by Donna Grant
“Then who was it?”
“A verra good question, and one I had hoped we’d discover tonight.”
“He knows you,” Jane said. “He told me there were Dragon Kings. He said he wanted to be here to see my face when I learned what you are, and that he wanted to see your face as well.”
Banan felt the rage rise in him again. “He thought you’d run from me.”
“You are a fearsome sight.”
Banan’s chest constricted at the note of anxiety he heard in her voice. “You’re afraid of me.”
“No. No,” she said again, and gave him a quick, hard kiss. “I admit, at first, yes. I wouldn’t have come to you or touched you if I had been that afraid. I always knew there was something different about you.” She ran her hand over his tat. “The dragon tattoo makes sense now. I just wish you’d told me.”
Banan rejoiced at her words, but he couldn’t hold back anymore. He covered her mouth in a kiss. Her sweet taste enflamed him, the desire licking at his blood.
He wanted to lay her down on the floor and claim her body again, not just as a man, but also as a Dragon King. She hadn’t run from him, hadn’t left him.
His hands skimmed down her back to cup her round bottom in his hands and bring her against his aching cock. Her soft moan was music to his ears. And just when he was about to start stripping her clothes off, rain pelted them.
Jane tore her lips from him as she laughed. Banan looked for Con and Rhys only to discover them gone, and he hurried to get Jane out of the rain.
She was running toward the door left open by Rhys or Con, but Banan pulled her to a stop.
“I need to know something.”
She wiped the water from her face and smoothed back her hair, a smile dancing in her eyes. “What is that?”
“You’ve seen and heard a lot this night. Is it too much for you to be with me?”
She grew very still. “Be with you?”
Banan swallowed. He’d never been nervous before. He’d never been a lot of things before Jane, but he wanted to experience them all with her.
“Because of the human female’s betrayal, Con used his magic so that none of the Dragon Kings would ever fall in love with humans.”
“Oh,” Jane said, her gaze lowering to the floor.
“All that changed over five months ago. Hal fell in love with Cassie. Then Guy fell in love with Elena. Something has changed, Jane. I used to no’ fully believe it. Then I held you in my arms.”
Her eyes snapped to his. “What are you saying?”
“I’m say—” He paused because he didn’t want to mess it up. “—I’m saying I’m in love with you, Jane Holden. I want you as mine. Always. Will you come back with me to Dreagan? Will you stand by me in all that my now-uncertain future holds?”
For long minutes she didn’t reply, and Banan was trying to think of what else to say to convince her, when a lone tear fell down her face.
He stopped the tear with his thumb before it reached her chin. “Jane,” he whispered.
“I’ve waited for you all my life,” she said. “I’d go anywhere with you, Banan.”
A laugh exploded from him as he crushed her against him. “I love you.”
“And I love you,” she said between the kisses she placed on his neck.
EPILOGUE
Jane got out of the Jaguar and closed the door, her gaze locked on the same tavern she’d visited months before.
“You can do this,” Banan said as he came up beside her.
She smiled as he took her hand. “Yes, as long as you’re with me.”
“I’ll always be with you.”
“You didn’t answer me yesterday, by the way.”
He looked away from her as he asked, “What are you talking about?”
Jane shook her head. “You’re lying. Why are you afraid to tell me how this will work? Is it because I’m right, and you just don’t want to admit that I’ll grow old and die while you live on?”
“Jane,” he said, and suddenly had her pinned to the car. “I doona have any answers. I wish I did, but all this is new. For the little time when humans and dragons coexisted together, there were humans who mated with Kings. None of their offspring survived. Hell, half of the women never carried the babies to term. And all the women eventually did die.”
She cupped his face and looked deep into his gray eyes. “I’m not really keen on you seeing me all wrinkled and hunched over, but I want whatever time we have, Banan. I understand that you’ll grow tired of me one day.”
“Nay,” he said, and gave her a gentle shake. “You doona understand. I’ve never, no’ once in all my life as a dragon or a Dragon King, felt for anyone what I do for you. You, Jane, are different. I was going to wait until we reached Dreagan to tell you, but you willna relent.”
She laughed and raised an auburn brow as she waited.
“A human can be bound to a King. You’ll live, staying as you are now, for as long as I live. Only if I die will you die.”
“Oh.”
“Is it too much?” he asked, knowing she’d taken in a lot over the past few days.
Jane rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “No. Is it something you want to do?”
“Aye. Most definitely, but I was going to give you some time.”
She rolled her coffee brown eyes. “Apparently, I haven’t let you know just how much I don’t want to be without you.”
“We’ll start making plans for the ceremony once we reach Dreagan.” He stared at her a moment before he chuckled. “Now, have you wasted enough time? Are you ready to meet Sammi?”
“No, and I don’t know. I’m scared, Banan,” she admitted.
He pulled her into his arms. “It’ll be all right.”
Jane took a steadying breath, and then they walked into the tavern. Sammi was behind the counter, drying some glasses and laughing at something a customer said to her.
