Chapter Eight
Ember
The deliciously luscious blonde should not be standing in front of me.
It should not be possible. The Watching Mirror was—as its name suggested—purely for watching.
Never had I heard of it having any sort of teleportation power.
I’d used it to look in on the woman after I left Earth, hoping it would set my mind at ease, considering she hadn’t been far from my thoughts since that first chance meeting.
“I don’t know,” I said in response to her question, trying to remain calm.
She looked just as good as she had outside the condo building when she’d scooted out of the way of my sedan, my driver having as little care for humans as I did.
Her blonde hair was still done up in a cute ponytail with a fluffy hair tie that matched the color of her shirt.
Her jeans hugged her hips and showed off a thick rear that made my cock twitch.
By the God-King, how I longed to cross the three strides between us and rip those jeans off her, tear off that pink shirt, expose her breasts to my fingers.
I could see it now, her bent over, me thrusting deep as she cried out.
There was nobody else there in the bowels of the castle.
We were alone. I could take her, make her mine, and I knew she couldn’t, wouldn’t, resist.
The heat emanating from her body was a dead giveaway that she wanted me. Not that I was surprised, all humans wanted me—both women and men. I was power, and they were attracted to that.
What I couldn’t fathom was how I was somehow burning up with desire for her. For a human. They were little more than playthings, used to calm a desire for a few hours, nothing more.
At least they had been until I laid eyes upon her. There was something unique about this one, whether it was the strange orange flecks in her otherwise amber eyes or the way she didn’t immediately bow to my power. I could still remember the end of our first meeting.
I’d exited the car to her prompts about me not driving my vehicle and told her it wasn’t laziness; it was power. That I had it, and she did not.
God-King, was I wrong about that, I thought as my face twisted into a smile as I regarded her.
I’d stopped at the front desk while she went straight for the elevator.
I was halfway to it when she stepped in.
The way she’d closed it in my face, staring me down and telling me “it’s called power,” had made me want to tear the building down brick by brick to get her.
Not to punish her, but to take her. To show her who truly had the power between us and to reward her for being so bold. Most humans were meek around me, sensing that I was superior to them. Not this one, for whatever reason. She was different.
“Are you just going to stand there in silence?” she asked, crossing her arms. “Or are you going to explain what the hell just happened? One moment I was about to get my ice cream finally, and the next, I’m here … Wherever here is.”
“I did not bring you here,” I grunted. “Who are you? What are you? How did you find me?”
“Find you?” she gaped. “Buddy, I hate to break it to you, but I was not searching you out. I wanted a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream. That’s what I wanted most.”
She might have meant that before, but now, face to face with me, she was heating up rapidly. I could see her breath and how it was coming in shorter bursts, the slight back and forth of her hips.
I tried to force down my reaction, but my cock betrayed me, stiffening in my pants. Hopefully, the dark material would hide the bulge until I could get it under control. I didn’t need her knowing she elicited such a reaction in me. Having her there was bad enough.
“Is this some sort of prank show?” she asked. “Was the door just, like, a really clever hologram?”
“What?”
“Yeah, like, a prank. Am I on camera right now?” She started looking around the room.
“No cameras,” I growled, looking around. We were in the royal study. My father’s study.
It’s not his anymore. He’s gone. This is yours now. Or it will be once you find a mate.
Shaking off the dark thoughts, I pointed at her. “Come with me. You cannot be allowed to stay here.”
The books and notes, left exactly where my father had put them last, contained too much information about the Fire Clan, and dragons in particular.
Humans were not welcome here—and they certainly weren’t allowed to know that we existed.
I would have to put her somewhere else, somewhere she wouldn’t see anything she shouldn’t.
And somewhere far enough away from me that I could think straight without my cock straining to be in between those thick legs. Where my mind could function without my hands straining against my mental leash, eager to explore every inch of her skin, from her feet to her perfectly pouty lips.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
My fiery growl filled the study. “You should not be here. No humans are allowed here. Either you come on your own, or I will pick you up and carry you. Am I understood?”
