But as quickly as he’d smiled, it was gone, hidden behind a handsome mask of indifference once again.
“So what should I start with?” he asked.
She bit her lip and folded her arms. Normally, they’d ask the new volunteers to clean cages to get used to the place, but if she asked that of this clean-looking, gorgeous male who looked like he’d never gotten his hands dirty in his life, would he run?
Then she wouldn’t be able to see him again, and she’d never been so intrigued by a human being in her life.
Still, she should treat him like anyone else. Maybe she could help him with the cages and that would make it better.
Or are you just trying to spend more time with him because he smells so damn good?
“First, we clean cages.”
“Girl, that man doesn’t need to clean no cages!” Patty shouted, and Hallie just grinned as she led Luc to the back.
“Ignore her,” she said as Luc glanced curiously over his shoulder.
“I’m Patty,” she called out. “And you’re heaven to look at!”
“Heaven?”
“You don’t know what heaven is?” Hallie asked as she opened the door to the back.
Luc held the door for her, giving her a hint of his spicy scent as she walked through, brushing by his body and suppressing a shiver.
“No, I know what heaven is. I don’t know why she says I’m heaven to look at.”
“She just means you’re pretty is all.”
He sat on a bench while she pulled cleaning supplies out of a cupboard. “I thought women were pretty.”
“Some men are, too,” she said, averting her eyes as she gestured for him to follow her to the first set of cages. She gently began lifting animals out, putting them in a temporary holding area where they could play while she cleaned.
He crouched beside them, watching them play. “I don’t think there is anything particularly feminine about me.”
She gave him a placating smile. “I don’t either.” She sprayed down the inside of the cage and began to wipe it clean. “I think some women just use it to mean really good-looking. Very attractive. Sexy.”
She was spraying again when she felt the bottle lifted out of her hands. She looked up as he opened a cage next to her and began working with it, taking his own rag to it.
Then he looked over at her, blue eyes inquisitive. “Do you think I’m really good-looking? Very attractive? Sexy?” He grinned as he repeated her words, and she felt butterflies flutter to life in her stomach.
She laughed nervously. “What do you think?”
He cocked his head. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.”
“Of course I think you’re attractive,” she said, because she saw no point in lying. It would be like telling the sun it wasn’t shiny.
“Interesting,” he said. “I had no idea.”
“You didn’t?” she asked.
“Of course not. I didn’t read your mind.” He went back to scrubbing.
But it bothered her, the way he’d said that. Almost as if he were saying he could have read her mind but chose not to.
A little chill rippled up her arms as she began work on another cage, removing the little bowls and bedding so she could put them back after. “So, um…” She trailed off. How did one even ask a handsome man about whether he could read minds? She decided she was just reading too far into it and decided to drop the subject.
“So, um, where are you from, then?”
He looked over at her, his blue eyes so bright near the center and so dark on the outside that they stood out incredibly from his face. “Somewhere else.”
“Oh,” she said as he stood up and walked over to Bastien’s cage, running his finger over the lock.
“Do you mind if I get him out?” he asked.
“Sure.” Normally it wouldn’t be time for a break, but he was a volunteer, and besides, it was interesting to watch this mysterious man interact with animals.
She sat on a bench, dropping her rag back in a bucket and letting herself rest for a moment as she watched Luc.
He opened the cage carefully, and once again, Bastien lit up like he never did for anyone other than Hallie. The graceful, exotic-looking cat slinked into Luc’s arms and immediately purred, turning onto his back and rubbing his cheek against Luc’s arm.
She could swear she saw a slight smile on Luc’s face as he watched the little cat make himself comfortable. Luc raised a hand and stroked over the cat’s cheeks, and Bastien’s eyes closed in relief. Soon, the purring stopped; Bastien was asleep.
Hallie couldn’t believe what she was seeing. One of the grumpier, most nervous cats in the shelter was behaving like a perfect lap cat. Not to mention acting as if not in any pain at all. They tried to keep Bastien medicated, but it had never given him relief or relaxation like this.
“There, there,” Luc muttered in a low voice. “Does that feel better?” He stroked over the cat’s head. “I guess I haven’t lost my touch.”
She walked up behind him quietly, looking over at Bastien. “You’re magical,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this with him.”
Luc just shrugged, his attention still on the cat as he gave him soothing strokes over his head and face, just where most cats liked to be touched.
“So what other magical powers do you have?” she asked, watching him in amusement.
“Magical powers?” he asked, his hand freezing on the cat as he stared at her in confusion.
“It was a joke.” She walked over to nudge him in the side. “Geez, you need to lighten up.”
“Lighten up,” he said skeptically. “I keep hearing that. Not sure what there is to lighten up about with the world going to hell.”
She looked up at him in surprise. What a gloomy thing to hear from someone who seemed like he had it all together. Money, looks, privilege. What did he have to complain about?
