I blinked a few times to clear my head. Why was I smiling? I pulled my face into a frown. Whatever Armand had put in his brew this time around was too much. He was going to hear from me.
“Who’s going to hear from you?”
How much had I said out loud? I looked back up at her and shrugged. “My head is fine. I had too much to drink. It sneaked up quickly, I guess.”
“You guess?”
Shrugging again, my hand clasped hers. The backs of my fingers brushed her silk covered thigh. “You feel it, right?”
She looked pained, once again chewing her bottom lip, as she focused on our hands. “I…”
“O-kay.” Her friend gently tugged Lennox away from me, ignoring my growl, and pushed her to the other side of the room. “What we’re not going to do is that. What we are going to do is drink a few glasses of wine to see if we can catch up with Mr. Growly over there. I don’t foresee the night getting any shorter.”
I stood and adjusted the pants I’d been given. They were too small and too short, but they were the least of my worries. My mate was pledged to another male. She couldn’t marry him. In the old world, I would’ve challenged him to battle, won her in a show of my savagery and skill proving myself the worthier male. That was what a male chanced by marrying someone who was not his true mate. Just as Lennox’s wannabe husband was chancing by trying to claim her. He could not have her.
“We should converse. I would like to know you.” Talk first, then sneak away so I could touch her.
The friend stepped in between us and shook her finger at me. For such a tiny female, she was very brave to continually step between a dragon and his mate. “You can talk to her, but I’m not going anywhere. And you’ll have to talk from over there.”
Lennox rolled her eyes. “Margo…”
“The two of you can say what you have to say from across the room, or we can all sit here in silence. Your choice.”
I sat in the chair next to Lennox and tried to smile sweetly at the little warrior. “Good?”
She laughed. “You’re lucky you’re cute or this behavior of yours might warrant a call to the proper authorities.”
“Margo!”
My mate did not like her friend calling me cute; I heard the challenge in her voice. Grinning, pleased by her instinct to claim me, I reassured her, “I only have eyes for you, mate.”
Margo barked a laugh. “You, big guy, dial it down a notch. You look like a strutting peacock. And you! You’re blushing like a schoolgirl. Stop it. You’re getting married tomorrow.”
I growled. “Stop saying that.”
“Growl at me again and you’re going to find yourself back outside.”
My eyes narrowed, assessing her I wondered if she had some kind of magical powers. How she thought she was getting me out of the room was beyond me. “Are you a witch?”
“Did he just call you a bitch?”
Lennox waved the other woman away. “Calm down, Nance. He said witch.”
“And if I was?”
“It would explain why you think you could separate me from my mate.”
Margo shifted her gaze between me and Lennox and finally threw her hands up. “Don’t get any closer.”
Lennox crossed her legs, drawing my eyes like a magnet. “I…I don’t know what’s happening. One minute I was just eating my cheesecake and then…this.”
I did not need to inquire what she meant by this. She was obviously feeling the magnetism between us as much as I was. The mate pull was extraordinary. It was impossible to ignore, and I had to wonder how Blaise had thought he could stay away from Chyna if she refused him. Right then and there I knew, without a doubt, that there was nothing that would keep me from Lennox. And no one.
“Maybe you should put a shirt on, Romeo?” Margo was across the room, talking to Nance in hushed whispers that I had no difficulty hearing, but stopped when she saw me leaning toward Lennox. “It wouldn’t kill you.”
“Of course, a shirt would not kill me. I am a dr—” Whoops! “I am a very strong male.”
Lennox covered her mouth with her hand and looked up at the ceiling. “Oh, my god.”
“What?” Margo and I said in unison.
“How is any of this happening? This is the night before my wedding. I’m getting married tomorrow. My wedding dress is hanging in the closet, fully paid for and altered, and the venue and the caterers and flowers and open bar and live band have all been arranged. And all has been going well, just as planned—just the way life is supposed to go. Nothing outlandish, and nothing spectacularly magnificent, you know? Because life doesn’t drop spectacular and magnificent from the sky while you’re trying to eat cheesecake by yourself so no one judges you about a made-up diet. No, it does not. Life gives you a mother-in-law who thinks you’re fat and looks at you as though she’d eagerly rip your head off for dog chow if her poodles were hungry enough and wanted a treat!
“But here you are. All magnificent. And spectacular. And muscly. And what am I supposed to do? This must be a sign. It’s clearly a sign. The man fell from the sky, for goodness’ sake! Tell me that’s not a sign. Oh, my god. I can’t breathe.”
I jumped from my chair and pulled Lennox into my arms. “You can breathe. I’ve got you, mate.”
Margo pushed at me. “You’re going to suffocate her with your big man chest!”
I held firm. “Go away, little witch. I am trying to take care of my mate.”
She pushed harder. “Look at her hyperventilating! She’s shaking!”
The shock of realizing Lennox’s shoulders were shaking, just as her friend claimed, caused me to take a half step back. Margo gave me another shove, this one with all her weight behind it, and we all went down in a heap on the bed. I swiveled to cushion the fall for Lennox as best I could, but in my tipsy state, she still ended up half under me.
