by Amelia Jade
Daxxton frowned. “What?”
“I want you.”
***
Miranda
What did you just say?!
Her brain went into overdrive. Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit.
“As the security liaison,” she finished in a rush, fighting back the rush of blood she knew was trying to force its way into her cheeks.
Please don’t blush. Please don’t blush.
She blushed.
Fuck.
She had been so good up until then. Her only other moment of weakness had been the little gasp she knew everyone had heard when his fingers brushed against the back of her hand in the car. But she’d been unable to avoid it as electricity had shot up her arm, stunning her heart with its power.
There was something about this man that brought Miranda to life. His very presence even now within such close proximity made her skin tingle. The hairs on the back of her neck had been standing on end from the moment he’d gotten that look of protective jealousy in his eyes when she mentioned she was the princess’s body double from time to time.
“Me?” he asked in surprise.
Miranda gave thanks that either he’d missed the double connotation of her statement, or he’d just ignored it. She wasn’t sure which it was, but she was grateful for it anyway.
“Why is that such a surprise?”
Miranda arched her eyebrows. The tall man with the reserved-looking facial expression just stared at her. He wore a white loose-fitting shirt of fine silk over black pants with black boots. It was an unusual outfit, but on him, it served to do nothing but look dreamy. She wondered if beneath it he was just as tanned or not.
Her eyes tracked back up to his face as she belatedly realized he’d just watched as she checked him out.
There was a power in his gaze, and not just the power over her. But Power, with a capital P. She’d met powerful dragons before, but few, if any, could match the sheer intensity of his gaze, even as it lacked any real emotion.
It was the eyes, she realized. His gorgeous eyes, so light and brown, specked liberally with gold flakes throughout, reminiscent of his scales. They were the opposite of her own orbs, a brown so dark they were almost pools of inky blackness.
“Well, I know who you are. So that helps. Plus you’re the first dragon from Cadia I met. That, combined with your reputation, has made me more open to trusting you than I would someone else, even a member of your team.”
And more importantly, I want to gaze upon that chiseled, goatee-covered face of yours. Not that I can say that.
Her pupils were dilating with lust, she realized. She blinked, looking away from his broad, powerful shoulders and the way they stretched the sweater he was wearing. Winter had arrived, though the snows were not yet present, much to everyone’s surprise. Miranda had a sneaking suspicion that they would be coming shortly now that she’d come, but Mother Nature was a fickle woman sometimes.
Maybe she’d get lucky and be back on her way to the warm climes of Tanith before that happened.
“I see.”
“I’ve also never met a gold dragon before. You’re a rather rare breed. Maybe that will keep the hard partiers at bay,” she joked.
“Or it’ll bring out all the gawkers,” he returned, and a chill burned down her spine.
“Well, we’ll have to hope for the best. Your team is good,” she said, nodding in the direction of the knot of dragon shifters talking amongst themselves.
“That they are,” he agreed.
Miranda fell silent, looking around. They were in what appeared to be a public lounge within the Guardian headquarters building.
Tanith had its own equivalent to the Guardians. The Shields of Tanith were well respected warriors whom Miranda would pit against any of the other strongholds’ best without a second thought. Or at least, she would have, until she’d seen the impressive way Daxxton and several of his Guardians had carried themselves into battle.
The building they were in now was easily twice the size of anything Tanith boasted, and she glanced around the spacious room once again, trying to find anything to distract her from the sudden silence that enveloped the two of them. But as it lingered on, Miranda noticed something.
It wasn’t awkward. They hadn’t spoken in at least thirty seconds now as her eyes scanned the ceiling, noting the intricate painting of various shifter animals worked into it. It was beautiful, actually. She was comfortable just sitting there with him.
That was dangerous. Tanith had a strict policy of neutrality when it came to Cadia and Fenris. If she was seen with someone from one of them in a non-professional setting, there could be disastrous consequences for the reputation of her home.
She consciously shifted her weight to the right, away from Daxxton, swallowing hard at her sudden clammy-handed nervousness.
It was almost as if moving away from him was…wrong. But how could that be?
“Miranda,” the gorgeous, slightly tanned walking statue said, his full, kissable lips forming her name.
She suppressed a shiver at the delicious sight, not allowing herself to give in to the fantasies creeping into her mind.
“Yes?” she asked formally.
“Why did you come to Cadia?”
There it was. The question. This time though, she knew he wanted a blunt answer.
Chapter Three
Daxxton
He knew as soon as she paused that Miranda understood he was looking for the no-bullshit reason this time. He wanted the gritty details of what had prompted their decision, the flight from wherever it was they had been. Everything.
“Honestly, it’s your fault,” she said.
“Excuse me?” he asked, defenses snapping into place.
“Not you personally!” she reassured him, the reality of what she’d just said setting in clearly on her face. “I meant Cadia.”
“I don’t understand.”
“When was the last time you left Cadia? That you went to another territory?”
He closed his mouth as she kept speaking. He left Cadia frequently, but it wasn’t to go to another shifter territory.
