His True Love

by Khardine Gray

  ***

  I laughed at another joke. I laughed trying to stop myself from laughing too much and too hard.

  There was no way that anyone could have told me I’d be like this a week ago, sitting on the terrace of The Magdalena, one of the finest Italian restaurants in Beverly Hills.

  Here I was though, with Eric who looked like he’d just stepped out of a fashion magazine.

  He’d come to Gabrielle’s apartment earlier with a massive bunch of long stemmed white roses, wrapped in three different shades of pink paper. The sight of him and the flowers swept me off my feet. Then when we got here the magic of being with him took over. I’d never been here before but I’d heard about the place. Word on the street was it was booked for a year. Yet Eric had gotten a reservation for tonight.

  That was definitely some power.

  He smiled revealing heart melting dimples. The way he looked at me

  made me feel like I really was the most beautiful woman in the world.

  “So, you heard all my embarrassing stories. You have to tell me some.” He nodded.

  “I don’t have any. I tread softly.”

  “Tread softly? Come on. I told you about the time I had to walk around my college campus shirtless because I got bird crap all over me,” he chuckled.

  I smirked and tilted my head to the side making my blond locks drift over my shoulders. “Eric, I fail to see how that’s embarrassing. I’m sure every woman on campus would have been drooling as you walked on by.” I’d bet my left leg they were.

  “I didn’t see any.”

  I believed him. At the club he didn’t see the eyes on him, earlier at the coffee house he was blind to all the attention too, and he most certainly was blind to it when we first got here.

  Blind to it because he was looking at me. Looking at me and making sure I knew he was. Making sure I knew I had his undivided attention. He was completely the opposite of every man I’d ever been with.

  “They were there.” I laughed.

  “Well if I knew you didn’t have any embarrassing stories I wouldn’t have gone and tainted your view of me.”

  “It’s not tainted.”

  “I’m glad. You seriously have nothing? Falling down the stairs, or bird crap on you? No family stories?”

  I brought my hands together. Normally I’d go all uncomfortable when anyone asked me about family. I didn’t feel that with him.

  “I stumbled on some steps once but I didn’t fall. I also heard bird crap means good luck so that wouldn’t be too bad a thing. As for family, I don’t, um.. I don’t have any. I’ve lived in foster care all my life. There wasn’t a lot that happened that I want to remember.”

  Concern filled his eyes in an instant. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry for. It was an experience. Not the best, but an experience. It was pretty tough. But I guess I’m ok now.” I offered a small smile.

  “I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for you.” He sympathized.

  “Taught me a lot. Some lessons I had to learn the hard way. Some lessons keep popping up with a refresher.” I’d dangerously verged on to territory that was best left unsaid.

  This was a date not a counselling session.

  “Sounds like something happened recently.”

  “I don’t want to bore you with that.”

  He leaned forward and looked more interested. “There’s no way you could bore me. I want to know.”

  “It’s just that sometimes people aren’t what they seem. They appear to be one thing then they change.” Every family I was placed with all seemed like I finally had a home, but it never worked out. It was the same with Stephan.

  He looked down at his hands. “So, I have a slight confession. Please don’t be mad I was just trying to find you and I would have done anything to find you.”

  I didn’t think I could ever be mad at him, even at what I suspected he was about to mention. I’d kind of been waiting for it since he turned up at Gabrielle’s. If he checked out where I lived and knew to come to her place, then he would have known where I’d come from and that I’d only lived at Gabrielle’s for a handful of weeks. I also figured that he must have had a very good private investigator since I didn’t have any bills registered there or anything like that.

  “Should I guess what the confession is?” I thought I’d make it easier for him since I didn’t mind talking about it.

  “No, because it’s my confession.” He bit the inside of his lip. “By trying to find you I noticed that you only moved in with your friend three weeks ago. It was three weeks ago that I first saw you. I figured something significant must happened, maybe with someone.”

  I liked his tact. “My boyfriend cheated on me, and I moved out. I came home and found him in bed with two women.” The backs of my eyes stung a little not because I was hurting over seeing Stephan with the women, but because he never valued me. I wasn’t enough for him.

  I had to say I was loving Eric’s response. His jaw clenched and his whole appearance changed. “That’s really, damn... I’m sorry I just can’t imagine what man in their right mind would do something like that to you.”

  “Well, he did. I left him. He got mad that I did and he’s been trying to make my life hell since.

  “He wants you back.”

  “I’m not going back. Something just snapped in my mind and I wanted my life different. I wanted to be wild and free. He’s the kind of guy who loved to keep tabs on me. Always wanting me to do what he wanted. I guess I just saw it as the same thing to my childhood and I don’t want to live like that ever again.”

  He nodded. “You don’t have to”

  “No.”

  “Most guys aren’t like that Ariyah. They’re not cheating assholes who like to keep such tabs on their girlfriends.”

  “No? Are you going to tell me you aren’t like that?” The playful mood had returned breaking into the tension.

  “I’m going to definitely tell you I’m not like that.”

  “What are you like?”

  “Like this.” He opened his palms. “I’m what you see on the surface, but there is more to me that’s different to what I seem.”