Her sandy brown hair was pulled away from her face in a high ponytail as bangs covered her forehead. And then her eyes swung to Jane.
Banan smiled down at Jane as she gave his hand a squeeze and went to her half sister. He stood back and watched while she hesitantly began to tell Sammi everything.
It wasn’t until she pulled out the letters she’d found that Banan slid into a bench and relaxed. Everything was good. For now.
How long it would last, he didn’t know. Rhys and several other Dragon Kings, with the help of Henri North, were still scouring London for any sign of the man who had kidnapped Jane and killed Richard Arnold.
But so far, they had come up empty-handed.
The unease Banan had felt ever since he’d been unable to detect the man in dragon form had only grown. They hadn’t seen the last of the bastard, that was for sure.
“Banan,” Jane called.
He lifted his face to her. “Aye?”
“Come meet Sammi.”
Banan greeted Jane’s smile with one of his own. Today was theirs. Tomorrow, the Dragon Kings would begin to look for their enemy.
* * *
He stared at the little tavern in Oban from his car window. It had taken all he had not to get out of his car and kill Jane while Banan had been holding her.
His plan should have worked. It would have worked.
But he hadn’t factored in Banan and Rhys turning into dragons and attacking as they had. It had broken the rules Con put into place.
Still, though his plan might not have played out as he wanted, it hadn’t been a total waste. It had gotten Con to London.
He hadn’t been able to stay and listen to the conversation between Jane and the other three since he had to run for his life. Yet in the end, the retreat had worked to his advantage.
The Dragon Kings knew they had an enemy, but they didn’t know who. And they had shown a weakness—one he would exploit until they were all dead.
PASSION’S CLAIM
PART 1
CHAPTER
ONE
Dreagan Manor
> October
Jane surreptitiously glanced at Banan through the mirror of her vanity as he changed his shirt for the third time. He was unusually edgy as they readied for their night out.
“Do you like this one?” he asked as he finished buttoning the black shirt.
“Very much.”
He looked at her with a droll expression. “You’ve said that about all three shirts.”
“Because I like all three shirts. I helped you pick them out at the store, remember?”
“Aye,” he mumbled and quickly unbuttoned the shirt before he jerked his arms out of the sleeves and wadded it up to toss on the floor with the other two.
Jane dusted the blush on her cheeks, wondering if Banan was growing tired of their relationship. She knew she could be bound to Banan and live as long as he did. He’d offered her that option, and she had gladly accepted it.
Upon their return from London—with a short stop to introduce herself to her half-sister, Sammi—they had begun to make preparations. But those arrangements had been put on the back burner as the Dragon Kings looked for their enemy and helped the Warriors from MacLeod Castle.
Jane didn’t mind. She loved Banan, so it was enough to be with him. Was it still enough for him though? Had he changed his mind about the binding and just didn’t want to tell her?
Her stomach began to sour the more she thought about it. Jane didn’t want anything to ruin their first night out alone in weeks. She was determined to enjoy it, and if Banan wished to keep their relationship as it was, she wouldn’t argue. She had once told him being with him for as long as he wanted her would be enough.
She hadn’t lied. She loved him with her entire being, but he was a Dragon King. He had been alive since the beginning of time. He had commanded dragons, flown high in the clouds. When the endless passing of days grew too much, he—like so many of the Kings—would sleep away centuries in the mountains.
How could she compare to everything he was? He was immortal and powerful. He could shift from human to dragon form and back again with nary a thought. The only thing that could kill him was another Dragon King.
And what was she? Mortal—with a life span that passed in a blink to someone like Banan. Many women had shared his bed, and though she understood this, it didn’t stop the spread of insecurity that she might be just one of thousands.
“Jane?”
She jerked and found his reflection near hers in the mirror. He had walked up behind her as she had been lost in thought and she hadn’t heard him. His brow puckered in concern as he searched her eyes in the mirror.
“Are you all right? You looked to be a million miles away.”
“I’m fine,” she said and put away her blush as she moved around her makeup in the drawer to search for the eye shadow she wanted.
Banan’s large hands came to rest on her shoulders as he straightened. “You would tell me if something was wrong, aye?”
“I would,” she lied, briefly meeting his gray gaze in the mirror.
His hands fell away as he turned back to his closet. Jane once more watched him through her mirror. The muscles in his back shifted and bunched as he reached for another shirt, this time a vivid blue with widely spaced thin black lines running vertically. He rolled up the sleeves to his elbows and finished buttoning it before he tucked the front of it into his black jeans.
“Perfect,” she said when he looked at her.
He gave her a wink before turning to find his watch. Jane finished her makeup and put on the navy sweater dress that hugged her frame and stopped a few inches shy of her knee. Once she’d zipped her black boots with the four-inch heels and added jewelry, she found Banan waiting at their bedroom door with her coat draped over his arm.
“You look beautiful.”
She gazed into his eyes and returned his smile. “And you look very handsome.”
“Keep looking at me like that and that dress of yours will be puddled on the floor by the bed.”
She loved when his eyes darkened and desire deepened his voice. It sent chills racing over her skin every time. Banan had a way of making her forget everything with just a look, that same look he was giving her now.
