by Eden Ashe
7
Shelby stared down at the clothes Daniel had given her to wear, wondering how he expected her to be able to get them on.
She sat on the edge of the tub, scowling at the soft pink pajama bottoms and white, snug-fitting camisole. The white cotton panties and bra bothered her. Even if it wasn’t completely ridiculous to expect a woman to wear another’s underwear, there was no way the bra was going to fit her. Twin pangs of jealousy and nausea welled in her stomach. Shelby had no complaints about the size of her own breasts, but whosever bra she was holding…
Holy damn.
Shelby knew she shouldn’t care how perfectly endowed his former women had been, but it seriously hurt to think about him being with other women when she’d spent so much time trying to get over him. It wasn’t fair. He wasn’t supposed to have moved on.
Her chest hurt. His moods were giving her whiplash, and she was too emotionally raw to keep up with them.
Sighing, she reached down to pick up her own panties. No way was she wearing another woman’s, but Daniel hadn’t taken hers off before putting her in the bathtub, so hers were out of the question, too. By the time she finally managed to get into the pajama pants, she decided to skip the bra thing entirely. She wouldn’t be able to get it on, anyway.
The hard part came in trying to get into the camisole. While the material was stretchy, she only had so much mobility in her shoulder. While she could move it with only a slight twinge, lifting it high enough to put through the armhole probably wasn’t a good idea.
In the end, she stepped into the shirt. After a good couple of minutes trying to pull it up and put her good arm through it, she left the left side tucked underneath her arm.
Taking a deep breath, she finally met her gaze in the mirror, only to immediately blush down to her toes. The stretchy fabric of the shirt molded around her breasts, and if she got cold at all, Daniel and Luca would definitely know it.
Finally deciding there was nothing she could do, she searched through the vanity drawers until she found a comb. She ran it through her damp strands as quickly as possible, accepting she was going to have to embrace her natural curls when her hair dried.
It figured. So much for knocking his socks off the next time she saw him.
When she couldn’t put it off any longer, she finally managed to talk herself into stepping out of the bathroom, only to realize immediately Daniel wasn’t there. Feeling uncomfortable when she saw Luca at the stove with his back to her, she crossed her arms over her breasts as she searched for Daniel.
“He’s on watch duty.”
Her head swung back at Luca’s deep voice, and because she didn’t know what to say to him, she only nodded dumbly. “Oh.” She exhaled slowly at her brilliant conversation skills, and made her way over to the island. “Why?” she asked carefully, almost afraid of the answer. “Did something happen?”
“Not exactly.” He glanced at her over his shoulder, studying her with dark blue eyes that stayed locked directly on hers. “I think he wanted to get out of here for a while.”
“I’m not surprised,” she murmured, a sad smile tugging at her mouth as she tried to pretend it didn’t hurt. “He doesn’t like me very much.”
“He has valid reasons.” He shrugged as he turned around, leaning back against the stove.
“I don’t blame him.” She didn’t. He’d been almost killed in her house the last time they were together. She shivered under Luca’s probing stare, and glanced toward Daniel’s bedroom. “I don’t suppose you know where he keeps his sweatshirts, do you?”
“No.”
She let out an unladylike snort. “As talkative as Daniel, aren’t you.” She pointed at him. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back, and we’re going to talk.”
Not sure he’d listen to her command, she ran down to the back of the apartment. Uncomfortable going through his dresser, she struck pay dirt in his closet. It was full of basic male hoodies–all in black or gray. She frowned. The man was in desperate need of color in his life. Between his eyes and the shades of gray in his apartment, it was like being in the middle of a storm cloud. Shaking it off, she chose a black one with a zipper, shoved her arms into it, and was back in the kitchen less than a minute later.
“So.” Shelby hitched herself onto a stool, her head canting as she studied him. He seemed much more relaxed with her covered up. “Are you going to explain what you meant by the mate comment earlier?”
His jaw worked for a long time, before he shook his head. “No. Daniel will explain it to you when he’s ready.” When she frowned at him, he lifted one dark brow. “I’m hungry. You hungry?”
Her teeth worried at her bottom lip for a moment. “Actually, I can’t tell if I’m more tired or hungry.” As if to make the decision for her, she yawned. “I’m sorry.”
Luca ignored her as he went over to open the fridge, pulling out a stack of hamburger patties. “How many do you want?”
“One, please.” She yawned again and leaned forward, bracing her right elbow onto the island. She cupped her chin in her palm. “How long have you known Daniel?”
He pulled out a frying pan, seasoning the patties as he dropped them in. “A long time,” he finally murmured.
The knowledge she might finally get answers had her sitting up a little straighter. “So you…” her voice trailed off as she tried to find the words without going into too much detail, “you know what happened the night we went out?”
To her surprise, his voice turned glacial. “Yes.”
It shouldn’t have surprised her Luca blamed her too. Daniel was adamant it was her fault, and Luca seemed to be the loyal-to-his-core type. Her chest constricted as she remembered how hurt Daniel had been when the EMTs had carried him out.
