by Aurora Reid
After all, she was right. His showing up had only caused her more pain. If he showed up again, there was no telling how angry he would get at Jae. Or how much more destruction they would cause. Best if he was alone like dragons were meant to be.
One day, he ran his fingers across his beard. It had grown to a ridiculous size. If the reporters could see him, they would think he'd gone mad.
They could be right.
Coach Howard called him on his landline one day, which drew no response from Nico, instead he unplugged the phone from the wall, which didn't satisfy him enough, so he smashed the phone to pieces as well.
Then another day, he miscounted his gold by one piece. Hours went by when he swooped along the forests to check for an intruder. His mind went frantic with nervous thoughts. What if someone had broken in?
He returned to his gold pile to count, only then did he realize that it was his own error.
His nerves were shot when someone drove up the winding hill to his compound. The wall blocked off the gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains and the valley below now, but that was for the best, after all, they would all soon come for him. His wall was taller than his house, taller than Jae's had been as well.
The man parked outside of his gate. Once he got to the gate, it swung open, and Nico as his dragon stuck his head through.
He growled, a low growl, and sniffed the air. The man fell over. He was holding a small package.
Nico let him get to his feet.
“They paid me a lot to do this, but not enough,” the man said. Nico watched him carefully as he set the package down.
“Here you go, big doggy, now I'll be on my way.” The man held his arms up as he slowly backed up to his car. It peeled out before he rushed back down the mountain. Good.
Nico transformed, took the package, and then headed inside. Ripping it open, inside there was an envelope which he promptly opened.
He immediately noticed Cassandra's swirling signature at the bottom. His chest pounded and his eyes raced ahead as he started to read. He slowed himself down in order to understand, because he knew this would be important.
“It pains me to know that I left when you couldn’t trust anyone. I hope you can at least trust me when I say that you need to get better. You need to get better. For yourself, if not for the team and the fans, then do it for yourself. I know you love the game, and I know you can change their minds. But please, don’t contact me again. Everything is fine here. Jae and I are okay.”
At first, he'd been excited, even hopeful when reading. By the end, a monstrous rage boiled from deep within him. It was a slap across the face. The rage boiled over and he gripped the fancy card stock letter. He ripped it down the middle.
No, what was he doing? He forced his fiery dragon back in its place. But then he read the words over again. “Jae and I are okay,” and he couldn't stop himself. Less dramatic than cutting it in two, he still crumbled it in the trash where he figured it would ultimately go anyway.
The letter meant nothing.
She didn't care about him, not really, the letter was sent only to make her feel less guilty. In order to blow off some steam, he went to the gym, sat on the bench, and started to push himself by stacking the barbell with higher weights each time.
It kept bothering him, more than any heavy weight would. The barbell was slammed down as he got up and hurried over to the trash. Nico pulled a piece out, the first being Cass' name. Then he pulled out, another, and another, until he had enough to complete the puzzle.
After some tape, he laid it out on his dinner table. Truer words hadn’t been spoken to him in a while.
He could do without the words about her and Jae being okay—not that Nico believed that at all.
Those were only written so she wouldn't be in trouble with him again. Just what was she so afraid of, when she already proved she wasn't afraid of one dragon?
Something wasn't right.
He couldn't disobey her orders, since he'd already done that by getting the whole military involved. Also, almost going to prison for a very long time. The second time wouldn't be so easy to get out of.
Nico didn't touch the letter again. It would be framed in his gym to remind him of who he was fighting for, as he trained harder than he ever did in his life.
His workouts were intense, pushing himself hard until exhaustion each day, and then rehabbing his tendon with a multitude of stretches. It would be stronger than ever. He would be stronger than ever.
He'd be a living fucking legend, which meant he'd be fighting for every win with all his heart and soul. No excuses.
The next month, he kept returning to Cass’ letter. A few times he almost transformed into his dragon so that he could put an end to Jae. The only thing keeping him back was her words to him.
She had reached out to him. That was a start. If she saw him back in fighting form, she might understand that it was okay to leave Jae, for Nico to take care of things.
And he could take care of things. He could handle himself well. Cass, he was sure, would be handled nicely. Before he’d become such a recluse, Nico had been sort of a playboy for a while. Times change, but what women want mostly stay the same. Once you learn what turns a woman on in bed, it doesn’t change much every decade, although he’d had to learn a few new tricks along the way.
You wouldn’t believe how dirty your great, great grandparents were. They were no prudes, believe it or not.
Once Cass could trust that he could save her, he’d make his move. But not a moment too soon.
He focused on training. Soon, he sprinted around his compound. Then he was running on his treadmill, trying to beat his fastest run. When he broke it, he dropped to the mat, breathing heavily, covered in sweat—followed by hysterical laughter.
This whole time it’d all been in his head.
Now that he had something worth fighting for, it all came easily. It all came back to him like it never left at all.
Over his fit of laughter, he almost didn't hear the television. Nico heard Jae’s name and he spun around, not laughing anymore.
