by Amelia Jade
“I most certainly am,” Rowe countered.
“It’s not even a two-seater.”
“Sure it is. Look,” he went over to it, hopped on, and indicated the slightly raised bump behind him. “See. You go there. Just hold on to me. That’s what it’s meant for.”
Cheryl shook her head. It was like fighting an avalanche. He just couldn’t be stopped. “I’m not riding behind you.”
“It’ll be fun. Come on.” Rowe was smiling again. She hated it when he did that.
When he wasn’t smiling his face could almost become dour, lifeless, and without any enthusiasm. His facial structure reminded her of stereotypical royal personage in public, unable to show any emotion. Yet when he smiled, revealing perfect rows of teeth, his entire being lit up with energy and personality. It was as dramatic a transformation as any.
It also made it nearly impossible for her to say no, something that irked her intensely. She barely knew him, and already he was holding some unseen power over her that prevented her from being apart from him.
“This place is nearly three thousand acres in size. It’s going to take us a long time. I don’t intend to spend all afternoon holding on to you.”
She flexed her fingers, wondering if she was making a mistake in fighting him over this. Would it be such a bad thing to have to hold on to that firm body all day? Leaning her head on his back when she got tired, and feeling all his muscles pressed up against her? There were worse things to do in a day.
Rowe didn’t say anything, he just fired up the ATV and waited for her to climb on.
“Don’t you want goggles?” she asked. “Or warmer clothing? How are you not freezing?”
“I’ll be fine,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the chortling engine of the off-road four-wheeler. “Now climb on.”
Cheryl snagged the sole helmet that was hanging off the backrest and pulled it on, mourning her hair as it was smushed even more. “Fine. Let’s…ack!”
Rowe didn’t wait; he released the brake and the four-wheeler shot forward and out of the barn as she flailed, only one hand locked in around his stomach. Incredibly firm abs slid up and down under her fingers. Even through her gloves she could feel the outline of each muscle. It was glorious, and all the push she needed to get her other hand locked in around his waist.
They headed down the laneway to the road first. A path ran on the inside of the fence all the way around the property, so she’d been told. Nobody seemed to know for certain, so that was a part of her reason for going out today. While they didn’t have any animals on the farm, the fences were also intended to keep others out. With several large dairy and beef farms nearby, that was a big worry.
To her utter dismay the ride was made in complete silence. Speaking over the rumble of the engine would have been irritating, yes, but her head was close enough to his to make it doable. So why wasn’t he speaking?
Maybe I should say something. But what? What do I talk about? Her mind raced, attempting to come up with a conversation topic, but she kept discarding everything as being silly or inappropriate. She needed to establish that she was a professional working woman, not a flirt.
The four-wheeler climbed a gentle hill as the property sloped upward at a very mild incline as they headed toward the northern border of the property. All at once they crested a rise and Rowe brought the machine to a slow, rolling halt.
Cheryl was about to ask what was going on when the wind from their passage broke, and her nose was suddenly flooded with a pheromone-rich smell of fresh mountain air, wood, and something else. Something masculine. It was Rowe. That was his scent, all of it mixed together, and she was smelling it. The close proximity to him meant she couldn’t ignore it even she’d wanted to. Which she didn’t. He smelled good.
“What’s going on?” she peered to the side of his back, looking up the border.
Rowe slipped from the machine and started walking around, looking at the ground, but her attention was pulled to the path ahead of them. It was blocked by growth. The forest was encroaching onto the farm now, having swallowed up the fence long ago. This part of the land hadn’t been worked in many years. Small trees were sprouting up in the path and even on the farmland itself. Shrubs and undergrowth were following just as rapidly.
“This is going to need to all be cleared,” she said, pulling out her phone and making notes to herself. It was the first issue they’d encountered, much to her surprise. Given the way the rest of the property was lacking in care, she’d expected the fences to be a disaster. But it seemed the previous owner had still valued his privacy at least. Except up here at the forest edge. Maybe it had just been too much work for him.
“What are you doing?”
Rowe was busy wandering around the edge of the forest—the real edge, not the bit that had grown across the trail and onto the farm. He didn’t respond at first, so intent was he in what he was looking at.
“Rowe? Am I talking to myself?”
“Tracks,” he called back. “I’m looking around at tracks.” He waved a hand at some unseen marks on the ground. “Wolf.”
A chill ran down her spine. “There are wolves here?’ Cheryl started peering into the forest, gripping the phone tightly in her hand. Everywhere she looked there could be a fearsome predator lurking, ready to explode and attack without any warning.
Rowe picked up on her nervousness and came over to her. “You have nothing to fear with me around,” he stated with ultimate authority. “Trust me. I just needed to see what the deal was.”
“Well, did you see any?”
He shrugged. “I saw a wolf when I landed yesterday, but it ran off. There are more tracks here, but for the most part they stop on the edge of the property.”
Cheryl wasn’t overly reassured by his statement of “for the most part.” That meant some didn’t stop there. Some went deeper into the farm. Toward the ranch. She frowned.