“What happened to him that night?” she asked, her voice off as she tried to keep this stranger from seeing how afraid she’d been for Daniel. She didn’t want to be that girl who turned everything around to be about her. “The police said he vanished out of the back of the ambulance, and no one was ever able to find him.”
Luca studied her for a long time. “Have you asked him?”
“Yes.” She shrugged. “He won’t answer me.”
“Hospitals aren’t something our kind does well,” he said, getting comfortable against the counter as he studied her. “Did you try to find him?”
Still confused about the our kind comment, and the dawning realization they both talked as if they weren’t exactly human, she thought about lying. She could play it cool. Things were screwy enough between them without him finding out how desperate she’d been after that night.
She wanted answers, though, and something told her she wasn’t going to get any if she didn’t start giving some. So she nodded slowly, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the pain. “Yes.” She looked down at the island top so he wouldn’t see her embarrassment. “I must have called him a hundred times in the first week.”
“Why?”
Her gaze snapped up. “Why?” she asked, confused. “Because he was dying, the police wouldn’t let me go with him, and I was scared out of my mind. I just wanted to know he was all right.”
“So it wasn’t because the police thought you had something to do with it?”
She sat up straighter as temper flared bright in her blood. “Even if I found him, I wouldn’t have told the police where he was.”
“Why not?”
“You’re kidding, right? There’s self-defense, and then there’s what he did to the man in my bedroom. Daniel didn’t kill him. He ripped him apart, and the police wanted answers.”
“You weren’t afraid of him after that?” When she just snorted at him, Luca crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze narrowing on her face. “The police must have made your life hell once they couldn’t find Daniel.”
She rolled her eyes at the understatement. “Hell would have been a walk in the park.” She didn’t bother to hide the snap in her voice. “Don’t you watch the news? When they couldn’t
find him, they assumed his injuries were faked. They tried to prosecute me for accessory to murder.”
Luca’s body jerked as if she’d shot him. “What? Are you serious?”
She let out a humorless laugh. “You need to invest in a computer or television or newspaper, Luca.” She glanced around as a thought occurred to her. “Which reminds me, I have to make some phone calls. I need to call my manager, my agent and my assistant. They’re probably worried sick.”
“It’s not a good idea to contact any of them.”
Her eyes went wide at the fatality of his tone. “Why–why not?”
“Because we don’t know who shot you. We can’t rule any of them out yet.”
Her laugh bubbled out. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about them. They would never hurt me.”
“Still.”
She frowned. Then as quickly as the relief came, it was gone. “Have you seen the news yet?”
No.”
Her eyes narrowed, sure he was lying. She was too tired to argue with him about it, though. She suddenly couldn’t stop yawning. “Luca? How much longer until the burgers are done?”
“Ten minutes.”
She nodded as she slid off the stool, feeling drunk as the room started to spin. She didn’t know how she made it to the couch, she was just grateful she did. “I’m going to take a quick nap, wake me when it’s time to eat, alright?”
“No problem.”
* * * *
Considering she’d been on life support earlier in the day, Shelby felt surprisingly good when she woke up. “How long was I asleep?” She shoved the hair out of her face, automatically scanning the room for Daniel. Her stubborn, traitorous heart ached when she realized it was still just Luca in the room with her. “He isn’t back yet?”
“No. I was going to go find him, but he’d gut me if I left you alone.”
She gave a tired snort as she sat up carefully. She frowned as she watched him hurriedly shut his laptop. “He’d probably kiss your feet if something happened to me.”
A grin flickered over Luca’s mouth as he slipped the computer under the island, making her wonder what he had been looking at that he hadn’t wanted her to see. “Trust me, blondie.” He laughed. “He’s been a dark, moody bastard for almost a year now.”
She grinned, unable to help it. “You mean he has other moods?”
Luca cocked his head, studying her. “Tonight’s the first time I’ve seen life in him since that night. But to answer your question, he has two moods–dark, moody and pissed off, and really dark, moody and pissed off.”
“But it works so well for him.” Her teeth caught her bottom lip to stop the ridiculous, goofy grin that wanted to form. Afraid of giving too much of her emotions away to Luca, she concentrated on moving into the corner of the couch, pulling a throw blanket over her pulled-up knees.
When she was settled, she turned her attention back to him. Realizing he’d been serious, her humor fled, replaced with temper. “There’s so much more to him, Luca, you know that, right? He has all this pent-up anger at me, and yet…” her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes. “He’s been so gentle every time he’s touched me. He’s taking care of me when he doesn’t have to. He could have let me fend for myself when I needed a bath, but he helped me. He even held me when I cried. Of course, he then yelled at me for crying, but it was because he didn’t know how to fix it, not because he was annoyed.” She shifted onto her knees and shook her finger at him as she considered throwing something at his head. Like a really big rock. “A man with nothing but darkness and anger wouldn’t worry about what’s hurting a woman he’s so angry with.”
Luca spun his stool around. Bending forward, he braced his arms against his knees as he studied her, his face neutral. “I think you’re giving him too much credit. Seeing things in him that aren’t there.” He gave her a look that suggested he was coddling her. “Maybe you’ve made one romantic comedy too many.” He snorted out a humorless laugh. “Do you really think Daniel is hero material?”
