by Rinelle Grey
“You know a bit about cars, do you?”
He almost kicked himself as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Why couldn’t he have come up with something clever and witty?
She gave a strange laugh. “I have four brothers, and none of them know the first thing about cars. I figured one of us should.” Her smile slipped a little when she mentioned her brothers, and Brad felt a hint of some sort of tragedy.
That, mixed with the four brothers, made him hesitate. Probably best to be careful around her. He’d come up against a protective brother a time or two. It was never much fun. If there was something else in the family history, they’d probably be even more protective.
But for some reason, even with the fact that he only planned to be here for a week, that wasn’t enough to dampen his interest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
She looked him straight in the eye. “That’s because I didn’t tell it to you.”
Her eyes were a pale blue, with flecks of green. For a second, he could have sworn her pupil elongated, like a cat’s eye, but when he blinked, it was normal and round.
Maybe he’d been in the sun too long.
A breeze rushed over them both, cooling his skin, and making her hair flare out around her shoulders.
“I’m Lyrian,” she said softly.
He pulled up in front of his uncle’s house, the paint seeming even more dilapidated and pealing than it had last time. His uncle’s old dog, Luna, started barking furiously from her kennel around the side of the house, but the sound barely made it into Brad’s consciousness.
Being here, the house, the smell of summer in the air, so different from the winter he’d left behind in America, it just brought it all back.
Oh, sure, after that first meeting, things had gone pretty well for a while. Lyrian had practically dragged him into the barn and made love to him.
He certainly hadn’t been objecting.
Trouble was, she’d then spent the next five days teasing and laughing, and staying just out of his reach. His uncle stayed out of their way while Brad followed her around like a sad puppy, trying to pretend he wasn’t infatuated with her.
He’d finally won her over the day before he’d been due to leave. This time their lovemaking had been even more spectacular.
Even though he’d known the idea was crazy, he’d impulsively asked her to come back to America with him.
That had been when everything had fallen apart. She’d pulled back and he’d seen her frown for the first time ever. “I didn’t mean to give you the wrong idea.” Her expression had been troubled. “There can never be anything more between us than this.”
Her words had thrown him. Usually he was the one pulling back, not wanting to get serious.
The way she’d been flirting with him all week certainly hadn’t given him any thoughts that she might not be interested. He could get that she wasn’t ready to move half way around the world for a guy she’d only known for less than a week, but that hadn’t been what she’d said.
When she’d fled into the house and locked herself into her bedroom and refused to come out again, he’d hoped maybe she did like him. That she was just overwhelmed.
That if only he could find a way to explain, she’d get it, and they’d be able to fix things.
He’d tried to talk to her through the bedroom door, even just to say goodbye, but she’d refused to reply.
Brad stared at the front door, his heart twisting in pain at the memory.
What was he doing here now?
Was he hoping for an explanation that was twelve months overdue?
He knew she was wrong for him. She was a free spirit, drifting from one thing to another. He had a career plan, and no intention of deviating from it. If she wasn’t prepared to move, then nothing could come of this, even if they had been perfect for each other.
But logically evaluating the situation didn’t help at all. No amount of telling himself this was a bad idea stopped his heart aching, or his mind hoping she’d talk to him now.
Chapter 3
Lyrian woke to Luna’s frantic barking, a chill running up her spine. She glanced down at the baby, sleeping beside her, wondering if she needed to pick her up and run for it. The tyres crunching on the gravel in the driveway added to her concern.
Someone was here. Lyrian froze, her heart beating rapidly.
A week ago, she would only have been a little concerned. Old Henry would have taken care of it.
Now he was gone.
She was all alone.
Ever since he’d died, she’d lived with the constant fear that someone was going to show up and throw her out of his house.
Trouble was, she had nowhere else to go.
She slipped out of the bed, careful not to wake Anarian, crept to the front window, and stared out.
Whoever was in the ute parked next to Henry’s beat up old one hadn’t stepped out of the car. She let her dragon eyes elongate and squinted, trying to see through the glass.
It wasn’t the police at least, they wouldn’t be in a ute with big green and yellow signs on the side. Henry had drilled her on how to recognise even their undercover cars.
This wasn’t one of them.
Her eyes picked out the dark brown hair that flicked up over his forehead, and the warm brown eyes, and her stomach did a flip flop without even asking for permission.
The impulse to flee was even stronger now.
Bradley Killian.
Even more dangerous than a police officer.
The man she’d nearly lost her heart to twelve months ago. Who she’d nearly slept with three times and been mated to for life without even a regret.
Lyrian heaved a sigh, trying not to remember that magical week.
It had started out so badly. When she’d woken from the Mesmer sleep to Henry’s wizened old face, she’d been disorientated and confused. The confusion wasn’t unexpected. Coming out of the Mesmer was always hard. And the intense magic needed to heal her from the wounds she’d sustained was far greater than normal.
