by Amelia Jade
“Colonel, I’ve heard a lot about you.” In truth she’d heard Aric mention the base commander only a few times, and not once had she mentioned the goliath just now rising from the table next to her.
“Hi. Kaitlyn,” she said, sticking out her hand.
“Kallore,” the giant man with ice-blue eyes replied.
Eyes that were fixated on Aric. Her hand was engulfed in the titan’s grip, but he seemed not to notice. Looking over her shoulder she saw Aric giving the huge man an appraising look, not flinching in the slightest from his stare. What the hell was going on? A dick-swinging contest already? Why did all men have to do this!
She slipped her hand out from the handshake and slid to the side so that she wasn’t in between the two of them. The last thing she wanted was to be caught in the middle of the two giants if things came to blows. Aric was standing tall again she saw, the oceans in his gaze gone dark as her threat detectors screamed at her.
Aric was barely restrained fury, a tempest that couldn’t be contained. Kallore stood his ground, reeking of sheer power. His muscles were bigger and they bulged frighteningly. Kaitlyn got the impression of power from him. Sheer, raw strength, a fiery blow that had no equal.
“Kallore, this is Aric. Now you two shake hands.”
The big man with black hair shrugged and then all at once the tension seemed to relax out of the room. The pair clasped wrists and gave each other that upward nod that started from the chin that all men did instinctively. It aggravated her to no end to see them go so abruptly from ready to beat the snot out of one another to friends. How could guys do that!
She slipped into the seat on the left, across from Kallore. Since she was the secondary on her side and to her knowledge so was he, it made sense. Aric gave her a look that said he wasn’t happy about her sitting next to the big man, but she ignored it. He could be jealous all he wanted. She was doing this for business reasons, which is where he needed to get his damn head at.
Kaitlyn wasn’t his, and she would never be if he kept acting in a proprietary way over her. That was not something she was okay with, and even less so when she wasn’t in any semblance of a relationship with someone.
You’re assuming that’s what he wants. It could just be he doesn’t trust Kallore, and feels you’re in harm’s way.
Which was entirely possible, considering the standoff between the pair of them. What was it with this base and excessive levels of testosterone? She couldn’t put up with much more of it.
“Well, shall we just get into the nitty-gritty of it all?” Colonel Mara asked without preamble.
There were nods from the others, so Kaitlyn went along with it. Great, so much for a presentation, or a review, or basically anything that might provide her with more information so that she could make any sort of contribution.
She tried to pay attention, but the technical lingo started to bore her within minutes, and she found her attention drifting as it so often did these days to thoughts of her unborn child. What would he or she look like? What name would she give them?
Hopefully they would have more of their father in them when it came to height. Even with women being shorter on average she still found that the world was built for someone six inches taller than she was. If it was a daughter Kaitlyn hoped she would be closer to that magical five-six to five-nine height range. Her life would just be that much easier.
Speaking of their father, she glanced over at Aric. She watched him as he spoke, noting the way his jaw moved, or how his eyes managed to remain cool and almost detached the entire time. It was that lack of life in his eyes that always seemed to give her pause, she decided. Once or twice they’d come alive, but whatever shield he had down over his emotions was powerful.
There was no way her child, this one or any future ones, was going to be like that. They didn’t have to be an open book, but they needed to be able to express their feelings without fear, which is something she saw instantly in Aric. He didn’t know how to open up, to realize that saying he was sad or down didn’t mean he was weak.
How would he be as a father? Could he handle changing diapers and midnight feedings? Rocking a baby to sleep and bath time just seemed so out of the realm for someone like him. He was big, strong, and often brutally direct in business situations. Envisioning him cooing to a child the size of his hand and dealing with a shit-volcano problem was flat out impossible for her at the moment.
That could all change once he knew, but she wasn’t going to risk his interference in her baby’s life until she could be sure that he would be a great parent. A great father and a dad, since she saw them as two very different things. Just like being a mother or a mom.
Doubt spiked the lining of her stomach as a question she’d never had before arose. What would Kaitlyn be like as a mother? Could she handle all that stuff, and do it all on her own as well? It wasn’t like she’d had the best of examples to learn from.
Something jostled her arm. Looking down at the hand, her eyes followed it up to the arm that was attached to Aric. He was looking at her.
As was everyone else.
“Pardon?” She sat up straight, licking her lips, gauging the looks on everyone’s faces.
Colonel Mara smiled in understanding, tossing her a wink of support. “We were talking about the required accessory and terrain modifications and Aric said you’d be better qualified to answer that.”
Hammering down at the panic threatening to escape, Kaitlyn frantically fought to buy herself some time. “He said that? Are you sure?”
A chuckle ran around the room. Part of her longed to follow up with, “Seriously, are you sure he said that?” but now was not the time. Her brain was spinning up like a hard drive, working overtime to try and produce an answer that wouldn’t leave her feeling more embarrassed than she already was.
She took several deep breaths, trying not to panic. It didn’t work very well.
Chapter Nine
Aric
The door hissed open to admit a uniformed soldier.
