“Sure. Sounds good.” Neil glanced around at the other diners in curiosity. “So, people come here and pay to eat?” he asked, his voice low.
“Yeah. That’s what a restaurant is, and you can find some that are very pricey with excellent food, or cheaper ones with either great or mediocre food.”
“And what is this place?”
“Not very pricey with great food.” Jordan grinned.
She found she enjoyed teaching him about people, their habits, customs, as well as the town and everything in it. Neil asked questions about the waiters and sipped his wine when it arrived. His brows rose, and he took another drink. “I like this better than beer.”
“I forgot you told me that. Maybe we should stock up on some, then,” Jordan replied, sipping her own.
Neil, being Neil, ordered a steak, cooked rare. Jordan preferred hers cooked a little more, and the waiter smiled and left their table. “I like this,” Neil commented, gazing around. “Being waited on, having someone bring your food to you.”
“I take your people don’t have restaurants?”
“No, we built homes, and each clan sticks together. But other than the games we play and receiving an education, we mostly spend our time hunting.”
“And with all those dragons to feed,” she asked, “you don’t over hunt an area?”
“We really are not that many, Jordan,” he said. “Less than a hundred of us live to the north. The rest are scattered among humans, working to help the clans.”
“I see. And here I thought your people numbered in the thousands.”
Neil sipped his wine. “No. And we are becoming fewer as time goes on. Perhaps one day, there will be no more dragons in the world.”
“That would be a terrible shame.”
He smiled. “Yes. It would.”
Jordan took a drink from her glass, watching him closely. “And what would your children be, if you had them—with a human.”
“I have wondered if they would be part dragon, part human,” he admitted slowly. “Or maybe we, as we are now, are the hybrid. Both human and dragon.”
“And you having babies might dilute the blood, to where they are no longer dragons.”
“I truly have no idea, Jordan,” Neil said, looking away. “The elders who sent us away must have known we would interbreed with people. They told us to live among you. They didn’t say not to mate or have youngsters.”
“Where do you think your friends are now?” she asked.
“I wish I knew. I’d like to know if they are falling in love as I am.”
“If they are as handsome and charming as you are,” Jordan replied, smiling, “I have no doubt they are.”
Neil paid the check and tipped generously from the wad of cash in his pocket.
“Well, tell me,” Jordan said, rising from their table. “How was your first date?”
He laughed, his arm around her waist as they walked to the door. “Very educational. I like these courtship rituals. When can I date you again?”
“I can’t have Colleen watch Caitlyn too often without reciprocating,” Jordan replied, leaning her shoulder against him as he opened the door for her. “But as soon as we can, we’ll do this again.”
Pulling her truck’s keys from her pocket, Jordan strode across the parking lot beside Neil, then clicked the button to unlock the door. The truck’s lights flashed briefly, and Neil commented, “Now that’s a handy gadget.”
“I suppose. Some vehicles will start at the press of a button,” she said, smiling up at him. “But my truck isn’t equipped with that.”
Neil started to say something, but the roar of an engine and blinding headlights in their faces interrupted him. A car braked to a sudden halt beside them, and two men emerged. Jordan sucked in her breath when she recognized Knox and his drinking pal, Darren.
“Well, well,” he said, grinning, clearly drunk, as he stepped around the car toward them. “My lovely ex and her boy-toy.”
Jordan glanced at Darren, who made no move toward them, and stared, as though shocked at what was happening. “Going to try to kidnap Caitlyn again?” she snapped.
“You ran me off the road. My truck is totaled.”
Jordan gaped in shock. That must be the lie he’s telling people. “You kidnapped Caitlyn.”
“Kidnapped?” Darren stared at Knox. “You said they tried to kill you.”
“Is that what he told you?” Jordan asked, not bothering to mask her contempt. “He snuck into my child’s window and stole her.”
“Maybe you should just let him have part custody, Jordan,” Darren suggested.
“He can’t,” Jordan told him. “He’s a felon.”
