Ice Dragon's Caress (High House Draconis Book 3) Read online

  Ice Dragon’s Caress

  High House Draconis Book #3

  Riley Storm

  Ice Dragon’s Caress

  Copyright© 2019 Riley Storm

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, without written permission from the author. The sole exception is for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.

  All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.

  Edited by Annie Jenkinson, Just Copyeditors

  Cover Designs by Kasmit Covers

  Table of Contents

  Ice Dragon’s Caress

  Note from the Author

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  Other Books by Riley Storm

  About the Author

  Note from the Author

  Hi there!

  Thank you so much for picking up Ice Dragon’s Caress. While this book and series are self-contained and can be read alone, if you want to get the full experience of the Plymouth Falls world, you would be best off starting with the High House Ursa series and book one, Bearing Secrets which is linked below.

  Either way, I hope you enjoy!

  -Riley Storm

  High House Ursa

  Bearing Secrets

  Furever Loyal

  Mated to the Enemy

  Shifting Alliances

  Blood Bearon

  1

  Yellowed light from an aging lamp post on the corner of the street reached out and brushed him with its touch. The dull rays seemed to dampen the arctic brilliance of the beast’s scales as he came in for a landing.

  Branches groaned and bushes swayed backward, leaves and a light layer of snow sweeping up as a dozen miniature windstorms all broke out at once. The giant membranous wings, more icy-blue than bright white beat quickly with several powerful flaps, and then the dragon dropped the remaining ten feet to the ground.

  Concrete cracked and dented where the four blue-white talons of each foot dug deep, slicing through the hardened material with ease. The ground shook slightly, and any snow that hadn’t been dislodged from nearby surfaces shivered free to float to the ground around the ice dragon, giving him the look of a creature straight out of a snowglobe.

  Valla Drakon shook his long head, rolling his shoulders to ease the tension in them. It had been so very long since he’d last taken a flight, despite his insistence to the others that he needed to get out, to get in touch with his dragon once more after a century of sleep.

  Nearby activity distracted the ice dragon as lights in windows of nearby houses came on. Not candles either, he reminded himself. Everyone used electricity now, in every house. They could turn the lights on with a simple switch. The world had changed since he had last roamed freely, and Valla was still not sure if that was for the better or worse.

  Still, heeding at least one of the warnings of his siblings, he shifted back to his human form, a brown package slipping free of one of his hind legs as he shrank back to normal proportions.

  “Hey!”

  Valla spun around at the noise as someone emerged from a nearby house, clutching a robe closed tightly around his balding, portly figure.

  “What the hell are you doing out here? Are you naked? You need to go, or I’m calling the cops!”

  Cops. Slang for police, officers of the law. Valla knew what that meant, just as he knew getting entangled with official authorities would ruin his real purpose for coming into Plymouth Falls that night.

  “So very sorry good sir!” he called with all formality, jogging over to pick up the brown bag that he’d carried so carefully with him. “Just a bit of a mix-up. A practical joke, you see, that my friends decided to play on me. So dreadfully not funny, I assure you. I will bring it up with them.”

  The shouting male stood up, a frown on his face. “Right. A joke. Well, there are kids in this neighborhood.”

  “In the bag,” Valla said calmly. “My attire for the evening. I will retreat to compose myself. Again, my abject apologies.”

  “You’re not from around here, are you, son?” the man asked, his voice calming, though he did not approach any nearer.

  Not that Valla could blame him. The dragon, in his human form, towered above the other man in sheer height, but he was also composed of little more than muscle, bone and sinew. The sight of such a round shape sticking out from the human’s midsection was…perturbing, so say the least.

  Can modern men bear children? Is that what I am seeing?

  He also ignored the irony of being called son, when, judging by what he could with the human, Valla was probably twice his age. Young for a dragon, only in his early ninth decade, but still more experienced than the human across from him.

  “No, I’m visiting some relatives,” he lied gracefully, holding the bag in front of his crotch, believing that to put the other at ease.

  It always amazed Valla how uneasy humans were regarding their nudity. As a shifter, he’d grown up accustomed to it as a way of life. The naked body was nothing to be ashamed about.

  Though perhaps he is ashamed of whatever condition has given him his stomach.

  Valla almost inquired if he could help out but decided against it. More lights were coming on, and he could see several other silhouettes in windows. It was time to go, before anyone looked at the impressions on the ground around him and started questioning things.

  Keeping the secret of him and his kin was of utmost priority. None must know that dragons existed.

  Turning, he dashed off into the darkness of a side street, wondering if perhaps he should have heeded Aaric and Victor’s warnings more closely, and not flown his dragon right over the outskirts of the city, just to save time.

