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  The moment he’d said what he had, about his kisses eventually reaching “a certain sensitive spot,” a certain sensitive spot between my now-slick pussy lips had begun tingling in anticipation; I realized that, despite having never jumped into bed with a man so quickly, I was just going to give in, and I was going to like it. I was probably even going to love it. Particularly if Mason was skilled enough at full-body “kissing” to bring me to one of those powerful orgasms he’d been talking about the day before.

  Having made up my mind, I smiled at Mason, wrapping my arms around his neck. “All right. Go ahead and take me to my bedroom.” Right after saying this, I giggled, realizing how comically slurred my speech had become. “Whoa. I guess that might have come out in a tongue-tied sort of way. Just in case you didn’t get that, I just want to make it clear that I was asking you to take me to my bedroom.”

  My speech was actually becoming further slurred the more I spoke, as all the wine I’d had continued to enter my bloodstream.

  Grinning in response to my clarification, Mason rose from his chair with me in his arms. “Whatever you want, baby. Let’s go to your bedroom. Come on, Alex.”

  I giggled again, this time not because of my intoxication, but in anticipation of what was soon to come.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Alex, who’d been watching me and Mason silently, rose from his chair as well. “Hey. Hold up. Let’s just slow things down a minute here, Mason. I think Kira has had too much wine, too fast, and on too empty of a stomach to be doing any agreeing about going into her bedroom. I suggest we heat up some dinner for her first and all just relax and eat for a bit while she gets something in her stomach and has something to drink other than wine. Then, if we all feel like it, we can revisit the bedroom issue.”

  Suddenly mad, and more than a little bit, I turned my gaze from Alex to Mason. “Please set me down on my feet. I’m going to give Alex a piece of my mind.”

  Mason instantly did as I’d asked, setting me on my feet. Immediately, the room seemed to spin around me, but just for a second or two, and I somehow managed to remain upright. I also managed to fold my arms across my chest while glaring at Alex, with the act of doing these two things simultaneously seeming to require more coordination that it should have.

  “You, Alex. Don’t you dare try to imply that I’ve had too much to drink.” Immediately realizing that I’d slurred my words so badly that the word drink had come out as rink, I tried again. “Drink. That’s what I meant to say. Don’t you dare try to imply that I’ve had too much to drink.” Realizing that I’d messed up once again, saying mush instead of much, I took a deep breath, miles beyond irritated with myself. “See, Alex? See what you’re making me do? You’re making me mess up my words, because of what you said. So, just listen to me right now. Just shut up and listen. Don’t you dare try to tell me how much I’ve had to drink, and don’t you even dare try to imply that I haven’t had too much or not enough. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “No. Think about what you just said. How dare I try to imply that you ‘haven’t had too much’ alcohol or ‘not enough?’ You’re not even making sense anymore.”

  Dizzy with anger from Alex’s stern response, on top of how dizzy I’d already been just from standing, I suddenly began swaying on my feet. I might have fallen over, but he immediately caught me in his strong arms and set me down in my chair.

  “All right. That’s it. You’re officially cut off from wine and all other forms of alcohol for the rest of the night, Kira. Mason and I are going to go heat up some dinner, and in the meantime, you’re just going to sit here at the table and relax. Do you understand me?”

  Looking up at Alex where he was standing beside my chair, I suddenly felt like a chastised child who’d been caught doing something naughty. Which seemed like it should have made me mad. It seemed like it actually should have made me livid. However, for some strange reason, I just found myself nodding in response to what Alex had said.

  “Yes. I understand you.”

  “Good. Now, just sit tight, and we’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  After he’d grabbed the wine and whiskey bottles from the table, he and Mason left the dining room, leaving me all alone.

  However, not even half a minute later, Alex returned, bearing two dinner rolls, one wheat and one white, on a little plate, which he set in front of me. “Here. Try to nibble on something while you’re waiting.”

  Feeling somehow like a chastised child again, I snorted. “No, you nibble on something while you’re waiting.”