Still, she knew from personal experience that you could have wounds no one saw.
“So many things to lighten up about,” she said. “Sunny days like today. Cute animals getting adopted.” She reached out to stroke a cat. “Nice people coming in to volunteer.” She peeked at the clock. “Yummy lunch in just a few hours.”
“It doesn’t take much to please you, does it?” he asked, amused.
She shook her head. “Nope. I’m a pretty happy person.” Just as she said it, a tiny spark of pain shot through her, reverberating down her spine. She fought back a wince. The aching had been better for some reason last night and this morning, so she’d skipped a bout of meds.
Now she needed to go get them.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, rising carefully, hiding her limp.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked, concerned.
She glared at him. It was odd that he asked that now, almost as if he’d sensed it. She was good at hiding her pain. No one ever asked her about it. But somehow this man saw through her mask. She narrowed her eyes. Maybe he really could read minds?
“I’m fine,” she said, waving a hand. “You just keep working.”
She didn’t mean to sound curt, but she wasn’t used to having people pick up on her discomfort. Oftentimes, it was just at the back of her mind.
But he was the last person she wanted looking at her with pity. She’d go take her meds, do some quick meditation to relax and lessen the muscle spasms, and then she’d get back to work.
She’d meant what she’d said. There were too many good things in life to focus on the negative.
She just hoped she could show him the same.
4
Luc was getting more and more confused about this Hallie person. As they ate lunch across from each other at the table, once again he got the feeling that she hadn’t a care in the world.
But the occasional waves of pain from her meant that wasn’t true.
It had to be impressive pain to come over the high barriers he’d erected against feeling any empathy for anyone. Or maybe he was se
nsing it more because he was starting to become more connected to her.
Not to mention attracted to her.
Today, her dark hair was swept into a tidy ponytail, bringing more emphasis to her pretty, heart-shaped face and big, expressive eyes.
She was wearing a light-purple sweater that made her gray eyes reflect lilac and soft-looking jeans that hugged her generous curves.
As she ate her sandwich and babbled about things to do with the shelter, events coming up, stuff like that, he longed to be able to ask her more personal things. Like what had happened to her and why she wasn’t angry about it.
But perhaps it wasn’t the right time.
She set down her sandwich when she noticed he wasn’t eating his. She nudged it toward him, still wrapped in its paper. “Hey, something wrong? You aren’t eating.”
No, but he was feasting. Feasting on how beautiful she was and how much light and hope she radiated.
It was slowly affecting the gloom inside him, making the ice seem that much less impenetrable.
“You don’t talk much, do you?” she asked.
He shook his head and began to unwrap the sandwich. “I don’t have much to say.”
She tilted her head, making her soft, brown hair spill over one shoulder. She probably had no idea how sexy that was. “I’m sure you do, although I’m not sure I’d want to hear it. What were you saying about the world going to hell?”
He leaned back in his chair, taking a bite of the sandwich to give him time to think. The sandwich was fine, though food didn’t taste good anymore. Erin had said that was a sign of depression, but he wasn’t depressed, right?
Just tired of the world.
“You think it isn’t?” he asked, truly curious.
She rested her cheek on her hand. “I think there are lots of good things in it. Lots of good people. I like most people I meet. Like you.”
He nodded. “But what about the TV? Everything on the news?”
“They like to focus on the bad,” she said.
“Still, it seems like there is a lot of bad to focus on,” he said.
“Maybe.” She sighed. “But the worse it gets, the more important it is for good people to step up and fight for what’s right. Bad things happening is a reason for good people to become active, not disgusted.”
Active. Like he and the other dragons had been. But still, she was a human. Of course she would feel that way about her race. Of course she would see things with rose-colored glasses.
She hadn’t seen what humans could do to other humans.
“Anyway, if you’re so hopeless about life, what are you doing here?” she asked. “This kind of place is so depressing most people can’t stand it.”
He looked in the direction of the back room full of cages. “I want to help Bastien.”
“See?” she said, putting her hands up. “That’s what I mean. Other people stay engaged with the world for the same reason you stay engaged with the shelter. Because there are people we love there.”
Love. There was a word. If he stayed around long enough, would she come to love him?
Maybe not if she ever found out what he was. What he did.
“You’re staring again,” she said, her pale cheeks flushing prettily. “You keep doing that, and I don’t get what you mean by it. Are you trying to make me feel awkward? You know, girls like me aren’t used to being stared at by—”
He cut her off with a kiss, leaning across the table. He didn’t know exactly what provoked it. Maybe he just wanted to stop the hurt, hesitant words spilling from her lips. Maybe he wanted to end that wary look in her eyes.
Or maybe he just sensed somehow that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
The way she melted into the kiss and wrapped her arms around him certainly seemed to say as much.
He reached up to touch her hair, pulling a few strands free from the ponytail, the softest thing he’d ever felt. Would her skin be even softer?