Knox had gone toe to toe with Neil. “I suppose you want another broken nose?” Neil asked conversationally.
“I’m gonna kill you, man,” Knox snarled.
Darren glanced at Jordan. “He broke his nose in a car accident.”
“His lies just never stop, do they?” Jordan laughed. “He got his ass handed to him when he came to take my daughter from me. All illegally.”
“Is that true?” The man looked at Knox.
“Shut up, Darren,” Knox retorted. “Help me send this playboy to hell.”
“Jimmy was right about you, Knox,” Darren yelled, backing toward his car. “You’re a damn liar and nothing but trouble. I’m so gone.”
“Darren, get your ass back here.”
Darren slid behind his wheel and slammed the door closed. Within seconds, he put the car in reverse and floored the accelerator. He peeled out of the parking lot and roared down the street.
“It looks like you’re all alone, Knox,” Jordan said, her voice dripping sweetness.
“I’m gonna kill you both.”
This time, Knox’s voice held no conviction, and as Neil stepped closer to him, he took an equal step back.
“Run, boy,” Neil said, and Jordan heard again the deadly softness in his voice and shivered. “You are really stupid to keep coming at me like this.”
“I want my baby girl.”
Neil shook his head. “You can’t have her. Why can’t you get that through your thick skull?
“You want to die, Knox?” Jordan asked him, forcing him to look at her. “You know he can kill you as easily as breathing.”
“You know what I am.” Neil took another step into Knox’s personal space.
“Monster,” Knox spat, and Jordan saw him shaking, trembling, and the flesh under his tan paled. He looked like a strange ghost with twin dark patches for eyes, and Jordan laughed.
“You’re pitiful, Knox,” she said. “Go home. Sleep it off.”
More people exited the restaurant: more witnesses to whatever happened. Knox seemed to realize, perhaps for the first time, what he had gotten himself into by confronting them. He took several steps away from Neil, then turned and started running. He turned left upon reaching the street, then vanished from their sight.
“Caitlyn,” Neil snapped. “Is she in danger? He’ll know you’ll have Colleen watching her.”
“He’s on foot,” Jordan replied, tired and disgusted by the whole thing. “He can’t get to her very quickly without a vehicle, and we’re headed there now.”
Neil blew out a gust of breath. “Then let’s get her. I won’t be comfortable until she’s back with us.”
Colleen answered her knock and smiled cheerfully. “Have a nice date, you two?” she asked.
“We did, thanks. How’s Caitlyn?”
“Oh, my, she and Tommy wore each other out. She’s sleeping.”
Jordan, followed by Neil, walked into the house and found Caitlyn covered by a blanket on Colleen’s sofa. “Thank you so much for watching her,” Jordan said as Neil picked her up without waking her.
“Anytime, Jordan. Especially when you want a night out with this hunk.”
Jordan gave Colleen a quick hug and followed Neil out of the house and to the truck. She helped him get her into her car seat without waking her, and within mi
nutes, they were on the highway heading toward the ranch.
“Is she still out?” Jordan asked.
Neil twisted in his seat to look. “Yeah.”
“I really need this to be over, Neil,” Jordan complained. “With Knox. He committed a crime by kidnapping her the other night and telling the cops would send him back to jail for years.”
“Then why don’t you tell the cops?”
Jordan looked over at him. “He might not keep to his story that we ran him off the road to get her back.”
“Oh. He might tell them he saw me.”
“Exactly.”
“Would he even be believed?”
“We can’t risk it. Or I’d have sent the cops after him that night.”
Silent, Neil stared out the window at the darkness. “You’re putting yourself in danger from Knox by protecting me. I don’t like it.”
“Think about it, Neil,” Jordan told him, reaching over to hold his hand. “Knox said his truck got totaled. He doesn’t have a car now. He seems to be losing friends rapidly. He’s losing control, drinking all the time. He’s spiraling, and when he hits bottom, he won’t be a danger anymore.”
