by Alicia Banks
“Why don’t you just give her a job?”
“A job? What the hell am I going to give her a job doing? You know that I barely go into the office. It’s more of a front than anything else. Hell, it’s not really even a proper office.”
“I don’t know. She’s a writer. Have her write on your website and social media.”
“I don’t have a website or social media. I just told you, the business is a front. I do some trading, but really, I just do it when I’m bored.”
“Well, she doesn’t know that. You want to keep an eye on her. If she has a job, she’ll be less mad at the man who, and I quote, ‘Barreled her down and left her for dead.’ End quote.”
“That’s what she said, huh? I thought you said she wasn’t like that?”
“It’s kind of what you did, Antoine.”
“Whose side are you on?”
Nathan chuckled, and Antoine was confused as to why his friend was acting so weird. He shouldn’t be so light-hearted about it. Antoine had almost been run down by a bunch of Nathan’s enemies.
“Are you even going to ask about the damn attack?”
“Why would I do that? I know that you’ve taken care of them, you always do. You’re the most loyal friend I know, Antoine. I won’t forget this or anything else that you’ve done. Just wait until I finally get my title instated. I will make you one of us, if you like.”
“No, I already left my own clan. I don’t need another.”
“I want to help, Antoine. Tell me what I can do.”
“You give her a job.”
“Nope, wife wouldn’t like a pretty little human running around. It’s on you, Antoine. I’m going to give her your number and tell her that you have an opening.”
“What if she recognizes me when she comes?”
“I don’t know, Antoine. Pay well. I’m sure she has a price. Isn’t that what you’re always telling me?”
“Not just humans, Nathan. Everyone. Everyone has a price.”
He got off the phone unhappy, and Antoine was left staring at the phone. He had no idea how he was supposed to be around her, act like nothing had happened between them. He was never good at that sort of thing. Antoine didn’t want to be around her. He would rather just give her some money, but Nathan didn’t think it was a good idea. Give her a job. Why did that feel like such a bad idea?
***
Antoine got a call later on that evening from Cassandra. He’d started to think that she wouldn’t call at all. It certainly wasn’t prompt.
He had to scramble to get an office and fill it with a few things to make it look legit. Nathan had really put him out there, and Antoine was cursing him most of the day. No more, though, than when she called him and he was left to deal with the mess. Dealing with the woman was far worse than dealing with a few hired assassins. Antoine knew what to do with assassins.
“Antoine?”
“Yes, this is.”
“Hi, um, I got this number from a mechanic in town, and he said that you might be interested in a writer part time for your website and social media?”
It was another thing that Antoine had to set up and by the end of it, he would have been better off just bribing her to shut up. It worked with all other humans. Antoine imagined that she would be no different, but he played the game like he was supposed to. He still wasn’t sure why Nathan had suggested what he had, but he was going to trust him. Nathan dealt with humans far more than he did.
“Yeah, why don’t you come down tomorrow, and we will see about finding you something to do? I am always looking for good, reliable people.”
Antoine had no idea what he was getting himself into, but he had a distinct feeling that he was about to find out, and it was going to be more than he could handle. Men intent on killing him were far less to worry about than an unknown beautiful human whose intentions were unclear.
Chapter 3
Cassandra
Cassandra didn’t understand how her life could change so much in one day. She’d started off the day going in for an interview for a job that she was looking forward to. Then, she got hit, picked up, car fixed, and she had a job to go to in the morning. If she didn’t have a raging headache and a cut on her head, it would have been a pretty good day. It was confusing and Cassandra wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about it all.
There was a part of her that was still thinking about the guy that hit her. She knew that he had just left, knowing that she needed help. It was illegal and a part of her wanted to call the police. She told herself that she would after she went to work the next day. They were going to have all kinds of questions, and she just wasn’t ready for all of that. Besides, she’d messed up with one job option. Cassandra knew that her savings told her she couldn’t do that too many more times before she found herself in dire straits.
Cassandra went to bed, thinking about the crash, the man, the tattoo, and how all of it felt just a little bit surreal. What was she supposed to do when reality was even more fictional? Cassandra tried to make sense of it but exhausted herself and just went to bed. The sun hadn’t even gone down, though her day had been full. Cassandra would worry about it tomorrow.
***
Her heart was pounding, and Cassandra opened her eyes to the rush of wind on her face. She was soaring ever higher, seeing all of the city below. It was tiny, like little toys, and Cassandra had the feeling that she was never going to be higher than she was at that very moment.
Her body became aware of movement underneath her, and she looked down. The scales of the blue dragon were smooth against her inner thighs, that held on tight, even as she sat up further. The wind felt good against her heated skin. Why did she feel like she belonged there?
She leaned in and rubbed her body over the hot dragon. Even though the scales were cool, just underneath was lava and it bothered her in the strangest ways to feel it against her skin. Cassandra realized even in her dream that she wanted the dragon she rode, and it alarmed her to feel the heat against the sensitive parts of her.
