by Audrey Storm
My phone rang; I rolled my blue eyes when I saw who it was. “It’s Taylor,” I called out. “He’s been looking for you all morning.”
I heard Jonathan groan. “I’m on a call,” he said without looking up.
“Sorry, Taylor,” I said when I picked up. “He jumped on a call as soon as he came in.”
“Damn,” he replied. “I guess you’re the only person who can really bend his ear. Wish I had that special something you have.”
I hung up the phone, unsure again how to feel about Taylor’s little insinuations. Besides, there was no way he’d ever have that “special something”—because I was the only person in the company, not to mention most of the world, who knew Jonathan’s secret.
Chapter 2
I’d been working for Jonathan for around six months at the time. This job was unlike any challenge I’d ever faced before; even after half a year I was pulling late nights, just trying to keep up.
Jonathan was working late, too; he’d been in his office, with the door closed, for hours. It was nearing 9pm, and I was waiting on him to give me a clue as to when it would acceptable to go home. Even though it was obscenely late and I was yawning non-stop, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving before the boss did.
When 9 came and went, I took my courage in hand and knocked on his office door. “Mr. Harding?” I said, tentatively. I got no answer. For a moment I felt like a total idiot; what if he’d been sleeping in there all this time? I would have stayed for no reason.
I knocked again, a little more loudly this time. I pressed my ear to the door; there wasn’t a sound coming from inside the room, not even snoring. Nothing. I thought back; I remembered seeing him go in hours earlier, and I knew he hadn’t been out since. I saw light filtering out from under the door, so he certainly hadn’t left for the night when I was away from my desk.
I heard a noise on the roof, right above my head. I was suddenly terrified; there was nobody here to protect me in case of emergency, I realized. Maybe there was a cleaning crew somewhere in the building but I had no idea where they’d be. It was just me…or so it appeared.
I heard another noise, and this time it freaked me out enough to get me to open the door to Jonathan’s office. If he was in there, he needed to know that there was somebody—or something—on the roof.
But the office was empty. Everything appeared to be in place…except for one of the bookcases along the wall to the left of the doorway. It was ajar, pulled away from the wall. My instincts told me to leave, to pretend I hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary…but my curiosity got the better of me. Even with the noises I’d heard, I was now too intrigued to go without getting to the bottom of this.
There was a set of stairs behind the bookcase, as it turned out. A narrow stairwell, which I climbed on tiptoe so as to avoid notice. Once I was on the roof, the wind whipped my long dark hair into my eyes; I brushed it out of the way, and once my vision was clear I was rewarded with an unbelievable sight: A dragon.
I screamed, then threw my hands over my mouth. The wind carried the sound away, but not enough to keep the dragon from hearing me. Its head swiveled around, its bright yellow eyes zeroing in on me. For what seemed like an eternity but was probably more like a few seconds, we looked at each other. It was huge, at least 20 feet tall, and its scales shimmered grayish green. I saw its nearly invisible wings outstretched, and its claws glinted in the light from the moon.
The shock wore off in moments, for both of us. It moved toward me, and I screamed again. I practically fell down the stairs and back into Jonathan’s office, then threw all of my 200 pounds behind the bookcase to slam it shut against the wall. I was just about to turn and run, but what I heard from the other side of the bookcase stopped me in my tracks.
“Elizabeth? Elizabeth, please. It’s me. We need to talk.”
I froze. Was that… “Jonathan?”
A pause. “Yes. Yes, it’s me. Please. Open the bookcase.”
“How?” I looked around, unable to find a switch or something to unlatch the shelves.
“There’s a crystal figurine on the third shelf. A…a dragon. Lift it from its base.” I saw what he meant; an intricately detailed crystal dragon, its wings outstretched as if just about to take flight. I ran my fingers over it, then reluctantly picked it up. Sure enough, as soon as it left its wooden base a latch popped somewhere and the bookcase began to swing toward me. I stepped back to allow Jonathan into the room.
