“Dragon Egg Care: A Compendium,” Lucy said. “You should know. You left it here.”
She carefully took a scrap of paper sitting on her bare knee and stuck it in the book to mark her place before looking up at him as if he should know what the hell she was talking about.
“That’s not my book,” he said, frowning. Lucy wasn’t angry now. He had expected perhaps another attack. He had been bracing himself. His nose was still bright pink and swollen from the first punch. “I didn’t leave this here.”
“Whatever you say,” Lucy said. “Anyway, it’s really useful. A lot more useful than that stupid notepad. But it’s got all that info in it too. Did you know you’re supposed to slow dance with your egg? They’re supposed to be highly influenced by affection between the parents. You’re the dad, right? A shifter?”
“I didn’t… How did…?” Jack just stared at her. “You know about shifters? I mean...I said I was a dragon but-”
“Oh, the book explained,” Lucy said. “It’s fascinating. I mean, I still think you’re out of your goddamn mind. But if you can shift and show me then I guess I’ll have to believe you.”
“I can,” Jack muttered, running a hand through his hair. So apparently books could bring Lucy around. That was interesting. He’d had no idea. Although, he supposed it was easy to make all kinds of assumptions about showgirls. He should have known better, he supposed. “I can, but not here. I need more space. I...could show you downstairs?”
“Are you going to let me downstairs?” Lucy asked darkly. She glared at him, clearly still pissed but not enraged. Perhaps she did really believe that he’d been trying to save her life.
“I’m sorry I did it this way,” Jack said. He looked at her and saw Sean’s face suddenly. Sean looking shaken and upset but optimistic that he would take care of his little “problem” and be back for his dragon egg. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t want you to get hurt like…like…”
“Like that guy,” Lucy said quietly, getting to her feet and carefully setting the egg in a nest of blankets. She looked him up and down as if appraising him and then took the shopping bags from the floor. “Oh, what did you get me?”
“Some clothes,” Jack muttered, composing himself again. “Toiletries…”
“Thanks.” She took a deep breath. “I’m not gonna run. But if I do, you should let me run. It’s my life. And my death.”
“You’re right,” Jack said, nodding. She actually smiled. It made him feel a lot better. She had a pretty smile, and it reached her bright blue eyes, making them glitter. “Ah...but…” He sighed heavily, rubbing his eyes. He didn’t want to hear that some showgirl had died. Even if he didn’t even know Lucy that well. He didn’t think he could take knowing he could have protected her and-
“I’m not going to run,” Lucy said. “You shouldn’t have fucking kidnapped me. But I’m not an idiot. It was like a mob hit? I guess?”
“Yeah, um…” Jack swallowed, unwilling to talk about it in depth. He’d answer all her questions. Just later. Any other time but this one. He stepped back and slipped a hand into his pocket. “Why don’t you eat? I bought you food. And you can change or whatever. I’ll leave the door open? You can meet me downstairs in the lounge when you’re ready? And uh, bring the egg.”
Lucy blinked in surprise and said, “Okay?”
“Okay,” Jack said, nodding. He turned on his heel and left the room, tears threatening to spill down his face again.
Jack hurried downstairs, the modern, glassy architecture of his mansion that looked out on a tony area of Vegas and the wide cerulean desert sky above it, somehow seemingly only claustrophobic now. His lounge was one of three rooms that could pass for a living room, just bigger and swankier. Big cubist, modern lounge chairs in colorful leather formed a neat square in the middle of the white carpeted room with its big flatscreen that came out of the wall, its water feature, and the wet bar.
“Maya, lights up,” Jack said. The voice-controlled AI brought up the lights and Jack went to the wet bar and poured himself a drink. He sat down on one of his chairs and took a breath, rubbing his eyes. The entire wall to his left was glass, and it looked out on the grass and a little flower garden and the glass cube wall dividing the yard from the indoor pool.
