by Rinelle Grey
Rylee stared at him for a few more moments, half hoping he’d find some excuse for her to stay, some more stories to tell her or something. But he didn’t say anything.
So she made herself walk through to the laundry and start putting a load of washing on.
She could hear Calrian moving around in the next room, every part of her achingly aware of his presence. She had the urge to forget the washing, to rush back in to be with him, but she fought it. It wasn’t her. It was the bond. She needed to stay strong.
She managed to keep herself busy for nearly an hour before the urge became too much for her. By then, memories of how they’d both nearly died from being apart last night would no longer be silenced, and she had to check that he was okay.
That’s what she told herself anyway.
She tried to deny the leap of desire her body gave when she saw him, how her eyes lingered on his naked torso. She really should do something about finding some clothes for him. That would probably make this whole thing easier.
Tomorrow was her usual shopping day. If they weren’t out searching for his brothers and sisters, she’d grab something then.
That gave her a whole day to enjoy his nakedness first.
Rylee bit her lip. She really was losing it. She’d never been one to stare at men’s naked chests. Never had any interest in those firefighter calendars other women swooned over. But somehow, this was different.
This man was sitting in her living room, large as life, staring at… was that her real estate catalogue?
Rylee’s heart skipped a beat, then started hammering in her chest.
She felt exposed. She’d kept her dreams of owning a bed and breakfast to herself, sharing them only with Rowan, who was too young to realise how impossible they were. She certainly hadn’t told anyone else though. Her father would just laugh at her and tell her it was a pointless dream. How was she ever going to get enough money to start something like that?
Calrian would probably think the same thing if she told him.
And it would be the truth. It was a pointless dream, and indulging in it was as stupid as indulging in her feelings for the hot dragon shifter sitting on her couch.
“What are you doing with that?” Without even thinking, Rylee strode across the room and snatched it out of his hands.
He’d had it open at the page with the bed and breakfast she’d been sighing over just last night. Somehow, that just made it worse. He must think she was crazy.
“I’m sorry.” Calrian’s voice was suitably contrite, but it didn’t make Rylee feel any better.
“What are you doing going through my private belongings? You may have managed to trick me into this bond, but this is going too far.” Rylee’s hands were shaking, and she could feel hot tears pricking at the back of her eyes.
This had all been a mistake. Letting Calrian stay had been a mistake.
This was all happening because she was too scared to just sleep with him and get it over with. She was pretending she was being restrained and sensible, but really, it was all just going to backfire on her because she was too much of a coward to take a risk.
“I wasn’t meaning to pry,” Calrian persisted. “I didn’t realise it was private. I was simply trying to learn more about the human world and what has happened while I was asleep.”
His words penetrated the panic surrounding her and calmed her a little.
She was overreacting. He probably didn’t even know what he was looking at. Could he even read? She had no idea.
She took a few deep breaths until the trembling subsided, some of the adrenaline fading away. “Sorry. I just…”
She had no excuse for her outburst.
None she felt like sharing anyway.
Now that her initial panic had calmed, she realised that Calrian probably didn’t know enough about the human world to realise how impossible her dream was. He had no idea of the value of money, or how little she had. How little it was possible for a single mother to make.
“It’s all right,” Calrian said quickly. He paused for a moment, staring at the catalogue in her hand, and Rylee could see the curiosity in his eyes. But he didn’t say anything.
He had done his best to respect her wishes, from not wanting to complete the ritual with him to not wanting to talk about a stupid real estate catalogue.
She felt mean for snapping at him, but that didn’t mean she was even going to try to explain the situation to him. She stared around the room for a moment, then caught sight of the newspaper on the hall stand. She hadn’t even looked at it herself. She hated reading all the bad news, but her father dropped it off every day. He thought keeping up with what was going on in the world was important.
Rylee picked it up and handed it to Calrian. “Here, if you want to learn more about the world, this is the newspaper. It’s full of… news. Stuff that’s happening in the world. You can learn a lot more in there.”
“Thank you.” Calrian’s voice was serious and sounded genuinely grateful. “I’m sorry if I caused any distress.”
“It’s fine,” Rylee said, the shortness in her voice caused more by guilt for her reaction than any annoyance at him.
She was glad when she heard the hiss of the air brakes on the school bus as it pulled up outside. “That’s Rowan arriving home.”
She turned away, not wanting to see the bewildered expression in Calrian’s eyes any longer.
Chapter 16
Calrian stayed in the living room while Rylee went to the door and waited for Rowan to come up the path.
He had no idea what had upset her so much about the book he’d been holding. It seemed to hold pages of pictures of different buildings, all with numbers next to them. He wasn’t even sure what it meant let alone how it was private. It had just been sitting on a table in the hallway.
There was so much about her world he didn’t understand.
He stared at the paper she’d given him. A newspaper she’d called it. She’d said it would help him understand more about the human world. He wanted that. Needed that. He’d looked around her house while she was working and had seen many wonders. He simply wanted to know more.
