Zul took a quick glance around the cafe, before his eyes settled on Kate again. Someone had broken her heart—and her spirit. That much was clear to Zul.
After being on Earth for more than half a century, Zul had learned to understand the language of humans, both spoken and unspoken. He could read a look, a glance and the words and feelings that passed between two people even when they hadn't uttered a single syllable.
Body language spoke louder than words and he could tell a lot about a person by the way he or she carried herself. The eyes truly were the windows to the soul, and he saw that Kate was a wounded soul.
He wanted to hold her and heal her, but he hated the bastard who had hurt her so badly.
But after witnessing the massacre of his people and losing his home, his family, his comrades, Zul knew better than most that all wounds, no matter how deep and painful, would heal with time. And he had been around a long, long time.
CHAPTER FOUR
Kate laced her fingers on her lap and glanced around the crowded cafe. The sounds of happy, raucous conversation swirled around her, and she saw couples sitting in private little corners whispering, giggling and gazing lovingly into each other's eyes.
She looked away and found herself searching for Zul. Somehow his presence, his smile, his jovial, teasing banter made her feel better about...everything. He just made everything more bearable. While he was with her, he managed to make her forget about the pain in her heart, about the betrayal she'd suffered, about the horrible, crushing failure of her marriage and her life.
She saw him, standing between two other baristas, bent over a cup. His brows were furrowed in concentration as he hunched over the small cup of coffee. The cup wasn't small of course. Blazing Beans only served their drinks in two sizes—Big and Blazing Big. It only looked small in Zul's huge, calloused hands.
Kate stared at his hands. Those didn't look like the hands of a barista. A barista didn't have to do a lot of rough, outdoor work. There were a lot of scars on Zul's hands and arms, scars that looked like they had been made with a lethal blade.
Kate inhaled sharply. Did Zul belong to some criminal gang? She shook her head hard. Somehow she found that hard to believe, but she'd learned not to ignore obvious signs and clues.
She studied Zul more intently. The guy looked young, likely in his late twenties. He had a handsome, boyish face and a great physique. He had floppy, streaked brown hair, bronzed skin and a toned, ripped body. Like a personal trainer or a happy-go-lucky surfer, she mused.
But the scars on his arms told a different story. And there was something in his eyes. His eyes were kind but they didn't belong to a naive, carefree young man. They were shrewd and knowing, and Kate had the feeling that Zul could read people and situations with just one glance.
Zul straightened up and she saw his eyes make a quick sweep of the cafe. He turned towards the window and scanned the street outside, as if looking for danger or hidden enemies.
Like a soldier, she thought suddenly with a shiver of realization. Alert, observant, ready for action.
When his eyes darted back to her, Zul's face split in a wide grin. Kate clutched her stool tightly. It wouldn't do to fall off a second time. But the way he was looking at her made her knees weak and her head light. Her breath caught as he held her gaze and walked towards her.
When he looked at her, it was as if nothing and no one else existed for him but her.
Nobody had ever looked at her like that before.
Kate pressed her trembling fingers to her lips as Zul carefully placed a foaming cup of coffee in front of her.
“Wow,” she breathed in amazement. “Oh, wow! This is...amazing! Did you do this?” She looked up at him, her eyes round with wonder and admiration.
Zul grinned proudly. “This is our famous Love Latte. Enjoy!”
“Wow,” she repeated. This was latte art at its finest.
In the foam, Zul had drawn a magnificent dragon in full flight. She could even make out the dragon's scales, sharp claws and flaming breath.
“This is...” Kate stuttered.
“A self-portrait,” Zul proclaimed smugly.
She gawked at him for a moment. Once she recovered, she gave him a gentle shove. “Get out of here! You're telling me you're a dragon?”
“Yup.”
She stared at him, speechless. He didn't flinch, didn't blink, didn't retract his outrageous statement.
Kate narrowed her eyes at him. Either he was a consummate liar, or he was telling the truth.
Her gut and instinct told her that it was the latter.
Kate bit her lip and tried to hide her grimace. She had ignored her instinct before. And it had cost her everything.
“How can you be a dragon?” she whispered, shaking her head.
Zul came closer. He wasn't smiling now.
“Kate...” Her name escaped on a long, ragged breath. “I am a weredragon.”
Her eyes and mouth rounded as she stared at the...the dragon behind him. No, not behind him. It was rising from him, looming up above him and towering above them all. She managed just two words.
“No shit.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Zul saw the shock and disbelief in Kate's blue eyes. Her eyes were as round as saucers as she stared at his dragon.
Zul knew his dragon had risen and was flickering like a gigantic hologram above him. The beast and the man were occupying the same space, the same body at the moment, but it was the human shape that was tangible and solid right now. The dragon was a mere outline, translucent at best and completely invisible to everyone in the cafe. Everyone except Kate.
Only other full-blooded dragons could see his dragon clearly when it was in its incorporeal state. Even half-dragons or other Dracans who had lost their dragon-shifting abilities couldn't see his dragon in this state.
Kate shouldn't be able to see his dragon. But she very clearly was looking right at his hot-blooded beast.