“Humans?” she repeated, focusing on the slip of my tongue and not the rest of my threat. “What are you talking about?”
“Follow me,” I snarled.
Damn her. Damn her beauty, her tenacity, her strength. I hated it all, even as I desired her body.
“And what if I don’t? How do I know you aren’t going to just take me somewhere to kill me?” she asked. “After all, as you put it, that would be ‘power.’ The ability to get rid of someone.”
The room’s temperature rose with my temper until it was sweltering. How could she get under my skin so damn easily? By the God-King, she was the most irritating human I’d ever met!
“I dislike repeating myself,” I said darkly. “But if you refuse, I will pick you up and carry you myself. It will go better for you if you simply follow me.”
“Are you going to answer any of my questions if I do?” she asked, her hands still on her hips, her eyes a bright yell0w-brown in the room’s dimness.
“No,” I said. “Now, let’s go.”
I headed for the exit. To my surprise, she followed, though not without a sniff as if to say she wasn’t happy about it and she was only doing it because she wanted to. Not because I’d told her to.
Again, my blood boiled with that unfamiliar mixture of rage and incandescent lust.
I had to keep my pace slow as I led her out of the royal chambers and up to the higher levels of the Fire Castle. We kept to the back corridors, which were lesser used. It was a longer route, but the last thing I wanted to do was let anyone know there was a human in our midst.
If others found out …
“Does anyone else live here?” she asked. “This place is huge, but I haven’t seen anyone else.”
I ignored her and kept walking. We were almost at the guest quarters, and I intended to stash her away in the room farthest from anyone.
It would be the best way to keep her quiet while I figured out how, in the name of the God-King, I would get her out of the Fire Realm and back to Earth without her seeing everything.
A blindfold would help, but I would have to fly there if I had any hope of getting rid of her in a decent time. She would definitely know something was up if I did that. Which meant I would probably have to knock her out.
For whatever reason, I was vastly uncomfortable with that idea. Though, I couldn’t understand why. She was a human. I was a dragon. Why would I care what happened to her?
“Here,” I said as we reached the quarters I wanted, breathing a sigh of relief that we hadn’t run into anyone. “This is where you will stay. They should be … amenable to someone such as yourself.”
“You mean a human?” she said with a laugh. “This is ridiculous. Why won’t you just tell me what’s going on? What kind of prank is this? Am I dreaming? Maybe that’s it. I’m unconscious.”
I opened the door. “Here are your dream quarters, then,” I said, gesturing for her to enter ahead of me.
“Can I wander around?” she asked. “This place is fascinating. It feels like some sort of old building, all this stone. Like a castle or something.”
“It is a castle,” I said, deciding there was no harm in providing that information. She wouldn’t be staying long enough to understand it.
“Oh.” She nodded, then, at my repeated gesture, finally entered the room.
I was just about to slam the door shut when she turned back to me.
“What now?” I asked, fighting the sudden blistering need to grab her from behind and pull her against me, inhaling her scent and tasting her skin with my tongue.
She frowned. “You really are a terrible host. You know that? So wooden, no personality. Lighten up.”
“Anything else?” I ground out, wondering how someone so infuriating could be allowed to exist.
“No. Wait, yes.” She crossed her arms. “Is there any way I could get some of that mint chocolate chip ice cream? I really wanted it.”
“No.” I closed the door in her face, locked it from the outside, then strode away as fast as I could. There was no time to waste. The longer she was in the castle, the more likely it was that someone would discover her presence.
I had to find Pyre, my younger cousin and aide, and figure out just how the hell we were going to get this woman from the castle and take her halfway across the dragon realm to the portal that would take her back to Earth.
All without anyone finding out. Many wouldn’t bat an eye, but if someone got word to Albright, the leader of the group of dragons trying to usurp my Throne, then there would be serious trouble.
Damn that woman. Why did I have to run into her?