Dalton wasn’t sure if he should be impressed or terrified. Right now he was sandwiched between both emotions. He was really glad that Gabe had been there to help Harper and the baby, scared shitless that there were not just men that had made it that close to his family, and that Gabriela had been able to call dragons to help them.
“You okay?” Dalton just glared at Jorden. “Well, you do look a little off. I mean, they’re all okay.”
“Yes, they’re all okay. Because my mate could call dragons to her. Dragons that more than likely killed those three men and then got rid of the bodies. Do you have any idea what someone would do if they saw that security surveillance video? I can tell you, they’d freak the fuck out right before they took us all away and threw away the key. Not to mention, there is no blood. Not a single drop of it, nor a trace of the men.” Jorden just cocked his brow at him, and Dalton realized how loud he’d gotten. “I’m sorry. I’m just...I haven’t any idea what to think right now. I’m just, all right.”
“Yes, but you have to talk to Gabe. I would suggest you do it when you’re calmer. She’s upset enough.” Dalton glanced at Gabe and asked Jorden what had happened. “You. Mostly you, anyway. She just killed those men. And no matter how you try and pretty it up for her that they were going to kill them, she still had a heavy hand in making it happen. And instead of going to her and telling her how brave she was, smart enough to save not just herself but Harper and the baby too, you’re over here acting like a fucking baby because those men are dead. Men that I’d like to point out to you again were set on killing Shawn and taking the women. Your mate, one of them.”
“I’m sorry.” Jorden told him he was saying that to the wrong person. “I don’t know what to do, Jorden. I want to protect her, but there is only just so much I can do without knowing what we’re up against all the time. And it’s not like we have any clue about it either. Men that hate dragons have been trying to kill our mates for generations. I think it would really suck to have gone through all this and then it ends just like the other lives have.”
“What do you mean? You mean we die and this starts all over?” Dalton said that was what he’d been thinking. “Christ. But you’re just a bag of jolly thoughts, aren’t you? Why would you even say something like that? Are you fucking serious right now? What is wrong with you?”
“I’m fucking in love with her.” He looked around, because he knew he’d been a little loud. “I’m in love with her, and I don’t think she even likes me.”
“I wouldn’t.” Jorden laughed when he told him to fuck off. “Dalton, what is it you want? From her? Because as far as I can see, you’re not making any kind of effort to do anything about even the simplest of things. Like, where is she living?”
“At my house.” Dalton flushed. “Okay, she’s staying there, I guess you could call it. I don’t have a lot of interaction with her either. I know that, but I’ve been sort of busy since Howard passed away.”
“Too busy that you’d neglect your mate to do a job you told me last week you were going to quit? And she’s not living with you or staying there. As far as I know, she’s still at the B&B. Also, and this is the funny one, she has no idea what to do about you either. I’d kick your ass, but that’s just me.” Dalton wanted to tell him to mind his own business, but he was right. “Dalton, did you know that she told Kenton that she didn’t think her working with him was going to work out? That she might be looking to move on?”
“No. Really?”
Jorden nodded, then walked away. Dalton stood there, his heart hurting. As he made his way to her, he could see the tear stains on her face. The sadness in her eyes. He simply pulled her into his arms and held her. Dalton felt her shoulders shake as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Christ, she really was upset. Holding her, he watched as the rest of his family left them. Dalton lifted up Gabe’s chin to look at her when they were alone. “I’m so sorry.”
“I had them killed…those men are dead because of me. I don’t kill, Dalton, I’m a doctor. I heal people, not have them murdered.” He kissed her, just a gentle touching of their lips. And when he lifted his head, she smiled at him. “That was really nice. A great way to distract me from what I’ve done. Will you visit me in prison and do that?”
“No one is going to prison.” When she started to no doubt protest, he kissed her again. This time he put a little more need in it. Dalton brushed her hair from her face and ran his fingers over the silky blue tresses that she now had. “I’ve not been a very attentive mate. And this is really pretty. The combs, I’m guessing.”