He kept the sports channel on when he ran just to pass the time. A reporter was going on about Jae and the LA Outlaws. The graphic said it all.
“Defensive Back, the red dragon, Jae May, traded to San Antonio Spartans.”
His first reaction was relief. The next, anger and disappointment that had him slapping the mat.
“Fuck.”
Cass would be going with him.
Only when The Outlaws faced The Spartans would he see her again. It'd be late into the season, since both were suspended for six games because of their fight.
Nico got up again. He went to the treadmill to beat his new fastest time.
That game couldn't come soon enough.
9
Something struck the bars of her window. At first she thought it would be a bird as she got up from bed, throwing her book down. It was a book on shifter mating rituals, such a hot read, even if it was nonfiction. Before she got to the window there was another ding.
Probably not a bird. It was nine at night and there came another.
Sticking her head out, she saw someone standing out on the lawn while holding up their cellphone.
And they were playing something on it too. She could hardly hear it. She squinted and her ears picked up the tune.
It was Nico outside in a suit, holding a cell phone and playing In Your Eyes.
She laughed. How absurd…and why did he pick that movie, a movie with John Cusack from the 80s?
“Now I really know you’re old! When did that movie come out?” she shouted at him, while clasping her mouth after to stop from laughing.
He shrugged. “A few years ago.”
“Try around thirty.”
She backed away from the window.
What if Jae saw her? Except that he was gone for the night to a convention for one of his sponsors.
Cass peeked out again. “And what are you doing here?”
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“To talk to you.”
That was fine and all. If she wasn’t stuck in this room.
“To talk to me about what?”
“About anything you’d like,” he shouted back.
She laughed again while trying to hide it. “You’re absurd.”
“I don’t think so. Come on down, it’ll be adventurous like sneaking out as a teenager.”
Cass placed herself fully in front of the window. She wished she was in something other than a black t-shirt and jeans now.
“I never did that as a teenager. I was too busy studying, not going on adventures in the middle of the night.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
Did he have an answer for everything?
She could see that this man was persistent. Not that she was currently mad about that. Day after day, her thoughts returned to Nico, no matter how much she tried to turn them away.
“What’s down there with you?”
Her eyes might be tricking her but she could swear she saw a table and chairs behind him.
“A table for two. For us.”
“You’re too much.”
“It’s not enough. It’s nothing.”
Cass had to back away to stop from laughing.
He must’ve been tracking Jae’s movements somehow, otherwise he wouldn’t have put a dinner table out on his lawn, at least she hoped not.
“I thought you’d be okay being alone for a little while. I see you’ve gone nuts without me.”
“What can I say? You should’ve been with me, otherwise expect grand romantic gestures like this.”
“Oh, is that what this is?”
He shrugged. “Hopefully?”
Nico started to the side of the house then. He peered up, looking dashing in his suit, filled out with his muscles. She wanted to run her hands all over him, wanted to feel the softness of that exquisite outfit. Then she wanted to plan a kiss on his gorgeous lips.
She couldn’t. She really couldn’t lead him on like that. No matter how delicious that kiss would be.
“Are those bars?” he called out, followed by him trying to climb the wall.
And he did. He was up there with his hands on the bars, his feet planted on the shallow indentations in the stone below.
She was looking right at him now. Her chest pounded and she wanted desperately to hop out of the window into his arms.
“I can’t leave. I’m locked in here.”
“What do you mean?” He glared at the bars, then Nico put his hands on them.
No! He couldn’t do that.
“I’ll just remove them—”
“Nico, no, then he’ll know I’ve tried to escape.”
That’s when Cass noticed something.
“You’re off your crutches,” she shouted.
“Yes. And you’re stuck in this room. Let’s get you out.”
“No, you can’t.”
He paused. He kind of smirked, kind of looked at her like she was crazy. “Are you sure you don’t want me to let you out of here, take you back to my place, and we can live happily ever after?”
She saw in her mind’s eye how wonderful that would be. Except reason kicked in. Stupid reason.
“Like last time you tried to help? It was like a scene from Cloverfield.”
“What?”
“I forgot I’m going to have to make references from the 1920s with you. Think of a monster terrorizing a city.”
He furrowed his brows. “I was hoping you’d forget all that. We could still do it. We’d find an isolated place for battle—”
Cass crossed her arms, took a step back. “I’m not talking about fighting. I don’t want to talk about that.”
“Okay, let’s not talk about that, let’s talk about getting you out of here so you can have dinner with me.”
“Right, dinner would be nice.”
As she shuffled, she was already wet, her arousal pulsating.
Moonlight shone on Nico as he waited. He looked determined and totally devoted to her, also incredibly sexy with his panty dropping grin.
“Do you think you could remove the bars and put them back on?”
He looked at her funny. “I suppose I could if I needed to. I don’t want to.”
“Promise me that first,” she said, tapping her foot and leering over him. “And then I’ll agree to come out.”
