“I hope he got soaked,” Josh quipped, laughing at the thought of Connor getting pelted with rain.
Barb was about to tell him that wasn’t very nice, even though she, too, was laughing, when an elderly woman approached them and spoke.
“Dining in or take out, Josh?” the woman asked.
“Takeout, Cassi. Have you met Barb Chapman? She’s in from California to visit Amy and Owen McCord for a while.”
“Really? Pleasure to meet you, Barb. Amy and Owen are such a lovely young couple. How long will you be staying?” Cassi asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m doing some work nearby and will be here until that is finished up,” Barb replied.
“Well, I hope you enjoy your stay. You can’t ask for anyone better to show you around than Josh. Now, what can I get for the two of you?”
Barb studied the woman’s face closely. She appeared to be in her late sixties or early seventies, but Barb knew she was much older than that, older than she could humanly fathom. She found herself wondering how long she had appeared this age or any age before it, for that matter. Her mind drifted back to how Josh told her dragons aged, but she’d have to sit down and work out the math to put any sort of visual timeline with that.
“Do you have a menu?” Barb asked.
The woman smiled and motion over her shoulder. Barb looked up to see a giant chalkboard behind the main counter, filled with everything one could order, as well as the day’s specials. It was far too much to choose from. Her eyes grew wide just trying to take it all in. She looked at Josh helplessly.
“You want me to order for you?” he asked.
“Please,” she replied.
Cassi seemed unbothered by her hesitation. Barb waited while Josh rattled off an order of a whole steak and mushroom pie with side salads and sticky toffee pudding for two. It sounded like a lot of food, but they were getting it to go, so at least she wouldn’t feel like she was leaving a lot of food on her plate if he could just store the leftovers.
“Coming right up. Want something to drink while you wait?” Cassi asked.
“Barb?” Josh said, turning back toward her.
“That would be great. Perhaps some ginger ale?”
“Two ginger ales then,” Josh told Cassi.
“Get them right out to you,” Cassi said, already turning to leave.
“Thanks, Cassi,” Josh told her, motioning for Barb to have a seat at a nearby table by the window.
They had barely sat down when a young woman came bustling out with their drinks. She was just the kind of girl Barb had envisioned when she had come to Ireland, with big green eyes and vibrant red hair. Instead, there were far more dark haired women with dark eyes. This one, though, was very pretty and seemed quite perky, especially once she laid eyes on Josh.
“Joshy! It’s so good to see you!” she said, smiling broadly as she sat the drinks down on the table.
“Good to see you too, Kara,” he replied. “This is Barb.”
Barb felt herself bristle a bit at the way the girl seemed to be flirting with him. She wondered why he introduced each of them only by name, rather than giving any further indication of who they might be to him. Then, she kicked herself for being petty. The girl was a server at a restaurant he frequented. As for herself did she expect him to call her a girlfriend? Lover? What? She was being silly . . . and jealous.
“Hi, Barb!” the girl said. The smile never faded from her face as was so often the case with women who had designs on a man. Still, she had called him Joshy, as if it was some sort of pet name between them.
“Hello, Kara,” Barb replied.
“You’re American!” Kara observed.
“Yes.”
“Oh, I want to go to America someday. Aaron says he will make sure I get there, perhaps to study. I hope he means it,” Kara said wistfully.
“Aaron?” Barb said, her head cocked upward toward the girl inquisitively.
“Yes. He’s my cousin. We had to leave for a while and I am glad we are back, but I want to see so much more than just Ireland. I’ve never been off this bloody island!”
Barb was about to respond when Cassi’s voice called to the girl from behind the counter. Kara grimaced and shrugged as she heard Cassi reminding her there were other tables to get to.
“Well, that’s me back to work. It was nice to meet you, Barb,” the girl told her, bopping away from the table and greeting another table just as enthusiastically. Obviously, that was just her nature. Barb immediately felt bad for thinking anything otherwise.
“Alright, here you go,” Cassi said a few minutes later, personally bringing their food out to the table. Josh paid her for it and they finished off their drinks before heading back out to his car. The rain was still pounding away at the ground. In just the few steps, both of them were soaked, the dress she had borrowed from Amy clinging provocatively to her skin.
Josh opened the door for her, letting the rain soak him even further before closing it behind her and running around to the other side. He looked over at her appreciatively and smiled. Barb looked down and realized that the dress was almost transparent from the rain.
“I’m loving that dress more every minute,” Josh said before leaning over to kiss her again.
His lips tingled against hers. She wanted to just throw caution to the wind and straddle him right there in the car, in front of all the people who could see out the windows of the restaurant. It was raining so hard that they most likely wouldn’t be able to make out anything through the windows anyway. She leaned into him and returned his kiss heatedly, her body melting against his.
“God, woman!” he said breathlessly, pulling away from her. “If you don’t stop that, we’re liable to get arrested for public indecency.”
“Me? You’re blaming me?” she said incredulously.
“Sure, why not?” he laughed. “Now, get on your side of the car so I can drive. I’m compromised enough as it is with the massive blood flow that has left my head.”
