by Amelia Jade
“Put the gun down, soldier.” Aric forced himself to remain as outwardly calm as possible. He was keenly aware of the fact that Kaitlyn was directly behind him, and that if anything went wrong she would be directly in the line of fire. He couldn’t expose her to such danger.
“Absolutely not. I have no idea who you are, but I just caught you trying to steal an Army helicopter. You two are going down.”
“Aric?”
“It’ll be okay,” he said, dropping his voice and turning to face the soldier head on. “Trust me.”
The pistol wasn’t wavering. The man wasn’t afraid. He didn’t know Aric was a dragon shifter, and if he demonstrated his power just then, it could spook the man. The only way to diffuse the situation was diplomacy.
“Get out of the helicopter. Now.”
“Listen, soldier. I don’t know who you are, but—”
“I’m the pilot of this bird. Who the hell are you?”
“Oh.”
He’d picked the wrong helicopter. In his haste to seem impressive and prepared, Aric had gone and inadvertently put her in grave danger.
“Aric, what’s going on here? Why is he pointing a gun? I thought this was okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll explain later.” He returned his attention to the soldier. “You need to put that away, now. We’re not trying to steal anything.” His spine straightened and he took in a deep breath, facing the soldier down impassively.
Behind him he heard Kaitlyn inhale sharply as his banker persona disappeared, replaced with the real Aric. He was a dragon, and no pumped-up little soldier shit was going to put his mate in danger. If the jackass didn’t put the gun away soon, he was going to find out just how big of a mistake it was to point a weapon his direction.
“I said move away from the chopper.” There was some unease in the soldier’s voice now.
More footsteps sounded, and Aric prepared for battle. He would do whatever it took to protect Kaitlyn.
“Ricky! Ricky, relax! They’re with me. It’s okay! I’ve seen his creds. He’s a D1 and she’s with him.”
The instant the classification rang out the pilot’s eyes went wide and he grew pale. The sudden realization that he’d held a gun at a dragon was easy for everyone to see.
“It’s okay, kid,” he rumbled. “You were doing your job. Way to stick to your, um, guns.”
They shared a smile over the unplanned pun. Ricky lowered the weapon and holstered it.
“My bird is over there,” his pilot, Jordan, informed him, jerking his chin at the other helicopter.
“Well, I had a fifty-fifty shot at it, and I guessed wrong. This one’s on me,” Aric admitted, turning and grabbing Kaitlyn by the waist as she emerged, lowering her to the ground.
“What are you doing?” she asked somewhat tartly, brushing his hands away once she regained her balance.
Aric stared. He’d just been acting instinctively. “Ah, sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight.” His lower lip pulled away, revealing his discomfort.
Everything was going sideways for him now. In his eagerness to impress Kaitlyn he was making a fool of himself, bumbling and stumbling through the mating dance. Even now he trailed behind her as they walked over to the other helicopter, like a child throwing a tantrum. What was wrong with him? How could someone as powerful and confident as he was be brought so low?
The answer was obvious: He was a nervous wreck around Kaitlyn. Paralyzed by the fear that if he didn’t do a proper job of romancing her and showing her that they belonged together, that she would reject him, leaving Aric to wander through the long life of a dragon alone. Unmated and judged as a failure by his peers. That fear was causing him to abandon his normal self, to become something he wasn’t.
And it had only been a day. What was he going to be like in forty-eight hours, or a week’s time if they still weren’t together? Aric needed to get a grip of himself, to rein in his frayed nerves and use the electric personality he knew he possessed. Be himself. The real him, not the face she saw at work. It should be easy. If only he could just relax around her.
He could do this. She was his mate, and if he just acted natural around her she would eventually see that as well. Human/dragon pairings were a new thing with his kind, but he’d heard about the Emerald dragons that had been sent from the enclave to this very military base. All of them had ended up mated to human females.
Hopefully he would get the chance to talk to some of them, or some of the awakened dragons that occasionally lingered around the base. To find out what it was like to be mated to a human, and if they had any tips for how he should approach it. The only thing he’d gathered so far was that he would have to practice patience. She wouldn’t feel the instantaneous bond like he would, which meant Aric would have to show her that she could be happy with him.
And she could. It was never in doubt in his mind that he could provide for her, and make her life exciting. They were a great pair; she just didn’t realize it. Yet. That was his job on this trip, to make her question whether she could be with him. Just once, that was all it would take. After that the seed would be planted and Aric could take it from there.
Feeling emboldened by his thoughts and pep talk, he strode forward, letting his confidence flow through him. This was his mate, whether she knew it or not, and he had absolutely nothing to be nervous about. Even his dragon, despite its initial frantic attempts to escape, was starting to accept the fact that it didn’t need to claim her right away. It was going to give him a chance to do it his way, and only if that failed would it try to take control again.
“Aric, are you coming?”
He realized Kaitlyn was already inside the helicopter, looking back at him with a frown. Why was he still standing twenty feet away from the door?