“Or so you hope.” By the lights of the dash, Neil’s expression looked dark and grim. “A man without anything to lose is the most dangerous, don’t you think?”
Chapter Seventeen
In a feat that amazed Neil, he and Jordan got Caitlyn out of the truck and into her bed without waking her. Axel bounced between them happily as they returned home, but not even the noise he made woke her up. Wishing he had more of the delicious wine rather than beer, Neil sat on the couch with Axel squashing him, the dog’s big paws in the air.
Neil absently scratched his tummy as he pondered the problem Knox posed. “What are we gonna do about him, eh?”
Axel answered with a pleading whine, and Neal caught the need for more attention from the dog’s mind. “All right, we’ll forget about Knox for now.”
“Yes, we will,” Jordan replied, striding in.
She joined Neil on the couch as he scratched Axel’s ribs and stomach, making the dog very happy. “What is it about animals and their need for attention?” he asked. “Like this. Just scratching Axel is sending him into bliss.”
“We all need attention,” Jordan replied, leaning back with her beer and watching. “It’s an expression of love, but it seems that all animals, as well as people, need physical contact.”
“Hmm.” Neil watched Axel’s doggy expression as he continued his attentions. “If there are no people to do this for them, what do they do?”
“They give it to each other,” she answered. “Horses are very social, like dogs. They all play, groom one another, rely on one another for safety.”
Neil grinned. “I had no idea when I lived in the north.”
“But you said you were educated about us.”
“Yeah, to some degree. Your culture, your language. Not your dogs or horses.”
He looked at her. “Or how one might fall in love.”
“Do your people fall in love easily?”
“I suppose. Our courtship rituals are complex and rigid.” He grinned. “Not like dating. But once a dragon falls in love, he is passionate about his mate until his death. Once that commitment is given between a male and female, it is for life.”
Jordan nodded without smiling. “Thus, no divorce.”
“No.”
“Your society seems simpler than ours,” she said on a sigh. “Every part of our lives, it seems, is governed in some way.”
“Ours is based on tradition, not laws,” Neil replied. “Only violence against another dragon is met with justice. And even then, we rarely commit violence on another dragon.”
“That makes you a peaceful people.”
Neil drank his beer and examined his bottle. “We should be having wine.”
“Next time we go into town, we’ll get some. I forgot.”
Without words, Neil told Axel his attention session was over for now and to get down. With a deep sigh, Axel sat up and gazed at Neil with a pathetic expression. Get down; it’s time for Jordan to get attention. Rather than use her name, Neil pictured Jordan’s face in his mind, and Axel immediately jumped down from the couch.
Jordan looked at the dog in surprise. “Did he—did you—”
“I asked him to get down, yes,” Neil replied. “I told him it was your turn to get some attention.”
Jordan smiled. “You did, huh?”
“I did.”
Scooting across the couch, Neil pulled Jordan into his arms. She relaxed against him, turning her face upwards for his kiss, her arm sliding around his waist. His tongue in her mouth, Neil explored her breasts with his hand, feeling his erection hardening in his jeans. Sliding his hand under her shirt, his fingers against her soft, warm skin.
Jordan moaned softly; her tongue tangled with his—
“Mommy?”
Jordan broke away from him instantly, and Neil couldn’t halt his snort of laughter. Standing, she straightened her shirt, then asked, “What’s wrong, baby?”
Caitlyn wandered into the sitting room, and Neil hastily covered his lap with a cushion. “I can’t sleep.”
“Baby, you were asleep.”
Jordan picked her up and sat on the couch again, cuddling her daughter. Neil watched Caitlyn rub her eyes and yawn. “I’m thirsty.”
“Do you want water, little one?” Neil asked. “Or milk?”
“Milk.”
Rising, he walked, his member aching, into the dark kitchen, and poured her a small glass of milk. When he returned, Caitlyn was complaining she couldn’t sleep without Axel with her. “Then you can go back to bed with Axel,” Jordan soothed her as Neil handed her the milk. “He’s right there.”
