Dragon Hunt (Water Dragons Book 1) Read online

  It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen him naked. She had. Only, he was holding a spatula and there was something smeared on his chest.

  “I made waffles with all the trimmings,” he announced, bobbing his brows.

  His hair was still lightly mussed. His eyes were so stunning in the morning light, she wanted to smack them. They wouldn’t be as pretty if the surrounding skin was black and puffy. His stubble was thicker, highlighting his jaw. She wasn’t looking down. No way!

  Not at his chest…Holy smokes.

  Not at his abs…Oh lord god up above.

  Definitely not at his…Lord have mercy on her soul.

  Head back in the game, Jolene. This was a game. One she was damn well winning. There were only two rules in this game. One, make Storm’s life hell, and two, to not to let him touch her. No touching, no sucking, no licking and definitely no fucking. He was right in that her body had other ideas. Her body could go to hell and so could he. She planned on using her body and its false signals to drive him to distraction. To turn his life inside out, just like he had hers. He would be sorry he hadn’t listened to her when she told him to leave her alone. Sorry he ever decided to take part in the hunt for fun. Fun! Idiot!

  Golden Boy had clearly never had a woman say no before. Never had any kind of pushback. Things were about to change for him. She almost felt sorry for the poor schmuck.

  Jolene let the blanket fall around her waist. She sat up in bed and lifted her arms, stretching and arching her back. When she finished, she looked his way.

  His eyes were dark, his jaw tight. His cock…Eyes up. Point one may have gone to him, but the next three points were all hers. “Waffles sound yum. Hope you have syrup, I like mine extra sticky.” She licked her lips.

  He groaned.

  Another point to her. She jumped out of bed, adding another ten points in one go. By the end of the day, he was going to let her go. There was no way he was going to want anything to do with her once she was done with him.

  Her tits bounced as she jumped out of bed. They fucking bounced. Dragon shifters didn't have many weaknesses. Bouncing breasts on a lush female were one of them. The spatula nearly fell from his grip. The silk clung to her. It didn't help that he remembered the fiery red thong. By her scent, he was sure the lace would be soaked. Why were they messing around? Why weren't they just fucking like rabbits? He couldn't remember anymore. What would she do if he walked over to her and threw her back on the bed? If he pulled up her nighty, tore off the lace scrap and—

  “You can stop looking at me like that because it isn’t going to happen. Not today and not tomorrow.” Jolene pulled her shoulders back, thrusting out the most delectable set of tits he had ever seen on a female. She liked it sticky, well, he could oblige. He could oblige in spades. He just needed to pick his jaw up off the floor long enough to try to talk her into it.

  “And if I were you, I’d cover that thing up.” She pointed at his cock. “You might just hurt yourself otherwise.” She smiled, looking amused, rather than aroused. What the fuck?!

  Smoke. He smelled smoke. There was smoke. Fuck! “My waffles!” he yelled. Storm opened the waffle-maker, pulling out the scorched food. He muttered a curse as he tossed them in the trash. “Good thing I already made a batch or two. Take a seat.” He gestured to the table.

  Surprisingly, Jolene did as he said. There was a pot of coffee and a pitcher of juice. Not to mention a heap of crispy bacon, strawberries, cream and syrup. He placed the waffles he’d already made on the table, pushing them over to her.

  She poured herself some coffee. “I’m impressed.” She added cream. “This looks good,” she said as she spooned in some sugar.

  “You’re talking to me today. Does this mean we’re at least on speaking terms? A truce maybe?” he quickly added.

  “Not on your life.” She stirred her coffee. “I’m hungry and you cooked.” She helped herself to a waffle. “You have a little something on your chest.” She pointed.

  Storm looked down and spotted a smear of waffle batter.

  “Yum.” Her eyes were bright. “I love waffles.” Her eyes dropped back down to his chest.

  “You want to help me out with this? We could add a drizzle of syrup.” He bobbed his brows.