Zul had felt his dragon awaken and sit up the moment Kate walked into the cafe. And when he was talking to her, his dragon was panting and prowling under his skin the whole time. But his dragon was a fickle, lusty animal, always on the lookout for attractive, willing females.
Zul usually obliged his dragon and the ladies. He was a virile, potent male with a healthy, hearty appetite. Why shouldn't he indulge in a little fun? It let him blow off some steam, figuratively and literally. He liked variety and he liked sex. Hell, who doesn't like sex?
Zul always made sure the ladies left his bed thoroughly pleasured and sated. He never had the same woman twice.
The humans had a saying. Variety was the spice of life.
He couldn't agree more.
Zul had no trouble at all picking up women, and he could always tell when a woman wanted him. The women usually gave him not-so-subtle come-hither looks when they saw his BMW roadster or when he was smartly dressed in his tailored suit and flashing his expensive watch and cufflinks. These women were easy and eager to please. Sometimes they started laughing even before he had finished telling the joke.
It wasn't hard to get these women into his bed. But even though these females were willing and eager to please him, he never took advantage of them. He wasn't a selfish bastard. Sex was an exchange, a sort of trade. If money didn't change hands, then each had to get at least as much pleasure as they gave. It was only fair. Zul would never deceive or make use of anyone.
But Kate...sweet, vulnerable, wounded Kate.
Kate wasn't like any of the women he'd had. She was very pretty but she didn't seem to be aware of how attractive she was. She wasn't trying to flirt with him, and there was a troubled look in her eyes when she realized that he was chatting her up.
He just wanted to see her smile, but his dragon had different ideas. His dragon was a predator and it could scent a ripe, nubile female. It would always nudge him towards a target, but it had never, ever reared up and shown itself to any of the women before.
What was different this time?
Zul tried to push his dragon back down, but his half-hearted attempts only annoyed the hell out of his dragon. His dragon roared at him and shot a stream of translucent fire at Kate.
Zul staggered back. What the hell? What was the crazy beast trying to do? Was it out of its horny dragon mind?
But the dragon fire didn't seem to hurt Kate. She gasped and raised her arm to shield her face.
“Stop it,” Zul hissed.
Kate turned to him, looking bewildered. “What...?”
“I wasn't talking to you,” Zul snapped, wrestling furiously with his dragon. At last he got the big, bad beast under control and straightened up, mopping his brow. His dragon rumbled agitatedly before falling into a sullen silence.
Zul spun round, preparing to rattle off a quick explanation.
“Kate...” he began.
He blinked at the crumpled dollar bills on the counter and the empty stool.
She was gone.
CHAPTER SIX
Kate turned up the collar of her coat and walked faster, but Zul caught up with her in no time.
“Wait! Kate, please! I...please, let me explain.”
She wrenched her arm away and hugged herself tightly.
“I am a nice guy, really,” Zul said. “Nice and...er, normal.”
Kate stopped walking and faced him. “Maybe you are,” she said with a sigh. “But nice guys just don't happen to me.”
She turned away and did her best to ignore him but Zul clearly wasn't one to be easily discouraged or dissuaded.
Once he had set his mind on something, he went after it with dogged determination.
And he seemed to have set his mind on her.
Kate didn't know whether to feel flattered, annoyed or alarmed. “Please leave me alone,” she repeated.
“Not until you give me a chance to explain,” Zul replied earnestly. He overtook her and began to walk backwards in front of her.
“Don't you have to go back to the cafe?”
He shrugged. “My shift is over.”
Kate cast him a sidelong glance but didn't slow down. “You don't owe me any explanation.”
“Yes I do.”
“What's there to explain?” Kate snapped as she turned into her street.
“Everything,” Zul said, throwing his arms wide and almost knocking into a man who was speaking rapidly into his mobile phone. Zul deftly caught the man's phone as it slipped out of his grasp and handed it back with an apology. The man pushed his glasses up his nose and glared at Zul before snatching his phone back and hurrying on.
Kate stood at the edge of the curb just in front of her block and contemplated rushing up to her apartment and locking the door. But a locked door probably wouldn't be a barrier to Zul. The man looked like he could pluck a solid door off its hinges with just one hand. His body was packed with hard, solid muscles and the way he moved reminded her of a lethal, efficient predator. He didn't so much walk as stalk, and his movements were quick and smooth.
She couldn't outrun him, and she sure as hell couldn't overpower him. Strangely, the thought of Zul chasing her and pinning her beneath him made her body heat up and tingle. She had been divorced for half a year now, and she couldn't even remember the last time she had sex.
She thought that her female bits had all shriveled up by now but from the way her body was quivering and the rush of moisture between her legs, that clearly wasn't the case.
Kate gulped when she saw Zul's nostrils flare and his eyes darken with desire.
He could scent her arousal.
The realization sent a delicious shiver through her. Shaking her head hard, Kate forced herself to think straight. Just because she hadn't had sex in a long time didn't mean that she should be reduced to a bag of raging hormones at the sight of an impressive, sexy male.
Zul was certainly a very impressive, magnificent, hot male. But that wasn't all he was. She had seen what he was.