Axel watched the proceedings with interest while he lay on the floor, his stumpy tail wagging back and forth. Caitlyn finished her milk, and then Jordan walked her back to her room. “Axel, you’re on baby duty.”
Stay with her, friend; watch over her. She’s your charge.
Axel paused to look at Neil for a moment, then followed Jordan and Caitlyn into Caitlyn’s room. Neil’s hard-on collapsed as he drank his beer, waiting for Jordan to return. He absently wondered at his ability to communicate with not just Axel, but also the horses, on the same level they did. I wonder if all dragons can do that. I’m not unique in that, am I?
Jordan returned without child or dog and returned to the couch with a grin. “Where were we?”
“I was about to take you into your room.”
“I want to finish my beer.”
Jordan snuggled against him while she drank her beer, and Neil swallowed his down. “I told Axel to stay with her,” he said.
Jordan turned to look into his face. “I wonder if he would do what you say if you told him to protect her against Knox.”
Clicking his tongue, Neil thought about it. “That would pose a serious conflict in him,” he answered slowly. “He adores Caitlyn, but his master is Knox.”
“He’d have to choose.”
“And in choosing, it could destroy him.”
Jordan stared into space. “I guess I can’t do that to him,” she murmured at last. “We’ll have to deal with Knox without involving Axel.”
“I think, if it came down to protecting Caitlyn against Knox,” Neil mused, thinking of the dog’s loyalty, “he would choose Caitlyn.”
“That’s good to know.”
Lifting her chin with his finger, Neil kissed her. With love, with tenderness, he poured his emotions into her. Her arms around his neck, Jordan responded, her growing love for him obvious in the rising passion he felt from her. Standing, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom he now shared with her.
The same room she once shared with Knox.
Shoving that thought from his mind, Neil undressed her in the darkness. Lying unclothed beside her, he aroused her with hands and mouth, bringing her to the brink of orgasm before backing
off. Jordan’s moans and soft cries told him of her sexual frustration with his teasing, but he continued until she did orgasm despite his efforts.
Mounting her in the dark, he thrust his heavy rod into her tight, wet cave. Driving hard and deep, he brought them both to an orgasmic crescendo, then lay on top of her and kissed her tenderly once again.
“I love you,” he whispered, his flaccid member still inside her.
Jordan’s arms held him tightly. “I love you, predator.”
One of Neil’s jobs, he discovered a few days later, was cleaning the barn. While Jordan brought Cade out of his stall for his exercise, Neil was given a fork and told to clean the mess the stallion made. “What am I?” he demanded, humor in his voice as he stared at the nasty straw. “Your dragon slave?”
“You have to earn your keep,” Jordan replied. “Start earning it.”
So, he mucked the stall under Caitlyn’s instructions as she sat on the stall’s wall, took the manure out, and put fresh straw down for Cade’s bedding. “Daddy hated to muck stalls,” Caitlyn informed him.
“I can’t blame him,” Neil muttered.
“When I grow up, my husband will muck stalls, too,” she announced. “And I will train the horses.”
“Is that right?” Neil leaned on his rake and gazed up at her. “Maybe your husband will make you muck the stalls.”
“No,” she replied. “The husband does that.”
Done with his labor, he plucked her off the wall and flung her over his shoulder. Caitlyn, hanging upside down, shrieked her laughter as he carried her from the barn. Then together, they watched Jordan ride Cade, cantering him around the round pen.
“Open the gate,” Jordan said. “We’re both bored with this.”
In a mental command, Neil ordered the big stallion to not buck, rear, or run away with her, and to do exactly what she told him to do. He listened to the stallion’s submissive agreement, then watched them gallop out of the yard and up into the mountains.
“Can I ride Jumper?”
By now, Neil knew enough about saddling and bridling, and with his innate ability to order the horses into good behavior, he said, “Why not?”
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