Ordinarily, Amy was very much the professional at work, but today, she couldn’t be bothered with decorum. When she and Owen finally pulled away from one another, it felt like every nerve ending in her body was tingling with excitement. They stood there looking at one another for a few minutes, before the station manager came in and looked at the two of them up and down. Amy was surprised when, rather than an admonishment for the short show and public display of affection at work, he said, “Well, are the two of you going to get out of here, or am I going to have to hose you down?”
“We’ll go. Thanks,” Amy said with a laugh, walking past the other booth without looking at the trio of technical staffers that stood there gawking at her.
Outside, they stopped by the front doors and looked at one another again. Amy could see a softness in his gaze that she hadn’t noticed before. She wondered what he was thinking and if she should risk giving things a go with him, or if that was even what he had in mind. Perhaps he had just come here for another roll in the hay. If so, she couldn’t honestly say that she wasn’t amenable to that.
“Why did you come here to see me?” she asked again.
“I missed you,” he replied simply.
“How can you miss someone you hardly know?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I only know that I do,” he replied.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to that,” she replied.
“You don’t have to say anything. Well, except to say you will have dinner with me,” he replied.
“I suppose I could do that,” she replied coyly.
Owen cut off her off as he pushed her against the wall and began kissing her again. His hands locked into hers, pulling them upward and flattening them against the wall behind her. Any thoughts of their surroundings drifted away as she was consumed by the fire igniting between them. How could she possibly get through dinner with this man when all she wanted was for him to rip her clothes off and do whatever he felt like with her?
“Get a room!” someone shouted from a passing car, causing them to pull apart and laugh.
“Okay. I guess that is our cue to get to dinner,” Owen said.
“Where shall we go?” she asked.
“Honestly, I have no idea. I got here last night and spent most of the night trying to find a hotel that wasn’t fully booked. I was so tired that I ended up ordering a pizza. I’m clueless about what’s good to eat here.”
“In the mood for anything in particular?”
“No. I’ll eat whatever you put in front of me. I was too nervous to eat breakfast or lunch, so I’m starving.”
“Nervous? Why?”
“Partly, seeing you again. Partly, just being out of my element. I know that seems ridiculous for a big guy like me – a guy with my capabilities to not feel at ease among people – but I do. I’ve mostly spent my life around my own kind. Being among humans is new to me.”
“Humans. That makes me laugh when you say it. I feel like I’ve gotten involved with some sort of alien.”
“I’m about as alien as it gets to normal people, I’m afraid.”
“You aren’t alien to me at all. How about some spicy Mexican food?”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Good. We’ll go to Reynoso’s. Just don’t order the El Diablo shrimp platter. It will have you breathing fire.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done that,” he laughed.
Amy stopped, looking up at him for a moment. It hadn’t occurred to her that not only was he a dragon, but a fire breathing one at that. Her eyes narrowed as she considered if he was teasing her, but the expression on his face told her he was being truthful.
“I’d really like to see that,” she said in an almost childlike whisper, suddenly even more mesmerized by him.
“From a safe distance,” he smiled.
“Of course,” she said. Another thought occurred to her as they began walking down the sidewalk toward the restaurant, which wasn’t far from the station. “Hey, do you have any other powers I should know about?”
“Powers? Like what do you mean?”
“Like mind reading or making women fall for you,” she said, feeling already like it was a ridiculous comment.
“I’m a dragon, not Dracula,” he laughed, reaching for her hand and holding it as they walked along in silence until he spoke again. “Are you saying you are falling for me?”
“Don’t be silly. I hardly know you,” she said with a smile in his direction.
“Right. Oh well. You can’t blame a guy for hoping.”
Amy’s heart was racing in her chest. What was going on here? They didn’t even know one another, but something had happened between them during that one night on the mountain. Was it just because she had been alone for too long after the pain her ex had left in his wake? Or maybe it was just some sort of girl-like fascination over the fact that he was so unusual. There was the thigh-wetting Irish accent and his incredible body to start with, but on top of that, he was a dragon. Wouldn’t any woman be fascinated with him, really?
“Here we are,” she told him, shaking off the thoughts and chastising herself for getting too caught up in overanalyzing what was going on between them.
“Fantastic,” he replied, opening the door for her and following her inside.
“How is your friend?” he asked as they dove into their food a short time later.
“Who?” she asked, drawing a blank as to who he meant.
“The one from the mountain. You said she had injured herself when the avalanche came down,” he replied.
“Oh, Barb! Yes, she’s good. It was just a sprain. It’s still fairly swollen, but seems to be getting better quickly. She used it as an excuse to take some time off work and just prop up at home,” Amy laughed.
“Good for her,” he said, scooping up some more of the toppings with a nacho and biting into it.
“What made you decide to come down here and see me?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. I guess…well, I’ve been alone for far too long. When I told you I hadn’t been with anyone for quite some time, I was being honest. I was barely eighteen when my high school sweetheart died. We were out at a local warehouse, planning a huge graduation party for all our classmates. Well, not just us, but a bunch of folks from school. Some of the guys on the football team decided to go get a few beers. We were all under age, but we knew someone who could get beer for us,” he said, his voice drifting a little.
