by Zoe Chant
“Five hundred.”
“Done!”
There was a small part of her that said she could have argued him down, but that wasn't the point. Instead, the point was taking the man's keys from him and shoving a still somewhat murderous-looking Reese into the passenger seat before cramming cash at the man who had sold her his car.
“And ... I want your hat,” she said, because really, five hundred for this hunk of junk was being extremely generous.
He obviously thought so too because he took the hat off his head and plunked it on hers. She spared him a grin, and then she threw herself into the driver's seat and drove out of the parking lot as sirens started to roar.
Along with the cops came another car as well, one that made her hackles rise. It had tinted windows, which Tara was pretty sure was illegal, but the rolled-down passenger window showed a bland-faced man with a suspicious duffel bag on his lap and totally unnecessary mirror shades on his face. Tara saw his head turn just as she cruised past, and she hunched down in the seat a little further, the hat shading her eyes.
Let us by, let us by, let us by, Tara chanted in her head. I won't ask for anything for Christmas, I will stop silently cursing bad tippers...
It took everything she had not to gun it out of the parking lot, but then they were on the main road again. Tara deliberated for a moment, and then instead of pulling up onto the highway, she turned towards the frontage road.
It took her several moments before she glanced at Reese again, and then she had to do a double take.
He was sitting almost completely turned in the passenger seat, and it looked like every muscle in his body was tensed as if for a leap. His eyes — oh God, his eyes — were dilated to pure black with just the bare edge of copper around the rim. Tara tapped the gas, shocked by the wave of primal possessiveness that rolled off of him.
“Hey,” she said, and then when it came out as a squeak, she had to try again.
“Hey. Seat belt. Quit being weird.”
For just a moment, she thought that it wasn't going to work, and then to her relief the fury faded from Reese's body as he reached for the seat belt and buckled it on.
“Cars didn't even have these for a long time,” he commented.
“And people went right through the windshield a lot more. My car, my rules.”
“Technically, you used my cash, so it's my car.”
With a relieved little giggle, she threw his wallet onto his lap.
“Sure. When we stop, you can have the fun of figuring out shifting in this monster. I think I threw my shoulder out changing the — ”
She trailed off when Reese's hand landed on her thigh. Even through the denim of her jeans, she could feel how warm he was. He seemed to run hot after he had been breathing fire, but there was more to it than just that.
“What are you doing?' she said, keeping her eyes on the road. “What's happening right now?”
“I want to make sure that you're all right,” he said, and there was something uneven in his voice, something shaken there that made her swallow. There was concern and care there, and underneath it, something almost desperate, almost panicked.
She dropped one hand on top of his, the other on the wheel. She wasn't sure if she could stand to look at him just then, not when the expression on his face might make her cry. Tara knew that there was an adrenaline crash coming sooner rather than later, and at some point, he would probably have to take the wheel because she would need to have a bad case of the shakes.
That was still to come, however, and for the moment, Tara drove down the road, one hand on the wheel and the other on Reese, letting his comforting warmth seep into her, letting his presence calm her and fill her with peace.
Chapter 14
At some point, Tara looked up and apologized about leaving his car in the parking lot, and when he told her he would have it picked up, she laughed.
“Everything's easy for you, isn't it?” she said, and he grinned a little.
Very few people who knew his situation would say that the last few decades had been easy for him. His family's greatest treasure was lost, and he couldn't tell anyone about it. All he could do was engage in a frantic quest with rapidly diminishing clues for the whereabouts of the sunstone, realizing even as he did so that the item might be long gone, lost to time and the vagaries of fate.
On the other hand, he had never gone hungry, everyone who had ever come after him had quickly realized that that was a terrible idea, and he had never worried about being able to afford a place to sleep or been short of people who cared for him.
“A lot of things are easy for me,” he said from the driver's seat. They had switched off at a desolate little rest stop where Tara had defiantly gone in to grab some snacks. She had come back with something homemade, wrapped in cellophane and without any label, but it had walnuts and chocolate in it. Tara broke it up to share, and Reese had to admit that it was good.
“Lucky,” she snorted, but there was no rancor in it. Somehow despite everything that had happened to them, she looked oddly relaxed, slouched against the door, her head against the window.
“I am,” Reese found himself saying. “I found you, and if I continue to be lucky, I won't lose you.”
Tara shifted, and he could feel her gaze on him.
“What is it?” he asked.
“We should... I mean, let's knock that off, all right?”
He scowled, glancing at her. His dragon hissed uncertainly. It had only started to calm down from the fury of the day.
“What do you mean?”
“The ... the mate stuff. Let's just table it for now. It's distracting, and at the moment, we can't afford to be distracted, can we?”
Reese wanted to protest, but he had the idea that she might be right. The sunstone, the ones that were hunting her, it was all too much. Even if it went against his better judgment, he knew that leaving it to rest for at least a little while was a good idea. He nodded reluctantly.
“I reserve the right to revisit the matter of mates when this is all over.”
