He cut a sidelong glance at her, a mischievous grin tilting his lips. “We have some time to spare if you want to have a little bit of fun.”
She sat up in her seat and gave him a hard look. There was far too much tumbling through her mind at that moment to think about having fun. She had a job she was supposed to begin and a child to worry about.
But, Dane didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he jerked the wheel and the car darted around a corner she hadn’t seen coming. The back end of the car danced and she found laughter bubbling through her as she gripped the door. All her life, she’d flown if she needed to go anywhere.
She never realized how much fun cars could be.
Dane’s eyes sparkled when he looked at her. It was almost as if her own laughter, her own smile lit something inside of him. His foot pressed down on the gas and the wind tore through her hair. She let her head fall back and let him take control.
They wound around tight corners and wove in and out of traffic before he stuttered to a stop. Her head fell forward and her eyes snapped open. Ahead of them was not what she’d expected. Instead of a wall of traffic, there was a short railing that separated them from layers of waterfalls. Water cascaded in shades of blue and white over flat rocks and into a small pond far below.
“Before there was a highway here, I used to jump off those falls for fun,” Dane confessed.
“You used to have fun?” Liana couldn’t keep from teasing him.
“Far more fun than you seem to have,” he jabbed back playfully.
Her mouth snapped shut. She had fun. Right?
She moved around the side of the car to stand beside Dane, her body leaning into him like he was the center of the universe. She scowled and crossed her arms over her chest, but didn’t move away. The sound of water crashing into rock was enough to drown out the confusion in her head. For a moment, she could pretend that all she had to do was stand and stare at the mist in the air.
Dane checked the time on his phone before scanning the world around them. Liana perked up, wondering if he’d scented anything out of place, but he leaned further into her and closed his eyes. She fought the urge to reach up and run her fingertips through his dark hair or trace them along his jaw.
“We have a bit of time before the GOE agents are expecting us,” Dane informed her, his eyes still closed. It amazed her that a leader trusted her to protect him enough to close his eyes and let his guard down.
She would not love him.
It couldn’t happen. She wouldn’t let herself get that weak.
But, she was starting to worry that she didn’t have a chance. Her mind brought her back to the night before, she’d let herself crumble in his arms. She didn’t fight back when he lifted her off her feet and carried her into the house. She’d barely been able to keep her eyes open, drifting in and out of consciousness. When she woke, the smell of him lulled her into comfort and she didn’t even notice the black, stuffed dragon she’d been cuddling until moments later.
Before that, seeing him sitting on the floor with Miri had moved something inside of her. The feeling had been so great that it drowned out the growls of the monster inside of her that called for the blood of whoever hurt the child.
“What are you thinking about?” Dane’s fingers brushed her skin as he pushed her hair back from her face.
She jerked back to the present, slowly, comfortably while wrapped in his scent. His eyes, lined with concern, hovered over her own, his body brushed hers while his massive hand held her hip as if she might fall. A feeling in her chest pulled her to him like she was a magnet and he was true north.
He truly was a giant man. His broad shoulders seemed to be cut from stone, immovable and dangerous. His arms were similarly cut, planes of rock shaved to mimic muscle. He would be a force to be reckoned with in a fight. Whereas she was limber and agile, he was the brute force of the earth.
Liana stepped back, out of his touch and shook her head. Raking a hand through her hair, she said, “I’m fine. Just a bit out of sorts after yesterday.”
Dane watched her, eyes bearing just a hint of hurt. What had she done to hurt him? She hadn’t said anything offensive, hadn’t hit him. Liana didn’t understand.
“Then we should get some food into you,” he suggested, turning on his heel and covering the look of pain in his eyes.
“What is it with men wanting to feed women?” Liana joked, trying her damnedest to lighten the mood between them again. They’d been having fun until she stepped away from him. “I really thought it was the other way around. Isn’t the woman supposed to be in the kitchen, making meals?”
Dane looked back, flashing a smile. The pain was gone. Moved on or carefully covered up, Liana didn’t know.
“Are you complaining about free food? Besides, since when did you want to go back to such an archaic view of the world? I would have thought that someone as independent as yourself would spit on female stereotypes.”
She didn’t say anything. Liana fell into step beside him, slightly disappointed that they weren’t taking the fast convertible wherever they were going. Dane wound in between the tightly knit buildings that were easily a hundred years old and still sporting painted advertisements from days gone by. It was nothing compared to the age of things where she came from, but it helped her put a finger on Dane’s age. If he’d swam in that pond before there was a road here, he had to be old.
For a moment, she felt like a child beside him. Then, Dane managed a very excited little dance and he looked like a child in a man’s body. The laugh that escaped Liana was true and came from deep within her. The sound must have startled Dane, because his dance faltered and he looked at her eyes wide with joyful surprise.
She thought he might call her out on it, but he just pointed at the sign over the door and reminded her she was in for a treat. Inside, the place was cramped. There were shelves lined with food products and small necessities like aspirin and such. To the far wall, there was a deli case with a broad sign over head.
“This place makes the best sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life.” He checked his phone again. “We grab a sandwich and then we can walk over to the agents. They can wait a minute.”
