by Zoe Chant
Ben was on the couch when she came out of the bathroom with the towel draped over her shoulders, reading a book. He looked up, then did a double take and looked up again. "Wow," he whispered, gazing at her in open wonder.
He'd put on a dark T-shirt and jeans, though his feet were still bare and his hair gloriously sex-tousled. She came over the couch and draped an arm over his shoulder, while he tilted his head back to kiss her. It was the casualness of it, more than the physical contact, that took her breath away.
She had a boyfriend. She couldn't get over it.
An incredibly hot, protective boyfriend with a secluded cabin in the mountains.
Could life get any better? Not hardly. Well, maybe if dragons weren't after her, but hopefully that wouldn't be a problem here.
"Not to be a mood-killer," she murmured, lips brushing his forehead, "but where'd you put my suitcase?"
"Oh, right! I guess you need that, don't you?" He pointed up the stairs. "It's at the top of the stairs. I guess you didn't notice when we went past it earlier."
"I had other things on my mind."
Ben smiled, crinkling his eyes in that way she was coming to love. "Me too."
She was deliciously aware of Ben watching her naked ass as she climbed the stairs and bent over the suitcase.
"You can take it into the bedroom," he called up from downstairs. "I took it up with that in mind, and then thought that you might think I was pushing—you know, putting your clothes in my bedroom—so you can take one of the downstairs bedrooms if you'd rather."
"This is exactly where I want to be," she said over the railing. "So I'll just make myself at home up here, shall I?"
"Please do."
She took the suitcase into the bedroom and opened it on the bed. Old instincts took over, though, and she just got out enough clothes to change into, then closed the suitcase neatly and put it on the floor against the wall. There was a part of her that wanted to unpack and see her clothes nestled against Ben's in the drawers of the big wooden dresser against the wall, but there was an even bigger part that wanted to be ready for a quick getaway.
Would she ever live anywhere without expecting that she was going to have to leave?
She pushed that thought down. With a dragon assassin hunting her, it was a sensible precaution to take. She changed into clean jeans and a black crop-top with MEOW picked out across the breasts in rhinestones (the closest thing to sexy clothes she owned), then almost changed out of it when she looked down at the curve of her exposed belly over the top of her jeans. But, hell, Ben had just seen all of her less than an hour ago.
She padded downstairs, trailing her hand on the railing. Ben looked up and smiled, then smiled wider when he saw what she was wearing. "I like the shirt," he remarked.
"You know, there are people who say women shaped like me shouldn't wear crop-tops."
Ben stood up and came over. He touched the smooth skin of her belly lightly, running his hand over it with obvious delight, then leaned in to kiss her.
"Those people," he murmured against her lips, "are very wrong."
"I'm starting to get that impression."
She was just stretching up to kiss him again when a chorus of high-pitched mewing broke out from the bedroom. Tessa burst into giggles and looked over to see a small orange paw snake out from under the closed bedroom door before vanishing again.
"Oh yes," Ben said, "that. I think the kittens are restless."
"Do you mind if I let them out into the living room? I didn't want to overwhelm them, but it looks like they want to join the family."
"Sure. I'll go close the windows."
When she opened the door, the kitten who had been trying to crawl under it (Toblerone) tumbled into the living room, looked startled, then picked himself up and went to see what was under the couch. The rest fanned out along the edges of the room. One tried to crawl into the fireplace. Tessa caught it and put it on the couch instead.
"Are you supposed to kitten-proof a house, the way you'd child-proof?" Ben asked, watching as the march of the kittens spread to encompass the kitchen and one of them tried to climb the sawhorse. "Because I sort of ... haven't."
"Yes, but it's not as much of a big deal with kittens as it is with toddlers or even puppies." She picked up a cordless drill off the floor under the sawhorse and set it on top. "You want to make sure they can't get into anything toxic, and they might chew on things like electrical cords. Mostly you want to pick up anything they might get tangled in, or anything that could poison them."
