Burned (Drake Security #5)

Chapter 16

Chapter

Sixteen

LORD

A lrick stirring in my arms coaxes me back to awareness. I was snoozing blissfully, lost in a fantasy that all of this is my forever and Alrick will never leave me. My knot finally subsided, but we stayed tucked together, my soft cock resting against his supple ass, twitching with the need to claim him again that way, but we gave in to our exhaustion and slept peacefully on a soft bed.

Alrick groans. “I have to pee, but I’m so comfortable.”

Chuckling, I kiss the back of his neck. “I’ll keep your spot warm.”

He hums happily. “Deal. Be right back.”

I watch him slide out of bed and cross the large hotel room to the bathroom, admiring his muscular physique and miles of smooth skin. He scratches the back of his head, tossing his gorgeous hair around as he disappears from my view.

My dragon purrs with contentment neither of us have experienced until now. I’d try to reason with him, but I refuse to break the fantasy. We have a few more days of solace and I plan to take full advantage of them.

The toilet flushes and water runs for minute before Alrick reappears, smiling as he saunters over to me. He presents a warm, soapy cloth and proceeds to wash my torso and cock. As I hold his gaze, I see visions of a future I never thought possible. Gods of fire, I want to keep him.

His breath catches as his gaze softens. “I do too.”

“What?”

“Want this. I felt…” He blows out a breath with a smile. “I felt you.”

I nod, forcing a smile that threatens to break under the knowledge that it’s impossible to keep what we have.

“Or is it your dragon I feel?”

“Both.” I lift his hand and kiss his palm. “You must be hungry.”

“Starving.”

“Let’s order food. We could both use a good meal.”

Alrick nods, climbing back into bed with me while I lift the phone receiver and proceed to order everything they have on the menu. Alrick laughs.

“You’re going to spoil me.”

“I’d love to. Has anyone ever taken care of you?”

His smile fades as he shakes his head. “Not in the way you mean. My dad provided for our basic needs, but creature comforts are for the weak. That’s what he always said. Vikings are tough. He raised us in the tradition of our ancestors.”

I reach up and stroke a lock of his hair. “Does he show affection?”

Alrick scoffs. “I doubt he even knows what that means. I think he loves us on some level. Maybe. Mostly he sees us as an army. If my mother hadn’t died, I’m sure he would’ve had more kids.”

“He never remarried?”

“No. If he ever knew love it was all for my mother. He shifted his focus to the war, as he calls it. I spent years of my youth wondering how different our family could’ve been if she’d lived. Would she have hugged us and told us bedtime stories? Would she have baked us cookies and mussed our hair as we told her about our day? Would she have given me the love and affection I so desperately needed?”

My dragon huffs with displeasure at our mate’s sadness.

“Eventually I stopped torturing myself with fantasies that could never be. I had to accept the reality of my life.”

“I’m sorry.”

Alrick nods. “It’s okay. I’ve learned to deal with it. Are your parents alive?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about them. Tell me about your family.”

I stroke my thumb across the back of his hand. “We visit our parents at least once a year. Given our long lives, dragon parents tend to produce many clutches. Mine is the third of four. We have a set of younger siblings and two older, but the age differences are vast, so we don’t see each other often. Clutches tend to stay in close proximity to each other throughout their lives, and mine is particularly close. We’ve always lived and worked together.”

“What kind of work?”

“Whatever is suitable for the time period. We’ve been everything from blacksmiths to pub owners to the security firm we now run. It keeps us busy and provides a solid income.”

Alrick bites his bottom lip. “Are your parents affectionate?”

“My mother is. She’s very doting, as is the norm for a dragon mother. My father is warm and caring, but more stoic.”

“Like you.”

I chuckle. “It’s been said I take after him a great deal.”

We pause when the knock on the door comes. Alrick is up before I have a chance, grabbing a towel to cover his nudity and hurrying to answer the door. Several attendants wheel in carts packed with food from appetizers to desserts, and a final cart filled with a variety of beverages. While they set things up, I also cover myself and get my wallet to give a hefty tip to each server. Alrick watches me with pure awe etched across his features when I launch into French, conversing with the staff about the food options and praising them for the beauty of it all. Once they leave, Alrick crosses the space between us. I tilt my head as he searches my eyes.