“What do you mean ‘when you landed’? Did you come by helicopter? It must have been an awfully silent one, because I didn’t hear a damn thing.”
Rowe flinched. “Uh, I meant arrived.”
Her brain was in full sleuth mode now though, his odd wording making her suspicious. “How did you arrive, by the way? I didn’t see another car.”
“Palin dropped me off,” he said with a wave, swinging a leg over the seat in front of her.
Before she could ask any more questions he revved the engine, forcing her to grab on to him once more before they took off. Not that she minded. He felt good against her. His strength was reassuring after the revelation that wolves might be stalking her in the house at night. Cheryl decided she was never going outside after dark again. Alone at least.
The rest of the perimeter check passed uneventfully with most of her time spent clinging to his back. She enjoyed the feel of his muscles and the unusual amount of heat that he discharged, helping to keep her warm as winter made it known it was coming closer.
She didn’t want the day to end.
Chapter Five
Rowe
“This could take a bit.”
“Uh-huh.” He continued to lean against the wall next to her desk, watching her work.
“I have a lot to do.”
“I know.”
She sighed and pushed back from the desk. “That means please stop hovering over my shoulder and let me work. You can’t type up reports for me. I’ll be fine, I promise. These don’t need your help.”
Rowe nodded. He understood. Pushing off the wall with his shoulders, he wandered over to the nearby sofa. Lounging out, he arranged himself in a way that allowed him to peer over the backrest so he could continue to look at her. It was a little weird, sure, but she was just so beautiful he had a hard time not staring.
Plus if he could keep her like that, it would help his dragon maintain its composure. The silly beast had been going insane during the day, feeling her wrapped around his back. He was unbelievably glad it had been him riding up front, otherwise he would h
ave had to awkwardly explain the raging erection he’d dealt with all day. She drove him wild, and truthfully Rowe wasn’t certain how much longer he could resist her.
“I can see you looking over here.”
He laughed, not bothering to deny it. So what? If she wasn’t cognizant of his flirting yet it wasn’t his fault. He’d been plenty open about it, especially once she started responding in kind, even if it was only occasionally.
“You have no shame, do you?”
“Nope.”
“Lovely. I hope you enjoy the back of my head.”
“It’s quite lovely. All that hair.”
She swatted self-consciously at her hair. It still hadn’t rebounded from both her hat and the ATV helmet. She’d made several comments about it, but he didn’t care. Rowe would think she was beautiful even if she were bald. Though he was perfectly okay with the long hair. It could stay.
It amazed him at how comfortable they were around one another. A little more than twelve hours ago she’d been screaming bloody murder and wanting to call the police on him. Now they got along like they’d known each other much, much longer. He found himself enjoying the silences between them, when neither side felt the need to speak and could just simply “be.” That was something that often took much longer to achieve between pairs.
He couldn’t wait to see what the rest of the week brought about!
Someone knocked heavily at the door, causing Cheryl to yelp. Her pen went flying.
“On edge?” he asked, getting up to see who was there while she retrieved the writing utensil.
“Your talk about wolves has me freaking out, okay?”
He chuckled. “They can’t open doors. They aren’t velociraptors.”
She glared. “So not cool. That movie freaked me out when it came out.”
“Really? How old were you?”
“I dunno. Seven, eight? Somewhere around there. I told my mom I was perfectly fine to watch it.” She shuddered. “I was not.”
Rowe was still shaking his head at the imagery of seven-year-old Cheryl sitting through a movie about dinosaurs gone rogue when he answered the door.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, receiving a very confused look from both Palin and Torran.
“We’re…” Palin peered past him to see Cheryl sitting at the table working away. “Traveling,” he added in a lower voice, changing what he was going to say. “Remember? I thought that’s why you came out here in the first place.”
“Right.” Rowe had forgotten all about that, his mind wrapped up completely with Cheryl.
Now, after things had gone from horrible to great in one day, he had to leave her behind while he traveled to the enclave with his fellow dragons. A three-day trip, it meant he’d be gone for a week, if not more. That was plenty of time for her to move on and forget all about him. Rowe couldn’t handle that.
“Let’s get a move on then,” Torran grumbled. “I don’t want to be away from Lilly longer than I have to.”
Palin rolled his eyes. “She’s only just coming up on four months pregnant. I promise you, she’s a strong woman who can handle herself.” He leaned in toward Rowe and whispered loudly. “Please save me, he won’t shut up, thinks his mate is made of fragile glass and can’t do a damn thing without him.”
Rowe smiled, but it was tight, unfocused. His mind was elsewhere. “Listen, you two go on ahead,” he said slowly.
“What?” Palin stood upright in surprise. Then his eyes narrowed. “You don’t want to go.”
“It’s not that, it’s just…” He caught his head before it moved more than a fraction of an inch back toward the desk where Cheryl sat, but it was too late.
Both Palin and Torran picked up on it. Before they could say anything though, Rowe stepped forward, pulling the door closed behind him.
