“A bit of hair will do. It’s best if it has a follicle.”
“How am I going to get her hair?”
“We could rifle through her things.”
“Well, let’s hurry and do that before she gets back and catches us.” Hanish charged past his science officer and out of the gymnasium, hurrying down the stairs to JoJo’s second-floor bedroom near the nursery.
Hanish used his wrist device to quickly unlock the door, and they both stepped into the nanny’s room. Her things were unpacked and organized neatly on the shelves and in the closet. He went into her bathroom, hoping to find a hairbrush. Inside a drawer, in a compartment that fit her brush perfectly, he discovered the instrument and pulled it out. Inspecting the bristles, he found them completely clean. He held it up to Zephyr, and his friend nodded.
“Ms. Morris has excellent hygiene,” Zephyr observed.
“How are we going to find a hair now?” Hanish looked around the bathroom. After staring into the garbage can for a moment, he spotted a bit of dental floss. “Will this work?” He pulled the floss from the garbage, unable to believe he was rifling through his employee’s trash can. It was a new low.
Zephyr inspected it with his wrist device and shook his head. “No DNA.”
Hanish pulled out a piece of used tissue and held it up. “This?”
“No DNA on that, either.”
Hanish growled and dropped it back into the garbage can.
“Her toothbrush?” He grabbed it out of the holder on the counter.
“We’d have to take it with us.”
Deciding the bathroom wouldn’t yield any results, he charged back into the bedroom and glanced out the window. JoJo was strolling Tor toward the house. He grumbled and turned in a circle, inspecting the room. The bed was perfectly made, boots were polished and sitting in a line in the closet, books were alphabetized and neatly arranged on the shelf. He threw back the covers of her bed and examined the pillow. Nothing. Just as he was about to give up, he turned the pillow over. One long brown hair was stuck to the sheet underneath, follicle and all.
“Aha.” Hanish pinched the hair and lifted it off the sheet. Zephyr produced a vial, and Hanish dropped the hair inside. “Let’s go.”
Hanish and Zephyr quickly departed the bedroom, closing the door behind them just as JoJo stepped up the last stair into the hallway.
“Tor got a little dirty outside, so we are having a midday bath,” JoJo said as she approached. “What are you two up to?” She observed their sheepish expressions.
“We just wanted to ask if you had everything you needed,” Hanish said, trying to throw her off his trail.
“You don’t seem to have any English tea. I prefer it to coffee. If you would procure that for me, I would appreciate it.”
“No problem,” Hanish said, not sure how else to respond. He was feeling more and more as if this woman was his employer and he was the employee. “I’ll have Akash bring some back from the city for you.”
“That sounds lovely. Now if you’ll excuse me,” she said, stepping between the men, “I’m taking Tor to his bath.” Hanish nodded as she disappeared through the nursery door. He let out a long breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
Zephyr gave him a confused look and hurried down the stairs. Hanish followed him, wanting to get the news immediately. On the first floor, Raiden was playing a video game on the big-screen TV in the living room. The quick-witted warrior was laughing and grinning as he shouted profanities into a headset microphone.
“What are you doing?” Hanish asked.
“Battleground,” Raiden said as if that explained everything. “Don’t distract me.”
Down in the basement, Zephyr greeted Azure, the ship’s AI, and dropped JoJo’s hair onto an analysis plate. Every ship in the Dragonian armada was equipped with its own advanced Artificial Intelligence, and each one had an individual personality. The AI was linked to the dragons’ mental links and helped them with everything from navigation to music selection.
“I would like you to run a mating analysis for JoJo Morris and Captain Hanish, prince of the House of Storms. This is a DNA sample for JoJo Morris.” Zephyr turned to Hanish. “I will need a sample, Captain.” He produced a swab from a container. “Open up.”
Hanish opened his mouth, and Zephyr scraped a sample from inside his cheek. He then dropped it onto the analysis plate.
“Commencing analysis,” Azure stated.
“How long is this going to take?” Hanish asked.