“Ah, how you tempt me, Jane,” he said as he dragged her to him and gave her a brief, hard kiss. “It’s all I’ll permit myself lest I have you on the bed. I know how you’ve been looking forward to a night out.”
“We can stay in,” she said and backed into the room.
He gave a firm shake of his head. “No’ tonight. Let’s go.”
Jane walked with him down the hallway to the stairs as they descended to the main floor. Most of the Dragon Kings kept to themselves—the ones who had awoken, at least.
There were only two other couples at Dreagan. Cassie and Hal, who had already been bound together for over a year. Then there was Elena and Guy. Both seemed content in their relationship, neither speaking of making it formal or of binding themselves.
Jane wondered if she was being paranoid. Guy wanted Elena to get used to who he was and the kind of life she would lead if she chose to be his bride. Maybe that’s what Banan was doing as well. But wouldn’t he have told her?
“You seem distracted,” Banan said as they passed the media room where Guy and Elena were wrestling for the remote, their laughter ringing through the manor.
“Just noticing how quiet the house is. Where are Cassie and Hal?”
“Hal took Cassie to Edinburgh for a few days.”
They walked out of the house and to Banan’s sapphire blue Porsche 911 Carrera. Once she was seated, Banan shut her door and walked around the car to the driver’s side.
They had almost an hour’s drive before they reached the restaurant. Normally Jane would be talking about her day doing one of the various jobs she, Elena, and Cassie did around Dreagan, but all she could think about was how oddly nervous Banan was.
She glanced at him, noting that he had both hands on the steering wheel, something he rarely did unless the weather was bad and she was in the car with him. It wasn’t that he was reckless with his life, he just knew that he couldn’t be killed.
Instead of coming out and asking Banan if something was wrong, Jane stared out the passenger window. She was such a chicken. Banan had opened up her world when he came into her life in London. She had been afraid and mesmerized when she saw him in his dragon form that first time.
Now, she eagerly watched for him to take to the skies at night. Under the cover of darkness was the only time the Kings would readily fly. There had been few instances where they had chanced being seen.
One such time was in London where Banan, along with Rhys, had shifted to dragon form to look for her after she had been kidnapped. Most recently, however, was when the Kings, en masse, had fought alongside the Warriors to kill a drough, or evil Druid.
Suddenly the car slowed, pulling Jane from her thoughts. She looked around to find they weren’t in the city but near a loch. She peered through the windshield and spied lights coming from the water.
When Banan stopped the car and put it in park, he wouldn’t look at her. With her heart pounding a slow, sad beat, Jane prepared herself for the end. It was obvious Banan was ending their relationship.
She hastily blinked back the tears and accepted his hand when he opened her door. Jane stepped out of the car and shivered. She might be from Seattle where it was always raining, but there was a dampness coming off the water that settled into her bones.
Or maybe it was her heart breaking into tiny bits that made her so cold.
“Here,” Banan said and helped her into her wool coat.
Jane buttoned and tied the coat, grateful that he had remembered to bring it. “Where are we? I thought we were going into Inverness.”
“I hope you doona mind, but I changed things.”
“Mind?” she said as she looked over the loch. Darkness had fallen over Scotland, leaving the half moon to shed a beacon of light that danced upon the gently moving water. “It’s beautiful here.”
He put his hand on her lower back and guided her to a set of narrow steps leading to a small dock. “I thought you might like this.”
Jane was speechless when the sailboat came into view. All along the rigging small lights had been hung, casting the entire deck in a soft hue.
Banan hurried ahead of her and jumped aboard the sailboat, then held out his hand to her once more as she crossed the small gangplank.
“When did you set this up?” she asked.
He shrugged, beaming as he looked around him. “You didna have any clue, did you?”
“Not at all. You kept this a very tight secret,” she said and cut her eyes to him.
His gaze softened as the boat rocked. “Elena packed a small bag for you, which I brought a couple of days ago.”
“So that’s where my favorite jeans disappeared to,” she said with a shake of her head. Jane leaned her head back and looked at the lights reaching high up on the rigging. “You did all this?”
“Aye. You mentioned wanting to sail. I’ll take you sailing anywhere you want to go.”
Jane looked at the mountains in the distance. “That might be a tad difficult since we’re in a loch.”
“Och. I meant later,” he said and took her hand. “We’ll be spending the next few days getting acquainted with the sailboat.”
Was this why he had been so nervous? Jane inwardly berated herself for being so stupid as to think Banan was distancing himself from her. He had gone to a lot of trouble to rent a sailboat for a few days just because she had mentioned wanting to sail.
“I’ve never sailed any type of boat,” she told Banan as she followed him around to the back of the sailboat. “Just because I like boats doesn’t mean I know anything about them.”
“Good thing I do,” he said over his shoulder.
Jane stopped and turned around in a circle. They were the only two on the sailboat, and from what she could see, there wasn’t another boat on the loch. It was almost as if they were the only two people in the world.
“What are you doing out here?” Banan said as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
