Mated to the Water Dragon (High House Draconis Book 2) Page 5

  Cheryl couldn’t know that he and Aaric weren’t acting in concert with one another, which meant she was fishing for information. Trying to figure out what was going on in his camp.

  Well done. You’re smarter than I gave you credit for.

  “To afford the other projects, we’ve had to downsize this one,” he said smoothly, as if that was the truth all along. He almost said more but cut himself off, let Cheryl do the talking.

  Looking across the table, staring deep into her delightfully light-brown eyes, he watched her struggle to find out where to go from there. She’d almost had him, but he’d neatly sidestepped her attempt at a trap, and instead managed to tie everything up with a bow.

  Unless she went to Aaric. That was his only remaining fear. If that happened, everything would fall apart.

  Which meant he had to play ball at least a little, to keep her attention focused on him, and on how to win more concessions from him, instead of how to figure out the best way to enact a scorched earth policy on all of the House Draconis projects.

  Things had just gotten more complicated. A lot more complicated.

  “Shall we get down to discussing the new plans?” he suggested. “I’d like to start moving forward with construction.”

  There. Show her that he still wanted the project to go ahead. Give her the opportunity to salvage something from it.

  As he hoped, Cheryl latched onto that lifeline. She nodded slowly to herself, and then at the others.

  “Very well. Let’s talk about them.”

  Victor began spreading them out across the table, doing his best to keep his face neutral. He’d just won…hadn’t he?

  So why do I feel like she’s just waiting to drop another bomb on me?

  The feeling didn’t go away as the meeting went on either. If anything, it got worse. Much worse. She was planning something, and he didn’t know what.

  10

  “Why didn’t you tell him?” Liz hissed as the door closed behind Victor, leaving just her team in the meeting room.

  “Not here,” she said, standing. “Can you guys handle this?” she asked, gesturing at all the papers.

  “Of course,” Liz replied for the others. “But where are you going?”

  “To do something very unprofessional, and potentially career harming,” she said, walking around the table.

  “And where would that be?” Liz wanted to know.

  “To threaten a member of the Drakon family,” she said, following Victor out of the conference room.

  She could hear the others gasp but ignored it. They’d talked about their plan and agreed they would all back her up, but Cheryl couldn’t let them take that risk. This was something she had to do herself. Insulating the others was the right thing for her to do as the boss.

  By the time she reached the parking garage, Victor was already heading up the ramp in a black SUV. She had to hurry or risk losing him, which would nullify everything. Breaking out into a jog as best she could in a skirt and loose flats, Cheryl raced to her own car.

  The tiny little eco-hybrid hummed to life and she went up the ramp after Victor, doing up her seatbelt as she accelerated… and she abruptly hit the brakes as she nearly rammed the back of his car once the ramp leveled off. He was still waiting for an anomaly in Plymouth Falls to pass him by: traffic.

  She chuckled, thanking the half-dozen cars that had blocked his exit and made her mission so much easier.

  She followed him out into the road, dropping back several car-lengths, doing whatever she could to not look like she was tailing him. The chase didn’t take long to come to a conclusion, however, because no more than three blocks away, he pulled off the road again at a spot she knew well.

  Leblanc.

  Cheryl had taken several clients out for meals to the only fancy restaurant in town. It made sense that he would go there. She’d encountered members of both the Ursa and Canis family there before as well, and it seemed to be the one place in town where they actively showed their faces. Anywhere else was a random occurrence as far as she could tell.

  Cheryl followed him in, but instead of pulling into the valet entrance, she went and parked her own car. Better to not let him see her at all. Not until he was inside and settled. Then she could truly ambush him, and hopefully for once, catch the big man off-guard.

  Though I suspect what I’m going to tell him will be a surprise.

  Even if it wasn’t, she couldn’t wait to see his reaction. There was something going on behind the scenes that he wasn’t telling them, and she thought she’d figured it out. It was time to see if her theory was right.

