Chapter Four
Haden
I stared across at the lovely creature before me. She was dodging my questions regarding Zaphira and her work. I knew I didn’t want to push my inquiries too far, but my curiosity had gotten the better of me.
“You can feel free to invite who you like, to the party, I mean,” I said, brushing the back of my hand up Sarra’s arm. She felt warm and amazing against my skin. “I know you mentioned you have a lot of friends at work.”
“My brother?” she asked, perking up ever so gentle in her seat. I loved how when women became excited their voices went up an octave.
“No,” I said with a breath. “Sorry. That was a bit of a tease, wasn’t it?” I said, now feeling embarrassed that I’d brought it up at all.
“Oh,” she sunk back in her chair a moment before composing herself in a professional manner.
“Sorry,” I repeated. “I’m sure you know that shifters aren’t fans of human males. I have no problem with them personally. It’s just all… bad blood from before.”
Sarra offered me a put-on smile and a nod of acknowledgment. I could see the conversation had once again taken an awkward turn. Weredragons, in the days before the alliance with the Earth sphere, used to come and take women as we pleased. Human males often became casualties of this excursion.
In shifters minds, men proved to be nothing more than in our way. I’d since met plenty of men whose company seemed perfectly fine, but I was the minority in that opinion.
“I’m sure I can think of someone,” she smiled.
I told her more of the party, and she seemed excited once again. I told her who would be there and what would be expected of her, though I had no doubt that she would have managed more than adequately without my help.
Several glasses of wine later, I found myself with my arm wrapped around her and she leaned into me with ease. “What do you love?” I asked, genuinely curious about the little wonder who was now resting her raven hair on my shoulder.
“In three words? Olives, nature hikes, mysteries.”
“Ah, the writer emerges,” I nodded. She laughed and shrugged as though she wouldn’t argue my statement. I felt a rush of uncertainty at the thought that, not only was my chosen a member of Riddell, she had also been a reporter. If she liked mysteries, I thought, I had the perfect one to bend her ear with. But I would need to approach it with care.
The truth was there were disruptions happening within the Koth, and I was making it my personal mission to ensure the Earth sphere didn’t get wind of it. There were whispers of a rebel organization looking to take down the Koth.
“If you love a good mystery,” I said, my mind reeling, “I think I have one for you.”
“Aren’t we supposed to be focused on mating?” she said with a wry smirk.
“We can certainly do that, too,” I said, trying not to be too distracted by her sudden offer. “There’s a shifter locked up in the old country. There’s a secret jail there.”
Her flirtatious air suddenly disappeared, and her ears perked up. “What? We have no record of that.”
“Thus the ‘secret’ bit,” I said in a whisper. Humans, as per our deal, were allowed to look into some of our prisoners in order to keep an account of how safe Udora was for their scientists and breeders. No doubt the lack of this knowledge would infuriate them.
“Right,” she breathed. “Why is he there? Who’s being held?”
“His name is Rerdig. We don’t know why, exactly. But, it’s rumored that he had a dispute with the Koth.”
I played coy, but I knew exactly what had happened between the orange dragon and his captors. But if this was going to come out, it would come out in the way that I saw fit.
“Off the record, of course,” I added; forgetting myself.
“Well, you never actually said that,” she snorted.
I raised my finger to her to give air to the severity of what I’d just shared with her. “For your safety and mine. It’s off the record,” I warned lightly.
She stared at me for a moment, her green eyes darting back and forth with the excited rush that comes from learning of a conspiracy. Finally, she said, “Why tell me this?”
“Because I like you,” I shrugged. It was true. “And I guess I don’t want you to think there are no more mysteries left for you here.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.” She smiled, and I took this as an invitation to lean in. I moved closer to her and brushed the dark hair from her face, cupping her sharp jawline in my hand. I leaned in and kissed her thin lips. Happily, she kissed back.
Our kiss was shy at first, and then the intensity rose. I could taste the tart grapes on her tongue as it brazenly entered my mouth. She dipped her tongue in and out and flicked it against mine. I felt my body respond to her and suddenly it was hard to control myself. I pulled away to look at her, lips red from our sudden passion.
Her green eyes looked at me, hungry for more. She climbed into my lap so that her legs straddled either side of my thighs and our lips met once more. I kept my hands nervously lingering near her waist, careful not to offend her or to give in to my baser, primal instincts.
Sarra pressed into my pelvis so I could feel the full weight of her on me. She let out a drawn out, breathy moan as she continued to kiss me and I lowered my hands down her sides.
With that one movement, she broke our kiss and moved off of me.
“Thanks,” she said quickly; breathlessly.
“Yep, no problem,” I quipped back. “That is the service I provide here.”
“Wine and kisses,” she exclaimed in a both playful and nervous fashion.
“And amazing views.”
A thought suddenly crept over her face, and her expression changed from glazed over with lust to innocent flirtation once more. She stood from the alcove we had made in a bed of cushions and shuffled toward the hall. Turning back to look at me, she said, “I should… get to bed. I assume an important shifter, such as yourself, will have a perfectly luxurious guest bedroom?”
I felt a deep crease form between my brows, and I blinked in surprise. “You won’t sleep with me?” She blanched at the sentiment, and I laughed. “Not like… Not like that. You know what I mean. In my bed,” I clarified.
“No,” she said with a small grin.
“That’s it, just… no?”
“Look,” she breathed. “In the brief time I’ve spent with you, I can confirm that you are, indeed, charming and very, very sexy.”
“Well hey,” I brushed my shoulder with mock ego and raised a seductive brow to her. “Thanks.”
“But, I try and make it a rule not to sleep with somebody I just met.”
She noted the annoyed look on my face as I processed her words and then seemed offended herself. “Because I am more than just a body,” she enunciated firmly.
“No, I know that,” I tried to say softly. “It’s just…”
“It’s just what?”
I shrugged, puzzled. “You signed up to be chosen. That’s sort of like being married in your culture, isn’t it?”
“Well no, not really,” she corrected. “In a marriage, you have already taken time to get to know one another. To admire and respect one another’s qualities.”
“Still,” I said, not arguing her points so much as showing her a different opinion. “You did sign up for this knowing you would be a breeder.”
A look of shock swept over her delicate features, and I could see her hidden democratic fury come out. “Yes,” she said slowly; her jaw set. “I also thought, given our stations, this would also be a marriage of unification. Also, that I could at least get to know you a little better before doing something like that.”
“So, you’ve never done that before?”
Her face flushed and she burst into frustrated laughter. “What I do with my body–”
“That’s a yes,” I teased. “Look, I wasn’t really expecting, I mean… I hoped, but… It was you who hopped into my lap, let’s not forget.”
She paused, and her brows shot up. Her expression was unreadable. “Right. And now I’m hopping off.”
With that, she made her way down the hall and found her way into the guest room with no trouble. The last thing I heard that night was the sound of the door locking behind her.