Whispering her needs into the air around its ear, she told it that she needed him now. The dragon seemed to understand, though Cassandra wasn’t sure about the desire she had. It came out of her mouth, like it was meant to be said, not like she’d actually said it. Cassandra was confused, but more than that, she was dying for more and moved against the bothersome seat beneath her.
“Hurry, or I will find some other way to have my needs met. You will get only a small role if that happens.”
Cassandra felt the desire to hold on all of a sudden, like it was told to her in some way, yet not in words. She had no idea where the thought came from, just that she should follow it. She leaned in all the way and wrapped her arms around the dragon’s neck. It was silvery when she got closer, not just blue. Everything about it was magnificent and she could feel her body responding. It was responding like it was a man and that possibly bothered her more than anything else.
Once they landed, the dragon started to shift into a human being, but before he could turn around, Cassandra was waking up, sweat pouring from her brow. She threw the bed covers off and fanned herself for several moments.
She was shocked by her brazen demeanor, even in a dream. Cassandra didn’t act that way, telling men she wanted them. Just the mere thought of half of it made her blush profusely. Her body was on fire, just like it had been in the dream, and she was trying to pull it together.
“Good, lord. What the hell is wrong with me?”
Cassandra was breathing hard and her words were loud in the silence. Her heart was racing, and she still felt a tingling all over her body. What the hell was that?
She was shaking and she got up, just so that she could figure out why she was being so weird. Cassandra had no idea what was going on with that dream. She knew that dreams were just her mind’s way of working something out, but dragons and mystery men she wanted to have sex with were too far out of her realm of possibility. She didn’t even have a love life, though C
assandra remembered some fantasy romance that she’d read recently. She didn’t remember a dragon in it, but that must be what it was.
Cassandra looked at the clock. It wasn’t even six in the morning, but she wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep. Not after a dream like that. After a dream such as the one she’d just had, Cassandra needed to take a cold shower to cool off her ardor. There was something about the way she had felt, the way the dragon had felt. It felt familiar.
She pushed it out of her mind, trying to think of something normal when she got in the shower, so that she could orgasm and get it over with. She couldn’t, though. The last thought that flashed through her mind was one of her flying through the air on a beast. That helped her finish with lightning speed and an intensity that took her breath away.
The very idea that she would be turned on by that confused the hell out of her. Cassandra knew that people sometimes developed kinks. Was that how it happened? One dream and now she was a sexual deviant for fantasy characters?
Cassandra laughed out loud, trying to make herself feel better, but to be fair, she just sounded nervous more than anything else. It did nothing to help her mood and only the coffee in her mug helped that. She was full of anxiety about the job she knew nothing about. What was she even supposed to do? The guy did something with stocks, or she wasn’t even sure. It was all just strange how it came to be. In the light of a new day, Cassandra was concerned that it was too strange. Why would anyone hire her out of the blue, without knowing anything else about her?
There wasn’t a lot of time for Cassandra to talk herself out of it, because before long, it was time for her to leave and go to the address that she’d written down. Her stomach was in knots and Cassandra briefly remembered the dream. Usually she forgot them a few minutes after she woke up, but not that one. The last one was a doozy and it had filled her mind with too much. She wasn’t going to be able to think of much more.
When she got to the address, it didn’t look like a business that had been running for long. There wasn’t even a sign outside. It just looked like a small office building and when she got inside, it was sparsely filled with furniture. There were only two desks, and Cassandra couldn’t imagine who would work there as it was.
She was about to turn around and walk away when she heard a voice that almost sounded familiar. Where had she heard that voice before?
“Ah, you must be Cassandra.”
Cassandra turned around quickly and saw the man that she remembered very well. It wasn’t that she’d seen the guy’s face the day before when he’d stopped to see if she was okay. No, it was a feeling, and it came over her in an instant, and Cassandra was sure that Antoine was the same guy she’d been cursing.
At first, she was just too shocked to say anything. The guy was standing in front of her all nonchalant, like nothing was wrong, and she didn’t know how to respond. Then, Cassandra remembered that she needed the job. Was she really supposed to pretend like she didn’t know who he was? Did he think that she was that much out of it or something?
Nothing made sense, so Cassandra just went along with it. She found her head nodding and she took the large, outstretched hand. He barely touched her, before he was pulling back and showing her to the desk she would be using. It was one out of the two and Cassandra looked around.
“So, you don’t have a lot of people that work here, huh?”
He was tall, devastatingly handsome, but his dark blue eyes barely met hers. It was like he was avoiding her, and Cassandra wanted him to meet her gaze. She wanted to be seen. She wanted to get some answers as to why he just took off like he did. Cassandra convinced herself that she would get them, too.
When he waved his arm around, she could see the tattoo on the inside of his wrist. It was much like the one that was on the other guy’s wrist, and she wanted to know what that was about. So many questions…
“Not really. I have been doing it from my house for years, but a friend of mine convinced me that I needed to take it to the next level. So, I did.”
