Chapter 13
Adrian Westergren
Fuck. Me. Sideways.
Haru looked like walking sex.
The damn dragon had always given off an aura of unrelenting, raw sexiness, but at that moment, the sight of him was reducing Adrian’s working brain cells to useless sludge. The few that were still firing demanded he haul Haru off to the bedroom and suck his cock.
How was he supposed to keep his hands to himself?
No! How was he supposed to keep other people from touching the dragon?
Without thinking, Adrian flicked his wrist, and a small silver dagger appeared at his fingertips. He was going to need to slit a lot of throats tonight.
“Mmmm, my Adrian,” Haru purred as he strode across the room to stand in front of him.
He wrapped his long fingers around Adrian’s hand, trapping the blade in their hands before lifting it to his face.
With a devilish smirk, Haru stuck out his tongue and slowly licked the flat of the knife, all while holding Adrian’s ardent gaze.
“You look ready to kill someone if they dare speak to me.”
In an instant, Adrian became painfully hard. His lips parted, and he knew with his next words, he’d beg Haru to fuck him.
Thankfully, they weren’t alone.
A weary sigh cut through the room. Adrian jerked as if waking from Haru’s sexy spell. The dagger in his hand disappeared, while Haru’s seductive expression dissolved into one of extreme annoyance.
“Haru, you are perfect. You’ve got the entitled, sexy air that you need,” Vitor stated from where he was sitting in a plum-colored chair.
“Adrian, you scream assassin. Sexy assassin, sure, but we need useless, pouty, spoiled fuckboy. Not competent and deadly. You need to be able to move easily through the party without people paying much attention to you.”
Adrian locked eyes with Haru, and he could tell the dragon read his irritation because his lips moved as if he were trying to hide his amusement.
Adrian sucked in a deep breath through his nose and held it.
As he released it, he relaxed his facial features and loosened his entire body, one limb at a time, into an indulgent slouch that left him clinging to Haru just to remain upright.
The final touch was jutting his bottom lip out and fluttering his eyelashes at Haru.
“Do we have to go to this party?” Adrian asked in his best whiny voice. “You promised to buy me something shiny.”
“Better.” Vitor exhaled with relief, but Adrian was focused on the way Haru’s eyes widened and his nostrils flared.
Old animal-like instincts screamed a warning that his play-acting had awoken a beast that was barely holding his shit together.
If he wasn’t careful, he was going to get fucked through the mattress at the first opportunity.
For his own sanity and self-preservation, Adrian pulled away from Haru and walked to a full-length mirror to inspect his appearance.
He wore a pair of black pants that looked as if they’d been painted on his body, leaving nothing to the imagination.
His black shirt was a super-thin black silk that draped his torso, giving hints of lean muscle.
The stubble had been scraped from his chin and cheeks.
His face had been treated with all kinds of scrubs and chemicals so that it now had a frightening youthful glow to it that made him seem far younger than his twenty-eight years.
Nearly every bit of bare skin was highlighted with gold jewelry or gems. He wore rings on most of his fingers; bracelets, and earrings covered both ears. Around his neck was a large-link gold chain that hugged his throat like a choker.
Vitor had styled his hair into something he called artfully messy, as if Adrian didn’t give a shit about how he looked. Except for the fact that it had taken close to two hours to get to this state.
Haru walked up behind him, and Adrian suppressed a shudder, but at least he kept his brain working.
He was starting to adjust to Haru dressed like this.
While Adrian was dressed in black and gold, Haru was nearly his opposite.
The dragon wore pristine white slacks and a jacket over a dark wine-red shirt that was open nearly to his navel.
He would have thought that the white clothes would have washed out pale skin, but the addition of the wine-colored shirt brought out the soft creaminess of his skin and the faint flush of life in his cheeks.
His jewelry was kept to a minimum, with a gold cuff on his right wrist and a thin gold chain hanging from his neck that dipped all the way to his sternum.
However, his hair glittered in the light from all the gold rings and gemstones threaded within the sleek black locks.
More than a dozen individual braids had been woven, and each had rings and gems in the loops, creating an eye-catching display of riches.
Adrian couldn’t recall ever seeing anyone in Erya who looked like this. Haru was exotic, alluring, and so very tempting.