  I knew that I now was literally acting like a child, but I’d found it impossible to stop myself.

  In response to my immature behavior, Alex gave me a stern look. “No, Kira. No more sass. Or else I will soon take you in your bedroom, but only to sit you in the corner for a time-out because, frankly, you're acting like a complete brat. Have I made myself clear?”

  For the second time, I found myself just nodding at him for some weird reason. “Yes. You’ve made yourself clear.”

  “Good.”

  After giving me something that resembled a stern look of warning, Alex turned to leave the dining room again. With my breathing and heartbeat accelerating, I watched him as he left, taking in his long legs, his tight rear, and his powerful, broad shoulders. I only turned back to the table and the rolls he’d brought me once he’d completely disappeared from my view.

  In the glow from the lamps, the chandelier, and the twin taper candles, I began eating one of the rolls, realizing that I had drunk my three glasses of wine pretty fast. Not to mention that I hadn’t had anything to eat since having a pretty light lunch, which had been a good seven hours earlier. I knew I really should have been a little more aware of exactly how much I was drinking, and how fast I was drinking, especially since I’d always been kind of a lightweight when it came to alcohol. However, with Mason making so many suggestive jokes, my mind had of course been on other things.

  When I was chewing the last bite of my roll, I realized that I’d maybe begun to sober up a bit already, just in the three or four minutes or so since I’d started eating. I also realized something else. Although he was certainly commanding and stern, Alex wasn’t exactly behaving like someone I would never want a relationship with. In fact, I was starting to find him even more attractive than the day before, despite the fact that we didn’t seem to be a personality match.

  I was also becoming increasingly endeared to Mason the longer I spent time with him. Even though he seemed to have no issues with taking very intoxicated women to bed, there was some kind of warmth about him that struck me as irresistibly sincere.

  He and Alex soon returned from the kitchen and began putting plates full of hot food on the table. Alex set my plate of food in front of me, along with a linen napkin and some silverware, telling me to enjoy.

  Still tipsy, I just stared at the food in front of me for a moment with my head slightly spinning. Then, I looked up at Alex, suddenly feeling some extremely strange mix of confusion, anger, and melancholy. “Why would you serve me this?”

  He frowned. “Because it’s time for dinner…and because you also need to get something substantial in your stomach to help sober you up.”

  “But…why this particular food?”

  Seeming not to notice my emotional upheaval, Alex frowned even harder. “It’s delicious. It was made by the commander’s private chef.”

  With a little wave of nausea, I looked at my dinner plate, which contained a bacon-wrapped chicken breast, whole green beans with slivered almonds, and wild rice pilaf. Bacon-wrapped chicken breast had been one of my mom’s signature dishes, which she made fairly frequently because my dad and I had liked it so much. Sometimes, when we were feeling extremely decadent, she’d add cheese inside the chicken breast for a little extra deliciousness. She’d done this for my dad’s last birthday meal, which had been the night before he and my mom had been killed in a car accident. It had been the last meal we’d ever shared together as a
family. Since then, I hadn’t been able to make her special signature dish, let alone think about eating it without her and my dad.

  In my still-intoxicated state, and with my memories seeming to take over my brain, I was becoming miles beyond confused, and miles beyond sad and angry too. For whatever odd reason, all I could think about was that Alex must have requested that the chef make bacon-wrapped chicken as some kind of a sick joke. I knew this was quite a paranoid thought. I knew it was maybe even a crazy thought. Just the same, though, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking it.

  Before I really even knew what I was doing, I suddenly flew up from my chair and turned to face Alex. “How could you do this to me?”

  Looking absolutely perplexed, he frowned at me. “Look. Whatever ‘this’ is, just know that it wasn’t intentional.”

  Not convinced at all, I snorted, folding my arms across my chest. “Sure, it wasn’t. You know, you can drop the act, Alex. I'm not buying it even a little bit. You had to have done this on purpose; I just know it. You had the chef make bacon-wrapped chicken for some kind of a sick joke, just because for whatever sick reason, you wanted to remind me of my mom’s special dish, and you wanted to remind me that she and my dad are dead, and they’re never coming back. Please don’t even try to deny it.”

