by Skye Jones
Her hand dipped down under the covers, but she stopped when she remembered Kate in the bedroom next door. These people were magical, and reading someone’s mind might not be beyond their capabilities. She’d die of mortification if Kate guessed what she was doing furtively under the covers. She yanked her hand out from under the duvet, grabbed a towel from the closet, and headed to the bathroom. A cool shower called.
Thirty minutes later, she’d pulled her long hair into a messy bun to let it dry naturally. Dressed in a strappy, knee-length summery dress, she headed downstairs. The day already clung to her skin, sultry and warm, and the forecast heralded a week of hot summer weather.
She’d put coffee on to brew and puttered around gathering bread and spreads to make toast when Kate shuffled into the kitchen.
“Morning. I hope you slept.” She almost laughed hysterically as she realized she stood there making polite conversation with a dragon shapeshifter.
“Yes, thank you.” Kate eyed her with the warm brown gaze she possessed. Something steadfast and calming about the woman put Mia at ease.
“Good. Erm…have a seat. I’m going to make toast if you’d like some.”
“Toast sounds lovely.” Kate sat at the table and smoothed her hands over the worn wood. “I like your abode. It’s welcoming and warm.”
Mia glowed at the compliment. She’d been aiming for such a thing when she’d decorated. Her home wasn’t clean and beige like so many of the modern homes she saw on TV or on the rare occasions she visited someone. Instead, it was full of bright colors, bold prints, throws, and lots of potted plants. “I like it. Some people find it a bit cluttered and too much, but I like my bright colors and knickknacks.” She blushed a little for some reason.
“It’s your dragon side,” Kate said. “We love our bright colors, too. Our homes are often full of lots of jeweled shades, and we love our things. Things, precious objects, be they monetary or personal, are important to our kind. The old tales of dragons and their treasures is not a lie. Very few dragons have minimalist homes. Although, Aiden does. His home is most unusual for our people.”
Mia’s heart did a little skip of excitement at the mention of the gorgeous blond.
“What about Steffan?” She bit her lip as she waited for the reply.
Kate laughed. “His cave is a real dragon’s den. Literally. It’s filled with marvelous treasures, wonderful art, and some amazing rugs he’s owned for centuries in some cases.”
Her head whipped around from the toaster, and she gave Kate her undivided attention. Centuries? Wait…what? Cave. “He lives in a cave?”
“Yes, he lives in a cave. Many of our kind used to, but over time, we moved to more modern homes. Steffan has the best of both worlds. He lives in an astonishing home built right into a natural cave.”
Kate took a sip of the coffee Mia placed in front of her and went on. “He keeps the front section elemental and natural, and he sometimes sleeps there in his dragon form.”
Mia shivered at the idea. God, she’d been crushing on a man who changed form into a fire-breathing lizard and who slept in a cave…with creepy crawlies scurrying about. Ugh. Her desire banked somewhat as she thought of it.
“You look disgusted, but it’s the natural way of our kind, or was for many decades.”
Should she apologize? She didn’t want to come across as hating on their ways. “It’s not disgust at his home, more the thought of sleeping in a cave with creepy crawlies everywhere.”
Kate laughed then, the sound dancing off the tiles in the sun-bright kitchen. “Oh, you don’t care about creepy crawlies when you’re in dragon form. And in his human form, he only sleeps in the human part of the cave, which probably houses far fewer crawling beasties than does your home.”
Still, sleeping in a cave. Maybe she preferred Aiden and his normality to the brooding Steffan. But she knew it wasn’t true as soon as the thought popped into her mind. Aiden turned her on, but Steffan turned her on more. Trouble was, he also scared her more, and she found him hard to imagine having any sort of friendship with. Whereas Aiden hadn’t been particularly friendly toward her, she guessed he would be pretty damn easy to get on with. She easily imagined watching a movie with Aiden or curling up to read a book on the sofa with him. She couldn’t remotely envision doing such normal things with Steffan. The idea of such a powerful personality sitting next to her on the sofa as she tried to make everyday conversation made her smile.
