Chapter Nineteen

NATE

After our prolonged absence overnight and this morning, there was no way Alex and I should disappear again for hours. Instead of flying, we went to supper, where I was careful to engage in conversation with everyone around me. It was second nature from the wining and dining of clients I had to do, but I'd let my manners lapse recently in favour of talking to Alex.

Now and then, our eyes met across the table, and I couldn't suppress the smile on my face when they did.

He cornered me after we all adjourned to the drawing room for post-prandial coffee. "Can we get away for a little while?" he said quietly. "There's something I'd like to run past you."

Ella was making directly for us, or rather, for me. "See you at nine at the car," I murmured, turning to greet her with a smile. I was aware of him melting away as I asked her how she'd enjoyed last night and tried desperately to keep my eyes on her face. She was wearing that necklace again, with diamonds sparkling in an exquisite cascade. I ached to touch them.

Before long, Margaret Teague interrupted us. She didn't appear pleased to see me, though her smile at Ella was warm. "Your father tells me you have tomorrow free from lessons. I wondered if you'd like to join me for a girls' spa day."

With Ella safely occupied talking to Margaret, I sat on the sofa to check my phone, removing the security settings as I did so. Casually, I put it down beside me. After a glance around the room to ensure I was unobserved, I stood up and headed to the door.

A swift look back confirmed that my phone was clearly in view, and no one was trying to get my attention to let me know. And now, I was going to have time with Alex. Everything was working out perfectly.

At the car, Alex greeted me with a long, deep kiss that drove away the autumn chill. "So where are we going?" he asked, when he finally released my mouth.

"The park and ride car park."

Laughter dawned in his eyes.

"I know it's not exactly romantic, but it's close and we only need somewhere we can talk in private." Somewhere that wasn't sitting in a garage, which would have felt sad as hell, and that was dark enough to kiss some more without worrying about passing Neanderthals reacting to the gays.

It turned out to be a little too dark in the secluded corner I chose. I put the overhead light on so I could see Alex. "What did you want to run past me?"

He told me his idea about James's ambitions. "You know the other major banking families and the state of their relationships with the Fortescues, so I thought you'd have a feel if it's likely."

"It makes no sense to me. He'd have put offside all the other rich, powerful families who could back him. Why would he do that?"

"Why did Napoleon invade Russia?" Alex asked.

"I have no idea."

"Actually, I'm not sure, either," he confessed. "My point is that, possibly, he's being driven by pure ego, and no one dares to point out the flaws in his plan because he's so powerful and autocratic."

I thought for a while. Alex's idea didn't seem likely, but there had to be some reason James hadn't yet made a firm proposal to Margaret. "I'll mention it to Bim," I said. "Just in case." I reached for my phone and swore when it wasn't there.

"You can use mine," Alex offered.

"I could, but I don't know his number."

"In that case, is there anything else we could do to make use of this handy dark corner you've found for us?"

It was only supposed to be kissing. I'd thought that, after this morning, my dick wouldn't have had the energy to go again. When Alex's tongue slid against mine, I realised how wrong I'd been.

It started as a hand job, but feeling the smooth heat of Alex's cock, so full and heavy, I thought fuck it and contorted myself over the central console. I loved the way he filled my mouth, I loved the way his hands twined tightly in my hair as he moved restlessly under my attentions, and I loved the sounds he made as he got close. It felt so good to give him this. After he came, he was utterly loose-limbed, eyes dazed as if he didn't know where he was.

I was hard as hell after that, and when he encouraged me to slide my seat back and unzipped me, his hand slipping inside my jeans to touch me, I moaned with the promise of it. The promise was nothing to the feel of his hot, slick mouth moving on me. My orgasm was steadily building, and then I looked down and saw Alex's dark head, and that was it. I finished with a suddenness that took us both by surprise.

He laughed, once he stopped choking. "Guess you needed that."

What I'd needed was him. I didn't know how to tell him, not without sounding clingy. "We should probably get back," I said instead, zipping myself up.

"It really is like being teenagers again," he said.

I wanted to kiss him, but time was passing, and a late return to the house might raise questions after our joint absence last night. Especially after Mrs Fortescue had asked me to spend more time with Charlie.

