by Romi Hart
“Oh, I’m not here to purchase anything.” Pulling himself off the doorframe, he stood at his full height which seemed crazily tall.
He must be some famous basketball player who thinks he can do whatever he wants to. “Look, I don’t watch sports of any type. If you think I know who you are and you’re wondering why I’m not swooning, then you now know that I have no clue who you are, Tieris.” When he’d told me his name, he must’ve expected some reaction out of me, which he’d gotten none. “And why are you here if you aren’t looking to make a purchase?”
His smile only grew. “Something brought me here. And your name is?”
“None of your business.” I had the idea the gorgeous man was accustomed to women falling all over him. “If you have no need for my help, it would be nice if you left this shop. I’m currently involved in the cleaning of all the books and shelves and it’s a terrible chore that I should’ve never signed up for.” I began to consider how my boss would feel if he knew I wasn’t being friendly to his customers and tried to change my brusque attitude. “So, please excuse my demeanor. It’s only because I’m very busy.”
“Perhaps you could use a hand then. I can help you.” Stooping over, he picked up an entire stack of books that I’d already dusted off. “For instance, where can I put these for you? I can see that they’ve already been cleaned. Let me help you. Let me put a quick end to this tiresome chore for you, my sweet.”
His sweet?
I had to nip this in the bud and quick. “Look here, sir. I am not your sweet. And I don’t need your help. I’ve been given a week’s time to get this task accomplished and I will achieve that goal. So, if you would just take your leave I can stop wasting my time with you.”
The way his blue eyes flashed with unexplained pain made me gasp. His head bent; his body recoiled. “I didn’t mean to offend you in any way. I merely wanted to get to know you.”
Making no sense at all, I found him incredibly confusing. “Sir, are you to expect me to believe that you came in off the street into a bookstore with no one in it, traveled all the way back here through the piles of books only to find me so you can get to know me? A woman whom you have never met nor heard of? A woman who is on top of a ladder with a huge workload to take care of?” He must’ve thought me stupid or he – himself was stupid.
Twisting his large hands into knots, he seemed upset with himself. “Look, we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot here. Can we start over? Can you come down off that ladder to talk to me? Can you tell me your name? How I ache to learn your name, my sweet. Oops, sorry – my lady – or miss. Yes, miss should be acceptable. Right? Is it acceptable to you?”
I found him odd in so many ways that I’d lost count of them all. But somehow I found him charming, sweet, and of course – insanely handsome as well. “Miss will be fine.” Why he’d said he ached to know my name was ridiculous. As I came down the ladder, slowly so I could keep an eye on the man, I saw the muscles ripple along his exposed chest as he moved in to help me.
As I came to the last few rungs, his hands moved around my waist, picking me up with such ease that it boggled my mind. I wasn’t a thin woman in the least. My love affair with food and drink had fluffed my body up quite a bit.
Gently, he put my feet on the floor, and it was only then that I began to notice that the man was the most muscular person I’d ever seen in my life. “There, isn’t this better? We can speak more easily from this vantage point. Don’t you agree, miss?”
I’d sort of lost the ability to speak as I took in his massive structure. From above he’d seemed pretty damn hot. Facing him, he was more than hot – he was volcanic. My hands trembled at my sides, wanting to run over the chiseled features of his beyond handsome face. He’s got to be gay. He’s too perfect not to be. No heterosexual man puts this much effort into his appearance.
But he’d said he ached to know my name and he’d called me his sweet. “Tell me again why you came in here in the first place.”
“My feet led me here is why that is. And then my nose took over, leading me all the way to you.” He leaned down then took a long sniff along my neck. “Yes, it is you that I’ve been scenting.”
Although the blood in my veins had turned into molten lava, I gave him no idea what had happened to me. “Please refrain from sniffing me, sir. We are not dogs. It’s not common practice to smell another person. Where are you from?” His accent being European seemed familiar, although his actions did not.
For the first time, he wore a sheepish expression as if I’d embarrassed him a bit. Which he should’ve been embarrassed by sniffing another person. Especially a person he didn’t even know. “Your aroma is just so enthralling that I couldn’t help myself. But I shall try. And I am from – um – well, it’s a village far away from here. Yes – a village.” He seemed rather proud of himself for coming up with that idea. “And I’m in Rome on vacation.”
“And you’re in this shop because your feet led you then your nose did.” All I knew for certain was that the gorgeous man was most likely clinically insane. Or at the very least, he was an eccentric lunatic. Either way – nutjob described his demeanor best.
The way his eyes scanned my body made me feel nearly naked as I stood perfectly still in front of him. “And now my eyes are making it so I can’t just walk away. You are an undeniable beauty. From your dark curls to your eyes which are the same shade as a cup of strong coffee to the caramel skin tone of your creamy flesh, every last inch of you is beyond my wildest dreams.”
Okay, this guy’s off the charts crazy!
“Now you’ve pissed me off.” The hood-rat part of me had stepped up and she was shaking mad. “I know that I’m not beautiful. Okay? But you don’t have to go over the top with your fake compliments. I’m fat – I know this. I’ve got issues with my kinky hair – it’s a problem that I’ve dealt with my entire life. And my skin tone.” Well, my skin tone isn’t half-bad. “I’ll let that one slide. But you’ve got to know this about me, Tieris – I am not a dumb woman who falls for the crap that can come out of a man’s mouth.”