“You’re so sexy, Lord. You fascinate me.”

“Because I speak French?”

He shakes his head. “All of it. Even the way you treated them like equals.”

“They are.”

“Not in my family. I’m ashamed of how I was raised. My dad looks down on people he perceives as beneath us. He has so many ideas of who deserves to live and die.”

“But that’s not who you are.” I cup his face. “Your heart is good, your soul pure. I see it. You’re not like your father.”

He shakes his head. “I’m not. That’s the problem.” He twists away, focusing on the food, so I give him a moment to process what he’s feeling.

“Choose whatever you like first. I’m not picky.”

He looks over the options and chooses a burger topped with foie gras. I select the steak frites, stuffed mushrooms, and lobster bites. Alrick grins, choosing two more dishes—bacon-wrapped shrimp and braised short ribs with polenta. We sit at the table with our meals between us.

“I’ve never seen so much at once. We eat simple meals at the compound.”

“Like?”

“Steak. Venison. Bread. Nothing fancy. Do you eat like this often?”

“Not to this extent, but I enjoy my meals. I’m a dragon. We seek pleasure in everything we do.”

He nods, chewing on a piece of shrimp. “Have you been in love before?”

His question catches me off guard. “No. I was too busy to look for love. I’ve had my share of bed partners for a time, but not in recent memory.”

“Why?”

“Busy. My brothers required a lot of oversight in our youth. I was more fulfilled by taking care of them.”

“Who takes care of you, Lord?”

I pop a mushroom into my mouth to avoid the question, but Alrick doesn’t break his sensual, inquisitive gaze.

“I suppose no one,” I finally admit. “I don’t need it though.”

“Everyone needs it. We just convince ourselves we don’t. Some of us like to be the caretaker, but even the strongest people need a soft place to land sometimes.”

A quiet pining I thought was long suppressed bubbles softly in my chest. My dragon purrs, and Alrick—oh, this beautiful man—he moans softly.

“I knew it,” he whispers. “You want that too.”

“I stopped wanting it decades ago when it seemed too elusive. I focused my energy on building an incredible life for me and my brothers, and it’s been amazing.”

“But?”

I shift my attention to my meal, afraid to say what I hardly admit to myself. Could I tell him?

“Lord, you can trust me.”

“I know. It’s not a matter of trust.”

“What is it then?”

“I’ll admit I’m hesitant to voice my deepest fears.”

Alrick reaches across the table and puts his hand over mine. “I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

As I focus on his eyes, something in them unlocks the words. “I’ve often feared that fate has passed me by. My brothers have each found their one true love, but I’ve never even come close.”

“How do you know that?”

“We just know. Like I explained before, it’s innate. When we meet the one…” My words test my own intentions not to divulge what I’ve done to us.

He squeezes my hand. “Tell me.”

The desire to tell him is stronger than my self-preservation, and even as I try to choke the words down, my dragon quickly overrides me.

Gods, help me.

ALRICK

“Lord. Please.”

The look on his face has me desperate to hear what he’s holding back. I don’t know how I know, but it’s clear it has something to do with me.

He nods, setting his fork down and clasping his hands together tightly. “I told you about my brothers and their mates. A fated mate is a soul out there in this vast world intended just for us. Someone we will love above all others for the rest of our very long lives.”

His explanation swirls in my chest, spreading a pleasant warmth. It feels so different from the first discussion we had about mates. How…?

“My brothers have found theirs. All of them, from Nico to Valentino. It’s only me left… unmated.”

I’m aware of how he hesitated on the last word. Unmated . “Does it usually happen at a certain age?”

“No. We’re never aware in advance that it will happen, only when it does.”

“How do you know? You said it’s innate, but what does that mean exactly?”

“Our dragon knows, often before the man does. It’s an instinct that drives us to that person.”

Lord’s emotions are absolute chaos right now, swinging from wistfulness to anger to something that feels a lot like guilt.

“You want one? A mate?” I remember his confession in the bathtub earlier about how he always dreamed of having a mate. Jealousy swirls in my gut.

