Billionaire Dragon's Bride(17)

“Good. Now that we have that settled, I believe I need to take you back to your castle, princess.” Without further ceremony, he grabbed her by the legs and threw her over his shoulder like she were a feather and manhandling curvy women was what he did on a daily basis. Gemma gasped as he started back up towards the mansion as if what he was doing was the most perfectly normal thing he could possibly do.

“Oh my god! I can’t believe you! You ARROGANT, self-admiring, cocky bastard! If you think you can just pick me up and take me wherever you want, you’re SO wrong!” Gemma screeched, the skies clearing above her like nothing had happened whatsoever.

Devon scoffed, and when Gemma launched into another tirade about how much of an asshat he was, Devon smacked her across her butt, drawing a hiss from her.

Who the hell does he think he is!? And what was that kiss all about? Gemma, what did you get yourself into?!

Of course, the question she should have been asking was whether she wanted to get herself out of that particular situation.





CHAPTER EIGHT

Devon



The cavern was as tall as it was wide, and it stretched endlessly into the distance as far as the eye could see. It was just the right kind of cold – the kind that invigorates a man and makes his step grow longer and faster, not the kind that weighs you down and takes what little energy you have. Being in the caverns under the mansion was just about the only time that Devon liked the cold. He leant on the smooth, polished rock at the doorway, eyeing his treasure thoughtfully. A small smile perched on his lips.

The piles of gold and unimaginable riches sprawled out before him, painstakingly gathered over a time longer than any human could fathom. For a dragon, however, it was only the beginning. A familiar shudder of glee ran through him, breathing fire into his joints and lifting the weariness of the previous day.

It was a tradition never to be broken – each day, the dragon of the house would come down to the caverns and make sure the treasure was safe. They didn’t really need to do it – a dragon would know immediately if something disturbed his riches. Like a mother senses the distress of a child, a dragon knows the location of every one of his precious jewels and carefully collected trinkets. Without a hint of urgency, Devon set off at a leisurely pace, his leather-clad feet scrunching over the golden hills as he walked through the long caverns.

This was not even the entirety of the Bluewing treasure, but certainly the mother of all of their boons. Some smaller caves were hidden in the hills surrounding Gold Valley and squirrelled away as far as Costa Rica and Monaco, where his brothers lorded over them. But here was where it all began, and as such, it was the most important of the hoards.

Sunlight glinted off the gold, perhaps blinding to a mere human, but reassuring in its ostentatiousness to a dragon. There were countless mirrors set up to carry down the light of the sun to illuminate the treasure, though the ceilings were also lined with daylight lamps – a much more recent addition to the ancient hideaway. In his dragon form, he would often sleep here in the caverns, curled up amidst his riches, never resting more soundly than when he knew the fortune of his family was safe and protected. But recently, the times when he could sneak off to rule over his hoard had grown scarcer and scarcer.

Devon’s expression shadowed slightly as he picked up a fine sapphire bracelet, immediately drawn by the deep blue glint of the stone that resembled his scales. Bluewings had an unmistakable affinity for sapphires.

I wonder if Gem would like this, Devon thought absentmindedly, hiding the bracelet in the pocket of his jacket, before continuing his walk.

Gemma had been in the mansion for five days now. Five long days filled with heated arguments, half-hearted escapes and spirited dinners, all of which Devon had come to love. She was a feisty one, that goldsmith from Gold Valley. He had to wonder if she knew how much he enjoyed the way she tried to stubbornly reason with him, though he thought his affections had been made rather clear by now. After that first night, when he collected her on the path to Gold Valley and kissed her with all the passion that eons of dragonkin love could muster, things had remained much the same.

True, she seemed a bit more complacent with her situation, but that might have been because she was running out of ways to try and reason with him. And where Gemma must have thought she was headstrong, she found the dragon to be even harder to crack – but that didn’t stop her from trying. He’d locked down the mansion, making sure no one came or went without him knowing, and he’d vowed to keep on trying to win her affection, even if, according to her, his attempts were somewhat misguided at times.

Devon grinned to himself, ducking through a small doorway that led into one of the side-caverns, set away from the main rooms. It was filled to the metaphorical rafters with jewelry featuring jades and other mossy or brilliant green trinkets. The sheen of the gems made him think of his own Gem’s eyes, and his heart beat faster. Devon licked across his lips, reminiscing about the way she tasted when she was pressed against him in the rain, moaning into his mouth as his tongue darted between her lips.