“I can see that. And I would apologize if I didn’t mean everything I’ve said. I don’t think you’re fat at all. I think you’re curved in all the right ways. And your hair is amazing. It’s coarse and the color is so deep that my eyes get lost in the depths of it all.”
It had been quite some time since I’d had my hair done. “So, what you’re saying is that you like my big-ass fro?”
“I like your big hair, yes. I don’t know what a fro is, but I like the way your hair puffs out around your beautiful face. I’m not making things up to flatter you. Please, tell me your name. You know mine. I don’t find it fair that you get to say my name, but I don’t get to say yours. To feel your name coming off my lips and tongue would make my heart leap with joy.”
He had no idea how boring my name was. “Sure, let’s see if this name sends your heart leaping. My name is Linda.”
Closing his eyes, looking as if he wanted to savor the moment, he whispered, “Lin-da.”
My nether regions began pulsing as my body reacted to the way the man said my name. I had to lean back on the ladder to brace myself as my knees gave out and my legs felt like noodles. Okay, he made my name sound pretty damn amazing right there.
I didn’t hate my name. It wasn’t that it was ugly or anything like that. But it was common, plain, and not many women were called that name anymore. It was an old lady’s name in my opinion. Why my parents had decided to stick us all with monikers from the past, I had no idea. But they had. They’d named us all the most common and boring names imaginable.
Only Tieris had said it, making it sound like the name of an angel. Only, I wasn’t falling for his crap. “Okay, so you know how to make anything sound good. You’re obviously a Lothario.”
Opening his eyes, he looked confused. “What’s a Lothario?”
“A womanizer. A man who seeks out as many women as he can get. A man who wants as many notches on his bedpos
t as he can manage. A wolf. A hound. A player?” I knew one of the names had to be a thing he’d heard of.
“I do like to play.” He nodded as his large hand moved over his chin. Looking up, he seemed to be trying to understand things then he grinned as his eyes came back to mine. “Do you like to play too, Linda?” He shuddered after saying my name. “Oh, yes. I got goosebumps that time, Linda.” He laughed. “Yes! It happened again.”
I help up my hand before he said my name again. “Watch out there, lover-boy. You don’t want to give yourself a woody by saying my name too much.” Laughing, I had never met anyone like this guy. “You need to go though. Seriously. I’ve got to get to work. This has been.” I wasn’t sure what this had been. “Well, enlightening. But you’ve got to get along so I can get back to work.”
Suddenly, he seemed almost desperate as he ran his hands down my arms, taking my hands. My hands looked tiny compared to his monster-sized ones. “Linda don’t make me go. Let me help you. We’ll have this done in no time. I can speed things up. You’ll see. Don’t send me away. Please.”
This had gotten too weird. “Look, I don’t know you. I don’t know where you really came from. I don’t know if you can be trusted. Some of these books are antiques and extremely rare. Not just anyone can clean them the way I can.”
“I know all about treating things with great care. I swear that to you.” He took a deep breath and when he let it out, I smelt something akin to ashes in a fireplace. And as odd as it was, I found it comforting instead of revolting.
But just as I grew more comfortable, he went and did something so wrong that it warranted an outburst. Pulling me closer to him, he pressed his body to mine until they were flush, then his arms wrapped around me so tightly that I couldn’t move. “Hey! No! Let. Me. Go.”
“But.” He removed his arms and I backed away from him. “No. No, I didn’t mean to frighten you at all. I just - I mean.”
Holding my hands out in front of me to make sure he kept at least that much space between us, I backed up. “You can’t go around doing things like that. I don’t care who you think you are, you cannot do things like that.”
“I’m sorry. I just want to hold you. I just want to touch your soft skin. I want to kiss your plump lips.”
I couldn’t let him go on. “Out! Now!” He was after one thing from me.
I’d dealt with guys wanting me for only one reason. Sex.
When I was younger, I fell for that crap too many times. The boys wanted a piece of what I had, but none of them wanted anything more than that. I’d never had a real boyfriend. I’d either had men who had used me for sex or men who only wanted to be my friends. I wasn’t the type of woman a man wanted to be seen with, is what I’d gathered.
The notion came to me one night after I’d had sex in the bathroom of a nightclub with a really hot guy. He had no idea that I’d come up behind him and overheard him say that fat girls were like scooters – you don’t want anyone to see you on them but they’re sure fun to ride. I’d stopped having sex then and there.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of five years had passed since I’d had sex. And now this crazy man seemed set on getting a piece of my limited action. Only I wasn’t about to give in to him.
“Linda, please,” he begged.
I wasn’t having it. “Out!”
3
Tieris
I’ve messed up bad!
I’d let my libido rule me and now Linda wanted nothing to do with me. “I’m sorry. I really am.”
“You’re still standing here when I’ve told you repeatedly to get the hell out of this shop.” Her whole body shook, she was so full of anger.
