Water Dragon (The Bride Hunt Book 2)

by Charlene Hartnady

  Her big, beautiful eyes were tear soaked even though no more of them fell. Her eyelashes glinted. She held her lip between her teeth. She looked away, keeping her gaze on anything but him.

  Torrent huffed out a pent up breath. “Shit, Candy.” He moved over to her and she allowed him to cup her face with his hands. He turned her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I did initially want that dark haired female. I won’t lie to you.”

  A tear escaped and her throat worked. It definitely hurt her to hear him say it. She did feel their bond despite everything she said to the contrary. She tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let her. “I chose you, Candy. I didn’t have to but I did anyway. I wanted to. It is important that you know that I am attracted to you in a big way. I haven’t so much as given that other female a passing thought since bringing you here. I’m glad things ended up the way they did. Let’s work on it. I really want us to give this a chance.” He moved away from her and gave her some space.

  “Thank you. I appreciate your honesty. I am still struggling to accept that I am stuck in this room…” She looked around her, her eyes widened here and there as they roamed. “As beautiful as it is. I’m essentially a prisoner here until you either let me go or I have sex with you. It’s not an ideal situation. Why can’t you just tell everyone that we’re dating…” She pulled a face that spoke of panic and gripped her temples. “I haven’t dated anyone in a very long time. This is so… unexpected.” She huffed out a breath. “I don’t understand why I need to be locked away. It’s not like I can escape or anything. We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

  They were moving forward. He needed to come clean about everything. “Everyone thinks that I have fully claimed you.”

  “What?”

  “My people think that we are mated.”

  “That we had sex?” Her brows lifted.

  Torrent nodded. “If you go out, they will know that it is not true. When we do rut… consummate our relationship, you will scent of me. It will be subtle but there.”

  “You had to”—she paused—“pretend to… you know… the whole dress lifting thing.” She looked flustered. “Is that how they got the wrong idea about this?”

  “Yeah, that. I made those males believe that I was claiming you. I had to. Some of them were water dragons. They came back here and spread the word that I had mated you.”

  Candy nodded. “I see.”

  “I obviously didn’t really do it. You were already half unconscious and I could never…”

  She waved her hands. “Yeah, yeah, I know. So everyone thinks we did the deed.”

  Torrent nodded. “I should’ve said something when we returned here. Set the record straight. It is acceptable to fool one’s opponents but I felt a need to protect you. I was worried about you. You’d been out cold for a long time. There were short bouts where you opened your eyes but I could see that you weren’t really awake. It scared me. Non-humans are still governed by instinct. It is my responsibility to protect you.” He paused.

  “Once we got back here, I snarled and growled if anyone tried to approach you. Based on the information they had already received and on my actions, they assumed I had fully claimed you. No one got close enough to scent that I hadn’t actually done the deed. I allowed them to assume it. I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly. I liked the idea of you as my mate and I didn’t think it would take long to claim you anyway. So…”

  “So… all your people think we’re already mated, I mean, like, for real.”

  He nodded.

  “Tell them you lied. Set the record straight.”

  “I’m their king. They need to be able to trust me. I don’t know why I did it, all I know is that it’s done. We are going to finish this so why cause unnecessary shit?”

  “You’re never going to let me go, are you?” Her lip wobbled.

  Torrent clenched his teeth for a moment or two. He wanted to go to her, to put his arms around her and reassure her but he refrained. What would he say? That she was wrong? That she was right? Fuck! This was one hell of a mess. “Let’s get to know one another. I concede that it’s not an ideal situation. I fucked up. I might be a king but I make mistakes. I honestly thought that you would be in my bed as soon as you healed.”

  Candy laughed. “I actually completely believe you. You do realize that your arrogance and that oversized ego of yours is to blame, right?”

  “Does your smile mean that you forgive me? That you’ll work on it.”

