by Amelia Jade
“I’ll be in the barn. You won’t even know I’m there. I promise.”
He watched her mouth open and close, but no protests emerged.
“Good. I’m glad that’s settled. Now let’s sell some stuff!”
Chapter Twelve
Sandy
The shower was running in the washroom just down the hall from the kitchen.
But it wasn’t Sandy using it.
Yet again she asked herself what she had gotten into, and why she kept agreeing to everything that pushed the two of them closer together. It made no sense, yet she couldn’t seem to stop it. The part of her that she’d buried three long years ago was in control now, and it didn’t have any plans to stop anytime soon. All Sandy could do was buckle up and hopefully enjoy the ride, no pun intended.
I am not going to sleep with him!
Not tonight at least. That was off the table whether she wanted to or not, for a few more days at least. Thank goodness for small miracles. However, it was leaving her body filled with hormones that told her otherwise. The worst of both worlds. She was horny as fuck and couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
They’d come back from the market and Palin had asked to shower. He’d been an angel, carrying all the bags to people’s cars when they bought things, but in the process he’d gotten soaked, and she could understand him wanting to change. Now that she could hear the water splashing around the shower though, knowing it meant he was scrubbing down that glorious body of his, she couldn’t force herself to concentrate.
“That doesn’t go there,” she said under her breath, retrieving the milk from the pantry. She stuffed it into the fridge, only to pull the box of uncooked pasta out and stuff it in the pantry.
Get your shit together, woman. He’s just a man. A sexy, gorgeous man with tight buns and a smile to swoon over, who happens to be naked and in your shower right now. But he’s still just a man. Get it? Got it? Good.
The pep-talk satisfied her. But probably not as well as Palin would.
She groaned out loud. Her mind was getting away from her, letting the secretly nasty part of her slip out. Why couldn’t Palin be like all the other good-looking guys and want absolutely nothing to do with her?
She glanced down at herself, trying to figure out what he wanted. She was slightly taller than most women, but she had broad “man-shoulders,” arms that were tanned to mid-bicep with a harsh dividing line, ratty hair that she kept dyed an unusual color, and more than a few extra pounds packed on just about everywhere they could be.
The water shut off. She could hear him moving about, and then suddenly he cursed.
“Sandy?”
She carefully put down the knife she’d grabbed to start slicing up tomatoes, glad she hadn’t been mid-stroke when he’d called her name.
“Yeah?” she called, walking over to the door.
“I forgot to get a towel.”
Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.
They weren’t in the washroom. They were in the linen closet.
“How convenient for you,” she said dryly, snatching one that would probably just fit around his waist. Knocking on the door, she looked away as he opened it, thrusting her hand straight out.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Close the door.”
“Why? Do you not like looking at me?”
She sighed and opened her eyes. He was standing there completely nude, holding the towel she’d just given him in front of his junk. She knew he wasn’t wearing anything else because she could see his ass in the mirror behind him.
“It’s not that,” she said hoarsely, the image of his taut ass forever imprinted in her mind. “It’s just that I think it’s inappropriate for a boss to see an employee in this state of undress.”
The thudding against her ribcage intensified when Palin’s face broke out in a wide grin. “You’re still going with that line, are you?”
“Well you certainly aren’t the boss,” she whispered, unable to force her voice louder.
Palin looked her up and down in a blatantly sexual manner. “Not yet.”
Then he shut the door in her face.
Sagging against the frame she inhaled deep, shuddering as she caught a whiff of his freshly cleaned aroma. God he smelled good from whatever body wash it was he used.
Eventually she regained the strength to move back to the kitchen and finish preparing dinner. It was simple fare tonight, spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce complete with big chunks of ground beef. It wasn’t meatballs, but that was fine.
Palin emerged from the shower dressed in light-wash jeans and a dark green V-necked T-shirt. “That smells unbelievable.”
“Thank you. It’ll be ready shortly, but not yet.”
“Some time to kill?” he teased suggestively, walking over to her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, trying to keep her distance as he approached.
“Whatever I want to,” he replied, keeping her pinned with his electric stare. She watched as he reached out with one hand toward her…And at the last second dipped it in the sauce and licked it off his finger with more than a bit of sexual innuendo in the motion. “Mmm. Tastes delicious.”
When the hell had the line been crossed to the point that he felt comfortable being so outwardly blatant about his sexual desire toward her? Sandy couldn’t figure it out, but she knew she’d screwed up at some point. He’d been very good about not pushing lines unless she gave the okay, whether tacitly or pointedly.
“Keep your fingers out of there,” she ordered, brandishing the wooden stirring spoon at him with gusto.
“I surrender!”
They both laughed, and she relaxed a little. Whatever Palin might say or hint at, it was up to her whether anything happened between them. Yes, she’d allowed him to come work on her farm. Yes, if forced her to admit it she might even say they were kinda-sorta friends. But that was as far as she was willing to let it go. The timing just wasn’t right for anything more, even if she’d been in the right frame of mind for a relationship. Which she wasn’t.