His mind conjured up a vision of a small grassy hill several hours’ flight to the south. A curved stone rose up from the hill, ancient words still chiseled onto it.
Kyra Ryker.
Taken too early.
Below that was scrawled a date.
“It has been some time,” he admitted, shaking his head to clear the image. “Why?”
She frowned, her eyes taking on a long stare, unfocused as she saw something in her mind’s eye. “Things are different out there. For a long time, Cadia was a power, a force to be reckoned with. Fenris and some of the other agitator states out there didn’t do anything, in fear of provoking your wrath.”
He knew she meant Cadia again there, and so he didn’t lash out at her. The memories her mention of his own personal wrath brought forth were not her fault, as she didn’t even know about them. Firmly he shoved them back into the dark box he kept them in and listened to what Miranda was saying, even as his eyes tracked the lines of her jaw, admiring the freckles that dotted her face here and there, adding character to her flawless features.
“But Cadia isn’t the power it once was anymore,” she continued, not noticing anything that he was doing as she continued staring at the wall blankly. “The other strongholds, they know this. Fenris especially, and they’ve been pushing harder, testing the limits of Cadia’s patience.”
Her head turned and he stared into the deep inky pools of her eyes, feeling himself get sucked into their tempting depths.
“Tanith has been paying the price. They make moves, we counter. They want to take us peacefully, turn us into a satellite, or colony of theirs. Add our numbers to theirs, as if we’d actually fight for them,” she finished with an angry snarl.
“Why are they no longer afraid of Cadia?” he asked, confused. What had changed to make Fenris act so brazenly that he wasn’t aware of?
; “You can’t be serious?” she asked in dismay. “Are you that blind?”
He frowned. “What are you talking about, Miranda?”
The beautiful woman twitched when he said her name. The first time it’d happened he hadn’t been sure, but now he was positive.
“Cadia doesn’t do anything anymore. Fenris has been very, very careful not to do anything that would disrupt the flow of money to Cadia. As long as that remains untouched, your Council doesn’t lift a finger in regard to anything else. We’ve been probed by mercenaries twice now, testing our defenses. But we can’t prove conclusively that Fenris paid them off, so what can we do? Nothing. We don’t have the strength to match them,” she said bitterly.
Daxxton felt his ire rising. But it wasn’t directed at his home. It was directed at the people who ran it, the ones who had decimated the Guardian budget, allowing this sort of thing to happen.
“And you can’t outright ask for our help, because that would break your neutrality, which would ruin your reputation. If you could prove without a doubt it was Fenris behind those attacks, or the attempted kidnapping earlier, then Cadia and the other territories would be forced to act,” he said bitterly, the situation beginning to make sense.
“Exactly.”
“So, why come here now?”
Miranda paused, gathering her thoughts once more. Or perhaps ensuring she chose the right words. Daxxton didn’t blame her. Tanith’s neutrality toward the two big powers was well known, and well respected. It was located equidistant between the two, and both of them wanted more direct control of it and its rich natural resources that they could sell to the humans for the things necessary to survive. She had to ensure she didn’t say anything wrong, even at this juncture. Fenris may be an enemy, but she knew that did not necessarily make Cadia as a whole, friendly to her cause.
“A month ago, the head of our intelligence department—though I’ll deny any such thing exists if word gets out—was assassinated.”
That got his attention.
“Assassinated?” he echoed skeptically.
Shifters didn’t assassinate each other. They killed each other, yes. That happened, more often than he would preferred, often between species. But cold-blooded murder had been effectively tamped out centuries before. Their numbers were too few for that to become a normal practice.
“Well, unless you have a better way to explain how he was found with his neck broken, slumped in his chair at home, with no signs of a fight, then yes, I’m going to go with assassinated.”
Daxxton blinked, for once at a loss for words.
“It was at that time,” Miranda said, pushing on, trying to get past the gruesome topic, “that we knew Fenris was ready to take it up a level. So, here we are, though trust me, none of us wish to be here. Even coming here just to meet with you will impinge on our reputation of neutrality.”
“Shit,” he said angrily, the single word carrying for more weight than it might normally.
He could feel her resentment at being forced to come to his doorstep seeking a solution. She wasn’t angry at him, but at the way the situation had forced them together. She cared deeply for her home and to see it effectively under siege was probably more painful than he would ever know. All he could do was hope that she didn’t hold him personally responsible.
After all, he was nothing like the power figures on the Cadian Council, the ones who had their eyes set so firmly on money, and not on doing what was right.
His lips curled back in a voiceless snarl.
“I take it there was no direct link to Fenris,” he said, knowing the answer.
“Nothing concrete of course, but we know.”
He nodded, falling into a silence. There was something about the way Miranda spoke about Tanith.
“You have a lot of love for your home,” he said at last.
“I do,” she admitted.
“Does that come from being around the princess so much?”
Something passed through her eyes, but she quickly hid it behind a mask. Daxxton thought about pressing further, but decided against it. Not yet; he didn’t know her well enough to pry at that moment.