  “You’ve been straight with me and I appreciate it. I…” She licked her lips and took in a breath which she held inside her for a beat or two. “I believe that you are attracted to me, that you see a future for us and that you want this to work. I guess it’s my turn to be honest.” She paused again, clearly struggling to find her words. “I am also attracted to you. Very much so. I also feel a pull to you, a bond, whatever you want to call it. I don’t understand it. It scares me. This whole situation is… different. I don’t know that it is enough to base a whole relationship on but I agree to giving it a try. It’s the best I can do.”

  “Thank you.” Torrent felt elated. “I will make sure that you don’t regret it. I want you to be more comfortable. I need you to write down a list of things that you need. Anything, big or small. You can start with clothing. Make sure you add sizes.” He felt everything in him soften as he looked at her. “It won’t be so bad, I promise. I’m glad you are giving us a chance. I want it to be your choice though. If, in the end, you decide you still want out, I’ll take you back.”

  Candy seemed to relax. “Do you mean that?”

  He nodded. It killed him to say it but he couldn’t be with a female that wasn’t one hundred percent onboard. “Yes.”

  She gave a small nod. “Okay then.”

  Chapter 9

  After knocking, Torrent walked inside a few beats later. He was carrying an enormous tray. The most wonderful smells wafted towards her.

  Her stomach made a soft growling sound and she pressed her hand against it. She had since showered and changed into another pair of sweats. She’d rolled the sleeves and the pants around the waist. All of the clothes were too big.

  Torrent smiled. “Hungry?”

  How did he hear that? Oh yes, shifters had much better senses than humans. “You have no idea.”

  “Good.” His smile widened. “I brought all of the foods that you said you liked.”

  “All of them?” She could hear the shock in her voice. “That’s a ton of food.”

  He nodded. “Burgers and french fries, pizza, tacos and brownies.”

  Her stomach growled again, louder this time. “Yum.” Not that the food up until then had been bad or anything. It was just all so healthy. Meat and salad. Although healthy was good, sometimes a little unhealthy was required and today was one of those days.

  “My males will bring back sushi when they go to town tomorrow to pick up your supplies.”

  She felt her cheeks heat. “You’re going to send a bunch of guys to buy the stuff for me?”

  He nodded, a frown appeared on his forehead. “Is that a problem? Two males will go and get you your list of items.”

  “I put a couple of feminine things on the list. I guess I don’t mind. I feel a bit sorry for them though.” She giggled, putting her hand in front of her mouth. She could just imagine how it would look. A couple of big burly guys were going to have to buy her tampons and underwear. There were also a couple of steamy romance novel titles and a woman’s magazine or two on the list. There were one or two others things on there that she suddenly wished she had left off. She could just picture how the checkout person’s mouth would gape.

  Torrent shrugged as he put the tray down on the table. He pulled a chair out and motioned for her to sit. “You require the items. They will collect them. There is nothing to be ashamed about. I had a look at the list myself.”

  Her cheeks went from hot to inferno. Candy took a seat across from him, she busied herself with dishing up her food.
r />   Oh shit!

  He’d looked at the list!

  He was going to get the wrong idea. Arghhhhh!

  When she finally looked up, she met Torrent’s amused gaze. She looked down at her plate and lifted her fork.

  “Hungry?” he asked.

  Oh god, Candy had piled her plate high. A whole burger, two slices of pizza and a taco. There was just no way in hell she was eating all of this. No damned way.

  Her mind was on other things. “Starving,” she managed to eek out. All of a sudden her stomach felt wound into knots. She took a bite of the pizza anyway.

  Torrent grabbed a plate and helped himself to one of the burgers and some fries. He put the food onto his plate and then paused. When she snuck a peek at him he was looking at her strangely, his head was cocked to the side.

  “What’s wrong?” She instantly regretted the question.

  Torrent pushed his plate of food forward and folded his arms, leaning them on the table. “You’re embarrassed that I looked at the list. I can tell by the way your heart is racing. Your cheeks are bright red and you won’t look at me.”