He returns to eating, dragging out the pause before looking up at me. It’s the dragon gazing at me, and my stomach flutters in response.

“I haven’t allowed it for so long that I’d convinced myself it wasn’t important to me anymore. My brothers’ happiness was all that mattered. I figured fate had a reason for skipping me. One I would learn in due time.”

“What do you believe now?”

The air between us suddenly smells smoky as Lord releases a hazy breath. His brow creases as his jaw ticks. He focuses on cutting his steak until I reach across the table and put my hand over his, drawing his eyes to me.

“Talk to me, Lord.”

His eyes flicker between his own and the dragon until he finally offers a curt nod. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Okay. Then what do you want?”

When he doesn’t answer and only continues to hold my gaze, I fill the silence.

“Because I’ll admit, I want this. Right now. I want to stay here locked in this pretty room with a beautiful man who makes me feel things I never have before. I want to learn all your secrets and desires and make you feel good.”

“It’s impossible. We both know it.”

“I don’t know anything anymore. I’m relearning everything I was taught to believe. You make me want this impossible life.”

“We… could lose everything, Alrick. Is this worth it?”

I scoff. “What am I losing? A life I never wanted. A life that isn’t my own. My dad would probably be happy to never see my face again.”

Lord doesn’t say anything.

“Your brothers wouldn’t disown you. I know that somehow. They love you.” My voice cracks. “They respect you.”

Lord rubs his sternum as his eyes go glassy. “How do you know that?”

I shrug. “Maybe the dragon knows. I feel it.”

“Alrick, treasure, beautiful man. Your people kill my kind. How do we reconcile that?”

“Dragons have killed many innocent people in history, but I don’t view you in the same light. I’ve never killed a dragon, and I never will. Why do you think you found me the way you did? Because I wouldn’t strike. I couldn’t.”

Admitting this, even to myself, used to taste bitter on my tongue, but right now, it feels liberating. “I don’t want to be a hunter. There’s only one way I can avoid it.”

“You would have to leave your family.”

I nod, leaning back in my chair. “My dad wouldn’t allow me to stay anyway. Honestly, Lord, when you found me, all I wanted to do was get well enough to go back to them, but now I’ve had a taste of what a real life feels like. I don’t know if I could go back.”

“Alrick, do you hear what you’re saying?”

“Loud and clear.” I drag a hand through my hair, the weight of my words settling in my chest, but instead of feeling heavy, I’m lighter than I ever have been. “I’m not asking you to keep me if that’s not what you want. If you still want to hold out for this fated mate, I get it.”

He leans across the table toward me. “But?”

“But if you want to keep me a little longer, I want to stay. I want to stay in this make-believe world where there’s nothing keeping us apart. I want to soar over the Eiffel Tower on the back of a magnificent dragon, and I want to worship every inch of your skin. I want to take care of you, Lord, and make you feel as good as you make me feel. Even if it’s just temporary. When it’s over, I’ll go if that’s what you want. Just please let me have this a little longer.”

“Gods, Alrick, I don’t want you to leave. If you think this isn’t what I want too, you’re not paying attention.”

Smiling, I huff a laugh and blink back tears that threaten to fall. “Take me back to bed. Let’s feed each other crème br?lée and pretend this is forever.”

Lord nods, rising slowly. His eyes heat and scales flicker across his chest and arms.

“Gorgeous,” I whisper, taking his offered hand.

“Yes, you are.” He pulls me into him until our chests are touching. “My Viking.”

“My dragon.”

The words feel so right and true that my breath hitches. Lord’s dragon peeks through as a tendril of smoke swirls from his nose.

“Does he have a name?”

“It’s my true name.”

“Balriss.”

Lord’s eyelids flutter. “Yes. Say it again.”

I slide my hand across his neck to the back. “Balriss. Beautiful dragon. Gorgeous man. Take me apart again.”

He scoops me off my feet like I weigh nothing, carrying me back to the bed. As he climbs in to join me, laying his body across mine, I wrap my arms around his neck and hold his dragon’s gaze.

I don’t know exactly how yet, but there’s no way I’m going back to the life I had before Lord. If I can figure out how to get him to keep me, everything I’ll lose in the process will be worth it.

At least, I hope it will.