Chapter 19 #2
“But everyone else will. My accomplishments won’t be my own anymore. They’ll be attributed to my association with you. I hate special treatment, Konni. I’m smart and can be successful on my own.”
“Which is why you’re being targeted,” he said, taking my concerns seriously.
“Someone else sees the potential in you, and it’s either scaring them or making them want you.
Using me as a shield wouldn’t stop you from achieving what you want, Sophia.
And not using me won’t stop people from denying your accomplishments either. ”
He had a point there. Hadn’t I already run into that?
“Eventually, you’ll shine too bright for people to keep denying it. So live your life for yourself. Say yes.”
I was so tempted that my stomach churned uneasily.
“I need to think about it. Feed me and tell me more about dragon mates for now.”
His triumphant smile and how much it made me want to crawl onto his lap were concerning.
“What are you hungry for?” he asked as he pressed the button on the table.
“Whatever you think I’ll eat. I’m not picky.”
His satisfied rumble had me rolling my eyes just before the server came in to take our order. He asked for two medium burgers with the works and seasoned fries.
As soon as the server was gone, he started explaining.
“Dragon’s bond in stages. Like humans, it’s done through interaction. Touches. Looks. Conversation. Intimacy. Like wolves, which you probably know a lot about from Wrenly, a mate can be rejected, but it’s not as simple with a dragon. The bond would need to be broken or fade.”
“And breaking or fading a bond is hard?”
“Dragon mates will do everything in their power to ensure the bond doesn’t break. No neglect. No cheating. Never any violence, at least not from the male.”
“Wait. Females are violent?”
The way his eyes turned hungry was a little concerning.
“Mating during a heat can be intense for a female. Her moods can shift quickly, and if her mate isn’t fast enough to adapt, she will let him know.”
“That sounds awful.”
“I’ve heard that the bite hurts, but we have scales for a reason.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about biting from me.”
He leaned toward me, and I could feel the heat radiating from him.
“I think feeling your teeth on my skin would be very enjoyable.”
Resisting the urge to fan myself or contemplate why I felt warm from the inside, I tried to get the conversation back on track.
“A difficult-to-break bond that’s created through interactions, but only when both sides are accepting it…I’m guessing not just physically, but emotionally as well. Does that about sum it up? Am I missing anything?”
“That’s about right.”
“How do you know when the bond is there?”
The heat in his gaze increased, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting in his lap, and he was nuzzling my neck.
“What do you feel?” he asked, roughly.
“Unnecessarily horny. Put me down.”
His chuckle vibrated through me, heating me more, and I gave in to his temptation and turned my head to catch his mouth with mine.
The kiss was hot and everything I wanted. I started to shift my weight to straddle his lap.
“Wait,” he said, catching my waist. “I want to show you.”
He unbuttoned the neckline of my top and pushed it down my shoulder. I heard the digital sound of a photo being taken. Then he showed me his phone and the tattoo on my shoulder I’d forgotten about.
It no longer looked dull; it had changed to a faint yellow with more orange.
“This is the start of our bond.”
“The what?” I asked, frozen in angry panic.
“The start of our bond. It happened the night you slept next to me.”
I got off his lap and watched his wary expression.
“It just happened, or did you do something?”
He looked a little guilty. “I placed it there, but I wouldn’t have been able to if you hadn’t been receptive to me. It wouldn’t have worked.”
“I’m so angry right now that I wish I were a female dragon with the teeth to bite you.”
He started to stand.
“Don’t!”
He sat and pulled me back into his lap, hugging me tightly and rumbling like crazy as he rubbed his cheek against the side of my head.
“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have done that when you weren’t sober, but I did ask first, Sophia.
You said yes, but you also said you would never be mine for more than a night.
I didn’t expect it to stay. I thought it would fade, but it didn’t.
It means you feel something for me. Please stop denying it.
I promise you won’t regret letting me into your life. ”
“Shows what you know. I already am regretting it.”
“No, you’re not. You’re afraid. Ask yourself why. What about me scares you? Or what about yourself don’t you like when we’re together? Is there anything? Or is it the fear of what might happen because of what happened to your parents?