He paused in his sentence as Colonel Mara motioned for the aide to come in. The young man whispered in her ear for a few seconds and then stood up.
“Very well. Thank you, Sergeant. Please inform Kyen that I’ll be there shortly.”
Aric sat back into his seat. Kyen. That was a name he’d not heard mentioned in a long, long time. A pacifist dragon with a penchant for math and science, he was by far the oddest dragon that Aric had ever read about. Rumor had it he’d been a major part of figuring out how to reverse the calcification process.
Dragons didn’t die of old age. Not in the typical way. What happened was they slowly over time turned to stone from the outside in while falling into a deeper and deeper sleep. This was something that was effectively controllable. A dragon could choose when and where to enter this.
Over the years as their kind had been driven underground, more and more of them had chosen this method rather than live within a human civilization that was leaving them behind. To Aric’s knowledge his enclave was the only group that had remained awake through the centuries.
Now though, dragons from the past—like Kallore who was seated diagonal from him—were being awoken and brought up to speed. It was all so they could help fight the Outsiders, evil aliens from another world, perhaps even dimension. Nobody knew the answer to that question just yet, but it didn’t matter. Aric knew they had to be stopped.
Colonel Mara stood. “I’m sorry, Aric, Kaitlyn, but I have to attend to this. Shall we resume tomorrow? I’ll have someone contact you about a time.”
“Of course,” he said, standing up quickly to shake hands.
Kallore gave him a firm grip and a long eye before following Colonel Mara out of the room. Once the door was closed he flopped back into his seat with a sigh. “Jeez, that guy is such a buzzkill, don’t you think?”
There was no reply right away.
“Kaitlyn?”
The diminutive woman rounded on him, amber flaring in the depths
of her eyes. “How dare you?”
Aric was caught so off guard he scrambled backward. The metal folding chair screeched under the shifting of his bulk and the metal support crumbled, spilling him backward onto the floor.
“What did I do?” he yelped, untangling himself until he was sitting facing her.
“Are you seriously that blind?” she snapped, standing up so she could look down on him. “You actually have no idea?”
“No! I don’t! All I said was that he’s a buzzkill. What’s so wrong with that? He’s big, grumpy, and just sucks the energy out of every conversation!”
“Not that, you dick. You hung me out to dry! Asking me about terrain modifications for the suits? In what world do you figure that’s a nice thing to do?”
“Pardon?”
Kaitlyn kicked the chair out of the way and Aric scrambled backward as she advanced on him, a tiny mite brimming with anger just waiting to explode and lash out at him. Aric knew he wasn’t in any real physical danger, but laughing at her right now wouldn’t help, even if she was absolutely adorable when she was mad.
“I told you multiple times coming in here that I didn’t know a damn thing about these negotiations. You only told me on the plane yesterday morning what the hell we were even trying to achieve here. When was I supposed to be able to dig up any classified data to be able to form an opinion on this, you asshole? So there I am, not knowing anything, and you throw me a question I couldn’t hope to answer and embarrass me in front of everyone!”
She kicked the chair again, sending it clattering against the wall, but thankfully not at him.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, getting to his feet. “There’s an entire dossier of information that was supposed to have been delivered to you! I gave it to Janice and specifically said to ensure it got to you before you left.”
Explanation made, he got to his feet, expecting her to calm down and realize it wasn’t his fault. Instead Kaitlyn kept coming, jabbing a steel finger into his sternum.
“Oh, you gave it to Janice. Who hates everyone, except for Kase and Aren, by the way. You know, the two most senior guys in the office, the ones who should have been here. This is exactly what I was telling you about!” she cried. “You’re causing me all sorts of problems in the office, and we hadn’t even left before they started. This is all your fault, Aric.”
“My fault!” he protested, getting to his feet.
Kaitlyn’s eyes flared and she stepped closer, despite the height difference. “Yes. I warned you about all of this, but you ignored it because you think you can get in my pants again, you egotistical ass.”
Aric bit his lip. His initial response was to tell her that they had discussed the topic in length in the meeting as well, but she’d been too busy staring at him to pay attention, so that perhaps it was her own fault as well. He knew that wouldn’t go well though, so he sucked it up and accepted the blame.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have verified that it made its way to you. I’ll give you mine tonight so that you can study it. Okay? All I can do about earlier is apologize, but I’ll make sure I know ahead of time if you’re comfortable on certain topics.”
“Oh. Okay.”
His apology had surprised her. Aric figured she’d expected a long drawn-out argument because he was too stubborn to apologize. If it was anyone but her he probably would have, but this was his mate, and he needed to ensure that she was always happy.
Taking advantage of the confusion on her part he stepped forward and wrapped her up in a hug. “And just so you’re aware, getting into your pants was not the reason I decided on bringing you with me.”
“Maybe it wasn’t then, but you’re not very subtle, you know.”
He grinned, unseen as she gently returned his hug. After a moment she relaxed into it. This was going far better than he had ever imagined. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, ignoring her comments about sex. “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known you were still in the dark. I just took your comments about being in the dark as joking around. I didn’t really think it over. I should have, and for that I apologize.”