The house was absurdly luxurious by any measure. It wasn’t the biggest in the world but his parents were always astounded by it when they visited and made a big fuss about the pool and the AI and the misters over the lawns… He had tried to get them to move to Vegas several times but they both liked Florida too much. They thought they would crowd him. He hadn’t the heart to tell him how lonely he’d been. He hadn’t the heart to admit it even to himself. He kept it all at bay with work.
“Maya, put on...a soft playlist.” He was groggy and he rubbed his eyes again. The playlists he’d made once while drunk. They weren’t great, but he did like all the music on them. Some 80s soft rock started playing. It seemed cheesy, but it was mellow anyway. He found it pleasant as he waited for Lucy to come down, hoping she wouldn’t just bolt. The front gate was closed but there was likely a low enough wall for somewhere around the perimeter that she could climb if she were actually in a panic.
But he’d meant what he said. If she really wanted to run, he’d let her run. He wasn’t an asshole.
“Is this fucking Hall and Oates?” Lucy asked wryly.
Jack didn’t turn his head. He waited for her to walk around him and when she appeared in front of him, holding the egg and looking much different, he sighed with some kind of relief. There was something so calming about her appearance and she was smiling softly, almost as if they were friends. He suspected she’d had some kind of epiphany while he had been off taking care of casino business.
Lucy wore a white t-shirt and a gray cardigan and sweatpants with slouchy white socks. She was cradling the egg in its little blanket again. She’d let her hair down and it was soft around her shoulders and her eyes looked softer in the slightly dim light of the lounge. She looked cozy. He was used to her looking sexy and gussied up for her shows when he happened to see her at the Cypress Stage or walking around the casino or the hotel. But now she looked relaxed. He found it somehow more appealing. He thought maybe it was the mood he was in.
“Yeah, it’s Hall and Oates,” Jack said, narrowing his eyes. “I like it. It calms me.”
“Learning a lot about you,” Lucy said, sitting across from him.
Jack looked at her as she held the egg and frowned. “I really didn’t leave that book there. I have no idea where it came from-”
“Cut to the chase,” Lucy said. “You’re a dragon shifter? The book had stuff about that. So let’s see it. I don’t want to take care of this stupid thing and then find out it’s all bullshit. Although…” She patted the egg. “It does feel alive. It’s...substantive.”
The room was so big and with such high ceilings that Jack could easily shift and he put his drink down on a black side table and stood, stretching. It had been a while. Too long. He needed to go flying. He’d promised himself he would.
He walked over to the expanse of white carpeting but far enough away from the glass wall and all at once shifted, feeling the pleasant burn of his muscles as he changed and became suddenly much bigger, his black and silver scales rippling as he transformed. He carefully kept his wings retracted. If he spread them, he would probably put a hole in a wall. It was already too confined a space for him to stay shifted long, though he didn’t have to hunch at least. He sat down rather like a cat, ducking his head and resting it on his front feet, his claws threatening to put huge holes in the carpet. He shook his great horned head and then turned it to look at Lucy who now stood, clutching the egg, looking both absolutely astonished and enchanted.
“You’re real,” Lucy whispered. She stood up again and carefully set the egg down in her chair before approaching him, her eyes wide.
Jack watched, as enchanted with Lucy as she was with him. It was astounding to him how quickly her switch had flipp
ed. It seemed that when presented with something too interesting to be denied in favor of practical concerns, she forgot what she’d been angry about. Or rather, he supposed anger was not her first priority.
“Are you still...you?” Lucy asked. Jack nodded slightly and Lucy grinned at him. “Well…I always thought you were a real asshole but...you do make a beautiful dragon, Jack.” She bit her lip and approached him. He could smell her fear and apprehension and found himself wanting to assuage it. He had a dire need suddenly to make sure she didn’t really fear him. He didn’t want that. It might have been the fire of his dragon inside him, fueling the attraction he felt as Lucy looked at him with her pouty pink lips and soft hair and softer curves, but he wanted her to like him suddenly.
Shit, Jack thought.
She reached out and pressed her palm to his snout, her mouth splitting into a delighted grin. She looked like a child on Christmas Day. He found it utterly charming.
“You’re real,” she whispered again. “Wow.”
