by Riley Storm
Lilly stared at him blankly.
He blinked. “You know, storms?” Trent pointed at the sky. “They happen up there. Thunder. Lightning. Rain. Happens a lot in the springtime? Those things?”
“Wait,” she said, holding up the hand not holding the coffee. “Stop there for a second. There are different types of dragons?”
Trent nodded. “Yes.”
Lilly’s anger began to evaporate, replaced by a childlike fascination. As far as she was aware, nobody knew that about them. Everyone just sort of assumed.
“I thought you were all fire dragons. What else are there?” she asked, eager to learn more. This would give her the inside scoop for sure. She could use this!
“Well, the most common is, as you said, your basic standard fire dragon. Breathes fire when in dragon form and can conjure it into being when in human form. They can also control any pre-existing fire.”
“Right, right. I didn’t know you could control it though.”
“Well, I can’t,” Trent said. “Being that I’m not a fire dragon. Your second most common are frost dragons. Power over ice, snow, etc. Then you have me. Storm dragons are vastly rarer than either of the first two. We control electromagnetic fields, mostly lightning and energy, along with the weather that comes with them—wind and so forth. So…”
He lifted a hand and gestured at her, and a breeze gently billowed out Lilly’s hair. She laughed and lifted a hand to try and pull it down, but the breeze just appeared from the tips of his hands unceasingly.
“Then you have earth dragons. Very rare, even compared to storm dragons. They can control the earth’s elements. Mostly earth, stone, but also the metals within, though that requires much more energy exertion.”
Lilly shook her head, overwhelmed. “Is that it then? Just the four types?”
Trent shrugged, taking a sip of his own coffee. Well, gulp was more accurate she decided as he swallowed heavily. “There are rumors of others appearing here and there throughout history, but the genes of them are clearly recessive to a massive degree. Those four are, for all intents and purposes, it, yes.”
“That is so cool,” she said, amazed.
The dragon’s blue eyes went flat, cold, like hardened gems. “Yeah, there’s more to us than you know. Maybe you should consider that next time before you try to make a quick buck off us.”
Lilly stepped back, shocked and a little hurt. That pain quickly transformed to anger however, and she fired back hotly.
“I’m not in this for a quick buck,” she snapped, skewering him with her best glare. “This is something I intend to turn into a lifelong thing. This is my hometown too. I’m proud of it, and I’m proud that Five Peaks is where you’ve chosen to make your home. I will not be shamed into thinking so, nor accused of trying to make a ‘quick buck’ off it. Grow up, Trent.”
Though I won’t complain if it gets me out of my parents’ house. That much I would be forced to admit.
The big dragon shifter frowned and then looked at her. It wasn’t a glare so much as it was an evaluation. Lilly shivered, feeling almost violated as his eyes searched her for something within her.
“You’re serious,” he said slowly.
“Of course I am. Did you think I was lying?” she challenged, one hand on her hip.
Trent shrugged. “I’m still not sure if you’re exploiting my people are not.”
“We’re back to that again?” she said with a sigh, wondering what it was he’d been looking for. Had he found it? “I’ve not talked to any dragons, until you, yesterday. None of them have had anything to do with what I’m doing. All I’m using is images and shapes of dragons. Nothing more. Why does that so upset you, Trent? I really want to know.”
It was her turn to stare at him intently, to try and pick up on any emotional reaction from Trent over her question and the topic at hand. She failed miserably. Trent stared back for ten seconds then just grunted.
“I’m going to go look at your breaker panel and then go to the hardware store to get replacements,” he said, brushing past her to duck inside her shop, leaving Lilly to stand out on the street, open jawed in shock.
“What the hell did I do wrong?” she asked the empty air.
Chapter Nine
Trent
Once again, Lilly was making herself scarce whilst he was in the shop, the door to her office closed.
How can she even see anything in there?