  Devices that can record moving pictures of the world around them, right! He laughed to himself at the nonsense of such a contraption. Black magic, perhaps, could do that, but according to Aaric, the Mages Guild were still rebuilding after the terrible battle that had ended the Shifter-Mage war a century earlier.

  Valla had been there for that. He had participated in that devastating battle. Many had died. Too many.

  Stop being so morose! You’re here for a night of fun. Of entertainment. To get out and reconnect with the humans. Not to weep about the past.

  Pausing in the depths of as much darkness as he could find, Valla opened the bag and began to clothe himself in the contents.

  Like any good dragon, he appreciated style. A style that had changed in many ways over the past eleven decades while he had been in the deep sleep of his kind, but yet was also still the same.

  The suit went on him like
clockwork, practiced hands doing clasps or buttons with ease. The cut and fit had changed, but in the end, a suit was still a suit. And like any dragon, Valla knew he looked good, even in the oddly tight modern garb that Victor had procured for him as part of his welcoming package.

  There had been more of course. Weeks of education, bringing him up to speed on language, history and modern technology. So many weeks of it. Now, three months into what he was told was a six-month orientation process, Valla could handle it no longer. He’d needed out.

  “And tonight, I get it,” he muttered to himself, walking out of the darkness and into the light, clad in a stylish silk outfit, pure black with a charcoal gray shirt underneath, accented with just a bit of purple on his tie, a deep violet shade that blended in in the darkness and was only visible up front.

  Sweeping a hand through his hair, he pulled it off to one side, the finger-length strands holding in place. Again, a new change, but hairstyle updates were something Valla was used to, and he’d let the barber cut his without question. Whatever was modern, he’d said, so that had been provided.

  Now to see if it worked.

  A lump in his left pocket would provide the evening’s entertainment. A roll of cash, courtesy of Victor—or at least, it would be courtesy of Victor, once he noticed it was missing. But Valla intended to put it to good use.

  Striding forward, he covered much ground as he headed for the center of town. Plymouth Falls had stagnated in growth, and much of the layout was the same as when Valla had last walked its streets. He headed for the downtown area, wondering what he would find.

  It didn’t take long for his ears to pick up the distinct sounds of music, and he homed in on it like a pigeon to its roost. The building itself was fairly nondescript. The only clue to its origins was a red sign outside that read ‘Para’. Two men, one standing several inches taller even than Valla stood outside the door.

  Bouncers, then. I must be in the right place.

  “Gentlemen,” he said, smiling widely as he approached, noting the line of people waiting outside in the cold to get in. They were all dressed like him, or, in the case of the women, in provocative wear that, if Valla hadn’t been prepared for it, would have left him speechless.

  Aaric said humans are finally beginning to accept that skin is not to be hidden. Now I see his point.

  The flesh at the door wasn’t to his liking though. Valla needed a woman. Not an appetizer. He ignored them, their appreciative stares, and he also ignored the glares from the men with them, all of whom felt the attention of their dates wavering.

  “Are you on the list?” the bigger of the two bouncers asked, keeping his tone friendly even as he shifted position to better face Valla.

  “I was supposed to be,” he said, reaching into his left pocket slowly, keeping his right hand visible. The last thing Valla wanted was to appear threatening to the men. That would certainly end his night sooner than intended. “But I don’t know if I made it.”

  He pulled out his left hand and extended it toward the clipboard the other bouncer was holding. Four crisp hundred-dollar bills found their way onto the top of it, appearing as if out of nowhere.

  “Valla Drakon,” he said.

  “Yes sir,” the lead bouncer said with a matching smile. “I do believe your name made it. Welcome to Para.”

  He shuffled backward and pulled open a door.

  The music and aroma of people partying crashed over Valla like a wave before the undertow sucked him into the building, absorbing him into its frenzy of mating rituals and inhibition-removing offerings.

  Yes, this was much, much better than his endless lessons, and far better than having to hunt down the vampires that were ostensibly the reason the others had awoken him. Damn them, and damn their rules about not leaving.

  Valla was going to enjoy life now that he was awake again. The hunt could wait.

  After all, what was the worst that could happen to him?

  2

  “This is crazy,” she giggled, her arm snug thoroughly through his, her fingers gripping his steel-hard forearm. “I never do this.”

  “There’s a first time for everything then, isn’t there?”

  “Valla,” she said, swatting at him playfully. “Stop it.”

  They were almost at her house now. It had to be her place, he’d said, because he lived way out of town. He’d offered to get a hotel room, but she’d declined, not wanting him to spend money.

  And also, because she didn’t want to wait. From the moment he’d set eyes on her, Liz had felt something inside her stir, as if brought to life by nothing more than Valla’s penetrating bright blue stare.

