When Time Stops: Dragon Shifter Surprise Pregnancy Romance (10 page)

“
O
kay
, so let’s play this right then,” Aeon said, jumping up on his feet and extending a hand to Isobel.

She looked at it with a quirked brow but took it regardless, standing up as well.

“What are you plotting?”

“I’ve decided to make the best with what we have to work with.”

Gently but firmly, he led her by the hand to the dinner table. Her touch against his skin was just as magnetic as it had been the first time and his dragon roiled and rumbled within him. It was pure pleasure and Aeon wouldn’t mistake it for anything else.

As much as it pained him to admit it, he was pretty damn sure that even though he had set off on this year of ‘adventure’ with firm plans to do nothing other than work, he was willing to throw all that to the wind it if meant getting to spend more time with her. Time which awkwardly enough seemed to constantly be running out on him.

He pulled out the seat for her and she sat down, wearing a slightly confused and equally as bemused look on her face. Smoothly, Aeon looked under the covers to find the appetizers and set a plate of salad before her and then one for himself as well. He lifted the champagne from the cooler, giving it an appreciative look before holding it up for Isobel.

“Champagne?”

“Can we go without tonight?”

“My thoughts exactly,” he said with a note of relief he hadn’t expected to be coming.

Aeon took his seat, fussing around maybe a bit too much in a flailing effort to hide his nervousness. He leaned his elbows on the table and met Isobel’s gaze. In the flicker of the candlelight, she looked like an angel.

An angel meant for him.

Once again, he had to bat that thought away. It was too convenient, in a way. It couldn’t be her, right? Dragons were some of the most notoriously lonesome shifters in the world, partially because they rarely left their hoards, and partially because they simply were not that sociable. Many of them never found a mate and the ones that did often picked them up from the tournaments, at least in Europe.

The idea that Aeon would stumble on his fated on almost the first night he was driven from the castle was preposterous. But then again, wasn’t fate
supposed
to work in slightly loopy ways?

“So, my name is Aeon Prevoir. Pleased to meet you,” he started, grinning mischievously.

“Isobel Evans,” she met him sharply, not missing a beat. “I’m from California, here on a… well, I guess you could call it a ‘vacation’.”

Isobel made air-quotes around vacation, rolling her eyes a little. Aeon smirked, stabbing his salad with a lack of appetite that was entirely driven by the sexy creature in front of him.

“And how’s it working out for you so far, Isobel?”

“Well, I have to be honest with you, I’m feeling a tiny bit confined.”

Both of them grinned and Aeon could feel himself relaxing slightly. She truly was a remarkable woman, keeping her spirits up like that in the face of all that had happened to her lately. He wasn’t sure if he could do the same, had he found himself in an equally impossible conundrum.

Shaking his head a little, he brushed those thoughts away. This was supposed to be a fresh start and dammit, he was going to play it like one. No matter what the outcome.

“At least the view’s nice,” he offered, keeping his eyes on her.

Isobel glanced to the windows to their left for a moment, before realization hit her. She blushed in the cutest way, flicking her eyes down to her food for a moment. When she cleared her voice, Aeon was feeling pretty damn smug, in the best way possible, of course.

“You could say that. I can’t argue with it.”

“So tell me about yourself,” Aeon continued, having to force himself to take a few bites of food every now and then to at least keep up airs that he could multi-task when in Isobel’s company.

“Which version do you want? The embarrassing one or the one that makes me look like super woman?” she asked flatly, munching on a cherry tomato.

“Whichever one’s the true one.”

“Okay,” Isobel said, setting down the fork and leaning forward in a conspiratory way. “Well, I work as a lawyer in a firm in New York City. I recently got dumped on my wedding day by my fiancé, and then I ran out on my wedding. After that, I came on a round trip to Europe that was supposed to be my honeymoon with my best friend instead of the man I was supposed to marry. And now, I’ve gotten kidnapped by a bunch of dragons and am… well, here.”