“Was it an accident then?” Amy asked.
“Yes, but not the kind you think. We left a few of the girls to finish up the decorations. One of the girls didn’t drive. Her father came to pick her up, and the other girls had ridden with her. They offered to take Margaret home, but she told them I would be back for her. Except I had misunderstood and thought she was going to get a ride home from them, so I didn’t go back.”
“Margaret? That was her name?”
“Yes,” he said, quiet for a moment.
“Listen, Owen. You don’t have to tell me about this if it is difficult for you. I can accept that you lost someone and don’t want to talk about it. I understand completely.”
“No, Amy. I need to talk about it. I never have. I’ve kept it bottled up inside and let it eat away at me. I don’t know why, but for some reason, I feel incredibly close to you. I need to stop holding this in. I want to get it out, and I want to move on. Do you understand?” he asked, his eyes looking through her it seemed.
“Yes, I understand,” she replied.
“So I didn’t go back, and the other girls left. Margaret was trying to hang a streamer that had come loose by herself. She slipped and fell, knocking over a little pail of paste they had been using. It was just a bizarre chain of events. She fell, the glue spilled on the small space heater they had set up to knock off the chill in the room where they were working, and it went up in flames. They said she was unconscious, and that’s why she didn’t move a
way.”
“Oh, Owen. How horrible for her – for everyone involved.”
“A security guard just happened to be passing by and saw the flames inside and ran in. He managed to snuff out enough of the flames to pull her out of there on a blanket he had snatched from his truck, but she was too badly burned to do much for her.”
“I’m sorry,” Amy said, not knowing what more she could say.
“I was off getting drunk with my buddies while my girlfriend lay alone dying from burns in a warehouse where I left her. I didn’t even know about it until the next day when my mother came to my room and woke me up to tell me the bad news. I went to the hospital, but there was nothing I could do. She was badly burned, and her lungs were too damaged to recover. I couldn’t even touch her due to the burns and bandages.”
“I can’t imagine what something like that does to a person,” Amy admitted.
“I can. I’ve lived it every day for the past ten years. First, I was angry. I was mad at myself. I was mad at God. Then, it just hurt. Every single waking hour felt like torture, knowing I hadn’t been there to help her when she needed me. Knowing I had abandoned her. If I had just stayed there with her, she wouldn’t have been up on that ladder in the first place. She wouldn’t have fallen, wouldn’t have hit her head, wouldn’t have started that fire.”
“We can spend a lifetime on the ‘what ifs’ though, Owen.”
“Yes. We can. I’ve spent ten years on them and would have been okay with spending the rest of my life blaming myself for what happened if not for you.”
“Me? I hardly see how I’ve done anything to change that sort of grief.”
“I know you don’t, but you did. The night that I found you out there alone, in danger of freezing, was like some sort of miracle to me. I felt like I had been given a second chance to do something right. I don’t think it was just happenstance that I ended up on the side of that mountain not far from where you were in trouble. Something guided me there. I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you can believe in dragons, surely you can believe in serendipity.”
“I don’t know what I believe, Owen. I know that I’m not Margaret, and I never will be. You can’t just substitute me in for her part in your life and use that as a bandage for the wounds that scar your heart.”
“Oh, God. Of course not, Amy. That isn’t what I’m saying at all. I know you are not Margaret. You aren’t living in her shadow. I would never ask you or anyone else to do that. It’s why I’ve never let myself get close to anyone. I haven’t even dated since she died. When I told you it had been a very long time since I’d been with anyone, I meant it in every sense of the word.”
“Why me? Why now? I understand that you feel like finding me was some sort of sign that you should move on, but you could have easily just enjoyed our night together and then moved on to someone else at your own pace.”
“No, I don’t think I could. One thing you should understand about dragons is how we choose our mates. We are drawn to certain people, and once we have decided to spend our life with them, it’s forever. You don’t find divorced dragons or cheating dragons. We are fiercely loyal and dedicated. If Margaret had lived, she and I would have grown old together, but I lost her and because of that, I thought I’d never feel that sort of bond with another. Then, I met you, and there was no denying an instant spark. Didn’t you feel it?”
“Yes, I felt it. But Owen, you aren’t the only one who’s been hurt. Perhaps I’ve not been hurt as deeply or in the same way as you, but I have some scars along the way that have affected me deeply. Like you, I’ve been alone for a while because I couldn’t handle another bad breakup. I didn’t want to be hurt by yet another man.”
“Can you deny that you feel something toward me? Even when I’m not around, do you dream about me? Think about me? Do you want me in the night when no one is there, and you could think of anyone else on the planet? You do though, don’t you, Amy? You think of me.”
Amy looked at him. He wasn’t being cocky or arrogant. She could see in his eyes that he just knew that whatever was going on with them was mutual. Like his being a dragon, it was something that defied explanation. It was just the way things were.
“I do,” she said finally.
