Matched with the Dragon: A Shifter Dating Agency Romance

by Ruby Forrest

  Making his way back to his apartment, Darian flew through the foggy night with a nervous pit in his stomach. Making it back to his balcony, he was horrified to see that the railing had been ripped out of the concrete and was laying across the patio. All of his outdoor furniture was strewn everywhere and TV’s were broken amongst the other disarray. Deciding the damage was already done, Darian didn’t bother using his helicopter pad to land, rather touching down on the ruined balcony and quickly falling back into his human form.

  Darian was surprised to see that he was still covered in black soot. Oh well, he thought to himself. He laughed at the thought that not all problems have an instant solution. Deciding to avoid the ruined bathroom, he used the guest bath downstairs before dressing and rushing to his waiting driver downstairs.

  He felt like a teenager on his way to pick up his prom date, anxious and fidgety. He thought about what he would say to her and how he would justify his random intrusion. Lila had arranged for him to have access to her building, so it would be no problem getting to her door.

  No, the only problem he would have is deciding what would be the first thing he would ever say to the love of his life.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “It’s you!” Briana blurted out as she opened her door to the knock that had disturbed her sleep.

  She had gone to bed early after her odd dream and the even more odd flash outside her window. She had just been falling asleep when there was a knock on her door. At first, she was afraid and had grabbed her phone in readiness to call for help. But, when she looked through her peephole and saw the silver haired security guard standing there, she nearly ripped her door off the hinges as she flung it open so fast. Her breathless greeting was far from the calm, cool and collected behavior she would have wanted to display in front of the enigmatic man, and she tried to relax herself and appear casual as soon as she had blurted out her greeting.

  “I mean, uh, I’m surprised to see you here, usually you are so…secretive,” Briana tried to recover, realizing that she was only making it worse.

  “I had no idea you were familiar with me, Miss Nelson. You really shouldn’t open your door for strangers that come in the night,” Darian’s voice spoke smoothly. Briana found herself musing inwardly over how poetic it was that the beautiful man that haunted her dark dreams would mysteriously appear in the night.

  “Well, Darian, that is your name right?” She asked, receiving a wide-eyed nod from Darian. “Lila told me about you performing my security detail after I mentioned a lovely silver-haired man lurking in the shadows,” Briana laughed casually. She noticed that when she had said that, Darian’s face blanched slightly.

  “I was trying to perform my job function without interfering with your daily life.”

  Briana thought to herself that she wanted nothing more than for this man to interfere with her daily life.

  “That’s very kind of you…So, um, what brings you to my door?” Briana said nervously, looking intensely into Darian’s eyes.

  Darian found himself taken back by the woman’s searching stare. Briana knew that it would be pointless to veil the feelings that she had let built up for this beautiful stranger. There was no doubt in her mind that he could see the longing in her eyes to know more about him.

  “I noticed you had not left your apartment this afternoon, and it seemed out of character, so I decided to perform a routine security check,” Darian spoke professionally.

  “Would you like to come in for a glass of wine?” Briana had said it nearly instinctually, the offer escaping from her mouth before she could contain the desire in her tone.

  Suddenly the man had a fire in his eyes, the deep, cold grey iris shifting like an ebbing tide, his lashes flickering with indiscernible emotion. Briana feared she had insulted his sensibilities, or crossed a line. Maybe she had misread the man the entire time, maybe he really was just an all-business security guard that would never agree to a social call with a ward. He stood looking at her for a moment, and Briana took the second of silence to look closely at the tattoo climbing his neck, her eyes lingering where the tattoo covered the pulsing artery in his neck. She wished she could jump into his arms and kiss that spot.

  “I mean, if you are busy, I understand,” Briana tried to pass the invite off as pleasantries.

  “I can only imagine that you have fantastic wine, Ms.Nelson,” Darian spoke with hesitation. “if it really is no trouble, I suppose staying for a glass couldn’t hurt.”

  “Excellent! How about a glass of red wine?”

  “Perfect.”

  Briana looked at Darian’s face, noting that there was a hint of reservation in his tone. She considered that maybe he thought drinking with someone he technically should have been watching wasn’t the perfect picture of professionalism, but Briana decided she would ignore any negative signals and pursue what she wanted. Without inviting him in, she turned and walked into her kitchen, leaving the door open behind her. Reaching the kitchen, she pulled a few glasses from her cabinet and a bottle of wine from the counter, all while trying to ignore the burning stare she could feel on her back.

  She nearly fell backwards when she turned and saw Darian standing behind her in the kitchen, his eyes following her movements.

  “Sorry, I don’t mean to hover,” Darian whispered oddly.

  Briana was trying to convince herself that she was not dreaming, that she had woken from the dream of this man and stepped into a reality with him. The thought sent a warm glow through her body, and she looked at Darian with narrowed eyes, imagining what it would be like to have him in her kitchen as a lover and not a stranger.

  “It’s okay, I rarely receive guests,” Briana said, pouring a glass of wine and handing it to him.

  “Oh? Why is that?” Darian asked with a genuine curiosity.