Please, don’t make this difficult.
Yet the dragon seemed to read her mind because he didn’t argue with her. He simply ripped the bars off like plucking weeds.
He held out his arms.
Dropping out of a window at her weight wasn’t recommended, yet Nico still nodded to her, like she needed to do it.
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll jump back. It’s not a long fall.”
“Long enough where I’d break my legs if I jumped.”
“You’re not jumping alone. You’re jumping in my arms.”
“Sorry for being worried about your legs.”
“It’s fine, but if it makes you feel better.” Nico shifted a little, scales breaking out of his body, his muscles pumping up, an armored tail sprouting from his back.
It did make her feel better.
She placed herself carefully on the windowsill, and he snatched her, dropping at the same time with her in his arms. It was a wild drop, knocking around her insides on impact, but when they were on the ground all was well.
He placed her back down on her feet. Her first steps were staggered.
“Sorry, I didn’t think you were ever going to jump out and we’ve got to get to dinner.”
“I don’t want to say thank you, but thank you,” she snapped back. She was already looking at the table set up for them. He’d placed two covered plates and a bottle of sweet wine was placed in the middle.
“You like it sweet. I remembered.”
“You’re earning a lot of points tonight,” she said as she sat down at the table. Why were they already talking like they were a couple?
Nico reached for the wine. It was too dark so he picked up a candle and placed it to his lips. He breathed and a streak of fire sparked from his mouth. The wick caught light.
“Do you do that trick on every date?”
“I’ve never done it before. And I can’t do it again, because a trick loses its effectiveness when you do it more than once, doesn’t it?”
So he expected more dates with her? She was nervously twisting her fingers under the table.
“What were you doing before I arrived?”
She sipped her wine. Already she felt light-headed from Nico.
What was she doing before she arrived? Uh…learning about mating rituals. Not that she’d straight up tell him that.
“Reading.”
“Reading about what? I might be a jock, but I like reading too.”
Yikes, she didn’t think he’d ask her such a specific question. She paused.
“Was it something naughty?”
She tilted her eyes away from him. She was sure her cheeks were glowing. “No.”
Not technically. Technically it was a heavily researched non-fiction book, hardly erotica.
He grinned over the table. “Why not?”
She laughed nervously, then bit her lip to stop. “I don’t own those types of books.”
That was a lie, sort of. All her romance books were tossed out before she moved in with Jae.
Nico wasn’t going to give up. It was like he was a dog begging for scraps.
“Okay, if you must know. It was a book about shifters…”
He nodded as if to say, go on…
“It was on their mating rituals. And it was well researched and cited—”
“Are you a hands on learner? I could teach you all about shifter mating.”
Cass glared back at him. “There’s nothing in there about dragons.”
“That’s because we don’t give away our best secrets. We’re not dumb.”
“Just cocky.”
&n
bsp; He shrugged. “Okay, so what did you learn? I bet there’s a lot of juicy details in there.”
Nico was trying to get her hot and bothered, wasn’t he? He was teasing her badly. She squeezed her knees together to stop from rubbing as she remembered an old fact that she learned, but never had the chance to repeat.
“Male barnacles have a penis eight times their body size,” she rattled off. “It wasn’t in the book, but it’s a neat fact.”
“So you’re saying I should’ve been lucky to be born a barnacle shifter?”
“Sure, if you want to have sex in different zip codes. That’s just one interesting fact I know. I have a ton of them. Did you know female pandas typically only have sex once a year?”
“Those poor male pandas.”
“But you asked about what I read in the book.” She was sure this might shut Nico up, maybe so she could breathe and stop overheating.
“Dolphin shifters’ bonding ceremony involves the male dolphin going on a retreat for two months beforehand. On the retreat, he finds a private island beach. He finds a cozy, romantic scene. Then he picks up rocks and shells and all sorts of colorful things from the sea. For a month or more, he builds a bed out of it all and decorates, then on their marriage night they both swim there and...you know the rest, that’s how baby dolphin shifters are made. In the end, the female picks the most beautiful pieces to create a necklace out of which reminds her of their passionate night.”
He did look a little intimidated. “Sounds…rather elaborate.”
“Judging by your look, you don’t want to be a dolphin shifter.”
“Let’s just say that dragons like collecting things, but we’re not much for home decorating. We’re more the demolition type.”
“I think it’s a beautiful ritual. I wouldn’t mind sleeping out on an island surrounded by beautiful gems and stones and shells from the ocean. Sounds like a sweet romance.”
“When compared to humans? Of course it is. Your idea of romantic bonding is putting on a plain white dress and repeating some words that nobody pays attention to.”
“Some of us would be lucky to even have that.”
He was quick to reply, and so serious. “You deserve anything you want, Cass.”
“Careful, you don’t know what you’re getting into.” She paused, dipped her head. “I mean, I shouldn’t be flirting like this. What I said back at the prison still stands. Don’t forget.”