“Yes. In order to call the dragons to me, I have to be wearing them. Attentive? I don’t even know what that means. But I sure could use a little pep talk if you have it in you.” He kissed her again, this time pulling her body closer to his. Then when she wrapped her arms around his neck tighter, Dalton cupped her ass and brought her flush to his cock. “Dalton, I’ve been lonely for a long time. So unless you plan on doing something about my neediness, then you should really walk away.”
“What would you like for me to do to help you with this problem you seem to have?” She giggled and he rocked into her again. “A man offers his services up and you laugh? Gabriela, you have wounded me.”
“Please, just call me Gabe. I had a boss call me Gabriela, and I didn’t like him overly much. But every time you touch me, get close enough to touch me, I feel as if you’ve set me…I don’t want to talk about fire.” He nodded and kissed her again, this time lifting her up so that she could wrap around him. “Dalton, please. You have no idea what this is doing to me.”
“I do. I really do. What if I wanted you to lie back, to let me strip you down so that I could feast on you?” Her moan nearly had him tossing her to the table to do just as he’d threatened. “I’m going to enjoy this, I think.”
After laying her over the table that was used to weigh up clay balls, he sat down so he could take his time touching her. Dalton lifted her leg up to his face and nipped at her ankle. Taking off her shoe, he massaged her foot with one hand and slid the other up her leg.
Her skin was warm and smooth, and when he touched the back of her knee, she moaned again. Kissing her ankle, licking his way up her leg, he felt his cock strangle in his pants and had to adjust himself before he did some major damage. But he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. Not her scent, her taste, or the sounds that she made when aroused.
Laying her leg down, Dalton leaned over her, pulling her shirt up off her belly with his teeth. Her breath was harsh, warm as it blew over his face. And when he licked her belly button, then bit into her flesh, her fingers curled in his hair and jerked him up.
“Stop playing and get to work.” He pulled her hand free. “Dalton, I’m seriously overheated right now. If you don’t help me out, I’m going to do it myself.”
“I’d love to watch that.” He put his hands into the top of her pants and sat up, taking them off her as he did so. “However, I have some exploring to do here. And I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t keep distracting me.”
Pulling her pants off, Dalton dropped them to the floor. He’d left her panties on, but he could see how wet they were. He wanted to taste her there, see if she tasted as good as she smelled, but he wanted to see her, all of her, before he started making love to her.
Her blouse was next. Dalton wasn’t as easy on it as he had been with her pants. There wasn’t any way for him to remove it without her help, so he simply tore it open. Pressing his thumb hard against the wettest part of her panties, Dalton was hoping to bring her relief as well as a lot of pleasure. He thought he’d done a pretty good job of it, too, when she bowed up off the table and cried out.
“Did you enjoy that, love?” Her nodding, then the shaking of her head, had him smiling. “Yes, well, since you can’t decide, perhaps I can help you with another short blow to your system.”
He slid his hand up her thigh, watching her face as he did so. When she looked like she was going to cry out again, he slid his fingers under the elastic on her panties and into her heat.
The way she screamed was wonderfully fulfilling to him. She told him she was coming again a sort second later, so he leaned into her apex and bit her clit through her panties. This time when she came, she held him to her body and rode his mouth. Dalton needed more, and moved the scrap of material out of his way and suckled her clit into his mouth as she came three more times in quick punching order.
Her panties had to go, and making short work of them by tearing them off her as well seemed the quickest way. Lifting her leg up to his shoulder, Dalton licked her clit before taking her nether lips and all into his mouth and devouring her. He was rewarded with so much of her cream that he could barely keep up with the flow of it. And every time she came, his mouth filled.
Dalton ate her voraciously. He loved everything about her. The way she shivered after each release. The way her fingers would go limp for several seconds after she came. The sounds that she made when she was coming down. The heat of her skin, the way she begged him for more in one moment then pleaded with him to stop the next.
When he couldn’t wait any longer, he stood up. Her body was heaving, her bra had been pushed up over her breasts, and her hands were cupping the beautiful orbs. He wanted those as well, to taste her pink nipples until she begged him to stop. To suckle at them, taking as much as he could into his mouth and biting down hard. Freeing his cock, Dalton stood over her and watched her. He fisted his cock, the achiness of it making his head spin.
“I want to feel you inside of me.” He nodded and spread her legs wider and stepped between them. “I need you, Dalton. Please, fill me.”
