Coll shook his head, “It doesn’t appear that way. You will promise me not to leave David’s side until you are safely on the Island. There we are safe—I have made sure of that.”
There was a silence in the air as Iona thought of the words her father was saying,
“Promise me,” He said sharply this time.
“Yes,” Iona nodded, “I promise.”
“Good.” Coll breathed a long easy breath and closed his eyes, then within minutes he was sleeping again.
The papers were signed and Coll was released from the hospital’s care. He was taken to the heliport and the two hired nurses took him from there. David talked to the pilot, to the nurses, making sure everything was understood. They would not stop until they were on the Island.
David moved close to Iona as the helicopter lifted into the air and left the hospital. His body eclipsed hers. He loved the strength of her body, her breadth, the plump curves that made her such a robust figure of a woman. But, those things didn’t seem to protect her now and he felt the vulnerability of the woman in front of him.
“We should go,” She wiped the last tears from her eyes braced herself against a sharp wind. Her mind seemed clear for the first time in weeks.
“Yes,” David followed her as they made their way down the hospital elevator and out onto the streets.
“We have time before our flight, would you like to get something to eat?” His mission to have her fed hadn’t dissipated.
“No, but I don’t like the thought of waiting in the airport…” She looked into the street, thinking. “I’d like to pop into that store, maybe get some water,” She pointed at a drugstore across the street and David nodded.
When they walked in the over circulated air hit David in the face.
“You get some snacks and drinks, I’ll get something for the motion sickness,” She pointed to the drug and medication section. David paused. “Don’t worry,” She said, “You can see me from here.”
He nodded and watched as she walked into the aisle picking up Dramamine for the flight and car rides. She had promised her father that she wouldn’t leave his side and he believed her promise. David picked out two waters and tried to imagine what food might tempt Iona since nothing else really had.
When he looked back for Iona she was gone. He walked briskly in the direction he’d watched her go, worry flooding his blood stream.
“Need something else?” Her voice came from behind him and she patted her purse, “I already paid, I’ve changed my mind about the snacks.”
David looked at her carefully then replaced the food he’d picked up. He’d been eating plenty and wasn’t remotely hungry. “Won’t you need water to wash those down?” He asked.
“I’ll get one at the airport,” She smiled faintly.
The two went back out.
“Should I call the driver?”
“No,” She looked up at the sky, letting the sun saturate her face. “Let’s walk, if you think it’s safe enough.”
David couldn’t detect any sarcasm in her words, and nodded, thinking the exercise and sunshine might do her good.
They walked until they came to a small park, out of the fray. There was a homeless man lying on a bench across the green but other than that they were the only ones. Iona sat on a bench and tilted her head back.
“Do you feel safe with me?” David asked after a moment of watching her. She looked absorbed by the feel of the sun, oblivious to the dangers her father had just told her about.
“Yes,” She opened her eyes now and looked at him.
“Even with what happened before the tournament?” David had been meaning to talk about it but there never seemed to be a good moment.
“Especially with what happened,” She looked at him thoughtfully.
“What do you mean?”
“I realized something that I didn’t understand then,” Iona breathed in. She looked at her hands, then back at David. “You were scared.”
“Scared?” David was skeptical of such a word, too much like a woman’s rationalization. “Scared of what?”
Iona looked at him for a long time then said slowly and deliberately, “Scared because you love me.”
David felt the breath being pushed from him. He waited to see if she’d laugh, if she was joking, but she didn’t and she wasn’t.
“Your eyes,” Iona placed her thumb just under his eyes as she looked into them.
David felt himself go hot.
“I’m going to use the restroom,” Iona pointed to a small stone building only a few feet from where they sat. “I’ll let you think for a moment.” She walked off into the small structure.
David sat staring after her for a long time. Scared because you love me, she’d said. David stood up. She’d been in there for too long. He went to the door of the small building and knocked. He didn’t wait but walked right in.
It was a small space and he found himself only inches from Iona who was washing her hands.
“Thought I’d run off again?” Iona turned the water off and shook stray droplets from her hands.
David didn’t know what to say. He turned back to the door, but instead of opening it he moved the heavy large trashcan in front of it. He turned back to Iona and straight into her arms.
They were hungrier, faster, as if the last two weeks had been foreplay. Her mouth pulled him in, her teeth pulling at his lip.
David pulled Iona’s pants down, hoping he didn’t rip them with his force. She slipped one foot out and wrapped it around his waist as she steadied her ass on the cold sink.
She was wet. Slippery. Her body called to his, asking, inviting. She moved her hands and released his fly, pulling him out, hard and full, her hands moving over him before he slid inside of her.