“Poor baby,” Barb teased.
By the time they had reached his place, Barb had regained her composure a bit, as had he. They made their way inside and managed to eat their food while it was still mostly hot, settling in for a helping of the pudding and a glass of wine afterward. Then, they had a second glass, which they didn’t even manage to finish before they were all tangled up in one another again. Josh carried her to his bed, where he quickly made any thoughts of work, or doubts about what might be happening between them, go away. Afterward, she lay curled up next to him with her head resting in the crook of his arm.
“I know it’s quick and that we have a lot to learn about one another still, Barb, but I hope you are feeling the same way I do. I feel like there is something worth pursuing between us,” he told her quietly in the darkness of the room.
“I just don’t know how that is possible, Josh. You live here. There are reasons why it would be hard for you to live anywhere else and I have a life in Los Angeles,” she said.
“I’m not asking you to give up anything for me. I’m not asking you to make any dramatic changes tomorrow or the next day. I just believe we are worth a shot,” he told her.
Barb considered this. She knew that, despite her reservations and fears, she felt exactly the same way he did. Everything about him seemed so perfect, so right. They were suited for one another in ways that she had never felt she was with any other man. She sighed deeply before she spoke, weighing her words carefully.
“I think I was destined to meet you,” she said, planting a kiss on his bare shoulder.
Their words quickly fell away as they made love again and fell asleep in one another’s arms. Barb was awakened in the wee hours of the morning by the sound of her phone ringing, but she made no attempt to answer it, letting it go to voice mail and cuddling closer to Josh instead.
CHAPTER 13
Barb and Josh both shot straight up in the bed, neither certain what had awakened them. Then, they heard it again, a loud knocking on the
front door as if someone urgently needed to get inside.
“Get dressed and I’ll see who it is,” Josh told her, hopping out of the bed and slipping into his jeans and a t-shirt before padding out the bedroom door, shutting it behind him.
Barb got up and began getting dressed, realizing that all she had here was the slinky dress she had borrowed from Amy. It would be a bit awkward in the morning light to be wearing it, but it would have to do. She could hear voices coming from the living room, someone shouting. Hurriedly, she slipped on her shoes and made her way out to see what was going on.
“Well, isn’t this convenient?” a large man in a dark suit said as she came out.
“What is convenient?” she asked him.
“To find the two people I need to see in the same place. Awfully early in the morning for you to be visiting isn’t it?” the man told her in a snarky tone.
“Just who the hell do you think you are?” Josh snarled at him.
“I think I’m the investigator that a Mr. Albert Montrose sent to find the two of you so you can answer a few questions,” he said.
Barb sized him up. He was a large man, maybe six three and nearly two hundred pounds of solid muscle. His dark blue suit looked as if it was fresh from the dry cleaners, perfectly pressed and spotless. The Italian loafers he wore on his feet probably cost more than most people made in a month. Whoever he was, he definitely was not with the local authorities.
“Ask us questions about what?” Barb asked.
“It would seem that when the rain stopped this morning, a new discovery was made. At some point in the last twenty four hours, the skeletal remains being housed in a secure tent at the dig site had been stolen.”
“Are you kidding me?” Barb asked, hardly able to believe what she was hearing.
“Do I look like I am?” he barked at her.
“Okay, first of all, who are you and what branch of law enforcement are you with?” Josh questioned him.
Barb glanced at Josh. He seemed a lot calmer about this than she felt. Why would Albert think that the two of them had anything to do with this at all? How did he know where to find Josh, and why had he sent a goon to question them?
“I am the investigator with a private security force Mr. Montrose hired to protect his interests. My name is Harold Banfield.”
“Okay, Mr. Banfield. Do you have a badge of some sort? Some sort of authority?” Josh asked him.
“I am a licensed private investigator. Would you like to see my credentials?” the man said.
Barb looked at the two of them, squaring off against one another verbally. Banfield pulled out his wallet and handed both herself and Josh a card with his information on it, then held up a card indicating that he was exactly as he said. Barb felt like she might have a panic attack at any moment. Even though she knew she had nothing to do with this, had she been involved without her knowledge? Theft of something that was so valuable, as an artifact of this nature was a major offense.
“Okay, Mr. Banfield. Thank you for stopping by. Now, let’s be clear about something. Neither I, nor Miss Chapman had anything to do with whatever has happened at your client’s site. That is all we will be saying. If anyone has any further questions for us, they should be presented to us by a badged officer with good cause to ask them. Got it?” Josh growled at him.
“If you have nothing to hide, there is no cause for you not to answer questions,” Banfield replied.
“I’ll ask you to leave my house now or it is I who will be calling the authorities to have you arrested. We’ve done nothing wrong and we have nothing further to say,” Josh told him.
Banfield looked from one of them to the other, obviously annoyed by their lack of cooperation. Still, there was nothing he could do about it. On one hand, Barb was glad that Josh had handled it so quickly, but she also had to wonder if he might know something she didn’t. No one had more reason to make those remains disappear than he or someone from his clan. She felt ill. This was all too much to deal with for her.
