by Dena Christy
6
Gregor closed his eyes as he pulled Elle to him. Her body shook as she silently cried in his arms, and he wished for a moment that whoever had done this was in front of him, so he could tear them apart for making her cry.
When he'd first gotten here, he didn't know what to think. As soon as he'd hung up the phone with her, he'd raced out of the house with Iszak on his heels. His brother wanted to know what the hell was going on. Gregor told him he didn’t know, all he knew was that Elle needed him and he had to go to her. Iszak protested that it might be a trap. She knew Nash. In that moment he hadn't cared because all he could hear in his head was Elle's distraught voice and he would do whatever it took to get to her. That included taking his dragon form and flying to a deserted area just outside Waldron Valley. Thankfully, there had been no moon and his ink dark scales had camouflaged him well.
When she'd let him in to her shop and told him she would explain why he was here when they got to her apartment, his brother's words of warning came back to him. In his urgency to get to her, he'd ignored his brother's words about who her friend was. For all he knew, Gabriel Nash could have been lying in wait upstairs for him. Which was why he refused to go upstairs until he knew what was going on.
Holding her now, he felt shame wash over him for thinking she'd set a trap for him.
"It will be okay." He knew his words were meaningless, but he didn't know what else he could say to her. Someone had violated the sanctity of her home and he didn’t know what he could do to make things better for her. "Tell me what you need from me. Do you want to come to my home? Would you feel safer there?"
She shook her head and pulled back from him. She wiped a hand across each cheek and looked into his eyes. There was a shadow there that he couldn’t identify.
"Would I really be safer there?" There was a look on her face, one that seemed an awful lot like suspicion. Surely she didn't think he would harm her in any way?
"What are you saying?" Surely he was misinterpreting all this. “Do you think that you wouldn't be safe with me? That I would hurt you?"
He would rather drive a dragon forged blade into his heart than hurt her. Even if they weren't meant to be together, he still wanted her to be safe and happy. That was the whole reason he was denying himself the chance to love her.
"I don't think you would hurt me." She emphasized the word "you" and he still did not understand what she was getting at. She scrubbed her hand over her face."Forget I said anything, It's been a rough night."
"Tell me what you're thinking." He wouldn’t be able to fix what was wrong unless she told him what was on her mind. Despite his resolve to stay away from her, he'd come running the second she called him. Even now, standing in her living room with her, his resolve to keep his distance was crumbling. Holding her for those few moments had felt so good. It had not been long enough, and he wanted to do it again, but he got the distinct impression that her letting him hold her had been a momentary lapse. Whatever was troubling her would not go away just because she told him to forget it. "Elle, how can I know what's wrong if you won’t tell me."
She took a deep breath and bit her bottom lip as if she was carefully choosing her words.
"I think it's just a little too convenient. You show up, bleeding at my backdoor last night. And tonight someone broke into my apartment. I think it's just too much of a coincidence."
“Coincidence?” Did she think he had something to do with this? She didn’t know him well, since she wasn’t aware of their shared history, but he didn’t think he’d given her any indication he was a danger to her. “Do you think I broke into your apartment?”
“No.” She turned away and shook her head. “Like I said, it’s been a rough night. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Maybe you should go now.”
He knew the smart thing to do was to turn and walk away from her now. While he could still keep his resolve that nothing would happen between them. But he couldn’t walk away from her like this. She was hurting, and no matter what she thought, he couldn’t let her think so ill of him that she would suspect that he had anything to do with this.
He walked up to her and put his hands on her arms. She stiffened, but it relieved him when she didn’t pull away.
“What are you afraid of? If you think I didn’t do this, then who?”
“I don’t know, that’s the whole problem. I don’t know who did this, the police don’t know who did this and I hate this scared feeling inside me. Please, just tell me that what happened here tonight wasn’t a retaliation for my helping you.”
A chill raced down Gregor’s spine. Had the hunters figured out she’d helped him and had broken in in retaliation? Had he already brought danger to her? The muscle jumped in his jaw at the thought and it was a good thing she could not see his face.
After a few seconds of thought, he dismissed the idea. He doubted that the hunters had done any such thing. What purpose would it have served? Besides the main hunter in charge of the expedition to Waldron Valley was a man who claimed to be her friend. If he suspected Elle was hiding him, he would have come out and said something. There was no way a man who believed dragons were monsters that needed eradication would have kept silent about it to her. He would have felt compelled to save her from herself.
He could have made up any story, that Gregor was a dangerous criminal, and because she’d known Nash longer than him, she may very well have believed him. That sounded more like the style of the men who had hunted him last night. He didn’t think Nash could contain himself if he thought Elle had been harboring him here. He didn’t like that Nash had shown up here at all this morning, but the hunters had agreed that they would search the area in daylight. Nash must have seen his old friend Elle in the doorway of her shop and that was why he was in the shop this morning.