“You big oaf!” Margo smacked and shoved me. “Wait. Are you laughing, Len?”
Sure enough, Lennox was laughing, so hard that her shoulders were shaking and her face was flushed a bright red. “What’s so funny?”
Catching her breath, she opened her mouth to answer when the loud knocking started up at the door. One quick sniff revealed it was a male at the door. One who had touched Lennox, but not much. He barely carried any of her scent, as much as someone who’d merely hugged her in passing might carry.
“Lennox? What’s going on in there?”
Lennox froze under me. “It’s David.”
Margo’s pointy clawed manicure dug into my arm. “You have to go,” she hissed. “It’s her fiancé.”
“Then I am definitely not leaving.”
“Don’t be an asshole!”
I glared down at Margo. “She is not meant to be his. If you are a good friend, you will not push her towards a male she is not meant to be with.”
“And if you are her real mate, you will not put her in a situation that will have everyone she knows gossiping and talking shit about her.”
The knocking on the door intensified.
Scowling at the little witch, I finally gave in. I did not want to cause more upset for my mate. I would give her a chance to clear things up without interfering. “If he touches her, though, I’ll rip him apart, limb from limb.”
6
Lennox
Watching Remy disappear into the bathroom felt a little wrong. But that thought alone was madness. What about me made the man feel like he had more right to be in my room than my own fiancé who was supposed to become my husband in the morning?
David was who I was marrying and who I had to marry because the hotel was already booked solid with wedding guests. Because Dad had paid a pretty penny for everything. Because every detail was planned to a tee. Because it was a lavish, extravagant affair. David and my wedding had to happen.
Margo’s face appeared in front of mine. “Get it together, Lenni. You want to get married to David, don’t you?”
“I…” I did, didn’t I? “Of course. I just… Yeah, of course
. Of course, I want to marry David.”
She backed toward the hotel door. “Then, maybe you should stop looking so utterly horrified.”
I tried to wipe all emotion from my face as she opened the door, and David strode in with a purpose. I stood, hands at my sides, almost as though I was waiting to pass inspection. Almost-wife in her room? Check. Almost-wife still put together nicely? Not so much. Almost-wife staring at the bathroom door like it was a jumbo-sized candy bar she was attempting to sneak past her nutritionist? Double check.
“Jesus, Len, I’ve been knocking forever. What are y’all doing in here?”
“Just having a little fun, David.” Margo smiled sweetly at him. “Shouldn’t you be out painting the town on your last night of freedom?”
“You didn’t come back to the table, Lenni. Everyone was worried about you.” He stood in front of me and looked me over. “You look terrible. What happened to you?”
Picking at the new holes in my dress, I stuttered, “J-just got c-caught. Bushes.”
Margo nodded. “Rabid bushes.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I, um, tripped…and then I fell…into some shrubbery.” I was wringing my hands together and toeing the ground the same way I always did when I lied. I was a terrible poker player.
Nance smiled just as sweetly as Margo. “She had a little mishap and got a few holes in that lovely dress and called us out so we could all come up here together to get her dressed in something less holey. Then, we all just figured dinner would be over, so no point in heading back. Now, like Margo said, shouldn’t you be out having fun?”
“What the hell is going on here?”
His raised voice served as that last turn of the crank—the one that sprung the latch and released the jack in the box. The bathroom door flew open, and there was Remy, every towering, massive inch of him, hands on hips, wearing David’s pants and nothing else. His eyes blazed as they bore into David. He even managed to look threatening in pants that were skin tight and inches too short for him.
Quick-thinking-Margo jumped in, though. “Oh, gosh, this is so embarrassing. You’re not supposed to be here to see the stripper, David.”
“Stripper?”
I’d never been in a situation even remotely similar and had no idea what to do. I clamped my hand over my mouth and just watched, hoping the right thing to say or do would come to me.
“Who the hell is this chump?” David looked Remy over. “And why the fuck is he wearing my pants?”
Remy growled. “Would you care for them back? They are much too puny for me, anyway.”
“Who the fuck are you and why are you here?”
Margo stepped between them, waving her hands. “Okay, I told you. He’s a stripper, and he’s just trying to do his job, David. You’re making this so awkward.”
“The fuck he’s a stripper. What kind of stripper puts on someone else’s clothes?” He jerked his hand toward Remy. “Those were two-hundred-dollar pants, chump.”
The low, menacing growl that had been rumbling from Remy’s chest suddenly turned fiercer, and I was instantly aware of his mountainous physique and the slip up he’d made earlier. Referring to himself, he’d started to say something. A name that started with a d and then an r… Granted, it didn’t make any sense, but then again, it was the only thing that made sense. I might not want to admit it aloud for fear of being carted off to the loony bin, but I was pretty sure that a short time ago I’d seen an enormous red creature with wings, scales, and talons. And, I was pretty sure that the creature disappeared into thin air at the same time that Remy appeared in its place. Dr…agon…
Dragon shapeshifter?
Right, that literally made no sense. Although…a ginormous creature one second, and a naked man the next. What other possible explanation could there be?
“I do not like you. Chump.”
For some reason, Remy’s simple statement made me giggle. Immediately, my hand slapped over my mouth again, and I turned away from them. “Sorry.”