  Her pupils dilated and her heart-rate picked up. She fucking loved the idea. It was a great pity she shook her head so hard. “No. Not my taste.”

  Liar!

  “I’ve never cooked for a female before.”

  “Is that supposed to impress me?” She forked a couple of bacon strips onto the waffle before giving him a hard stare.

  “I thought you might like to know. I’m making an effort here. I’ve also never slept in the same bed as a female…actually closed my eyes that is. You are my first. I’ve never even had a female in my chamber before, for that matter.” That should impress her.

  “And that’s supposed to make me feel special?” She rolled her eyes.

  “Yes!”

  She snorted, cutting a corner piece of the waffle. “Well, I’m not! Not in the least! You would have jumped right in there last night if I had let you.”

  “Damn straight, and you would have enjoyed the hell out of it.” He could hear the frustration etched in his voice.

  “Whatever,” she muttered. “You’re only making any type of effort because I’m the first woman to turn you down. You should be ashamed you never made any effort with any of the others.”

  “I made an effort.” He threw a waffle on his own plate. “Where it actually counted.” He grinned. “I always make sure I leave the female smiling and satisfied.”

  “Says you.” She drizzled some syrup over everything.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I know for a fact because a body doesn’t lie.”

  She shrugged, not looking convinced. “I think you’re an asshole. I don’t think you thought any more of these women you slept with than you do of me. You most likely treated them like they were objects to get off on. You used them, just like you want to use me.”

  “Used?” What the fuck! “It was mutually beneficial. I haven’t had any complaints.”

  “I’ll bet good money that you didn’t stick around long enough to hear what they had to say about it. I doubt you asked.”

  Shit! That wasn’t true. It wasn’t. Sure, he hardly stuck around. It was always at their place and he left once the deed was done. The female was usually fast asleep. Completely finished and utterly sated. “No, they were satisfied. I didn’t have to hear them say it to know it.” He threw a couple of strawberries on top of the bacon he’d already piled on and drizzled some syrup. Not that he was all that hungry anymore.

  Using her fork, she put a considerable section of waffle into her mouth. It fit just fine. His balls hurt. His dick fucking throbbed. Jolene chewed a couple of times and swallowed, taking her time licking off three fingers. "Mmmmm," she purred. "Delicious."

  This was going to be a very long, very hard couple of weeks if he couldn’t get her on the end of his dick.

  What was he saying?

  He would get between her thighs and she was going to fucking love it. Once she felt what he could do, she would beg him to take her again. Although he planned on having her a good couple of times, he would enjoy hearing her beg. He was going to love the hell out of it. In fact, he would refuse to touch her again unless she begged.

  Chapter 10

  Three days later…

  With barely a backward glance, he announced, "I'll see you later," sounding bored.

  “You’re going out again?” she asked, as Storm made his way to the door.

  “Yes.” He nodded, still walking.

  “Why? What is it this time? Practice, or guarding the perimeter, or something top secret again maybe?” There was more than just a hint of irritation in her voice.

  “It’s not like you care.”

  “You’re right about that,” she mumbled.

  He grabbed the doorknob and began to turn it. “You need to stay put.” Sto
rm huffed out a breath, turning to face her. “You are going to stay put, aren’t you?” He narrowed those amethyst jewels in on her. She hated that he still affected her. She hated that she loved the intensity of his stare. The way his muscles hardened when he was pissed at her. She mostly loved when he was pissed at her, which was often. She was so rocking this. At least, she was rocking this when he actually stayed home longer than five minutes.

  “I said, you aren’t going to try something stupid, like going out on your own?” Storm narrowed his eyes some more, his voice had turned deep.

  “Why? Would you let me go out if someone, Beck maybe, went with me?”

  “No! Not a chance. It’s not—”

  “Yeah, yeah…it’s not safe.”

  “Tell me you aren’t going to try anything. I don’t like that look in your eyes.” He scrutinized her, taking a step towards her.