The light coming from under the door suggested that she’d rigged up some sort of battery light, but since Trent hadn’t been invited inside, he still had no idea what she was doing in there, other than avoiding him.
Mumbling his irritation at the entire situation, he went back to fiddling with the screws on the breaker, working the wire into the replacement part and tightening it down. Replacing the entire rack of breakers wasn’t hard. It was just tedious and time consuming. The hard part would be if his surge of energy the other night had ended up frying any of the wires themselves.
That would mean opening up the walls, running new wire, and that was a horrifically painful job he simply did not want to even begin thinking about. So instead, he went back to replacing breakers and crossing his fingers he’d not gotten too out of hand.
And maybe at some point Lilly will grace me with her presence and another glimpse of her beautiful face.
He tried to shove aside the image of her that automatically popped up in his brain. It was useless to daydream over her, despite the way his mind seemed determined to do just that. There was nothing there, between them, at least nothing permanent. She disliked him far too much, of that Trent was certain.
Perhaps a tumble in the sack was an option if he really tried, but truthfully, the idea of using her like that didn’t appeal to Trent. Well, it did. He would take her to bed in a heartbeat, exploring that lush, full body of hers with utter completeness. No, it wasn’t the physical aspect that bothered him. It was the emotional. Or lack thereof. Trent did not want to hurt Lilly, or to leave her uncertain of things after…after.
Since when did you care about being so comforting to a woman after sleeping together?
Lacking a definitive answer to the question, Trent bent over the breakers and grumbled to himself, trying to use the work as a distraction so that his mind didn’t go down a path he wasn’t ready to face.
Another hour passed before he even saw a sign of Lilly. He was on the second to last breaker, cursing the stiff wire as it worked against him. Whoever had wired this one had cut it a bit close, and he didn’t have much extra wire to work with.
“Stupid idiotic electrician,” he snapped as he fumbled the wire again.
“Everything okay?”
The sudden sound of another voice after two hours of working in complete solitude startled him to the point he dropped both the screwdriver and the breaker, the piece of equipment bouncing off the floor with the distinct sound of plastic breaking.
“It was okay,” he muttered, kicking the now-useless breaker aside, very glad that he’d picked up a couple of extras.
“Right. Well, what do you want for lunch?”
He blinked. Lunch? Why did she care what he wanted for lunch? “I’m fine,” he said. “Not hungry.”
Lilly rolled her big, beautiful eyes, the brown orbs barely visible in the dimness of the store interior. “Oh, please. Any man with as many muscles as you have is going to be starving by now.”
“I’m fine,” he repeated, bending over to grab his screwdriver so he could get back to work.
Lilly didn’t reply, but he didn’t hear her move away. After a moment of fiddling with the wire, he looked over his shoulder. She was still standing there, arms crossed, staring at him.
My god, she’s beautiful, was the first thought he had. Just absolutely gorgeous, right there, right now.
Trent wondered what it was that was so catching to his eye that was drawing his attention in.
It’s the eyes…
Lilly frowned. “What about my eyes?”
>
Trent’s jaw dropped open. “You can read minds?”
Lilly shook her head. “Huh? What are you on about? Read minds? You just said, ‘it’s the eyes.’ Like that meant something?”
“Oh, I said that out loud, did I?”
She nodded slowly, looking at him suspiciously.
“So, um, food, you were saying?” he said, trying desperately to change the subject.
Lilly didn’t seem inclined to fight him on that, much to Trent’s relief. Perhaps she wasn’t in the mood for awkwardness either. Regardless, it suited him just fine if they moved on to a new topic.
“Yes. I was. Uh, lunch. What do you want?”
Trent nodded. “Right. Not hungry.”
Lilly’s jaw dropped open. “What? What the heck do you mean? Why did you…? But you just…We were…”
He shrugged and turned to go back to work.
