“You want two million dollars for your daughter? I will give you two million if you get the blazing scales out of here and keep walking. I thought humans stopped the practice of selling their daughters like cattle years ago.” I gestured angrily toward the open door, fighting the urge to pick them both up and toss them into the hallway.
Lennox’s mother glared right back at me. The backbone of the woman would have been impressive if she wasn’t using it to repeatedly stab her daughter. “Like you have two million. Look at you. You don’t even have shoes. And what you did this morning…”
“Rescued a kind, generous female from being forced into marriage with a man who is far beneath her? A marriage that would have slowly destroyed her?”
“That marriage was important!”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I just couldn’t do it.” Lennox was biting her lip so hard she was going to draw blood.
“Of course, you couldn’t. You couldn’t help your family, could you? Ungrateful brat. This is the last straw, Lennox. This is it. You’ve pushed us too far. Do you know how much money your father wasted on that wedding? And this room? The room you used like a cheap hussy to hook up with a lowlife stranger.”
I lost it. Roaring loud enough to shake the room, I felt the change happening, my skin tingling, my body stretching out. I fought it back, not an easy feat, and then let out an angry puff of fire. It wasn’t the most desirable way to reveal my dragon to Lennox, nor the wisest, but I was barely hanging on.
“I am seconds from turning into the biggest monster you’ve ever seen and making all your worst nightmares come true. If you value your measly existence, you will hold your tongues.
Lennox and I are leaving. We are going to go somewhere private, where we can enjoy each other without insults and accusations. You will go back to your miserable lives and be grateful you have such a caring, loving, forgiving daughter that neither of you deserves. She is, after all, the only reason I have not already plucked your heads from your bodies.”
I held my hand out to Lennox and let out a silent breath of relief when she came. She was not afraid of me. I had been fearing I might have to scoop her up and take her out kicking and screaming. I did not bother looking back as we headed to the elevators.
15
Lennox
The elevator climbed to the top floor of the hotel. We got out and Remy led me to the stairway where we ascended even higher. Why wasn’t I freaked out by what had just happened? Remy had threatened to eat my parents and had even spit a little fireball at them. That was cool. He’d ripped the hotel door clean off its hinges. Yet, as we reached the rooftop, fear of Remy was the farthest thing on my emotional radar. I was exhilarated. And flattered. No one had ever defended me the way he had before.
We stepped out onto the roof of the hotel, and Remy turned to look at me, a worried expression pulling his features taut.
“I am going to show you something, and I do not want you to be frightened, Lennox, but this may be alarming.” Remy was bent forward, staring into my eyes as he spoke. He thought I was going to blow a gasket.
“I’ve already seen, remember? Through the bushes when you fell. Just do it.”
He looked shocked, but his eagerness for us to leave the hotel powered through. “Back up.”
I stepped back and watched as he disappeared, and in his place stood a large, crimson dragon. I stood with my mouth agape. Seeing him behind some bushes and seeing him up close were two very different things. He was huge. Magnificent. I wanted to explore him, but even by New Orleans standards, a giant dragon on a rooftop was strange.
He motioned to his back and I hurried forward. Enthusiastically, I climbed onto his back and settled with my thighs wrapped around his wide neck, not unlike mounting a horse. Leaning forward to hug him, I let out a wild scream as air rushed over me and we shot into the night sky.
New Orleans was instantly twinkling lights below us, and the heavens twinkling stars above us. I laughed wildly and sat back. “Remy! This is amazing!”
Hold on. The command floored me.
“Did you just speak to me, in my head?”
Hold on, mate. I would not like to have to catch you in midair as you fall to earth.
I wrapped my arms tightly around him, stroking the mighty scales that coated him. I didn’t know what it said about me, but my body was going crazy. Whether it was the new side of Remy, the height, the adrenaline, I didn’t know. I just knew I wanted him to land and go back to his human self so we could have another round of screw-me-into-oblivion sex.
You want me to screw you into oblivion, huh? What a naughty transformation my mate has undergone in just a day. I like it.
“You can hear my thoughts?”
The ones you are screaming at me.
“Whoa! This is wild.” I shouted aloud as he dipped lower and then shot back up higher. The wind whipped my hair into a wild rats’ nest, but I didn’t care. I really was like a Disney princess. I was riding through the night sky on the back of a dragon—and I never wanted it to end.
You are not afraid?
How could I be afraid of him? I pressed a kiss to his neck and heard him growl in response. “Take us down and I’ll show you how unafraid I am.”
Hold tight.
Suddenly, we were dropping fast. He flew between trees and close to a marshy body of water, splashing me, and then landed on what looked like a small dock in the middle of the bayou. Before I could adjust myself and swing my leg over to dismount, he was already shifting back and grabbing me.
He looked down into my eyes with a stunning golden stare, and I watched the golden veins and red patchy scales glitter over his skin before fading. He held my face in his hands and growled. “Flying has never felt like that. I feel like I could conquer an entire army alone.” He kissed me hard and then lifted me into his arms. “I only have one thing I want to do right now, though.”
