by Donna Grant
“They’re crisps,” she said after reading the label. “I need to remember that.”
A glance outside showed Duke was still with Hal, so Cassie rushed upstairs and jumped into the shower. The hot water felt wonderful, as did washing her hair and scrubbing her body. Then she quickly blow-dried her hair.
Unable to resist, she put a dab of blush on her cheeks before she put on a fresh pair of jeans and her thickest sweater over a long-sleeve shirt, which wasn’t nearly thick enough for the weather.
She walked downstairs rubbing her hands together from the chill of the house only to come up short when she found Hal standing in the kitchen munching on a slice of meat, Duke at his feet.
“If that’s the warmest sweater you have, lass, I fear you need to do some shopping.”
She pulled her gaze away from his amazing pale, pale blue eyes and glanced down at her soft pink sweater and nodded. “I know. I was hoping to make it through winter with what I had. I have a few more sweaters I was able to get before I came, but my luggage was lost.”
“Maybe they’ll find your luggage soon. Either way, you need more sweaters and a thicker coat as well as gloves and scarves. A hat would also be wise.”
Cassie sighed as the dollar signs continued to add up in her mind. “I’ll get on that as soon as I can. Thank you for letting me know.”
“Dan should have told you.”
Yes, he should have, but Cassie wasn’t going to rag on her brother to a complete stranger. Yet, this stranger seemed to know Dan pretty well.
“Dan is … well, he’s so busy with … things,” she finished lamely. “Are you hungry? I’m famished.”
“Then let’s eat.”
Cassie hadn’t found any coffee, and she was in desperate need of caffeine, so she grabbed a soda from the fridge and told Hal to help himself.
He spoke of the weather and the snow they were expecting to get over the next few days while they fixed their sandwiches and ate. Cassie found herself relaxed around him, even if she was more aware of him as a man.
A very virile, very handsome man.
But she was under no illusions. She’d seen herself in the mirror. She was nothing to write home about, and men like Hal always had the most beautiful women on their arms.
“How much do I owe you for the groceries?” she asked once they were finished eating.
He waved away her words. “Consider it a welcome gift. How long are you staying, anyway?”
“Ah, that is a question, isn’t it? Dan said he needed some work done on the cottage and I needed a place to stay. I’ll do the work here in exchange for staying. During that time, I need to find a job.”
“All the way out here?” Hal asked, his black brows raised as his moonlight blue eyes watched her.
“When I arrived it was dark. I don’t remember much. How far is it to the nearest town?”
“Thirty minutes on a good, warm day.”
Cassie leaned her head back against the chair and nodded as she realized her situation here wasn’t that much better than it had been in Arizona, but at least here she wouldn’t get kicked out because she couldn’t pay the rent. “I see.”
“May I ask what brought you here?”
She found herself drawn to his eyes. The pale blue against his black hair and tanned skin was spellbinding. She wasn’t the type to reveal all her secrets, but with Hal, she found she wanted to share her burdens. Even if it was only for a short time.
“I lost my job during layoffs almost a year ago. I had savings, and I’d have been all right, but my roommate got married, leaving me with all the rent. That sapped my savings quicker than I expected. Finding a job was impossible anywhere. So many people out of work. I couldn’t even get hired on at McDonald’s.”
Cassie chuckled, remembering that interview.
“So your brother offered?” Hal asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Not exactly. Dan has always been the lucky one in the family. He’s the one who was able to skip college and land the ultimate job in London because of who he knew. That job is where he met Shelly, his wife. As I’m sure you know, her family is loaded with money, but Dan was doing all right by himself.”
“And your parents? Are they proud of him?”
“Our parents died in a car crash my junior year of high school. Gosh, that was over twelve years ago,” she said, and mentally frowned. How time flew. “Dan became my guardian and took care of me. I was able to get a couple of grants to go to college, and I paid the rest myself while working. Dan sent money at first, but it stopped when I got my degree and found a good job. Not that I blame him. I was able to take care of myself.”
“You didna see much of him, I take it?”
Hal’s questions were ones anyone would ask, but somehow Cassie felt as if he was steering her toward something. What, though, she didn’t know.
“No. His life was in London, and I understood that. When things got too rough, I called him. We worked out this arrangement.”
“Why no’ just ask him for money? He has enough of it.”
“I could have, and he would’ve sent it.”
“But?” Hal urged, his eyes focused intently on her.
Cassie crossed her arms over her chest. “But … I needed a new start somewhere.”
And she’d thought that being closer to Dan, she might see more of him. She was lonely, so very lonely. He was all that she had left of her family, and she hadn’t seen him in over nine years.
She hadn’t even been at his wedding, because it happened during her final exams and she wasn’t able to get away. It never occurred to Dan that she might have wanted to be there and that he could have scheduled the wedding a week later.
“You miss him,” Hal said.
Cassie looked away from Hal’s probing gaze. “He has his own life.”
“He left you alone. There’s no shame in wanting to be near family, Cassie.”