"We aren’t your father, Sophia. You’re not interested in using me, no matter how much I wish you would. And my need for you has nothing to do with status or money. I just need you, kitten. So much that it hurts.”
I stayed where I was, letting him comfort me as I heard what he was saying.
He didn’t just want me. He needed me.
That was scary on its own. But what was scarier was how much I wanted to lean on him, to do what he was asking, to use him as my shield, to say yes.
“I need to think,” I repeated.
“Can I help you think?” he asked.
I pulled back to frown at him.
His hands cradled my face, and he placed a gentle kiss on my brow. Then each eyelid followed by the tip of my nose. I tilted my head back, wanting what was next more than I should have. When his lips brushed mine, I sighed and gave in to his method of coaxing.
His teeth nipped at my lower lip, seducing me until I opened to him. The slide of his tongue against mine melted my resistance.
I lost myself to his scent and his kiss, hungry for so much more than what he was giving. When I went to straddle his lap, he helped, lifting me and placing me where I needed to be.
He broke away to kiss my throat.
“Kitten, the food will be here soon. I’d rather continue kissing you, but you haven’t eaten yet, and I don’t think you’d like being caught like this.”
I wrinkled my nose, breathing harder than I should have been, and looked down at him.
“I think you’re just leading me on, so I’m more willing to go home with you later.”
“Is there a chance?”
“No.”
But there was more of a chance today than there had been a day ago, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that knowledge. Not true. As I stared down at his beautiful face, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
I kissed him again. Deeply. Then got off his lap and took my own seat while he visibly struggled to stay where he was.
“Do you have any idea how desperate I am for you to climb back onto my lap and keep kissing me like that?”
“A fairly good idea, actually.”
He groaned and closed his eyes just as the light above the door blinked.
“Food’s here. Be good and keep your eyes closed.”
He did, not that the server paid either of us much attention. She just placed the plates, asked if we needed anything else, and left.
I was halfway through my burger before Konni opened his eyes again. It’d given me the time I needed to think.
Oddly enough, the mini makeout session had helped me see things more clearly and acknowledge a few truths.
My attraction to Konni was undeniable.
The mark scared me because I was afraid of being trapped in a relationship I didn’t want. Which, according to him, would never happen. I needed to want to be his mate for the bond to grow.
That the mark had already changed meant that I wanted more than Konni’s body.
And the fear I felt when I thought of more wasn’t because I didn’t like him.
I was letting what happened to my parents dictate our relationship.
He’d done nothing to give me any reason not to want to see where we might go together.
So, I waited until his mouth was full of burger to ask my first question.
“How will the mark change as the bond grows, and what will I need to do to get it to fade?”
He seemed unbothered by the second part as he swallowed his bite.
“Each mark is unique to the owner, so I can’t say exactly how it will change. But the colors grow more vibrant and the flames more defined. The bond’s most complete version would be exquisite in color and detail.
“It would fade with any mistreatment, as that would change the way the mates feel about each other. A neglected mate would feel unloved, and the bond would weaken, dulling and then fading until it’s almost invisible, but never disappearing.”
“And how is a bond broken?”
He watched me as he chewed the large bite he’d just taken, his gaze strangely serious.
“To completely break the bond, which would remove the mark, you need to break your mate’s heart, or they need to break yours.
I heard of a mate who was tricked into sex by another female.
It broke their bond for years. He never gave up and mended their bond in the end, after making those who hurt his mate through him pay. ”
“Yeah, you keep going back to a forever bond. If you want me in your bed, you need to give me an out. How can I make sure this won’t be forever if I don’t want it to be?”
“The surest way to break a bond is to kill your mate—a fatal blow delivered by your hand. It would mean you have no love in your heart for me.”
I gave up eating and scowled at him.
“You are probably the biggest pain in my ass right now. You know that’s not what I meant.”
He shrugged. “I won’t lie to you. That’s the surest way. But what if I promised to do at least one thing a day to mildly upset you so you don’t grow too attached to me?”
“Isn’t that the opposite of what you just said dragons do, which is everything possible to please their mates?”