  “Well, most of the people I am acquainted with are for business reasons, and they mostly value me as a commodity, and I’ve come to realize that it is almost impossible for them to see me any differently. I choose to stay private rather than have relationships like that,” the words spilled from Briana’s mouth, and her face flushed when she realized how personal she had gotten.

  “…I understand that. It’s a wise choice. It’s hard to maintain one-sided relationships of any kind,” Darian said, the word spilling from his mouth like the fine wine he was sipping.

  Watching the way his long, graceful fingers held the glass, bringing it to his full and supple lips, Briana couldn’t help but to watch even his most acute of gestures. Returning her gaze to his eyes, she realized that he had caught her in the act, seeing the hunger in her eyes as she watched his visceral movements.

  “Darian, how long have you been watching me?” Briana asked stepping towards Darian with a husky voice.

  “Awhile,” he responded, his eyes now cast down on her from where she stood directly in front of him.

  “Why now?” Briana asked, with no need to explain further.

  Looking into Briana’s eyes, Darian’s own were intense, and Briana noticed a certain heat exuding from his body. With heavy breaths, she waited for a response. Seeing him tilt his head ever so slightly, she assumed he was going to kiss her. Her desire to feel his lips on hers were more than any second thought over the logic whether he was actually trying to kiss her, and she timidly leaned into him, tilting her chin up and closing her eyes.

  “Briana—” Briana’s eyes shot back to Darian’s with surprise at the gentle, almost pleading nature of his tone when saying her name. Hearing her name come from his lips felt more intimate than any caress she had ever experienced, and Briana shivered at the sensation.

  “Yes, Darian,” Briana said with a longing radiating from her body.

  “I should go, have a good evening.”

  With that, he was gone. She had stood frozen as he quickly turned and walked from her apartment, silently closing the door behind him. She hadn’t even heard his footsteps as he left the hallway. Briana was left s
tanding at her door, her mind in a fuzz as she dropped her face into her hands in anguish. He had been here! This had been her chance to charm him, to learn about him! For the first time in her entire life, someone had not eaten out of her hand the second she offered an opportunity to grow closer.

  Ironically, it was that fact that had been the icing on the cake that was her feelings for Darian. She was certain, despite her lack of familiarity with the man, and despite his secretive nature, that this was the man she wanted to love. Perhaps, she thought, she already did love him.

  ***

  Briana sighed deeply. She was dressed for her date with Brad, but rather than excited, she felt sad. It was not self-pity or childish pouting or a feeling of not getting what she wanted. It was a true, genuine ache in her heart. She did not want to sit with Brad and look into his eyes, she didn’t want to touch him or talk to him. The thought nearly send her into hysterics. Any act of intimacy with a man other than Darian seemed wrong. Last week, Darian had simply stood at her door as they exchanged a few words, yet somehow it was the closest she had ever felt to any man.

  Unfortunately, she knew her sadness stemmed from the knowledge that her thirsty obsession with Darian would never be quenched, and she had to try to continue with her life. She hadn’t noticed Darian around over the past week, and she couldn’t help but think that it was a result of her being too forward with him when he came to her door. Moving on with her life and overcoming her intrigue with Darian meant she needed to go on this date with Brad.

  Hours later, she was regretting that she had been so convicted in this thought. The basketball game had been boring, Brad more invested in commenting on the game than interacting with her. Brad seemed to be more interested in how she looked with him than how her company made him feel. It had taken all her self-control to not call Lila halfway through the game and scream at her for setting her up with such a shallow person.

  It was with resistance that she left the basketball game and headed to dinner with the man. She had tried to tell herself the reason she was giving dinner a chance was because of the possibility that a face-to-face interaction with Brad would be more personal, but she knew the only real reason she was willing to sit through dinner with him was because the restaurant was in the same building that Darian lived in.

  “Are you eating?” Brad asked without eye contact as they sat down at the restaurant.

  “Um, that’s the general practice when going out to dinner,” Briana said flatly, taking Brad’s lack of attention as an opportunity to scan for Darian in the crowd.

  “Are you sure?” Brad asked with a chuckle that Briana found insulting.

  “What’s the problem?” Briana asked, suddenly defensive.

  “I just ask because that tends to be a model thing.”

  “‘A model thing’? What does that even mean?” Briana said aggressively.

  “Would you like the wine list Mr. James?” A server interrupted, cutting the building tension.

  Brad didn’t even appear to be phased by Briana’s reaction, leaning back in his chair casually and addressing the waitress as though nothing was wrong.

  “I’m going to use the restroom, Brad,” Briana tried to interrupt as he reviewed the drink list.

  “Sure,” he said without looking up at her or standing while she slid her chair back.

  As Briana stood in the bathroom and washed her hands, she glared at her reflection in the mirror. How could she have thought this would make anything better? The date, Brad, or Lila’s dating service. All any of this mess had gotten her was a grave kidnapping threat from the Russian mafia and an intense attachment to a man she hardly exchanged words with. Gripping the sides of the sink with her hands, she hung her head in an attempt to gain the composure she knew she needed to make it through the rest of her date.