“I don’t think that’s it. I don’t know who attacked me or why they did. I suspect that it was a crime of opportunity, and I was fortunate to get away from them before they could rob me, which I’m sure was there intent. There would be absolutely no reason for whoever did it to break in here.” The lie he told tasted bitter on his tongue, but he told himself that it was for her benefit. He couldn’t tell her he was a dragon and her friend Nash and his cronies hunted him. “I think the police are right, that this resulted from a random break in.”
“I don’t want to be scared to be in my home, but that’s how I feel. I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything. It’s just that if there was an explanation for why it happened, if they had targeted me for a reason, then I could eliminate that reason and be safe again. I wouldn’t have to be afraid that it can happen again.”
In other words, if the break in had been because of him, all she had to do was eliminate him from her life and she’d feel safe again.
“Would it make you feel safer if I left?” It would be like tearing off his arm to leave her especially since he could feel her tremors through her arms, but if it was what she needed, he would do it. It would kill him but he would do it.
“No, it won’t make me feel safer if you leave. I may feel differently tomorrow, but for tonight I won’t feel safe here by myself.” There was a heartbreaking note in her voice, and he couldn’t hold himself away from her. He gently turned her around and folded her back into his arms. She melted against him and he held her. It felt good to have her in his arms. It lined up with the memory of holding her like this so many centuries ago. He didn’t want to let her go, didn’t want to be apart from her. Did he really need to be?
Tonight had proven that she was not in league with the hunters, that Gabriel Nash was only the old friend she claimed him to be. Standing here in her living room with her in his arms, all the reasons he had for staying away from her seemed like a distant dream.
She leaned back to look up at him, and he stroked her dark, curly hair away from her face. God she was so beautiful. He wanted to taste her lips, to know if she would taste as sweet as she had so long ago. It was getting difficult for him to separa
te the present from the past. He had to remind himself that although she’d called him when she’d been in distress; he was still very much a stranger to her. He couldn’t well lean in and kiss her like they’d already done it a hundred times.
“Why do I feel so safe with you? I can’t shake it. I feel like you’ve been in my life a lot longer than twenty-four hours.”
“You feel safe with me because you are.”
Her eyes darted down to his lips, and he could no longer resist the lure of her mouth. He slowly dipped his head, giving her time to pull away if this was not what she wanted. She didn’t, in fact she tilted her head back a little more and closed her eyes. It was all the permission he needed. His mouth settled on hers in a gentle kiss, and it was like coming home after a journey of a thousand years.
He moved his lips on her, slowly at first, giving her every opportunity to pull away if this was not what she wanted. She sighed and snuggled closer and his arms tightened around her. It took all his willpower to keep his touch gentle. The scent of her hair was heady and ensnared his senses. His entire focus was on her. The taste of her lips, the weight of her body against him and the softness of the skin of her cheek under the palm of his hand. Now that he was kissing her he realized he was a fool to think he could have resisted this. This moment felt like it was written by fate, and he forced himself to pull away.
Her eyes fluttered open, and he spotted the second she came back to her senses. A flush stained her cheeks, and she took a step back. Looking away from him, she cleared her throat.
“I’ll just go make sure everything is fine in the guest room.”
He forced himself not to look at the sway of her hips as she walked away from him down the hall. Now that he knew what she tasted like, it would be so much harder to keep his distance from her.
Had the kiss really happened? All night long and into the morning that question had plagued Elle. Now it was the next day, it felt almost like a dream. Who could blame her for thinking so since she’d been having vivid dreams lately? Who was to say this wasn’t another one?
Gregor looked at her from across her shop, and heat rose up on her cheeks. The memory of her fleeing to the guest bedroom under the guise of making sure it was presentable came back to her. She felt foolish now. It wasn’t like she’d never been kissed before, but Gregor was the first man to kiss her since her late husband, and it made her feel wonderful and sad at the same time. Wonderful because of the thrill that had gone through her, knowing a man as attractive as him was interested in her. And sad because it proved to her how much she’d hidden herself away since Ian’s death.
“Are you okay?”
Gregor loomed in front of her and she made sure that her features didn’t show the conflicted emotion going on inside her.
“I’m fine. I still don’t know why you suggested I close the shop today. It’s bad enough that those bastards have frightened me, I don’t want them to impact my business either.”
“In order for you to run your business effectively you need to feel secure in your home again. And I will make that happen for you.” He cupped his hand on her cheek and she leaned against it. When she was near him, the worries she had seemed to fade. It was like if she put herself into his capable hands, nothing bad or scary would happen to her to ever again.
She’d felt like that before, and violence had ripped her world apart. She took a step back and his hand fell away. A frown tugged at his mouth for a second before his face smoothed out.
“How are you going to make that happen?” He wasn’t a fairy godmother, he wouldn’t be able to wave a magic wand and make the events of last night go away.