He was stark naked, his perfectly sculpted body covered with a thin sheen of perspiration. His emerald green eyes were downcast, his dark brown hair sticking up in tufts all over his head. He looked like a man who had been through a great physical exertion.
My knees went weak, the adrenaline now wearing off. I sank onto the leather sofa which sat along one wall of the room, my eyes never leaving the sight of my boss. I could hardly register the fact that he was naked, or that his body was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen outside a museum. All I could think about, in my haze of utter shock, was the implications of what I’d just witnessed.
He didn’t speak at first, instead reaching into a closet beside the bookcase and pulling out a silk robe. “Do you need anything?” he asked. “Tea? Something stronger, maybe?”
I was stunned, speechless. My mouth opened and closed, no sound coming out. He looked me up and down with an appraising eye. “Yeah, you need something stronger.” He walked over to the bar cart by the window and poured amber liquid into two crystal glasses. He walked over to me and handed me one of the tumblers; I shrank back without thinking about it.
“Don’t be afraid,” he murmured, then sat beside me; to his credit, he perched at the other end of the sofa, giving me some space. I took a sip of the bourbon he’d handed me, wincing as the dark liquid scorched a trail down my throat. It warmed me from the inside and gave me a little courage.
“What was that?” I asked, my voice a tremulous whisper. “Tell me I’m only seeing things, please.”
He smiled into his glass. “Seeing things? No, Elizabeth. You’re not just seeing things. What happened on the roof, that was me. The real me. Or at least a part of me.”
“Part of you? What are you saying?” I stuttered, certain I was losing my mind.
“It’s not insane.” He got up, then, and began pacing before the window. He sipped his exquisite bourbon, looking pensive. “There’s an entire world you know nothing about, Elizabeth. It exists beyond what you think of as ‘normal,’ but for those of us with the power inside of us…it is normal. You’re the ones who don’t know what life really is.”
He turned to me, his body framed by the skyline beyond the glass. “I come from a long line of dragons, Elizabeth. Long ago, far back across the centuries, my clan ruled what is now Europe. We’re now all over the world, in smaller numbers but no less powerful. You saw me, just now, in my dragon form. I had no intention of revealing myself to you this way; it was an accident. I thought you were long gone.”
A dragon. Was I really hearing this? “How is this possible? How is there a whole world beyond the one I know? How can you exist in secret like this without the rest of the world knowing? I mean, nowadays, with the internet and iPhones…you mean to tell me that nobody has revealed this?”
He smiled, his white teeth shining against his tanned skin. “There’s something to be said for power and money, Elizabeth. Everybody’s got a price.”
I felt a chill run up and down my spine. “What about me?” I asked, all questions of how and why now wiped away by this much more pressing concern. “What will you do to me? Now that I know, I mean.”
He looked at me, his eyes now narrowed. “If you were anybody else, and I mean anybody, I would probably toy with you right now. Make you wonder if I was going to pay you off or dispatch with you.” I gulped, hard; he continued. “But you’re not just any other woman. You’re smart, you’re capable, hardworking. You’re the best assistant I’ve ever had. I believe you’re intelligent enough to appreciate the value of
discretion.”
I knew what he meant, of course. He expected me to keep his secret for him. “Just like that?” I asked, skeptically. “You trust me?”
He shrugged. “I would insult you with the promise of a raise and a company car, even a vacation home if you so choose. But like I said, I think it would be an insult. You’re too substantial a woman to be swayed by possessions.”
I bristled at the word “substantial”, and he picked up on my shift in energy. “There’s one thing you need to know about a dragon if we’re going to keep working together, Elizabeth,” he said, his voice full of wry amusement. “We sense things. And I sense that you’re unhappy with my choice of words. Do you think I was making a crude reference to your figure? As though I was some stupid, careless bully?”
I couldn’t deny it, so I lifted my chin and looked him straight in the eye. “Yes, I did,” I said. “Sue me. Old habits die hard.”
