Dragon Isle Book Bundle 1-3: My Lord and Dragon, The Dragon Fighter, and A Dragon's Bite

by Stern, Sophie

  “I told him I would,” she said simply, not wanting to get into details about her brother. She wasn’t sure what the dragons thought of Liam. It would be best not to ruffle their feathers, so to speak, if they didn’t like him much.

  Liam was very fond of dragons. Janae still wasn’t quite sure why. She knew that Willie had given him something to live for after their family died, but what did that have to do with dragons?

  “I see,” Gabriel said. The two continued walking down the road. It was a dirt road and Janae didn’t see any cars. She doubted there were any. It was dragon country, after all. If anyone really needed to get somewhere, they could just fly.

  Right?

  As the duo made their way toward Emerson’s office, Janae tried to take in as much of the village as she could. From what she could tell, the place seemed unusually normal. Mothers pushed their little children in strollers. Fathers worked on their lawns. A few old people stood around and chatted.

  And it was peaceful.

  And it was quiet.

  “Here we are,” Gabriel said. He stopped in front of a small building. It was a single-story office-type building. It looked almost like a doctor’s or lawyer’s office. A small sign in front just said “Lostfallen Clan Headquarters.”

  “Thank you for your help,” Janae gripped the bag of the now-cold food. She tried not to shake as she was suddenly overcome with nervousness. Would Emerson be upset that she was late? Would he growl at her? Would he bite her?

  She always prided herself on being on time and now here she was, nearly half an hour past when she had been due to arrive.

  “Anytime,” Gabriel turned to leave, but Janae placed a hand on his arm. He turned back, surprised. “Is there something else, miss?”

  “Yes, um…” How could she ask without sounding completely insane? “I know this is a dumb question, but what should I call him? I mean, does this guy have an official title or something?”

  Gabriel smiled. “I’m glad you asked.”

  **

  A knock at the door caught Emerson’s attention. Penny stood in the doorway with a raised eyebrow.

  “Your lunch is here,” she said. Emerson motioned for Penny to send Janae in. She stepped aside and Janae moved forward nervously. Oh, but seeing her out of her element was going to be fun. She was obviously uncomfortable around dragons, but why? Her brother wasn’t that way.

  If anything, Liam was too comfortable around dragons. He had never spent too much time on the island itself, but Emerson didn’t know a single inhabitant who didn’t trust Liam explicitly. Why the man hadn’t yet mated a clan member, Emerson didn’t know.

  Then again, everyone had their secrets.

  “Good afternoon,” Emerson said to Janae, who was still standing in the doorway. She remained still for a moment. Then, before Emerson could do stand up, she rushed into the room, placed the food on the desk, and saluted him.

  “Oh, Emerson, Dragon Most High,” she said. “I salute you.”

  “What the fu-“ Penny’s voice came from behind Janae, but was immediately drowned out by Emerson’s insane laughter. He knew he sounded like a crazy man, but he doubled over in a fit of laughter so strong that his stomach soon hurt.

  Janae looked crushed.

  “Did I do it wrong?” She asked quietly.

  “Do what wrong?” Emerson tried to stop laughing. “What was that?”

  “It was the formal greeting of a visitor to the head of Dragon Isle,” she said softly. “Did I mess it up?” Her voice was sad, as if she felt like she always messed things up.

  Emerson stopped laughing.

  “Who told you about this greeting, little human?” He asked. Penny had disappeared. For that, Emerson was grateful. He needed a few minutes alone with this sweet girl. He needed a little while to get to know her without too many eyes on her. He didn’t want to frighten her away. Not this human. Not this time.

  “Gabriel,” she said.

  Emerson growled. That son-of-a-bitch. Leave it to one of the most conniving dragons on the island to introduce sweet little Janae to their world.

  Of course it had been Gabriel.

  “Um,” she looked embarrassed, but didn’t say anything else.