“Not yet.” She sobbed at him to please fuck her. “I need to watch you come. I want to see how your breasts swell, your breathing stops. Show me, Gabe, show me how you come for me.” Her left hand moved to her pussy, her right pulled hard at her nipples. Just when he thought he couldn’t take anymore of her teasing, she slid her fingers inside and screamed.
Dalton wasn’t prepared for how quick, how consuming her climax had been. Even as he fisted his cock, he knew he was finished. As soon as she cried out the second time in as many seconds, he came too, spraying his cum all over her body and face.
Christ, he thought, he was going to die. He felt it to his toes. The way his body released had him thinking that he’d have no more, nothing to give her until weeks from now. But as long as he was standing there, her body spread out before him, Dalton was going to take all of her. Pulling her to the edge of the table, he slammed his cock into her and leaned down to take her breast. Distracted for a moment, he fucked her slowly, watching her face once again.
“I love you, Gabe. With all my heart.” He moved inside of her, taking her as close to coming as he could before backing off. “When I come in you, I want to feel you tighten around me. I need to see your face when you release.”
“Please, Dalton. I need that and more.” He asked her what else he could give her. “Everything. I want it all. Please, you’re the only one that can give it to me.”
And he wanted her to have it. Pounding her now, giving as much as he was taking from her, he licked a path from her breast to the throbbing pulse at her throat. As soon as she tightened around him, her sheath milking his cock, Dalton let go.
His body seemed to be poised for a few seconds when he released, like it was waiting. And when he came, he knew it had been for her, for the moment they came together on so many levels.
It was epic, literally like the epi center of something major. Dalton threw back his head, his body bowing with it as he climaxed. He had not a single thought as he emptied deep within her. He could feel her, the way she came with him, but there was nothing in this world that could have prepared him for the feelings that came with their union.
They were one. Mate to mate. Husband and wife. And Dalton knew that from this moment on, she would be his everything. And he would give himself to her from now on. Dalton was deeply and forever in love with Gabe McCade.
~~~
She wasn’t the right woman. And worse than that, she didn’t have the jewelry on her. Not even a fucking watch. Ronny kicked the woman in the head and screamed at her. The fucking bitch; it wasn’t right that she was the wrong one again.
Ronny pulled out the picture that he’d found on the interwebbers. He knew that wasn’t what it was called, but he said that to keep people from giving him much in the way of second looks. But he knew…Ronny Webbers was the smartest man alive.
He grinned. Okay, he wasn’t, but he had high test scores to prove he was at least a little more intelligent than the average Joe. And he’d worked really hard at becoming the smartest ever been born. But if he was honest with himself, and he usually was, he was bored with that shit. That was how he’d come across the legend of the McCade’s Millions.
It dated back for centuries. Probably even before there was printed information that he could locate. It dealt with dragons, of all things, kings and queens, as well as magic. Ronny decided that he’d very much like to see about this magic angle, and that was the only reason that he’d dug deeper into this thing and found out about the jewelry and what it was supposed to do when it was all together. He’d been so surprised by how much he’d been able to unearth on the subject that he’d devoted an entire room to it.
All the information that he could find, right at his fingertips. And there was a great deal of it too. Where the last of the McCades lived, which surprisingly wasn’t that far from him. How long they’d been looking and what happened on the failed attempts. He had charts, notes, as well as photographs of all the men he could find. And that was another thing about this that surprised him; there had only been sons born of the family in all their recorded history.
Ronny had at first thought about going to their home and showing them all that he’d been able to find. Sort of be their partner in it. He wanted a payoff, of course…some kickback for what he knew. But in the end, he’d decided that he’d rather just have it all than to have to share. That was the mistake the other people looking for this crap had made, and it had been their downfall. Like recently.
A man by the name of Fredrick Winslow had found a few of the pieces. He might even had been close to getting a couple more when he met with a very violent and untimely death. There had been speculation that he’d been a little off his rocker at the end. According to the paper, he’d been involved in a murder-suicide that had ended his family name as well. Ronny didn’t believe that for a minute.
“Pop,” he said to himself as he held his finger to his head. “You’re all dead.” And if they didn’t play ball with him, the way he wanted, then they’d be just as dead as the several generations before them. He would end them all.