Aeon could feel his brows creeping up his forehead. He set the fork down and leaned back, considering the woman before him with newfound interest.

A fiancé, huh. That’s new.

“You’ve been busy,” he said, to which Isobel nodded, picking up her fork again in a listless sort of way.

He could see the shadows of sadness on her pretty face and it killed him to think that she’d been through so much pain. And that he might have only added to it instead of subtracting from it.

“So what about you?”

“Me?” Aeon asked, feigning fake surprise. “Oh, you know. This and that. I am a dragon shifter and the heir to the Prevoir family fortune. My family owns just about every nightclub in the world worth mentioning, along with a smattering of tech and high-end fashion companies. Despite being the Alpha of my family, my younger brothers used a loophole in the family rulebook and ousted me for a year, kicking me out of my home. So now I’m here, trying to charm a gorgeous woman while not making too big of a fool of myself.”

Aeon Prevoir had never been bashful, not even a little. Yet in this moment, he felt this dizzying swirl of nervousness and nausea within him, only made worse by his dragon. While he could tell himself time and time again that it didn’t matter what Isobel thought of him, he knew he was only lying to himself.

“So you’ve been busy as well,” Isobel said after a small gap in the conversation.

She had a look in her eyes he hadn’t seen before, some sort of an unvoiced questions being hidden behind layers of uncertainty. He wanted to push her to tell him what it was, but got the distinct feeling that this was not one of those times. Whatever she needed to know, she’d have to ask him herself.

“You could say that.”

Aeon smiled, liking the way she was picking up on the pattern of the conversation. She was a curious little thing, though. Aeon was all too familiar with how conversations flowed and as with most other things, he could see the general direction of each chat he had well in advance usually. With Isobel, however, he felt like he had no powers at all.

Everything she did came as a surprise to him and every word out of her mouth was solid gold to him.

“So a dragon shifter, huh. That has to be an interesting way to live.”

“It has its ups and downs.”

“What kind of downs?”

“Well, you’re tied down with the shackles built by centuries by your family. You are constantly compelled to stay as close as you can to the majority of your wealth, and even worse, you want to keep it in gold. You’re naturally inclined not to trust anyone and to see profit everywhere, even where it shouldn’t be made. And, perhaps worst of all, everything’s a constant challenge.”

Hearing himself describe it like that made Aeon frown slightly. It couldn’t be that bad, right? It was then that he realized that thanks to Isobel, he hadn’t been thinking about the hoard at all over the last week. She had consumed his thoughts and he didn’t mind one bit.

“Challenges can be good.”

“At times.”

Saying that, his back throbbed where the wounds were still fresh and healing. He felt sluggish and rationally, he knew he should try to cut the evening as short as possible to have time to recuperate for the next challenge. A thousand demons couldn’t tear him away from Isobel any earlier than he absolutely had to leave, though.

“I get the feeling you don’t get out a lot, do you?” Isobel said, smiling.

“Between my
very
challenging job of sitting around and growling at make-believe threats, I don’t, no. Which is probably why my brothers decided to pull one over on me. Do you?” Aeon countered.

“I guess not.”

She shrugged and her gorgeous hair cascaded over her shoulders deliciously. Aeon wanted to reach across the table and tuck those strands away behind her ear so he could see her face better. Though he had promised himself to play it slow and calm, he ended up doing just that.

The way she gasped softly as his hand touched the smooth skin of her cheek made a lightning bolt of desire ripple through him. His hand lingered there as their eyes met and her lips parted slightly. She looked so damnably radiant and pure right then.

When he pulled his hand away, hers went to the spot where he had touched her.

“I didn’t burn you, did I?” he asked, worried.

“No,” she said, shaking his head.

“Good.”

“So,” she started, twirling her fork in the air after a moment of silence. “Blueberry or banana pancakes? Choose wisely, I’m very particular about my pancakes and I can tell a lot about a man based on his choice.”

Aeon grinned. He was going to enjoy this night.

T
he night was
, in a word, wonderful.

