Jay watched as Cade directed their menservants what to prepare for the evening. He didn’t think it mattered one jot, personally, but Cade could be surprisingly old-school at times. He wanted to make sure everything they did was perfect for when Gwen came, but Gwen didn’t need perfect. And Jay doubted she’d like a huge meal at their formal dining table. He’d bet good money she’d prefer takeout on the sofa watching a movie.
But Cade wanted to do it this way, and Jay didn’t mind letting him. He would save his energy for the bigger battles he was sure were in their future.
“What are you wearing?” Cade stalked over to him. “Not those tatty jeans?”
For the love of the gods. Jay fought not to roll his eyes. “I was going to wear some smart jeans and a polo shirt. Is that okay with you, sir?” He smirked at the flash of anger in Cade’s eyes.
“No need to be a cheeky little shit.”
Oh, that pissed him off. “First of all, Cadan, I am not little. And secondly, I am not cheeky. I’m not some cute little female you can boss around. And neither, for your information, is Gwen.”
Cadan frowned. “She’s cute and she’s female.”
“Yes. But she’s not some silly airhead you can push about. You need to calm the fuck down, or you’ll scare her off before she’s ours. This whole feast thing is the wrong thing to do if you ask me.”
“I didn’t.”
Jay looked at the ceiling and counted to ten. He poked Cade in the chest to emphasize his point. “You’d do a lot better with Gwen by being more casual. We’ll do this your way tonight, but the next time we have her here, I want to do it my way.”
“Okay.” Cade gave a shrug and headed off to the kitchen.
What the hell? Sometimes the male surprised the shit out of him.
“But you’d better not fuck it up,” Cade shouted from somewhere in the house.
That was more like it. Always had to have the last bloody word.
A couple of hours later and Cade had dressed in dark gray jeans and a Henley. He’d gone downstairs to check on the feast, leaving Jay to finish getting dressed.
Jay thanked the gods the male hadn’t chosen a suit or some such. He himself wore dark blue jeans and a hot pink T-shirt, which, if he said so himself, highlighted his tan, golden hair, and baby blues.
Jay knew he was pretty—and in a way that wasn’t feminine at all, but like some gorgeous youth in a renaissance sculpture or painting. It might be bigheaded to know how attractive the ladies found him, but he’d use any weapon in his arsenal when it came to making Gwen theirs.
Already, he wanted her to a crazy degree. He’d witnessed the scene with her and Cadan the other day and hung back to let it play out. The other male knew more what he was doing when it came to the seduction of dragon females. Jay hardly possessed any experience in that arena, his only dalliances being with human women.
Gods but Gwen was beautiful. Not in a polished way, but in a messy, beach-girl, sultry way that was all her own. He couldn’t wait to discover what she tasted like when he got to kiss her golden skin and properly take her mouth.
Weirdly, the previous evening, he’d had a dream where the three of them were making out, and Cade had kissed him. He’d awoken slightly perturbed because they’d never been about that. Not that he minded, he wasn’t homophobic, but he wondered if the dream was just like most dreams, a mishmash of nothing, or if it was a harbinger of something deeper in his psyche that he’d so far kept pushed down. Time would tell, he supposed.
He gave himself a dab of Acqua di Parma, loving the fresh scent, and tousled his hair. Yeah, he might be the slightest bit vain, but whatever. His bedroom was next to Cade’s, but they were chalk and cheese. Whereas Jay’s was all light woods, pale walls, and modern furnishings, with floor-to-ceiling fitted wardrobes down one wall and a simple double bed, Cade’s was something else.
For some reason, Jay headed there now, going out of his door and taking a right to Cade’s. He entered the room with no trepidation; he and Cade shared one another’s space completely and had no secrets. The scent of something lush and warm hung in the air, the lingering aroma of the male’s aftershave.
The walls were paneled and painted a dark gray. A truly humongous, extra-large king-size bed dominated the back wall. To the left of the bed were equally huge windows, and at the bottom of it sat a brown Chesterfield sofa. Most striking of all, though, were three tall, narrow, black-and-white pictures of mountain scenery placed between each of the panels on the wall behind the bed. It always struck Jay as being incredibly beautiful and speaking to a more sensitive side of Cade’s character than he usually showed.