He smirked. “Give me a little more credit than that,” he said. “By substantial, I mean you have a strong character. You’re a real person. You’re not easily fooled or easily put off. And by the way, I happen to enjoy thick, luscious figures.”
I blushed, hard, and he noticed; he smiled, one corner of his mouth curling up. “So let’s just say this, instead: I want us to keep working together. I couldn’t replace you if I tried. Whatever you need, and I mean whatever it is—money, a car, vacation time, debt erased, a nasty ex-boyfriend taken care of…” I snorted, and he smiled again, “it’s yours. Just say the word. All I ask for us that you continue the good work you’ve done for me thus far, and that you remain discreet. Agreed?”
I thought about it. It was a pretty large order, but then again this was the best job I’d ever had. It definitely paid better than I’d ever hoped. And strangely enough, finding out that my boss wasn’t entirely human somehow humanized him in my eyes. He wasn’t simply a powerful billionaire who didn’t suffer fools easily. He had a secret. He was vulnerable. And he was trusting me to keep him safe.
That was probably the moment I fell for him.
“Okay,” I said. “It’s a deal.”
I stood, leaving the tumbler on the desk. Before I left the office, I turned back.
“And by the way,” I said, “you can call me Libby from now on.”
Chapter 3
“So what are you up to tonight?” I heard from my office doorway. I looked up from my computer monitor to find Taylor leering down at me. It was Wednesday now, and I was busy getting the last-minute details in order for Jonathan’s trip to Malibu. I didn’t have time to play games with this guy.
“Normal weeknight,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant and busy; the busy part wasn’t difficult, since that’s exactly where I was at the moment. “Nothing.”
He ran a hand through his cinnamon-colored curls. “Well, I was wondering if you would maybe be free for dinner—especially since the big boss is going away for a while,” he offered. If this were any other man, I might have been flattered. I would probably have accepted; it wasn’t as though I had men beating down my door. But Taylor gave me a bad feeling. He was slimy. It always felt as though he was buttering me up just to get closer to Jonathan. Like if we were dating I’d put in a good word or something. I felt distinctly uncomfortable.
“Oh, I don’t know…” I hedged. “Jonathan’s got a lot of meetings in Malibu that I have to get him ready for. Just because he’s not here doesn’t mean I have no work to do, you know.”
“Come on,” he said with what he probably thought was a charming smile. “One dinner won’t kill you. The boss never has to know.”
“Never has to know what?” we both heard from behind him, and he turned to find Jonathan standing there. There was a long moment of tense silence before the boss spoke up again.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he said, in a tone of voice that conveyed anything but regret. “But I’d like to spend some time with my assistant before I leave.”
“Absolutely,” Taylor said, stepping back to allow my boss into my office. “I’m sure you have a lot of work out before you leave for Malibu.”
“I do,” Jonathan said. “And so does Libby, since she’s coming with me.”
My eyes darted from one man to the other, unsure what to make of this plot twist. I couldn’t help noting the difference between the two of them; Taylor looked like a little boy pretending to be bigger and more important than he was. His clothes were obviously expensive, but they did nothing for him. He was good-looking but his personality made him unattractive.
Jonathan, on the other hand, exuded masculinity and confidence. His suit was custom tailored, his dark brown hair expertly cut and styled. He carried himself with an air of complete control. There was no denying him.
It was almost as though they were having a staring contest, and finally Taylor broke. He stepped back slightly. “I had no idea. Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Taylor said, backing from the room and scurrying down the hall. He literally scurried away like a rat.
I couldn’t help snorting a bit. “Thanks,” I murmured. “But now what do I do for the next week? Disappear?”
Jonathan looked down at me. “No, of course not. You’re coming to Malibu with me.”
I sputtered in shock. “But…I thought that was just a joke,” I said. “Something to get Taylor off my back. I didn’t think you were serious.”