  It was like he could sense her plan. “Of course not.” Act nonchalant.

  “Jolene.” He cocked his head. “You do plan on staying here, don’t you?”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” She stuffed her hands into her jeans pockets.

  Storm looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds ‒ it looked like he was counting to ten ‒ before walking over to the living room area and picking up the phone.

  “What are you doing?” She folded her arms.

  “What does it look like?” He glanced up at her before placing the device to his ear.

  “You’re calling a babysitter.” She sighed. She was so done with all of this.

  He grinned, his eyes sparkled.

  “You’re such a dick!” She fell back on the sofa.

  “Here I was thinking you actually wanted me to stay home, to keep you company. If that’s the case…Hold on Beck!” He spoke into the phone, taking it away from his ear, turning his eyes back to her. “Is that the case? Do you want me to stay home? Do you want to spend time with me?”

  “What do you think?” She knew what time meant in his book. Sex. No thanks! She wasn’t about to give up the milk for free. Jolene wanted more. More than Storm could give her.

  “That’s what I thought.” He started to bring the phone back to his ear.

  “What would be the point?”

  Storm put the phone to his chest. “Why do you want me to stay so badly? You don’t care. You don’t want to spend time with me. You just want to torture me, so why do you want me to stay?”

  Torture? A little harsh. It was because she couldn’t make his life difficult if he was out there. “Because it’s not fair that I’m stuck between these four walls while you are out there doing as you please.” Okay, so that came out sounding jealous. Like maybe she didn’t trust him. Like she didn’t want him spending time with other women.

  His eyes lit up. They got this look.

  “I didn’t mean it like that. I could care less what you do with your time and who you do it with.” It still sounded jealous. Dammit! She so wasn’t.

  He smiled, this cocky half-smile that did things to her…it shouldn’t. “Why don’t I believe you?”

  She shrugged. “Believe whatever you want.”

  Storm chuckled. “Come on, Jolene, let’s have a little fun.”

  “By fun you mean sex?”

  Storm looked her in the eyes for a moment or two before putting the phone back to his ear. “I’ll call you back,” he said, and pushed the off button. “No, by fun I mean fun.”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “I don’t know. Truth or dare? Poker?”

  She laughed. “Poker? As in—”

  “It wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t strip poker.” Storm ran a hand through his hair. The glossy dark strands shiny between his fingers.

  “I’ve seen you naked a ton of times.” She fake-yawned. Storm walked around naked most of the time, but it wasn’t getting old. Not even close really, and by the grin he was sporting he wasn’t buying her bored act.

  “You love watching me walk around naked. You can’t take your eyes off my cock. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

  “See, not even two minutes and our conversation has already gone down the drain.”

  “So, no strip poker. No talk of sex. No trying to instigate sex. Let’s just…” She could see his mind moving a mile a minute.

  “You have no idea of what to suggest,” she blurted moments later. “We have absolutely nothing in common.” She shook her head.

  “Why are you so negative?”

  “I’ve had five boyfriends. I class any relationship that lasts longer than a year to be serious.”

  Storm scratched the back of his head. “Sheesh, a year is a long-ass time.”

  “For a guy who doesn’t spend more than one night ‒ my bad, not even that long ‒ with the same girl, I would imagine that a year seems like forever.”

  Storm nodded. “For the record, I have had sex with the same female more than once.”

  “Oh really?”

  He nodded. “There are a couple of single dragon shifter females.”

  “Convenient.” She tried not to sound bitchy and failed.

  Storm nodded. “Yes, it most definitely is.” At least he was honest.

  “We’re drifting back to talk of sex and this isn’t about sex. We were talking about my five exes ‒ it sounds even worse saying it out loud. I was with my first boyfriend for a couple of years before he left me to meet other people. He felt tied down, like he was missing out ‒ his words. Boyfriend one was married within a year of our breakup. I caught my second boyfriend red-handed. He married the person he was cheating with. The third one…let me not bore you. They all have a similar pattern.”

