Kidnapped by a Dragon Billionaire - Chapter 54

Zi Mei woke up from a nightmare to Thorin’s gorgeous face looking down at her. She had asked him if he could love her and his face had immediately turned cold and expressionless.

“Lil Zi, we have been over this before,” he replied her. “I don’t believe in love but I can only say that I do care for you a lot, that should be sufficient,”

Zi Mei sighed, her heart hurt deeply from his words. She had already expected him to say that but still, she had foolishly hoped he would say something else. She closed her eyes and turned away from him, disentangling herself from him.

“I guess you are right Drags…I’m tired, good night,” she said. Her eyes are still dry. She doesn’t have any more tears to cry. Not for her heartless father. Not for her lover and the future father of her children. Maybe she is better off never relying on anyone else but herself. Despite having Thorin next to him, Zi Mei has never felt so alone and lonely. She could feel the chasm between her and Thorin widening. There is now an emptiness in her heart that she knows no one else will be able to fill. She willed herself to go back to sleep. She needed the comfort of the silent painless darkness that sleep offers.

—–

Thorin watched his mortal match turned away from him and curled up in a ball, her shoulders slumped and a dark sadness hanging around her aura. He knew what she wanted but he also knew he couldn’t give it to her. He could keep her company and be her protector but he couldn’t risk giving her his heart.

Mortals are fickle creatures. If he was to give her his heart, who is to say that she won’t one day throw it back at him and tell him that she only wants his money? After all, she did sign that contract because of the money.

Mortals are always motivated by money. He has seen how some mortals even betrayed their own family, their lovers, their children, over money. Just like Lil Zi’s father. He did not even bother to check on his daughter but went deeper in hiding. Thorin is disgusted by how mortals display so little loyalty to even their own kin. The only loyal mortal he knows is his mother who married his dragon shapeshifter father. But his mother is different. He has not seen that many happy pairings in other dragon – human couples. Most of the couples he met over the years eventually split up, the mortals deciding to leave everything behind and disappear.

How can he even dare to love a mortal? What if this entrancing woman next to him decide to leave him one day after he gave in and fall deeply in love with her? Then what? He doesn’t think he can get over it. Even now, she didn’t want to live with him. She preferred her own home.

It is bad enough that he must mate with a mortal to get heirs. He will take care of her for as long as she wanted and he will let her go if she wanted to leave. The contract was actually just for show. He will never hold her to it but he won’t tell her that, so that she doesn’t take advantage of it. He had already half a mind of telling her that the contract was cancelled when she was deep in depression over the miscarriage. Seeing her like that pained him. It felt so wrong to force the mere slip of a woman to undergo that pain again.

Now, he has to deal with the demons. One of them almost killed her! He did not expect them to be so bold as to come to the hotel room when he could return any second. After Zi Mei went into the room, he had left to check on the emergency that Jessica sent him. It was only five minutes but that five minutes was enough for the demon to invade and try to kill Zi Mei. If he was but a minute late in getting back, she would be dead. He ignored the pain he felt at the thought of her being killed due to him. It was merely guilt. He doesn’t harbour any feelings for her.

Thorin lay there watching over Zi Mei throughout the night, till dawn breaks and the skies turned a different hue of orange and pink. He got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower and clean up. He needs to come up with a plan to protect Zi Mei from the demons. He can’t go around fighting a war with demons and protect her at the same time. He can’t bring her with him too when he goes to places where the demons had attacked his other dragon shapeshifter clan members.

When he came out from the bathroom, Zi Mei was awake. She is sitting up, staring out the balcony at the lightening skies. If not for her heartbreakingly sad expression, she looked so desirable, his first instinct was to jump on her and take her there and then.

“Good morning, Lil Zi, ready for breakfast?” he asked gently instead. She started and turned to him, a shutter coming down on her face.

“Yes, let me shower and change,” she said. She padded over to the bathroom and closed the door with a click. Thorin sighed. She is back to being careful around him, despite the passionate lovemaking session last night, before the reappearance of the spikes. The nightmare and her eventual question about love had again changed the way she behaved towards him.

—-

They both headed down to the hotel cafeteria for breakfast after Zi Mei has showered and dressed up in fresh clothes. She felt moderately better after the shower. She had turned up the water heater so hot that it almost burned her skin and she had stood under the shower, letting the burning hot water sluice over her, imagining it washing away all her worries, cares and pain away. She has resolved to lock all her unnecessary feelings and emotions away.

She signed a ‘business’ deal with Thorin so she might as well keep it impersonal with him. Making love with him will just be part of the ‘business’ deal. No more of the ‘I love you’ nonsense, she told herself. They even have demons to worry about! She will need to ask Thorin about the demon taking any human form it likes. It is scary thinking about it. It could even attack any of her friends.