I let my head fall back and stared up at the stars. It was so dark that they looked like twinkling gems I could reach up and pluck. A view that must be normal to Remy, who could fly so high. I met his heated gaze. “I’m never using my legs again. Just fly me from place to place, dragon.”
He laughed. “Ah, she has become the bossy high school teacher, now?”
I cupped his face and stroked my thumb over his lips. “No one has ever fought for me like you did. You stood up to them.”
“I don’t think you understand, yet, Lennox. I would literally turn into my dragon and eat whole anyone who hurts or upsets you. You are my mate, and I will defend you to my death. No one talks to you like that. The only reason they are still standing is that they are your parents.”
I shivered.
“Does that frighten you?”
I didn’t want to say what I was thinking out loud, afraid that it made me the real monster. Instead, I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against his.
“You don’t have to say anything, mate. I know you do not want anything to happen to them.”
“It just feels so good to have someone in my corner. I don’t know how to fight them. I know I should stand up to them and fight for myself, and maybe someday I will. But right now, I feel amazing. Better than amazing. I feel so free.” I threw my hands in the air and twirled in a circle.
“You are free, Lennox. You can choose whatever you wish.” He moved away from me and held his arms out. “Tell me where you want to go, what you want to do. I will make it happen.”
I reached down and slowly pulled the hem of my shirt over my head. Tossing it aside, I met his gaze and smiled as I unbuttoned my pants. “Right now, I want you.”
“I will make that happen.”
16
Lennox
I sat on Remy’s patio, nearly two weeks later, staring out over the water and wondering how I was going to break it to him that I had to leave. I meant to tell him that my vacation time would soon be over, but I’d been so caught up milking every second of the best vacation of my life. I didn’t want to throw a damper on
it by mentioning its end. Day after day of pleasure and happiness tended to turn my brain to mush, I guessed.
I’d let everything go. I hadn’t talked to anyone besides Remy, not even Nance or Margo. I hadn’t been out of his house, other than to sit on the patio where we watched fireflies, listened to bullfrogs, and swatted mosquitoes. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other. I’d barely worn clothes for two whole weeks, and I had an impressive lack of tan lines to show for it. In the back of my head, however, the fact that this was all make-believe had grown larger and larger. Well, it wasn’t all make-believe. Remy and I were real. But walking around naked without a care in the world was coming to an end. I was going to have to deal with real life starting tomorrow.
I felt a little guilty for shutting everyone out. Margo and Nance might be worried for all I knew. No one knew exactly where I was or how to locate me. I’d meant to call, but as one day turned to another, I just didn’t. It was easy to get lost in Remy. The honeymoon was ending, though.
Remy was not going to be happy about me leaving. I was upset, too. It wasn’t easy to leave paradise, but lesson plans and staff meetings beckoned.
I was head over heels for Remy already. Hell, one night with him was all that took. Being with him was so easy. Talking to him and opening up to someone who actually cared was so refreshing and comforting. I loved every minute of it. I loved him.
Sighing, I brought my knees up to my chest. I did love him. Probably from the moment I’d seen him. It was intense and demanding, something so deep that I felt it in every fiber of my being.
I had to go back to my life, though. The question that plagued me—that had my stomach in knots—was whether he’d want to come along. Or at least show up some of the time. I didn’t know how it worked, the whole mate thing. He hadn’t told me he loved me. We hadn’t talked at all about moving in or being together in the real world—the one where I lived.
I knew he cared about me. I could hear him thinking about me sometimes. He cared a lot. But that was while we vacationed in paradise. How would all those feelings transfer to late nights on the job, bills, frantic morning commutes, and the regular stresses of life? I worked full time and then some. I was always tutoring kids after school, or before, or spending late nights grading papers and planning lessons. Outside of that, I hung out with Margo and Nance, and I had family dinners once a week at my parents’ house. Although…maybe we could nix the dinners.
David had fit into my life easily because we didn’t really want to see each other too often. But Remy? He would demand my time, and I would want to give it.
I’d been arguing with myself over and over. Part of me, the part of me that was so stupidly, naively in love with Remy that she couldn’t think straight when he was around, wanted to just walk away and leave it all behind. But I’d worked hard to carve out my niche in life. I’d faced negativity from my parents nonstop and still managed to follow through with my teaching degree. I couldn’t throw away the one thing that I’d managed to make my own.
Remy was easy to talk to, but I hated to upset him. I also didn’t want to have to wake him up the next morning and ask for a flight home at the same time as I told him that I was leaving.
I sat there for another hour before Remy joined me. He scooped me up, sat down on the lounger, and settled me on his lap. Wrapping his arms around me and holding me, he nuzzled his face into my neck.
“I slept too long.”
I stroked his arm and swallowed a lump. My big dragon man. I didn’t want to go, but mostly I didn’t want things to change. I was terrified it would fall apart.
“What is wrong, my mate? You are trembling.” He turned me around so I was straddling him and pushed my hair out of my face. “What has upset you?”
I didn’t want to say it.
“Lennox?”
“I have to leave!” I blurted it out and then slapped my hands over my face. I buried my face in his chest and let the tears leak out.
“What are you talking about?”