They went around the living room checking for hazards and moving appliances out of reach. Ben secured the cabinets under the sink with a loop of twine to stop them from trying to get inside. The kittens were oblivious; the entire world was a fascinating jungle gym, made for kittens to climb on.
"I apologize in advance if they destroy anything."
Ben shrugged. "My friends Derek and Gaby have been up here with their son. He's six. Trust me, I'm not bothered by that sort of thing. Anyway, can I get you anything? Show you where anything is?"
"Let me just look around and see what there is to drink."
"There's still some coffee if you want it. Not much else right now, besides water."
Tessa went into the kitchen, reached for the pot of coffee keeping warm by the stove, then poured herself a glass of water instead. If she started drinking coffee this late at night, she'd never sleep, and she was finally starting to feel like she could sleep—relaxed, comfortable, no longer scared or even worried.
Ben was on the couch again, smiling at her. She went over to join him, curling her bare feet under her.
"So what do you do in the evening here?" she asked. "Just read?"
"Mostly. I could teach you some card games." He laid his book aside. "Or we could just talk. There's so much I want to know about you."
"There's nothing interesting about me, though."
"Everything about you is interesting to me," Ben said gently. "Tell me an interesting fact about yourself."
"Uh ... I like cats?"
He laughed. "I already know that one. How about ... hmmm. I don't know anything about you, really. Did you go to college?"
Tessa shook her head, feeling embarrassment creep up her neck in the form of a flush. "No. I couldn't afford it."
Ben picked up her hand and kissed her fingertips lightly. "Did you want to?"
"I don't know. I didn't have anything specific in mind, nothing I wanted to study, I mean." There had been nothing even remotely judgmental in his tone, but talking about herself still made her squirm. "What about you? Did you imagine yourself as a cop when you were a kid?"
"Not really. I've actually got an engineering degree."
Her eyes went wide. "Really?"
"Not what you expected, huh? That was my career for awhile. I traveled all over the world, planning designs for bridges and that sort of thing." He smiled. "Want to hear some stories about that?"
Somehow he recognized that she didn't like talking about herself and was giving her a graceful out. She couldn't get over how he was just ... perfect. "Yes," she said, and she lay down on the couch, snuggling her head into his lap. She could lie here forever, just listening to his voice. "Tell me some stories."
It wasn't even the words so much as his voice. She closed her eyes and drifted as he petted her hair and talked about the places he'd been, the things he'd seen.
He had lived such an interesting life. Why was he interested in her? Would he eventually get over his infatuation and leave?
She didn't want to think about that right now. She was comfortable; she felt safe.
She just wanted to stay here forever.
Chapter Nine
Ben's bed was more than big and comfortable enough for two people to sleep, spooned together. Tessa was awakened in the morning by Ben sitting bolt upright in bed next to her. Early morning sun shafted through the window, turning his skin soft gold and evoking pleasant memories of the night before.
"
Mmm?" she managed sleepily.
"I hear an engine. Someone's coming up the driveway."
That cleared the sleep out of her foggy brain. "Your friend Derek, maybe?"
"Maybe." He got out of bed and went to the window, then shook his head and started to dress in a hurry. "But he'd have no reason to think I'm here. I didn't tell him I was coming out to the cabin, and it's not even a weekend. There's no reason why anyone who knows me would visit."
Tessa reached for her clothes as well, spurning the sexy crop-top for another of her oversized T-shirts. "You said no one could follow us here. Is there any way someone could have found us?"
"I don't see how." Ben strapped on his shoulder holster over a T-shirt. "The cabin's not in my name. Only a handful of people know about it, and I trust all of them. Well, my dad—" He stopped, then shook his head. "No. I don't trust my dad, but the exact reasons why I don't trust him are also why I don't think he'd sell us out in a situation like this."
That made exactly zero sense, but Tessa didn't think now was the time to ask him to explain. She could hear the engine now too, a loud coughing roar that sounded like it was coming into the yard of the cabin. "Is that a motorcycle?" she asked.