Their noises seemed magnified in the stone building but David didn’t care. He needed this woman, needed to watch her face as she came, needed to see the greedy desire in her expression.
Iona’s body was fleshy and soft in his hands. He cupped her ass with both hands so he could lift her, move her, and steady her as he moved inside of her.
Her mouth dropped open, hot breath moved across his face, his neck. He felt his body ready to finish, ready to reach the top and come rolling back down the hill. His desire was more acute then he’d ever felt it in his life.
Iona cried out, a groan of abandon, she tried to reel it in but couldn’t. The sound turned him on even more. David watched as her body tensed, her breath short and contracted. He watched as she came. He felt her body pulsing around him. The look of her face, the loss of control, left him without hope. David let himself come with her. Let his body release with hers.
His movements softened as Iona draped herself over him.
He felt like the tin man, his body rusty and creaking after holding one position for so long. His blood slowly moved in his veins again and he pulled away from Iona.
David put both hands through his hair. He smelled of her, smelled of her juices. The smell…her smell, sweet and perfect, filled the space, he loved it.
“I’ll just clean up,” Her feet were back on the ground and Iona was adjusting her clothes back into place. “I’ll meet you out…” Iona’s voice trailed off as she noticed David.
David was staring at a small stick balancing on top of the toilet paper roll. It was a pregnancy test.
Chapter Nine
Iona had expected more of a reaction from David, yelling maybe, or in another world—the kind in movies—a cry of delight as he lifted Iona off her feet. But there was none of that. He’d seen the pregnancy test then turned to Iona. His eyes, golden, were the only part of him that spoke.
David had walked out of the stone building and Iona had no clue, no indication of his thoughts. She hardly knew her own.
Iona took a breath walked out into the sunny day. David had called the driver, it was time for them to go to the airport.
The flight had been better, Iona had forgotten all about her unopened Dramamine tablets, but
she hadn’t felt nauseous or sick on the plane. Her mind was too full to notice the rocky movement of the plane.
David kept his body close to Iona through the whole trip. Lifting her bags, taking care of everything, leaving Iona with nothing to do.
The local airport in Maine was much smaller then Toronto. They waited for their bags and only a few other people waited with them.
“Jinx says your father reached the island safely, he is settled in and sleeping,” David read the message from his phone. They were taking a cab to the marina where they would pay someone to ferry them across. It was the first thing he’d said to her directly since they’d left Toronto.
“Good,” Iona had an urge to burrow into David, to take refuge in his strength, his body, but she couldn’t do anything until she knew how he felt about it all. It was possible that even now he was planning his escape. He could drop her off on the island then ferry back to his previous life, a life without her.
Iona’s whole being quivered at the thought of never seeing David again. She looked at him for a long time in the cab, memorizing his face, his neck. Whatever happened now she would have this memory of him locked within herself.
It was a cool, soggy Maine day when they walked down the marina to the ferries and local fishing boats.
“We can rent a boat there,” Iona pointed a finger to a painted sign. She wanted to know if David would object, say there was no one to bring it back, but instead he went to the sign.
Did he know that Lettie and Jinx were both excellent with a vessel? That one could bring it back and the other take their own boat? She didn’t think so. Perhaps he thought he would be able to bring it back himself.
David rented a small scrappy boat, “I assume you know how to use one of these things?”
“Jinx taught me a long time ago, they sometimes let me take theirs around and around the island, but never far.” Iona watched as David put her luggage, then his own at the back. It was a small two seat motorboat, easy enough to use and would only take a moment of watching for David to drive it himself.
“Maybe we should get some food, something special before leaving?” Iona turned back to see what was nearby, what might tempt her father. She knew she was really delaying the trip, vying for more time with David.
“With Lettie, you don’t need anything to tempt your father,” David’s voice came from behind her but Iona was frozen in place. A hundred feet away stood the group of men. It was them. They’d followed them all the way from Toronto, all the way from Scotland. Her father had not been paranoid, or exaggerating.
She knew that she should feel fear. That she should run the other direction and never look back but she found a rage explode inside of her. A volcano of uncontrollable anger was erupting through her veins.
Iona walked toward them and they stopped, obviously taken aback by her stampeding presence.
“You,” She pointed a finger directly at them. “Isn’t it enough that you killed my mother? Isn’t it enough?” She was shaking with anger. They were in a public place, there were people around, what could they do to her here?
“Fuck your mother. She deserved worse then what she got,” The tallest one spoke, his lips white. His brogue was thick, even thicker than her father’s.