Kaitlyn was quiet, staying still in his arms for a moment longer. This was no longer a friendly ass-out hug between coworkers or mild acquaintances. It had at some point morphed into something that neither of them totally understood. Aric didn’t want to spook her, so he pulled back before she had the chance.
“Can I complete the apology by buying you lunch?”
“That sounds an awful lot like a really bad attempt to ask me out.”
Aric gave her an innocent look. “What, you mean a military mess hall meal served on a metal tray, eaten on long benches surrounded by hundreds of loud, obnoxious soldiers isn’t romantic?”
Kaitlyn shrugged, grabbing her bag and heading for the door. “I suppose that depends on what sort of appetite I have.” She winked and then was gone.
Aric was so taken aback by the unexpected sexual undertones to her joke that he didn’t move. What was going on here? Things had just gotten more than a little confusing. They’d gone from Kaitlyn being furious with him to them hugging it out, to her making a joke about getting gangbanged by soldiers. Overwhelmed by it all he decided to just not think about it.
Focus on the priority. That was what he needed to do, and it also made things easy for him because his priority never changed. It was Kaitlyn, and had been since the instant he’d discovered she was his mate. The odds were she was just as confused by everything going on as he was. On top of his sudden change of interest in her, she had no idea why it was happening. If anything she was more lost than he, and Aric would need to keep that in mind.
“Kaitlyn! Wait, hold up!” he called, practically running out of the room after her.
He dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding a soldier who was coming down the corridor at the same moment. “Sorry!” he called, twisting out of the way and letting the angry glare slide right off him. His booted feet clattered down the underground hallway—or was it a tunnel? He didn’t know—after his mate, until he slid to a halt at her side.
“Forget something?”
“No. You did.”
She paused, looking up at him, confusion pulling her perfectly arched eyebrows together. “What did I forget?” She looked down at her bag and patted it, confirming the few contents that she’d brought were still in there.
“An answer.”
Brown hair bounced with golden light as she shook her head slowly, stifling a laugh. “You’re persistent, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “I just abhor rudeness.”
Kaitlyn’s mouth dropped open, those same eyebrows exploding upward in indignation and mirth. “Excuse me?”
He winked, licking his upper lip before speaking. “You never said yes or no. And it is lunchtime. So I know you’re hungry.”
“I’m always hungry,” she countered, crossing her arms under her small breasts.
Aric had her now, he could tell. She wasn’t saying no, which meant she was interested. The lack of an affirmative he figured was for one of two reasons. Either she wanted him to try harder to get her, because she wanted to feel well and truly sought after before caving, or she was still unsure of the situation.
Figuring it was most likely the latter, based on the contrast between much of her previous sentiment, and her body language and willingness to hug him for a good while earlier, he decided to lay his cards out on the table and act like she’d already said yes.
“Meet me at the surface exit in twenty minutes. Ditch the bag.” Aric gave her his best smile and wink before turning and heading back down the corridor.
By not waiting for an answer he was risking being stood up, something nobody liked, but Aric wasn’t worried. After all, why should he be? He’d seen the excitement and intrigue in her eyes when he’d simply told her where to be, not revealing his plans. She was enjoying the game, and enjoying being chased after, even if their work relationship was complicating things far more than he app
reciated.
Now that he’d set his bait, however, Aric had to get a move on. After all, he only had twenty minutes to get everything arranged!
Chapter Ten
Kaitlyn
The doors opened on the surface elevator, sunlight spilling inside the metal cage. Pulling her sunglasses down to shield her eyes she stepped out, enjoying the feel of the early-afternoon sun on her skin.
I never realized living underground could make you miss the sun so much. Her entire mood changed as she soaked in the UV rays. Although the sun was up and shining, she was still dressed in pants and a long-sleeve shirt. The spring day was one of the warmest yet, but the chill of winter was still fresh in her mind. All in all though, it was a perfect day to spend time outside, especially after the exhaustion of the past two days.
The jet lag was playing hell with her system, but Kaitlyn believed in sucking it up and just accepting things that were quite simply out of her control. So she ignored the dull burning around her eyes that told her she should be fast asleep at that point and instead scanned the surface area nearby.
It was empty. Looking at her phone, it showed that she was two minutes past the twenty-minute deadline Aric had set. To her that was a minor miracle, considering she’d changed, brushed her hair, and touched up her makeup as well. To do all that and only be two minutes late was a heroic effort.
All of which meant nothing now that it was clear she could have spent more time. Kaitlyn didn’t often put much in the way of makeup on, but the importance of closing this business deal couldn’t be understated. Both for the bank, her career, and also her own financial well-being. That six-figure payday was going to be hers, and if that meant dolling herself up a bit, then so be it, she wouldn’t complain. It was a minor price to pay.
“Where are you?” she asked to the empty space, feeling self-conscious about just standing there doing nothing.
The base spread out in front of her, sloping gently downward from the cluster of entrances to the underground complex. Besides the building from where she’d just come that housed the set of personnel elevators as well as a supply elevator, there was also the massive gaping tunnel.