Where would she stay while she visited? And how exactly did one go about journeying to a dragon village? All the logistics struck her, and she began to tingle with nerves again.
“Erm, how do we do this? Do I follow you guys in my car?” She still wasn’t sure about any of this, but she knew she had to see if they could help her figure out the fire thing. And the endless dreams of dragons. Plus, she wanted to go see this place. Who wouldn’t? A chance to see real-life dragons? And there was the question of meeting her sister. Every time she thought about it, so many emotions surged within her, she had to shut the thought down.
“No, we’ve got a big enough off-roader to fit you in our vehicle. You won’t be able to find the way. We have magic to help protect our land from humans and you haven’t learned how to use the magic yet, so even following us, you might get lost or have an accident.”
“Okay.” She sat down at the table with a plate piled high with toast. She passed Kate a smaller plate and took one herself.
“Help yourself to some toast. There’s butter, jam, marmalade, and peanut butter. I wasn’t sure what you liked.”
Kate smiled. “I’m a marmalade girl, myself.”
“Me too.” She chewed on her toast for a while and decided to ask the question she’d been burning to all morning. “Do you think they’ll allow me to paint some of you in dragon form? I’d love it so much, I can’t tell you.”
Kate swallowed and dabbed at her mouth with one of the squares of paper towel serving as napkins. “I don’t see why not. They’d never allow photographs, of course, but a painting should be fine.”
Mia’s mood perked up as they spent the next fifteen minutes eating toast, drinking coffee, and having a good chat.
After they’d finished eating, the two women worked together to clear the plates. A loud beep from outside the cottage nearly caused Mia to drop the plate she’d been drying. Her nerves roared back to life. The prospect of more time in Steffan’s company made her stomach swirl with anxiety.
The door banged open, and Aiden sauntered in. His green gaze landed on her, and for a moment, tracked down her body and back up, licking a path of flame wherever it roamed. His jaw held a bit of scruff this morning, making him appear older. He gave them a lazy grin, and dimples popped on either side of his gorgeous mouth. Maybe she’d been wrong when she’d thought she preferred Steffan. Aiden was divine.
He lounged against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. He wore a tight white T-shirt, and she realized he was big, too, when his biceps bulged. Maybe not as tall or as broad as Steffan, but packed with muscle. He looked as if he worked out hard and did manual labor for a living.
She sighed and bit her lip, forcing herself to look away. Maybe she ought to change her pill or something? She’d been horny as hell since meeting these men, and even if either of them had been interested in her, she couldn’t have them both. Although, her sister… No, she needed to stop it with the threesome shit. Her silly little fantasies weren’t welcome out of the privacy of her own bed in the middle of the deep, dark night.
“The car’s ready if you’re packed.” Aiden continued to watch her with a blank expression, those crossed arms shields across his chest.
She nodded and looked to Kate. “I’ll go grab my things. Where will Marlow go?”
“Who?” Aiden frowned.
“My dog.”
“Oh, no. You can’t bring your dog.”
“Of course, she must.” Kate walked by Aiden and cuffed him on the back of his head.
Mia stared, shocked.
The woman might have done it with a smile, but Mia’d never dare do such a thing to either of these men.
“I’ll see you at the car.” Kate waggled her fingers at her, and Mia suddenly wanted to get out of there and grab her things. The way Aiden watched her, as if he’d stripped back her outer layers to see the delicate rings at the center of her emotional tree, unnerved her too much.
Kate grabbed Marlow’s bed on her way out the door and pulled it closed behind her.
“I’ll go get my things.” Mia walked uncertainly to the door, and he made to move.
“Do you want a hand?”
“No…thank you.” Oh, Lord, no. She didn’t need him in her personal space. What with his leaning, arms-crossed, sexy-as-sin thing he’d got going on.