  “Thank you for bringing me the food, little one,” Emerson murmured. “Please, will you consider joining me?”

  Janae hesitated for a moment, but hunger apparently won out because she took a seat across from Emerson.

  “So,” she said, reaching for a burger from the bag. “I’m guessing I don’t need to call you ‘Dragon Most High.’”

  “Certainly not,” Emerson agreed, taking his own burger. “I’m afraid my clan member was simply taking advantage of your naivety.”

  “I see,” Janae said. She kept her eyes focused on her burger and took a few small bites. Once she realized how delicious the food was, she quickly devoured the rest of the sandwich.

  Emerson smiled.

  He loved a woman with an appetite for food almost as much as he loved a woman with an appetite for sex. With Janae, he realized, things could go either way. She might be a quiet, reserved woman in bed or she might surprise him and secretly be quite fun to play with.

  He couldn’t tell.

  “Tell me about yourself,” Emerson said.

  “You’re used to being in charge, huh?”

  “Is that a problem?”

  “Nope.”

  She reached for a fry and bit into it, but didn’t say anything else. Emerson watched her intently, waiting for her to give in. Why was she so stubborn?

  She was obviously attracted to him. She couldn’t deny that even if she wanted to. Emerson was a dragon after all. He could smell her.

  And she smelled like sex.

  “Janae?” He pressed after a long moment.

  “What?” She groaned. “Why do you want to get to know me? I’m only here for a month, dragonman.”

  At that, he smiled. She called him “dragonman,” probably as an insult, but the endearment sounded sweet on her soft lips.

  “I make it my business to know everyone who works on or near my island,” he said simply.

  Janae bit her lip and looked around the room nervously. She seemed to be studying everything in sight. She looked at the desk and the chairs. She looked at the bookshelves and the walls. She looked at the paintings and the carpet.

  Finally, she looked back at Emerson. She breathed in. She breathed out. Then she spoke.

  “I’m here helping Liam,” she said.

  “I know that. Why are you helping him?”

  “Because he got hurt.”

  “What’s it to you?”

  “What is this, a fucking interview?” She growled and stood up, putting her hands on her hips. “What’s with the 20 questions?”

  Emerson studied her for a moment before making his observation audible.

  “You’re afraid of people taking an interest in you. Why?”

  Janae looked as if he had slapped her in the face.

  “Liam is my brother,” she said quietly. “That’s what it is to me.”

  Then she turned around and left the room.

  Well, that couldn’t have gone worse even if Emerson had tried.

  Fuck.

  5

  Janae returned to Dragon Isle the next day after a sleepless night. She barely spoke to Liam when she got back. She felt a little bad about it, seeing as how he was hurt so bad he could barely wobble around on his crutches, but she was tired.

  She was tired of feeling worthless and tired of feeling like she was at fault for her parents dying. She was tired of feeling like she should have her life together. She was tired of being single.

  Most of all, Janae was tired of feeling like nothing she ever did was good enough.

  The feelings had come slowly at first, but they had welled up over the last ten years. With no outlet to relieve her stress, she had learned to bottle everything up inside.

  But she was about to bubble over.

  Janae wasn�
�t sure why Emerson, of all people, got under her skin. He wasn’t even a real person. He was a monster. He was a beast.

  But every time she thought about him, she felt all tingly inside. Every time he pictured his face or his hard, lean body, she thought about what it would be like to have him climb over her, what it would be like to have him give her everything.

  She laughed at the thought. Emerson would never go for a girl like her. As head of his clan, he probably had his fill of eligible dragonwomen to choose from. And she wasn’t half as pretty or half as tall as any of those women.

  Besides, he probably wanted someone more experienced.

  Scratch that, he probably wanted someone experienced.

  At all.

  Which she was not.

  Ugh.

  Janae stepped off the boat and walked to his office. She was early today by about 10 minutes. Good. Maybe it would make up for yesterday, at least a little. She entered the office and greeted Penny, Emerson’s office assistant. She had been so nice to Janae yesterday.

