He snorted. “Why would you need to know my favorite meal?”
She wrapped the phone cord around her finger. “So, I can make it for you. When you’re upset. When you want to celebrate. Tell me, what is your favorite meal?”
He was silent for a long moment. She heard the growl before she heard his voice. “What if I said you were my favorite meal?”
Her core melted. “I thought we were avoiding that subject.”
“It’s kind of hard. Especially when I’m thinking about the way you taste. It makes everything hard.” His voice grew husky. “You make my dick hard.”
Kennedy swallowed, mouth dry. She fumbled for something to say in return, only the image of his cock floating through her mind. She knew what it looked like, but not excited, not ready for her.
“Would you want another taste of me?” Kennedy tested. She feared he would run away.
Wyatt rose to the challenge. “I want to taste you every morning when I wake up. I want to taste you again every night before I go to bed. Your mouth, your skin, the space between your legs. I bet that tastes like heaven.”
Kennedy bit the inside of her cheek as a wave of sensation rolled inside her. She clenched her thighs together, savoring the feeling.
“Tell me how you’d touch me, Wyatt. Tell me every detail.”
She wanted him inside her. She wanted him on top of her, holding her, teasing her body into fits of pleasure. If he were with her, she would do the same for him. They would never have to leave the hotel room. They would dine on one another.
“Not yet,” he said instead.
She pouted, but he couldn’t see her. This wasn’t what she wanted, but she managed to temper her desire. “I understand.”
“It’s not…it’s not you,” he assured her. “I just came out of a long-term relationship. It didn’t end well and I’m, well, I’m wary of leaping into anything else. The next time I love someone, I want to do it the right way.”
That sure explained a lot. Wyatt’s heart wasn’t ready to let someone else in. Kennedy didn’t want a one night stand this time; she wanted more. That meant giving Wyatt the time he needed to heal from the last relationship. Kennedy certainly didn’t know how long that would take or what that would entail since it’d been ages since her own heartbreak.
She hadn’t let anyone in long enough to do any kind of real damage. Not until now.
“That’s alright,” she told him. “This is moving pretty fast. Huh?”
“Fast is okay as long as I know I’m doing it for the right reasons. When I fall in love with you, Kennedy, I want it to be because of you. Not because I’m in love with the idea of having someone in my life.”
She pressed her face into the nearby pillow. Her cheeks warmed at his words. Tears even gathered at the corners of her eyes. She wasn’t used to kind words like that. Her life had not left room for kindness, especially not love. No one she’d taken to her bed had been half as kind.
“I’ll be here waiting,” she told him while touching the mark on her neck.
Kennedy was a little disappointed the call didn’t end in phone sex, but after she heard the groans from the next room over, she was relieved it hadn’t. Everyone in the hotel would have been able to hear them.
Chapter Eight
Wyatt wanted nothing more than to hunt down Kennedy. He could still taste her in his mouth. It was intoxicating, addicting. He wanted more and more, but he stayed where he was. If he kept inserting himself into her life, then his head would never be straight enough to think. He needed to make sure this was the right decision.
That he was ready to move on.
Wyatt didn’t want to tie himself to another love-less relationship. It was what he tried to avoid his whole life, though his desperation to be loved had him fooling himself over and over again. His life with Nicole had been empty and he could see that now.
Every moment he spent with Kennedy sparked a new emotion inside him. Often times, he felt like he would drown at any moment. Every little thing she made him feel was new and dangerous, like a blade held to his throat. He thought he had his beast under control, but around her the leash felt fragile.
The lesser shifter that kept sniffing her out made him wild. His beast raged at him from the inside, an endless battle where the beast held nothing back. His skull ached when he thought about the man. A growl left his lips and he pushed himself to his feet.
There were no dragons in the sky when he stepped outside. The evergreen air greeted him like an old friend. It was far better than the smell of Ashton that lingered inside the over-used cabin. His truck keys jingled in his hand.
The drive into town took almost no time at all. Maybe it was because Wyatt was so distracted that he didn’t realize just how fast he was driving. Maybe it was the beast urging him forward because it knew Kennedy would be there. Either way, he slowed down once he entered the town proper, slowly searching up and down the streets for a familiar figure.
If Jasper wasn’t going to take care of the lesser dragons acting like fools, then Wyatt would be the one to set them straight. He didn’t remember all the faces of the lesser dragons, the one whose scales weren’t metallic like his and his cousins’, but he could sniff them out. They smelled like burnt trees.
The truck rolled to a stop at a light. Wyatt leaned out and scented the air. He caught a hint of what he wanted and flipped his signal light. Instead of turning the direction he intended, the beast turned him in another. He growled and did a quick turn-around. Someone honked their horn at him, but he was too busy arguing with himself.
His leash on the beast, stretched thinner and thinner every day, was about to snap. He could feel it. The beast pulsed beneath his skin. It took up space there and grew larger and larger every day. Never before had Wyatt ever felt so feral, feeling like the tide as the moon pushed it this way and that.
