Dragon Passion

by Amelia Jade

  A concerned face peered down at him, blueish-green eyes frowning. Brown hair dyed a nice burgundy color fell across her face as she moved her lips.

  “Are you okay?”

  It was the same woman he had cut off.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” he said with a laugh as he saw her eyes widen, recognizing the bike.

  ***

  “You,” she said in surprise.

  “Me,” he confirmed, standing up and pulling off his helmet after doing a quick sweep of the street to ensure no other Agents were present. It wouldn’t do for him to be showing them his face if it could be avoided.

  Justin wasn’t too worried about their presence. Whatever had just happened had been for show, to drive home a point to him and to the Underground as a whole. Someone new was in charge, and they were done playing games.

  The woman’s eyes widened as he got up easily and brushed himself off, ignoring the blood and skin scraped across the pavement, leaving a rather unsightly dark mark.

  “I’m clear, uninjured, and not being followed,” he said into the helmet, then tucked it at his side, not listening for a response. His attention was elsewhere. “Look,” he said with a grimace, “I’m really sorry for cutting you off earlier. Honestly, I got distracted and didn’t see you emerging from between the vehicles. It was totally my fault, and I apologize for it.”

  She frowned, still staring at his back. “It’s okay,” she mumbled. “But are you sure you’re okay? You’re back is ripped to shreds…”

  Justin grinned. “I’m fine, trust me.”

  “But…”

  He shrugged. “I’m a shifter; it’ll heal up in a few minutes. Hurts like hell now, but nothing a bit of time won’t fix.”

  The woman rocked back on her heels. “A shifter? Really? I’ve never met one before.”

  “Well, now you have,” he said with a laugh.

  “And the headset?” she prompted, pointing at his helmet. “What’s that, and this,” she swept her hand around to encompass him and the crashed bike, “what is this all about? Are you some sort of secret agent?”

  Justin laughed again, louder this time. “Close enough,” he managed to get out between bouts. “Close enough.”

  The woman gave him a strange stare, as if she didn’t know whether to believe him or not. Her eyes captivated him as they seemed to swirl back and forth between green and blue, a mesmerizing shift that he found tugging at something deep within him.

  Careful, Justin. Don’t do anything stupid here. You don’t know this woman at all. The last thing you want to do is stare at her and make her think you’re some kind of creep.

  So instead of staring, he whipped his eyes away to stare at his bike.

  Smooth. Real smooth. Natural ladies’ man. That’s you, bud.

  His bear rolled its non-existent eyes in disgust and seemed to walk away, throwing its hands up in the air, as if he was beyond even its help. That was a reassuring notion.

  “So what do you do now?” she asked, sounding a little more timid.

  Almost as if you should have said something there, instead of forcing her to. Idiot.

  “Uh, well, if I’m as well-liked as I hope I am, my friends will come back with their truck and I’ll toss it in there.”

  “Come back?” she asked with a frown. “They left you behind after you wiped out like that?”

  He chuckled. “It’s…a little more complicated than that,” he admitted. “And, in case you missed it, I didn’t just wipe out. I was taken out.”

  The woman’s eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch. “Oh?”

  She didn’t believe him. That was okay; he had proof.

  “Yes,” he said, still smiling. He took a step toward the road, crooking a finger when she didn’t follow him.

  “I don’t know about this,” she said slowly. “Every time I go between two cars with you nearby, I seem to have some sort of bad experience.

  His smiled became a grin as he reached down and picked up the big door that was lying in the road, half-blocking one of the lanes.

  “See this?” he asked, waiting until she nodded. “This is why I wiped out. Kind of hard to avoid one of those and stay upright on one of these things.”

  The woman shrugged. “You should have seen it coming. It’s called being aware, like seeing someone emerge from between two cars.”

  He looked at her for a long moment. “You know, that really isn’t an excuse, considering that you aren’t actually supposed to do that. Besides, if that didn’t happen, then we wouldn’t be able to have this amazing conversation.”

  This brought a smile to the woman’s face.

  Score one for Justin and his ability to talk so much until he says the right thing!

  “Perhaps,” she admitted coyly, then retreated to the sidewalk as he removed the door from traffic.

  “Besides,” he told her as he easily set it down against the nearby building. “It’s hard to see it coming when one moment it’s attached to the vehicle next to you, and the next it’s flying at you.”

  “So, what, it just sort of fell off the vehicle?” she asked skeptically, looking over the damage to his bike, her reddish-brown hair falling over her shoulder.

  “Uh,” he said awkwardly. “More like someone kicked it at me.”

  Her eyebrows—a much darker shade of brown, indicating that her hair wasn’t natural—shot up this time. “Someone kicked it off their vehicle and at you? How is that possible, and on top of that, why?”

  Justin looked embarrassed. He couldn’t tell her the truth about the why. He could, however, tell her the truth about the how.

  “This is how,” he said, bending down with a grunt, lifting his motorcycle clear off the ground, and walking it across the sidewalk to set it against a building. Thankfully not much had actually broken off the bike. There was plenty of deformed metal, but it was all still attached for the most part.