“Looks pretty recent.”
He surprised her by laughing, a rich sound that she decided that she liked.
“Yeah, you could say that. So, what kind of experience do you have?”
She paused and then launched basically into her resume. She’d asked him if he wanted a copy of it, but he had declined. Cassandra felt like he had never given an interview in his life and he was just winging it. The whole time she was rattling off the last few places she’d worked, another part of her mind was trying to piece together the man in front. Why was she here? Why would he obviously give his friend Nathan the go-ahead to give out his number?
“What kind of job were you looking for?”
“Well, I had an interview yesterday for a remote job. It might be helpful to do it that way. Then, you wouldn’t need to keep this ‘office’ up.”
“No, I want you right here where I can keep an eye on you. I don’t think anything would get done another way.”
Cassandra wanted to balk at the idea of working so close to him. He was the jerk that left her bleeding, after he slammed into her. She didn’t want to see him every day, smile in his face… It was already exhausting keeping it up right then, and it had only been a few moments.
Damn, Cassandra wished that she didn’t need the job so bad.
“Right, okay. Just tell me what you’re looking for, and I will get right on it.”
Cassandra had never done a blog before, not about finance. She’d never worked with a guy that was obviously well off, but had slammed into her the day before in his truck and did a runner. So many contradictions. It was strange, and she didn’t know why she sat in the chair like neither of those things mattered. Cassandra wasn’t even sure about any of it, but she knew one thing for certain. He was the man that had wrecked her car the morning before. He’d hit her, then he’d left. Cassandra needed time to wrap her mind around everything.
Antoine gave her several assignments that were already printed up, and she was surprised that they even had substance. Not much else about the office did. He also needed a few letters written. That was more something for a secretary, but Cassandra guessed she was putting that hat on as well. She didn’t know how long the arrangement would last, but she was willing to do it for a little while. If nothing else, Cassandra would learn more about Antoine and why he’d done what he’d done. She was waiting for an apology, though by the looks of him, she wasn’t going to get it. People like him didn’t think about what they did to others.
Cassandra didn’t have a great opinion of Antoine. She wasn’t sure how she was going to go about any of it, but she knew that he had to pay. It couldn’t be just let go. Cassandra would get her information and then she would get the police involved. They’d know what to do.
All Cassandra did was smile and agree. She wasn’t able to say any of the things that she wanted to.
***
Around lunch time, Antoine got off the phone where he’d been yelling at people consistently for hours. She didn’t know what he was doing and who he was talking to, but he was not happy. Some of the conversation was obviously in code and she didn’t know what they were saying, but since it was coded to begin with, it had to be juicy.
Cassandra didn’t know what to think of her new boss. As soon as she was close to him, her body tingled, much like it had that morning. She chalked it up to the morning messing with her head. It was all messing with her head at this point, and she tried to shake it off.
They took his car, and it was hard to be so close to him. Cassandra tried to pay attention to anything but the thick thighs inches from her own, and the large biceps that seemed chiseled out of clay distracted her. Everything about him was large and she knew that it wasn’t going to be easy to not see him in the way she was then. It was that damn dream. It had jazzed her all up and now she was just going to have to deal with it.
“You’re very quiet for a …”
She looked over at him. “For a what?�
�
“You know, a woman. I have found that women seem to talk quite a bit.”
Cassandra just shrugged. She could have been rude, it was on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t want to lose her job on the first day. Antoine was easy to tune out and it hadn’t been bad, even if it wasn’t as peaceful as she was used to. Cassandra also found him not too bad to look at, either. He was rather buff, and she liked watching him pace back and forth while he was on a tense call. His pants would curve around his backside just so…
Her mind was gone again. He was going to think she was thickheaded, if she didn’t pull herself together. Cassandra wasn’t usually like that, at all. She didn’t know what was going on with her but being around Antoine was disconcerting.
When she finally answered, it wasn’t really an answer, but more of a grunt. Cassandra didn’t like the way he said it or what he was implying, so it was better for her if she just shut her mouth.
He stopped on the side of the street, parked, and asked her if she liked sushi. Cassandra didn’t. The idea of it made her vomit in her mouth, but she agreed that she did. She was trying to oblige him, yet he didn’t take the bait. Instead of getting out of the car, he asked her if there was something else that she wanted.
“I bring lunch with me. It’s in my purse. I was going to get a coffee, that’s it. Not a big lunch person. If you like sushi, though, let’s go get sushi.”
“Do you even like it?”
Cassandra met his gaze, wondering why he was pressing it, like he knew that she didn’t.
“Not particularly, no. I mean, it’s raw fish and seaweed. It doesn’t sound good to me at all. They even mess the rice up by serving it cold.”
He chuckled. “I guess you have a point. So, what’s in your purse?”
She took out her bag of pistachios and he just shook his head. “That’s not lunch.”
Cassandra didn’t agree or disagree, but she handed him a couple. “You’d be surprised. They are really good.”