Fire Breathing Remy

by Candace Ayers

  You know I have more treasure than you could even dream of, you old firemouth. She wants to work. It is a thing she enjoys. So much that she works all day and works even more when she comes home.

  What I wasn’t saying was that I seemed to be in the way of her life. She was busy and stumbled over me while trying to get done everything that she needed to get done. While she tried to catch up with Margo and Nance, I was there. When she tried to spread her work out, I was there. Even phone calls were not private. She had spoken on the phone to her parents a few times already, and I had been the subject of the conversation.

  Have you talked to her about it?

  I growled. What do you propose I say? I don’t like when you leave me all alone? I cannot say that. I am not a youngling. I also refuse to keep her from living her life the way she chooses. She has been bullied by too many as it is.

  Then, I guess you are having difficulties with your mate like Beast, Cezar, and I had. You will figure it out, brother. Would you care to bring her over for dinner tonight?

  We must dine at her parents’ house tonight. These people… They make our father look like a cuddly youngling’s plaything.

  His scoff filled my head. So, they regularly bludgeon and slaughter those who do not do exactly as they command?

  I sighed and cut the connection with him. Squeezing my eyes shut, I was bombarded with the raucous sounds of loud music, a kind called heavy metal, coming from the third floor. It was mixed with an argument from the sixth floor about who ate all the chocolate puffs cereal and put the empty box back on the shelf, an infant’s cries on two, a vacuum cleaner on seven, and the idiot upstairs doing a clog dance. I had promised Lennox not to eat any of the tenants in her apartment building. Clearly, I had not thought that through.

  Just as I was getting up, I detected Lennox’s sweet fragrance approaching. She was home. The tension in my body eased, and a slow smile spread across my face. My mate made everything better. All the irritation, the nasty smells, the jarring, earsplitting cacophony of sounds were manageable with my soft, sweet-smelling Lennox in my arms.

  She burst through the front door, carrying her usual two satchels of books and papers with her, and frowned when she saw me. “You’re not dressed. Why aren’t you dressed?”

  Reflexively, I glanced down at myself. Had she gone blind? I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. I held out my hands and spun. “I am clothed.”

  She dropped her bags and shook her head, her lips pressed together tightly. “No, dressed for dinner.” Once again, she was speaking to me as though I was a youngling. “Come on, Remy, you have to dress up a little. And we’ve gotta hurry. We can’t be late or Mom will throw a fit.”

  “She still frets over whether or not I might eat her. She will be fine.”

  “That’s what you think. Fear won’t hold that woman back for long.” She rushed past my open arms and disappeared into the bedroom. “I have to change, and I need to do something with my hair. Oh, I have no time!”

  I followed, feeling my frustration grow. “You already look beautiful.”

  “I’m serious, Remy. It was huge that she invited both of us over for dinner. It means she’s willing to meet us halfway. And I want her to take us seriously. I want them to like you.” She looked up from her vanity for a second and smiled at me. “I missed you.”

  “Hmph. You do not act as though you missed me.” I sat heavily on the bed. “I missed you today, and you are home early.”

  She rose from her vanity and came to stand in front of me, holding my head against her stomach. “I’m sorry. I’m super stressed. I really want this to go well. I know that my parents are difficult, but they’re still my parents, and I guess I’ll always feel the need for their approval of us…of me. This dinner has a lot riding on it.”

  Sucking up my frustration, I nodded. “Okay. I do not understand, but I will dress in something else. I will endeavor to be on my best behavior.”

  She bent over to gently kiss me and groaned when I deepened it. She pulled away quickly. “Later. When we get back.”

  I removed my nicest pair of jeans out of her closet and a button-up flannel. After putting them on, I sat on the bed and watched as she slipped on a fancy black dress. It clung to her sexy curves. I marveled at her beautiful body. It was perfect, and I was the luckiest dragon that lived to be blessed with such a mate. While I watched, she sat at her vanity and twisted her hair into a fancy, knotted style, which she secured at the nape of her neck. Then, she reapplied her lipstick and met my eyes through the mirror.

  She sighed and wrinkled her nose. “I look plain and droll.”

  “You look stunning. As always.”

  “I just want them to be proud of me. Someday.”

  “It’s not always best to win the acceptance of certain people.” I knew from personal experience. There had been a time when I tried desperately to win the approval of my father—to show him that I was good enough. And for that, my fellow dragons had suffered.

  Lennox stood up and turned to face me. “We should get on the road. We have to take my car because we obviously can’t fly there.”

  I bit my tongue. “Fine.”

  “I’m sorry, Remy. I know you don’t understand, but they’re my parents. I can’t just write them out of my life.” She took my hands and stared up at me. “Let’s just get through tonight, okay?”

  And every dinner like this for the rest of their lives?

  Lennox snapped her head away from me and hurried out of the bedroom. “I think they’re serving porterhouse. That ought to cheer you up at least.”

  I followed her out and squeezed into her car, feeling like I was an oversized behemoth stuffing myself into a youngling’s toy vehicle. After we were both settled in, she pulled out and headed out of town. I stared out the window and thought vaguely to myself that something needed to change.