  “Like what?” It was an odd thing to say. Something mysterious.

  He got closer and I gazed deep into his eyes. “One day I’ll tell you.”

  I moved forward too and then I saw it. In the depth of his eyes was that amber glow. I couldn’t help but stare.

  “Your eyes.” I breathed.

  He pulled back and look at me surprised. “What about my eyes?”

  I reached out and cupped his face. Looking at him closer I knew I could see it now. “They’re so unusual. Green but then they look like fire.”

  He took my hand and pressed it closer to his cheek. “You see that?”

  I nodded. “Am I seeing things?”

  “No,” he brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it.

  “They’re beautiful.” Now his eyes looked green again. I couldn’t explain it. I knew it was weird but I just thought it was beautiful.

  “Stay with me tonight Ariyah. Please, be mine.”

  “Yours?”

  He brushed his lips ever so lightly across mine, burning me with the fire of his tenderness.

  “Mine.”

  I loved the sound of that. I could get lost in him. In being his.

  “Just for tonight?” I didn’t know why I would say that. It was overstepping boundaries. Somehow my need for him overpowered sense and logic.

  He smiled easily and surprised me by reaching for me and pulling me onto his lap.

  “I’m treading softly. I have another confession to make.”

  I slipped my arms around his neck and gazed deeper into those eyes of his that enchanted me.

  “What? What’s your confession?”

  “This is strictly off the record.”

  I laughed. “Why is it off the record?”

  “Because by the normal, general human standards we ju
st met, you broke up with your boyfriend and we barely know each other.”

  “What if none of that mattered? What if the normal, general human standards didn’t matter and we were just two people? Could your confession be on record then?”

  He pretended to think for a moment and nodded. “Yes, that could work. That could definitely work Miss Ariyah.”

  I ran my fingers along the side of his jaw and relished the bright smile on his face.

  “Tell me what it is.”

  “It’s this ...truthfully I want you forever, but I’m just treading softly.”

  My God...

  I should think this is too fast. I should, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to. This was still the fantasy going. It never stopped. It tapped into my eagerness for freedom and dragged me into this wild fantasy where I was with this amazing man and I wanted him to be mine too.

  It was like the years prior to this hadn’t happened. Like none of it happened.

  “Maybe I want you forever too.”

  “We should do something about that then, shouldn’t we?” His eyes lit up again. Green turning to amber.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  It was just like last night. Yes would always be my answer.

  Chapter 8

  Eric

  ***

  I was loves fool.

  It caught me in its grasp and took me to a place where I didn’t care about anything else besides her. Ariyah. Just her.

  We barely made it inside my house before I had her naked pressed up against the wall with those long legs wrapped around me as I pounded into her.

  Next was the shower. We got lost in each other up against the granite walls. Then I indulged on her gorgeous body in my bed.

  Jupe tried to call me. On my phone and telepathically but I shut him out. I shut him out and set up the highest protection I possibly could around the house. It was like triple the protection of the wards I’d previously had. Anything wishing to come near my home would do so with a death wish.

  Ariyah and I feasted on each other and damn it I knew this was fast for her, but not for me. It wasn’t fast for me and the call to mate was beckoning to me.

  All the more so because she’d seen the fire of my soul in my eyes.

  I’d never tested the truth in the saying among the people of Pandir, personally because it had never happened to me, but it was said that that fire was only visible to those who could qualify as soul mates.

  They were the only people who could see it. I already turned down my dragon essence and tuned out the essence that would make me noticeable as belonging to the royal bloodline.

  A normal dragon shifter could sense me and know I was one of them, but they wouldn’t know I was the lost prince. So, how it was that this human woman could see the flames of my soul was beyond me. Especially since I couldn’t even see it myself. In dragon form my eyes blazed with the symbolic flames of Pander. They were blue.

  I panicked a little when she mentioned my eyes earlier. I thought my out of control emotions for her were weakening my control over my powers too. But from the minute she said fire I knew what she meant.

  She said she saw fire.

  From the moment she’d said that, I hadn’t been myself since.

  I just wanted her. I wanted her to be mine.

  Mine all over again. It didn’t matter how many times I’d had her, I wanted her.

  We’d made it to the bedroom after a round trip in the other rooms of the house.

  She moaned that sexy whimper as I sucked her breasts and pressed back into the silky sheets.

  I looked up at her and smiled at the satisfied expression on her face. Her tight pink nipples pointed up against the ample flesh of her breasts begging me to continue sucking.

  I wanted to but she looked tired.

  “Don’t stop. That feels so good.” Even her voice sounded heavy with tiredness.

  We’d been awake all night. It was twilight now and I could feel the strength of the sun coming up. While I could have foregone sleep, she needed sleep. Badly.

  “Goddess, you need to sleep.” I stroked her beautiful face and she smiled.

  “I don’t want to. I don’t want to sleep and then this will be over.”

  “It won’t be.” I promised settling myself on my elbows.

  She ran her finger over the guardian dragon on the edge of my bicep.

  “Tomorrow I’ll worry about why I feel the way I do about you. Tonight is fine because we’re like this.”