“It could take several days, Captain.” Zephyr slid his finger over the holographic screen before him, entering several commands into the computer. “The House of Flames perfected the test with humans, but it is still not instant.”
“What am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Hanish was beside himself. His inner dragon wouldn’t stop screaming. As irritating and annoying as JoJo Morris might be, his inner beast couldn’t seem to get enough of her. The dragon wanted to be with her every moment, fawn on her, kiss her, hold her, claim her. It was all the beast could think about, and it spent every waking moment sending Hanish images of doing all those things.
“Carry on with your life?” Zephyr asked.
“Obviously.” Hanish charged out of the room. On the way upstairs, he passed Raiden and smacked him in the back of the head.
Raiden grunted and looked up at his captain. “What was that for?”
“For being you.”
Hanish stormed through the first floor and up to the gymnasium in the attic. His inner dragon screamed for release. Hanish growled and punched the wall until a hole formed in the plaster.
“Dammit.” His knuckles bled, his pride wounded. Sweat dripped from every pore as he sat down on a bench. He wiped his brow with a towel and slid it over the bulging muscles of his chest. JoJo Morris would be the death of him. If he couldn’t claim her soon, he was going to lose his mind.
Chapter 6
JoJo sat with baby Tor under the shade of a weeping willow in the backyard. He’d been doing so well. The tooth that had been bothering him had finally broken through the gums and was now protruding from his slobbery grin.
While Tor played with his toys on the blanket she’d spread across the grass, JoJo read a book on child development by one of her contemporaries she’d gone to university with. It was really quite fascinating. JoJo’s own book on child development had recently won an award, which was one of the reasons Captain Hanish had been so willing to pay her astronomical fee.
She looked up from her book to see Captain Hanish walking toward her down the path. He was wearing a pair of slim-fitting slacks and a V-neck T-shirt that showed a hint of his muscled chest. JoJo gulped, trying to shove down the growing attraction she felt for her employer.
He stopped and knelt on the blanket beside Tor, smiling at the child. The boy shrieked with glee upon seeing his father and climbed into Hanish’s lap. Hanish held his son in his arms and spoke to him in gentle tones. When he looked up at JoJo, a storm was swirling behind his eyes. JoJo was taken aback at the intensity of his gaze and blinked several times as if trying to see something else.
“Tomorrow we’re having people over for a barbecue,” Hanish said. “Some old friends from my military days and their families. I thought you should be prepared.”
“That sounds quite nice.” She didn’t know why, but she looked forward to meeting more of Hanish’s friends. His brothers were all odd, for various reasons, but she had grown to like them and enjoy their company. She assumed that his other friends would be the same. She also looked forward to meeting some other women on this side of the Atlantic. It could be a little lonely living in a house full of men.
“They might seem a bit odd.”
“I was just thinking the Storms are odd,” she said.
“You think we’re odd?”
“Yes, but in an endearing way. Now that I have lived here for a while, I’ve begun to recognize your loyalty to each other. I think Tor has a strong, supportive family.”
Hanish rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s nice to hear that coming from you.”
“It’s true.”
Their eyes met briefly, the spark of understanding zipping between them. Hanish stood, taking Tor with him. “I’ll put Tor down for his afternoon nap. You can have some time to yourself out here in this lovely weather.”
“It’s quite all right. I’m prepared to do my job.”
“I want to spend some time with my son. You stay, read your book. I’ll take care of him.”
JoJo watched Hanish walk away with Tor. The man’s behind was deliciously tight in those slacks. She gritted her teeth, unable to believe she was having such thoughts about her boss. What has gotten into me? She had never been a woman given to simple lust. Not even when the incident happened in college. But now that she lived with Hanish, it seemed to have taken over her entire consciousness. Not a moment went by when she wasn’t thinking about the attractive captain. When she dreamed at night, he was there, kissing her and speaking sweet words into her ear. When she woke in the morning, the memories of those fantasies lingered in her mind as the echoes of pleasure tingled through her body. When she showered and brushed the soapy sponge over her skin, she saw his face and that boyish smile he showed when he spoke to his son.