  18

  Lennox

  My nerves were frayed. I felt like we were in hostile negotiations with terrorists instead of a family dinner. I’d sat down, and my parents had been fast to claim the seats on either side of me, forcing Remy to circle the table and sit alone. I watched his jaw muscles working, his anger bubbling just under the surface. I wondered how much of it was for me.

  Deserved, perhaps. My parents were manipulating and controlling the situation as usual and acting like spoiled children. I never was good at dealing with them, especially when they both worked their machinations on me in unison. They were like gale force winds when they came at me, and I wimped out. I could’ve gotten up and made a statement by reseating myself next to Remy. As I noticed Remy’s expression, I felt even more blameworthy. I’d dragged him into all this. He was only here for me. If I was a better girlfriend to him, maybe I would’ve told Mom that we weren’t ready to come for family dinner. Or maybe I would have laid down the law about how we expected to be treated, or not treated, if we agreed to attend.

  The thought of standing up to my mother made my stomach twist in knots. Since the day I was born, I’d viewed her as larger than life, someone not to cross. Frightening.

  I regretted not hugging Remy when I first got home. I’d been so stressed about looking acceptable, about pleasing my parents and making them proud, that I’d had difficulty focusing on anything else. I felt ashamed of that. He deserved better.

  It was obvious by his expression that he was unhappy. At this point, it was probably just a matter of time before he left me. I had a feeling that things would get complicated out here in the real world and, lord knew, we couldn’t live out all our days in paradise. My only solution was to enjoy him while I had him and pray it took a while before he got fed up enough to go. Maybe, if I was a bolder person, I would’ve told him to go already. I would’ve put his happiness over mine. But I was selfish, and I wanted him for as long as I could have him.

  When Samantha placed the fish course in front of me, she leaned in close and whispered, “A big improvement from the last one.” Samantha had worked as the kitchen help for m
y parents for over two decades. She was a beautiful, round woman with dark hair, now peppered with grey, and skin the color of fresh snow. When I was a small child, I used to think that Snow White probably looked exactly like Samantha. The sweet woman appeared as though she’d never seen the sun a day in her life, but, at sixty, she had no wrinkles to speak of. Her cheeks were smooth as satin, I remembered from all the hugs she’d freely given me as I was growing up. The fact that my parents’ still employed staff to care for their home, cook, and serve them dinner in the evenings was ridiculous with just the two of them, but they needed something to make them feel important.

  I smiled at Remy across the table and nodded. He was better than David in every way. I wished my parents would see that.

  “Remy built his own house, Dad. It’s beautiful.”

  “So, you’re a contractor?” My dad cut a piece of fish and cleared his throat. “At least you’re employed, I suppose.”

  “I am not a contractor. I am not employed.”

  Panic caused my heart rate to increase. Was there no topic that was safe? “He…does other stuff.”

  “Like threatening innocent people who are just looking out for their daughter’s well-being.” My mother put her fork down and crossed her knife over it, signaling to Samantha that she was done. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

  “Remy has been great around my apartment, too. He even cleans and cooks dinner for me.”

  Remy took another bite of his fish and stared at me. “I’m also housebroken and do not chew the furniture.”

  I blushed, embarrassed to have Remy call me out for trying to talk him up like his merits couldn’t stand on their own. Trying to explain to Mom and Dad what I saw in Remy, how great he was, was probably futile. He didn’t fit into their categories of great. He wasn’t a lawyer or an investment banker or from one of the old-money families. He was a freaking dragon. He could fly, and he had a literal stash of gold that could’ve bought everything my parents owned at least a hundred times over. He was also an amazing guy who fit me so well and made me feel like I was beautiful and vital and sexy and…his everything.

  “What are you?” Dad pushed his plate away, too. “If you’re part…animal…should you really be cohabitating with a human? Why not stick to your own kind?”

  Remy took yet another bite of his fish and smiled. “I’m a several-centuries-old dragon. I am not part animal. I am a dragon. Wings, tail, talons, lots of sharp teeth, fire breathing. And my kind is your daughter. She is my mate.”

  “I think we can all agree that this is ridiculous. You must’ve performed some kind of New Orleans hocus-pocus trick in the hotel room.” Mom slapped Samantha’s hands away when she tried to take her wine glass. “Not now, Samantha.”

  Remy smiled kindly at the woman and handed her his plate. “That was a most deliciously prepared meal. Perhaps you might share the recipe?”

  Samantha beamed. “Oh, yes. I’d be delighted. For you, anything.” She turned and exited the room with a spring to her step.

  When Samantha was gone, Remy put his hands flat on the table and met my mother’s stare. In slow motion, his hands grew talons on the table and his eyes burned brighter. The red scales moved across his arms and neck, the veins showed their true golden hue.

  Mom and Dad gasped. I put my elbows on the table and held my head in my hands. Remy opened his mouth and revealed a lengthening set of teeth that, according to him, would mark me someday. Not that he’d offered yet.

  Casually losing his dragon features just as quickly as they’d appeared, Remy met my eyes and grinned. I watched as he took a deep breath in and flashed those teeth again. I blushed even harder and nearly banged my head on the table when Mom slapped my elbow off it.