  “I’m here to meet someone,” she said at the questioning look from the host before he could open his mouth. “Victor Drakon. I believe he’s already here.”

  The host nodded quickly. “Of course. Please, go on in. He’s sitting right over there.”

  She smiled and strode into the restaurant, eyes scanning the tables and booths in the direction the host had pointed. There he was, sitting at a booth at the back right, facing the door. So, he would see her coming. That was unfortunate, but couldn’t be avoided.

  Steeling herself, Cheryl walked across the floor, ignoring the looks she got from a number of the other male patrons. It wasn’t easy, however. For the first time in her life, she felt like a model on the runway. They were all staring at her, and she could see more than one appreciative nod in her peripheral.

  What the hell is going on here? Did Victor know I was following him? Did he put them up to this?

  A shiver went down her spine. Was this what it was like to be conventionally attractive? To get stared at all the time?

  It was…nice, but also rather unnerving.

  Then she saw Victor looking at her, and abruptly, everything calmed. She appreciated his gaze. Liked it when he stared at her, even.

  Then his face shifted and went dour and glum, and the feeling was gone in a heartbeat. Ignoring her previous thoughts, Cheryl schooled her face into a blank slate and slipped into the booth across from him.

  “Hello, Victor.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You followed me here?”

  “I did,” she agreed, raising a finger to stop him from replying. “What I need to say couldn’t be said in there. My team has no part in this.”

  “Please go away.”

  “No,” she said calmly. “No, I don’t think I will.”

  “How lucky of me,” he said monotone, implying the exact opposite sentiment.

  But yet, despite his words, his eyes never moved from her. They stayed focused, unwavering. Intense. Interested. There was a hunger there, different from what she’d felt walking across the open floor.

  Back there, it had been unabashed lust. She could imagine them wanting to take her and carry her back to their room.

  Not Victor. He wanted to take her right here. Right now. On the table. Cheryl wasn’t sure how she knew, just as she wasn’t sure how things had morphed from hatred to lust between them since the first meeting. It was all so very confusing. She did still hate him, it was just that she also found him very physically appealing. Very.

  Focus. You’re not here to run your hands over his muscles or feel his stubble between your thighs. You’ve got a very distinct purpose. Focus on it!

  “We’re going to talk, whether you like it or not,” she snapped, suddenly tired of his constant dismissal of her, and also her own internal desire to get his attention in other ways. Enough was enough.

  “Must we? I thought we just did enough talking. I was there for two hours. Why couldn’t you have said whatever you had to say then?” he complained.

  “You think I’m stupid,” she said, a growl entering her voice that she’d never heard before. “But I’m not. So, I’d appreciate it if you’d stop treating me like I am.”

  “What you are, is annoying, and preventing me from getting lunch,” he said as the waiter approached, ordering a glass of wine and some food. “No, nothing for her,” he added before Cheryl could speak. �
��She’s already full of herself.”

  Cheryl gaped. The waiter shifted uncomfortably. Sparing the innocent man any more trouble, she just waved him off. “I’m fine, thank you. I won’t be staying long.”

  “Do you promise?” Victor asked without missing a beat.

  “Oh, I promise. I’ll be here just long enough,” she said, sitting back, smiling.

  Let him be the asshole, she thought. No skin off my back. None at all. It’s just going to make it all the sweeter when I tell him what’s about to happen.

  Cheryl sat back and just kept smiling, watching Victor shift ever so slightly as his discomfort began to show. He had no idea what she was there for, and his curiosity was killing him.

  One can only wish.

  “Well, what is it?” he snapped.

  Cheryl just let her grin grow wider.

  11

  She was playing him.

  She was playing him, and he knew it. That was the worst part. Victor knew she was just trying to make him uncomfortable, to get him to snap and ask her to just tell him whatever it was she wanted to.