That wasn’t the reason for her confusion though.
She’d expected to be woken by one of her own, a dragon. Not a human.
Definitely not an old human.
Henry was far too old for the Mesmer bond to work properly. He had no burst of energy to share with her. She’d felt no tug, no drive to mate with him at all.
She just felt weak and bewildered.
He’d been kind and gentle, taking her back to his home and caring for her. Slowly, a little of her strength had returned. But she’d known it would take weeks, maybe even months, before she was strong enough to fly at that rate.
She’d had no choice but to admit the truth to Henry. She’d needed too many answers to pretend, and she’d known too little about this world for it to be convincing anyway. He’d been shocked at first, but strangely understanding. Then again, he had found her in a cavern under the sand.
Together, she and Henry had worked out that she’d been asleep far longer than she should have. It should only have been days. Instead, it appeared that hundreds of years had passed. Something had gone horribly wrong, but she had no idea what. And no way to find out.
She’d tried to stay calm. She’d thought all she needed to do was to get back to the lair and find a dragon partner. Sleeping with them would have brought her back to full strength immediately.
She’d tried to ignore the sinking feeling that she’d find the lair empty.
It didn’t help her much in the state she’d been in anyway. Even getting there was easier said than done when she didn’t have the strength to shift into her dragon form. The human had transport, but even it was broken.
He’d shown her how to fix it, and she’d been determined to learn all she could.
She’d wanted to borrow the ute and go look for the lair, but Henry hadn’t been convinced.
The old man had suggested he bring in his nephew. That he would be able to h
elp Lyrian regain her strength. Lyrian wasn’t ready to trust another human, no matter how nice Henry seemed. She’d just convinced him to let her borrow the ute, when Brad had arrived.
Henry must have sent for him without telling her.
She never should have let him sway her into returning to the house. But he’d been so cute, and sweet, and the perfect answer to her problems. Sleeping with him had dissolved the last of the Mesmer bond, and brought her back to her full health, leaving her with nothing to stop her from returning to her lair and finding her clan.
Or so she’d thought.
Walking away from Brad had been harder than she’d imagined. She’d thought he would leave, but he hadn’t. He’d hung around, quite obviously wanting more. She should have explained to him, as she had to Henry, but somehow, she didn’t think he’d be quite so believing as the old man.
Instead, Brad had hung around for nearly a week, teasing and flirting with her, constantly trying to convince her to sleep with him again.
She’d found him hard to resist.
Oh, not sleeping with him. She’d resisted that, no matter how tempted she was. There were too many risks to sleeping with him. Unlike humans, if dragons slept together three times, they were mated for life in a magical bond that couldn’t be broken.
Lyrian might be easily distracted, but she wasn’t going to forget that.
It wasn’t that she’d forgotten about her clan either, or the war. It was there in the back of her mind the whole time.
But she hadn’t wanted to think about the war. Lyrian wasn’t good at war. She’d already shown that. She didn’t want to deal with it again.
Brad had been happy, and cheerful. Sweet and kind.
And his kisses had been so hot and tempting.
Of all the distractions she could have found, he was one of the best. Just being around him made her heart beat faster, and her breath raspy. He made it so easy to forget all the bad things in the world.
He’d been right there in front of her, the antidote to all she feared.
Far better than dealing with a miserable war.
Far better than facing the distinct possibility that it had already been lost.
She’d let herself be distracted far longer than she should have.
On the last day before Brad had been due to return home, with the fear of what she’d have to do once he was gone, the temptation was too great.
Sleeping with Brad had helped her push it away, just a little longer.
It had felt so good. So amazing.
That was when it had hit Lyrian that this was something more than just a distraction.
That she felt things for Brad that she should never feel for a human.
Especially, since she didn’t know what had happened to her clan.
Guilt swamped her at the same time as the feeling of overwhelming love. She’d wavered, torn between her responsibility to her clan, and the urgent need to sleep with him a third time and become his forever mate.
She might have given in to the temptation too, if he hadn’t gone and asked her to come to America with him. She wasn’t too sure exactly where that was, but she did know it was a long way from Australia and the rest of her clan.
The thought of leaving, of going so far away, had brought the ramifications of what she was doing home to her.
How could she consider her own happiness when her clan was at risk? When she didn’t even know what had happened to them?
She’d been too tempted by him. Instead of a momentary distraction, she’d let herself become too attached. She’d let him come between her and her responsibilities as a princess of Rian clan.
So she’d told him to leave. And she’d stuck to it, no matter how hard he’d begged and pleaded for her to give him one more chance.
Now he was back.
The one man who could distract her from what she knew she needed to do.
How was she going to avoid it this time?
If he figured out what had happened after that, there’d be no going back. Once he knew about Anarian, he’d never give up.
She glanced back at the baby sleeping in the bed, and her resolve hardened.