Hanish tried to present himself as hard and dictatorial. His brothers certainly respected him. But underneath, Hanish was a man given to intense affection and playfulness like she’d never seen. Each day she spent living in his home, it became more difficult to keep up the appearance of professionalism. Soon, she would have to admit her attraction and accept the consequences. She had grown attached to Tor the way she had with her last family, and she always hated to leave a position when her attachments had grown so strong.
But being caught up in her desire for her employer would not do any of them any good. It would be better to nip it in the bud and admit her inappropriate feelings sooner rather than later. Then she could move on to work for a new family in which the father wasn’t so unbelievably attractive, and JoJo didn’t wake up every morning with the memory of her inappropriate fantasies lingering in her mind.
JoJo wiggled her nose and pointed at the toys on the blanket. Each teething ring and stuffed animal rose in the air and glided to the basket, popping inside at the flick of her wrist. She stood and used her magic to fold the blanket. Then she flicked her finger and dropped it over her shoulder. With her other hand, she used her magic to raise the basket into the air and plop it onto her arm. On the way back to the mansion, she thought about her life as a single and solitary magician.
JoJo had had her magic ability for as long as she could remember. In her life, she had met one or two other gifted individuals who were equally baffled as to where their abilities had originated. She had studied and researched the origins of magic but had never been able to explain it in a satisfactory way. Without a logical and reasonable explanation, JoJo had just come to accept that her magic was a fact. It wasn’t good or bad or anything else. It just was. And she could use it or not at will.
In her job as a nanny, she often had the opportunity to use her abilities for simple things such as tidying up or catching a child who was not within arm’s reach and was about to be harmed. Otherwise, she lived her life as an ordinary woman, drinking tea, going to the shops, and doing her job. She had never considered herself particularly special because of her magic, although she had made the choice fairly early on to keep it hidden from anyone outside her family. Her great-aunt Mary had a touch of magic and had discovered it in JoJo early on.
One day during the summer holiday, Mary had found her organizing her library. The books had been hanging in the air while JoJo categorized them alphabetically. Mary walked into the room and broke JoJo’s concentration, and all the books went tumbling to the ground, but not before her great-aunt Mary had witnessed them hanging in the air. After that occasion, Mary explained to her that many people in their family had possessed gifts and that it was fine for her to use her magic as long as she didn’t use it publicly. That had been a lesson JoJo had taken with her into adulthood and still held onto.
The next morning, JoJo prepared Tor for the barbecue, giving him a bath and dressing him in shorts, a tank top, booties, and sunscreen. Outside on the patio, Hanish stood at the grill, flipping hamburger patties, while Raiden stood beside him, drinking a beer at eleven o’clock in the morning. JoJo set up a play area inside a childproof fence. She laid down a blanket, toys, and a baby play-gym. Hanish had mentioned that his friends, the Flames, also had two young children.
He turned and looked at her, observing the play area she had constructed. “What a wonderful idea, JoJo,” Hanish said, holding his barbecue tongs.
“Thank you, Captain Storm.”
“You don’t have to call me Captain. You can just call me Hanish.”
“Thank you, Hanish,” she said, feeling sheepish. In her fantasy the night before, she had been calling him “oh God, yes.”
The patio door swung open, and out walked Yuki, Akash, and Ragnar Storm along with Krista Wilder, the realtor, who was in an odd relationship with the three men. JoJo hadn’t met Krista yet but had heard about her from the other Storms. Krista’s three lovers spent some time living at the Storm mansion, but most of their time was spent in Seattle with Krista. Raiden strode over to the trio, slapped them on the backs, and offered them a beer.
Krista glided across the patio, her flowing summer dress waving around her rounded form. She reached out and offered JoJo her hand. “I’m Krista Wilder. You must be JoJo Morris, the new nanny. Hanish was looking for a nanny for a long time. I’m so glad he found one up to his standards.”
JoJo took Krista’s hand. The women smiled at each other then glanced at the Storm men. They were laughing and talking around the cooler full of beer. Krista gazed up at her three boyfriends. Pride and love shone in her eyes. She rubbed her small baby bump then turned back to JoJo. “It will be good for them to have another woman around. They can all get rowdy and competitive, if you know what I mean.”
