Dragon Hunts

Declan silenced me with a greedy kiss. I melted instantly. My objections evaporated like ice under the hot sun. My body sagged against his chest. My knees wobbled. It was pathetic and embarrassing to feel the effect this man had on me.

Declan Cairne had messed up my brain.

“Listen, I think we’re both tired from the flight. Why don’t you take a nice long bath then call Bobby?” He looked at his watch. “It’s nine p.m. in New York and I bet he hasn’t gone to sleep. Curran is a bad sitter. He never sticks to regular bedtimes.”

I pouted. This man could turn me from furious to horny in less than five seconds. Some man.

“And we’ll talk about this over dinner. How does that sound?”

I found myself nodding like a good girl. He kissed me again. Deep, long, and unhurried, making my toes curl.

“Say, Declan…”

“Hmm?”

“What would you do if back in New York if I’d said I didn’t want you and we’d ended up in this situation?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Then I just would have had to seduce you harder.”

Declan was unpacking his bags while I wandered around the villa, investigating every nook and cranny. I’d never stayed in a fancy boutique hotel and everything fascinated me. The place didn’t have television or internet connection—the only modern convenience available was a land-line phone. Apparently they wanted the guests to escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and just relax during their stay.

The villa only had one king-sized bed. The white, crisp sheets were practically begging to be slept in. I rolled my eyes as I thought about how Declan had schemed his way into my panties. I couldn’t stay mad at him. For a young guy, what he’d done was incredibly sweet. For me, anyway. He could have any woman he wanted and yet he’d chosen me.

It left me wondering what Declan had seen in me anyway.

If I do say so myself, my best attributes have to be my breasts. They are firm and lush for my age. But I would have bet Declan had seen better breasts in his days. I wasn’t slim, either. The last time I checked, size sixteen wasn’t classified by Hollywood’s standards as sexy. I had an oval face, a sharp nose and rather full lips. My eyes were icy blue, thanks to my Germanic roots. I’d given up maintaining a beauty regime a long time ago. Good looks didn’t just happen and I had too much on my plate to maintain such trivial stuff.

Declan, on the other hand, was a picture of prince charming.

He had graduated from one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Harvard, I’d heard. Summa cum laude. Came from an old family with old money. His mother had died three years previously from cancer and his father had wasted away from a broken heart, passing away a few months after.

After Declan had graduated, he’d taken over the family business with his brothers. Braden, who was a year younger than Declan, had become the head of the firm’s security and Curran, the youngest, was the mastermind behind the firm’s obscene profits. For the three months I’d been working for him, I’d never seen Declan date or make sexual advances towards anyone—anyone but me. The girls in the office drooled over him and his brothers, but the Cairnes didn’t seem interested in any of them. Some of the girls were even jealous of me because of the amount of attention Declan gave me. I wasn’t popular in the office. I didn’t care. All I cared about was putting food on my table and taking care of my young son.

I sat on the bed and slipped off my high heels. The tiled floor felt refreshingly cold on my bare feet. My weariness gradually washed away. I caught sight of Declan, closing the door to the pavillion. He was talking on the phone, perhaps with one of his brothers. Heavy thoughts suddenly weighed on me.

What should I do? If I told Declan the truth, would he still look at me the same way as before? I was a fraud. I had used faked credentials to gain employment with his company. And I had told him lies. I’d said I was widowed. That my husband had died when Bobby was an infant. My son, smart kid that he was, had been a great conspirator. He hadn’t said anything about our past whenever he’d met my bosses.

Bobby was the reason I’d left Lorenzo. One night my ex had been drunk and beaten me a little too hard. My son had cradled my bloodied body and cried that he didn’t want to see me die.

It had been a wake-up call for me.

If I stayed with Lorenzo, eventually he’d kill me.

I was twenty-six years old when I fell pregnant with Bobby. It wasn’t something I had planned on. My parents had died in a car accident when I was in my senior year, forcing me to survive on my own. I’d worked as a cocktail waitress in a casin

o, and my dalliance with Lorenzo had been nothing but a one-night stand. At that time, Lorenzo hadn’t wanted anything to do with Bobby. I’d raised my son by myself while struggling to make ends meet.

Four years later, Lorenzo had come back into our lives, saying that he regretted having abandoned us and wanting to make amends. I’d taken him up on his offer because it had been getting hard for me to raise a child on a waitress’s salary. My growing son had also needed his father.

Later on, I’d found out what kind of man Lorenzo really was.

Lorenzo Filocamo was a son of a don from the oldest mafia family in Nevada. One day, during the time he’d abandoned us, he’d been ambushed by a rival family and shot in the groin. The incident had left him unable to perform sexually ever since. When we got back together, it wasn’t a big deal for me as long as he acted like a decent man. But Lorenzo had become bitter about his accident and he’d lashed out in anger at me. I’d thought about leaving him so many times, but he’d threatened to kill me if I dared.

He’d also been obsessed with Bobby. In his family, having an heir was a matter of importance. Lorenzo had never laid a hand on Bobby, but my son was afraid of him. Bobby had witnessed me being pummelled across the room so many times that it had traumatised him. He’d grown up to be a quiet kid, but the look in his eyes held so much sorrow for a boy his age.

I sighed, contemplating my situation.

I guessed there was no way around it. I had to come clean. I didn’t know what would happen when Declan found out the truth. Most likely I would lose my job. My lies had been too great to be forgiven lightly.