  The worst part was, it was working. This beautiful curved specimen of a human was somehow managing to make him feel worried. To make him anxious about whatever it was she was going to say. It couldn’t be that bad. Could it?

  “You’re fucking us over.”

  He arched an eyebrow at her but didn’t say anything. He’d see how she liked the silent treatment. There was no need for him to speak right now.

  “So, you agree then?”

  Victor rolled his eyes. “I am doing what must be done. There is a difference.”

  Cheryl smiled victoriously. “As am I,” she said. “As am I. I’m glad you understand then, that sometimes things are out of our control, that whether we want to or not, they simply must be done.”

  Ice formed in his veins as the water hardened, fear paralyzing him momentarily. She hadn’t made any sort of threat to him, and yet Victor could see all his plans wobbling, ready to come tumbling down with just the right push.

  A push, it seemed, Cheryl was about to make, whether she understood the implications behind it all or not.

  “What do you mean?” he hissed, furious at her, and at himself. He was supposed to be in control of these things, but at every turn, Cheryl kept stealing it back.

  It was all too similar to events in his past. To Elizabeth, and the way she’d managed to do the same. Cheryl must be related, there was simply no denying it. Not with the way she was unafraid to stand up to him. Even her eyes took on a familiar glint when she was speaking from a position of strength. It was an eerie reminder of a dark time in his past and didn’t help his current mood.

  “What I mean,” Cheryl said, leaning forward, not intimidated by him. “Is that if you continue to play your little games and try to fuck us over, we’re going to do the same. You might be a Drakon, and that gives you a lot of sway with some people. But not me. Not my team, and not the rest of the county office.”

  “So?” he challenged, trying to show his disdain. “What do I care?”

  “You should care,” she said with a razor-thin smile. “Because we’re the ones who can approve or disapprove any project we deem necessary. We can apply stop work orders. Surprise inspections. We can lose paperwork with ease; after all, we are the government, it happens all the time.” Cheryl leaned forward like a hawk stooping on its prey. “And I can guarantee you that all of those and more will befall you. Every. Single. Project.”

  Victor glared at her as she revealed her hand, playing her cards with a flourish to reveal a deck that they both knew he couldn’t match. She had him by the balls, though she didn’t know it. He could only afford to call her bluff to a certain point. If she tried to follow through, he would lose everything.

  “I’m sure the public would love to hear about all the money you’re denying it,” he said. “The newspapers would just eat that up. I can imagine how the mayor would react, considering it’s her they would go after. Do you think she would sacrifice you, to improve her own image for re-election?” He let his own smile play across his face, showing he wasn’t scared, and that he wasn’t going to go down easily.

  But what he saw across from him had that confidence wavering and ready to topple. Cheryl didn’t look disturbed. She didn’t look worried. If anything, she looked just as confident as before. Why hadn’t his comment about going public rattled her?

  “Who do you think approved this idea?” Cheryl said wickedly. “You don’t really think I’d do this without her support, now, do you? Just how dumb do you think I am?”

  Clearly more than you actually are, he thought, revising his opinion of Cheryl upward several notches. He couldn’t afford to underestimate her any further, that much was for sure. If he did, it was going to cost him.

  Big time.

  “You wouldn’t dare,” he challenged.

  “Can you afford to believe that?” she fired back evenly.

  Victor was getting worried. This shouldn’t be happening. She was a human. A weak, pitiful, feisty, gorgeous, strong young woman.

  Dear Brain. Shut up.

  “So, you’re going to fuck up every other project that my H… family… that my family has going on,” he said, hastily covering his slipup. “That’s blackmail. What is it you’re trying to get out of me then?”

  “Fifty percent.”

  Victor inhaled sharply. She wanted fifty percent of his cut? Of the money he was going to be funneling out of House Draconis that Aaric thought was going to the city? That was an astronomical amount to her. To him, it was barely enough to cover what had been stolen from him a century ago.