  That’s not going to be the only penetrating thing of his.

  Embarrassed at the vulgarity of her thoughts, Liz laughed out loud, trying to cover up the heated reaction in her cheeks. Not that he could see them this late at night, but still, she didn’t need to give him more ammunition.

  Fumbling with her keys, Liz stepped up the short walkway to her house, but paused at the top of the three steps leading to her front door. Valla had stopped at the base of them, his arm sliding free of hers.

  “What is it?”

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” He spoke with uncharacteristic sincerity, at odds with the sexual flirtation he’d laid on her from the very start.

  “Valla,” she said, letting her tongue roll over his name again. “I am a grown woman. I’m not that drunk. I know what I’m doing.” She paused. “And also what I hope to be doing shortly. I would not have shown you where I live, if I didn’t feel comfortable with you.”

  A smile split his sharply carved features, and he hopped the three stairs in one easy lope, landing at her side, brushing up against her.

  “I just had to check to be sure, you understand.”

  “I do, and I appreciate it,” she purred, arching into him, basking in his touch. There was something about those fingers, the way they slid along her shoulders and then down her back, that just set a fire building in her core.

  The door swung open and she stepped inside, just as eager to be out of her heels as she was for what would happen next between her and Valla.

  She didn’t have to wait long. Her shoes weren’t even off before he was on her from behind. Her head fell to the side, the short curly strands of her currently dark-red hair falling away, exposing her neck to his greedy mouth.

  “Oh,” she said, drawing in a sharp breath of air.

  Hands slid under her arms, cupping her breasts and exploring every inch of her clothed skin with an intensity that surprised her. A good surprise though, because it was then that she felt his pants growing harder.

  Slipping a hand back between them, Liz found his belt, and then pushed her palm flat against his pants and continued downward until her fingertips pressed into his shaft, lying flat against his thigh under the fabric.

  Oh my, she thought to herself, feeling his girth, his length, and just his overall size. He was…packing.

  “I’ll be gentle,” Valla said into her ear, the words barely more than a whispered murmur, yet loud enough to send shivers down her spine as he anticipated her thoughts.

  “Hopefully not too gentle,” she said, teasing him right back by slipping out of his grasp and walking across the front room.

  The kitchen was off to her left, the TV room to her right, but those weren’t of interest to Liz. Not just then. Not after the tension that had been flowing between the two of them all night long. Just then, her focus was on one place, and one place only, and it was at the back of her house, down the hallway.

  “Well if that isn’t just a scintillating sight.”

  She looked over her shoulder, hoping it was as demurring and attractive as she wanted it to be, and then reached up behind her and tugged at the zipper of her dress, slowly pulling it down to her waist as she disappeared into her bedroom.

  Footsteps made their way across the original hardwood floor with speed, and seconds later, Valla appeared in her doorway
, having managed to lose his suit jacket at some point along the way.

  “Can you help me with this?” she asked, wondering where the strength of her seduction was coming from.

  The answer, of course, was Valla, as he came up to her, his hands slipping between the dress and her skin and gently pushing it down over her thick waist. It had to be Valla.

  She’d gone out after work with several of her friends from another department, to celebrate someone’s birthday. After all, it was a Friday and things had been going great at work lately, so she felt like it was well deserved on all their parts.

  The tight black dress hadn’t been overly revealing, with but a hint of her cleavage and coming down to just above her knees as well. Yet when Valla had laid eyes on her, there’d been no hesitation. He’d strode over to her, the crowd parting around them like in a fairy tale.

  She could still remember it now, hearing his voice for the first time as he extended a hand to her and asked if she would like to dance.

  That had been the beginning of her downfall. The way he could move his body! Oh, it had been something else. All night, they had danced, and drank, and danced, and she was thoroughly exhausted, but Liz wasn’t about to stop now.

  Not when he felt so good pressed up against her, his hard muscles and her soft skin. She shivered at the contact, then frowned.

  “Hey, where did your shirt go?” she asked. When had he had time to take that off? The man was a magician.

  But just then, her dress fell to the floor and supple fingers sent her strapless black bra to join it seconds later. Now she had nothing but a thong on, and was feeling abruptly self-conscious about the figure she presented compared to him.

  “Hey,” a deep voice rumbled from next to her. “None of that. You’re obscuring my view of your body. I want to see it all. I want it all. All of it. All of you.”

  She couldn’t help it. Her mouth opened in a small circle, forcing her to breathe deeply as Valla’s hands explored all of her. Not just her sides, her shoulders, not even just her breasts. Fingers pushed between her legs, almost immediately finding her clit, teasing it with gentle circles until her knees threatened to give out.