  Alex frowned even harder, furrowing his dark brows. “Look. I'm really sorry, Kira. I didn’t mean to remind you of anything sad, and I didn’t mean to make you upset. I didn’t even tell the chef to make anything specific. I think I just requested ‘a nice dinner,’ and when he asked what you like or if you have any food allergies, I just said, ‘I have no idea.’ I know so little about you that I didn’t even have a clue that your parents are deceased. I’m very sorry to hear that now.”

  Alex’s expression was one of complete sincerity, and I might have accepted that he was telling me the truth. However, my mind was still too clouded by alcohol to allow me to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  Ignoring what he had said, I practically spat my next words at him. “Sorry, but I’m afraid I’m just not convinced. You setting a plate with bacon-wrapped chicken in front of me is just too big of a coincidence for it to not somehow be intentional.”

  Alex snorted. “You really think bacon-wrapped chicken is that obscure of a dish? I can think of three restaurants here in the city that serve it, and the wife of a friend of mine makes it for his birthday meal every single year.”

  “Oh, I’m aware that some people like it for a birthday meal. It was my dad’s last birthday meal, which my mom and I ate with him the day before they were killed in a car accident. There were still even leftovers in the fridge at the time, and I left them in there until they literally started rotting, just because I knew that once I threw them out, I’d never have any of my mom’s cooking in the fridge ever again. It was just kind of a comfort thing; I don’t know.”

  I hadn’t even realized that my eyes had begun misting up, but now a hot tear slid down my face, and I impatiently wiped it away.

  “Anyway, Alex…forget the whole thing with the chicken. It doesn’t even matter. All that does matter is that I just don’t trust you. All that does matter is that I can’t help but feel like you have something against me, just because you’ve been acting so cold and strange to me all day.”

  Alex opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.

  “No, please just don’t. Please just don’t say anything. I’m done talking, and I’m done thinking. I just want to go to sleep, to be honest. So, you and Mason, too...please just leave. Please just leave my apartment and please just leave me the hell alone.”

  Alex, who’d been standing silently, just looking at me, now spoke in a low, measured voice. “I think you have the right idea about just going to sleep, and Mason and I will leave you to it right now, because alcohol clearly makes you paranoid and angry. Goodnight, Kira. I hope you wake up tomorrow completely sober, if not for your own sake, for Mason’s and mine.”

  With that, he began striding out of the dining room, and Mason followed after a mumbled goodnight, frowning.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Mason and Alex hadn’t been gone more than a few minutes when I realized I’d made a huge mistake. Just as suddenly as my little fit of anger and paranoia had come on, it had seemed to leave me, along with the confusing tangle of emotions I’d been experiencing. Sitting down at the dining room table, I realized that whatever strange thing had come over me, whether it had been caused by all the wine, the stress of the previous day, or a combination of both those things, it had caused me to really lose my mind for a minute.

  In a way, I really couldn’t blame myself. And maybe my behavior had even been the result of subconscious resentment toward the commander. After all, as magnanimous as he seemed, he had still put me in a position of doing what he wanted or else facing prison time. However, I had to admit as I ate the rice and green beans off my plate of dinner mechanically, without really even tasting anything, it still wasn’t fair to take out any subconscious resentment on Alex. In fact, the thought that he had ordered the entrée of our meal as some sort of a sick joke seemed more than a bit silly to me now. It definitely seemed paranoid. Alex had been right on the mark about that.

  Even though part of me now felt like calling Alex and asking him and Mason to come back to my apartment so that I could apologize, I was too tired to do any more talking or serious thinking. Considering the insomnia I’d suffered with the night before, I needed sleep. Apologies could come later.

  The next morning, after another night of restless sleep, I showered and dressed a little earlier than usual, wondering if Alex and Mason might come by for a morning visit. However, when Sheila came by around eight, I wondered if I’d ever even see them again.