  “Did you just lift that whole thing by yourself?” she asked, eyes wide as she walked over to it. “This is a big boy too. It’s gotta have what, two hundred, two hundred and twenty ponies?” she asked, eyeballing the engine.

  “Two-ten,” he replied, caught off guard by her sudden display of mechanical knowledge. “And yes, I did lift it. Part of the whole shifter thing. You know, change into an animal, heal faster, super strong, blah blah blah.” He tried not to make it out to be a big deal as he looked at her again. Really looked at her.

  She was gorgeous, standing perhaps five foot six, and clad in a layer of muscle. That brought with it a few extra curves that she wasn’t even aware she possessed judging by the way she held herself. If she was aware, she didn’t realize that they made her drop-dead gorgeous in his eyes. As she looked over her shoulder from her inspection of the bike, he realized her face looked almost fragile compared to her body. High upswept cheekbones gave her an almost elfin appearance, contrasting the obvious power in her body with very dainty and feminine facial features.

  He was hooked, even before she bent over, giving him a full view of her exquisite rear. Justin swallowed nervously, flexing his abs and legs as hard as he could to draw blood away from between his legs, where it had suddenly decided to pool with a ferocity that surprised him.

  Inside his bear roared, eager to move forward, the practically feral animal screaming at him to fulfill his primal nature.

  Knowing that he was in public, Justin mentally forced his bear down, not wanting to make a fool of himself, or even worse, drive this very interesting woman away.

  Desperate to think of an idea, any idea, to talk to her more, he looked at the shops on the street. As if fate were trying to tell him something, two storefronts down to his right was a big-chain coffee shop.

  Thank you, he thought, to whomever or whatever was looking over him.

  “Hey,” he said, then stopped.

  She stood up, turning back to face him. “Yes?”

  He froze.

  The beautiful woman frowned slightly. “What?” she asked, thou
gh there wasn’t any vehemence in her voice.

  “I was just wondering,” he said, at last managing to force the words out.

  She waited a second, then prompted him one more time. “Wondering what?”

  Justin smiled and shook his head. “Did you want to get a coffee?” he blurted out, trying to make it seem smooth.

  The woman hesitated, and Justin felt his luck fall away.

  Chapter Three

  Shay

  “Did you want to get a coffee?”

  Her stomach did a backflip. Shay wasn’t sure how to react. This was what she had expected him to say. Hell, if she were honest, it was what she had hoped he might say. So why was she so nervous all of a sudden, and unable to form her words?

  Get yourself together woman, or he’ll just move on to the next one.

  That wasn’t fair to her mystery biker, and she knew it even as the thought entered her mind. He might have the gorgeous good looks of a playboy, but the clear case of the nerves he was getting around her told her that he was, in fact, anything but that.

  “Okay,” she said, following his outstretched finger to see the coffee shop two units down from where they stood. Shay had managed to get the words out when her mind was distracted, but now she was committed to spending more time with him.

  As she watched, he hefted his bike again, using his tree trunk-like legs to do most of the lifting. She could see the way his arms bulged, muscles swelling in size as he kept it tight against his chest, walking down the road ahead of her. She could see his back through the rips in his leather jacket, and true to his word, fresh pink skin had covered up the cuts already.

  Glancing down, she noticed he had forgotten his helmet. Snagging it with her fingers, she set off after him, easily catching up. His steps weren’t overly quick. No matter how easy he made lifting the bike, it was obviously a lot of weight for him to carry, and likely unwieldy as well.

  “You forgot this,” she said, flipping him the helmet as he set the bike down and heading for the door.

  “Thank you,” he said before darting ahead to pull the door open for her, using the helmet to wave her through first.

  Shay covered a smile as she inclined her head royally in his direction, making sure he knew she was just joking with her feigned attitude.

  “What would you like today, your majesty? Anything you want is yours.” He paused. “As long as it’s on this menu.” He pointed at the rather limited menu, frowning. “For a big-chain place, they don’t exactly give you a lot of options, do they?”

  “Perhaps, but what they do offer is very good,” she said. “How have you never been here before?” She wasn’t positive about that, but his surprise at the menu seemed to indicate it.

  “Uh, this is rather embarrassing,” he admitted, “but I don’t drink coffee.”

  Shay tried not to snicker, but she was only partially successful.

  “What?” he asked, spreading his hands out to the sides.

  “So why ask to get a coffee then, if you don’t drink it?”

  He arched an eyebrow. “I got you to agree to spend more time with me, didn’t I?”

  Shay paused, her next words dying in her throat. He had a point. “And I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker,” she said softly, shaking her head.

  “Don’t be too harsh on yourself,” he joked as they moved up to the counter. “It often surprises me when I manage something this impressive as well.”

  Her laugh echoed through the small room, the sharp sound surprising both of them.

  “Your order,” he said, gesturing to the counter.

  Feeling embarrassed, she placed her order. Neither of them said much as they collected their steaming mugs and found a seat away from several other patrons. At this time of day, most of the customers simply walked in, grabbed their drinks, and left, so the seating area was relatively empty.

  “So you know bikes,” he said, making it more of a statement than a question.