Even thought she’d come into this thoroughly expecting not to enjoy herself, Aeon had broken down her defenses with playful ease. She couldn’t even be annoyed at him for it, because the way he looked at her told her that he felt much the same.

It’s not like the odds were in our favor that this evening was going to be anything other than a disaster,
she mused, sitting curled up on the couch next to Aeon.

He was leaning against one armrest while she was next to the other, but her legs were up on the couch and he’d pulled them in his lap. As time passed, their conversation had gotten more and more playful and Isobel had found herself laughing a lot. It was a relief.

They’d cycled through all the uncomfortable topics they could handle – she’d bitched about Joshua and he’d growled about the tournaments and how his brothers had pulled one over on him – and then tackled a lot more fun stuff.

She found him charming and funny, in a dry, deadpan kind of way. And, of course, impossibly sexy, which was becoming a little uncomfortable by now. Especially when his hands ran up and down her legs, massaging her feet absently, reminding her what she had been missing. His touch was so nice and comforting, filling her with a constant warmth she wished she could bottle up and keep with her forever.

“You know, it doesn’t have to be so bad,” Aeon said softly, rousing Isobel from her thoughts.

Her head was propped against the cushion and she felt a tiny bit sleepy, but she wasn’t ready for the evening to end yet. If anything, she was living in constant fear of Grale coming to the door and telling her that it was time to go and get locked up again. The closer that moment came, the more she found herself worrying about what the next challenge would be and how it would all play out.

She might have not been ready to admit it to herself yet, but Isobel was firmly on team Aeon by now.

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe fate’s on our side with all of this,” he continued, sounding somewhat distant. “This can’t all be a coincidence. I think I was meant to find you and though I don’t approve of how this has all played out, I think this could have a happy ending.”

“What’s your definition of a happy ending?”

“I win. You get your life back. Whichever version of it you want.”

Isobel frowned slightly, though a sliver of a moan passed over her lips as Aeon’s hands deftly worked her aching feet.

She clamped her hand over her lips and Aeon grinned, averting his gaze as she wrestled with her blush.

When she came to Europe, she’d been planning on not wearing a pair of high heels for the duration of the trip. The dragons, however, would provide her with nothing but teetering heels. Probably so she could at least pretend to reach up to their shoulders or something.

That meant that her calves were in knots and his expert touch could get the exact right reaction out of her. Or so she told herself.

It
totally
couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that she was getting touched by the man who’d made her scream his name over and over again not too long ago, right?

“What are my options?”

“Whatever you want.”

That familiar twist of desire tumbled through her, leaving a scorching path in its wake. Her heart thudded in her chest and she looked at Aeon, wide-eyed. Was he saying what she thought he was saying?

He’d hinted at it before, but true to his damnably mysterious form, he wouldn’t just spit it out. She wondered if it was on purpose.

Probably.

“That doesn’t tell me much.”

“How about this, then?”

Aeon’s hands moved up her calves and then slipped over her thighs and hips, before resting around her waist. He pulled her towards him sharply, leaving her tangled in his lap, staring up at him. His gray and black eyes swirled, the slimmest etchings of gold appearing in them slowly.

While it had sent her backing away in fear when she’d seen it in Shade, with Aeon it made her only want to get closer. To get a better look. To get lost in them.

He leaned forward and his lips found hers, his arms wrapping around her protectively. Their first night together had been hot as hell, there was no doubt about that, but now there was so much more tenderness and emotion in the kiss. It left her reeling, at the same time trying to desperately meet that kiss with all she had.

Her tongue slipped into his mouth and he growled darkly, the sound rumbling through Isobel. Her fingers slipped up his neck and tangled in his hair, feeling the silky strands glide against her touch.

The voice inside of her that had been telling her firmly to run for the past week or so – since being so unceremoniously picked up by Torren -, and which she’d heeded willingly, was growing ever quieter now. With Aeon’s arms around her, she didn’t feel like going anywhere but deeper into the embrace.