  “Goddess it’s already tomorrow.” I laughed and tweaked her left nipple catching the taut peak between my thumb and forefinger.

  “So I’m late with my worries and I didn’t know.”

  “Nothing to worry about. Later, when you wake up I’m going to ask you to stay with me again tonight.”

  She laughed. “What about work? You work and I work.”

  “I can work from home. You can go to work as normal and go to Gabrielle’s and pack a bag.”

  She lifted her head slightly and I watched in complete satisfaction as her massive globes bobbled. Fuck, she was perfect.

  “Pack a bag?” The smile on her pretty mouth flickered in her eyes.

  “I’m just sharing you with your friend. It’s not fair that she gets to have you all to herself. Plus I can take you to bed with me, and do this.” I leaned down and sucked her breast again.

  “I really love that.”

  “Me too.”

  She smoothed her hand over my head and urged me to continue. I did until her hands went limp and drifted back to the sheets.

  Looking at her confirmed my thoughts. She’d fallen asleep.

  I shuffled to sit up and watched her. She was a sight of sheer beauty and I really did want her to be mine.

  She talked of the worries that tomorrow would bring. I was already there. I was already on that train of worry because I was the perfect description of a person who wasn’t what I seemed.

  A dragon shifter.

  It was one hell of a thing to tell someone, but I had to tell her. I had to tell her soon too because I could feel her falling for me. The same way I’d fallen for her. In all my very long life I’d never been in love. I’d had so many women, dragon shifter women and human women. Only this one in my bed had given me that taste of love. Only this woman in my bed had seen the flames of my soul.

  I wasn’t sure what to do. There was no doubt that I had to tell her who and what I was, I just wasn’t sure how I’d do it.

  “You look happy.” Came a dark cold voice from across the room.

  It instantly snapped me out of my love filled reverie and I looked to where the voice came from.

  Fucking hell, from the darkest part of the room came the form of a man.

  No...

  Not just any man. It was Caleb. My brother.

  I immediately covered Ariyah, covering her nakedness. Then I glared at him.

  He stared at me crude and hard, looking me over with complete disdain.

  I hadn’t seen him for the same length of time that I’d been away from Pandir. That last time ripped us all apart.

  It was his fault and his greed for the kingdom. He wanted it for himself and he turned to the depths of hell to find the power to get it.

  “Caleb.” I winced straightening up.

  “I’ll allow you the space to get dressed.” He smiled and looked from me to Ariyah. “Pretty girl. You always had good taste in women.”

  Damn it. The worse thing that could happen here is him seeing her. My brother was evil and he’d use whatever he could against a person. We were twins, he knew what was important to me. He knew what I held dear. That was why he was looking at us now the way he was.

  He walked out to the hall. A cloud of darkness followed him. Darker than his jet black hair and his eyes. He really had turned to the dark side.

  I dragged on a pair of tracksuit bottoms and followed him out to the hall where I kept my art collection.

  He turned and the edge of his long black coa
t swished with the darkness.

  “Brother, you’re a hard man to find these days.”

  I stood taller in a defensive manner. “Didn’t want to be found.”

  “Not by your own brother?”

  “I have no brother.” I informed him. I really wasn’t in the mood for this shit. Him being here was a very bad thing. It meant something. I hadn’t seen him in over two centuries and suddenly he just turns up.

  Why was he here? What the fuck did he want?

  “A little harsh don’t you think?”

  “Harsh. Do I need to remind you of our last meeting?” We nearly killed each other. I wished I did kill him. He deserved death.

  “Not at all. Also that little scrape between us won’t happen again. That two minute head start you got on me did you a world of good.”

  “What do you want Caleb?”

  “By the guardians, it’s like you can’t wait to get rid of me. Not even an offer for a drink of water.” His black eyes darkened somehow. “Plus the place is like a bomb waiting to explode with the wards you put up. I get it though. Didn’t want to be disturbed with your lady love? I had to wait for the intermission. Good show though.”

  Fucking asshole, he’d watched me with Ariyah. I balled my fists and tried to calm the fireball that started to brew in the center of my palms.

  “What do you want?” I asked more pointedly

  “Relax, brother. This is a heads up visit. A friendly chat. The answer is simple. I wanted to find you. Clever. You hid your dragon essence perfectly, but my Elks sniffed you out. Their a real stickler for love.”

  It was him, him all along. The Elken and the black sphere near Amanda’s house. All him.

  But love.

  “I love many things.” I knew what he meant. He was talking about Ariyah, but I didn’t want to give him more confirmation than he already had.

  “You love the woman. I can feel it. They felt it weeks ago when you first saw her at the club. Then I felt it. Falling in love is a powerful thing amongst dragons. I wonder what father would say if you knew you were giving your soul to a human. I guess I don’t really care what he’d say to be honest. Neither do you. I can feel it. It’s the power of the twins. One mind, one body, one soul. I feel what you feel. You could do it too. Not so much anymore.” He laughed a wicked laugh that actually made chills race down my spine. He stepped toward me and the swirly patterns on the carpet started moving like snakes.