as I said, and had had them followed. When it came time for us to go to the meeting with Cortland, his sister was arrested at the airport, tickets in hand, ready to flee the country.”

Kendrick smiled at him. “So she’s in jail and not at her lovely apartment that she claims Danburn set up for her. One that he visits every day when he’s told me he was at work.” Noah told her that he was not with her. “How the hell is she getting out to call me then? I mean, don’t they have rules for that kind of shit?”

“I’m sure there are, but I will have Jake look into it. She might have privileges that we are unaware of.” Noah pulled out his note pad and wrote to check on that. When Kendrick sat down across from him, he thought there might be more that she needed from him. “My lady?”

“I have this thing with Danburn tomorrow night.” He nodded. “It’s formal and all. I can do that part, the dress up thing, but I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. I mean…do I just hang on his arm and smile at people? Am I going to be required to have a conversation with them? I can talk about my sister, my job situation, and how to not walk in heels. After that, I’m pretty much used up.”

“You should be yourself. I do believe that is what made Danburn fall in love with you.” She snorted and he frowned. “You do not believe that he loves you?”

“He doesn’t. But this party thing. Will there be a dinner? I mean, will I have to know which fork to use for what sort of food?” Noah was wondering why she didn’t believe that Danburn loved her when something occurred to him. She had no idea that she loved him too. “Noah?”

“There will be only petite plate food. Things on a long buffet table that you will pick for yourself. Drinks too. Champagne, I believe, as well as other items. I’m aware that you do not drink, so I would ask them for water with a lime or lemon in it. You will appear to be a snob that way.” She asked him if she was supposed to be a snob. “Yes. They are a group that are as stale and mean as you are fresh and honest. I would wish that you could have more time, get to know some of these people better before you are subjected to them, but I do believe that you will be able to hold your own. Be yourself, my lady, and you will shine.”

“I don’t know about all that. What is this thing for, anyway? He just said he’s the guest of honor. How?” Noah told her that Danburn was quite the humanitarian. “I see. So he is generous with his millions and they’re going to spend it to have a party for him.”

“I do believe that one of the charities he has donated to is throwing this thing. So yes, I guess you would be correct.” He’d never really thought of it that way before. “But I do believe that they’re going to be charging others for this opportunity to attend.”

“You know that’s nuts, right? Give a party for some man who has given you money to do whatever it is you need. Then when he gets there, hit him up for more. Why not have an open dinner with everyone who can afford to paying up, and that way no one is out? Then maybe have an auction of donated items to defray the costs of the shindig.” He smiled at her and she grinned back. “As you can tell, I’m not big on charities. I’m sure that most of them do what they say they’re going to do, but there are a lot of them that only profit for the big wigs. I know one that has everything donated to them, so it’s one hundred percent profit. Then they sell the items off and pay their workers very little because they end up with a tax break for hiring people who have special needs. I think their CEO makes like two million a year, and none of the money he says is for charities actually goes to anyone.”

“I have heard of this too.” The more time he spent with Kendrick the more he liked her. His first opinion of the young woman was so far off the mark that he was ashamed that he’d thought it. “This charity, the one honoring Danburn, is one of those sort of charities. And I do believe that after this, he won’t be giving any more money to them. He’s done his homework too.”

“My sister isn’t going to go away, is she?” The change in subject startled him into not having a ready answer for her. But she didn’t seem to require one as she answered her own question. “She won’t. She will continue to try and take and take from anyone that will answer her until they are as broken as she is. And that won’t stop her either. She’ll just keep at you until you have to run and hide from her to get away. Or die.”

“You won’t die.” He knew she was aware of this, but he wanted her to remember that it would not last forever, this thing with her sister. “I have made sure—on several occasions—that she is not getting anything more from you or Danburn. But she is most…I was going to say persistent, but that’s not it either, is it? She just hears what she wants, and the rest is just mumbling to her.”

“Right after I was released from the hospital and living with a foster parent, she came to me in the middle of the night. Just came into the house like it was hers and got into bed with me. I was so afraid of her that I wasn’t sure what to do but lie there. I thought for sure she’d come to finish the job. Then the next morning she came down to breakfast with me like she was supposed to be there. The foster family had to call the police to get rid of her. Several days later I saw her again, this time with Mom. They were both so disappointed in me for not making sure that they had a place to live as nicely as I did.” Noah knew this. He’d done a very thorough background check on the entire family before he knew her. “My mom went on and on about how it wasn’t her fault that I’d been shot, that she’d needed a place to stay, and since I was the youngest that she’d not loved me like she had Louisa. It was then that I knew there was never going to be any kind of relationship between the two of us.”

“She died a few years ago, did she not?” Kendrick told him that she’d been on the run until then, wanted for attempted murder. “Yes. And your sister, she’d been staying with her off and on. I believe that she even spent some time in jail as well.”

“Yes. For a great many things. But they’d let her out when, in my opinion, they could no longer stand her. Then she’d hit me up for money, and when that didn’t work because I’d not have it, she’d come to my place, steal what she could, and blame me for it.” Noah’s heart broke for Kendrick. She’d had such a hard and unloved childhood. “When she calls again, let me know. I’m going to end this once and for all.”

He wasn’t sure he should do that. Louisa was dangerous. Not in a way that she would mean to harm someone, but she would sell out Kendrick somehow to get whatever she wanted. But he agreed he’d do it. However, Danburn would know as well.

~~~

Bernie knew where the woman was. Knew everything there was to know about her, including the fact that the police and the Feds were watching her. He wasn’t sure it was because of him. The woman had some enemies of her own, but he had a feeling that some of her being under the watchful eye of some pretty powerful Federal agents was due to him. He wasn’t sure what to do about it either.

“Two days ago she had a visitor from the English household. Not sure what was said—can’t get in there with some devices they have about—but when he left, she was pretty angry. Broke a few windows out and threw rocks at him.” The more that Bernie heard about this girl from Collier, the more he liked her. She was going to die, but he did admire her spunk. “Her bills as well as her rent are paid by English. There’s a cell phone in the household, but I can’t get to it to clone it to see who she’s calling. The men across from her are watching but don’t seem to interact with her. And I don’t think she has any idea what they’re doing there.”

“You think he’s her lover, this English person?” Collier said he didn’t believe so. The one time he’d been there, which had been days ago, he didn’t strike him as even liking the woman. “So what is he doing taking care of her? I know that the sister is in on this somehow, but who the hell has any knowledge of her either? Do you think he’s keeping her nice and happy so he can fuck the sister? I’ve heard she’s a beauty. Could be that’s it.”

“I have no idea. I’m telling you, Bernie, it’s like there is this shield around the castle and no one can get on that property without ten men coming after them. Twice now I’ve sent men there, and they got no further than the trees before they were caught and escorted off the place. It’s almost as if the land is talking to them.” Bernie said nothing. It had been like that too when he’d been walking along the land, seeing if he could get a closer look at the castle he wanted. “And that office that English works in is like a fucking fortress. You can’t get in the door without a badge. There is so much security in that place that getting a man even to sneak in the kitchen is impossible. It’s as if he has national secrets in there.”