She’d just have to see that he never found out.
She headed for the front door, trying to summon all the anger and frustration she could.
Hoping it would be enough to cover up for the fact that her heart was pounding, and what she really wanted to do was to throw herself in his arms and beg him never to leave.
*****
As Brad stared at the house, trying to convince himself to get out of the car, the front door slammed open and there she was, glaring at him.
His heart skipped a beat.
He’d been kidding himself when he’d refused to admit, even to himself, that she hadn’t been the sole reason he’d come here. Everything he’d done since he’d received the lawyer’s letter had been about this moment.
She looked just as beautiful as he remembered. Even after twelve months every curve of her body was familiar, and he wanted to run his hands over every one, to taste her lips and skin, and to run his fingers through her gorgeous blue hair.
He wasn’t quite game though. The angry look in her eyes was less familiar, and indicated she wouldn’t take too kindly to anything he proposed.
He climbed slowly out of the car, his heart thudding. “Hi, Lyrian.”
His voice probably sounded too warm, too familiar. Especially after the way she’d practically kicked him out just when he’d thought they had something. He couldn’t help it. He’d forgive it all in an instant if she’d just smile at him the way she’d smiled at him back then.
She didn’t.
She frowned. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
Surely she had to know? Of course she did. “Uncle Henry died,” he said softly.
“So?” She stood on the veranda, her hands on her hips, practically glaring at him. “I don’t need you anymore now than I did then.”
Brad’s heart sank. So much for Uncle Henry saying she did. Then again, the old man had said she wouldn’t admit it.
Even so, he’d done nothing to deserve this anger. She’d been the one who kicked him out. Not the other way around.
Did she know about the house? Maybe that was it? Maybe she thought Henry should have left it to her.
Of course, Brad couldn’t imagine why he would do that.
She wasn’t family. She hadn’t even been here that long. Brad had no idea why she was still here, or why Uncle Henry had asked him to take care of her.
His uncle had said he’d taken pity on her. She’d had no job, and he needed someone to help him in the house, since his arthritis was always playing up.
None of that explained the venom in her eyes.
He walked towards her, but when his foot hit the first step, she moved, standing at the top, blocking his way. “You can’t come in,” she said quickly.
A little too quickly.
They stared at each other, and Brad was aware he was glaring now too.
This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. How could he be kind and understanding and help her out when she thought she could stop him from coming in?
He stepped up another step. “Yes, I can. You know Henry left the house to me, right?” He held out the keys the lawyer had given him.
Her eyes widened. “Left the house to you? What do you mean?”
That was one of the quirky things he’d loved about her. Sometimes she seemed so worldly and with it, and other times, so utterly lacking in any understanding about how things worked. He’d thought it was endearing, at the time, to have to explain things to her that should be obvious.
This time, it was just annoying. For some reason, he was feeling bad about the fact that his uncle had left him the house instead of her. He shouldn’t be.
“The house is mine now.”
She stared at him, eyes wide. Then she took a step back, her hand going to her throat. “No, he can’t have.”
&
nbsp; “He’s my uncle,” Brad reminded her. “Who else was he going to leave it to? You?”
She just shook her head, her eyes wild and fearful.
Brad’s annoyance melted away and his heart twisted. “Look, I’m not going to kick you out, you can stay as long as you like, promise.” He took another step towards her, holding out his hand.
Just what was her story? Every time he’d asked about it before, she’d just brushed him off and kissed him. He hadn’t wanted to push her, because he hadn’t wanted the kisses to stop. In reality, he hadn’t wanted to know, because knowing meant he was more likely to let himself get too involved.
Maybe he should have been more forceful.
She turned and glanced back at the house, then back at him, all her bravado and anger suddenly gone. “I’ll go, just give me a little time to get packed up, please? I’m on my way to… to visit my brothers.”
He’d teased her many times during that week about meeting her brothers. She’d teased back how furious they’d be that she was with him. He’d always gotten the impression they lived a long way away.
Maybe they’d moved closer?
The wild look in her eyes suggested otherwise, as though she was afraid he’d discover something. As though she was hiding something.
What was going on?
Brad was confused. A feeling he neither liked, nor was closely familiar with. And yet, it was far too familiar since meeting Lyrian. Now the memory of being completely off balance came back to him with a lurch in the pit of his stomach.
Was she going to flee and slam a door in his face again?
She almost seemed afraid of him. But why? They’d had a magical week together. He’d been nothing but kind and considerate to her, hadn’t he?
Why was she acting like this?
Suddenly a wail came from inside the house.
A baby’s cry.
Brad’s heart stood still.
What was a baby doing here? Whose was it?
Lyrian stood in front of him, frozen to the spot, a guilty look on her face.
The pieces of the puzzle slotted together, the picture they made blinding him with shock.
Brad’s heart turned over.
