The Billionaire Dragon Shifter Meets His Match: BBW Paranormal Romance (Gray's Hollow Dragon Shifters Book 6) (4 page)

He said quietly, “There, you see? I meant what I said.”

Jane raised her gaze to his, but she couldn’t believe it even when she saw the flames in his eyes and his hard expression. He was her mate, and she knew down to her bones that he wasn’t a truly wicked dragon, a danger to everyone around him. He couldn’t be. He was
hers
.

“No,” William said. “No, the Georgian Corps does not condone killing, to settle a challenge or for any other reason. A challenge goes only until one of you yields, or is injured too badly to fly, in which case you yield by default. If you continue to attack past an attempt to yield, or when your opponent is too badly hurt to fly, you will be considered an outlaw. The Corps will not let you live.”

“If I face him I will kill him, unless he kills me first,” Laurence said, like there was no other possibility, like William’s words meant nothing to him. “So I think we’ve said all we have to say to each other.”

He turned back to her and said, very gently, “Excuse me, Jane. I must go.”

Jane nodded slowly. It was obvious that it wouldn’t do any good to argue with him. She released her grip on him and let him stand.

Laurence looked down at her and she could see grief in his silver eyes, as if he already knew that this could only end in blood and ash, as if he already saw her sobbing over his corpse. He touched his fingers to his lips and then turned away, striding confidently in the direction of the elevators.

She sat staring after him, stunned, until William said silently,
Where the actual fuck did that guy come from, Curlew?

“You shut up about my mate,” Jane replied evenly, speaking aloud without thinking about it. The elevator doors closed on Laurence, and Jane jumped up and ran.

***

Laurence hadn’t even made it out of the shadow of the imposing black tower that housed the Georgian Corps headquarters before he heard running footsteps and felt his mate close by. She was more precious than gold in a world that seemed to be already nothing but ash, and he couldn’t resist that pull.

He whirled to face her, catching her in his arms as she ran to him. He pulled her up to kiss her, holding her off the ground as his mouth covered hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her strong legs around his hips, and kissed back without hesitation.

Mine, mine, mine
. It was the only thought in his head. She was his and he had to keep her, had to keep her safe, had to—

A horn blared nearby, and Laurence jerked out of the kiss to look around, keeping his grip tight on Jane, her body pressed tight to his. A cabbie had pulled up next to them, and was leaning across to watch them through the open passenger window with a cheerfully lascivious grin. “You folks need a ride somewhere private?”

“Yes.” Laurence loosened his grip enough to let Jane slide down his body and put her feet on the ground, but he kept one arm firmly around her, hurrying her to the taxi. She didn’t seem to need any encouragement, wrapping an arm around his waist as they ran the few strides to the taxi. He ushered her in ahead of him, and she clung to him as soon as he was at her side.

He managed to give the address of his hotel before he had to kiss Jane again, pulling her close and plundering her mouth with his tongue. It seemed like no time had passed at all when a loud knock on the divider made him realize the taxi had stopped. For a moment he was staring into Jane’s eyes, unable to think of anything but the way she looked back at him. Nothing mattered more than her wanting him as much as he wanted her, knowing everything about him and still here with him.

Then he remembered to reach into his pocket, fumbling out some cash and shoving it through the little window.

Jane reached for the door and Laurence helped her through it as the cabbie shouted after him about change, as if he cared about stupid dead paper money. He took Jane’s hand and hurried her to the door and through the discreet lobby, touching the unlabeled key fob to the elevator’s sensor pad. An elevator arrived a second later, carrying them up smoothly to the ninth floor.

They stood side by side, still holding on to each other’s hands, for the seconds the trip took. Laurence was aware of the racing of his own heart, the quickness of his breath, and the quick rise and fall of Jane’s shoulder against his arm, the heat of her skin against his. They were well matched.

For a second he let himself wonder if that could be enough—to have a dragon for his mate, a dragon descended also from dragon hunters. Jane wouldn’t condone killing, and unlike his brothers’ mates, his had a dragon form that could meet his...

But she was still his mate. She was as strong and fierce as she was beautiful, but he knew she wouldn’t stand against him, not really. Without knowing anything else about her, he knew his mate would take his side—she would see it as self-defense, or worse, she would seek to help and defend
him
, and they would both be murderers instead of only him.

The image flickered before his mind for an instant, a world in flames and Jane at his side, ruling as his queen. What couldn’t they do together?

Then the elevator doors opened, and Laurence shook away that horribly tempting image as he led Jane to the door of his room.

There was a lot they couldn’t do together. They couldn’t be safe. They couldn’t keep each other the way a dragon wanted to keep his—or her?—mate, as something precious to be protected, the heart of a secure hoard. A
home
.

They could never be that for each other. It was obvious that the Georgian Corps was Jane’s family as much as her job. If William wasn’t actually some kind of relative of hers, still it was obvious that she thought of him as some kind of brother or cousin. Laurence would ruin that for her if he took her as his mate. He couldn’t steal her away from these relatives, take her back to his cave and keep her there. They would follow, and they would hunt her as much as they hunted him.

But even if they never caught up, he would force her to betray herself. She was obviously a good dragon, like Ilie, like Gus. She had chosen the human side of her nature—order and justice rather than fire and blood. He could offer her gold and himself, but nothing more. Nothing she needed, nothing she could keep for longer than a night or two. She could only have him for as long as he could avoid facing Farrell’s challenge, and making himself the villain he’d always known he was just waiting to be.

“Jane,” he said quietly, turning to meet her eyes as they stood just outside his door.