She sighed as he trailed his hand down to cup her neck, rubbing his thumb lightly over her pulse.
She was special. He could feel it even more as he kissed her, touched her. He needed more of her. More and more. He couldn’t stop looking at her. Couldn’t stop touching her. Felt caught up in something that was above him, for the first time in his life.
He deepened the kiss, parting her lips and diving inside to taste her, sealing their mouths together in a hot embrace, as his other hand came up to cup her face.
The shelter disappeared; the modern world disappeared. There was only him and the most beautiful woman in the world and feelings between them that didn’t make any sense.
When he pulled back, gazing into her dazed gray eyes, he felt as if he were floating slowly back to ground after soaring somewhere high.
He looked down at her lips, slightly swollen. She sat back in her chair, putting a hand over her heart.
He knew it was racing. He’d felt it.
Despite all his promises not to engage with another human, he was connecting with one more deeply than ever before. Even worse, it was effortless. Worst of all? He wanted more of it.
It was stupid, but maybe it really was a new world. Maybe things were possible that hadn’t been before.
He felt something small and flickering awakening inside him. Something he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Hope.
“That was…” She trailed off, touching her lips. “What was that?”
He leaned back, making his chair creak. “I don’t know.” But he did. It was claiming. It was soothing. It was to tell her there was nothing in his stare but admiration and an instant kind of caring that made no sense to him.
As if he could see her soul and it bonded him to her.
He stood. He needed to go talk to Zach about this. Was this how he’d felt when he met Erin?
“I… don’t know what to say,” she said.
He just watched her, waiting for any reaction. He’d made a bold move, and he wasn’t sure how she’d take it now that the heat of the moment was gone. Or was it? His body was still stirring in anticipation of more.
So odd to feel that for a human.
“I… um… So what now?” she asked. “I mean, I had no idea you… Why did you kiss me again?”
“Because I wanted to,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to since I met you. Truthfully, I took this job in part because I wanted to see you.”
She swallowed and then smiled. “To see me?”
He nodded.
She sighed and slumped back in her chair. “You didn’t have to volunteer just to see me.”
“I wanted to see Bastien, too. But I’d be lying if I said you didn’t play a role in my decision. You affect me in a way no one ever has.”
“I don’t even know you,” she said, touching a hand to her lips.
“You could, though, if you wanted to,” he said.
“How?” she asked.
“Do you ever spend time with people outside of work?”
“Like a date?” she asked.
He cocked his head, unsure what that was exactly. “A date?”
“Yeah, you know, a guy and a girl going out romantically.”
Hmm. He wasn’t sure if that was exactly what he wanted. He just wanted to get to know her. Find out why she had this zest for life and if she could bring him out of the frozen wasteland he’d been inhabiting for so long.
But he guessed, based on the kiss, that he also felt romantic enough for a date.
“Yes, a date,” he said. “That works.”
She rolled her eyes, but a smile quirked her lips. “I guess you’re really excited.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You know, the hesitation,” she said.
“I’m not from around here,” he explained. “Sometimes I’m going to be awkward.”
“Where are you from, then?” she asked, but he ignored the question.
“How do we arrange this date?” he said, standing and stretching.
Right. Phones. The things humans used for everything. He pulled his out of his pocket and tried to remember the lock code. He tried a few and then finally succeeded. Then he handed it to her. “Can you put it in?”
She did. “Can I put yours in mine?”
“Of course,” he said. “But I never use it.”
She smiled. “That’ll change as you get used to it.”
He sort of doubted it. He could think of a million better things to do than stare at a phone.
Unless she was calling. Then he’d stay glued to it.
Oh hell, what was happening to him? Was it possible she was melting the ice dragon inside him?
“There,” she said, handing back his cell. “Now you can call me. And take me out tonight, if you want to.”
Of course he wanted to. He wanted to be with her, take her out, talk to her until he understood everything about her, stay with her until he was inside her soul.
“I want to,” he answered resolutely.
She stood and gave him a hug, wrapping her arms around him. “Well, whatever happens, I’m really glad you came in.” She checked the clock. “You’re off for now. You only had a half shift today. So just text me when you decide what you want to do.”
“Okay,” he said. “Will do.”
He turned to go, but his body was reluctant to leave her. He felt frozen in place, wanting to stay as close as possible. To protect her.
But he needed to go home, needed to rest and get some advice for tonight.
It was crucial he spend more time with her. He needed to find out if she was really the key to everything changing inside him or just a distraction that would turn end up in heartbreak again.
Like the last time he cared for humans.
“See you,” she said, snapping him out of his fog.
“See you.” He walked backward toward the door, wanting to keep his eye on her as long as possible.
Then he turned and let himself out into the afternoon sunshine, bringing a hand up to protect his eyes.
After just one day with her, the world already felt different. Gentle or not, this was one powerful human.
Sapphire Dragon (Awakened Dragons Book 2) Page 3