So that’s where it was going to stay. They could be friends, and he could flirt all he wanted. She might even flirt back. But nothing was going to happen between them. Hopefully he would figure that out soon. She didn’t want to lead him on, she told herself. That would be mean.
“You’ve got that look on your face again.”
She glanced at him. “What look?”
“The thoughtful one. Where you seem happy, then angry, then happy. It’s like a pendulum, swinging back and forth, back and forth. Is everything okay?”
Sandy started to nod and tell him yes, but the word caught in her throat. No, everything was not okay. She was sick and tired of struggling for money, and she was sick and tired of having to deal with an asshole of a neighbor who was rooting for her to fail.
Maybe that’s why she’d let Palin into her life. He was on her side, rooting for her. The big man seemed to want nothing more than to see her succeed, which was a breath of fresh air. It was also extremely dangerous, because that led to trusting someone more than she should.
“You can’t lie to me, Sandy,” he said, stepping closer. “You can try, I mean, but I can see through you. I can see that you’re hurting.”
“I’m fi—”
He pressed a finger to his lips, shaking his head. The entire mood between them had changed. Gone was the flirty sexual tension that had been building all week. In its place was something deeper, something more caring.
Affection.
“You don’t have to say anything. I won’t pry. I can tell you aren’t ready to talk about it. Something happened in your life, something that made you come out here to the farm, to leave your old life behind. I get that, it’s pretty easy to see. You can tell me when you’re ready. I just want you to know that it’s okay. You don’t have to pretend with me. You can admit that you’re nervous. That you’re scared.” He spoke softer with every word, and then at the end he reached out and
hugged her.
Sandy closed her eyes, letting him wrap his arms around her. Her head was pressed against his chest, more of his scent filling her nostrils. It was exotic, with a hint of spice and the perfect amount of sweetness. She’d never smelled its like before.
“Palin,” she whispered after a moment.
“Yes? Is everything okay?” His mouth was so near to her ear she felt it tingle as he spoke into it, sending tiny tremors down the back of her neck.
No, she wanted to scream for the second time. No everything wasn’t fine. Her life was a mess.
“Everything is complicated and screwed to hell,” she admitted with a tiny, shuddering laugh. “But with you around it somehow feels like it’s going to be okay.” She whispered the last few words at the same time her arms came up to wrap around him.
They didn’t reach, his torso was so thick, but it didn’t matter. Letting herself enjoy his presence, just for the moment, she rested her head on his shoulder and cursed herself for giving in to him so easily. As nice as it may feel now, it was going to be much harder to say no the next time. And she wasn’t stupid. There was going to be a next time. Sandy needed to stop this, and soon.
But how was she supposed to do that without hurting Palin?
Chapter Thirteen
Palin
He rested in the barn, lounging comfortably on his homemade bed.
Several blankets were tossed across a pile of hay, and he reclined with his hands interlaced behind his head, staring up at the night sky that lay beyond the roof above him. It wasn’t nice out since it was raining once again, but the barn was in decently good repair, and so far nothing was leaking on him. He’d brought a few tarps just in case, but so far it appeared he wasn’t going to need them.
His stomach rippled and he belched as quietly as possible. Patting his belly, he smiled. For a long time he’d dreamt of having a woman that would stuff him as full as possible. After he’d finished his initial serving faster than intended, Sandy had stared at him until he went and got seconds.
They’d repeated the act two more times, both of them smiling broader each go-round. He’d not wanted to deprive her of leftovers, but as it turned out she’d already put the leftovers away before serving him. She’d seen how much he ate when he brought food compared to what she made, and this time around she’d set out to rectify that. Palin felt bad; he knew she couldn’t afford to feed him on her dime, but she seemed determined to try.
Not much longer now, my mate. Then you will have all the money you could ever need. We can work the farm for fun, and enjoy it. Then, when winter comes, you and I will go to the enclave where you will never want for anything ever again.
Undoing his belt, he let his stomach stretch itself open while he contemplated the roof once more. There was something peaceful about the barn which he hadn’t expected. Maybe it was because he was “roughing it,” something he hadn’t done since a few camping trips with his father when he was much younger.
Either way, his spirit felt at peace up in the loft.
His phone started buzzing in his pocket, the incessant zzz…zzz…zzz driving him crazy in the span of time it took to snatch it up and answer it.
“Hello?”
“Torran?”
“I’m surprised you still recognize my voice. We were beginning to think you’d forgotten about us.”
“Go fuck yourself. What do you want?”
“Where are you, Palin? We haven’t seen or heard from you in a week!”
“I’m busy.” He could hear Rowe speaking in the background, but the words were too quiet. “What’s he going on about?”
“Rowe says you’re with that human girl from the market, aren’t you?”
He paused. What human girl? Surely they couldn’t mean Sandy, could they? “Who are you talking about?”
“The one you’re smitten with. The one you bought all the nasty vegetables from that you made all the other dragons here eat. They’re still pissed at you for that one, by the way. Their mates are asking when you’re coming back with more.”
He chuckled. That one was going to take a while to be forgotten about.