Jack shifted again in an instant and Lucy yelped and then burst into giggles, covering her mouth. Her hair fell over her eyes and she looked somehow so young and playful all of a sudden. Maybe she had always been that way. He’d never gotten a chance to see it.
“Um…” He scratched his head, feeling like he’d lost his footing somehow. “So yeah…”
“And this is...your egg?” Lucy asked. “Guy dragons lay eggs or…”
“No,” Jack said. He found himself laughing, softly. It felt good to laugh a little, and he saw something flash in her eyes. “Do you want a drink?” He asked, gesturing to the wet bar.
“God, yes,” Lucy said. “Vodka tonic?”
“Sure thing,” Jack replied with a wave of his hand. He went to the wet bar, glancing over at the egg just as Lucy sat down and set it in her lap again. The wet bar had a little freezer beneath it and he took out the tray of giant ice cubes and made Lucy a proper cocktail with a slice of lime in it. “The egg belonged to my friend. Sean.” He pursed his lips and took the drink to Lucy. When he handed it to her and their fingers brushed, he felt a flash of something like recognition.
Her, his mind said. It’s her, you idiot.
He pushed the thought away, sitting down across from her and rubbing his chin before taking a sip of his own drink again.
“And he didn’t lay it,” Jack said, chuckling again, dry as a bone. “His girlfriend laid it. Dragon shifter women lay eggs. While shifted. Obviously.”
“I see,” Lucy said slowly. “Sure, of course. Dragon shifter women lay eggs.” She nodded and sat back, absently petting the egg which seemed to turn a slightly bright blue in her lap. Jack wondered if he’d underestimated the degree to which affection helped in the care of an egg. “And your friend, Sean… He’s the one who I saw…”
Jack nodded, once, looking away. “Yeah. You witnessed his murder.”
“Right,” Lucy said, sighing. Jack sat forward, bracing himself on his knees, staring down at his shoes. He didn’t want to talk or think about any of this, but he supposed he owed Lucy an explanation. “I’m sorry about your friend then.”
“He came to see me that night,” Jack said. “He knew he was in trouble. Sounded like his girlfriend’s been killed. But he was going to look after his kid. He was really confident about it. He was going to look after him and..” Jack found tears pricking his eyes again and shook his head.
“I’m really sorry, Jack,” Lucy whispered.
“I’m so sorry about how I did all this,” Jack said. “I should have… I didn’t think you’d listen to me, I don’t even think I was in my right mind after I heard about Sean, I just-”
“I once set a guy’s car on fire,” Lucy blurted out, looking sheepish. Jack looked up at her, a little startled. She smiled at him and petted the egg. “I get pissed off. Alright? Sometimes? Especially if I think somebody’s jerking me around. So this guy went out with me and it was good, right? And then he didn’t call me and then I saw him parked at the Rio with this girl… I set his car on fire. It exploded actually.”
“Just for that?” Jack asked, suddenly vaguely afraid of this woman. “He didn’t cheat on you or anything?”
“Well...no.” She laughed and his stomach did a little flip that he didn’t want to think about. “I didn’t say it was reasonable-”
“Well, neither is kidnapping you,” Jack said, feeling suddenly absolutely ridiculous.
“No, yeah kidnapping me is actually super illegal,” Lucy said, her eyes bright with good humor. “And I was fucking pissed.”
“You’re not pissed anymore?” Jack said, disbelieving.
“Well…I probably owe you an exploding car,” Lucy said. “But I think your heart was in the right place. Had a while to think about it after you left. Tried to remember all the reasons I’ve hated you since I started working for you.”
“Which are?” Jack said, bracing himself. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear anything about that at all.
“Thought you were cocky and entitled,” Lucy said, tipping her chin up. “Walking around like own the place-”
“I do literally own the place,” Jack pointed out.
“I know but you don’t have to, ya know…”
“Act like it?” Jack said, feeling mildly amused.