  Exasperated, she stood and checked her posture in the mirror before turning to leave the restroom. When she turned the restroom handle and heard the lock click open, she was shocked to feel the door swinging back at her. Quickly backing away from the door, Briana’s eyes grew wide when she saw Darian’s imposing figure in the doorway. His eyes were alight, as though there was a golden tint forming beneath the dark grey surface. His tattoo seemed inflamed, as though it were raising from his skin in a welt, and he was radiating warmth like a brick oven.

  “Darian!” Briana gasped.

  Without a word, Darian scooped her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

  “Darian! What in the world! Put me down!”

  “Petrov has men in the building,” was the only response Briana got, serious and cold.

  “That doesn’t mean you need to carry me!” Briana shouted.

  When Darian walked out into the dining room, Briana was preparing for the disturbance that would obviously ensue once everyone saw her slung over Darian’s shoulder, but she felt her pulse jump when she saw that the entire dining room appeared to have been cleared out in a haste. Darian paused just outside the bathroom, angling behind a wall as though hiding.

  “Darian, what is going on?” Briana demanded.

  “You need to not talk,” Darian responded with an odd whispered tone.

  Picking up a fork from a nearby table, Darian tossed it across the floor. Loud, rapid gunfire sprayed across the restaurant from several directions aiming at where the sound had come from. Briana felt her body immediately begin to shake as she clutched the back of Darian’s jacket from her over-the-shoulder position.

  “Darian, I thought they wanted to kidnap, not kill!” Briana hissed.

  “I think Petrov changed his mind when you decided to go on a very public date, Briana,” Darian said sardonically.

  “You knew this would happen!” Briana spat.

  “Stop talking, Briana,” Darian demanded, austere and intense.

  Darian stood frozen, trying to calculate how he would get out of this. The moment Briana had stood to use the restroom, several men Darian had already been eyeing shifted to track her movement. It was when one of them stood, accidentally revealing the gun tucked into his waist, that Darian had flown into action. He had screamed “Gun!” across the restaurant, and it hadn’t taken long for mass hysteria to clear the restaurant, just as he had anticipated. The three men had quickly moved to obviously pre-determined locations within the restaurant and had begun to open fire towards Darian. Silencers on their weapons kept Briana fully oblivious while in the restroom. He had easily reached Briana, but he hadn’t been prepared to be blocked into the restaurant from the alcove the restroom was tucked into.

  Standing with Briana hanging over his shoulder, Darian racked his brain for a solution. He knew that alone he would be more than capable of getting out of the restaurant, but with Briana in tow, he wasn’t so sure he could guarantee her safety. He knew that were he to transform into his dragon-self, getting out of the restaurant would be simple, but he also knew that it would come at the cost of revealing himself. A flaw of the cloaking defense feature was that, in transformation phases, he was not cloaked from sight, and if a human watched him transform and saw his dragon form, he would forever be visible to them in dragon form. Once seen by a human’s eyes, he would forever be apparent to that specific human when transformed.

  The armed men would be no problem; they wouldn’t live long enough to tell anyone his secret. He could also destroy the security cameras easily, and that left Briana. Feeling her shake in his arms, he knew that he could gamble with her life in order to keep his secret, or he could live with the fact that she would never be with him after the disgust and fear she would experience upon learning about the monster she would know hid beneath the surface. No one would believe her if she tried to tell anyone, and her life was stable enough to allow her to rant like a lunatic about dragons and not have it affect her. Darian realized he was debating between Briana’s life and any chance at a relationship he had with her. There was no debate to be had.

  Gently releasing Briana from his shoulder, Darian set her
on the clean marble floors further back into their hiding spot. She was simply looking up at him with eyes wide, trembling in fear. It had dawned on her the level of danger she was in, and her fear was enough to silence her from action. Briana watched as Darian stepped in front of her. She had no idea what he thought he was going to do about their current situation, and she had been mentally preparing herself for death, seeing no way out other than one completely covered by gunfire.

  “Darian, don’t—” She had shouted as he began to emerge from their clearing of cover.

  As he walked away, she watched the back of his figure, and she felt a sharp breath pang in her chest when she thought she saw his skin smoking. Looking closer, she watched as his silver hair began to ebb and flow as though under water. His suit began to ash and fall away from his body, but where she expected skin to show, she saw brilliant silver patches that appeared to be none other than scales! Gasping and shuffling further back against the wall Darian had set her near, Briana tried to steady her out of control breathing.

  With her eyes glued to Darian, Briana watched as his body distorted and became wracked with unnatural movement. Dropping to his knees, she watched as his long arms raised away from his sides and spread back from his body in large sweeping wings. Even in his changing shape, he had continued out into the center of the dining room, his wings massive and assuming, spreading from wall to wall. It seemed like in an instant the motion of his body had burst into one final expanse, a chorded silver tail winding around his body supported by thick legs.

  Briana shifted on the floor, leaning forward as though trying to look closer. Her eyes were wide and tears were running down her cheeks in the rush of overpowering emotions. It was when she saw something familiar about Darian’s large dragon form that pieces came together for her. His warmth when he had just touched her, the inflammation of his tattoo, the shaking in the trees at the park even! And the copper flash outside her window was just like the sheen that Darian’s silver scales had! Not to mention his striking silver hair and grey eyes, or his intensely secretive nature.