  Sheila came inside my apartment, held my door wide open, and then gestured to the hallway. “Go ahead and leave, if you’d like. The commander is cutting you loose.”

  Confused and a bit horrified, I stared at Sheila. “He’s what?”

  “He’s letting you go. You can leave now if you’d like.”

  I frowned at her. “Do you mean he’s ‘letting me go,’ as in, letting me go back home, or….”

  I found that I didn’t like this idea nearly as much as I’d thought I would.

  Somewhat to my relief, Sheila shook her head. “No…the commander isn’t letting you go back home. He’s just letting you come and go from the building as you please. Apparently, he’s been told that being cooped up in this apartment might be starting to make you a little crazy. So, go ahead and leave if you want. Do some exploring in the city. Just don’t try any escape attempts. If you do, know that you’ll be caught.”

  Slumping against the wall, I breathed a sigh of very unexpected and strange relief that I wasn’t being sent home and would be seeing Mason and Alex again.

  After taking a deep breath, I nodded at Sheila. “Okay, I definitely do want to get out of here for a while. Just let me grab a few things, and I’ll be on my way out for the day.”

  She took a white envelope from her pocket and handed it to me. “Spending money for the day, in case you need it. It’s an advance on your first month’s salary for staying here. Since you might not know anyone here in the city yet, go to the cafe with the green awning across the street at nine. A young woman named Dana will be waiting for you there. She’ll be your friend and show you around town if you’d like.”

  Without another word, or a ‘have a nice day,’ Sheila left, with her stiletto heels clicking down the hallway.

  My first step out of the apartment felt so good I could have laughed or cried. I hadn’t realized it, but I now knew that being confined to my apartment for just the two days that I had been probably had been making me a little crazy. If it hadn’t been, at least a little, I didn't think being “released” from confinement would have felt half as amazing.

  With my heart and spirits light, I practically skipped down the long, marble-floored hallway to an elevator bay at the end. Then, I hopped in and rode
the elevator down to the ground floor of the building as the only passenger. It was when I stepped out that the stares immediately began.

  Like the hallway, the ground floor of the building was made of solid, dove gray marble. It seemed to be some sort of lobby, with people coming and going from different elevator bays. However, when they caught sight of me, most people stopped what they were doing right away and peered at me intensely, with their eyes full of curiosity. Self-conscious, I began walking briskly, uncomfortable with the attention, until a pretty, slender young woman with short red hair caught up with me, began walking by my side, and said hello to me.

  Maybe overly thrilled to have a female to speak to besides ice queen Sheila, I said hello back to the red-haired young woman with a big smile.

  She smiled in return. “Well, I can see that the rumors are very true. You’re beautiful. And your eyes are just stunning.”

  I slowed my walking to a stop and smiled at her again, a little embarrassed but pleased at the same time. “Thank you for saying that, but...how do you know who I am? I don’t think we’ve met before, have we?”

  She gave me a dazzling grin that made her emerald green eyes sparkle. “No, we haven’t met, but I was told your description, and you’re also the only woman in this building I’ve never seen before. They also told me about your eyes, so that was a bit of a tipoff as well.” Still grinning, the young woman extended a hand to me. “I’m Dana, and I was just heading over to the cafe to meet you. I’ve been enlisted by the commander’s office to show you around town today.”

  I took her hand and shook it. “Oh, I see. Well, it’s really nice to meet you, Dana. I’m Kira…and I’m really happy to be out of my apartment right now. I’ll just say it’s been a long two days in there.”

  Dana laughed, and we soon left the building and headed across the street to the café with the green awning. Just a short while later, we were sitting with plates of breakfast and mugs of steaming coffee, chatting away like we were old friends or something. Bright sunlight streaming in through the plate glass windows of the cafe added to my upbeat mood, as did a few friendly waves and hellos from a few other women sitting nearby, who I guessed knew who I was because of my eyes. Apparently, even in a city the size of New Detroit, word traveled fast when it came to happenings within the commander’s tower.