He gunned the truck through the intersection, sighting the dragon man not far up the street. Quickly, he parked and leapt out of the truck. The dragon man didn’t see him coming, not until he’d grasped the man’s collar and dragged him into the nearby alley. He flashed a bright smile at those who dared peek at them. When they saw it was a Drake man, their faces blanched, and they scurried away.
“What the hell, man?” the dragon shifter snapped. “I took your advice. I haven’t gone near your lady!”
Wyatt shook his head. While this might be about Kennedy, it was about more than just her. “You can’t harass women that way. You give us all a bad name when you act like a predator.”
“We are predators,” the dragon man growled, leaning into Wyatt’s space.
This time, Wyatt didn’t pull on his beast’s leash. He let it go and felt the beast flood his features. His eyes narrowed into lizard-like slits, teeth sharpened into daggers, and his nails lengthened to scrape the man’s chest. “A predator hunts prey, not mates. If you or any of the other dragon shifters on this mountain think a woman is prey, then you will find yourselves under the mountain. Do you hear me?”
Wyatt wasn’t talking about some cave where they could send naughty shifters to be punished. No, he would dig each and every grave himself if that was what it took to get the shifters in line.
The man he pressed against the wall swallowed and nodded.
“Jasper might be king here on this mountain, but I’m a knight of his court and I have every right to do as I see fit to protect my people.” Wyatt let go of the man’s shirt. “Do me a favor and pass the message on to the others.”
Already, Wyatt was walking away. The beast tugged at him. It was urgent, leading him toward a familiar scent. His stomach unclenched and his shoulders relaxed.
***
In the morning, her neck throbbed. It wasn’t an unpleasant pain. When she closed her eyes, it felt like Wyatt’s lips were on her skin again. She lost herself to the daydream. His words from the night before echoed in her ears and a small smile crept over her lips.
How long had i
t been since she smiled over something so simple? Kennedy smiled in all her selfies, making her life look glamorous and exciting, when she felt so little inside. She put on a good show to keep her followers happy. It’d been a long time since she’d been this happy.
She tried to think back to the last thing that had her smiling like this. It took her a while, flipping through memories, but she went all the way back to her first plane ticket. It was the first time she left home, a one-way ticket to Miami to explore all it had to offer. She’d been so excited for the new life she’d created for herself, one where she wouldn’t have to ponder her lack of roots.
Here, in Grove, she could feel a curious sensation in her feet. They itched and tingled, not to move, but as if she were growing roots. She could feel them taking root in town. No, not just in town, but in Wyatt. He was a sturdy tree she could lean against until her roots were deep enough that she could stand on her own.
While she got ready for the day, she kept glancing at the phone, waiting for it to ring so she could hear his voice again. When it never rang, she shook her head and told herself he needed space. Besides, he wasn’t the only reason she’d come to town. She had work to do. It would keep her occupied until Wyatt showed up again, until the next time she could learn a bit more about him.
She locked the hotel room door behind her, sliding the key card into her back pocket. The elevator at the end of the hall was old and opulent, a reminder of days when everything was gilded. The doors slowly drew open and she stepped inside, feeling the elevator swing uncertainly beneath her feet.
Her stomach churned. The gears groaned, but it faithfully descended to the first floor. She was thankful when her feet touched solid ground again because the groans echoed up the elevator shaft behind her.
Someday, she thought, that elevator will go crashing down.
Kennedy shook her head to clear it. Immediately, thoughts of Wyatt rose. Her mind filled with images of him, his tight smiles and bronze hair. Everywhere she looked, she thought she saw him. None of the men were him, though. Perhaps they were dragon men, like Wyatt, with broad shoulders and shining hair, but they weren’t the one she wanted.
She continued down the street, scanning shop signs for something that would take her mind off Wyatt for a little while. She desperately wanted macarons or maybe a thick slice of cookies and cream cake. What she found was decidedly not confectionary, but it intrigued her, nonetheless.
Metal shelves filled with unpainted ceramics stood in the window. They were all raw and ugly, even if their shapes held promise. She saw flat plates, tea sets, and fat mugs just waiting to be painted. Some unhinged part of her thought of a fat mug, one painted by her own hand, that she could look at every morning. She imagined it in a place of her own, a home.
Never before had she yearned for anything so much. She let her eyes drift closed and summoned a vision of this home, letting this new sensation roll over her. Her feet tingled again, the roots burrowing deeper.
“I should have known I’d find you around town,” Wyatt said.
She opened her eyes to find him standing beside her. He glanced at the ceramics in the window, one brow rising. The words that came out of her were preposterous, but she wanted to see his reaction anyway. She wanted to see him hold a tiny paintbrush even more.
“Come inside and paint a mug with me.” Kennedy grabbed his hand and tugged him inside. To her surprise, he didn’t fight it.
Wyatt let himself be led inside. Quickly, she remembered his words and snatched her hand back. Wyatt needed to make the decision to love her on his own, not because she could barely keep her hands off him. Instinctively, she touched the mark on her neck.
She’d yet to run into any of the other shifters in town to see if it worked. If Wyatt stayed around, she would never know if it was the mark or his presence that kept the others away. She bit her lip, thinking that she should have sent him away, not dragged him inside some craft shop.