She shook her head, stepping in closer to him, pressing her body to his. “I know. But I need you as much as you need me. There’s no point in denying that much, is there? Just for tonight?”

His dragon roared at the thought of
just tonight
—but that wouldn’t change whether he let her go now or in an hour or in the morning. He already knew that she was meant to be his mate, and while he couldn’t make that fully true tonight, he couldn’t deny it, either. If he took her to bed—then at least his dragon might let him sleep tonight, and he would know what it meant to hold his mate.

And one tiny ember of hope still clinging to life in his chest thought,
Maybe it will help. Maybe she’ll change me after all.

“I do need you,” he agreed, as if it had to be said. He kissed her once more and then opened the door and drew her inside with him.

***

Jane let herself get lost in Laurence’s arms, so strong around her, and his mouth, so hot and hungry as he kissed her. She didn’t notice anything except that they were alone now, really properly alone, until her thighs met the softness of a bed behind her.

She pulled back from the kiss instantly and her eyes widened a little. She hadn’t paid any attention to the address Laurence had given in the cab; she hadn’t recognized it, other than vaguely noticing that it was safely inside the city and not dreadfully far away.

The room she stood in was enormous for a hotel room, merely generous for a studio apartment. The walls were paneled in warm rich wood, intricately carved and hung with actual tapestries. The furniture, the little pieces of art displayed on shelves and tables around the room—it was all way above her touch. She didn’t recognize any of it beyond the way her dragon rumbled with profound satisfaction at the evidence of her mate’s capable husbanding of his hoard.

Her human self had a few questions.

“Laurence? Is this...?”

“All mine,” he assured her. “I did say I’d visited Chicago before. This is a hotel room—well, suite, but remodeled a little. I just happen to have it booked continuously for the next ninety-nine years, so it makes a nice pied-a-terre in Chicago.”

“You also said you travel a lot,” Jane said, dragging her gaze away from the nearest glittering thing—an amateurish but very satisfying sculpture of gold and glass—to meet his eyes again. “Does that mean you have more than one hotel room like this?”

Laurence’s mouth quirked up into a wry smile. “Five, on four continents, plus a couple of actual houses, a bedroom in my ancestral home, and a cave I haven’t actually used to hold my hoard since I turned eighteen.”

Jane blinked, feeling a surge of something like homesickness for a place she’d never been. “You have a proper
cave
and you don’t
use it
?”

“Well, the Monaco house has very extensive cellars,” Laurence soothed. “But—yes, I keep most of my money in finance. I’ve been practicing resisting my instincts for a very long time.”

Jane thought about pointing out to him everything that was wrong with that idea, but she could feel the flames rising in her eyes, her dragon’s satisfaction with a capable mate surging into greedy lust for a truly impressive one.

“Wait, are you—are you—”

Laurence’s smile widened into something that would have been predatory if she weren’t so prepared to meet him tooth for tooth—and so eager to be devoured. “Very, very good at hoarding?”

Jane nodded, feeling breathless, at the same time she was making a mental note in some still-sane corner of her mind.
William needs to know, this enclave is the real thing—

“Very,
very
good,” he murmured, and leaned in to nuzzle at the soft skin of her throat as he whispered a very large number to her.

Her whole body seemed to catch fire as she arched against him, her pussy hot and slick and begging for him, her nipples aching where they pressed against his chest through far too many layers of clothing. “
Oh.
”

He laughed softly against her skin. “Human women, you know, they try to pretend they don’t care.”

Jane wanted to burn every one of them alive, except that would distract her from being here, with her mate. She rubbed herself against him, enjoying the hard press of his cock against her belly, assuring her—as if she needed assurance—of how very little he cared about any of those human women. “Well, lucky for you your mate is a dragon and understands these things.”

“Lucky, lucky me,” Laurence murmured, his voice almost a growl. His dragon wanted to roar as much as hers did; she imagined for a dizzy instant what it would be like to take their dragon forms together, to fly safely above the clouds with him.

But she was flying quite enough right now, with his hands sliding down to cup her ass and press her closer against him. She rocked her hips, getting muffled friction on her clit that made her moan as much as his hot kisses trailing down her throat.

“Yes,” she breathed against him, clinging, barely holding on to the presence of mind to tug up on his sweater. She wanted it off, she wanted
him
. “Laurence—”

“Jane,” he growled back, and lifted her easily, lowering her to the bed and following her down.

Jane moaned, spreading herself under him, her pussy dripping already, her whole body aching for his touch. His dragon strength was even greater than her own—she’d always hoped her mate would be a dragon, just for that. She had spent her whole life preparing herself to be strong and stern, to be in control as a member of the Georgian Corps should. A George had to have the authority and responsibility to stop rampaging dragons and hard-bitten humans from killing each other.

She had always hoped that when she found her mate, he’d be strong enough to take those burdens from her. She had wanted to know what it was like to surrender. And now, with Laurence’s hard body stretched over hers, Laurence’s hands moving her just where he wanted her...

She opened her eyes, and knew that the flames she saw in his eyes matched the flames in hers. She smiled, giddy already, when he wasn’t even touching her, just holding himself above her to cage her in place.

“I’m so glad it’s you,” she whispered. “Laurence, I’ve waited so long for you, and I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so glad it’s you.”

He looked down at her with an expression she couldn’t read for the space of a breath, and then he shook his head slightly, smiling his own incredulous smile, and kissed her softly. “Jane. My Jane. I never thought I would find you at all.”

She raised her hands above her head, offering herself to him, even if this wasn’t—might never be—a proper mating. She wanted him. She had waited so long.