  She shrugged. “I’m fine.”

  “You are embarrassed and greatly so…” He leaned back in his chair. “I can see it.”

  “I suppose I should have known that you would take a look. I guess I am a bit embarrassed.” Make that hugely embarrassed. You would swear she was an inexperienced virgin.

  “You shouldn’t be.” He paused. “Did I overstep the boundaries? I didn’t think it would make you so uncomfortable or I would never…”

  “It’s fine.” They were both adults. She managed to sort of smile and took another small bite of her pizza. “I’m okay with it.” Not at all! Yes, she was. She was an adult, dammit. They both were.

  “I’m glad you put condoms on there.” His voice sounded a little husky. He looked deadly serious. Torrent licked his lips, she watched the slow glide of his tongue over his lower lip.

  Then what he’d said registered. Oh god! Ground swallow me whole. Him looking at the list was one thing but she didn’t exactly want to talk about it.

  “There you go again. Your cheeks have turned seriously red.” He gave a small shake of the head. “You have nothing to feel embarrassed about. You’re making me repeat myself here.” He gave her a half smile. The guy sure was sexy. Far too sexy. Torrent leaned forward, the smile disappeared and his eyes narrowed. “I’m fucking thrilled you put them on there. It means—”

  “Don’t get any ideas. It’s just precautionary. I don’t have sex without a condom especially since I can no longer get my pill prescription filled.”

  “You mean pills so that you can’t become pregnant?” He didn’t look happy.

  “Look, just because I’m getting some condoms doesn’t mean we’ll be using them any time soon, and by the way, they work perfectly well at preventing pregnancy too.”

  He frowned, looking confused.

  “I can see you’re not happy that my pill prescription ran out. Like I said, condoms work just as well. In fact, they work better since they also prevent STD’s.”

  “Firstly… I don’t want you taking pills to prevent pregnancy. Secondly… I don’t want to use condoms”—he put up his hand when she tried to talk— “but I would do so in a heartbeat if it would make you feel better. I want to fully claim you. I also want to start a family as soon as possible. We can’t give each other any STD’s and I can scent when you are in heat. Humans call it ovulating.”

  She dropped the pizza back onto her overfull plate, glad she wasn’t swallowing because it would’ve made her choke. “Back up about a hundred miles, please. We’re not even properly married… mated. I haven’t even wrapped my head around that yet. Pregnancy and children?” She swallowed hard. “We need to get to know each other much better before we can take the whole mating step let alone to bring a helpless child into the world.” She struggled to pull air into her lungs. It felt like someone was sitting on her chest. “I didn’t have the best upbringing. My dad had a ton of affairs. My mom was… is an insecure wreck because of it.”

  Torrent clenched his fists and his jaw tightened. “That is when one of the mated pair ruts with someone else without their partner’s consent?”

  She nodded. “Yup. He finally ran off with one of the women. I was still very young. I never saw him again. After he left, my mom went through boyfriends like she did underwear. She had zero confidence and needed a partner to bolster her. She’s far too clingy and chases guys away. I hated my father for leaving but I missed him just as fiercely. I do want kids of my own…”

  Torrent seemed to breathe out a sigh of relief. He visibly relaxed, his attention on her. “I’m glad to hear that.”

  “Thing is…” She went on. “It’s important that I be in a stable relationship. I want for there to be a father for my child. I want…”

  Torrent reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “That’s good.” He smiled. “I want the same things. Dragons mate for life. There would be no divorce, no running away. I plan on being there for my children and supporting my mate. I would never leave you or our babies. It’s as simple as that.”

  “I want love and that doesn’t just happen, Torrent. We’re attracted to one another but it takes time for those other emotions to develop. It would’ve been nice if we could’ve explored this a bit more before…”

  “Before taking the plunge.” He finished the sentence for her.

  “Yeah.”