“By introducing you to my assistant, Rickman.” Just as the words were out of his mouth, there was a knock on the glass door of her shop and she turned to see a blue-haired man standing on the other side. Gregor went forward and opened the door. The young man walked in and smile brightly at her.
“You must be Elle. I’m Rickman.” The young man came forward and took hold of her hand. “Gregor told me what happened, and we will do whatever it takes to make sure it never happens again. I have a security consultant coming in a few minutes and he will look over the place. Once we have his suggestions in hand, a work crew is going to come and get the work finished by the end of the day.”
A security consultant? She looked at Gregor and she realized this was his doing. While his intentions might be good, he overestimated how successful her business was. She made enough money to be comfortable in her little apartment, and enjoyed what she did, but that was a far cry from being able to afford to pay for a security consultant.
“Gregor, can I speak to you privately for a moment?” She smiled briefly at Rickman before turning and walking back toward her consultation room. How was she going to explain to him that a security consultant was out of the question? She knitted her hands together in front of her and looked up at him when he stepped into the consulting room.
“What’s wrong? Is it Rickman? I know he looks like a punk and a hooligan, but he is very competent.” Gregor reached out that took one of her hands as he looked into her eyes and smile. For a second he distracted her enough to make her momentarily forget why she’d asked him to come back here. “I’m sure the security consultant he’s engaged is the best there is.”
The security consultant. That was the problem she’d pulled him back here to discuss.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to hire a security consultant. I was thinking of hiring a locksmith and have him upgrade the locks. There really isn’t a need for a security system.” That might be debatable, but upgraded locks were about as much as she could afford at the moment. There was a reason she didn’t have the latest security system here, and that was a matter of money. She had sunk most of the money she’d gotten from Ian’s life insurance into buying this building. The rest of it had gone to those lean months in the beginning when she was building up her shop and clientele. There wasn’t anything left to spend on a fancy security system.
“There’s every need. Your safety is the most important reason for you to have a system the prevents what happened last night from happening again. What would have happened if they’d still been downstairs when you’d gone down to investigate? Or worse still if there intent had not been just to rob you?”
The easy smile fell off his face, and the dark look replacing it made a chill trace its way down her spine. She would not have like to been on the receiving end of the emotion behind that look. She supposed that it was fortunate for whoever had broken in last night that Gregor had not been here.
“Don’t you think I know what could have happened last night? Why do you think I was scared to be here alone last night? Or am too scared to be here alone tonight? I know that I was very lucky that they didn’t hurt me.”
He took a step toward her and framed her face with his hands. “When I think of what they could have done to you, it makes me want to hunt them down. I don’t want you to spend your nights afraid. Which is why you need the security system.”
The warmth of his palms on her cheeks, along with his words, made her want to melt into him. Made her want to give in to what he was saying. But the bill for all this would come due, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to pay the price.
“I can’t afford it. My business is healthy, and profitable but it’s a niche business. I can’t afford to splash out for a security consultant and a new system.”
“Is that what is worrying you? I didn’t intend for you to pay for it. I would never have arranged all this if I was expecting you to pay the bill. I will take care of it, don’t worry.” He moved his hand to stroke the hair away from her face. She pulled away from him, and a frown pulled his brows together. “What’s wrong?”
“This is my livelihood. You shouldn’t have to pay.” As much as she felt like she’d known him for a long time, the fact remained that until two days ago he’d been unknown to her. There was no way she could accept such an expenditure from him and there was
no way she could pay him back. “I won’t be able to repay you.”
“You already have.” His eyes softened as he stepped close to her and took her hands. His fingers tightened around hers when she tried to pull away. She knew he was doing this to distract her since she seemed to have trouble thinking straight when he touched her. Even now, her eyes went to his mouth as the memory of being in his arms last night came back to her.
“How is that possible?” She was confused, and his proximity wasn’t helping. She tried to move away, but he held her fast. His grip wasn’t rough, but it left no room for her to wriggle out.
“You opened your home and offered me aid when I needed it most. You may not realize it, but you saved my life. I owe you a debt that is impossible to repay, so at least let me do this much for you. Let me help make this place safe for you again.” His thumb moved over her skin, and all the will to argue with him went out of her.
She could stand here and come up with point after point of why he shouldn’t do this, but he would only counter. If what little she’d done to help him the other night meant that much to him and he wanted to burn his money on this, there was little she could say to dissuade him.
“Fine. The security consultant and the ensuing security system can happen, but no more doing things without consulting me.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she froze where she was. Surely it was just a figure of speech. She didn’t know if she was ready to think beyond the next day or two, but the one thing she knew was that he made her feel safe, and she liked the way he kissed her.
“Thank you for letting me have my way. I need you to be safe.” He leaned his head toward her and kissed her gently. It was a fleeting as the brushing of butterflies' wings against her lips. Disappointment flashed through her and she shoved it back. They weren’t alone in the shop, and couldn’t spend all their time kissing in the back room. “I’ll tell Rickman that things can proceed.”