"Sounds like it," Ben said grimly. "Stay here."
Tessa shook her head. "I'm not letting you face danger without me. Besides, this probably concerns me, and I want to know what's going on."
He huffed a sigh. "Fine, you can come downstairs, but stay out of sight."
Tessa stuffed the pendant down the front of her shirt and bent over to tie her shoes. "I guess there's no chance we could just lock the doors and hope they'll go away."
"With my car outside? I doubt it."
Outside the cabin, the loud, coughing engine died. Ben opened the bedroom door and went down the stairs two at a time, vaulting over a kitten. Tessa followed more quietly, picking up the kitten (it was either Twix or Butterfinger; she couldn't tell them apart) and taking it with her to the bottom of the stairs. If they were going to have to leave, she should start getting them back into their carrier, but for now, she went softly to the window beside the door and peeked out from behind the curtain.
A figure in a black leather jacket was just swinging his leg off a large, gleaming motorcycle, its chrome shining in the morning sun. That was definitely Reive. So much for Ben's assurances that they hadn't been followed.
Ben closed the door behind him and went down the porch steps. "You're a long way from home," he said evenly.
"So are you, panther. So are you." Reive wasn't wearing a helmet, and his black hair was wind-tousled. He pushed a pair of expensive-looking sunglasses to the top of his head.
"This is my home. You're trespassing on private property." From her perspective at the window, Tessa saw Ben's arm shift as he moved a hand to the butt of the gun holstered against his side. He hadn't covered it with a jacket this time; the strap cut across the back of his T-shirt in a sharp diagonal slash. "And I'm telling you to leave right now. If you don't, there's going to be trouble."
Reive held his hands out, showing the palms. He didn't appear to have any weapons, though he could be hiding anything under his heavy jacket. "I've told you, my quarrel is not with you. It's the woman you're hiding that I want."
"Leave. Now."
The kitten in Tessa's arms hooked its tiny claws into her shirt. She absently freed its small, soft paw without tearing her eyes away from the window. She knew she shouldn't be delaying like this; she should be packing up the kittens and getting ready to leave. But she couldn't look away from the confrontation in the yard.
"You won't desist, will you?" Reive's words came out resigned.
Ben drew his gun. Tessa had to stifle a gasp. She'd never seen anyone use a gun in real life before. He wasn't pointing it at Reive, but he held it in a way that made it very clear he could raise it in a heartbeat.
"Very well," Reive said. "If it's a fight you want, no one ever accused me of bringing a knife to a gunfight."
His last words came out in a rumbling growl ... and he changed.
Tessa recoiled away from the window, the kitten in her arms turning to a snarling, hissing ball of claws. Ben's shift from man to panther had been a gentle transition, his body easing with feline grace from one to the other. This transition was violent. Reive erupted in a wall of scales, rearing upward against the clear morning sky. Spikes burst from his neck and shoulders; a pair of wings erupted forth and spread to block the sun. Tessa couldn't even tell what happened to his clothes. They seemed to become part of him, vanishing into his glossy scales.
His lean, spiky body seemed to go up and up forever. The long-jawed reptilian head bowed over Ben like the head of a cobra mesmerizing a mouse. The dragon was copper-colored, gleaming in the sun like a polished brass kettle. A red stripe ran down each side of his body, making it look as if he'd been painted in blood. Each of the claws on his enormous forepaws, poised over Ben like a cat's claws, was as long as a sword.
The kitten wrenched itself from Tessa's arms, leaving bloody scratches down her wrists. The pain recalled her to herself. She had to get the kittens and get out of here. There was no way she could fight something like that. There was no way Ben could fight something like that. Their only chance was to flee and find somewhere to hide and ...
... and she didn't know, she didn't know how she was ever going to be free of this, but even running forever was better than being torn apart with those terrible claws.