  “Hello, Miss Rose,” Penny said with a smile. How did she know Janae’s last name? Oh yeah. Janae had totally blabbed to Emerson about how she knew Liam. The whole island probably knew by now.

  “Hi Penny,” Janae smiled, trying to be genuine. “Good to see you again.”

  “Emerson is ready for you, so you can just head right on in.” Penny smiled and went back to her romance novel. She had a half-eaten sandwich in front of her and was obviously on her lunch break.

  Janae hesitated, and Penny looked up again.

  “Something wrong, Miss Rose?”

  “Uh, um, yeah.” Janae held up a soda. “I thought you might be thirsty, you know, what with all you have to do, so I brought you this.”

  She set the soda down on Penny’s desk and hurried into Emerson’s office, not ready to deal with any snarky comments about her gift.

  Emerson was sitting at his desk, just as he had been the day before. He was on the phone, but waved her inside, motioning for her to close the door behind her.

  Janae did, then sat down in front of Emerson. She wasn’t sure if she’d be joining him for lunch or not, but she pulled out the food and lined it up on the desk while he finished up his phone call.

  “Good to see you, Miss Rose,” he said with a smile. When she raised her eyebrow, he said, “Janae.”

  “And it’s good to see you, too, dragon-whose-last-name-I-do-not-know.”

  “Ah, well, for me to share that information with you, you’re going to have to share a little bit of information with me.”

  “Like a game?”

  “Exactly like a game.”

  Janae was feeling tired from tossing and turning all night. She’d been horny and bored and restless. She’d gotten off twice and it hadn’t been enough. She was still achy, reeling from the unusual yearning between her legs.

  Maybe Emerson could help her with that.

  She blushed at the thought.

  “Why are you blushing, Miss Rose?” Emerson asked. Of course he noticed immediately. He would.

  “No reason in particular,” she said, but she knew Emerson didn’t believe her.

  “Are you up for a little game?” He pressed again.

  “Okay,” Janae said. She wasn’t quite sold on the idea, but she wasn’t up to resisting.

  “All right, first question.” Emerson reached for a sandwich. “How old are you?”

  “29.”

  “Your turn to ask a question.”

  “How old are you?”

  He made a tsk sound.

  “I would have thought you’d be more creative in your questions, Miss Rose, but I’ll play along. I’m 36.”

  Now it was her turn to raise her eyebrows. He didn’t look that old, but she didn’t really mind. He was, she had heard, an excellent leader. He had done a great job improving the human-dragon relations on the mainland. While she wasn’t sure how well the other dragons liked him, she knew Liam thought he was pretty great.

  “My turn again,” Emerson smiled. Oh, he was having fun with this. She could tell. “What color are your panties?”

  She started choking on her sandwich. He leaned across the desk and reached for her back, smacking it hard. It helped.

  “What the fuck?” She asked. “What kind of question is that?”

  “I thought you were up for a little game.” Emerson’s eyes twinkled. He thought she would chicken out! She’d show him. He might be a dragon, but she was a world-class librarian. She had read more books than he could even dream about. She’d beat him. She had to.

  “What panties?” She asked innocently and wide-eyed. Now it was Emerson’s turn to choke. “My turn,” she said with a smirk when he stopped coughing.

  Emerson could only nod.

  “Why aren’t you married yet?”

  “You go right for the heart, don’t you?”

  Janae shrugged. She was bored and tired. She might as well have a little fun. Emerson did want to play, after all.

  “Would it be too cliché to say I haven’t found the right woman yet?”

  “Yes.”

  “I haven’t found the right woman yet. Your turn. Same question.”

  Janae bit her lip. She always did when she was nervous. How could she succinctly answer this? She wasn’t sure whether she should go for snarky or clever. In the end, she decided to just go for honest.