“So pretentious,” Liana teased.
Dane winked. She felt her heart stir again. This time she clamped a firm hand around it. They had a job to do today. Approve the new Embassy site and then look into Miri’s parents. But, Dane handed her a wrapped sandwich, laden with meats and pickles, and she couldn’t help the small smile that curved her lips.
Dane caught it, too. His face lit up. It amazed her how that small gesture could turn him on his head.
Why was Liana here? Had she been sent here only to begin the embassy? Or, had the universe only used that as an excuse to get her here in the Americas? Liana felt like this was where she had always been meant to go.
But, for what reason?
Dane walked beside her down the old streets. The roads were paved, but there were places where pot holes had grown so deep that they revealed the cobblestone street beneath. It was like the town couldn’t give up its history, even as it moved forward. Maybe, that was a lesson Liana should try to hold on to. Could she change while still holding on to the strength that she’d found in herself?
“You have to try this,” Dane’s voice broke her out of her contemplation. Liana found a half-wrapped sandwich floating before her face, the American leader looking at her expectantly from the other side.
She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t challenge him. Instead, she felt her face warm as she leaned forward. Dane’s eyes danced over the planes of her face. She felt her cheeks warm. Eating out of his hand felt oddly intimate, even here, on the open street. His eyes were so focused in on her and her alone that they felt like the only two people in the world and she was under the command of his whim.
Finally, she managed to take a bite from the sandwich in his hands. His eyes warmed and a smile touched the corners of his lips. She pulled back as quickly as she could, using the back of
her hand to hide her mouth as she chewed. The layers of crisp bacon were at odds with the smooth slices of avocado and tang of the dressing.
“Oh,” she said with true surprise. “That is good.”
He laughed and took another bite of his sandwich, tearing his gaze away from her so that the rampant blush on her cheeks could begin to fade.
***
The urge to feed her must have been some kind of primal instinct. He couldn’t help it. After the night before, when her day had been so busy with the needs of others and she had forgone feeding herself, he wanted to make sure she ate regularly.
He only wished she would allow him to satisfy her in other ways.
Time, he reminded himself. He might have lived a long life, but she was still young. She had yet to live, had yet to learn from the trials in her life. He would give her that time. He just hoped that he could withstand it.
They ate on the way to the site the GOE agents had picked out. Watching her eat out of his hand had been an oddly arousing situation. Dane had enjoyed watching her lips part at his request and seeing the flush that filled her cheeks while he watched her. He secretly hoped they could try that again in the secret of his home.
After that intimate experience, Liana refused to face him. That was fine. Every step, no matter how slow, was progress. So, he turned back to enjoying his own sandwich. Strips of bacon audibly crunched when he bit into his sandwich and Liana jabbed him with her elbow every time. He only crunched louder for her.
“What did you get?” Dane asked, eyeing the wrapped meal in her hands and the thick layers of meat and cheese.
“Muffuletta, I think it was called.”
Dane reached out without invitation, grabbed her wrist, and pulled the sandwich to his mouth. He forgot how quick she could be. He got a small bite of her sandwich, but she brought her foot down on his instep before dancing away.
He hissed in pain, a sound that turned into soft laughter. His eyes rose to find hers gleaming with the expected challenge. Instead, of trying for another bite, he stood and finished the one he’d taken.
Play smarter, not harder, he thought.
“That’s not bad,” he said.
Liana let her guard down, thinking he was finished, and returned to walk beside him. Once she was comfortable, he snaked one arm around her waist, capturing her free arm in his embrace, and plucked the sandwich from her grip.
“Maybe I’ll take it back,” he said, teasingly.
Her eyes narrowed up at him. Her skin grew uncomfortably warm beneath his touch. Damned red dragons, his beast hissed while Dane stubbornly held on. She was beautiful, even as she burned in his grip. The high arch of her cheekbones begged for the brush of his thumb. Her lower lip was ripe for his taking, even though it wasn’t time yet.
But, he forgot to account for the empty hand now that he held her sandwich. With a deceptive smile, she brought her fist into his stomach. The punch knocked the air out of his chest for a moment and made the food in his stomach do a queasy flip.
He handed over her sandwich, feeling that she had rightfully won. His mate was a force to be reckoned with, even over matters as small as a sandwich. He was glad to see, when she turned away from him, that some of the guarded tension had left her limbs. She walked away with a smooth gait and a confident swing to her hips that he paused to appreciate.
Ahead of them, a giant building rose over the small town. The domed roof that rose over the town was the faded green of copper exposed to the elements for decades. Gray-green columns rose on either side of the entrance, sturdy and imperial. The building had been a law library for a few decades until the librarians decided they no longer thought it would be useful to stay in a town that did not grow.
He knew why the town stopped growing. It happened all around his Territory, people leaving in fear of his dragons or being run out by the raiding dragons that circled him like scavengers. He had hopes that the Embassy would allow some of them to meet with him, to attempt to lay down a true home on his land.
Beside him, Liana’s jaw dropped. She took in the beauty of the building, a kind of elegant creature beside the brick facades of factories long out of use. She cast a sidelong glance at him, as if to ask if they were at the right location.