She packed the last of her needed belongings efficiently, and on her way back into the kitchen, grabbed the bag of Marlow’s doggy necessities she’d put away last night. Then she swung past Aiden and through the door, waiting impatiently with keys in hand as he sauntered out after her. He passed close by, still giving her a scorching look. One she felt deep, in areas she didn’t want to acknowledge.
“What?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. I like the way you’re dealing with this. You seem…excited, curious. Not scared as I’d expected.”
She picked up a hint of grudging respect from the man and notched her chin higher. “I am excited and curious. I’m also more than a little nervous, but it’s outweighed at the moment by the good stuff. I’ll let you know if it changes and I’m about to freak out. Until then, you can stop gawping at me. Deal?”
He stared at her a long beat, eyes hard to read, then he tipped his head back and laughed. “Deal, Mia.”
Oh, good God. The way he said her name. It slid from his lips like silk, a promise of something she didn’t remotely want to think about.
Door locked and checked twice, she headed to the huge off-roader, and Aiden lifted the back door, letting Marlow jump in and settle into his already loaded dog bed.
“Where are we going? Roughly. I know you can’t tell me exactly.”
“Into the mountains.” He sighed after he spoke and rubbed his stomach absentmindedly.
Oh, crap. She traveled badly, and on any sort of windy journey threw up more often than not.
She spied Rhiannon up front and Steffan in the driver’s seat. It would be a twisty old journey into the mountains.
“Do you think Rhiannon would mind swapping places with me? I get sick is all.”
He winced. “You and me both.”
“Oh. Sorry, you take the front.”
He paused, and something washed over his face for a moment, something she couldn’t put her finger on, but she swore fear chased it across his features before he once more put his disinterested mask firmly in place. “No…it’s okay. You sit up front. I don’t want…I don’t wish for you to be sick.”
Should she argue? Chivalry may be nice, but she didn’t want him doing her any favors. And what had the emotion show been all about?
Aiden had already stalked to the front door and opened it, though, and was having a quiet word with Rhiannon. The woman clambered out of the front seat and moved to the back, where she belted herself in.
“I’m sorry. If any of you start to feel ill, perhaps we can swap. All take turns up front.” Mia leaned into the car and addressed the two women and Aiden, who fiddled with his seatbelt.
Rhiannon smiled. “No need, dear. I don’t get sick. Aiden here can shout if he does.” She patted the big man’s leg as if he were a child, and he rolled his eyes.
These people had a strange dynamic she hadn’t quite figured out yet.
She climbed into the front seat, pulled the belt over her, and took a deep breath. Fresh ocean fragrance washed over her, undercut by a deeper, sensual scent she’d come to recognize as all Steffan. Oh, crap. Perhaps riding up front hadn’t been such a good idea, after all.
He turned those freaky eyes of his on her and swept his gaze over the back. “We all settled now? Anyone else want to swap places, go to the toilet, have a snack?”
“Who got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?” Aiden muttered. “Just drive. And try not to swing it around corners like Rhiannon did.”
“I did not. I’m an excellent driver,” she responded.
“Yeah, if you’re taking part in a rally,” Aiden said.
Steffan’s eyes rolled, but his lips twitched as he put the car into gear and pulled from the driveway onto the narrow gravel track. The path under them popped and crunched under the massive tires, and then they were on the proper, single-lane road leaving her home. The nerves and excitement swirled in Mia’s stomach as she wondered what the hell waited for her in those mountains.
She risked a glance at Steffan and wished she hadn’t. He wore a tight gray T-shirt. It cleaved to his impressive biceps, and once more, she noted those swirls of ink peeking out. The ink looked faded now, as if the work had been done years ago. Perhaps it had been. He looked to be in his midthirties maybe. Possibly older. He proved hard to age accurately, and she had to assume he’d lived much longer, after Kate’s cryptic words. She didn’t want to ask, couldn’t face the knowledge on top of everything else. His face didn’t hold many lines, but something about him screamed experience. Aiden seemed much younger by comparison. Fresher somehow, as if untouched by the trials and tribulations of life.