Letting himself enjoy the ambiance for a moment, Jay sat on the bed and soaked in all that was Cade. Then he got up, gave a small shake of his head, and stalked out the door to go downstairs.
The scents of delicious food greeted him as he hit the first-floor hallway. He’d bet the table fair groaned with food, and while he hated eating in the dining room, his stomach rumbled at the divine aromas.
Passing by the front door, he jumped as the bell rang. Cade had arranged for a driver to pick up Gwen and bring her to their abode. Jay would have preferred to go get her himself, but he’d given in on this evening so long as next time he got his own way on how it went down. He hoped there would be a next time after the formality ahead of them.
Smiling, he opened the door only to see Gwen…and her mother. What the hell? Gwen gave him a blinding, shit-eating grin that told him they’d been well and truly played and sauntered by him to stand in their hallway.
“Hi, Jay, thanks so much for the invite. This is my mum, Lara.”
Lara had the grace to be a bit more embarrassed by the whole thing than Gwen, and she flushed as he took her hand to shake. Cade was going to shit a brick when he saw what Gwen had done.
Footsteps had him bracing for impact, but it was only one of their servants. The male gave a deep bow to Gwen and Lara and a nod to him.
“The food is ready, sire.”
“Come. Let us eat.” Shit, since when did he speak like some formal dragon of an age gone by?
“Thank you.” Lara fell into step beside him, and he let himself glance at her.
She reminded him of that famous red-haired actress, he forgot her name, from the forties. Really beautiful now he saw her up close. In fact, if you were talking classical good looks, Lara was more beautiful than Gwen. She possessed the sort of face that would photograph amazingly well, and yet, he found she did nothing for him. Only Gwen captured his interest.
As they strolled through the house, he noticed how Gwen looked around, her eyes wide at the opulence all around.
Cade didn’t go in for lots of showy stuff, thank the gods. A lot of their brethren filled their houses with treasures and things they found beautiful. Many Dragonea homes were filled with precious silks, vases, pots, and porcelain, and of course, jewelry. Wow, but did dragon shifters like their jewelry. His own birth home had been packed to the gills with…well, crap, frankly. His mother hadn’t gone for the luxurious stuff many dragon shifters loved. She liked all sorts of strange things and collected one thing after another.
For a period, it had been thimbles, then spoons, before she started to collect buttons, and then on to brooches. Their home overflowed with the decades of her relentless search for the current objects of her fascination. Luckily both his fathers were patient and kind males who let his mother do whatever she damn well liked.
Not his birth father, though. No, his conception was a terrible secret and shame, and only their family knew about it. Not even Cade knew, which made Jay feel guilty as hell because they told one another everything. This, though? He didn’t dare share it with a soul because it might make him an outcast, and the stigma would surely kill his mother.
His beloved, kind mother, who wouldn’t harm a fly, had been raped by a dragon male and taken to the cave where he lived when she was a young female. A truly rogue male, he’d kept her prisoner until one day she’d taken a chance and escaped. Only her family knew the truth. She’d never wanted anyone else to be told, despite the fact that the male would be hunted down and either killed or jailed for life.
Once back home, she’d been kept almost under lock and key by her family. A prisoner almost as much as she’d been when kept by the vile male. So, when she’d found herself with young, she’d left her clan in Ireland and traveled to England, where she’d been found hiding out in a damp, squalid, empty terrace house by the two males who mated with her. Theirs wasn’t a union based on the sort of match he and Cade had with Gwen, but more a mating based on friendship and a love that grew over time. But it worked for them. His adoptive fathers had wanted to defend the vulnerable young female and help her with her young. And so, his mother’s new life had begun.
Sadly, when she’d shifted form and laid her eggs, only two were viable, and one of the young subsequently died. Which made Jay her only offspring. He’d been spoiled rotten growing up because of it.