“I will kill you,” Iona’s voice was husky, almost inaudible.
“Hear that? The lass is going to kill us,” The baldhead said with a shake of laughter.
“Only two people are going to die today lassie, and I’m not one of them.” The tallest spoke again.
“Iona,” Her body was pulled back and David stepped in front of her. “Go back to the boat.” He commanded her while looking at the men.
Iona could not make herself move, she stood shaking and trembling behind David’s body.
“Now,” He turned his face only partially, still refusing to break visual contact with the men. “You,” He spoke to the men and Iona began backing away as David’s muscles flexed, “Will not touch her or her father. If you come near us again you will be very sorry.”
More sneers came and a puff of laughter from the bald man. Iona imagined herself punching the man squarely in the nose.
“We’re going,” David turned his back to the men, a vulnerable position Iona thought, and walked to her. “Now,” His voice had never been more serious.
Iona scrambled into the boat. Her body was shivering and shaking anger mixed with fear too. Did those men have guns? Could they get to her father before her and David?
“You know the way to the island?” David asked and Iona nodded. She’d studied maps of where she lived all her life. She turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of the marina. She could not go fast here though she wanted to, they would be stopped if she put other people’s lives in danger by being reckless. She idled out then opened up as they made it to clearer waters.
There was a sound behind them and Iona turned to see a larger boat approaching them. The men were following.
“Keep driving,” David said.
“They might have a gun,” Iona felt the cold spray on her face, her hair flowing large and unruly around her in the wind.
If they had a gun then how would they protect themselves? How would they protect her father?
“Drive,” David kept his eyes on the other men. Iona made a wide arch with the boat, trying to keep the men from getting too close. Their boat was bigger, faster. Iona couldn’t out pace them.
She tried again to lose them with another arching line that nearly made her lose her own balance.
It was useless, the boat was upon them. She turned to look and saw one of the men pull a gun. Iona’s stomach felt like it dropped through the bottom of the boat. What could they possibly do against a gun?
“Look,” Iona yelled to David and turned. But David was changed. His body was lifting, moving, he was growing, his body becoming a series of large dense scales. A tail swung out and Iona was too terrified to scream.
Two large wings flapped out, horns at the top of his head, the golden eyes Iona had loved glistened. A dragon took to the sky. Iona looked to the men, she saw a shadow of fear cross their faces, but also recognition. They’d seen this before, a man becoming a dragon.
David was in the sky lifting up then plunging back down, straight toward them. She watched the one point his gun.
“No,” Iona cried out as the shot rang out. The shot must have hit but David didn’t seem to notice. David’s thick tail lurched out, striking her boat and pushing her forward toward the island, he wanted her to keep going. She turned back to the wheel and began speeding forward, looking back over and over again. The men were driving forward too. One stood on the end of the boat with a large knife raised. Panic for David welled inside of her. She glanced toward her destination, the island was in front of her, maybe five minutes away, she could make it.
Iona turned and watched the man with the knife crouch, waiting to jump, then grasping onto David’s tail. David flicked it hard but the man held on. One of the other men shot again at David. How many shots until they killed him?
Iona’s body tightened, what would she do once she reached the island? How would she protect him?
Iona pulled back on the engine. She ran to her luggage and grabbed her bow, pulled an arrow and aimed. The boat was coming straight toward her. She aimed for the man driving the boat. She waited until she was sure of her distance, then released.
It was the first time one of her arrows had hit a human being. Her mark was perfect. The man looked at the arrow sticking out of his chest before falling. He was dead.
The man with the gun shot again, and again.
David inhaled them released a stream of fire onto the man. The boat went up in flames, she could see the man incinerate in front of her eyes. Her heart was beating in her mouth and she placed another arrow. She couldn’t aim at David, she couldn’t, what if she missed?
The man was crawling up David, up his scales, toward his heart, his head. Iona aimed but stopped, she couldn’t risk it.
But what if she didn’t?
David took the decision from her, he shot up into the sky, one straight beautiful dark line, then swooped down again, faster then she’d ever seen anything move. Just before he hit the water he swung violently to the side. The man went flying. Iona watched the man’s body, lifting into the air. Iona aimed again. He would hit water soon. Just as Iona released the arrow, David let out another stream of fire.
The man and Iona’s arrow were gone. She froze as she watched the place where only moments before he had existed, alive, whole. Her bow fell out of her hands and clattered onto the boards of the boat. Iona leaned back, ready to vomit, to collapse.
PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Pregnant by the Dragon Shifter (Shapeshifter Protector Pregnancy BBW Romance) Page 5