“Dan isn’t a bad person,” she said, and picked at her short nails. How many times had she railed against Dan because he hadn’t come to see her or sent for her? He knew she worked hard for what little money she earned.
She looked up to find Hal’s pale blue gaze soften.
“I never said he was.”
“He just gets caught up in his life and forgets about … things.”
“You mean he forgets you.”
Cassie took a deep breath and began to gather up the items on the table as she stood.
Suddenly one of Hal’s large hands covered hers. “No one should forget their family. No one should forget you.”
Cassie’s entire body heated at Hal’s whispered words. His amazing eyes caught and held hers, and she found herself drowning in them. Sinking, falling.
“Who are you?”
He glanced away. “I’m just a man.”
“No. You’re more than that. You’re different.”
He removed his hand from hers and scooted back the chair as he stood. He forced a smile and pulled on his sweater and coat. Cassie wished she could take back the words, to rewind the moment and start again.
She didn’t want him to leave, and take with him the warmth and ease he had given so easily.
“If you need anything I’ve written the number to Dreagan on a card and pinned it to the corkboard near the phone.”
The man who had been so interested, so kind was gone. In his place was someone who couldn’t get away from her fast enough. As usual, she was forever saying and doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.
“Thank you again. I can never repay your kindness.”
“There’s no need, lass. This is a lonely place out here in the Highlands. Doona be afraid to call if you need something.”
She walked him to the door, all too aware that he hadn’t offered to come back and see for himself if she needed anything. She thought there had been a spark of interest in his gaze, but she’d obviously been mistaken.
Hal gave Duke another pet on his head, and then with one last wave, he was gone.
Cassie closed and locked the door behind Hal. She turned and leaned against it, wishing she could take back whatever had changed Hal. He might still be there then.
“Who am I kidding? I don’t stand a chance with a man like him.”
Duke barked as if in agreement.
CHAPTER
FOUR
Hal’s heart still hammered in his chest as he crested the hill and disappeared from view of the cottage. And of Cassie.
He stopped and braced his hands on his knees as he bent over and gulped in huge amounts of cold air. He’d known when he first saw Cassie that he was attracted to her.
But talking to her, seeing her dark brown eyes focused on him had sent him reeling, careening.
She was hesitant to trust, lonely, and entirely too innocent. She was kind and a little shy, but determined and resourceful. And too damned pretty for her own good. It had taken all that he had not to gawk at her like an idiot.
Touching her. That had been the worst mistake.
He closed his eyes as he recalled her warm, smooth skin and the way her dark hair had hung straight and thick down her back like a cascade of silk.
Hal straightened and took several more deep breaths to calm his yearning body. He’d looked in on Cassie several times the day before, each time hoping he’d be there when she woke.
He’d wondered endlessly about what color her eyes would be and how her voice would sound. He found he loved her American accent and how easy a smile came to her full lips.
There was a moment when he’d almost offered to come see her the following day, but Rhys was right. Hal needed to be careful. There was something about Cassie that pulled at him, that ate away at his resolve.
She fascinated him, captivated him.
Excited him.
He wanted to take her in his arms, to savor her sweet lips until they were both breathless and needy. He wanted to strip away every layer of clothing until she stood bared before him. And then he would caress and kiss every inch of her.
Sex was something each of the Kings immersed themselves in, but that’s all there could ever be. There was nothing more for them, and never would be.
It was part of who they were. Hal had never thought it a penance until that moment. How had he gone so many millennia without caring that he could have no more with a woman than a night of sex? Why did it suddenly matter?
But this craving, this unimaginable hunger he had for Cassie wasn’t something he could ignore when he was around her. The best course of action was to keep his distance.
That was easier said than done when every fiber of his being demanded he turn around to go back to her.
In spite of the secret of being a Dragon King, despite the treachery that changed his world, even through the magic that was supposed to make him immune to human affection … he wanted Cassie with an unmovable, unyielding tenacity.
No matter how he looked at it, there was no way he could have her. Too many secrets, too much was at risk for him and the other Kings to jeopardize all they had built and their anonymity.
Hal sighed and pushed Cassie from his mind as he resumed his walk to the main house on Dreagan property. It was set well away from the distillery and even the sheep and cattle barns.
The large stone structure came into view after about thirty minutes. The house was next to the mountain, with part of it actually inside the mountain, making it easier for them to continue their duties as Kings protecting all of humanity.
A side door to the house opened and Hal spotted Guy making his way to him. Guy Royston with his light brown hair and even lighter brown eyes shared patrolling duties with Hal for the next few years.
“Hal,” Guy said.
Hal stopped and stuffed his hands into the front pocket of his jeans. “What’s wrong?”
“Does something have to be wrong?”
“When you clench your jaw the way you do, aye. So tell me.”
“Something’s happened.”
Hal’s stomach clenched. Could they know how he felt about Cassie? “With what?”
“The Silvers.”
Hal didn’t say more as he and Guy turned as one and walked to the entrance of the mountain hidden by a large hedge coming off the conservatory at the back of the house.
The entrance was low enough that all the Kings had to duck their heads to miss the low rock, but once through the arched access, the tunnel ceiling was high enough that they could stand upright.