Fear struck him hard and fast as he wondered what Gwen would think if she found out his deepest, darkest secret. She’d most likely hate him. There was no reason for her to find out…except, mates were meant to be completely open with one another. Cade had never asked him much about his family because he knew them. He’d grown up with them in the clan, and he’d spent many an evening at Jay’s family home once they’d bonded. He clearly assumed that one of the two males who had brought Jay up was his father.
All of Cade’s immediate family was long gone, including his siblings. Cade was old. As old as time, one dragon in the clan had joked. How ancient exactly, Jay didn’t know, but Cade had fought alongside legendary dragons such as Rhyndor and Steffan, so old enough.
Realizing he must seem rude, Jay searched for something to say as they walked down the long corridor to the formal dining room.
“These are incredible photographs.” Gwen interrupted his thoughts. “Where did you buy them? I love photography.”
He turned to the moody black-and-white shots of animals, mostly horses, but also big game he’d photographed while on vacation in Africa with Cade. He smiled at Gwen. “They’re mine.”
“Really?” Lara looked from him to the photos and back again. “These are good, Jay. Really good. You could make money selling them.”
He waved around the corridor, taking in the Lalique vase on the sideboard next to the Lladro figurine depicting the arrival of Cinderella to the ball. The pair alone would set you back over thirty thousand big ones.
“I don’t need the money, and I prefer to keep it as a hobby. I don’t want to have to worry about what people might like, and I simply capture what I love.”
Suddenly, he worried he’d sounded arrogant about the wealth all around him, and his cheeks warmed. “Not that any of this is mine,” he added. “My own parents come from a humble background and have a small home in amongst the clan. This is all Cade’s, and he’s spent centuries collecting it.”
Great, now he sounded like a gold digger instead.
Gwen saved him. “I can tell you don’t care about the money, though, either way.”
He nodded. “Nope. I don’t. Cade and I matched perfectly, so it made sense for us to be together as bonded males.” He stopped walking. “To be honest, all of this put me off, if anything. I worried he’d think my background too lowly or be a horrendous snob. Nothing’s further from the truth, though. He’s a great guy, if a little overbearing.”
“Who’s overbearing?”
Jay jumped and nearly knocked over the damned Lalique vase. “You.” He narrowed his eyes at Cade. “Sometimes anyway. You’re also a sneaky son of a bitch. Nearly gave me a heart attack.”
Cade’s eyes narrowed as he looked over Jay’s shoulder. Oh yeah. Their uninvited guest.
“Erm, Cade, this is Gwen’s mother, Lara.”
Lara held out her hand, and Cade took it in his own. He didn’t shake it but instead brought it to his mouth and kissed the back of her hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, Drago-Anrhy-Lara.”
Cade used the formal title for a female dragon and gave a dip of his head. Lara beamed with pleasure as her cheeks turned pink.
God, the smooth bastard always made the females swoon, and soon he’d probably have Gwen’s mother wrapped around his little finger. Jay glanced at Gwen to see a tiny scowl mar her pretty face. He bit back a smirk. Here was one female Cade wouldn’t find so easy to win over. He wasn’t sure if the fact made him happy to get to witness Cade having to work for it, or sad that they faced an uphill struggle in winning over their mate.
“You have a stunning home, Cadan.” Lara smiled at the male towering over her.
Cade shrugged. “I suppose so. A lot of this stuff I’ve had for so long, I kind of don’t see it anymore.”
“Were you a collector or something?” Gwen picked up a Faberge egg and turned it over before putting it back down.
“A lot of these things were either gifts or the spoils of war. Unlike a lot of dragons, I’ve never been interested in collecting objects for the sake of it. But many of these pieces have a story behind them. That egg, for instance, the Tsar of Russia gave it to me. He gave one to Rhyndor as well, many years ago. I keep these things because they have value, but to me, they don’t mean anything.”
“You don’t find them beautiful?” Lara asked.
“Honestly? No.” Cade gave a small smile. “I know it probably marks me out as a Philistine, but, no. I find nature beautiful. The ocean. Flying in my dragon form. Of course, some art I can admire and find beautiful, but most of these things are not my taste. The only things in this corridor I find beautiful are Jay’s photographs.”