“I’m with her, yes. But guys, she’s not human.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s my mate. I’m not sure what that says about her. She must have the soul of a dragon or something like that. Perhaps a blood relative of one somehow.”
Torran made a noise of disagreement so profound that Palin could picture him rolling his eyes. “Whatever you say, Palin. It’s not like there’s ever been a child born with dragon blood that hasn’t become a shifter or anything.”
“None that we know of,” he countered. “That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Who knows what things were like hundreds of years ago.”
“You’re delusional.”
Palin snarled angrily. How dare he call his judgment of Sandy into question? She was his mate. He knew it. His dragon definitely knew it. The only ones who didn’t were Torran and Rowe, but that’s because they weren’t there. They hadn’t seen the two of them together, couldn’t feel the bond growing daily.
“You need to come back, Palin. We have a job to do. Stop living among the humans. You shouldn’t be associating with them so closely anyway.”
The only human he wanted to associate closely with was Rusty. He was positive a friendship between the human’s face and his fist would work out great. Maybe they could hang out a couple of times. Close together.
He shook that fantasy away. Starting a fight with Sandy’s neighbor was not going to help him get into her good books. No matter how much he wanted to teach the asshole a lesson.
“I can’t. I’ll come back once I have my mate with me.”
“We have a mission to perform here, Palin. We were sent to do a job, not get laid.”
“Go fuck yourself, Torran. I’m staying here until I’m done.”
“Nobody even knows where ‘here’ is.”
“Good.” He stabbed his finger down on the End Call button.
Almost immediately the phone started ringing again, but he put it on silent and let it ring.
Screw them; Palin knew what he was doing. He was pulling his mate out from trouble. Humans like Rusty were the reason why his homeland had mostly retreated from the world at large, only dealing with humans as necessary for business purposes. Even then they often hired humans to do much of the work for them if they could.
How dare they compare his mate to a typical human? Couldn’t they see that there was something different about her? Something unique? It explained how the dragons awakened from the past could find their mates amongst the human population as well. Simply put, they weren’t human, they were more than that. It was what made them so strong and worthy of being mates. He wasn’t sure how it worked just yet, but he would find out.
It surprised Palin how angry he was with their attitude.
When he’d first left the enclave he’d wanted to come meet with the humans and show them how a real dragon fought. It was supposed to have been easy to show them that they were worried over nothing. Palin had been perfectly prepared to have his opinions of them reinforced.
Now here he was wrapped up in a mystery of humans with dragon blood. It made the waters far muddier than he had ever expected, and the callous attitude of his “friends” toward this revelation was really grinding against him. After all, what if a sizable portion of the population had dragon DNA within them? What would that mean? How would they tell who had dragon blood in them and who didn’t?
His phone lit up again, another incoming phone call. Flipping it over, he set it down on the crate at his “bedside,” more than content to ignore them for the time being. Once they learned to open their minds a bit more and not be so quick to judge, then maybe he’d talk to them. Maybe.
Turning his phone off had removed the last source of light from the barn, and he was now immersed completely in the darkness. Leaning back, he closed his eyes and listened to the raindrops drumming on
the metal roof. It was a peaceful sound that had him reminiscing of nights sleeping out in the open in his dragon form, rain falling against his wing as he curled it over him to keep his head dry while he slept. Palin’s eyes began to droop, and he headed off to dreamland with Sandy on his mind.
That was when he heard the first sounds from outside.
Chapter Fourteen
Sandy
Her favorite chair rocked slowly underneath her.
Champ lay passed out next to the fire, warming his belly as he made funny doggy noises in his sleep. Turning the page of the thick paperback, she idly wondered if perhaps she should get a cat too, just to complete the animal family she was assembling. Maybe two. Everyone assumed she was a crazy cat lady. Maybe she should start living up to the stereotype.
Am I that lonely?
For so long she’d told herself no, she wasn’t. But now, after an evening spent in close proximity to Palin, she was beginning to doubt herself. It was impossible to lie and say she hadn’t enjoyed her evening. She had, and it wasn’t just a little. From seeing his tight white butt, to feeling his humungous arms close tight around her, she’d done a lot of firsts that evening.
One thing she notably hadn’t done was kiss him. Somehow despite her body clamoring for attention, she’d kept her hands to herself, and even better, kept Palin’s hands to himself.
The book tilted backward, resting against her chest as she let her mind wander to Palin. Palin, the muscled monstrosity currently occupying a spot both in the loft of her barn and in the forefront of her brain. She couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him no matter what she did.
Her lips quirked into a smile as she recalled some of the byplay and banter between them. For a “beefcake” he was certainly quick on his feet, and he had no shame in announcing his desires for more than just friendship with her. Having him around was fun, and it was the biggest, most pointed reminder of what she’d left behind in the city in a long time.
It felt good to be wanted. To know that someone out there had an interest in her and wished to spend time around her. In cutting herself off from everyone around her, Sandy had deprived herself of this sort of interaction. It was for the best, she’d told herself, using that logic to get her through some long nights and even more lonely days.