He plucked her off her seat easily and deposited her in his lap, her thighs straddling his. She could feel the thickness of his erection through his pants and ground against it shamelessly, gasping as she did so. The rumbling moan that left Aeon’s throat was music to her ears. With her nails slicking through his hair and then down his neck, she knew she must have been leaving scratches behind but neither of them seemed to care much.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she whispered to him, breathless, with a small smile playing on her lips.

It reminded her of the first time she’d said that to him. And his reaction to it then, different from now.

His stormy eyes, stark with the gold in them now, looked up at her as if she’d just tried to reach into his chest and rip his heart right out of there. Like she’d told him to stop breathing and he was seriously considering it because
she
had said so. It was the kind of look that would stay with a woman for a long time and Isobel felt something crumbling within her.

Not her resolve, no, but some walls that she’d built. Some sort of barrier between herself and the notion that maybe she could be happy again one day. If a man as strong, powerful, sexy and intelligent as Aeon Prevoir would listen to her so intently, willing to do whatever she asked of him, why wouldn’t the world follow suite?

There was no reason why it wouldn’t!

“If that’s what you want,” he answered grittily, dropping his forehead against hers for a second.

She could feel the grip of his fingers tighten around her waist slightly, pulling her in closer while also trying to contain himself from doing anything further. Isobel smiled to herself, shaking her head a little. His touch had her in flames. She wouldn’t stop for any force in the world.

“I said we shouldn’t. Not that we won’t.”

Catching his gaze, she grinned. The next thing she knew, she saw all the raw force of the dragon flashing behind those mesmerizing eyes of his and then she was on her back on the couch, pinned between the plush seat and Aeon’s strong body.

His hands slipped smoothly under the folds of her dress and stole her panties right off of her. She had to only buck her hips upwards slightly for them to glide off. Aeon’s face was a hard mask of control as he tossed them aside, eyeing her in a way that was very nearly scary in its intensity.

He took a deeper breathe and Isobel spread her legs slightly, giving him a better view of her. She knew he had to have scented her easily because she was so damn wet she was practically drowning in her own juices. Slowly, she let one hand run down her body and between her legs, wetting them before finding her clit and rolling her fingertips over it.

Aeon let out a strangled moan, taking a deep breath. Isobel’s mind went deliciously blank as she watched him for a second, her hand working herself closer to the peak she’d been denied for far too long. Several nights, she’d thought of Aeon, the way he’d touched her and the things he’d done to her that one evening they’d had together, but she hadn’t laid a finger on herself.

It had been out of spite and annoyance and betrayal. Now, she was fully intending to make up for all of those nights. Preferably with the help of the dragon before her.

“You’re a tease, aren’t you?” he growled, with the sound rumbling straight through her.

“Me? Never!” Isobel countered innocently, arching her brows as her fingers dipped deeper, one of them slipping into her pussy.

That was too much for Aeon, obviously. He pushed off his suit jacket and tossed it aside. The dress shirt followed soon after and the tables were turned that easily. Getting a better look at what she’d been missing was unfair.

He was all corded muscle, flat plains of strength intermittent with lines her tongue needed to trace. There were cuts and bruises on him that made him even sexier because she knew they were all for her, gotten in the process of fighting for
her
. When he pushed her hand away and lapped his tongue over her slit for the first time, Isobel thought she’d cum right then.

“Shh,” Aeon murmured, licking a straight line up from the bottom of her slit up to her clit, roiling his tongue over the sensitive nub. “Not so fast, Isobel. I am not done with you yet.”

It was a promise, one that she was eager to see carried out. He pushed her back on the couch and she slouched into it, her hands resting on her lower stomach. She pressed down on it, as if trying to contain the butterflies flitting around in there. It was of no use, obviously. When he went back to teasing her clit with his tongue, Isobel’s fingers coiled in his hair instead, not sure whether she was pushing him away or pulling him closer.

Probably a little bit of both.

“Okay,” she muttered in response, her eyes wide as she watched him devour her.