“Yes, that would be an accurate way of putting it,” she admitted.
There’s something else going on here.
He wasn’t sure what, but he suspected the Tanithians weren’t telling the entire truth to him.
What were they hiding?
***
Miranda
“I don’t get it,” she said, trying to change the subject. His questions were getting too uncomfortably close to something she didn’t wish to talk about.
“Get what?”
“I talk about Cadia becoming complacent, not being the calming influence on Fenris like she used to. And you get upset about it. But your anger isn’t directed at me. It’s directed at someone else. As if you know.”
She watched the burnished gold-skinned man hesitate. It was likely she was digging at internal politics, and most people didn’t like to air their own dirty laundry. Miranda could respect that, but she needed to know more.
“You know who I am,” he said at last.
She nodded, not sure if it had been a question or not.
“Well. I am…privy to more things than many that live here, it would be fair to say.” He spoke carefully. “So, your words, while not something I had known about, are not surprising.”
“Which is what I don’t get. You clearly know something is up, and yet you just…do nothing? I’ve spoken to you, I’ve seen you with your team. Your character and theirs is visible for anyone to see. It’s easy to see that you wouldn’t actively support that sort of policy. So how is it allowed to persist?”
A frown creased his face as he listened to her question. His lips pursed, and it pulled the goatee in several directions. She just wanted to reach out and caress him. Smooth skin, facial hair, it didn’t matter. She just wanted to dig her fingers in and explore him.
Miranda licked her lips, dampening them in anticipation.
Anticipation of what? Kissing him? Get over yourself, you starstruck little girl. He’s what, half a millennia older than you? No, more. You will not fawn over him. Remember, he’s a gold dragon that’s been around a long time. He probably gets that from everyone. Want him to be interested in you for who you are, not what you are? Then give him the same courtesy.
She rocked back on her heels and waited as he answered, trying to get a hold on her hormones, and her emotions.
It wasn’t going very well.
“We’re a democracy here,” Daxxton said.
Miranda needed a solid moment and a half to realize he was finally answering her earlier question.
“So, the people are voted onto the Council, and then the Council votes on the issues. Most of us have very little to do with the day-to-day handling of Cadian affairs. I only know that certain things have been happening because of who I am and the circles I am forced to walk within.”
“Forced?” she asked, then raised a hand to stop him as she remembered what she’d been thinking.
Of course, he was an oddity to his own people as well as hers.
“If he didn’t have to run in those circles, where would the real Daxxton Ryker hang out?” she asked, finally taking a seat on a nearby leather couch.
The Aurum Dragon sat down next to her, looking contemplative.
“The real Daxxton Ryker?” he asked slowly. “I’d be in the past.”
A look of intense sorrow and longing swept across his face.
What was in the past? she wondered, almost asking, but not quite.
“We all have things we’d prefer to relive,” she admitted.
“Yes,” the powerful shifter replied in a hoarse whisper. “Yes we do.”
There was regret there as well. Powerful regret. She looked at him sharply. This man had seen or done something that haunted him. Miranda wasn’t sure how she knew—maybe—it was just the tone of his voice, but he didn’t say anything more, so she let
it be.
“How do you relax these days?” she asked, trying to draw him back to the present after a moment’s reflection.
“Relax? What’s that?” he asked with a dry laugh, before continuing. “I like to go for late-night flights, simply to look upon the scenery that Cadia has to offer.”
He likes to fly when it’s dark, when no one can tell what color he is.
She understood him perfectly, in an instant. He would never admit to that being the reason, but she could understand, perhaps better than most, about how it felt to be gawked at in public. Stared at, for no other reason than who you were. It was unsettling, and though Miranda was positive he’d learn to adapt, as had she, it didn’t make it any easier…
“Are there any particular places that stand out?” she asked, forcing her arm to remain still as it tried to reach out and rest upon his arm.
Why did that seem like such a good idea? Is it the way his sleeves are rolled up, exposing the thick sinews of his forearm? Get it together!
“The mountains, just as the sun comes over the horizon and touches their peaks,” he said without hesitation.
Miranda found herself smiling alongside Daxxton at the happiness she heard in his voice.
“I’ve heard a lot about the Quicksilver range,” she admitted. “I’d hope to have made a trip up here, but…” she trailed off with a calm shrug.
Or at least, she hoped it was calm, and not showing the terror on her face at how close she’d come to admitting something she absolutely was not supposed to admit just then.
Don’t screw it all up just because you found a pretty face! No matter how pretty it might be…
Her eyes ran over his fine facial features once more, admiring the curve of his jaw, the slight stubble of his facial hair.
He was gorgeous.
And probably mated. Or at least had a lineup of girls prettier than her that he could pick from.
No, she thought with a mental shake of her head. That wasn’t how he was at all. Daxxton was not the playboy type, though he easily could be if he wished. Handsome as hell and one of the only gold dragons on the planet? Yeesh, some women would kill for that combo.