“Then I’m asking you not to fight it. I’m ready to let my pain go – to stop dwelling into the past and move into the future. You’re that future, Amy.”
“I don’t know, Owen. I want to say yes, but it’s so much. I don’t want to jump feet first over a cliff.”
“If you do, I’ll spread my wings and make sure you always land safely on the ground, curled against my back for safety.”
“Owen,” she began, hesitating as she wasn’t even sure what she wanted to say.
“I’m not going to push you into anything, Amy. Just spend time with me. Get to know me, and I’ll get to know you. If it doesn’t feel right, we will go our separate ways on good terms. Just give us a chance. That is all I ask of you.”
“Okay, Owen. I can do that. I want to do that,” she replied, feeling frightened and yet somehow euphoric.
Isn’t this what she had been secretly hoping for since the day she had met him? Hadn’t she wanted him to swoop down off his mountain and sweep her off her feet like some old-fashioned fairytale? The only problem was that this wasn’t a fairytale. She wasn’t a princess, and he wasn’t a prince. In fact, he was the fire-breathing dragon that the princess was usually being rescued from.
“Then, we’ll start fresh tomorrow. I’m staying at the Bay Inn, and we’ll go on a proper date like normal people do.”
Amy felt a bit disappointed. She did want to be courted like a school girl, but they had already slept together once, and she wanted him very much right now. Still, there was something to be said for him demonstrating that sex wasn’t his primary concern with her. Rather than being forward and suggesting he come home with her instead, she agreed to go out with him the following night. Owen walked her back to the radio station to retrieve her car.
“One last thing,” he told her as she opened the driver’s side door to get behind the wheel.
“Yes?” she asked with a smile.
“Do you think you might drop me off at my hotel?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t pick up hitchhikers,” she laughed.
“Well, I don’t blame you, but I rather not risk the low flight I’d have to take to get there,” he said sheepishly.
“There are these things called cabs that I would think would be very useful to dragons who don’t want to risk exposure flying down the boulevard.”
“Oh, right. Of course. I didn’t mean to be an inconvenience. I’ll call for a cab,” he said, sounding genuinely apologetic, rather than hurt.
“You are such a silly man, Owen. You saved me from becoming a mountain-top popsicle, and I have just a bit of a thing for you. I’m pretty sure I can drop you off at your hotel,” she said.
“Ah. You were yanking my chain, as you Americans like to say. I’m afraid some of the humor gets lost sometimes between the foreign ways and modern slang.”
“Modern slang? You talk as if you aren’t only two years older than I am. Get in the car.”
Owen smiled and slid into the passenger seat, looking over at her quietly for a moment before speaking again. Amy was completely floored by his words.
“I might be a little older than you think I am,” he said.
“Yeah? How old are you?”
“One hundred and six,” he said without a hint of a smile.
“That’s funny,” she laughed.
“I’m not kidding, Amy. I’m one hundred and six years old.”
“How is that even possible?” she said, still sitting in the car without starting it.
“We age differently than humans. I’ll live to be several thousand years old before all is said and done.”
“But I’m twenty-six, and you look about the same to me,” she replied, baffled.
“I k
now. We age a bit faster in our youth, about one year to every four of yours, but now it is beginning to slow down.”
“Slow down by how much?” she asked, picturing herself as an old woman with a much younger man if things worked out with him. Would she still be attractive to him when he was still in his prime, while she was wrinkled and gray haired?
“Yes, I will,” he replied, catching her off guard.
“Yes, you will what?” she asked.
“I will still want you when you are old and gray.”
“Are you reading my mind?”
“No, I am not a mind reader, but I can tell by your expression where your mind went.”
“I…I just don’t know what to say.”
“Amy, we have a long way to go before we reach that stage. Can’t we just take it one day at a time?”
“Yes, of course. That just caught me by surprise. I’m not sure how to adequately absorb it, but I’ll figure it out. Of course, you know that I now have a million questions about when and where you were born. Oh, wow. Were you hatched? Like a dragon egg?” she said, filled with a strange wonder.
“Slow down and breath, Amy. We’ll talk about all of that tomorrow. I promise.”
“I don’t want to talk about it tomorrow. I can’t wait until then, Owen. I want to know everything now!” she laughed, her curiosity overriding her fears of being old before him.
“Well, I don’t think I’ve got that kind of time in one day. There’s a lot that has happened in a hundred or so years.”
“Okay. Okay. Tomorrow then,” Amy laughed.
“We’ll see what we can work into the conversation,” he laughed. “Of course, if you don’t start the car soon, we’ll still be sitting here come morning.”
“Right. Yes,” she said, turning the key and putting the car in reverse with a little chuckle.
Pulling into the parking lot at his hotel, she loathed letting him go for the night, but she told herself that she couldn’t allow herself to get attached to him so quickly. There was still so much that she didn’t know about him. For all she knew, tomorrow might bring to light a real deal breaker – something she simply couldn’t live with. No matter how he made her feel, she had to keep things in perspective.
Saved by a Dragon (Paranormal Shifter Romance) (Exiled Dragons Book 1) Page 6