“Well...yes.” Lucy took a breath. “But if I’m honest with myself? I probably hated you because you have everything you want. And I don’t. But that’s more about my failure.” Her expression darkened and she looked suddenly very sad as she slowly stroked the egg. She did it so tenderly. Jack found himself desperately wanting to know what it would be like to be tenderly touched by a woman like her. Since his successes, he hadn’t found much genuine interest from anyone. They wanted him for what he had done and what he had. They didn’t want him. Not as a person.
“I don’t have everything I want,” Jack said quietly. “I don’t… I’m alone.”
He blushed, feeling suddenly naked in front of her and Lucy sat forward again and set the egg down in its blanket on the side table next to her. She looked at him straight on. He felt himself falling into the depths of her bright blue eyes. He couldn’t look away.
“Well, I’m alone,” she said softly. “And I don’t have anything I want. At least you have something.”
“Doesn’t feel like it sometimes,” Jack whispered. “And...and Sean… I…”
She took his hands in hers and said, “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to keep saying that.”
“I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t mean it,” Lucy said.
He breathed deep, actually feeling calmed by her cool skin on his. It seemed to chill the hot fire of hurt and anger that had seethed in him since Sean’s death.
“Thanks,” Jack murmured.
He felt like they’d reached some significant point together. His gaze went to her mouth, and he quickly looked away, but the tension felt thick, the air too warm between them. It was only physical attraction, he told himself. This connection was just the strange circumstances of the moment playing tricks on him. It was nothing he should trust. But she squeezed his hands and didn’t let them go, even as she got to her feet, pulling him up with her. She turned and took the egg and took his hand, manipulating it so they were both holding the egg and standing close, shuffling away from the chairs. The music had softened a little more. There was something bluesy playing. It made Jack think of lonely nights when he’d wished there was someone who understood him in his arms.
And here she was.
“Dance with me,” Lucy said softly. “It’s good for the egg.”
Jack let out a little laugh at that, but he didn’t want to move away. He rather liked standing so close to Lucy he could smell the soap she’d just used to shower with. He liked seeing the tiniest freckles dotting the tip of her nose.
“It’s good for the egg?” He muttered as they cradled it between them. “That’s not in the notepad.”
“It’s in the book,” Lucy whispered, holdin
g him a little closer. “The book says the egg needs to see affection between parental figures. And that’s us. And now that I know it’s real and...I guess it’s an orphan… I want the best for it.”
“You’re a fascinating woman,” Jack mumbled. He hadn’t really meant to say that out loud but Lucy smiled anyway.
“That’s what I keep telling people,” Lucy said, chuckling.
They were dancing, or rather they were swaying. Jack looked into Lucy’s eyes and got that feeling he’d only ever heard about. It was that feeling that maybe he had found his person. He put it down to attraction. He couldn’t deny that now as they clasped hands, the others holding the egg between them. She was so close, Jack thought. He found himself desperately wanting to kiss her. He had never been shy with women in his life, or at least not since somewhere around eighth grade. But he only just gotten Lucy on his side. Or rather fate had somehow stepped in. He had a feeling it was mostly to do with that book. But he couldn’t risk making a move now, not when it might risk this fragile peace. Except that he saw Lucy swallow, her eyelashes fluttering. He saw her eyes glance down at his mouth.
“Do you still hate me?” Jack asked, dancing a little closer. He wondered what it would be like to wrap his arms around her. They would fit together so well, he thought.
“Told you I don’t,” Lucy murmured.
“Okay good,” Jack said. “Just checking.”
“I still don’t like sharing tips,” Lucy said. He felt a ripple of irritation at that and only then saw how she was smiling, teasing him. He really wanted to kiss her then, and he started to lean in, only to stop and think better of it.
He swallowed. What exactly was the etiquette of this situation? “I’m sorry I kidnapped you,” he muttered. “You’re not kidnapped anymore. I’m sorry, I-”
Lucy kissed him then, quickly; one sweet and oddly chaste little peck on the lips. But the sensation of it made Jack’s heart race. Just a simple little kiss made all the blood in Jack’s body feel fiery hot and at the same time, he felt a great sense of satisfaction suddenly, as if he’d just found something he’d been searching for all his life.
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