“You have your targets memorized?” Vitor inquired as he rose from the chair he’d been sitting in.
In the forty-eight hours since they’d met up with Vitor, they’d had private shoppers outfit them with an assortment of clothes, moved to a new, expensive hotel, and studied the names, faces, and background details of almost two dozen members of Damardor’s most elite.
“I advise you to spend no more than two hours at this party,” Vitor stated, running through a list of reminders for the hundredth time. “Don’t try to get all the information you seek at the first meeting. Someone will notice. You want them chasing after you. Leave them wanting more.”
“Play hard to get,” Adrian stated.
Haru leaned close and whispered in Adrian’s ear. “You are hard to get.”
“Stay focused,” Vitor ground out, his eyes locked on Haru. “Remain together for the first thirty minutes; then you can go your separate ways. However, always keep your partner within eyesight. You are each other’s only backup.”
That was the scary thing. Vitor had explained that the anti-spying tech in Damardor was next level. There was no way they could risk wearing any kind of recording devices or have some kind of covert communication device that linked them to Vitor and his team. They were on their own.
“Adrian, your persona is clingy and needy. Haru, you are possessive and controlling. Use that. If for any reason you feel like the atmosphere is wrong or your gut is warning you that something is wrong, lean into your persona to find your partner and get out. There’s no finishing your mission if you’re discovered. ”
Adrian nodded. It was a good reminder. They weren’t attending a party. They were sneaking into the monster’s lair. If they were very lucky, they would get their first clues as to what was happening to the people stolen from the streets of Bellcairn.
With Vitor posing as their driver, Haru and Adrian were taken to the outskirts of Bellcairn, where some hills rose above the capital.
They entered a gated community with its own security force to keep out the unwanted rabble.
After ten minutes of winding past palatial homes that seemed as if their only goal was to outshine their immediate neighbors, Vitor pulled up to an interesting glass-and-stone structure that glowed with bright lights and bubbled with music and intoxicated laughter.
Haru rolled out of the back of the car and pulled Adrian stumbling along behind him.
Swaggering in with the kind of confidence and self-entitlement that had to belong to the realm of dragons alone, he waved his gold-leaf invitation in the face of some black-clad security guard at the door, all while keeping Adrian tucked tight against him.
His face held a blasé boredom that screamed, “We’re out of here in five minutes if these people don’t realize how important I am,” and Adrian could only envy him.
He got why Vitor gave him the role of billionaire playboy business mogul.
Adrian was sure he couldn’t have pulled it off with the same unnerving skill.
It took some effort for Adrian to drag his gaze away from Haru and to look at the overwhelming decadence they’d stepped into.
Marble floors and gold everywhere to the point that it was nearly dripping from the ceiling.
People in expensive clothes and jewelry danced, talked, and laughed in the grand rooms spread out in front of him.
The phrase “lakes of wine and forests of meat” drifted through his mind, recalling an ancient tale of a debauched party hosted by an emperor of a long-collapsed empire.
“Mr. Visconti? Mr. Visconti?” A woman with bright coppery hair clomped to them on large, chunky heels. She was thin as a stalk of wheat and had the same brownish-gold colored skin. She hurried with one hand lifted and stuck out. “You must be Yujian Visconti!”
Haru’s smile tensed into a pained line across his face, and he lightly gripped the woman’s fingertips with three of his own fingers.
“I am Yujian Visconti.” He gave her fingers a little shake and released her, rubbing his fingers together at his side as if trying to get rid of the feel of her.
“Matthys Drost invited me here. Where is Drost?”
“Oh, he’s here somewhere,” the woman said with an airy wave of her arm toward the writhing mass of people. “I’m Amelia Drost, his sister. He told me to keep an eye out for you so I could make sure you feel properly welcomed.”
“Thank you. This looks like a cute party you’re having.” Haru thickened his accent as if he were afraid that his appearance didn’t scream “other” enough.
“Oh, this is just an intimate gathering of close friends. I know my brother is eager to introduce you to some people. He thinks you could have a lot of fun here in Bellcairn.”
Haru reached up with his left hand and pinched Adrian’s chin, forcing him to tip his face up to him. “What do you think? Are you interested in having fun in Bellcairn?”