Aroused In Fire (Curse 0f The Dragon Book 2)

by Jadyn Chase

  I got my handbag. When I returned, I found the three men—I use the term very loosely—whispering and gesticulating and carrying on a mad secret conversation. They dropped to a dead calm the instant I appeared.

  I scrutinized them one after the other. “Is there something you want to say?”

  “Not at all.” Jackie’s eyes darted around while the other two maintained a demeanor of perfect innocence.

  I nodded toward the door. “Come on, Alex.”

  I waited for him and the twins to leave before I locked the store. So much for running a business.

  I conducted him through the city streets. He kept checking every which way in search of something. “Where are we going, Rosie? I thought you said we were going to Whinless Down. Now it looks like we’re….”

  “We’re what?” I asked.

  He blushed. “Forgive me for saying so, but it looks like we’re heading back to your apartment. I hope you’re not….” He broke off.

  I spun around to stare at him. “My car is back at my apartment. What did you think—that I offered to take you in search of your brother for the express purpose of dragging you back to my apartment to have my way with you?”

  He cast his gaze to the ground. “I didn’t say that.”

  “You thought it, though, didn’t you?” I smacked my lips and shook my head. “You’re really exasperating, do you know that?”

  “You can forgive me for making a simple mistake, Rosie,” he huffed. “I had no intention of offending you.”

  I swallowed my annoyance. “Just forget it and get in the car.”

  I opened the passenger door and got behind the wheel. Why was I so irritated with him all of a sudden? Anybody could have made that mistake.

  They wouldn’t have made it, though, unless I just hooked up with them in a one-night stand. He wouldn’t think I was taking him back to my apartment to rip his clothes off if I hadn’t already done that once.

  That rankled me more than anything. I cheapened myself by having sex with him when I wasn’t even sure he was sane. I didn’t cheapen myself, though. I wanted to. I wanted him and I knew he wasn’t insane. He did it with me because he wanted to, too. I was sure of that.

  I didn’t want it to mean anything, but it did. We didn’t share a drunken orgy we would both rather forget in the morning. I didn’t want to forget it. I didn’t want to forget looking into his eyes and the overpowering sensation of safety and bliss I experienced in his arms. I could only hope he enjoyed it a fraction as much as I did.

  I didn’t want to forget it and I didn’t want to lose it, either. Now that I found it, I didn’t want to suddenly discover he was out of his tree and could never return my feelings.

  I didn’t want to tell him how I felt, either. I wanted to push him away rather than face the fact that I got myself into this situation. Now here I was, driving him out into the countryside in search of another one of these dragons. I must be out of my mind instead of him.

  I couldn’t get my head straight. At least I had a decent drive to concentrate on before I had to deal with him again. I drove out to Whinless Down and parked in the carpark. A few other couples got into and out of their cars and unloaded their excitable dogs. Jesus, Rosie, pull it together! We were not a couple and not going to be.

  I slammed the door extra hard just to get rid of the last of my nerves. When I turned around, Alex was frowning at the other couples.

  “Let’s get going,” I told him. “We won’t find him here.”

  “We won’t find him anywhere around here,” he countered. “He won’t be flying around in dragon form at all or others would have seen him. He’ll be a man and that means…..”

  “What?” I asked. “That means what?”

  He flapped both hands, but he refused to look at me. “It means he’ll be naked. If he flew out here and picked up the odd cow for his lunch and then changed back, he’ll be naked. It happened to me twice and both times I woke up naked as a plucked goose. He’ll be hiding from people, not milling around exchanging pleasantries with the locals.”

  I gaped at him trying to take all this in. “So, where do you want to look? You know him better than I do. Where would he go to hide?”

  He shrugged again. “If he did shift into his human form out here, he’ll be somewhere sheltered. I have no idea where, but he wouldn’t have walked back to town. I can guarantee you that.”