  “You must be joking,” he said, laughing. There was no way he was going to split it with her equally. It simply wasn’t happening.

  “Does it look like I’m joking?” she said icily, her tone cutting through him like a knife.

  He had to admit that there wasn’t an ounce of humor to be found on her face. Shame, as it was much nicer to look at when she was amused, but that was the way of things sometimes.

  “Can’t be done,” he said, sitting back.

  “It can, and it will. You should be glad I’m not arguing for you to put it back to the way it was instead. You will commit fifty percent of your original budget and plan, or I will make your life a living hell. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, but I doubt you appreciate just how difficult we can make things for you. I don’t care what your last name is or how important you think you are to this town. I will do it.”

  Victor blinked. He’d misunderstood completely. She wanted him to scale the project back up. Not buy her off.

  How noble.

  He’d tried to get the mental thought to come off sarcastic, to further denounce her, but try as he might, he was unable to completely avoid his respect for her going up another notch. She could profit off this immensely, but instead of doing that, she was fighting for her town, for its inhabitants. She wanted jobs for them, prosperity for her fellows, instead of wealth for herself.

  Damn this woman and her morals.

  Greed, he could work with. He understood it and what drove those who were motivated by it. But this, this was beyond him. This idea of working toward the common good. That had never been something Victor believed in. He was a firm proponent of every dragon for themselves.

  “Twenty-five,” he said after another moment of thought. He wasn’t going to just cave without negotiating.

  “Fifty. Non-negotiable.”

  Damn her.

  “Fifty percent,” he said gruffly, sticking his hand out over the table.

  “Like I believe your word at this point,” she said derisively, disdaining to shake his hand in agreement. “You have five days to deliver the updated plans to my office. In person. If you don’t, then I begin blocking your other projects one by one. Until you are unable to do anything, buy anything, or even hire anyone in my town until you do. Do I make myself clear?”

  Victor laughed. It
was brutish, loud, and drew the attention of the other patrons, many of whom turned to see what the commotion was all about. He cancelled their stares with a furious glare that had everyone hurriedly turning back around, even the Canis and Ursa shifters.

  “You’ll have your plans,” he said evenly. “But I hope you know who you’re messing with.”

  She quirked a lip upward. “I’ll be fine. You’re not the first stingy asshole I’ve dealt with who thinks he’s more important than me.”

  “No,” Victor said lazily, his face full-blown grinning at the city planner now. “No I don’t suppose I am. Is there anything else?”

  Something about his cavalier attitude must have shaken Cheryl. Unless he missed his guess, she’d just grown a shade or two paler. That was good. Very good.

  “No.”

  “I thought not,” he said, letting his smile turn predatory. “Have a good weekend, Miss Anders. I suspect it will be…well,” he shrugged. “I won’t pretend to know the future. Good day.”

  Dismissing her, he turned and signaled to the waiter who was very obviously trying not to intrude, though he had the wine Victor had ordered ready in-hand.

  There was the sound of movement across from him, and by the time he turned back, she had gotten up and was headed back across the restaurant toward the exit.

  Victor watched her go, admiring the shape of her hips. She really was quite beautiful. Perhaps he should tone down the hardness of his attitude and turn up the charm. She might be willing to ease up her demands if he rocked her world.

  The path to the doors led past the bar, and Victor watched with idle amusement at first as a group of young Ursa shifters detached themselves from it and went up to her. Obviously, the others had picked up on the fact that she was not, in any way shape or form, with Victor, and so they had decided to make a move.

  “Who shall win?” he muttered to himself, sitting back in his booth to watch the show.

  She tried to brush them off at first, but they just kept coming. A hallmark of the Ursa persistence. But then one of them slid his hand into the small of her back.

  Victor sat up abruptly, air hissing through his nose as he inhaled sharply. Anger spiked for no reason. His dragon screamed at him, but he couldn’t make sense of what it was trying to say through all the red that had descended over his mind and vision.