“There is no reason to be rude,” Banfield shot back.
“I’ve not yet begun to be rude. I’ll start now. Get out of my house,” Josh told him, taking several steps toward him to show him that he was not frightened by his size.
Banfield stared at him for a moment. Barb’s heart thudded wildly in her chest, frightened that this might get even uglier before it was over. Though this goon of Albert’s was a bit larger than Josh, it was doubtful that he was a dragon shifter and that was pretty much a serious game changer. Barb realized that she didn’t even know what Josh’s dragon form looked like and found herself wondering about that. No sooner had the thought occurred to her than she dismissed it, wondering why she was thinking about such in the middle of what was happening here.
“I’m going to go, but this isn’t the end of this,” Banfield told him, turning to let himself out the door.
“Trust me. It is the end of it. You’re barking up the wrong tree,” Josh told him, slamming the door closed behind him just as soon as he cleared the frame.
Barb looked at him as he walked to the window to watch the man leave. He stood there waiting until Banfield was in the dark sedan that he had climbed into and headed away from the house before turning back to her. There was a look on his face that told her he knew how bad all of this was. She flashed back to his behavior earlier, how preoccupied he had seemed when he had first arrived to pick her up last night. What did he really know about this?
“Josh, did Aaron send someone to take the remains?” she asked.
“What? No, of course not,” he said.
Barb noted how he looked away as he said the words. It was obvious that he either wasn’t sure about that himself, or knew that it wasn’t true because he had been involved somehow, but she didn’t want to point that out, not just yet anyway.
“Then who? Who would do such a thing?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Is it possible that Montrose took the bones himself?” he asked.
“What? Why would he take his own discovery?” she said, baffled that he even suggested such a thing.
“Insurance money? To study it without interference from anyone who might want a piece of the action? I don’t know. I’m asking if it is possible,” he said.
“It’s a ridiculous theory. I think that we both know who had the most at stake if those remains got any further than that on site tent,” she replied.
“Are you accusing me of something?” he asked.
Barb could hear how angry he sounded, see the heat rising in his face. She had pushed a button, but was it the wrong one? It was a well-known ploy to create doubt in an accuser by acting offended by any suggestion of impropriety. She really wanted to believe he knew nothing about this, but she found it hard to swallow that something that benefited him and his people so much was not the work of Aaron. It naturally followed that he would entrust Josh to either arrange the theft or make sure she was occupied while it took place.
Barb felt horrified and dirty that he might have seduced her last night just to divert her attention. Surely he wouldn’t have said the things he did to her about being so right for one another if he had a different agenda. He could have let her maintain the distance she had tried so hard to achieve rather than pulling her in and giving her a reason to let herself fall for him. Were all men bastards or was she just making too much of this?
“I’m just asking if you know anything that you need to tell me,” she said.
“No. Nothing. You should get ready to go. I’ll take you back to Amy and Owen’s,” he told her.
Barb bit her lip to fight back the tears threatening to fall down her face. His voice was so cold. He had gotten her message loud and clear, that she believed he had done this. Either she had hurt him by not trusting him or he was just blowing her off now that his work was done. She was having a hard time believing that about him, but she felt so confused by all of this. Confused and scared.
“I’m ready,” she replied, retrieving h
er purse from where she had left it on his entrance table.
“Then, we should go,” he told her, opening the front door and waiting while she walked out.
As usual, he opened the car door for her, but didn’t speak all the way to Amy’s house. When they arrived, he didn’t offer to get out and open the door for her again. She pulled the handle and stormed out, refusing to even say goodbye. Amy was opening the door to let her in before she even arrived on the front porch, a look of concern on her face. Barb didn’t turn as she heard Josh’s tires crunch against the gravel as he left the driveway. Inside the door, she burst into tears just as Amy closed it.
“Oh, God. What has happened?” Amy asked, pulling her into a hug until she could gain control of herself.
The two women walked into the living room and sat down, where Barb began to tell her what had occurred. Amy listened quietly, just letting her get it all out of her system before asking any questions or making any comments. Once Barb had calmed down, they began to try to sort out the facts as best they could.
CHAPTER 14
“Did you actually come out and accuse him of having something to do with it?” Amy asked after Barb had settled down a bit.
“Pretty much. I might not have put it so bluntly as saying it directly, but it was obvious that I thought he knew something about it, even after he told me he didn’t,” Barb told her.
“Do you really believe he does know something about it?”
“I don’t know anymore. I was sure he did, but after the way he acted…he was so angry. I am just not sure anymore. I hate that I’ve accused him of something he might not have done.”
“You are saying that he might not have done it, so you still have your doubts.”
“Well, you know him better than I do. I mean, you’ve been around him enough. Do you think he could have been involved? I’m scared, Amy. I could be in a lot of trouble here if I’ve been sleeping with the man who did this or had something to do with it.”
Desired by a Dragon: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Exiled Dragons Book 3) Page 9