Base animal instinct told her to just run out the back, to get away as far as possible. But she couldn't leave Ben, and she couldn't abandon the helpless kittens who depended on her.
Right now the nearest of the helpless kittens had wedged itself as far under the couch as it could go. "Come out out," she whispered, afraid to make too much noise for fear the dragon would hear her.
A sudden burst of gunshots outside made her jump with a small scream. The kitten hissed and backed even further under the couch, out of her reach.
"Come on, come on, baby." Tessa fought to keep her voice calm as she strained to reach the kitten in its hiding place. "I'm trying to help you."
The gunshots had to be Ben. A dragon wouldn't carry a gun.
A roar outside the cabin rattled the windows. That was the dragon. It was followed by the snap of another gunshot.
With panic breathing down her neck like hot dragonbreath, Tessa gave up trying to retrieve that particular kitten and went after the other ones. They had all panicked and run for cover, but most of them hadn't been as successful at finding a hiding place. She scooped up one of them in a corner of the kitchen and caught another under a chair.
A tremendous crash shook the cabin and sent adrenaline jolting through her, almost making her drop the kittens. I have to get out of here! She sent her desperately worried good wishes in Ben's direction as she took the kittens into the back bedroom.
Here she discovered another problem.
The kittens hadn't objected to being stuffed into the carrier at the shelter. It was a new experience for them, so all she'd had to do was grab them and pop them in, one by one. This time, however, they knew what was coming, and they did not like it at all.
It was amazing how one small kitten could suddenly consist of about ten legs and 400 claws, half of them attempting to hold off the carrier and the other half aimed at Tessa's hand and arm.
"Get in there!" Tessa ordered between her teeth, jamming Kit Kat down just as Toblerone tried to make a break for it. "I could just abandon you ungrateful little jerks, you know!"
Sobbing with frustration and fear, she managed to get them all jammed inside and zipped up, along with another she found cowering under the bed. She was tempted to just leave the other two (one under the sofa, the other hiding in some unknown location), but what if the dragon burned down the cabin? Could real dragons breathe fire?
And once she caught the kittens, what then? She and Ben were going to have to escape past that thing.
If Ben was even still alive. She hadn't
heard any gunshots lately. Panic choked her, not for herself, but for the man who, in so short a time, had become so much a part of her that she couldn't imagine her life without him.
***
Ben stood his ground as the dragon reared above him. Even if he was willing to consider running—and there wasn't a chance, not with Tessa in the cabin—it wouldn't do him much good. The dragon wasn't really built for sprinting, but with those wings, it could follow him anywhere.
He'd watched his father shift on more than one occasion, so this wasn't the first time he'd seen a dragon in the flesh. It still never got easy. They were not just huge, but alien-looking, every part of their body adapted to be the most powerful and efficient predator in the modern world ... perhaps the most effective predator the world had ever seen.
The sudden, incongruous image of a dragon fighting a dinosaur popped into Ben's head. His lips twitched.
"Why are you smiling?" Reive demanded, his voice a deep rumble. Dragons were among the only shifters who could speak in their animal form.
"Just wondering if you'd win in a fight against a T-rex."
Reive stared down at him. "Are you stalling?"
"Not really. Just giving you a chance to change your mind. If you don't shift back immediately, I won't hesitate to use lethal force against you."
He wasn't sure if the curl of Reive's lip was amusement or contempt. "Puny little shifter, you couldn't hurt me if you tried."
Ben squeezed off a fusillade of bullets at him.
Despite his warning, he was trying to stop Reive, not kill him, so rather than aiming for the head, he fired into center mass: in this case, Reive's chest, a broad expanse of shimmering copper scales. That would've been a kill shot on a human, but given Reive's size, Ben wasn't even sure if the .38 would have enough stopping power to penetrate his scales.
Reive grunted, more in surprise than pain. Bright blood glistened on his chest, so at least the bullets had done some damage, but he showed no signs of being badly hurt.
"Really?" Reive rumbled. "You think that's going to stop me?"