Through sobs, I tried to tell him. “Work. I have to go back to work. Tomorrow. I work and then I tutor and I’m not going to have time to lounge around naked and I’m so sorry. I don’t want to go, but I have to. And I have to call Margo and Nance and even my parents. I’m sorry.”
Remy held me as I shook and wiped tears away. When I’d finally calmed down some, he pulled my face to his and gently kissed me. “We can leave tonight.”
Jerking up, I blinked a few times to give myself time to process what he was saying. “You’re coming?”
“Did you think I would let you leave without me?”
“I didn’t know…”
“We are mates. I told you about mates.” He had told me about how when a dragon finds a mate, it’s for life. That he marks her with a bite somewhere visible like the neck. He assured me that it wouldn’t be painful, but it would scar. This informs all other dragons that she’s taken. He trailed his fingers over the tender skin on my neck—the skin that he still hadn’t marked. He told me we were mates, but as for that bite…maybe he was waiting for a special moment or something. “Where you go, I go.”
That was a huge relief. My heart smiled at how accommodating and eager to please me he was, but I felt even guiltier for not saying anything before. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“Lennox, why are you apologizing to me?”
I felt my cheeks burn. “I just…I should’ve told you.”
He rubbed his thumbs over my cheeks and shrugged. “You told me now.”
“Wait a second…” I sat up straighter and narrowed my eyes at him. “You knew, didn’t you?”
With a sly grin, he averted his eyes. “I figured you’d tell me when you were ready. For the record, mate, you scream most of your thoughts at me.”
Smacking his chest, I climbed off him and slid to the next chair. “Here I was so worried!”
“There is nothing to worry about. I am yours. You need only to relay your thoughts and feelings to me. We will figure everything out together. Okay?” He looked down at his lap and back at me. “Now. If you’re done being upset, I’d like my mate back on my lap.”
I tried to hide my giggle, but it was pointless with him. “Can you hear my thoughts right now?” I rested my hands on his chest and trailed my fingertip over the line of an old scar.
“You are wondering if things will be the same once we return to New Orleans. And the answer is yes, I believe so. We will be together. That’s what matters.”
“Will you be okay there?” I looked around at his property. It was basically a mansion—he called it a castle—tucked deep within secluded swampland. “I live in an apartment. There’s not even a great view.”
“It will be okay. We will make it work.”
I hoped so.
17
Remy
How is mated life, bro? I haven’t heard from you in weeks. You must bring your mate over soon. Chyna, Cherry, and Sky are asking constantly to meet her. Seems they have noticed some similarities between the three of them and are wondering if the similarities extend to Lennox.
I rolled my neck and went back to searching Lennox’s minuscule bathroom for those pills she eats when she has a headache. I had already torn apart the kitchen pantry where she kept a few medicines. Why they were all spread out, I didn’t know. I did not even know if her human medicines would work for me.
All I knew was the myriad of sounds and the hundreds of smells surrounding me were driving me slowly insane. They were not sounds of the natural environment I was used to—the wildlife in the swamps, marshes, and wetlands. There was also human stink. Not Lennox’s scent. Hers I loved. It was from the others in the building, some of it natural, much of it artificial—an overabundance of perfumes, deodorants, hair products, detergents. It was enough to drive a dragon insane.
The stomping from upstairs started up again and I growled. I would soon go up there and break someone’s legs.
Mated life was not exactly what I t
hought it was going to be. I had been staying at Lennox’s apartment for a week, and already I was pacing the place angry and irritated. I was more than bored, I felt as though I was in a cage that was too small and had a constant barrage of human voices. With my enhanced hearing, I could hear everyone in the building, laughing, talking, arguing, snoring, fucking, everything. Constantly.
Mated life is great.
Remy, what is wrong?
I slammed the cabinet door closed, cracking it. That was another thing. I kept breaking things. It was as though the apartment was made of cardboard and bubblegum. Every time I touched something, it broke or fell apart. Examining the crack, I thought of what Lennox would say when she saw it. She would not be happy. She would sigh as though she had lost patience with a youngling and say something about a security deposit. Whatever that meant.
I am living in a shoebox while my mate is gone all day long. The neighbor upstairs stomps around like the carpet is on fire, and someone stinks up the building like human dung every day.
I sank onto Lennox’s tiny couch and stared up at the ceiling. I’d built my castle myself, and it was as strong and sturdy as I was. The scents that surrounded me there were wild, free, and natural and did not irritate my nose like those in this place where everyone chose to live in one large house with sections called apartments beside and on top of one another. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would choose this given there were so many areas of empty land on which to make a home.
Why is she working so much? Are you running low on treasure, brother? Coming up short?
Dragons amass treasure as a natural instinct. Even when we were exiled and found ourselves in this strange, new world, we continued to collect things that were considered of value in this world—minerals and gems that humans also treasured. Diamonds, gold, platinum, opals, rubies, silver, I had a large cache of stored treasure. I assumed we all had. Although we had difficulties assimilating to certain aspects of the human culture, finance was second nature to us. We found the human financial structure to be primitive and archaic, but we quickly learned to adapt. Each of us carried a healthy investment portfolio as well.
Fire Breathing Remy Page 7