“Let me get this right. You want me to…paint?” Wyatt picked up one of the mugs. His hands dwarfed the ceramic vessel.
Kennedy couldn’t help but remember those massive hands on her, sliding along her body. Her mouth went dry and she looked away to hide the craving that nibbled at her.
“If you don’t have time, you don’t have to stay. I just thought it would be something fun to do.” Kennedy couldn’t look him in the eye. She was so full of fear and lust, and she worried he would be able to read it all on her face.
No matter how much she wanted him, there was always a possibility that Wyatt would realize this was a rebound. She knew he’d just gotten out of a relationship. Heading right into another was never a good idea. The bonds forged in those moments were brittle and likely to snap without much pressure.
There was a chance that she would be nothing more than a blip in his life, someone who’d helped him get over a larger ache. She, too, would have to get on with her life. She would have to buy another one-way ticket to a place where no roots would grow. That was if the roots she sprouted now didn’t hold her in place.
She couldn’t imagine how painful it would be to trap herself in Grove only to have Wyatt turn her away in the end.
“No, it sounds like fun. I’ve never done anything like this before, but it’s not like you’re asking me to jump out a plane with you.”
She chuckled. “Like jumping out a plane would be an issue for you.”
He could sprout wings whenever he wanted. The fall would mean nothing to him. She caught the glint of laughter in his eyes and the way his lips parted as if he had more he wanted to say, but it was silenced when an employee walked up to them.
The teenager in a paint-smeared apron helped them pick out their paints and set up their stations. Wyatt looked like a giant in his chair, knees jutting out from beneath the sides of the table. Kennedy couldn’t hide her laughter any longer and pulled out her phone to take a picture.
He glared at her, but not the way he glared at the dragon shifter the day before. This glare was lit by mirth, which he tried to hide when he shook his head.
“How about this,” Wyatt suggested. “I will paint a mug for you if you paint one for me? Does that sound fair?”
Kennedy ducked her head. She knew this was crossing a line, but she couldn’t help but want it. They should be keeping their distance, just long enough for Wyatt to get his head sorted. Kennedy was addicted to him, though. There was no way she could say no. She wanted this exchange of hearts, even if it seemed a trivial thing.
“I’d like that,” she finally whispered.
While they sketched their designs on the ceramic surfaces and poured paint into little plastic pallets, they talked about their lives. Mostly, Kennedy told him about her trips across the country. She had a nearly endless vault of stories to share. He sat quietly, laughing at the right times, listening until the end.
All the time she talked, she managed to sketch a funny looking dragon on the mug. It wasn’t the best-looking creature, in no way realistic, but she did her best.
“What are you drawing on yours?” Wyatt asked.
She pulled the mug close and covered it with her hands, feeling heat creep onto her cheeks. “It’s, ah, it’s a secret.”
He raised a brow. “Oh, is that the way you want it to be?”
Kennedy bit her lip. She wasn’t sure what he’d say when he saw what she’d drawn for him. If he hated it, she would have to start all over again. She thought he would look at the fat, ugly creature she’d drawn and find offense in it.
Creating something filled her with unease, concern after concern tumbled through her mind. Across from her, Wyatt gathered his things and stood. She held out her hand to stop him, but his grin made her pause.
“If you won’t tell me what you’re doing, then mine has to be a surprise, too.” Wyatt shuffled over to another table and began laying out his supplies once more.
Every now and then, they would steal peeks at one another. Each time, they c
aught each other in the process and twisted to hide their progress. Kennedy’s heart swelled and a warmth built inside her. She realized this was happiness. How long had it been since she’d felt anything like this? Truly, it’d been too long if she couldn’t recognize it.
“I’ve never done anything like this,” Wyatt confessed at his table.
She glanced back, but he was bent over his project. “What do you mean?”
He paused, sitting back in his chair. “All of my dates have been either quiet dinners or boring movies. This is…it just means a lot more. You know?”
She returned to her own project, regarding the mug tilted in her hands and the paint taking form. Slowly, her mind caught up. This wasn’t just spending time together. They were making something for each other. There was more meaning to the minutes ticking by when they knew those minutes were dedicated to seeing the other smile later.
“Yeah. I think I get what you’re saying.”
“Tell me what your worst date was,” Wyatt asked. “I feel like a failure since I left you alone at your own table. Please tell me there were worse dates.”
“Do you count the creep who inserted himself at our table yesterday?”
A low growl emanated from Wyatt’s table. Quickly, she turned the conversation around, searching for an old date, one that was not a threat.
“There was this guy back when I was a teenager. He told me he knew about a waterpark nearby. I’d never heard of a waterpark in the area, but I was so excited that I didn’t give it much thought. When we got there, half the slides were leaning, and the other half looked like they were kneeling.
“I climbed to the top of a slide and took one look before I left him standing there by himself. I mean, there were nails sticking out of everything. It was a cheese grater waiting to happen.”
“A cheese grater?”
“Nails. Everywhere.” She shook her head. “I still don’t know if the guy went down the slide by himself. I remember seeing him back at school the next week. He wasn’t a bundle of meat ribbons, so I’m guessing he never did it.”
Aurum Court Dragons: Boxset Books 1-5 Page 19