by Tami Lund
Talia followed his lead and he deliberately stared at her, just to catch a glimpse of her naked body in that brief few seconds before she, too, magicked her clothes on. His dragon, now contained inside his human form, roared with approval even though the moment was so quick he didn’t really even see anything.
What the hell?
“You heard me,” he blurted as soon as they were both in human form.
“You heard me,” she responded, pointing at him.
“That doesn’t happen. Dragons can’t speak to each other. It’s impossible.”
“It’s not,” she qualified. “It’s just really rare.” She looked down at the little girl, who was watching them as if they were an animated TV show.
“And why am I suddenly attracted to you?”
“Wait—what?” She jumped, backing up a few steps, like he was about to grab her and toss her over his shoulder and carry her up to his bedroom so he could ravish her until they were both exhausted.
His dragon liked that idea.
“What? No,” he said, talking to the creature, which, of course, Talia didn’t realize.
“No what?”
“This,” Gabe said, stabbing his finger at her and then waving it between the two of them. “This is not happening. No. It’s—fuck.” Shaking his head, he stormed toward the house and headed straight for the liquor cabinet. Foregoing a glass, he grabbed the whiskey bottle and took it with him as he headed upstairs.
But the top of the stairs, he charged back down to the foyer. He punched his code into the security panel, leaned forward for the retinal scan, and finally jerked open the door leading to the basement and headed there instead.
There was no bed in the basement, and he didn’t need that particular piece of furniture to give him any ideas. Ideas that involved Talia.
And mating.
Chapter 4
What the hell was wrong with Gabe? He was acting really…odd. Even for him.
And how had she heard him—and he’d heard her—when they were in dragon form? Sure, some dragons had the ability to communicate telepathically, but it wasn’t exactly a common trait.
Usually, it was between mates, fated mates, the kind who were so bonded to each other that no one and nothing except death could ever tear them apart. It also happened occasionally with warrior units, when they were so in tune, worked so long together and with such deep-rooted belief in what they did, who they were, that they were practically the same person. She’d also heard of twins having the ability, but dragon twins were rarer even than speaking telepathically.
She and Gabe weren’t warriors, they certainly weren’t twins, and fated mates didn’t exist in their colony, thanks to a decades-old curse. Not that it mattered to Talia, because she didn’t have time to find a mate, any mate, let alone a fated one. She’d heard stories of dragons mating and then becoming obsessed with one another, of shirking their duties and forgetting the rest of the damn world existed once they found the one fate had designated for them.
While, yes, she should stop dedicating so much of her time to Gabe, and sure, she really should start trying to date once in a while; the idea of being that attached to another being sounded utterly horrid.
She was secretly glad for the curse.
All that aside, how the hell had they communicated while in dragon form? She couldn’t even speculate with him, because he’d disappeared into the depths of his basement, and every dragon knew not to enter another’s lowest level without permission. That was usually where the treasures were kept, and dragons were notoriously high-strung about their treasure. Gabe was in a strange enough mood without adding the possible fear she might steal his baubles to the list.
***
Talia tucked Ruby in for the night and then made her breakfast in the morning, as Saturday morphed into Sunday. When noon came and went and Gabe still hadn’t appeared, she took the little girl shopping. Ruby had arrived with nothing but the clothes on her back. Talia intended for Gabe to take on this task, even if she had to go with him. He had to learn sometime.
Apparently not today.
When they returned to the house several hours later, Gabe was out on the back porch, wearing the same T-shirt and shorts he’d had on the day before, his foot propped on the railing, a bottle of beer in his hand. A couple of empties and a plate with crumbs on it sat near his elbow.
“I have three new swimsuits,” Ruby chirruped, bursting out onto the porch, waving three pudgy fingers. Gabe glanced over his shoulder, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. Talia could feel his gaze on her, hot, like dragon fire.
“Can we go swimming?” Ruby asked.
He took his time answering. “Sure,” he finally said. “Is she coming too?” He pointed at Talia with his bottle.
“Actually, I have work to do,” she said quickly, shaking her head when Ruby looked at her. As much as she enjoyed lounging at the lake, and even knowing there were precious few days left before fall hit and it would be too cold to do so anymore, this was a perfect opportunity for the two of them to get acquainted without her hovering, ensuring things went the way she wanted them to. She was here for Gabe, of course, but he still needed to learn how to parent on his own. This living arrangement was temporary, after all.
“Good,” he said, not sounding pleased at all.
She escaped upstairs, taking the bags of new clothes with her and dumping them out on Ruby’s bed, sorting through them until she found the three swimsuits they purchased. Ruby eagerly stripped out of her sundress and tugged on the red and white striped one-piece suit. Talia handed her the brand-new Tangled-themed beach towel and the little girl rushed for the door again.
Gabe stood waiting for her in the hallway, dressed in a pair of white swim trunks with fat blue flowers on them. They sat low on his hips, showing off those infuriatingly sexy V-shaped muscles on either side of his rippled abdomen. Her dragon grumbled when she forced herself to focus on his face, not on the parts of his body the dragon apparently wanted to lick.