I'd almost forgotten about that, and as I put my seatbelt back on, I told Alex about her request. "If I don't do what she wants, I'll be politely informed that I've outstayed my welcome," I said. "On the positive side, I might learn something. Charlie doesn't seem to know about James's plans, but there might be things he knows that he doesn't know he knows, if you know what I mean."

"You lost me at the third ‘know'," Alex said. "Why does she want you to babysit?"

"I don't think there's a particular reason why it's me. She's desperate for anything that will make Charlie spend more time at home. At some point, she'll have to face the fact he's a grown man, and let him go."

Alex was quiet during the short ride back to where I kept the car. Before he climbed out, he kissed me again. His kisses were heady, exciting, and had a lingering warmth like nothing I'd known. I didn't think I'd ever want to stop kissing Alex Teague.

ALEX

I scarcely saw Nate the following day. He said he needed to read up on the Fortescues' bank and clients for his Zurich trip. The disappointment I felt was out of all proportion to the news, though it eased when he asked if I wanted go flying that night.

"Make it swimming, and you've got a deal," I told him.

His brows drew together as he looked at me. "Don't you need to fly? I have to get into the sky at least once a week."

"Swimming's like that for me," I said. I wasn't going to tell him why. He was Nate, with all the good things that came with that, but he was still a dragon. "Tonight." I leaned forward and kissed him. "Can't wait."

I hadn't realised how accustomed I'd come to Nate's presence filling my days. Bath, I found, wasn't half as much fun without Nate's ready laughter and the warmth that flowed through me every time our eyes met.

I ended up in our usual coffee shop because I'm that sad. "All on your own today, lovely?" Sheila greeted me, and I had to bite back an acidic comment about her observational skills.

By the time evening had fallen and we were by the river, my dragon was practically squirming out of my skin. I needed exercise. I needed freedom. And, it turned out, I needed Nate.

Our time in the hotel room had been so good that I didn't care anymore about the possibility of nosy farmers investigating the source of lights and sounds. Neither did Nate, it seemed. He fucked me, and the feel of him, over me and in me, almost destroyed me. He was merciless in his determination to get me to come before he did, tantalisingly slow strokes of his cock deep inside me until I couldn't think of anything except the next time he'd push in. No one had ever fucked me the way he did.

I came first—the way he was concentrating on my pleasure meant I didn't have a choice in the matter—and when he came, it was with a garbled shout that startled the cows in the next field. He collapsed onto me afterwards, and I held him, treasuring this closeness.

He pressed kisses onto my skin, murmuring delightedly as he did so. He was a more vocal lover than any I'd had before, and I loved it. No need to guess if he was enjoying himself or if he found pleasure in me.

He didn't even complain that I fell asleep again. It was a bad habit of mine and one that some guys took personally. I couldn't help it—I'd always been that way.

When I woke, he propped himself up on an elbow. "If we're going to fly, we'd better go now. It's getting late."

I wanted to continue lying there, holding him and kissing him. He was right, though. After all the time we spent cooped up in that house, guarding every word and every look, both my dragon and I needed freedom. "I could do with a swim," I confessed.

"Are you sure you don't want to fly?" he asked. "I'd love to fly with you."

His gaze was frank and open, longing in his eyes. There can be something almost unbearably intimate about flying with a dragon lover. Or so I'm told—I've never experienced it.

"I don't fly," I confessed.

His jaw dropped. "What, never? I mean, you have flown, haven't you?" I could practically see his thought process. "I'm sorry—of course, you're part human, and I'm afraid I forgot that."

He was embarrassed, but my heart soared. He didn't think of me as lesser.

"Is that why… Are you physically unable to fly?"

I took his hand and turned it over in mine, examining it. I needed to touch and have that closeness with him, but I couldn't look at him. Could I tell him? It was my most fiercely guarded secret. One that very few people in my life had ever known because I knew how other dragons would react.

If I didn't tell him, we could continue this amazing thing between us. If I told him, and he laughed at me or despised me, everything would be over. But if I told him, and he didn't laugh at me, he'd know me completely, and that prospect was both terrifying and agonisingly tempting.

"I'm scared of heights," I said to his hand.

He stiffened for an instant, and I closed my eyes. There was no unsaying it.

"That's more rational than my fear of spiders," he said.

I dared to look at him. He reached out a hand, tilted my chin up, and he kissed me. So gently, until my heart hurt with how much I loved him.