Torches lined the walls of either side of the cave as they descended deeper into the mountain. Con had never had electricity brought into the cave, and Hal thought it a wise decision.
It was better to keep things as they were when it came to what they guarded beneath the rock.
The path turned from gravel to large rock steps that were treacherous and uneven.
Hal heard voices up ahead where the cave opened up to a huge cavern. There were multiple caverns, and this one was set farther back and off to the side than the rest.
“The Silvers moved,” Guy said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Hal jerked his gaze to his friend. “What? It’s been … shite, I’ve lost count how many centuries it’s been since the Silvers last moved. They are contained. He is contained. We made sure of that. We sacrificed everything to ensure that.”
“Aye, I know,” Guy said with a sigh. “Still. They moved.”
Hal said no more until they reached the cavern and he found several of the other Kings standing around the immense cage where four of the largest silver dragons to ever roam the earth were kept.
Banan, his arms crossed over his chest, turned his head as they approached. “Did Guy fill you in?”
Hal gave a single nod. “Where is Ulrik?”
Banan dropped his arms and sighed. “Constantine is watching him now. Ulrik hasna changed his routine of going to his bookstore, home, and to run a few errands. It wasna him, Hal.”
“There’s no other explanation,” Rhys said from the other side of the cage.
Hal rubbed his hands along his jaw. “Rhys is right. Ulrik is the only one who can call to the Silvers.”
“It’s no’ him. It can no’ be him,” Guy said.
Hal knew how he felt. They had forfeited so much to contain the Silvers and to take away the magic and rights of one of their own. All to protect mankind.
“Ulrik is a King no matter that we took away his sword and his magic,” Banan said.
“And stripped his ability to shift into a dragon,” Hal said.
He slowly walked around the cage to look at the long, thick bodies of the dragons. Their scales gleaming metallic silver and shading to dark silver toward the back of their necks, the scales getting thicker around their heads.
A row of tendrils ran from the base of their skulls, down their backs, to the tips of their tails. They had long, muscular limbs with four closely-mounted digits on each foot that ended in very long talons. The dragons had huge mouths and large nostrils. Their wings, usually folded against them, were large and widely set.
But it was their eyes, the color of obsidian and cold as death, that always shocked people most.
Not to mention their size. The Silvers were easily as tall as a three-story building. Their sheer bulk made them terrible when waging destruction, though they weren’t the only large dragons who’d once roamed the earth.
“He can no’ shift into dragon form,” Hal said. “That alone prohibits him from gathering any type of magic in order to call to his Silvers. For thousands of years, no’ a tremor has gone through them.”
Banan’s gaze met his.
Hal stared at the dragons, the evidence impossible to miss before him. “The wing has unfurled.”
The wing of the Silver nearest Hal hadn’t unfolded completely, but enough that it was unmistakable.
Rhys grunted and shook his head. “If no’ Ulrik, then who did this? The Druids? The Warriors?”
“Nay,” Guy said quickly. “The Druids and Warriors are dealing with their o
wn evil by the name of Declan. And as powerful as the Druids and Warriors are, they can no’ touch our magic surrounding the Silvers.”
Banan braced his hands on the metal of the cage and put his face next to one of the sleeping Silvers as he peered at it. “Regardless, we need to keep an eye on them. We’ve become too complacent.”
“Aye, because Ulrik can no’ do any more harm,” Rhys stated harshly. “We’ve kept an eye on him for what? Nothing? He’s harmless as a fly now.”
“Doona underestimate Ulrik,” Hal reminded Rhys.
They had all seen the destruction Ulrik and his Silvers were capable of, of what they had done when they attacked the other Kings and dragons. To underestimate him was to forfeit your life.
It was Ulrik and his Silvers who had nearly decimated the humans, not that many of the Kings blamed him. It was only after the humans began hunting dragons that Ulrik took such a stand.
He had been the only one to go against Con, the only one who had demanded the humans remember who had ruled for millennia before they ever walked the earth.
Hal didn’t know how Con had held the other Kings back from taking a stand with Ulrik, but that strength was what made Constantine a King of Kings.
The only one who could ever have taken Con’s place was Ulrik. But that time was long past. It was a dragon’s magic that made him powerful, and only the most powerful became the King of Kings. Ulrik had as much magic as Con, but Ulrik didn’t fight Con for the right. Ulrik had been content to rule his Silvers.
“Hal’s right. But there is something at work here, and we’d all be wise to discover what it is,” Guy said.
They threw around more ideas on who or what it could be, but in the end, they came up with nothing. Hal spent the rest of the day at his duties with the sheep and cattle, all the while Cassie was ever present in his mind.
At supper, all any of them could talk about was the Silvers and when Con would return, but Hal listened with only half an ear. Even when he knew it was important to focus on the Silvers, he couldn’t concentrate.
There was a hunger in his chest. What he’d felt in the past seemed to grow with each breath he took until he was drowning in it. He knew it was Cassie, knew she was the root to this need within him.