And she had every right to be. Being the kind of creature that I was, I hadn’t encountered this type of behavior in a female before. Linda was the first strong female I’d ever dealt with. And I was dealing with her all wrong.
With women in the ancient world, my touch, the scent of my brimstone breath, and my overall handsome appearance had made them putty in my very capable hands. But everything I’d done before seemed to send me further and further away from Linda.
I had to think of something to say to stop her from sending me away. “I do hear what you’re saying, Linda. And I know I’ve done wrong. I am so very sorry. See, I’m not used to polite society.”
“Polite society?” Stunned, she only shook her head as she kept retreating out of the small back room. “This is just normal society. We don’t go grabbing people we don’t know and hugging them. We especially don’t grab a member of the opposite sex and hold them so tightly that they can’t move.”
So that was it. I had made her think that I was going to try to make her do something that she wasn’t ready for. “I’m sorry that I did that. And I am sorry that I scared you. The first thing that you should know about me is that I never take what’s not mine.” That wasn’t entirely true. As a dragon, I had stolen many things from unsuspecting people to add to my treasure. But a female wasn’t a thing I’d taken without her giving herself to me.
She’d backed all the way out of the backroom, but her retreat was halted by a stack of books that the backs of her legs had hit. “Okay, hands to yourself then. You understand that. Right?”
“I do.” I could’ve kicked myself for forgetting what time period I was in.
“Here’s the thing.” She gestured to the books all around the shop. “I do have a ton of work to get to. And I do need you to leave so that I can get it done.”
She was right. I was only getting in her way and she wasn’t going to allow me to help her. “If I go, will you promise to let me take you to dinner this evening?”
Her eyes went blank as she looked into mine. “What?”
“I would like for us to get to know one another more. I think a public place would be best. You would feel safer with other people around.” I knew I had to stop all my old ways and deal with her the way people did in this new era. “We can go out for dinner, maybe do a little dancing.” I thought about how I would have to hold her in my arms to dance and thought I’d better add, “If that’s something you feel comfortable with. If you don’t, then I will understand completely, and we can make alternate plans.”
“You want to take me out in public?” She seemed confused as she ran her hands nervously down her thighs. “Me? Out to eat? Dancing?”
I thought it to be a typical date. “Yes, out to eat then dancing. You do like to eat out, don’t you?”
Patting her stomach she laughed. “Can’t you tell that by this figure I’ve got going on here?” But then she quickly stopped laughing and looked down at the floor. “Look, I’m not going to have sex with you.”
Well, maybe not yet.
“I don’t think I put that into the plans, Linda.” Something told me that she’d been hurt by men before. She needed to know that I wasn’t like other men – human men. “I’m not the type of man you’ve known before.”
“You can say that again.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if she’d just gotten a chill. “Tieris, I don’t know what you’re really after here. I won’t allow myself to be used – not anymore. And I don’t know why you would want to be seen with a woman like me.”
I had no idea what she was so ashamed of, but it was very disconcerting. “Why wouldn’t I want to be seen with a gorgeous woman like yourself? And I am only after one thing. That’s us getting to know one another.” Not that I could tell her a lot about myself. Telling a woman in this day and age that one is a dragon-shifter hadn’t been known to go over well at all.
Pink stained her caramel-colored cheeks. “Tieris, please stop flattering me. I’m not gorgeous by any means.”
“You are. But I’ll refrain from giving you compliments if that’s the way you really want it. I just feel that you’re not aware of your wonderful attributes and pointing them out to you might make you more aware of what you have to offer.” Not that I wanted her offering other males what I wanted and felt had been intended specifically for me an
d me alone.
The thing about scenting a female was that it meant you two were meant for each other and no one else. Perhaps the way she’d been left behind by others had made her feel inadequate as a female. But really she’d been meant for me, so that made the other males leave her alone. I couldn’t explain that to her at this time or she would’ve thought me crazy. Which I was fairly certain that she already did think me to be crazy.
“I’m not some young girl who has no idea what men think about her, you know.” Picking her chin up, she seemed intent on telling me something about herself – something personal. “I am thirty-years-old. I’ve been around the block a time or two. And so far, what I’ve found out is that men might want to have sex with me, but they don’t want anything more than that. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do have a few men in my life who only want to be my friends. Those guys don’t mind being seen out in public with me. But not in a romantic way. Do you understand what I’m trying to say here?”
I understood completely. “You’ve only met jerks so far. You’ve only met idiots that can’t see you for what you truly are. But I can. I can see your heart in your eyes. It’s big too. You’ve got great capabilities for love.”
Shaking her head, she seemed like she wasn’t believing me at all. “I have no idea what love it, Tieris. You have no idea how little I know about romantic love. I love my family and friends, but a romance isn’t a thing I’ve ever had. So, you see now that you are wrong about me. I have no capabilities for love. I’ve never received nor given romantic love.”
In a way, I hated that she’d never experienced the love between mates. But then again, I was elated to be the only one she would ever experience that with. “Good.”
“Good?” Her mouth hung ajar. “Did you hear how old I am? I’m thirty. That’s a bit on the high end for a person not to have experienced the love between a man and a woman in her life.”