But right now, he had bigger concerns. Rylee had been worried about how Rowan was going to react to him staying, and since he was here, they were about to find out. But so as not to put pressure on her, or interfere in her reunion with her son, he opened the paper and stared at the pages. His connection to her helped him translate the written words as easily as he could translate her spoken ones, but he wasn’t really seeing at them. He was only pretending to read as he listened to the conversation in the other room.
“How was your day?” Rylee asked Rowan, taking his bag from him. She put it on the table and unzipped it, removing a plastic box and a few pieces of paper.
“Fine,” Rowan said distractedly. He’d caught sight of Calrian, and a smile split his face. “You’re back!”
Calrian nodded, not sure what to say, or how much Rylee wanted to explain right now.
“Calrian will be staying with us for a few days,” Rylee said, but didn’t add any further details on why. “I’d rather you didn’t mention it to Grandad. I’m sure he won’t approve.”
Rowan screwed up his face. “Grandad doesn’t approve of anything.” He hesitated, looking from his mother to Calrian, then back. “Are you really a dragon,” he blurted out, then looked back to his mother as though afraid she would chastise him.
Calrian hesitated. That was one thing they hadn’t discussed, so he just looked to her and raised an eyebrow.
She heaved a sigh and came across the room to put her hand on Rowan’s shoulder. “Yes, he is. And he needs our help, my help, for a few days. You know how he was very weak when you found him?”
But Rowan wasn’t paying any attention to her words. He was staring at Calrian, his eyes bright with excitement. “Can you fly? Can you breathe fire? How come you look human?”
Calrian looked at Rylee again for permission, and when she nodded, h
e tried to answer the rapid fire questions. “Yes, I can fly in dragon form. No, I can’t breathe fire, I’m a water dragon. And I look human because I can shift between dragon form and human form.”
“Like a werewolf?” Rowan asked. “So if you’re a water dragon can you breathe water?”
“Yes, kind of like a werewolf, although as far as I know, those don’t actually exist,” Calrian said. “I don’t breathe water exactly, but I can hold my breath underwater for long periods of time, and I can manipulate water with my magic. When I’m at full strength anyway.” He looked back to Rylee, hoping she would take the opening he’d just offered her.
She did. “That’s why Calrian is staying for a few days. He’s formed a… kind of a magical bond… with me, when we touched that first time, and he needs to be close to me to regain his energy.”
This time, Rowan seemed to take in what she was saying. “So you’re staying for a few days?”
Rowan was only paying attention to what he wanted to hear. Calrian began to suspect that they weren’t in as much danger of being found out as Rylee had thought. “That’s the plan.”
“But Calrian being here isn’t an excuse to not get your homework done,” Rylee scolded gently. “Go and get it out of the way, then you can chat with him about being a dragon.” She was smiling though, her love for her son evident in her eyes.
Rowan grumbled a bit, but headed into his room, presumably to do his homework, whatever that was.
Leaving Calrian and Rylee alone. She stared at him for a moment, twisting the book she still held in her hands.
Calrian cleared his throat. “Well, that didn’t go too badly…”
Rylee nodded. “So far.” She was quiet for a moment, then said, “I have some more housework to do, and I need to get dinner on. Are you all right while I do that?”
Was he going to stay out of her private stuff, Calrian assumed she meant. He had every intention of doing so, even if he wasn’t quite sure what was private and what wasn’t. But he just nodded. “You do whatever you need to do, I’ll just be here.”
She nodded and disappeared without saying anything more, and Calrian sat down on the couch. He couldn’t help remembering sitting here with Rylee earlier, how her leg had brushed up against his.
Desire flared at the thought, and Calrian dampened it as much as he could. Best not to think about that. Best not to think about her at all.
Trouble was, he wasn’t sure what else to do. He would have loved to explore her home more, but he didn’t want to upset her again by inadvertently picking up something she’d prefer he didn’t. And he somehow suspected that she wouldn’t want him following her around. She seemed to want to get a little distance between them. And he didn’t blame her. This must all be very overwhelming to her.
That was when he realised he still held the newspaper in his hands. She’d given that to him, so that meant it wasn’t private, right? Since he had nothing better to do, he opened it and began to read.
He read one page then flicked through to the next, and then the next, growing more and more horrified by the minute. It seemed to be full of nothing but humans killing or hurting each other, battles being fought, and humans stealing from each other.
Was this what humans were really like?
It shouldn’t have surprised him. His clan had left England centuries ago to get away from the humans who were constantly trying to kill them. The stories in this newspaper fitted well with what his clan had always told him of humans.
But they didn’t fit with what he’d seen since waking at all.
Rylee was sweet and kind, and she’d helped him despite the cost to herself.
Rowan had befriended him and brought him home, despite knowing nothing about him. Despite not even being able to understand what he was saying.
He knew less about Rylee’s father, but he had been concerned for Rylee’s safety. Perhaps that meant the world was dangerous after all? But Rylee hadn’t seemed concerned.
Overall, these facts were inconsistent with the stories in the newspaper.
Calrian read on, frowning, wondering what this strange dichotomy meant.
After a few pages, the stories changed. He read about businesses doing new and interesting things. Science discoveries that blew his mind. And people doing amazing things with inventions he’d never imagined. This was what he was looking for. This fitted with what he’d seen of humans since waking.