“I do. When the six of them are all in the house, I fear they’ll burn the place down. You should keep yours in Seattle full-time.”
“I’ll need them around when the baby comes. Good thing I’ve learned to keep them in line.” Krista winked at JoJo. “You seem to be the kind of woman who can do the same.”
“I pride myself on maintaining control in any situation.”
“You’ll have to around these guys.”
“To be honest,” JoJo said, suddenly feeling as though she could confide in Krista, “I’m not sure how long I’m going to be here. Don’t say anything to Hanish, but I seem to have developed an unprofessional attraction to the man. It wouldn’t be prudent to remain in his employ.”
“Have you now?” Krista asked. “I thought I saw something there. Don’t be too hasty in your decision. There may be some surprises yet to unfold.”
Krista’s boyfriend Yuki walked over and took her hand, excusing them as he led Krista toward the patio doors. Another group of guests appeared in the doorway. More insanely attractive men with their beautiful, bright-eyed ladies walked out onto the patio. Everyone smiled, laughed, and embraced. JoJo noticed one couple with children. The man carried a toddler, and the woman wore a baby sling.
Hanish approached and picked up Tor. “Come, JoJo,” Hanish said. “I want to introduce you to everyone.”
As a household employee, JoJo wasn’t used to being treated like a guest when friends arrived at her employer’s estate. But Hanish was treating her exactly that way. He introduced her to all the members of the Flame family. Commander Kian was a tall, dark-haired man with flashing blue eyes. He was married to a woman named Everly, and between them, they had two beautiful daughters, a young toddler and a newborn.
Then there was the big, burly blond man named Dax, whose wife was called Aria. She was lovely, petite, and curvaceous with a warm and generous smile. Dax and the dark-haired man called Aiden seemed to have a good-natured compe
tition between them. Aiden was accompanied by his wife, Winnifred, a tall, curvy recent college grad whom she learned had painted the landscape that hung above the mantel in the Storms’ living room. Then there was Cato, a scientist. His computer programmer wife, Penelope, was developing a small baby bump of her own. Penelope had brought her sister, Flora, whom JoJo learned was completing her doctorate in genetic engineering.
When Flora, Penelope, and Cato arrived, Zephyr appeared on the patio, and the four of them sat down with Yuki, immediately beginning a conversation about science that went straight over JoJo’s head. Everly and Kian, the parents of the two adorable children, approached JoJo.
“You must be JoJo,” Everly said, reaching out to take JoJo’s hand. “I’ve heard so much about you.” Everly’s handshake was warm and soft, like her smile. She struck JoJo as a woman who was nurturing and loving and well-suited for motherhood. “I was a nanny myself for a time until Kian and I fell in love and got married.”
“You worked for him?” JoJo asked, becoming flushed. “How did you manage to transition from your professional relationship into a private one?” JoJo realized the question was inappropriate, but the words dripped from her lips before she could hold them back.
Everly laughed and rocked her cooing daughter. “It was a bit of a challenge at first. But we were both so attracted to each other that it couldn’t be held back for long. It all just happened naturally. Ember is like my own daughter now, and we’re one big, happy family. I see you’ve made a baby yard.” Everly pointed to the play area. “That looks like so much fun.”
Everly stepped inside the yard and placed Ember on the blanket. She sat cross-legged beside the child and began to unwrap the infant from the sling. Hanish handed Tor to JoJo, and she joined Everly in the playpen with the children. She sat Tor down beside Ember, and the two of them began to play in a friendly but disconnected manner that was typical of children that age.
Hanish and Kian walked back to the grill and began discussing barbecue techniques. Aiden pulled out his guitar and strummed while Aria tuned up her voice. The moment Aria began to sing, JoJo felt a shiver of energy run down her spine. It was the oddest sensation, and she couldn’t help but think it was because of Aria’s voice. Hanish flipped a burger, and Aria began to sing.
Dragon Guardians: Complete Series Page 15