She gave him a smile that let him hope a little more than he had when she said she wanted the matter tabled.
“All right — ”
“And I want you to let me treat you as my mate, even if we don't talk about it.”
“Wait, you can't just sneak that by me...”
“I could if you let me,” Reese said, a slight grin on his face. Tara was adorable when she was caught flat-footed.
“No! I mean ... why would you? I don't think of you like that. We were just — ”
Reese kept his eyes on the road, braced and ready for her to call what they shared in the desert a passionate but otherwise empty encounter. He blinked when she seemed to choke over the words, shaking her head.
“I am not ... I'm not going to treat you like my mate or whatever,” she said, but there was something in her voice, a softening, perhaps, that gave Reese hope. He pressed on.
“No. I don't expect you to treat me in any way that doesn't feel totally right to you, that doesn't feel totally natural to you. I would not have you as other than what you are ... That idea, well, it makes me sick.”
“It does?”
“Yes, God yes, Tara. I don't ... you're my mate.”
“Hey, we just established — ”
“I don't want you because you're some kind of trophy or out of ...macho bullshit, all right? I want you because you are you, and I would never want that to change. I want you to be yourself. I need it.”
Reese realized that his hands on the wheel were growing tighter, and he made himself relax. He wondered if it had been this hard for other members of his family who had found their mates.
“Only let me be myself as well. Treat me however you like, tell me no whenever you please. I swear to you that I will listen, no matter what the circumstances. Let me...”
He cast around for something that wouldn't make him sound like a complete lunatic to her.
“Let me take
care of you the way I want to,” he said finally, and in the silence that followed, he heard her swallow, shifting uneasily in his seat.
“You mean that, right? If I don't like what you're doing, you quit?”
He nodded emphatically.
“When the entire matter is on the table again, I want you to have a good idea of what I am offering you.”
“We could always do this after we've been to Wisconsin, after our business is concluded.”
Reese hated the idea. He hated the idea of having her so close and being unable to reach for her, to touch her, to tell her the things he wanted to tell her. He hated the idea of holding her at arm's length, something that he suspected felt as unnatural to her as it did to him. He seized on the idea, took a gamble.
“I don't want that,” he said truthfully. “And if only for your curiosity, I don't think that you want it either.”
It was a measured bet. He had never met anyone who liked being told what to think, and he had already learned that Tara was strong-willed on a good day.
“I don't,” she said, her voice soft.
“So we're agreed?” he said, and he couldn't keep the hope out of his voice.
“What the hell. All right. Treat me as your mate. But if I tell you no — ”
“Then whatever it is, whenever it is, whatever has come before, we will stop. I'm not asking you to allow me to do whatever I want, Tara, I promise you that.”
“All right,” she said again, and this time Reese wondered if he heard a change in her voice. It had lost some of the harsh and suspicious edge to it. She was still cautious, still nervy and perhaps even a little afraid, no matter her bravado. But she had told him yes, and right now, after nearly burning down a discount store and making a getaway in a car with Best Hits of '74 stuck permanently in the tape deck, that was all he wanted.
Chapter 15
Reese had been quiet after his proposal, so quiet that Tara found herself lulled into a sense of security. It was probably more than a little strange to feel anything like secure when she was riding in a terrible car with a dragon, on the run from tech-savvy cultists, but there it was.
I mean, he's a dragon, and I've seen him knock over refrigeration units and breathe fire. If he decides to protect me, that's better than a sock full of nickels any day.
The thought of comparing Reese, who would have been impressive even if he was only human, to a sack of desperately swung nickels made her smile, but then she realized that it was unfair. There was no if possible in that statement. If she was in danger and if Reese was nearby, there was no way that he wouldn't protect her. Hell, given what she had seen at the store, he'd have to be held back.
I know that that's the truth, Tara thought with some surprise. I know it right down to my bones. Why do I know that?
She pushed the thought away. Family treasure this, mate that, she couldn't let herself fall into Reese's crazy world. She knew better than to think it was all just a fantasy (again, she had seen and felt him breathe fire), but she needed to keep her head on straight.
It was too dangerous to travel on the freeways given the men who were following them, so they stuck to the country roads. The going was much slower, but the trees and green hills that rose up around them as they drove east and north made Tara feel better. They were under cover, and the old car, rusted as it was, blended neatly with the other vehicles they saw in a way that Reese's car never would.
Around dusk, they stopped at a sleepy motel on the side of the road, complete with flickering neon sign and a clerk at the desk who probably wouldn't have cared if they tried to take the soda machine that glowed dimly just a few feet from their room's door.
Reese made a face at the dull, stale little room they entered. Tara started to tease him for being such a snob, but he turned to her with an earnest expression.
“I'm sorry. What we had before was nicer, I can try setting up something — ”
Tara couldn't resist laughing.
“You know I used to think that breaking into places like this to sleep was the height of luxury, right? As long as there aren't any bugs in the bed and the water actually runs, its fine.”