“Listen,” Lilly said in a cross voice that had him turning at the waist to look at her right on. “I don’t know what I did to make you mad, but I’m sorry. I never meant to do that. However, you’re the one sticking around, helping out, as you say. That means you want to be here. So why are you being so sullen about it, jeez?”
“Ummm,” Trent said, hating that Lilly felt like she was the one who had to apologize. About this, at least. She could apologize for what her store was doing, and he’d accept it, but she shouldn’t to apologize for his mood. That didn’t sit right with Trent.
Not that he was going to tell her that he had to be here though. That just didn’t seem relevant, nor did she need to know. She’d tell him to leave, and then Kladd would want to know why he wasn’t helping her, and then Trent would be in more trouble. It was easier if he just stopped being grumpy about it all.
“You shouldn’t be apologizing,” he said gruffly.
“Well, I sort of feel like it’s my fault that you’re upset. Though I don’t know why.”
“Well it’s not,” he said firmly.
“Then why are you? What is the reason Trent? Is there anything I can do to help?” Lilly paused thoughtfully. “Or not do?”
“Ask about it,” he said immediately.
“I am asking about it,” Lilly said, throwing up her hands in exasperation. “I just want to help. It would make the time go by so much faster if we were on good terms with one another. But I guess I’ll repeat. How can I help?”
Trent gritted his teeth together. He’d meant that she could not ask about it, but how was he supposed to say something so harsh to her after she was being so open and polite to him?
All the emotions between them were starting to confuse him. First, he’d been happy and she’d been grumpy. Then at some point, Lilly had decided that the mood was changed, and she was interested in chatting and being on good terms, but now he was the one in a foul mood. It was almost too much.
Plus, she’s now offering to get you lunch. You need to suck it up, mister. You don’t deserve that kindness, not after the damage you did to her shop.
Which meant it was time he swallowed his pride and apologized. It wasn’t easy to accept that conclusion, but Trent was enough of a grownup to acknowledge it anyway.
“Listen, I’m sorry,” he said. “I would definitely like some food.”
Lilly’s surprise at his apology gave way to a beaming smile that did funny things to Trent’s heart, but before he could analyze what was going on, she spoke.
“Good, come on then, let’s go.”
Trent stared. “Huh?”
She wanted him to go with her to lunch?
“We’re going to go get lunch,” Lilly said, her smile broadening again.
“Like…a date?” Trent asked, stunned at her forwardness.
Lilly blinked several times, the smile shrinking. She tilted her head at him quizzically. “Just because you kissed me, Trent, doesn’t mean that us going somewhere together makes it a date.”
Trent understood the words she was saying. They made sense. But he’d also seen the nervous bob of her throat as she swallowed before speaking, and he’d heard the slight hitch in her voice at the word ‘date’.
“So it’s not a date?” he clarified.
Did he even want it to be a date? Since when?
Lilly licked her lips, eyes darting left and right before she answered, her voice wavering. “Well, what do you want it to be?”
Chapter Ten
Lilly
It’s just lunch.
The walk to Little Cerino’s had seemed to go by in a blur, but now they were there, and waiting because there was a bit of a line. Such busyness was to be expected lately. The influx of people into town meant that everywhere that served the public was far busier than normal. There was no getting around it.
Thankfully, Cerino’s was mostly takeout. She didn’t think they would have to wait too long to get a seat. Most of the customers were simply ordering and then waiting for their food and leaving, as far as she could tell.
She could be wrong, however, because most of her attention was focused on the walking hulk next to her. Waiting in line meant interacting more. No menus to hide behind while she pretended to mull her choice over.
Never meant to ask him on a date. That wasn’t the intent.
If it wasn’t, she countered to herself, then why didn’t she immediately shut Trent down when he’d asked? She could have just said ‘no, not a date, just lunch’ and that would have been the end of that. Instead, she’d turned the question around on him because she wanted to know what he thought.
All because I let him kiss me. Darn him for being so good at it too! Why couldn’t he have been terrible so that I didn’t keep reliving that moment over and over again in my daydreams, and every time I look at him?