  Now it was my turn to search the surroundings. So, we were looking for a naked man hiding in the bushes. That made sense. A dragon would be cordoned off by Police with the Special Operations Unit in tow.

  Most of the couples and dogs followed the walking track, but I didn’t go that way. I signaled to Alex and we skirted the Down going the opposite way. I didn’t know what I was looking for so I let my intuition guide me.

  Alex trailed behind. Every time I checked on him, he was looking all around him with keen interest.

  Farther down the slope. We came to a fence that ringed the Down. I couldn’t decide whether to cross it. We might be trespassing on private property. All at once, Alex laid a hand on my arm. “There, Rosie!” he breathed. “That’s it.”

  10

  Rosie

  I followed Alex’s gaze down the hill. A tiny cottage nestled into a clump of cypress trees far down the hill. It snuggled against the foot of the Down where almost no one would be able to see it. How did he spot it at that distance?

  Before I could stop him, he hopped the fence and set off overland. He didn’t bother to make sure I followed him. In a few strides, he left me behind.

  “Wait a second!” I called. “You can’t just jump fences without getting permission from the owner to cross this land. You don’t even know if Thomas is there.”

  “He’s there!” Alex barked over his shoulder. “I can feel it. Where else would he be?”

  “What if the owners are there, too?” I demanded. “Are you just going to barge in on them without knocking?”

  Before I could react, he spun around and stopped dead in front of me. I ran into him and bounced off.

  “What is the matter with you, Rosie?” he blurted out. “Why are you so angry at me this morning? If I did something or said something to offend you, just come out and tell me. Do NOT tell me it’s nothing and to forget it when I can see very plainly that it isn’t nothing and you certainly haven’t forgotten it. Did I do something wrong last night? Did I violate your trust somehow? You made it perfectly clear that I wouldn’t spoil your reputation by sharing your bed, but perhaps you have had time to rethink the matter. I pray you to tell me before this misunderstanding comes between us.”

  My jaw dropped. “Comes between us? What’s that supposed to mean? Last night came between us—not that there ever was an us. What am I supposed to think? It was one night.”

  He cocked his head. “Is that all?”

  “What else could it be?” I fired back. “You’re a…a lord or whatever you are. You’re from 1840 with a curse on your head. What else could we have?”

  “I never would have shared your bed if I thought it would be only one night,” he returned. “I don’t play those games. I know many men who do, including my own brothers, but I never fancied that sort of amusement. If you wish, I shall withdraw and say no more about it. If that is the case, I would expect you to forget it and behave as if it never happened rather than…..” He waved his hand up and down in front of me. “Rather than this.”

  I stared at him with my mouth open. “You’re serious! You really want it to be more than that, don’t you?”

  “I told you I did.”

  “When?” I screamed. “When did you say you wanted it to be more than that? You never said a word about it.”

  “I told you last night,” he replied. “You said, ‘You don’t consider me a prospect, do you?’ And I said, “Quite the contrary.’ If that doesn’t make it clear to you, I don’t know what will. I assumed from the way you conducted your affairs last night that you understood that.”

&nbs
p; I couldn’t force myself to blink staring at him. How could I deal with this man? I had to swallow hard to get my throat to work. “What affairs do you mean?”

  “The way you looked at me. The way you kissed me. The way you touched me—all of it. I told you I loved two women before you so I’m not a virgin nor am I utterly inexperienced in love. I think I’m mature enough to know when someone touches me or kisses me in a loving way rather than a strictly passionate way. Perhaps I misread your signals then, too. If I did, I apologize.”

  I snapped my eyes shut. I couldn’t be hearing this. Did I? Did I kiss him and touch him in a loving way? In hindsight, I suppose I did. I wasn’t thinking that at the time. I was just……

  What, Rosie? What were you doing last night? I couldn’t say I was just enjoying myself. I admitted to myself it went way beyond that. He certainly had a different effect on me than other men I’d been with.

