by Ashlyn Chase
“Yes, dear. That would be nice, but I also wanted to give you a little more information.”
Bliss was almost afraid to ask. “Another prediction?”
“No. Just a little psychic insight. When I told you to be careful of Drake, I think it had something to do with that woman. And it’s not about protecting your heart. I think you need to protect yourself physically.”
“Shi—I mean, shoot,” Bliss stammered. “Wow. Do you really think she’d hurt me?”
“I was getting some very dark vibes from her. I’d say she’s capable of it. Do you know martial arts?”
Bliss laughed, then she sobered quickly. “Do you think I need to take some classes?”
Sadie nodded. “It wouldn’t hurt.”
“It might. I don’t have time for that right now.”
“Why? What’s so important that it comes before protecting yourself?”
“Only my whole future. Put it this way, if I survive because I learned self-defense, swell, but my quality of life won’t be that great. If I don’t survive but win the brass ring…” Bliss heard her own bizarre rationale and couldn’t finish her thought. “I’m sorry, Sadie. Thank you for your concern. I guess I’ll have to weigh the pros and cons.”
Sadie smiled. “I understand. Exercising your free will is important.”
Bliss had to put this new information on the back burner if she was going to do her job with any kind of competence. “Well, let me go get you your drink.”
“Thank you, dear. Don’t worry about that contest so much. I have a good feeling about your part in it.”
“You know about the contest?”
Sadie shrugged. “Like I tell everyone, I know a lot of things.”
Bliss thought about what else Sadie said she knew or had a feeling about, and her skin started to prickle.
***
Drake followed Zina onto the sidewalk. Charles Street was fairly quiet for a change.
“So, Drake, why are you two-timing me?”
“I just met you! And I met Bliss a couple weeks ago. I’m not committed to anyone yet.”
“I thought we had a good thing going.”
“We had one drink together, and to be honest, I wasn’t planning to call you again.”
“You what?” she shrieked. “Why the hell did you take my number if you weren’t going to use it?”
Her eyes glowed and wings pushed at the fabric on her shoulders. He had thought she was wearing leather, but apparently it was something else. Something that stretched.
“I didn’t want to insult you. Besides, I didn’t take it. You practically forced it on me.”
“Well, how do you think I feel now?”
He stared at what must have been her wings, pushing at the fabric again. “Probably lousy, but it would be worse to mislead you anymore than I already have.”
“You bet I feel lousy. And you should know better than to piss off a dragon.”
He focused on her rapidly reddening cheeks. This is what he was afraid of. If he’d refused her number, chances are he’d have seen the same reaction. Who knew what she’d do in a crowded restaurant. She could begin hurling chairs or get so “steamed” she’d shift.
“Look, I’m sorry I upset you, but—”
“But nothing.” She aimed right for a male dragon’s vulnerable spot. His throat. And with two fingers she jabbed him in his Adam’s apple, hard.
Drake collapsed to the ground, choking. While he was down, she gave him a swift kick in the ribs with her steel-toed boot. He heard a crack, and pain shot through his chest. She stepped over him and sauntered off as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
Unable to get enough air in his lungs, Drake felt the world spin and go black.
***
Bliss didn’t think she’d see Drake again so soon, especially in the arms of a large, blond man who was carrying Drake’s unconscious body into the bar.
“What happened?” Bliss wasn’t the only one who shouted and hurried over to them.
The guy shoved one of the booths out of his way with his foot and laid Drake on the padded bench.
A moment later, Angie appeared beside Bliss and asked, “Nick, what happened?”
“Don’t know. I just found him like this.”
Drake groaned and started to writhe. The man Angie had called Nick held him in place and said, “Don’t move, Drake. You’re hurt.”
Drake’s eyes opened slowly. “Nick? Where am I?”
“You’re in Boston Uncommon. Do you remember what happened?”
After a pause, Drake’s expression grew dark. “Yeah, but I’m not telling you.”
Nick straightened and crossed his arms. “Why not?”
“Because I got beat up by a girl.”
Nick reared back and laughed.
Bliss kneeled by Drake’s side. “Don’t laugh. He’s injured. Someone call a doctor.”
“No. I’ll be—” Drake tried to sit up but inhaled a sharp gasp and lay back down again. When his breathing steadied he said, “No, I guess I won’t be all right. I think I broke a rib.”
Bliss turned to her roommate. “Angie, call an ambulance.”
“No.” Drake put a hand on her arm. “Then my EMT buddies will show up and I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Angie jammed her hands on her hips. “Well, you can’t just lie here for a few days.”
“I don’t need days. A few hours at most and—”
He glanced up at Nick. It was almost imperceptible, but Bliss saw Nick give him a quick head shake.
Sadie jumped in. “I have some emergency medical supplies in my bag. Someone can tape his ribs up tight. That’s all they did for a friend of mine when he broke a rib.”
Medical supplies? Did she know they’d be needed tonight, or is she always this prepared?
Sadie fished around in her oversized satchel and pulled out a roll of gauze bandage and adhesive tape. She handed them to Bliss.
“Look, I don’t live far,” Nick said. “I can carry him to my house and he can stay on my couch.”