“You think this is funny?” David was getting riled up in a big way, and I could already hear my mother’s voice lecturing me about upsetting my almost husband and my duties as his soon-to-be wife.
“You dare raise your voice to my mate?” Remy gently picked Margo up and moved her aside as though she weighed nothing more than a blade of grass. Not even a bulging muscle.
David grew red. “What the fuck is your deal? Who are you?”
“You should leave. Town.”
“Fuck off. I’m getting married tomorrow, in case you were unaware. And that woman over there,” if David would have pointed his finger any harder, he might have dislocated his arm, “is going to be my wife.”
One wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Remy grew even larger. He already towered over all of us, and he was now more imposing. “Over my dead body.”
David turned away and rubbed his jaw. Then, he jerked back around and tried to sucker punch Remy in the face. Remy caught his hand and just held it. While David jerked his arm back and forth, whimpering, trying to get his hand back, Remy stood glowering at him.
“If there weren’t females present, I would rip your arm off and beat you with it, you dinky little pipsqueak.”
Margo smacked my arm, rousing me from my stupor. “Do something!” she hissed.
What she wanted me to do, I hadn’t a clue. I stepped forward and held my hands up. “Um… Could we not do this? Please let’s calm down and discuss this rationally. Without the discussion turning physical.”
Remy finally let up on David’s hand, and David pulled it away, cradling it to his chest. When he spoke, his voice was wobbly. “Get him out of here, Lennox. Now.”
“David, he hit his head. He needs a doc—”
“Get him the fuck out, Lennox! Get him out, or you’ll be standing at the altar all by yourself tomorrow!”
And there it was. My out. David had never really offered one up before. Even when he was unhappy with me, or disappointed, he just chided me and told me to work on whatever behavior he found unacceptable or lacking. He’d just spoken the magic words, though. Words that could get me out of everything. I could explain to my parents that David backed out, not me.
Getting married was something I wanted, but that was less about David and more about starting a family. PTA meetings, a dog, family movie night, meatloaf Mondays, I wanted all that. It just so happened that David had been the best offer. The only offer.
Even with my mom shoving him down my throat, and David’s roving eye and nitpicking criticisms, and the fact that his mother was disapproving and, uh, difficult, we still ended up here. My dating life had been dry as a bone.
That moment was the first time in months I allowed myself to think that maybe I didn’t have to marry David. That maybe there was someone else for me.
My eyes landed on Remy, and I shivered as a wave of desire shot through me and little tornados swirled in my belly. Even in front of David, I could feel it. Heady and strong, it was like a spell had bewitched me and taken over my senses.
No one moved. No one said a thing. The ball was completely in my court. I noticed Margo out of the corner of my eye, poised to take action as soon as she was needed, waiting for the signal to determine what she should do, who she should kick out.
Jumping in with both feet, I blew out a sigh and followed my gut. “David, you should go now. We need to get a doctor to examine Remy.”
7
Lennox
“You are kidding me.” David’s shocked expression clearly conveyed that he’d thought the threat of abandoning me at the altar would’ve straightened me out.
“No, I’m not kidding. Remy hit his head and he’s been acting strange. He needs medical attention.”
“Strange?” Remy and David echoed in unison.
“How do you know he’s acting strange? Do you know this man?”
I winced. “A little strange.”
Remy shrugged. “I have been called worse.�
��
“Excuse me?” David looked like he was seconds from having a stroke. “What the fuck is going on? Is there something going on between the two of you? Have you been sleeping together?”
I would’ve had to be dead and long buried to not feel a delicious thrill of excitement at the thought of sleeping with Remy. I’d never slept with anyone, though. I’d been saving myself for my wedding night, which suddenly, in that moment’s hindsight, seemed like a horrible idea. David next to Remy made my blood run cold as a terrible thought emerged. I didn’t want to sleep with David. I never had the kind of desire for David that Remy inspired in me.
“Yes. She is my mate.”
“Remy! No, there’s nothing going on. I haven’t slept with anyone. I just met him tonight.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Margo stepped forward, shaking her head. “I was there. She’s telling the truth. Not that it matters, because she asked you to leave.”
“I paid for the fucking room. If I want to stay, I’ll stay.”
“Actually, her father paid for the fucking room.” Nance stepped up beside me and wrapped her arm around my waist in a show of solidarity. “And you, of all people, David, shouldn’t be lecturing or questioning anyone about who they’ve been sleeping with.”
My face burned and I looked away. I knew about David’s flirtatious nature and rumors of his little indiscretions. Apparently, so did everyone else. My mom assured me that David’s behavior was normal. Dad did it. Men just did that kind of thing. It was fine. It didn’t feel fine. It felt mortifying to know that the man you’re supposed to marry is rumored to be banging his secretary ten ways to Sunday, all while you’re sitting at home, twiddling your virgin thumbs. I had always assumed the rumors were just nasty gossip, but maybe I was incredibly naïve.
“So, what now? We just call the whole thing off because you’re fucking some stripper?”
“Oh, now he’s a stripper!” Margo threw her hands up.
Fire Breathing Remy Page 3