  Each kiss and each touch and each look into his eyes seemed to carry so much more weight than anything I could remember from my past. So, he felt it, too. He just assigned a significance to it while I brushed it off. I pretended it meant nothing.

  Did it mean something? It meant something to him. If I had known that at the time, would I have done anything differently? I couldn’t even think like that. I did it. I reacted to him in the moment.

  I blinked. There he was standing in front of me in the middle of nowhere. What did I really feel about him? What did I really want with him, anyway?

  I never got a chance to answer that question. He took one swift step toward me and looped one arm behind my back. In a single breath, he pulled me in and kissed me. I gasped out loud from the breathless intensity of it all. He caught that gasp in his mouth and sucked the air from my lungs.

  When his lips broke off my mouth, he gazed deep into my eyes with that unflinching power with which he did everything.

  I couldn’t move. I could only stare up at him in mute astonishment. All the questions flew out of my head. His eyes didn’t answer them. That kiss didn’t answer them. Nothing could answer them. They just ceased to exist.

  “You see?” he murmured.

  What did I see? Was that kiss supposed to wipe out all my objections? Was it supposed to convince me to….to what? To love him? To hope we could…. what? To hope we could wind up together? It didn’t.

  He cocked his head. “Is anything wrong, Rosie?”

  I still couldn’t think of one thing to say. Words didn’t make sense. I felt…. blank, empty.

  He frowned. His arm dropped away and he leaned back. He pursed his lips. “Well, then. I apologize for the misunderstanding.”

  He turned on his heel and started walking again. I fell in behind him. What could I say—that I felt the same way? I didn’t. He was a fascination to me, an oddity, an adventure. That didn’t mean I fell in love with him. I hated the idea of hurting him, but that would be better than lying to him.

  He stomped through the undergrowth. I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me or just hellbent for that cottage. I hated to see his face if it meant finding out he was upset. I didn’t want to deal with the fallout of my own stupid, selfish mistake.

  I never should have slept with him. I should have known a guy from 1840 would take it the wrong way. Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with him being from 1840. From the comments he made about his past relationships, maybe this was just the kind of guy he was. He had a big heart. He tried to give it to people and they turned him down.

  Now I put myself on that list, too. I cringed at the thought. I should have been more careful. I should have hooked up with someone I knew for certain wouldn’t get their feelings involved.

  He barged right up to the cottage and banged on the door. No sound came from inside, but a curl of smoke rose from the chimney. Whoever owned it must have been here recently.

  He stood back and looked up. He saw the same thing. He swiveled over to the windows and shaded his eyes to peer inside. “Anything?” I asked.

  He shook his head and scanned the surroundings. Then he knocked again. Still nothing. His features fell.

  “What do you want to do?” I asked. “Do you want to go up the Down and see if we can spot him from the top?”

  He opened his mouth, but before he could say a word, a tremendous roar boomed out of the bushes. We both spun around to stare at a massive dragon plunging through the foliage toward us.

  The monster narrowed its eyes and took one frightful step after another. Every step flattened trees and snapped branches underfoot. It thundered straight for the cottage. It lowered its head and shrieked in a furious rage.

  Quicker than thought, Alex dove in front of me. He extended his arms to move me behind him. He positioned himself between me and that fearsome beast.

  The creature swept one forelimb sideways and toppled a large tree with no effort at all. It stormed into the clearing and dropped its head to within an inch of Alex. It let out a deafening bellow that shook the ground and rattled the cottage windows.

  Alex stood his ground. The creature’s foul breath blew his hair back, but he didn’t budge. He held me behind him while that thing threatened him. My heart stood still. I didn’t want to face that thing. I thanked the stars Alex was standing between it and me.

  The thing reared back its head. In a lightning maneuver too fast for the human eye to follow, it darted in. With a horrific snap of its jaws, it snatched Alex off the ground and whipped him on high. That left me all alone to confront that thing.