Ronny got into his car and made his way to his home as he thought of the most recent guy. Ollie Morrison had been a foolish idiot if he thought his way of getting the jewels was going to happen. Bargaining with the devil never worked out, he thought.
Of course Morrison was dead now. His body had rolled up on the evening news one night after Ronny had begun this thing, and he knew just what had happened. Really, what the paper had written, as well as the evening news, had been a lie. Ronny had a pretty good idea of the truth, and instead of making him nervous about things, it made him giddy with anticipation. He was going to win this thing.
Morrison had been killed, that much was true. He’d gotten too close and someone had killed him. Didn’t matter to Ronny who or how they’d done it, so long as they stayed out of his way. He just needed to find out who Morrison’s buyer had been, and make sure that he wasn’t searching for them on his own. Ronny was going to be the one to collect on all that magic, or he’d simply kill those that didn’t agree with him.
As soon as he entered his bedroom, he looked at his notes. There were things there, information that he was fairly certain no one had found yet. The more pieces that came together, the fairy tale said, the stronger it got. He supposed that was why Ollie had been killed. The magic was just too strong, and it had called to other forces to make sure that he didn’t end it before it began. While he wasn’t sure what that meant, the beginning of this, he knew that he had to be the one that all this came to a head for.
Ronny wasn’t going to mess around with kidnappings. Nor was he going to go in and try to get the pieces that were already with the McCade men. They were fine where they were for the time being. And the best part was, he knew just who had what piece because of his research. And he had a little information about what each piece was supposed to do when it was with the McCades.
The oldest man had the heart. He was sure of this, because according to the research he’d been doing, the oldest would wake the dragon with the ring. The second man—the birth order mattered little after the heart had woken—would have had the torques. Strength was supposed to come to the bringer of those. Ronny hadn’t read what that might entail, but he was willing to bet it would be a lot of strength.
Strength of mind? Of body? He didn’t know. But what he did know was that there had been a specific order of things through the generations, and he had made a lot of notes on that.
The third piece would have been the necklace. Again, like the torques, the information was vague on what exactly was supposed to come from it. Just that it would be information vital to the well-being. The well-being of the family? Of the dragon that was supposed to be awakened from this? He just figured that they’d have this special knowledge that he knew would do them very little good. They weren’t going to be around long enough to get to that part, and only he would know how to decipher it.
The brooch would be found next, and that was what he was looking for now. That sucker was supposed to be worth millions in both gems and jewels. It would also bring the man who owned it armor. Ronny had an idea that it wasn’t an army to protect, but some kind of shield that they could use to protect against all manner of weapons.
Since it had been lifetimes since anyone had actually seen the pieces together, he wasn’t completely sure what they looked like. There were drawings of them, a few pictures that he had a feeling were fakes, as well as descriptions from questionable sources that said they’d seen them. Perhaps, like most legends, the story was sort of a mishmash of the things that he’d been able to unearth. The hair combs, for example. The keeper of those was supposed to be able to call dragons to them. Dragons? Not likely.
“Like somewhere in this world there are dragons just lying about until this guy calls them.” He laughed. “I’m pretty sure that at some time, somewhere, there would have been a sighting of fucking dragons.”
Then there were the earrings. They had been the last piece to be found by the others. And as such, there was the least amount of information to be found about them. Since all the pieces had to be together to call forth the great riches of money and dragons, that last piece had never come to light. Or so he’d been able to surmise, as he couldn’t find anything about them.
Ronny figured that he had to work the hardest to find where it was first, so that when it came to the end of this thing, he’d be able to say he them. The earrings were said to be the most beautiful things ever forged. Ronny smiled when he thought of the looks on the McCades’ faces when he produced them.
The information about the brooch was wrong, so he had to start over with it. The woman that he’d had to kill knew no more about it than he did. And that had pissed him off royally.
Tearing down the map and notes he had on the woman, he looked at the writings in his notebook. He had a feeling…and Ronny had no idea why, that someone was out there thwarting his efforts. And that just would not do.