Gods, she definitely needed to get back into the dating game. Sure, like any red-blooded female, she could admit Gabe was, well, hot, but she’d never actually been attracted to the man before.
His gaze swept over Talia, and the sizzling hot sensation made her think of what the older female dragons described as “the change.” Like her body was on fire and the only way to make it go away was to strip naked and jump into a cold shower.
Or a hot one. With Gabe.
What the hell was wrong with her dragon?
Gabe finally shifted his focus to the clothes strewn about on the bed. “Did you use my card for all that?”
“Of course.”
“Good.”
He continued to stand there, despite Ruby shifting from foot to foot, anticipation practically bubbling on her skin, so Talia said, “We should take her to the school mistress tomorrow, introduce her, and see when she can start.”
He nodded. He was still wearing his sunglasses, so she couldn’t see his eyes, didn’t have a clue what he was thinking or why he just kept standing there. Finally, she waved at the poor, patient little girl. “There are only a few hours before dinnertime,” she pointed out.
He pursed his lips and blew out a breath. And finally, he wandered away, with Ruby dancing around his legs, bursting with excitement over the prospect of going swimming.
Talia exhaled and considered going downstairs and helping herself to his whiskey. For some reason, the tension between her and Gabe was about a thousand times more potent than it had ever been before. She’d been working for the man for five years; why did she suddenly feel so damn hot whenever she was in his presence?
Instead of giving in to temptation—booze or man—she focused on putting away Ruby’s clothes. And peeking out the window far more frequently than was strictly necessary. From this vantage point, she could see the beach, the dragons clustered there, capturing the end of summer rays, splashing in the water, taking advantage of one of Mother Nature’s finest days.<
br />
Not that she noticed any of them enjoying themselves down there. Nope. Her focus was entirely on one man.
Gabe sat in a lounge chair at the water’s edge, his feet buried in the wet sand, waves lapping at his ankles, while Ruby danced in the water in front of him. A couple of young girls who looked to be Ruby’s age wandered up to her and, a few moments later, she joined them in the sand, building not just a castle but what looked like an entire village.
Nothing to see here, she told her dragon, and she started to turn away from the window, but movement caught her eye and she glanced back to watch as a woman sauntered across the sand, heading straight for Gabe. Her hair was red, almost as bright as her swimsuit; what little there was of it, anyway. The swimsuit, that was. There was plenty of hair—long, luxuriant locks draping nearly to her toned, rounded ass.
Talia pressed her hand to the glass and stared down at them, the task of putting away clothing abandoned.
She didn’t recognize the woman, but that didn’t mean anything. This colony where she’d grown up was huge.
Brushing that wave of hair over her shoulder in an exaggerated motion, the woman thrust out her hip, resting one hand there while reaching out to touch Gabe with the other. The magic of the shift shimmered across Talia’s skin.
“Jeez, Talia, get a grip,” she said. Turning into a dragon and tearing a hole in the roof over Ruby’s bedroom was probably not a wise idea.
Best to hurry downstairs in human form and go check things out.
For Ruby’s sake, of course.
A few short minutes later, she was making her way across the sand, her flip-flops impeding the effort as they sucked up the white granules and filled the space under her arches. She finally kicked them off and then had to check herself to ensure she wasn’t running as she hurried over to them, a wide, fake smile plastered on her face.
“Hey,” she said, her voice breathy, as she stepped between Gabe and the overly friendly redhead.
He smirked, the bastard, like he knew why she was out there. Hell, she wasn’t entirely sure why she had come running like this. To be honest, this woman looked like exactly the sort of female Gabe would want to have a brief, no-commitment hookup with.
Oh. That’s why she was out here.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“Great,” Gabe said. “Crystal here was just about to give me her number.”
Crystal giggled.
“Excuse me?” Talia sounded as indignant as a jealous lover.
Gabe waved his phone in her face. “You know, her digits.”
“I know what a phone number is,” Talia said through gritted teeth. “I’d just like to point out that she doesn’t look like the type to want to become stepmother to your child.”
“Oh, I love children,” Red gushed.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Gabe asked.
Talia waved at the little girl, still playing with her new friends at the water’s edge. “Ruby. If you introduce them, she might get attached. And then what will you do?”
Gabe glanced at the hopeful-looking redhead. “Uh, not introduce them in the first place. You know my rule.”
“You have a rule about introducing Ruby to your flings?” Talia asked.
Gabe ground his teeth and said, “No. About one-night stands.”
“You have a rule about one-night stands?” Crystal sounded confused. Talia honestly didn’t blame her.
Gabe sucked in air and blew it out in great, smoky huffs, staring down Talia the entire time. She couldn’t see his eyes because of the sunglasses, but she sure as hell could feel his gaze. And it wasn’t hot like it had been earlier, either. In fact, it was pretty damn frosty.
Finally, he stuffed his phone into the pocket of his swim trunks. “Never mind,” he ground out. “I don’t want your number.”
“But…”
“Go away,” Talia barked, and the poor woman cowered before turning tail and practically running across the beach.