She had tried to dismiss what she saw in the cafe, but somehow she knew that she hadn't imagined the dragon.
She might be tired and disillusioned, but her eyes were working fine. She did see a dragon, a big, ferocious dragon—that looked a lot like the latte art that Zul had drawn.
“You said it's a self-portrait,” she whispered suddenly.
Zul stood just a few feet from her. She could see the veins throbbing in his neck and arms, and she heard a low growl rumble from him. But he didn't take another step towards her. He wanted her. She could see the want and hunger in his eyes, but he wouldn't touch her without her consent.
“I thought it was a joke.” Kate swallowed. “When you said you're a dragon.”
“It's not a joke.”
“If it's not a joke, then it's a trick. You tricked me, using lights and a projector...”
Zul's eyes widened in shock and horror. “No. I will never trick you. I may have pulled a few pranks on my brothers but I have never...”
“Why me?”
“Kate, what are you talking about?”
“Do I look stupid to you? Do you see me as weak and gullible? Did you think I wouldn't realize...?” She heard the hysteria in her own voice but her buried pain was welling up unstoppably, flooding her heart and filling her eyes.
“No! Kate, I never...”
She couldn't see past her tears but she couldn't stop the words from tumbling out. She was hurling those awful words at Zul but they were the words that she should have screamed at her ex-husband. “You're laughing at me, aren't you? You're laughing at me for being so blind and stupid. You probably can't believe how easy it was to manipulate me and make me believe all your stupid lies!”
Zul looked thunderstruck. His eyes flashed as he closed the distance between them in a heartbeat.
“Who said those words to you?” he demanded. “Who manipulated you and lied to you, Kate? Tell me.”
She sobbed and whimpered when he caught her wrists. “Let me go.”
“Not until you tell me who stole the light from your eyes and the smile you used to have.”
When she gasped, Zul tightened his grip and went on, “I see pieces of that smile, Kate. It's there, but broken and hardened. Like your heart. But still, I see it, and I see how beautiful it is. Your smile, your heart. I see you, Kate. I see you.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Kate squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to look at Zul. “Please let me go,” she whispered, swallowing her tears.
“Talk to me, Kate,” Zul said softly, folding her into his arms.
When she shook her head, he held her chin gently and tilted her face up. “Those words...they hurt. They hurt deeply. No, they didn't hurt me. But they hurt you. They've been hurting you for a long time because you kept them in your heart. You never got the chance to say them.”
“I was a coward,” she said, pressing her clenched fists to his chest. “I was afraid that he would leave me. He left me anyway.” She hiccuped a laugh. “He was never mine, you know.”
Zul smiled sadly and stroked her hair.
Releasing a long, shuddering sigh, Kate began to speak. “Brian never got over his ex-girlfriend. Even when he told me he loved me and promised to make me happy for the rest of my life—that was a lie. And I believed all his lies. When he asked me to marry him, I said yes. I found out later that his ex had gotten married just a few months before he proposed to me. I was his rebound girl, his second choice, her replacement.”
“Oh Kate,” Zul said, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “Why did you say yes? Why did you marry him?”
“I loved him, and I thought he loved me too. I ignored all the signs, all my instincts and married him. Love...isn't blind. I was.”
Zul simply held her and listened to her.
Kate gave a mirthless laugh and continued, “The first year of marriage was fine. I think Brian did try to make it work. But ultimately, I wasn't her.”
She paused
and when she spoke again, Zul heard the quaver in her voice. “When Brian's business trips became more and more frequent, I suspected but still I didn't confront him. I was a coward, a weakling, a bloody fool. In the end, it was Brian who came to me and asked for a divorce. His ex was divorced, and they had been having an affair for a year. She was pregnant.”
Kate took a shaky breath and said quietly, “So was I.”
“You have a kid?” Zul asked.
“No. I miscarried.”
“I'm so sorry.”
“Don't,” Kate hissed. “That was what he said to me when he found out about my miscarriage.”
She turned away and whispered, “He felt pity, regret, shame, bitterness, sorrow, and maybe some compassion towards me. But it wasn't love. Brian never loved me. He couldn't. He was in love with someone else the whole time.”
Zul put his arm around her shoulder and supported her. There was a sharp ache in his heart. He felt no sympathy at all for that lying, cheating ex-husband of hers, but his heart ached for the child she had lost, the child she would have loved with all her heart.
“Now do you see how weak and foolish I was? I loved a man who didn't love me. I was so heartbroken and stressed that I lost my baby. I should have been stronger…”
“You're not weak and foolish. Not at all,” Zul told her, thumbing away a tear.
He captured her face in both hands and looked deep into her eyes. “He didn't love you, but you loved him. Was it a mistake? Yes, it was. But the mistake wasn't yours. It was his. He knew what he was doing. He knew he was still in love with his ex, but he married you anyway. He used you to try to numb his pain, and when his ex became available again, he dumped you. He's the one who did a great wrong. Not you.”
Kate stifled a sob. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.
Zul slid his arms around her waist and held her tight. He could feel her tears falling, sliding down her face and down his skin.
To Love A Dragon: Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (Weredragon Warriors Book 3) Page 2