“Uh, yeah,” he managed to squeak out, his nerves fluttering out of control the instant their eyes locked. “I’m coming.” His stomach knotted around itself and his knees were weak. The jitters almost made him miss his first step, but he recovered and strode over to the helicopter as fast as he dared.
So much for being confident around her!
Chapter Seven
Kaitlyn
Something was going on with Aric. He was acting very strange, but she couldn’t seem to piece it together to figure out why. First he was excited and jubilant, like a kid on Christmas morning eager to go and see if Santa had left presents. That had been cute, and contagious.
When the soldier had pulled his weapon on them however, all that had disappeared. Her brain reran the scene in her mind. Aric, turning slowly, his shoulders and spine straightening in a way she’d never really seen from him before. The tenseness of his body, and the way he spoke. Calm, collected, and with the promise of deadly violence. Everything about his posture and stance had screamed “threat” to her.
It was at that moment she’d truly felt aware for the first time how big he was. Aric towered over her. His hands when he’d grabbed her to lift her down had gone a considerable way around her not-very-small waist. She’d felt tiny and yet secure, his hands comforting more than scary. The experience had thrown her mental defenses into disarray. She’d responded with curtness, knowing she had to put a block between them, or else she wouldn’t be able to trust herself if he did that again. It had been that good of a feeling.
Now he was acting like a nervous train wreck. It awkwardly reminded her of the first guy who had ever asked her out way back in high school. He’d been a bit of a geek, but personable enough when they were in a group setting. So she’d said yes, what the heck. A guy was into her, and he was kind of cute, if he’d just pushed the long hair out of his face and stopped wearing the anime shirts.
Which he had on their date. Her mom had dropped her off at the movie theatre in a raging snowstorm. It was mostly empty, but he was there waiting. Kaitlyn had been ecstatic that she’d not been stood up.
Unfortunately by the end of the date she’d wished she had. He was so awkward! Even thinking about it now made her cringe in embar
rassment for him. They’d decided on an earlier movie and then dinner afterward. As it turned out, he’d decided that some movie theatre nachos was the perfect date food, “because they could share”.
If the entire rest of the trip was going to be filled with painful reminders of her early dating life, then they were going to have a problem. A big one, when she remembered that they weren’t even dating. This was a business trip.
“Did you check with the pilot this time?” she teased as he climbed in. “Are we in the right helicopter?”
It wasn’t very nice, but it made her feel more in control of the situation. It was now awkward and funny because she’d made it that way. Not Aric. Being in charge wasn’t an issue for her, but she suspected it might be for him.
Oh well, time to grow up and be an adult. Boo-hoo, you tried to act like a macho man and chose the wrong helicopter. Too bad. That’s your fault.
She wouldn’t have thought less of him if he’d explained to her they were going up, but he wasn’t sure which one it was. Why would she? It was only logical. Apparently Aric was having a hard time with logic today though. She glanced to her left, where he was strapping himself in. Due to his size they
were pressed in close together. Great.
“Very funny,” he muttered, finishing with the last of the straps. “Just remember that you’re closest to the door now, and if you piss me off, well…”
Kaitlyn’s neck swung around so fast it popped as she stared at him. The big man was grinning from ear to ear. “You would not!”
“I have a very fragile ego,” he stated, making obvious light of what had happened. “I wouldn’t push the issue.”
She laughed with him. “I’ll try to remember that.”
The copilot arrived, pulling the doors shut with only a mild frown at the pair of them before moving around to the right-hand side of the helicopter and sitting in. She overheard him talking to the pilot, but his words were too low for her to overhear. Aric however appeared to frown in concentration, and his eyes darted every so often to the front. Could he hear them speaking? That seemed impossible, especially as the rotors started up.
Yet even as the pilots decided they were done talking Aric nodded once, a minute movement she would never have noticed unless she was staring right at him. There was no way he could have overheard their conversation. Could he?
Before she could ask they lifted clear of the ground. The pilot turned his head slightly and they could see he was talking, but she couldn’t hear him. When they didn’t respond he tapped the headset he was wearing and pointed up at the ceiling, without looking farther back.
Kaitlyn got the point and followed his hand, seeing several more headsets hanging from a bar. Grabbing one she pulled it on, as did Aric. Maybe his hearing wasn’t that great then.
“Can you hear me now?”
She nodded.
“Great. Welcome aboard everyone. We’re heading deeper into the mountains today to check out some reported seismic activity and to ensure it’s not of any danger. This means we won’t be able to do much in the way of requests, but I promise you the view won’t disappoint, anyway. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.”
Kaitlyn grinned and peered out the window, watching the ground fall away below them.
“What a beautiful sight,” Aric said.
There was something different about his voice, but she forcefully kept her eyes staring straight out the door window. “It sure is,” she agreed. “I’ve never actually been in a helicopter before,. This is pretty neat. You move so much slower than a plane you can actually look at what’s below you.”
The helicopter swung around and headed off into the mountains, the military base disappearing. It was replaced with rolling hills and steep cliffs, and gray rock and scraggly mountainside trees as far as the eye could see. It was breathtakingly stunning, and for once she didn’t have anything to say.