He knew that Morrison had a buyer. But who he was, where he lived, wasn’t anything he could find. The computer hacker that he knew wasn’t all that helpful, and he might have killed him if he knew more about the little cocksucker. His handle should have been helpful, but all that gave him was more heartache.
By the time dinner was being called, Ronny was no closer to finding the brooch than he’d been before. There was conflicting information on it, first of all. And again, he had a feeling that someone was misguiding him. He nearly closed the book on his information when he saw a small sheet of paper sticking out of the edge of one of the many books he’d gotten from an estate sale not long ago.
“‘Riddle, riddle on the wall, what do you know that I cannot tell?’” Ronny sat down. The paper was old. Or it was meant to look that way. The handwriting was also very fancy, script like he’d seen in another book that he’d found. He read the rest of the words on the paper out loud. “‘Dragon dragon, blue and white, how will you hide so well from me?’ Stupid. It’s either a childish poem or something else that is supposed to keep me off the prize.”
He nearly tossed it in the trash, but instead turned it to its other side. There was a date and a name.
The year was sixteen hundred and ten. Ronny wasn’t sure it was right or not, but he got out his magnifying glass to see if the name—he was sure that was what it was—was more easily readable. It wasn’t a name that he could pronounce. Even putting it in his translator, all he got was mumbling. Ronny was sure that he’d missed a letter or two, and spent the rest of the evening on that.
He worked for several hours, only stopping long enough to have a little dinner. But he had letters now, and was thrilled with the chase of it. Most of them he’d had to guess at. The fine script writing had them running all together, so he had no idea if the letter was an e or a g. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. Maybe he just needed a break.
The year intrigued him. One of the notes that he’d been able to find on the interwebbers had mentioned the same year. He couldn’t remember what they’d said right now, but he had extensive notes and would find it. But the name…he was sure that there had been no mention of a name. Getting up, only just realizing that he was starved, he decided that he’d call the university in the morning and ask them to first verify that it was indeed old paper, and then have them help him with the writing. He’d donated enough of his money there when he’d been a student, he thought they owed him.
Ronny didn’t really donate. He didn’t have the money for donations…barely enough for food most of the time. Moving back home into his mother’s house had been hard on him. Harder still was that she had taken on boarders and he had to share his space with ten other people. And no matter how often he begged her, pleaded with her to kick them out, all she’d told him was if he paid her what he owed her, then she could give him the house and she’d spend her retirement years being waited on, not waiting on others.
Of course he wasn’t ever going to pay her back. Christ, she had lent him that money over ten years ago to finance his first venture in becoming something. She had to move on. He had when it failed. And he blamed that on her as well. Had she been able to help him more, like lending him more money, he was sure that his business would have made it.
It had been a long shot he was willing to take. Selling the air above fields for businesses to transmit their information over had been brilliant. Why the bank had not seen it his way was beyond him. They were missing out on a lot of revenue. He was sure that they were secretly envious of his idea, and after he’d left the bank had gone on to start selling it on their own. Fucking bastards.
It was the reason he’d gone to his mom. It wasn’t like she was going to live long enough to spend all the cash he knew she had. And he only wanted sixty-five percent of it. Still, what she had given him, not loaned, was not even a drop in the bucket he could have had if she’d just sold everything she had, including the house, and helped her only child out.
As he made his way to the kitchen to get him something for dinner, he thought of what he had to do to get the university to help him. Of course, he’d caused a bit of a stink when he’d been asked to leave when he was a student, so maybe he’d need to have really good reasons for asking them for help. Also, there was that little problem with their computers that he’d been guilty of. Ronny couldn’t remember all the details about what he had done to completely erase not only their roster, but also all the grades of every student that had ever gone there. Ronny had said he was sorry, but they were still holding a grudge.
When he turned on the light to the kitchen, he stopped.
“Mother fuck. Now what did you go and do a thing like that for?”
His mother had put a lock on not just the refrigerator door, but also the pantry and cabinets he knew housed all the food he liked. Ronny figured that she would blame it on the other tenants when he began his midnight raids. His hope was that she’d kick them all out and be done with this thing. But she’d thought of other ways to keep them out, and this wasn’t going to work for him. Ronny and his mom were going to have a little talk about this. In the morning. Christ, would she ever just die?