  “We are going to be just fine, Candy.” He squeezed her hand. “Let’s just forget about all the serious stuff and concentrate on getting to know one another.” His face had become animated, filled with boyish charm. It was appealing. She was sure that he didn’t show this side of himself often.

  Her chest tightened and that sensation of having her chest compressed increased. “We can’t have sex though.” Why the hell had she said that? Why did she keep bringing it up? It was like she was trying to convince him… no to convince herself. No. Sex. With. Torrent. Not yet anyway.

  He chuckled softly.

  Candy pulled her hand from his. She had to stand up and reach in order to give him a light slap on the arm. “It’s not funny. We’re dating… no, make that living together. We’re attracted to one another but we can’t have sex because that would mean instant marriage. It’s completely nuts. What if it happens by accident and we both regretted it?” She sucked deep breaths in and out, trying not to lose it.

  “I wouldn’t regret it.” He looked so damned sure. “Not a chance.” Oh god! He looked like he loved the idea of them being together… like that… forever. Her whole chest tightened all over again and this time in a different way.

  No! This was all happening too quickly. “You can’t know that.”

  “It’s hard for you to comprehend but it’s true. Look, if it will make you more comfortable, if we decide to have sex, we need to first take a cold shower, if we both still want to proceed after the shower then…”

  She laughed. It bubbled up unexpectedly from inside her. It felt good. Really good. “You’re serious? A cold shower.”

  Although he was smiling she could see that he meant it. “Yes. If we take a freezing cold shower, and trust me when I tell you that mountain water is fresh. If we shower and are still game, then nothing will happen without thinking it through first. We won’t be able to regret anything.”

  “Deal.” She felt a lot better and even picked up her burger and took a small bite.

  “Deal.” His gaze locked with hers. There was a lift to his mouth and a strange look in his eyes.

  Candy swallowed and took another bite. It was juicy and really delicious, she tried to ignore the way that Torrent was looking at her.

  “Just for the record.” He took a sip of his water, that mischievous glint was still out in full force.

  She made a humming noise to let him know that she was all ears.

  “We don’t have to rut in order to explore each other sexually.”

&n
bsp; Bring on the choking. Candy put her hand over her mouth. She coughed and spluttered and then coughed and spluttered some more.

  “It’s not something we need to talk about right now, but keep it in the back of your mind. Also, I will wait for you… I’m not making the first move.”

  Candy took a long drink of her water and nodded. “Okay.” Her voice was high-pitched.

  “Why were you abducted?”

  That was an odd question. “What do you mean? You guys took me. You know why. To mate and impregnate me, I guess.” She shivered.

  “I keep forgetting that you were never briefed the way you should have been. I will follow up with Blaze. It seems he is reluctant to punish those she-dragons.” Torrent grit his teeth, looking pissed for a moment or two. “We didn’t just take anyone, human females were specially earmarked. There were several criteria that needed to be met, things like age, fertility, a female needed to be unmated and without young. I’ve told you some of this already.” He paused. “There were also other reasons why the five of you were ultimately chosen, we looked for females in need of rescuing. We wanted to try and give you all a second chance. As much as we needed you, we wanted this to be mutually beneficial.”

  Their reasoning might be skewed but they weren’t a bad bunch, these dragon shifters. When she didn’t say anything, he leaned back in his chair. “Why did you need saving? What happened to you, Candy?”

  Candy picked up her water and held it, she rested the glass on the table in front of her. “I didn’t need saving”—she chewed on her bottom lip for a moment— “not really, I would’ve been fine.”

  “You can talk to me. Tell me about your old life.” Torrent picked up his burger. “You wouldn’t be here if everything was fine.”

  Candy swallowed hard. For whatever reason, she didn’t feel comfortable talking to him about Ellis and what she did for a living. Not yet. If she was honest with herself, she felt ashamed. She was worried about how he would react. What would he think of her? She’d never been ashamed before. Why now?