“How did you arrange this?” she asked as the pilot banked them around one mountain range. Her attention was pulled away to look back at Aric.
“He bribed me.” That was the pilot.
Aric frowned, reached up and flicked a switch. “There, that’s better. Now he shouldn’t be able to hear us.”
“I see.” Kaitlyn smiled nervously, wondering why he wanted that. “So how did you arrange this?”
Huge shoulders rose up and down as his lips twitched mightily, showing a major effort of restraint. “I bribed him.”
She coughed as explosive laughter ripped from her chest. “Why did you have to put us on a private channel to tell me that?” she finally managed to ask.
“I didn’t. I just didn’t feel like talking to him.”
“Right. Well, what did you bribe him with?”
Aric grinned. “Money of course. That and my credentials give me access to basically anywhere. They think I’m important like that.”
She rolled her eyes. “You do too, apparently. Thankfully it’s a relatively small percentage of people that have fallen for that lie.”
Aric pouted for a moment before smiling. “It got you up here with me, so I’d be nice if I were you.”
“Fine, I’ll be nice for the next…” she reached up and flicked the switch. “How long are we estimated to be out here for?”
“Two hours at most. Less if it goes smoothly.”
Kaitlyn nodded and flicked the same switch again. “You’ve got two hours of niceness. Don’t abuse it.” She stuck out her tongue before abruptly turning to look back out the window.
What was she doing? She was flirting with him! This was not good. Not good at all. Stifling a groan, Kaitlyn peered out the window, doing her best to ignore everything else around her. This was not happening. Despite her best efforts she was already slipping, and it had been less than a day!
At this rate she wouldn’t last forty-eight hours before falling into his bed again unless she tamped down on her responses and kept everything to a perfectly functional platonic working relationship. Which is precisely what it was. Except that she was going to have his offspring in eight and a half months. That minor detail changed everything.
Even if he didn’t know it yet.
“Goodie, two hours of forced niceness. Whatever did I do to deserve such a treat,” Aric deadpanned. “I wonder if these things have parachutes.”
“That desperate to get away from me, huh? So much so that you decided to voluntarily lock yourself in a metal box and sit next to me for two hours? Sorry, not buying that,” she shot back.
“I’ve heard you’re clumsy. I didn’t want you to fall out and me not be in range to save you.”
Kaitlyn expelled her breath in a whoosh. “Ah, so this is a calculated plot to eliminate me then? While making it look like you were the good guy?”
“Drat. Foiled again!”
They both laughed, even as she cursed herself on the inside. It was just so easy to have fun with Aric when he was being himself. The problem was she could never get a good fix on just who that Aric was. He changed from moment to moment, and so far it was nearly impossible to predict what version she was going to get next.
Which is precisely why she was keeping the news to herself. Kaitlyn was well aware of the hypocrisy of her having such a monumentally large secret, while also telling him on the plane that she was done having secrets between the two of them. Her logic was she’d meant work-related ones, not personal. It was flimsy and would blow away in a gentle breeze, but she held onto it for now.
Feeling guilty, she looked out the window, forcing her mind to focus on the beauty of the mountain ranges. They were so different than the ones from home, but it was a view she could appreciate nonetheless.
If anything it made her feel more at home in this foreign country. It helped that she spoke the language fluently, but there was still a feeling in her that insisted she didn’t belong. Seeing the mountains helped with that.
As did flirting with Aric, problematic as that may be. The only thing that remained to be seen, though, was just
what sort of trouble it would lead her into now. After all, she was already pregnant.
What more could happen?
Chapter Eight
Kaitlyn
“Are you ready?”
She shook her head, stifling another yawn. “Sure,” she said through the failed effort. “But I still don’t understand why you want me here. I’m not going to be of any help.”
Aric smiled. “You know plenty. Just use your gut and pay attention. You’re going to be the perfect help for this, I know it.”
How he could possibly know that was beyond her. Kaitlyn still didn’t know the slightest bit about what they were trying to accomplish in these negotiations, besides get the battlesuit technology for themselves. There were probably a dozen legal problems with that as well. A private entity bank funding the elite soldiers of the Guard? That just made no sense. It certainly wasn’t staying neutral, though she supposed that was only something they were renowned for when it came to international politics. Nobody had said anything about it internally.
Aric pushed open the door and used his long arm to hold it. “Ladies first,” he said with a smile.
“Right. So chivalrous of you, feeding me to the lions first. You’re so brave.”
Her sarcasm didn’t faze him in the slightest. If there were any nerves on his end he certainly wasn’t showing them. Which is probably useful in negotiations like this. Yet another reason I shouldn’t be here! Kaitlyn was terrified she was going to screw it up, if she was being honest with herself.
“I don’t suppose there’s a window in here, is there?” she asked, walking into what could have been a retrofitted interrogation room straight out of the movies.”
“I’m sorry, no. We’re fifty feet underground. It’s a little hard.”
Kaitlyn’s eyes were immediately drawn to the smiling woman seated at a large conference table in front of her.
“I’m Colonel Mara, and you must be Ms. Harver. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