That half-smile appeared on his face. “I have a rather important meeting to attend while I’m there, and I’d appreciate your companionship.”
I was flabbergasted. “I’m…I’m flattered,” I said. “Very flattered. But I’m also…without anything.” I had to laugh, feeling completely out at sea. “I have nothing packed, nothing arranged at home; my cats need to be cared for, my plants watered. I don’t even have anything nice enough to wear to an important meeting.” A million protests came to mind, but I could tell from the way his face never changed that everything I had to say was falling on deaf ears.
“Make a few phone calls,” he said. “One of my people will take care of your home while you’re away. My personal shopper in Malibu only needs your sizes; she’ll have a full closet ready for you by the time we get in.”
“Are you sure you need me there for an entire week?” I asked. I realized we’d be staying together; I was sure his house was more than large enough to afford us both privacy, but this was far more intimacy than we’d ever experienced before nonetheless.
“You could use a break, anyway,” he said. “I’d like to know that you’re comfortable and able to relax for the week. Away from certain other people,” he added. I heard a note of irritation in his voice, and reminded myself not to read too much into it. He didn’t like Taylor; it had nothing to do with me. His feelings for me didn’t extend beyond employer/employee. He wasn’t jealous.
Even though I very much wanted him to be.
He left me with no excuses. Sometimes I forgot what money could do. I could tell from his demeanor that it meant nothing to him to call a shopper and have a closet stocked.
“Well…okay,” I said, shrugging. “If that’s what you want.”
He smiled, fully this time. “It is,” he said. “It’s very much what I want.”
I felt a chill, and goosebumps rose on my arms. Something about the tone of his voice told me that there was more to this sudden change in plans than currently met the eye.
Chapter 4
The flight to Malibu was surreal to say the least. We didn’t exchange more than a few words throughout the three hours we were in the air; Jonathan spent most of his time with his head in his phone. He had asked if I was comfortable after we’d boarded and fastened our seatbelts. That was all.
Of course I was comfortable; the cabin was luxurious, warm and inviting. The seats were more like leather-covered loveseats, so dreamy I was afraid I’d fall asleep. There was a bottle of Cristal on ice, a bowl of strawberries so luscious I thought they might be fake. “Anything you want, it’s yours,” Jonathan said. “Please, enjoy some c
hampagne. It will help you relax and unwind.” I took his suggestion and poured myself a glass, then ate a few strawberries. They were the most delicious I’d ever tasted.
While he was busy, I watched him from over the pages of my book. He was so handsome, sometimes I was afraid my heart might stop beating when I looked at him. His beautiful green eyes scanned the screen of his phone, his full mouth occasionally curving into a smile or a frown depending upon whether or not he liked what he read. His profile was like something you’d find on a Roman coin, his jawline sharp and well-defined. He was perfection.
It was so difficult, sometimes, keeping a professional attitude around him. I’d fallen hard for him that night in his office, when he confessed his secret to me; before that night I’d had a little crush on him, simply because he was so beautiful and charismatic. But in the years since I’d developed a real attachment to him. I felt protective of him. I wanted him to be happy and well.
I just wished he wanted to be happy and well with me.
He glanced up at me, as though he could hear my thoughts. I looked away, embarrassed. When I got the courage to look back over at him, his eyes were back on his phone. I saw a smile on his lips.
**********
I walked around what would be my room for the week; well, my suite of rooms, really. I had a sitting area that was stocked with tons of books; I could easily sit here and read for a week. Then there was the bedroom itself, complete with a four-poster bed and enormous flat-screen TV mounted above the fireplace. The private bathroom was home to a steam shower and whirlpool tub. Then there was the dressing room full of beautiful clothing, shoes and underwear—and just as promised, everything was in my size. I ran my hands over the silks, satins and laces. There was absolutely nothing there that I would ever have purchased for myself; it was all way beyond my price point, to put it mildly. But for my boss, of course, it was no problem.