Ahead of them, a man broke from his post at the information plaque posted outside the building and approached them. Dane had worked with this GOE agent a few times before, building not trust, but a comfortable partnership from afar. The Agent looked like he should have a kid or two in college and had tried to endure one of those follicle treatments in which they replace the hair the scalp had lost.
“Agent Forrest.” Dane greeted the man with an extended hand. “Meet the Welsh dragon ambassador here to help us, Liana Taniff.”
“Good to see you again, Mr. King,” the agent clearly lied, his voice dead flat. The agent turned his gaze to Liana, trying to suppress his distaste and failing. “Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Taniff.”
Liana caught the man’s hatred of their kind, and to Dane’s pleasure, she stood taller and let the creature inside of her swim closer to the surface. Dane watched shadows pass over her eyes. It reminded him of the shadows a bird or a dragon might cast on the ground as it flew overhead. A smile broke her lips, not the sweet one he was able to coax out of her or the motherly one that Miri had found in her, but the predatorial one he’d first seen.
Agent Forrest did his best not to step back as his eyes widened a fraction. It was almost imperceptible, but Dane caught it. Liana did too, from the low laughter he caught after the Agent spun on his heel and beckoned them to follow.
She leaned in to him and whispered in his ear. “Are GOE agents dicks everywhere?”
He could barely suppress the shudder that raced down his spine when her breath brushed over his ear. Now was not the time, he told his beast and his cock. He nodded, unable to respond for fear of what he might do. He wanted to claim her mouth then and there, touch places inside her no one else had ever done.
But, they had a job to do.
The GOE agent led them through the vacant building. A feeling followed them in the empty rooms, a ghost’s whisper of what the building’d had been in times past. Dane liked that. He liked history, especially when it was not his own.
The building was nigh perfect. It was only going to be pricey to install the security upgrades and new technology. He would have to ask the Egyptian Princess if she could get him a discount with Secur IT. It blew his mind that there was a chance the Egyptian Princess might be his sister-in-law someday.
While they were walking through the building, Dane reached out and grasped Liana’s hand. She let him hold it, probably to keep from making a show in front of the GOE agent. It eased the beast inside of him that roared to claim her before anyone else could. The agent would glance back at them from time to time, his eyes roving over Liana’s body.
It wasn’t even like she’d dressed provocatively. She wore a pair of slim, black jeans and a sheer, violet shirt over a camisole. It was nigh conservative for American standards. Yet, the agent couldn’t stop sizing her up. The agent’s eyes lingered on the curve of her hips when he turned to speak to them. His eyes stayed too long on her rise of her breasts when he looked over his shoulders.
When Liana slipped her hand from his, he felt the world grow smaller and the beast rose with a growl. He would tear the agent’s throat out if he moved toward her. But, his mate cast him a look of mischief and his heart seized. What was she going to do?
The room they stood in was a simple office. Someone had left a plain, metal desk and a few knickknacks on a floating shelf. A window looked out over the small town and the falls in the distance. Dane felt the pressure in the room begin to grow. He fought to keep himself from looking at his mate to see what she was trying to do.
Her beast’s presence surged from her body, not physical or corporeal, but a magical aura that echoed the beast that lived inside of her. The room around them trembled, knickknacks falling off shelves to crash on t
he floor. Pieces of pottery scattered in every direction.
The agent staggered on his feet. He grabbed at the desk to keep himself upright as he looked around for the source of the quake. The only indication that it was Liana was the lip she sucked into her mouth as she smiled.
“Perhaps this place is haunted?” she offered, nonplussed by the events.
Dane fought to keep from laughing at the agent’s expense. He deserved it after all his leering. But, he had to wrap this up quickly to keep her from getting herself into any more trouble. The agent could easily file against her for using her abilities on a human and have her sent home, or worse.
Dane informed the man that this location was perfect, and that he had a connection with Secur IT that he would like to contact before any renovations went into effect. They signed some papers on the old, metal desk before retreating into the open world again.
Liana let out a sigh as though she let go of the persona she’d been wrapping herself in. Her hands rose in the air, a long stretch that exposed a slice of her stomach to Dane and Dane alone. He wanted to reach out and run a finger along that thin slice of skin.
“I love the building, but working with him is going to be like working with a thorn in my paw.”
“You are not wrong,” Dane agreed. “But, you have officially spent too much time with Luc and his antics. No more pulling stunts like that on humans here. The States have some very strict laws regarding dragons that do not work in our favor. Had Agent Forrest known that was you, he could have contacted his office and had you deported.”
Liana froze, eyes widening for a second. “Shit,” she breathed.
Dane’s lips pressed together. He didn’t tell her what else he’d seen done to dragons that had been caught. He didn’t even want to imagine it happening to her.
“I’m sorry. I got so damned sick of his attitude…” she struggled for the right words.
He reached out and pulled her close, trying to smooth away the concerns that had risen in her. He wouldn’t let the agent take her away. He would fight for her, and that terrified him. It put his people in a risky position. She needed to know.
Fated Dragons Complete Series: Books 1 - 5 Page 49