Aiden’s gorgeous looks reminded her of youth and vitality, whereas Steffan gave the impression of a man hewn by steel and fire. How she understood such a thing about him, she had no idea, but she’d bet good money he’d been through a lot of crap in his life.
His big hands held the steering wheel loosely, and she watched them for a moment. His knuckles were scraped and crisscrossed with old white scars highlighted by his tan skin. As big and rugged looking as the rest of him, those hands fascinated her. She’d love to paint them, to put down on paper all they said about the man himself. Like him, they were powerful but somehow…worn.
Steffan took his eyes from the road to look her way, and she flushed and turned to stare out the window. They’d reached her favorite part of the coast road. It swept down in a big arc with the sea to their left, and beyond it, past the bay, the mountains on the mainland. Unlike here, where the sun shone, the mountains were shrouded in a cloak of mist, their tips hidden from view.
She liked the view best during cloudless evenings in summertime. If she walked down this road at the end of the day when the light faded, the mountains would stand out against the slowly darkening sky like cardboard cutouts. Sharp and monumental, their gray edges contrasted gloriously with the deep blue sky and warm golden glow of the slowly setting sun. The changing light show, the sky fading into deep blue and sometimes pinks and oranges as the sun went down, never failed to take her breath away.
God, she loved this place. Loved everything about it. Even the idea of finding her people, her family, didn’t make her want to leave. Up there in the mountains, she wouldn’t get this view. She’d see other, gorgeous vistas, but not this one. Not the one she loved and needed.
She realized something then, sitting in this car with strangers—not even human strangers either. She came to understand how much this place meant to her. She’d lost her mother, her only family, and had few friends. But this small community and this place had always been there for her. Its beauty and its grandeur had provided a balm for her troubled soul. Her painting and love of this landscape had saved her, and she couldn’t see herself leaving them behind. Not even for a sister.
They reached the bridge and crossed from the island onto the mainland. As she said good-bye to the ocean and they turned off the main highway, her nerves built.
She talked herself down. Told herself not to be paranoid. These people, as strange as they were, were her people. She didn’t have anything to fear, but her sixth sense told her differently.
“They’re going to like me, right?”
“What?” Steffan glanced at her.
> “Your people, the ones I’m going to meet. They are going to like me, aren’t they? Make me welcome. Who will I stay with?”
“You can stay with me and my mates, if you wish,” Kate said.
Mates? Oh, like her sister? Kate had two men, too. Wowsers. She’d hate to intrude, though.
“Or me and my two males,” Rhiannon offered.
She realized she held her breath, waiting for Steffan to tell her she could join him and his mates. What if Steffan and Aiden were together and had a woman back home? The idea made her nauseated for the first time during the journey. Oh, bloody hell, why did she even care?
Annoyed at herself, she looked out of the window.
“Or, you can stay with Steffan,” Aiden said.
She turned in surprise to see a smirk cross Aiden’s face.
“In his cave,” he added.
“In the cave?”
“Yes. You can go stay in the bat cave with Steffan.”
Steffan said not one word, but his knuckles tightened on the steering wheel.
“It’s not a bad idea.” Rhiannon leaned forward between the two front seats. “I’m sure Mia will be safe with us. But after what happened to Claire, we can’t be too careful. She’d be safe with you Steffan. Your cave is like a fortress, and you’re a powerful male.”
“Sorry. Excuse me.” Oh, Mia didn’t like the turn of this conversation. “I thought this was some happy trip to come and meet my people, not anything that held any danger. What happened to Ice, I mean, Claire? To my sister?” She got a thrill from saying the word sister, but her fear kindled again. The little nugget of worry and doubt she’d suppressed throughout the trip roared to life.
“Nothing,” Aiden said. “It’s all fine now. But it is a good idea for you to stay with Steffan, actually. I’d not thought of it seriously, but it makes sense. And he’s your guardian anyway, until Nathan and his gang get to us.”
“You should stay with them, too,” Rhiannon said with the sweetest smile plastered on her face. Too sweet. Something was going on here, and Mia didn’t understand it.