NATE

When Alex confessed his fear, all I could think was how grateful I was for having grown up with Rufus, who habitually came out with the most unexpected and inappropriate statements. It meant I could control my instinctive desire to laugh at the ridiculousness of a dragon being scared of heights

When I saw how his head was bowed and his throat was bobbing, my urge to laugh fled. For him, this was a deep, dark secret. That he had trusted me with something so painful…

I didn't fly that night. Instead, I swam with Alex, keeping as close to him as possible after he'd made himself so vulnerable. I needed him to know the only thing his confession had changed was that I cared for him even more.

Something told me Alex was too raw for the usual playfulness of our swims. I'm not sure if it was me or my dragon who thought of it first, but it was entirely natural to twine my neck around his, to push gently against his side, to place my wing over him and let the current take us. An underwater approximation of a lovers' flight.

Once we were out of the water, I was tempted to suggest getting a hotel room again. I wanted to be with Alex, to hold him, to love him. But this damn investigation meant we still had to pretend we were nothing more than friends, so we headed back to the house I was growing to hate.

*

Steven met us at the top of the stairs, planted four-square in our way.

"You told me you're available," he accused Alex. "Yet you're sneaking off with a Mortimer behind our backs."

"Nate and I went flying while the others were doing their socialising. That's all."

"Is Charlie around?" I asked Steven.

His glare could have melted steel. "What the fuck are you doing here, Nate? No one wants you here. Fuck off back to London."

"Is Charlie around?" I repeated as if he hadn't spoken, and Steven's fists clenched.

"Oh, there you are, Alex." Mrs Fortescue appeared in the drawing room doorway. I couldn't tell how much, if anything, she'd overheard. "Come and join us. Charlie's upstairs, Nate."

Summarily dismissed, I headed upstairs, ignoring Steven. I hoped Charlie wouldn't simply kick me out when he saw me. I wanted to be able to stay here and spend more time with Alex. Tonight had been magical.

I couldn't wait for more times like that with him.

ALEX

Giving Steven a sunny smile, I stepped past him towards the drawing room. I glanced back on reaching the doorway. The way Steven was glaring after Nate…Perhaps I should be watching Nate's back a little more closely.

"Ella, this is Alex." Mrs Fortescue introduced us. "He's Margaret's heir."

Ella looked pale and her mouth had a mutinous set to it. "Yes, I know," she said frostily. "He thinks Jane Austen gave random blowjobs."

Mrs Fortescue's laugh was the falsest thing I'd ever heard. "Yes, well, I'm sure he was only joking, and you know better than to repeat that sort of language, Ella. I'll leave the two of you to become better acquainted."

With that, she left the strangely empty drawing room and firmly shut the door behind her. Bloody hell—I hadn't thought they'd be thiseager, let alone obvious.

"I'm not going to marry you," Ella said.

"Thank God for that."

Her gaze rested on my face, assessing. She must have seen the sincerity in me because she relaxed. "Oh, for heaven's sake." She threw herself down in an armchair, long legs stretched before her. "It's like living in medieval times, where a woman's value is all about who she can be married off to and how many kids she can birth. Where's Nate?"

"He went looking for Charlie," I told her. About to retreat from this stupid situation, I hesitated. Margaret had planned to talk to James today and might have discussed a possible arrangement between me and Ella. I shouldn't do anything decisive until I knew the game she was playing.

"Look, your mother obviously wants us to get to know one another, and honestly, as we're going to be some of the leaders of the next generation, it's not a bad idea," I said, trying to believe it myself. "How about opening a bottle of something and playing truth or dare?"

Her brow creased in suspicion.

"I'm not trying to get you drunk. I really don't want to sleep with you," I told her.

"I never thought I'd be so relieved to hear a guy say that. Get whatever you want from behind the bar. I'll have vodka."

It took a while, but a few drinks later, and some confessions that I suspected were on both sides chosen carefully so as not to reveal anything personal about ourselves, we were laughing together.

Mrs Fortescue tapped on the door before opening it. Did she really think I'd already be impregnating her precious daughter? She smiled as she saw both of us stretched out in our chairs, relaxed and chatting.

I took the opportunity to bolt, muttering something about a shower. On my way up to my bedroom, I texted Margaret, leaving her in no doubt that I wanted an explanation for what had just happened.