And yet, it was all crammed onto two or three pages, not like the dozen or so before it filled with bad news. Strange. It was almost as if whoever wrote this ‘newspaper’ thought people preferred to read about bad news.
Calrian kept turning the pages, mystified.
That was when he found it. A section in the paper that looked just like the book Rylee had snatched from him. The heading said, ‘Real Estate’. Whatever that meant. And again there were pictures of buildings with descriptions and numbers.
Calrian stared at it, his heart thumping.
Had Rylee been aware that there were pages like her book in this newspaper? Was this private too?
But his curiosity wouldn’t be silenced. He stared at the page, trying to figure out what it meant, sure that if he could, it would help him understand more about Rylee.
“You thinking of buying a house?” Rowan plopped down onto the couch next to him.
Calrian lifted his eyes to the boy, not even trying to hide his confusion. “Buying a house?”
“Yeah, that’s the real estate section,” Rowan said, pointing. He stared at Calrian for a moment, then grinned. “You have no idea what that means, do you?”
“Something to do with… buying a house?” Calrian guessed. It made a kind of sense. He knew estate meant something to do with a house and land, but he had no idea how adding the word ‘real’ made it about selling.
Rowan just might have the answers he needed. He felt a bit bad asking outright when Rylee had been so upset earlier, but how was he supposed to avoid her private life when he didn’t even understand what it was?
Rowan laughed. “Yeah. People advertise their houses in the real estate pages, and other people buy them.”
Rowan’s answer didn’t clear things up any. Calrian still couldn’t see how that was private. He frowned. Perhaps he just needed to ask more questions.
“What are these numbers?” he asked, pointing.
“Those are the prices of the houses,” Rowan explained.
Calrian nodded. Since he knew little about human money, they didn’t mean much to him. “Is that a lot?”
Rowan’s eyes widened. “Yeah, it’s a lot,” he confirmed. He frowned, obviously trying to think of a comparison. “Um, I get five dollars a week pocket money. That buys me a bunch of lollies, or if I save up for a few weeks, I can get a toy.”
That didn’t help either. Dragons had little use for numbers, certainly not for ones as large as this. It was hard for him to even conceive of the scale these numbers indicated.
Rowan must have seen he was struggling, because he looked around the room searchingly. “Um, the TV cost about one hundred dollars, but mum bought it second hand.”
“Second… hand?” Calrian had a grasp of the basics of the human language, but many of the words still stumped him. Especially when they put two words together in such strange combinations.
“Yeah, from someone else who bought it new,” Rowan explained. “Same with the couch. It was only fifty dollars, but we had to borrow Grandad’s ute to get it home.”
Calrian nodded. The numbers in the real estate pages were far larger than fifty. He knew that at least. “How much did this house cost?” he asked, waving his hands to indicate.
“Oh, we don’t own the house,” Rowan said. “It belongs to Grandad. He said we could live here when Mum left Dad.”
A frown came over the boy’s face, and Calrian suspected he’d asked too much. He could see that the conversation was as painful for Rowan as it had been for Rylee. “That was kind of your grandad,” he said carefully
. He didn’t ask any more questions. He was beginning to see why Rylee considered this conversation private.
Was she hoping to buy her own house? Did she have that much money?
Calrian had no idea.
“Yeah, it was nice of him,” Rowan said, but his voice didn’t sound convinced.
Calrian stared at him, his head tilted to one side, not pushing, but hoping the boy would open up, maybe give him some of the answers he sought without pressure.
Rowan sighed. “Mum doesn’t want to be here. She wants us to have our own place.” He smiled then, as if he was thinking of something pleasant. “She wants to buy a bed and breakfast near the beach. That’d be awesome, living near the beach.”
The idea filled Calrian’s mind, making him smile too. He’d visited the ocean a few times when he was younger. The vast expanse of water and the teeming life underneath had always fascinated him. It was so much bigger, so much more alive than the small river near the clan’s lair. But since it had been several hours’ flight, he hadn’t been able to visit as much as he would have liked. “That sounds nice,” he agreed. “I bet you can’t wait.”
Rowan shrugged. “Mum needs to find a job first. Then she can save up some money.”
Calrian nodded, the picture becoming clearer. She didn’t have the money to buy a house near the beach. She didn’t even have a job to get the money. He had no idea how much she would make at a job or how long it would take her, but he could guess that it must seem quite a long way away right now.
That was the final piece of the puzzle he was looking for. The book with the houses represented her dream. One she wasn’t ready to share with anyone but her son.
Certainly not with him. He was only an interloper, even though he couldn’t help wishing he could be something more. Her dream sounded wonderful. One Calrian almost wished he could share.
Unfortunately, he had his own problems to deal with.
Chapter 17
“Dinner’s ready,” Rylee called out.
She was both glad and nervous that Calrian and Rowan seemed to be getting on okay. Rowan’s easy friendliness with Calrian made her feel a little better about keeping her distance. It wasn’t that she disliked him, it was just… complicated… right now.