Lilly purposefully avoided looking up now so that she wouldn’t be reminded of his strong chin and those firm, warm lips, or how good they’d felt when pressed against her.
Think about something else. Change the subject! Start a subject. Anything but this, her brain cried.
“Have you, uh, ever been here before?” she asked, looking up automatically as she started talking, breaking the silence that had lasted most of their walk over.
Trent grinned, and Lilly’s stomach did a backflip without asking permission. He’s so handsome! That smile is killer.
“Who hasn’t been to Cerino’s before?” he exclaimed. “It’s the best Italian around, and his pizzas are—”
“To die for,” they said at the same time.
Both of them paused, staring at each other in surprise. Lilly broke the silence first with a hysterical giggle. It was equal parts laughing at what had just happened and a nervous twitch to stop her from leaning in to kiss him, a reaction her body surprised her with unexpectedly.
Trent joined her, chuckling loudly. “I’ll be honest,” he said after a minute. “I thought you had just meant you were going to order food or something in when you asked if I was hungry. I didn’t think that we were going to go out.”
Lilly lifted her eyebrows.
“Ah, uh, that is, you know, not ‘going out’, but like, you know…”
“Leaving the store?” she suggested.
“Yes. That. Exactly that. Leaving the store. Not a date, ‘cause it’s not a date. Right?” Trent swallowed, stopping abruptly.
Lilly thought it was adorable, though she tried not to let it show. “Well, you never actually answered my question, if you remember,” she said. “You just laughed and said let’s go get some food. You kind of avoided the question.”
WHAT ARE YOU DOING? You barely know this guy!
It didn’t seem to matter. Lilly was full on flirting with him, and they both knew it at this point. She was all but inviting Trent to proclaim that they were, in fact, on a date.
Before Trent could reply, the line in front of them moved up abruptly, leaving them free to approach the counter. Trent sort of stumbled over something unintelligible before gesturing for her to precede him. She smiled and nodded, thankful he hadn’t spoken. She
didn’t trust her own voice at the moment.
They walked up to the hostess counter, and she reached for a menu, eager for a distraction. Trent seemed to have the same idea, and his hand landed atop hers. The contact sent a jolt of electricity racing up her arm, sparking a rush of blood as her heart went wild at the sensation.
His skin was soft but warm and his grip firm. It was pleasant, and she didn’t immediately yank her hand away, content to let it sit there for a moment while she looked up at him in surprise.
Lilly’s voice failed her as she made eye contact, his eyes threatening to pull her in and drown her in their deep blue seas. She wanted to pull away, but there was just something about his gaze, about Trent, that made her want to look at him for ages.
“Everything okay here, folks?” the hostess and sole server asked as she approached the counter, eyeing their hands resting on the menu.
The spell broken, Lilly pulled her hand away, nodding at the young woman and smiling. “Oh yes, of course.”
“Would you like a table, or are you here for takeout?”
“Table, please,” Lilly said, relief coloring her voice as she saw an open spot for the two of them.
The woman got them sorted, waited while they both ordered, and then departed quickly.
“You didn’t need long to decide,” Trent said with a smile.
“Neither did you,” she pointed out, fighting back a flirtatious smile.
Get a grip woman. Lock. It. Down.
“I know what I like,” he rumbled, his eyes boring into her.
What did that mean? Was he talking about the pizza he’d ordered? Or something else? Unsure of what else to say, Lilly looked down at the bare table, fiddling with the napkin-wrapped cutlery. The motion surely gave away her nervousness, but she didn’t know what else to do.
“Is this your usual lunch spot?” Trent asked, filling the silence.
Lilly nearly sagged with relief at the generic, innocuous question. “Not on the daily, no. I usually bring lunch to save money. But every now and then, when I do go out, it’s my preferred, yes. Hard to go wrong.”