His eyes were lidded, a red tint to his cheeks. His tongue was hot as it criss-crossed a path over her clit and then moved lower sometimes, his lips kissing and sucking on her and making her a trembling mess. When he pushed one finger into her, she clamped down around him for the first instant, but he eased it out of her again slowly before letting her take it again.

The rhythm he set up was mind-blowing in its truest sense. Vacant of thought, Isobel was taken over by the physical sensation and completely lost herself to it. Eagerly, desperately, happily. He pushed another finger into her and she squealed, writhing under his grip. With one hand on her hip, he pushed her down, keeping her where he wanted her.

“Aeon,” she whined, bucking her hips up, begging for more.

She clamped a hand over her own mouth, trying to shut herself up. If someone walked in on them and she was left without the orgasm begging to be released within her, Isobel was certain that her life would crumble around her. She couldn’t handle it. She
needed
this. She needed him.

And the last thought wasn’t anywhere near as scary as she thought it should be.

Aeon’s rhythm became punishingly fast and oh so right. It was as if he could sense exactly what she needed and when, giving her the right kind of enjoyment all the time. He played her expertly.

Sucking her clit into his mouth and letting the very tip of his tongue flick over it quickly, while buried knuckle-deep in her pussy was her last straw. It was all she could take and her body contracted around his fingers, pressed deep into her and brushing against a spot she was still amazed to find that she even had.

As soon as she convulsed under the wave of her orgasm for the first time, Aeon’s hand was off her hip and he moved up her body swiftly, keeping his fingers in her. His thumb took the place of his mouth to tease her clit and he pulled her hand from her lips roughly, covering her mouth with his instead.

Isobel screamed into him, writhing and tossing with the intensity of her release. He took the scream, kissing her roughly, one hand around her waist to press her closer to his naked torso and the other still plunging into her pussy, making her orgasm last longer than it ever had before.

She shuddered under him, his weight pressing down on her in a way that was almost confusingly… safe. While all the passion she’d felt ricocheting between the two of them on their first night was still there, stronger than ever, then there was something new as well. Something she couldn’t, or maybe wouldn’t name yet.

When her breathing calmed slowly, Aeon pulled back from the kiss, finally giving her control of her own mouth. She almost wished he hadn’t, the sweetness of the kiss still lingering on her lips. Slowly, his eyes keeping hers strictly in their spell, he let his fingers slide out of her wet heat and smoothed the hem of her dress back down to cover her.

He was breathing just as heavily as she was. It was cute, even if that was a word she’d never imagined herself using about a dragon shifter.

“How was that?” he asked, and when he moved slightly she could feel how hard he was.

“Amazing.”

It was the truest sentence she’d said in a long while.

Her hand longed to snake down his body and grab his erection, pump him in her hand. Just as she was about to, there was a heavy knock on the door. Instead of throwing himself off of her, Aeon covered her more fully. He was obviously more than ready to protect her virtue – what was left of it, anyway – from the prying eyes of anyone unwise enough to barge in.

“It’s time!” a voice called from outside, muffled by the thick door.

Isobel’s cheeks flushed. With a shifter’s hearing, there was no way that whoever was standing guard hadn’t heard her moans.

“Understood,” Aeon answered back, regret in his tone. “Are you okay?” he asked, much softer now as he turned his attention back on Isobel.

“Slightly embarrassed, that’s all,” she said, as he helped her sit up.

“You should never be embarrassed about this.”

He was resolute, his eyes ablaze. It made her smile.

Sweet
.

Another word she’d definitely not intended to use about this particular man. Yet here he was, breaking down all her preconceived notions about him once more. Damn him and his sexy, considerate ways.

“I’ll try not to,” she promised, as Aeon handed her back the pair of panties they’d discarded in their moment of passion.

He looked strictly uncomfortable as he stood up, moving his hard-on slightly. It was thick against his thigh and made her mouth water. When he caught her staring, she felt her blush get some renewed redness to it. Averting her gaze, she wiggled into her underwear and stood up as well.