“Your couch?” Bliss didn’t mean to raise her voice, but she was concerned about Drake, even if he was dating a first-class bitch who’d beaten him up. Bliss wondered what he’d said to cause that reaction. “You don’t have anything better than a couch to offer?”
Nick sighed. “My wife and I just turned the guest room into a nursery.”
Angie patted his arm. “It’s okay. He’d probably be in too much pain if you carried him all the way up Mount Vernon Street. Carry him up to our place.”
Bliss stared at her with raised eyebrows.
“Um… I mean, if it’s okay with you, Bliss. We have that big sectional sofa, and if all he wants to do is lie down for a few hours…”
Now what? She’d look like a complete heel if she said no, especially in front of all these people. “But what about the hospital?”
“No hospital,” Drake said, firmly.
“Well, then… Of course. Of course he can stay with us.” Bliss hoped her pause wasn’t too noticeable. “Wendy, will you be okay without me for a few minutes?”
“Yes, absolutely. Just take care of Drake,” she said.
“I’ll go get my keys.” Bliss hurried to the office but remembered that Anthony was in there. She knocked and opened the door without waiting for permission to enter.
Anthony looked up from his desk. “Bliss? Is everything all right?”
Her expression must have given away the fact that all was not okay. “Drake’s been hurt. I’m getting my keys to let him into our apartment upstairs, but I’ll be right back down.”
Anthony rose and buttoned his suit jacket. “Let me see him first.”
Bliss followed Anthony out to the bar and pointed to the tight knot of people crowded around Drake. “He’s
over there. He was… mugged.” That sounds a lot better than “beaten up by a girl.” “He might have some broken ribs.”
“Jesus,” Anthony muttered and pushed his way through the crowd. When he got to Drake, he scratched his head. “A mugging? Where did this happen?”
“Right in front of the bar. I’m sorry, Anthony.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just be well.” Anthony turned toward Nick and asked, “Can I help?”
“Sure. The two of us can carry him across our arms and he can lie flatter. I don’t want those ribs to puncture a lung.”
Bliss tossed her hands in the air. “Am I the only one who thinks taking him to a hospital might be a good idea?”
Several of the guys who were crowded around glanced at each other. Finally Drake spoke up. “I’m not going to a hospital. If you don’t want me on your couch, I totally understand. I’ll find somewhere else.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m fine with your coming upstairs. I just think you should see a doctor so you don’t heal wrong.”
“He’ll heal fine,” Nick said. “I used to be a cop. Saw injuries like this all the time.”
Bliss was outnumbered. “Okay. If you all think he’ll be all right without medical attention, take him upstairs. But put him in my bedroom, and I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“Thanks, Bliss, but I think the sofa will be better for me. Your bed is kind of soft.”
Sadie smirked and waggled her eyebrows at Bliss. Oh, terrific. Now everyone knows he’s been in my bed, even though we never got to the good part.
Nick and Anthony grasped hands beneath Drake’s back and thighs, forming a makeshift stretcher, and lifted him carefully. Bliss hurried to the door and held it open for them as they passed through it. Then she fumbled with the lock on her outside door until she managed to get the key to turn. Damn sticky lock.
She held the door open, and the trio slowly made their way up the narrow stairway to the landing in front of her apartment.
Bliss could tell Drake was in pain by his occasional wince, but he didn’t moan or cry out, even when jostled. She felt bad for him but still wondered what had happened outside. Did she have a right to ask?
Hell, she was a Hall-Snark card designer. She could find a creative way to put anything unpleasant into words. So far she hadn’t done nearly enough to resurrect her portfolio. She’d been waitressing every night for four nights in a row and sleeping late each day. But tomorrow was her scheduled day off. Perhaps she could get some work done as soon as Drake was feeling better. Right now he seemed to need her attention more than her cards did.
Anthony set Drake on the lounge part of the sectional sofa and straightened to his full height. “Stay with him, Bliss. If it gets busy, I’ll have Angie and Wendy close early.”
Bliss was grateful for an early night and doubted Anthony would dock her pay, but she could have used the tips. She figured he wouldn’t have felt right letting his friend lie injured and alone in another person’s apartment without someone who lived there present.
“I’ll look after him,” she said.
Nick and Anthony nodded to her, said good-bye to Drake, and left. When it was just the two of them, Drake reached out to her.
“Bliss, I want to explain…”
“You don’t have to.” She was about to walk away when he caught her arm and flinched. He sucked in air through his teeth, and she realized the effort must have caused him more pain.
“I want to. I need to. Please sit with me for a minute.”
What harm could it do? Besides finding out the guy I like is a two-timing heartbreaker, that is.
She sat down on the sectional next to him and waited for him to speak.
“Before I found you again, I had tried everything I could think of. I called a bunch of greeting card companies in alphabetical order asking for Bliss, and I got hung up on, a lot.”
She couldn’t help chuckling.
He smiled and seemed encouraged. “I had no way of finding you. Because of the suspension, I was home going stir-crazy. Meeting you drove home what I’d been missing—a relationship—so I tried looking into those dating sites on the Internet. But then I got your card. It gave me hope that I might find you again, and I forgot about the dating site. Then a few days ago when I went to close my account, I discovered I had an answering email.”