  It wheeled its head in the air. Alex dangled from its teeth slamming his fists into the thing. A stain of blood darkened his shirt.

  At that moment, something happened. I didn’t put the pieces together until afterward. One second, I thought Alex was dead for sure and my soul tumbled into my shoes. I couldn’t imagine a worse catastrophe than that.

  The next instant, he exploded to a hundred times his size. His body erupted and cracked the dragon’s jaws apart. He burst forth into a dragon, too. He fluttered there in mid-air facing off against that thing.

  He landed on the ground between me and the dragon—the other dragon, I mean. He planted his body between me and the enemy and flexed his wings. He screeched to wake the dead and the two monsters opposed each other seething in mutual ferocity.

  I staggered back and hit the cottage door. All the events of the last week couldn’t prepare me for this. Not even knowing the possibility could make me believe Alex really was a dragon.

  If he was really a dragon, then this other fiend must be the brother we were looking for. We just had to convince him to…..Oh, for Christ’s sake, Rosie! We weren’t going to convince that thing of anything.

  Neither of them appeared to be aware that they were really human—or whatever passed for human in their little corner of reality. They bobbed their heads from side to side. Then they launched at each other screaming to the heavens.

  They collided with the force of a thousand earthquakes. In a fraction of a second, they lashed their tails around each other and tumbled over and over each other. They crushed fallen trees. When the enemy dragon tried to knock Alex close to the cottage, he flipped his adversary out of the way.

  I cowered for dear life against that door. I couldn’t think to do anything but hide. I couldn’t run and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the devastating dragon battle unfolding before my eyes. If I had known I would see this, I never would have left my shop.

  The enemy dragon appeared to be the stronger of the two. Time and again, he forced Alex over onto his back. He pinned Alex in place and pounded him with his wings. He dove his snout into Alex’s face and slammed his skull into the ground.

  I dreaded seeing the battle turn against Alex. Was I going to stand here and watch this demon kill him? What could I do to stop it? What could anyone do against one of those creatures?

  At one point, the enemy dragon uncoiled its tail from Alex’s long body. It cracked it around in a circle and slashed it against Alex’s cheek whipping him aside. The ene
my curled back its tail one more time for another blow, but Alex ducked out of the way.

  The tail smashed down a few feet away from me. The ground heaved under my feet and I screamed out loud.

  Alex snapped around at the sound. It electrified him as never before. With a powerful surge of energy, he vaulted upright carrying the enemy dragon with him. He pounced onto his feet and slammed his opponent down flat on his back.

  Now the tables were turned with Alex in the dominant position. He grappled the stranger to the dirt and repeated the same maneuver. He hauled back his tail and lashed it at his enemy’s head.

  The other dragon flailed for a moment. Its neck wavered trying to stay up. Alex narrowed his eyes and aimed another shattering blow to his adversary. He smacked the creature hard and the dragon’s head bounced down on the ground.

  The creature lay still for a second. Alex rose on his hind legs shrieking in almighty furious rage. He came down hard and extended his wings for another strike. He delivered a rapid succession of hammering thumps to the creature’s body.

  When he left off, the thing lay motionless under him. I couldn’t make out if it still had its eyes open, but Alex could see that. His tail hissed lashing through the air. He undulated it back and forth, coming in closer for the death blow.

  A deadly rumble issued from his throat. As much as I would hate to face that enemy dragon on my own, I would hate more to have to fight Alex like this. He seethed in volcanic fury moving in for the kill.

  He coiled his tail closer to his opponent’s face, but on the last pass before he struck, the creature imploded before my eyes. It shrank to nothing in Alex’s claws. It wilted to a man lying helpless and battered under the enormous dragon’s wings.

  I blinked at the sight in wonder. This man had short brown straight hair, not curly brown hair, and he didn’t have a goatee. He was clean-shaven and stark naked. The dragon glared down at the fallen figure. Its sides heaved, but it didn’t attack.