  Shay’s guard came up, walls slamming into place immediately without her meaning to as memories bubbled to the surface. Of her racing days, of flying around the track, unencumbered by anything more than her protective suit, a roll cage, and a carbon fiber body designed to cut the air in the most aerodynamic way possible.

  Memories of freedom.

  Although she had settled on open-cockpit race cars, there had been a time when motorcycles and other forms of fast vehicles had caught her eye. Over the years she had developed a technical knowledge base on all sorts of engines and mechanical parts that would put many men to shame. Justin seemed intrigued by it.

  That was the only thing that allowed her to avoid a complete shutdown.

  “Hey, I’m sorry,” he said softly, setting his mug down on the table as he stared across at her, his eyes so icy-blue that they looked tinged with gray.

  Taking a deep, steadying breath, she shook her head. “No,” she forced out through clenched jaw muscles, pushing the pain of her memories aside. “No, it’s okay. It’s not your fault, really. That was a perfectly okay question to ask. It’s just...” she paused, getting a handle on her emotions.

  Another thought bubbled to the surface, and to her surprise, she laughed at it, a harsh, mocking sound. “I can’t believe I’m telling this to a complete stranger.

  The shifter across from her beamed. “Well, that’s easy enough to fix. Justin,” he said, stretching his hand across the table. “Justin Renne, like the pasta.”

  Shay’s mouth dropped open, and she began to laugh once more as she shook it, but this time it was a more relieved, joyful sound. “Like the pasta,” she echoed into her mug, her cheeks sore from the way her smile pulled at them. She took a sip.

  “And you?” he asked as she sat back into her chair.

  Her eyes flew open. “Oh my goodness. I am so sorry, that’s so rude of me.” Aghast at having ignored him, she sat up a little straighter, as if better posture could fix it. “Shay. Shay Lyon.”

  “Pleasure to meet you,” he said, sitting back into his chair, looking at her over the rim of his mug.

  “And I’m sorry for shutting your question down earlier,” she said, feeling relaxed now. “I don’t know bikes per se,” she explained. “But I’ve raced an open-cockpit style car for a number of years now, and in doing so, you learn a lot,” she said, getting the words out at last.

  Justin sat straight up, eyes wide. “You’re a race-car driver?” he asked excitedly.

  Shay smiled sadly. “I was.”

  “But not anymore?”

  “No, not anymore.” That was the first time she had said those words aloud to anyone, including herself. It felt like a punch in the gut, but at the same time, she was somewhat relieved, as if she had had a burden lifted by finally admitting it to herself.

  “Oh,” Justin said. “Am I allowed to ask what happened?”

  “Of course,” she told him, surprised at how easy it was to open up her life to him all of a sudden, now that she knew his name. “It’s really quite simple. I was always on the lower-level circuits. I had a couple of good years, built up some winnings. Last year I lost my sponsorship because I wasn’t doing so well. This year I went through the last of my winnings, and still wasn’t doing so well. I had to let my team go, because I couldn’t afford them, or repairing the car.” She shrugged. It was so simple to boil so many memories down into a few sentences that summed up the past half-decade of her life.

  “That…is very simple,” he said slowly, digesting all the information. “Though I have a feeling there is a lot more to it than that, if I were ever to get you to share.”

  “Of course,” she agreed, before taking another sip, the piping hot liquid just now reaching drinkable temperature. “But you didn’t need an essay on my life right now.”

  “Okay, so why King City then?” he asked. “Is this home for you?”

  “No,” she said with a slow shake of her head. “I grew up all over the place. My mother moved constantly. No, I’m here looking for my father. It’s
the last place I knew where he was.”

  Justin sat forward suddenly. “He’s missing?”

  She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t really know. I haven’t had a very close relationship with him. He was never really in my life growing up. Recently it’s just been email contact. But even that stopped about six months ago or so. That’s a long time, even for him.” She shrugged. “I didn’t have much left in the bank when it came to racing, but I can afford a hotel for a few weeks at least while I search for him. So, here I am,” she said with another shrug, not sure what else to do.

  Before either of them could say more, his helmet buzzed.

  ***

  Justin looked embarrassed, but she motioned for him to go ahead. With a grateful smile, he pulled it over his head, speaking in low mumbled tones for a few seconds before pulling it off.

  “My friends are here,” he said awkwardly.

  “Oh,” she said, nodding her head in understanding.

  “I’m sorry about your father,” he said, not making any move to get up just yet. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Shay shook her head, amused. “No, I think I’ll be okay, at least for now,” she said.

  “I...” he sputtered to a halt with his words again as he rose from the table. “I had fun talking to you,” he said, and then practically fled from the table.

  She carefully covered her face so the smile that blossomed on it wouldn’t be seen if he looked back.

  Who was this man? She was thoroughly intrigued by him, and wanted to know more. One moment he was calm, confident, and possibly even a bit suave. Then the next he was intimidated by her. She wondered how long it would be before he realized that he hadn’t asked her for her information.

  Shay blinked. How was she supposed to contact him, if she didn’t have his information? Did she even want to do that?

  Yes, of course you do. Did you see the way his muscles bulged, or how firm his chest looked? On top of all that, he clearly likes speed, and is interested in you. What more do you need?