Bliss shrugged. “I get it. We didn’t have an exclusive relationship. I mean, if I had known you were trying to meet anyone else, I’d have held back a little more. Just out of curiosity, how far into the alphabet did you get?”
“I got through the A’s, and was just about to start the B’s—”
“That’s it? You gave up at the A’s?”
“My phone died. I made a mistake. I wasn’t trying to meet anyone else. I was about to delete my account but then got sidetracked because duty called. By the time I got back from the run, I’d forgotten. When I went back to it, I saw her email. I shouldn’t have even read her response, but I did and we seemed to have a lot in common. I felt I had an obligation to check it out.”
Bliss raised her eyebrows. “You had a lot in common with that… that…”
“I know. She wasn’t at all what I expected, but I shouldn’t have even been curious. I really like you, Bliss. I hope I haven’t messed things up with you completely.”
She smirked. “You mean you’d rather be with me than Betty Bruiser? Then why didn’t you call and break it off with her?”
He sighed. “I should have. I just put it off, knowing it was going to be unpleasant. I feel like a coward. A foolish, undeserving coward.”
She couldn’t let his self-loathing over one simple mistake continue, despite the temptation to get some payback. “I wouldn’t say a guy who runs into burning buildings is a coward.”
He sighed. “I know we didn’t talk about exclusivity, but if you can forgive me, I’ll swear to it now. I promise I’ll be true blue, if you can find it in your heart to give me another chance, and I sincerely hope you can.”
Bliss didn’t want to give in too easily. Sure he was gorgeous and seemed like a great guy other than this “one mistake,” as he called it. And having a committed relationship would be nice, but could she believe him? Did he really just forget to delete his profile? What was that little ditty she’d heard once? Cops beat, firefighters cheat? The fact that there was a little rhyme like that gave her pause.
She rose. “I need to think about it.”
“I understand,” he said softly.
Bliss strolled to the kitchen and put some water in the teakettle. For a split second she thought about her mother and how much she wanted Bliss to find a man, get married, have kids. Then she remembered that Drake, in the heat of the moment, had said he couldn’t get her pregnant. Stop it, Bliss. You’re not living your mother’s life. Decide what you want and go for it.
As much as she hated to admit it, she wanted Drake… at least the Drake she’d thought she was getting to know. Was he really being honest with her? He hardly seemed the type to avoid confrontation. Could he be covering up a relationship he had going simultaneously while romancing her? Argh. It’s all too confusing.
Angie would be coming upstairs soon. Bliss wished she and Drake could have it all sorted out by the time her roommate got home, but life was rarely that neat. She still didn’t know Angie all that well and wondered what she’d think of Bliss and Drake just picking up where they’d left off after… Knock it off, Bliss. You’re doing it again! Stop caring what others think.
Bliss heard something from the living room and poked her head around the support column. Drake was trying to get up!
“Lie down,” she squealed and rushed over to him.
“I—I shouldn’t be here. It was nice of you to—” He gasped and clutched his chest as if he had moved wrong and reinjured himself.
“Stop.” She jammed her hands on her h
ips. “Do I have to push you back down on the lounger and sit on you, or are you going to stay without a fight?”
He snorted. At last their eyes met and she saw raw regret there. A corner of her chilly, suspicious edge melted. She braced his back and helped him lie down again. After he had sagged into the cushion, she sat next to him. Her thigh molded against his shoulder. Heat seeped into her leg from his, as if he were burning up.
“Wow, you’re hot.” She placed her hand on his cool forehead. That’s weird. Maybe the blood is rushing to where he needs it more. “I don’t think you have a fever, but you’re really in no shape to go anywhere.”
“I know, but if you want me to leave, I can call one of my buddies. The ribbing will stop eventually.”
“I don’t mind you being here. And I think Angie would be mad at me if I asked you to leave. She seemed as upset about the incident as anyone.”
He smiled. “Yeah, Angie’s a good kid.”
“You think of her as a kid?”
“Sure. What is she? Twenty-two? Twenty-three?”
“Yeah, thereabouts. How old are you?”
“Five hundred and fifty.”
Bliss laughed. “I didn’t ask how old you felt. I asked how old you were.”
“You know what they say… You’re only as old as you feel.”
She chuckled and focused on his face. His smile. His lips. She was just starting to lean in to taste his full mouth when the door opened and Angie appeared, carrying the beautiful bouquet that had started all the trouble.
“Hey, Drake. How’re you doing, buddy?”
“I—I’ll be right back,” Bliss said, and hurried off to the bathroom. She’d remembered some pain pills left over from a badly sprained ankle. She checked her little medicine kit to see if they were still in it. Yup. The fact that she thought of offering him some pain relief meant she still cared about him. However, she had no intention of pretending she was okay with his desire to date her while looking elsewhere at the same time.
While she was in there doing her business, she got the idea for a new Hall-Snark card. This one was generic enough to use in her new line, but Drake was getting the first one.
You made a mistake, and that means you’re human, but do it again and you’ll see me fumin’.