She was on her feet in the next instant, more furious than she’d ever been in her life. “Do you know my shoulder doesn’t hurt? I was shot today and I haven’t felt a single moment’s discomfort because Daniel refuses to let me.” Her hands clenched into fists. “I don’t know how he’s doing it, but he is. All you have to do is look at him to know it’s wearing on him, and you, his friend, are calling him a heartless bastard? What is wrong with you?”
“Whoa, Blondie. It’s all right. I’m on your side here.”
She snorted, disgusted. “Save it. If this is how you have someone’s back, I don’t want you at mine.” Her gaze narrowed on him. “Where is he?”
Luca was apparently smart enough to realize how close she was to hurting him. “The roof.”
She nodded once, already rounding the couch. “How do I get there?”
He moved to the elevator, hitting a button to open the doors, then held them open for her. He hit another button inside the car. “Straight up there.”
She made a wide berth around him as she walked in, but she was sure he didn’t miss the daggers she was shooting his way. “By the way, my name is Shelby. Not Blondie.”
His only reply was to let the elevator doors slide closed between them.
Her stomach was in knots by the time she stepped out onto the roof. Luca was supposed to be Daniel’s friend, and it shook her on every level to know what his friend thought about him.
She just didn’t get how Luca–how anyone–couldn’t see what was beneath the gruff, permanently pissed-off exterior. So help her, she would beat the knowledge into Luca if she had to, but the idiot was going to see the kind of person Daniel was.
The night came tumbling back with crystal, heartbreaking clarity. He’d taken his time with her at first. She had reveled in it, her body coming alive. She hadn’t been The Good Girl. She’d been sexy, the most beautiful woman in the world. His hands and mouth had been urgent, desperate, like he couldn’t get enough of her, as if he needed her just so he could breathe. Then, he’d devoured her. Dear Lord, by the time they’d come up for air, every bone in her body had melted, and it had taken her ten minutes to remember her own name.
He’d been dangerous, a little bit wicked, and she’d been soul-deep addicted.
It hadn’t just been the sex, though, that had been romance-novel mind-blowing. It had been him. Daniel. His power, his strength, the absolute control and intensity in him with every move he made, as if with the barest flick of his wrist he could send the world spinning off its axis. When she’d seen the scars covering his skin, suggesting he’d spent his entire life in battle, the need in her to take care of him ran so deep, it had terrified her down to the bones. Because when they’d touched, she’d felt how lost he was, and how desperate he was to find a connection to someone who cared about him.
Then he’d disappeared, and she’d felt like her world had shattered.
Pushing it aside, she wrapped her good arm around herself to ward off the sharp breeze as she glanced around in the darkness.
When she didn’t see him, she was about to head back to the apartment when a movement caught the corner of her eye. She swung around, her heart seizing in her chest as she saw a massive dragon perched on the low wall that wrapped around the roof.
For a second, she was sure the creature was breathing. The full moon played off black and red iridescent scales that looked warm to the touch. She kept waiting for the massive wings to stretch out as the giant beast took flight. It was so real she took a step forward with her hand stretched out, only to snatch it back with a laugh.
Of course, it wasn’t real. It was a massive, seriously lifelike statue. Amused at herself for letting Daniel’s off-the-wall comment earlier play with her imagination, she took a step back. “I’m losing my mind,” she muttered, as she started to turn back for the stairs, only for her body to freeze into place as the dragon lifted its head and slowly turned toward her.
Screaming, she tripped over her
feet as she scrambled backward, landing on her backside. In an effort to stop herself from wrenching open her shoulder wound, she tried to shift her momentum at the last moment. As her head bounced off a concrete pillar, the last thing she saw before her vision grayed, her world fading to black, was the dragon roaring.
8
The second the elevator doors opened, Daniel ran for the bedroom. “Luca!”
“What the hell happened?” Luca asked. “She only went up there a minute ago!”
Daniel’s face wiped clean of emotion as he carefully laid his mate on his bed. “She saw the dragon.”
“Fucking hell.”
As soon as she was as comfortable as he could make her, Daniel straightened. Without warning, he gripped Luca by his leather jacket, shoving him against the wall. He moved his body in, trapping the other dragon. Daniel’s teeth lengthened dangerously, his pupils turning to slits. “What the hell were you thinking letting her up there?” he asked, snarling.
To Daniel’s surprise, Luca didn’t fight back. He met Daniel’s gaze head on. “I found some things about her you need to see.”
Daniel slammed his lieutenant against the wall, leaving Dragan with no personal space and his feet an inch off the floor. While Daniel’s human form was only scarcely bigger than Luca’s, Daniel was King. If Luca so much as raised his fist against him, Daniel would be in his right to kill him. There were very few times Daniel had ever exercised the right, but Luca had put his mate in danger. Fury didn’t come close to explaining what was roaring through Daniel’s blood at the moment. “That’s not an answer!”
“I’ll explain as soon you look,” Luca said. His lieutenant’s calmness, when Daniel was ready to rip out his throat, had the rage ebbing back as fear took over.
Worrying about Shelby wasn’t new to him. Giving into the emotion and having to deal with it were.