  Storm sat down. “You know this has nothing to do with you, right?”

  “Boyfriend five and I broke up eight months ago. I broke up with him. We’d been living together for almost two years and still no ring. I gave him an ultimatum and he chose to leave. Guess what?”

  “He’s a prick.”

  “That too. No, he’s engaged to be married. Met someone within weeks of our breakup and asked her to marry him soon after.” She shook her head, feeling the pain well inside her. Not because of Brian or any of the others. Her eyes stung but she was so not going to cry, so she sucked it back. “I’m not getting any younger. I’m starting to think there’s something seriously wrong with me.” She hated these ‘woe is me’ feelings but she couldn’t help it. Brian was the last straw. He’d told her he wasn’t anywhere near ready. She’d heard that before somewhere and several times over. Storm was nothing new. He had just been nice enough to be upfront about it. She respected him for that, if nothing else.

  “There’s nothing wrong with you. In fact, there’s everything right with you.” His eyes tracked her body, lingering on her breasts before darting back up to her face. He leaned back into the sofa.

  “Sure, they had no problem sampling the goods, but that’s where it ended. That’s why I’m done with casual.” She shook her head.

  Storm looked at her for a while. Eyes locked with hers, he seemed to be thinking things over. Serious for once. “I can understand how your past could make you feel this way. I am who I am though. Don’t take my lack of wanting to commit personally because it has nothing to do with you. If I were to settle down, you would be my type.”

  Jolene choked out a short burst of laughter. It wasn’t the least bit funny though. “Again, I’ve heard it all before. Thing is, I’ve always known what I wanted. I’ve never beaten around the bush when it came to things that mean a lot to me. My own parents divorced when I was really young. I’m an only child. Family has always been lacking in my life. Mom is married to her job and dad is on girlfriend number…” She tried to run through them all in her mind. “I can’t remember. Must be eight or nine. I…” How had this conversation even happened? “I’m not sure why I’m telling you all of this. You’re the enemy.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. We could be friends.” Sincerity shone in his eyes.

  “Friends with bene
fits, I suppose.” She rolled her eyes. Truth was, she was right about the benefits part and it stung. Ultimately, Storm didn’t want to be friends or anything with actual substance. She was there as a booty call. Something to distract him from his boredom.

  “I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to fuck you really badly.” Here we go! He made a groaning noise that she felt low, somewhere in the pit of her stomach. “But we could just be friends. I’m a grown male, capable of controlling my…urges. I like you, Jolene.”

  She wasn't buying the whole friendship thing for a minute. She preferred it when he was straight with her. Better for both of them that way. "Yeah, we could but only if you let me go on my merry way. Better yet, point out a couple of really decent guys…ones you know are keen on a happily-ever-after. Guys who are more my type."

  His eyes darkened and he stood up. One quick move. One second he was slouching on the couch and the next he was standing his full height and pissed. Jaw clenched, hands tight at his sides. Body rigid. “I’m sorry, Jolene.” He shook his head, not sounding sorry in the least. Why did she love it when he said her name? Especially when he used that rasping tone.

  “You’re right.” He looked down at her, those purple orbs piercing into her. “We can’t be friends. I can’t let you go, and I’m not introducing you to anyone else. You're mine until the end of this term, and I'll be damned if I don't spend every second trying to tear off your panties with my fucking teeth."

  Her clit did this zinging thing she felt in the pit of her stomach. Storm had been flippant, teased her, worked hard at pissing her off. He’d been arrogant and downright seductive, but she’d never seen him serious to the point of anger. It was sexy. It shouldn’t be, but it was. She didn’t like how it made her feel, which was hot and flustered. “Um…” Jolene licked her lips and he tracked the movement of her tongue. “Firstly, I’m not some possession. I’m not yours.” There wasn’t much force to her voice, which had turned into a soft purr.