As soon as she was gone, Gabe stabbed his finger at her shoulder. “Look, whether you like it or not, I want to get laid. On the regular. So, to avoid any more issues like that”—he flapped his hand at the space Crystal had occupied a few moments earlier—“you are going to have to clue me in. Let me know when I have permission to get laid. Think you can do that, Talia?”
Never. But if you want to work something out… “Holy crap,” she said, her eyes going wide. She didn’t want to hook up with Gabe. That was crazy. Talia preferred to have sex with men she actually liked. Besides, even if her dragon did, for some bizarre reason, think it was a good idea to hop into bed with him, it would be disastrous. Their relationship was convoluted enough without adding the extra layer of sexual relations.
It would be so good…
“How the hell do you know?” she snapped at her stupid dragon.
“Know what?” Gabe asked.
“Nothing,” she ground out.
He grabbed a beer from the small cooler he’d brought, twisted the cap off the bottle, and handed it to her. She lifted it to her lips and chugged.
She didn’t even like beer.
When she stopped to take a breath, she noticed he had one in his hand, too, that hadn’t been there a moment ago, and it was half empty. Of course, so was hers.
“This is fucked up,” he muttered.
“You’re telling me.”
“Something happened yesterday. When we were both in dragon form.”
Talia froze with the bottle halfway to her lips. “You felt it too?”
“What did you feel?”
“What did you feel?”
“I asked you first.”
“What, are we twelve?”
Gabe chuckled, which helped to break the tension.
“Is this why you’ve been acting so strange?” Talia asked.
“Yep.”
At least he was honest.
“What do you suppose happened?”
After a long pause, he said, “You don’t know?”
She shook her head.
He tilted her head, those shades still shielding his eyes. “Huh. And here I thought you knew everything.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
He took another swig from his beer. “Not disappointed.”
Why did she feel like she was missing something in this conversation?
Ruby climbed to her feet and hurried over to them. “I’m hungry,” she announced.
“Me too, kid,” Gabe said. He folded his chair and picked up the cooler. “Say goodbye to your friends and let’s head up to the house. I’m in the mood to grill something. What’s your favorite dish?”
“Hot dogs!”
“Right.” He started walking toward the house. “I think it’s time to expand your culinary palate.”
Chapter 5
One of the perks to being reeve was employing a personal chef, so he didn’t have to cook if he didn’t want to. But tonight, he told Noah to go do his own thing. Gabe would handle making dinner. Anything to occupy his mind—and his hands.
His dragon kept trying to take control of those hands, to lead them over to Talia. To hug her, pull her flush against his body. To trail them down her back to her rounded ass, to squeeze, massage her there. His dragon wanted his fingers to tease at the crack of her ass, to slide lower, into her heat, into her.
He growled.
“What?” she asked from where she stood at the counter, chopping vegetables to add to a salad. A salad he hadn’t wanted, but apparently part of being a parent was teaching your kid how to eat healthy. And even dragons needed roughage.
“Steak,” he said to Ruby, ignoring Talia’s question. The little girl stood on a chair next to him, watching as he sprinkled a concoction of spices over three thick-cut T-bones. “Way better than hot dogs. Trust me.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her from the chair, depositing her on her feet on the tile floor, then grabbed the cookie sheet on whi
ch the steaks rested. “Come on, I’ll show you how a real dragon cooks meat.”
He heard Talia’s snort and it made him chuckle. Despite his damned annoying dragon, and despite the fact he never, ever in approximately a million years would have imagined himself in this position, he was actually having a good time. Talia, he learned, enjoyed cooking, too, and was happy to be his sous chef. She’d sliced and seasoned potatoes and he’d taken them outside and breathed fire on them, creating homemade potato chips, which Ruby happily chomped on while Talia peeled and diced sweet potatoes and dropped them into boiling water, then started on the salad. As everything else was pretty much ready to go, it was time to prepare the steaks.
“Dragons eat their meat seared,” he explained to his little protégé, as she obligingly trotted along next to him, appearing to hang on his every word.
It was daunting yet kind of cool to be responsible for the future of such a young, impressionable mind. When those kids had invited Ruby to play in the sand, he’d stared at each one in turn, trying to analyze them, to determine if they were good or bad influences on his daughter. Two days into this fatherhood gig and he was doing okay.
Wasn’t he?
He’d like to ask Talia, because she’d probably already read a dozen books on the subject, likely knew exactly what to do with a five-year-old girl. But he couldn’t. It was bad enough that she stood in the same room and he had to speak to her in minimal sentences. But to ask for advice, to pull her more deeply into this new experience; it couldn’t happen.
Even though that was exactly why he’d demanded she move into his house. But that was before. Before his dragon had somehow inadvertently connected with her dragon.
He didn’t want a mate. And that fated mate bullshit? Yeah, it was real, but it didn’t exist in this colony. Some fucked up curse that happened thirty years ago or so had ensured it.
Why? his dragon asked.
“Why what?” he responded. Ruby furrowed her brows.