  “I don’t know how close you and my brother are,” she began slowly. “I don’t know if he’s told you about our past or anything, but my parents, along with our younger brother, died in a car accident. After that, I just, I don’t know. I didn’t really place a priority on finding someone.”

  Emerson nodded.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” he murmured.

  “It’s okay.”

  “No,” he placed a hand on Janae’s. “It’s really not. You never really get over something like that.”

  “Yeah,” she said. She tried not to think about Connor’s hearty laugh or his ready smile. He really had been the light of their family. While they had all been close, they hadn’t really been a family until Connor was born.

  “It’s your turn to ask a question,” he said to Janae.

  “That’s okay,” she said. She picked up the rest of her food and threw it out. “I really should get going.”

  Without another word, she left, once again proving that her ability to speak with men was lacking.

  Considerably.

  6

  Emerson was not doing a good job getting to know Liam’s little sister. In fact, his entire get-to-know-her-then-seduce-her plot was pretty much a complete disaster. When Penny left for the day, Emerson sat around the office, trying to figure out exactly what he could do to improve the situation.

  Janae liked him. That much was obvious. She became aroused each time they were in the same room. What would she be like the first time he kissed her? The first time he palmed her breasts? The first time he tied her up?

  It had been a long time since Emerson had been forced to actually work to get to know a female. Most of the time, both dragons and humans were throwing themselves at him: men and women.

  While many of the dragon clan members were nervous around him, others found him irresistible. Many didn’t care that he was scary and gruff. They were still attracted to him and that attraction overruled any sense of fear.

  Janae was not that way and it confused Emerson. Someone so beautiful should be mated. It seemed that Janae was not just beautiful physically, but emotionally, as well. She was kind. She was caring.

  He had noticed how she brought a drink just for Penny. He had noticed she had given up whatever her life consisted of in order to help her brother.

  And he had noticed, most of all, how she became unusually shy in his presence.

  He wanted to notice more.

  So when the night finally came, Emerson did what he could to ensure Janae would be out of the house and busy on the docks, and he flew to Nellenston. He stopped at t
he docks and grabbed a set of clothes from Willie. The good man kept a trash can full of clothes just outside of the little shack. Flyaway dragons didn’t have to even ask before grabbing a set of clothes. They could just take what they needed and return the clothes later.

  Most of the dragons left tips or brought gifts to the old man as a courtesy.

  Once dressed, Emerson marched over to Liam’s house. He didn’t bother knocking.

  “Come right on in, why dontcha?” Liam hollered from the living room when Emerson burst into his house. The young man pretended to be irritated, but Emerson could tell from his scent that Liam was glad to have company.

  “Don’t mind if I do,” Emerson retorted. He took one look at his friend and immediately felt sorry for him. Liam was a good guy, yet here he was, laid up on the sofa with his foot propped on a stack of flat pillows and faded pillowcases. He had a drink and snacks within reach and was watching reruns of a horrible television show. He looked bored out of his mind.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Liam grunted.

  “Just thought I’d stop by and see an old friend.” Emerson sat down in the faded red recliner across from the sofa. It was positioned toward Liam, so Emerson could see his friend, but not the TV.

  It was perfect.

  He propped his feet up on the coffee table and leaned back in the chair, taking a long look around the room. He knew Liam made good money working for the dragons, yet he lived very simply. He had old, second-hand furniture. His walls were sparsely decorated. His carpets were faded and worn.

  What did Liam do with all that cash?

  He didn’t have time to ask because Liam interrupted his thoughts.

  “What do you want, Emerson?” Liam didn’t look angry or rude. He simply wanted to know the truth about Emerson’s visit.

  The grumpy dragon didn’t blame him. Emerson almost never came to Nellenston for social visits. Usually, he would come to town to get laid, then go back to the solitude of the island. Emerson preferred to sleep with women who weren’t part of his clan. It was easier for the women to cope with rejection when they didn’t have to see him every day.