  “Where are your manners?” Even in the presence of a dragon, Mom couldn’t get over herself.

  “Lennox, honestly, you’re bringing home this…this monster and telling me that he’s the man you’ve chosen? Over a decent, respectable man like David. I think he might take you back, you know.” Dad scoffed and threw his napkin down. “Where did we go wrong?”

  “This can’t be safe. He could eat you, Lenni. There’d be nothing we could do.” Mom crossed her arms over her chest. “No one would even believe us.”

  “There is only one way I plan to ever eat your daughter, and it has nothing to do with hurting her.”

  “Remy!” I was going to die of embarrassment.

  “This is outrageous. Do you hear how he talks to your parents? This cannot work, Lenni. If you need to, you can move back home for a little while. Just until he’s gone from the apartment and loses your number.”

  Remy just stared at me, waiting for me to say something.

  “I-I’m happy—”

  “He’s not human! End of discussion. I’ll send Andrew over to get your things tomorrow.” Dad pushed away from the table and waved to Samantha on his way out of the room. “Send my dessert to my study.”

  Mom clapped her hands together once. “It’s decided. You’ll come back tomorrow. A clean break.”

  “Mom—”

  “Maybe we should send you to therapy, too. Honestly, Lennox, this is a new low, even for you.”

  “I—”

  “And you, dragon, or whatever you are, stay away from my daughter or I will involve the authorities. I am determined to see that she has better than you.”

  Remy stood up and reached into the bag he’d insisted on bringing in with us. He pulled out a stack of gold bars that I hadn’t realized he’d been carrying. He tossed them onto the table, making the china rattle, pulled out a couple more and then stepped back. “Lennox, I am returning to the apartment. Are you coming?”

  I jumped up. “Are you just going to leave that gold there?”

  “Yes. Your parents seem determined to make a profit from their daughter. Maybe that will appease their greed somewhat. I will bring more if that is not satisfactory. I simply hope they will be nicer to you.” He took my hand, and still speaking to me, he raised his voice loud enough for it to reverberate around the dining room. “And if anyone shows up to try to remove your belongings tomorrow, or any other time, I will eat them.”

  19

  Remy

  It was the need to make the claiming special for Lennox that had caused me to wait to mark her. We had talked about what a claiming mark was to a dragon, and how it was done, but the timing had not seemed right. I had been ready the moment I set eyes on her, but mating for a human was different. I’d witnessed enough with my brother and the other mated dragons to know that humans needed time to gradually get used to the idea of mating.

  I felt I could wait no longer. There was something happening between us that scared me. As though we were slipping away from each other. I was dismayed by the way she had not confronted her parents, or defended me. That did not feel right. In an attempt to improve our bond, I knew I must officially claim her. No more waiting.

  I still needed to make it special in a human way. She’d had a lavish, expensive human mating ceremony set up when she had almost mated the other male—the loser. Dragon claiming marks, on the other hand, were given in private, just between the mated pair, without a huge celebration of friends and family. I planned to create our own celebration and party, just for the two of us, and to make our official claiming special for her in a human way.

  Figuring I would keep the claiming a surprise, I discussed with her that I had something special planned for us that evening. I suspected that she guessed my surprise. She wore a look of excitement in her eyes, and the fact that she had put on special, skimpy, lacy undergarments underneath her proper work clothes to tease me and have me drooling all day long told me that she was more than willing to participate.

  I thought that she must have felt the oddness between us, too, and was just as desperate as I was for things between us to be okay. She’d agreed to come right home from work.

  With the help of many visits back and forth to Cherry, Chyna, and Sky, I spent all morning shopping at the
florist, the market, the music store, the confectionery, and a men’s clothing store. All afternoon, I was busy preparing things in a way they told me would be romantic and memorable for human females. I purchased filet mignon from the market, a bouquet of roses from the florist, and strawberries dipped in chocolate in a heart-shaped box. I placed candles all around the apartment and fresh sheets on the bed and then covered the sheets in flower petals. As Chyna instructed, I played music from a man named Barry White. I did everything I was told my mate would find romantic. The evening would be special for Lennox, something she would remember forever.

  When the meal was cooked and the candles were lit, I dressed in an off-the-rack suit I’d purchased that morning. Lennox would be very surprised and pleased that I “dressed” for dinner. Everything was prepared perfectly.

  When Lennox did not come home early as she had promised, I assumed she’d been unable to pull herself away. Perhaps a student needed her help. My Lennox was kind and caring and had a hard time refusing anyone who needed her assistance. When the hour she would normally have been home came and went, I began to worry. I paced the kitchen floor, unsettled and growing increasingly anxious. She came home late frequently, but she would not be late on a special night as this. Would she?

  An hour passed.

  Our dinner became cold, so I placed it in a warm oven. The candles burned lower.

  Another hour passed.

  The meal became dry in the oven. The candles became wax stubs. I lost the tie and the jacket.

  Another hour.

  I put my jeans and T-shirt back on and considered climbing to the roof to transform and scour the city for her. Something might have happened to her. Perhaps she was hurt or injured somewhere.