Torran started it all, a lopsided grin on his face. “Rowe, are you smitten with the farm woman?”
Palin elbowed him in the side. “There’s nothing wrong with farm women,” he growled dangerously.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just didn’t know what else to call her,” Torran protested, rubbing his side.
“How about her name?” Rowe said into the momentary silence. “It’s Cheryl, by the way.”
“Ooooh, look at how upset he gets. Defending her honor already!” Palin cackled. “Yup, he’s falling, and hard.”
Rowe looked away, his lip pulling back at the teasing.
“You’re going to stay here and make us go then, aren’t you?” Torran complained.
“I won’t make you, but I would ask that you go. They will want to hear from both of you. If I hadn’t found her, I would go too.”
That was mostly true. Rowe had had a few revelations since he’d left the enclave for the first time several months earlier. One of them was that much to his surprise, he enjoyed living among humans. They were fun, energetic, and lived every day with a vibrancy the crusty old dragon shifters in the enclave just couldn’t match.
Even just thinking that filled him with pangs of guilt. How could it be that Rowe had done a complete reversal on his feelings toward humanity in just a few short months, to the point that he longer even wanted to live among his own kind? If anyone in the enclave ever found out about that, he was sure to be labeled a traitor. Part of him even feared they would force him to leave, never to return.
“I can’t believe you came all this way, made me agree to go, and now you’re backing out,” Palin grumped.
“Things are about to get crazy around here. She needs my help.”
“No she doesn’t,” Torran informed him. “Remember, she’s the one trained to do this sort of thing. She knows what’s going on, what needs to be done, and how to do it far better than you ever could. That’s why Palin hired her and not you.”
Rowe laughed. “Palin couldn’t afford me.”
“I prefer to pay for people with skills,” the bald shifter countered.
The trio smiled, and Rowe relaxed. They understood it was necessary to go and talk to the council. Especially Palin, who had violently refused to accompany them the first time for the exact same reason Rowe was refusing this time.
“I’m sorry about the way I treated you before,” he said, surprising all of them. Apologies among dragons weren’t especially common. Something about them being more than a little stubborn.
“It’s fine. I’m glad you understand,” Palin said uncomfortably. “We’re going to get going though. We want to fly as much as we can before we have to use other modes of transportation.”
He nodded, not saying anything. There was no need. They all knew that they would fly as close to the East Coast as possible before hopping on a plane to cross the ocean. It was the route they’d taken every time.
The trio nodded their farewells, and he watched them head down the steps and out into the fields. Once they were far enough away from the ranch house they would change and take to the skies, flying by night.
Rowe stood on the porch staring for a long time, trying to decide if he’d just made the right decision or not. Cheryl was his mate, of that there was no longer an ounce of doubt.
But the dragons were his people.
Chapter Six
Cheryl
The next morning was much the same.
She woke up just enough to open her eyes and stumble from bed. This time she pulled a thick fleece robe around her body, cinching the knot tight. Then she shuffled down the hallway, moving from side to side like a zombie. Fortunately for her she A: didn’t give a shit, and B: didn’t have anyone around to watch her besides Rowe, and after what he’d seen her in the day before, a sleep-deprived shitshow was the least of her worries.
After all, this time she was a clothed sleep-deprived shitshow. Her words.
The stairs were treacherous, and she nearly slipped once. Apparently staying up tossing and turning all night, anxious about what the day would bring was not the way to a rested morning. Great. She reached the bottom without incident, and w
as just about to step off when a foghorn sounded.
“I AM IN THE KITCHEN!” Rowe bellowed in his outdoor voice.
Cheryl jerked upright in surprise. This resulted in her missing her footing. The sock-clad sock slipped on the hardwood floor and down she went. The ground came rushing up at her and she braced for impact, knowing there was nothing she could do at this point. Her reflexes were too slow, and the momentum of her fall too great. All she could do was suck it up and hope she didn’t tear her groin as she was flung around by the foot still on the stairs, until she fell away from them into the kitchen.
All at once Rowe was there, his arm sliding under her and bringing her to a halt while she was still a good foot off the floor. It took her brain a moment to catch up to the fact that she’d been caught, and so her arms continued to flail wildly for something to grab onto even while she was being held still.
“You’re safe, you can stop reaching for the railing now,” he assured her, his face hovering above hers, so close she could smell his cologne in all its manly glory.
“Maybe. But if I keep going I can pretend I’m doing an interpretive dance.”
Rowe blinked, not following. “Why do you feel the need to dance?”
“It’s less embarrassing than admitting I was flailing like an idiot for a solid three seconds after you caught me?”
His eyes narrowed. “How sure are you about it being less embarrassing?”
“Not at all.” She let her arms drop. They automatically folded across her chest. “I see you’re still holding me here.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you were in the kitchen.” She waited for him to pull her upright, but he didn’t. He just continued to hold her a foot off the ground, as if it were nothing to him. Trying to be secretive about it, she looked at his bicep. It wasn’t even shaking. Even someone as strong as him should be struggling to hold her by now.