“Wouldn’t it make you happy to know I was trying to help you prevent a bond from forming?”
He had me there.
I took my last bite of burger while I weighed the pros and cons.
Cons: he was rich; my dad would try to use our relationship to benefit himself; and people would say I’m like my dad and that I'm using Konni to social-climb. Also, Konni was a dragon, which meant I’d need to say more than “I do.” It would be forever if I fell much further.
Pros: he was rich, he was packing some girth based on my lap time, he was willing to do whatever he needed to do to make me happy—maybe that was a con, I wasn’t sure yet—he was an amazing kisser, and he smelled so good I wanted to wrap myself around him forever. Maybe that was a con, too.
Obviously, the possibility of forever was what was holding me back the most. And he’d already given me a solution to that.
I thought of how he’d reacted every time I’d been upset and knew he was right about one thing—he would do everything in his power to be the man I needed and never give me a reason to want to leave…or stab him in the heart.
“Fine. Let’s give it a try, but only that. No official dating yet.”
“Does that mean we’re unofficially dating?”
“I think you’re going to manage the one annoying thing a day just fine.”
He grinned at me, the hungry look returning to his gaze.
“Eat your burger, Konni. Then take me home.”
“Anything you want, kitten.”
Mom was standing just inside the door when I walked in. I took one look at her puffy post-cry-fest face and dropped my bags to hug her.
“What happened?”
“I think Konni is right. I think someone’s been behind my job losses since the beginning.”
“Let’s sit in the kitchen. I’ll make some tea while you talk.”
As I brewed us some chamomile and lavender tea, she recapped her meeting. The old coworker said that after firing Mom, the company had reestablished the same position a month later, but under a different title.
“Same job responsibilities,” Mom said as I handed her a cup. “I checked.”
After that, she’d searched online for the other places that had let her go due to restructuring, only to find the same thing. The exact position that’d been eliminated had been recreated under a different name.
She’d started calling the people in those new positions, posing as a headhunter for Steele Corp, to ask how long they’d been in that role.
“It was the same everywhere. About a month after I left, they recreated the positions and hired someone else.”
I sipped my tea, considering all the angles.
“It doesn’t make sense to me. Does it to you? If it were Hestian, why wait years? Why wouldn’t he approach you directly like he approached me?”
“Maybe it was never me. Maybe it was always you. I checked. His youngest is eight. Maybe he was setting the stage in case the last one in his litter wasn’t as smart as he wanted?”
The way she used litter just made him even more disgusting.
“First, I hate the way that man is trying to create his perfect heir. His poor kids,” I said. “Second, that’s so much work. Eight years ago, my grades were crap because of the divorce—no blame, just thinking out loud. He had no reason to think I was the level of intelligence he wanted.”
“Actually, that’s a valid point. Not the grades, but how young you were when the targeting started. He had no reason to even look at you. I mean, he does marry his wives fairly young, but always in their mid-twenties. Why would he look at a fourteen-year-old?”
“So gross even talking about this.”
“I know.” She sighed and stared at her cup for a long moment. “Can you let Konni know I was impersonating Steele Corp people to get information? I didn’t think he would mind. If he does, he should just announce a scam caller is posing as a Steele headhunter.”
I texted to ask, and he replied almost immediately.
“He said he trusts you and knows you won’t do anything to damage Steele Corp’s reputation. He’ll let HR know he’s outsourced a headhunting agency so they can back up any calls they might get to verify.”
“He’s smart.” She looked up from her tea suddenly. “It makes me wonder why he can’t figure this out on his own. Why does he need us?”
It wasn’t something I’d considered, but now that she’d asked it, the answer was bold in its simplicity.
He didn’t need us. He needed me. And asking for our help as a way to win over my mom, thereby also working to win over me.
How could I be so stupid? I’d been thinking I was keeping him at a distance when I’d actually invited him right in.
“What aren’t you telling me, Sophia?” Mom demanded, watching my expression too closely. “Talk.”
I groaned and briefly covered my face before meeting her steady gaze.
“He’s a dragon shifter, and he thinks I’m his mate.”