The room smelled oddly of bananas, but beyond that, it was clean. Honestly, it was better than some of the places she had crashed by far.
“I'm calling first shower,” Tara said. “You can, I don't know, learn the intricacies of the minibar if you like.”
“The minibar contains a bag of Skittles and a bottle of water. I have uncovered all of its mysteries.”
“Oh, bag of Skittles, that's actually pretty good...”
“I'd like to come help you.”
Tara stared.
“Shower?”
She had thought that she would sound startled and dismayed. Instead, in spite of herself, she knew that she sounded intrigued instead.
“Well, yes. If you'll let me. They ... um.”
“Go on.”
“They put their hands on you today,” Reese said, and she could still hear some of the smoldering anger in him over what had happened earlier. “I want to see for sure, for myself, that you are all right.”
“Ah, so this is a mate thing.”
“You're free to decline,” he said a little defensively, but Tara was already shaking her head.
“No,” she said. “Come on.”
Before she could tell herself what a bad idea this all was, Tara turned on her heel and went into the bathroom. The bathroom was clean but small enough that they left the door open. Tara reached into the tub to turn on the shower.
“You have to give it time to warm up...” she started, and then she pulled her breath in as Reese stepped up behind her, his strong arms wrapping around her midsection and pulling her flush against him. She could feel his body pressed against hers, and her breath caught in her throat. She was still, completely still, until he slid her hair to one side and nuzzled the back of her neck. The small surges of pleasure caught like a bonfire, and Tara's eyes widened as her skin started to tingle, not just at the back of her neck, but her breasts, her fingers, her thighs and somehow even the backs of her knees.
“I've. .. I've not showered yet,” she found herself mumbling. “I may not smell — ”
“You smell good to me,” he said firmly. “Tell me to stop if you don't like it, but otherwise...”
“But otherwise I'm your mate, yes, I remember.”
It was, Tara realized, the first time she had said anything of the sort, and his cock hardened against her. She resisted the urge to press back against him. She could pretend that it was because she wasn't sure how to far to push things, but her reasoning was far simpler: she wanted to see what Reese would do.
Reese set his hands on her shoulders, turning her around. Up close, he seemed even bigger somehow, and she gasped a little when he took the hem of her shirt and slowly peeled it over her head. Then to her surprise, he knelt, and she couldn't take her eyes off his clever hands as he unfastened her jeans and pulled them down. Instinctively, she reached for his shoulder to steady herself as she stepped out of them, and it occurred to her that he felt hotter than he had before, almost feverish.
“Are you all right?” she asked as he rose, and the smile he gave her, slow, sweet and above all hot, made her swallow.
“Perfectly,” Reese responded, and he reached for her bra.
Chapter 16
Unfastening Tara's bra put her directly in his arms, and he shivered a little when she pressed her cheek against his chest. That innocent little gesture, trust and comfort, made him want to conquer the world for her, to destroy anything that might hurt her.
“What do you want?” he found himself saying.
“Clean underwear,” she said, and Reese bit back a laugh.
“I'm sorry we left before you could finish your shopping. We'll get you something tomorrow.”
“Thanks.”
He unfastened her bra, and then at her direction, threw it into the sink with some hot water. Her panties received the s
ame treatment, and then she was standing in front of him, her arms by her sides and the bathroom filling with steam. She looked so delicious that it was all he could do not to take a bite out of her, and then he saw the first dark marks on her arm.
When he pulled her arm up gently to examine the bruises, Tara made a face.
“When they grabbed me, I guess. I don't even feel it...”
“You wouldn't, not with everything else that was going on. It might ache by tomorrow.”
“I've had worse.”
Reese halted the low growl that had started automatically in his throat. He shook his head.
“That doesn't justify it.”
She started to respond, and then he swept his hands down her sides, down one arm and then the other, down one leg and then the other. She squirmed a little under his light touch, but she didn't pull away, let alone tell him to stop. Finally, he rose to his feet, nodding.
“You seem to be fine. Nothing sore, nothing aching?”
“N-no. I'm fine,” she muttered, and he noticed with a growing interest how flushed her cheeks were, how her blue eyes had darkened.
“Good. Tell me if that changes. I was terrified at the store when I spat fire; for a second, I thought that I must have burned you...”
Tara snorted.
“Yeah, that's what terror looks like. You looked like you were about to go full dragon on a village or something.”
“Terror can look like that,” he said, refusing to be baited. “The water should be warm enough now, if not already so hot it might scald you.”
The water was steaming, but Tara got in eagerly, sighing as she stood directly under the spray. Reese was simply content (and perhaps just a little aroused) to listen the soft and contented sounds that she made under the water, but then she glanced at him.
“Are you coming in?”
He raised an eyebrow, trying to to keep his face calm, because the first thing that crossed his mind was a very undragonish, rather puppyish, eagerness to immediately bounce into the water with her.
“Would you like me to?” he countered.