Jay’s heart did a weird little flutter at those words. He’d had no idea until now that Cade thought so much of his work. Of course, the male had hung the photographs in the corridor, but he’d always assumed Cade did so because deep down he was kind and he wanted Jay to feel something he did held value. Jay hadn’t for a moment believed Cade actually admired his work.
“They are stunning, aren’t they?” Lara said.
“Truly,” Cade answered. “I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with quite the talent Jay has for capturing the soul of an animal.”
Holy shit, if Cade didn’t shut up, Jay might do something stupid and embarrassing like get all teary-eyed. Luckily, Gwen saved the day by giving a squeak of delight.
She’d stopped by a Clarice Cliff tea set, and she turned her sparkling gaze on Cade. “Is this a genuine Clarice Cliff?”
He smiled and nodded. “Yes.”
“Ooh…” The word came out on a sigh. “I love her stuff.”
“Really?” Cade cocked his head to one side.
“Oh yes. I’m not all that into antiques, but I adore how quirky and bright her pottery is.”
Jay noted the way Cade filed the information away. No doubt, a truckload of Cliff’s pieces would be arriving at the small house Gwen and her mum shared at some point.
Cade led the way into the formal dining room where more opulence and signs of wealth stood out wherever you looked. Jay wanted Lara and Gwen to see the real them, not this showy pretense of a feast. He and Cade didn’t normally eat like this. Most nights, they either ate in the dining kitchen, sharing a bottle of red as they chatted, or on their knees in the living room, a movie playing out on the widescreen TV.
“What a stunning room,” Lara said.
Gwen didn’t speak, and her face seemed to scream get me out of here. Jay bit back a sigh and told Lara the truth. “We hardly ever use it. For some reason, Cade here went all formal tonight. Normally, you’ll find us watching a movie and eating off our knees.”
Cade shot a comically scandalized glance his way, but Gwen spoke up. “Thank fuck.”
“Gwen!” Lara paled.
“No, Mum. This isn’t our thing. Neither of us. And thank the gods it’s not these guys either, or I’d be turning tail and running out of here as fast as I could go. No way do I want to have to sit here, night after night, eating in this stuffy room.”
“Stuffy?” Cade’s voice came out half strangled.
Jay began to laugh, and once he started, he couldn’t stop. “It is, though, Cade. Admit it. It’s stuffy as hell.”
“I mean…it’s not my taste, not truly…but I thought…I mean…” Cade trailed off, and Jay was enjoying the rare sight of his bonded male being wrong-footed. Maybe that made him a bad person, but sue him, this hardly ever happened.
“Why don’t we pile up our plates and go eat in the lounge?” Jay asked.
“Would you prefer that, Gwen?” Cade looked to her, and she nodded with a big grin.
“You bet. This room gives me the creeps. Those drapes look like something from Dracula’s lair.”
Oh gods, Jay loved how totally unfazed by the wealth on display, and more importantly, by Cade’s power, this female was.
Authority and strength rolled of Cade in waves. Even humans seemed to pick up on it. If they walked down a crowded street, people always moved aside for him. In all their time together, Jay had never seen anyone challenge Cade. Until now.
Gwen poked Cade in the ribs. “Come on, lighten up. You don’t normally eat in here, so show me the real you.”
Jay bit back a guffaw at the shocked expression on Cade’s face. The male looked down to where Gwen had poked him, to her face, and back to where her hand still rested on his side. Then something else took over his face and filled the room, and it nearly knocked Jay off his feet.
Lust, so powerful and potent it had its own scent, swept through the space between the four of them. He saw the moment it hit Gwen as her lips parted and her hand dropped from Cade as if burned. Lara’s eyes widened, and she looked from her daughter to Cade and back again.
Cade didn’t move, but his hooded eyes took in every inch of Gwen. He looked as if he wanted to eat her alive. To consume her and not leave an inch of her untouched. And as soon as the moment came, it went. Cade cleared his throat, smiled politely at Gwen, and gave a brief dip of his head.
“As you wish, Gwen. We will eat in the lounge.”