He laughed and squeezed her again, trailing one hand down her spine to massage her tailbone.
She gripped his hand and pulled him away. “Stop that. I have guests arriving this morning, and I need to get breakfast going.”
He grinned. “All work and no play…”
“We just played. Now, time for work.” It was like moving away from a part of herself when she got to her feet. Her body was dusted with golden pollen, and it gilded Mak as he got to his feet.
He stretched, and her mouth watered. All those muscles and skin moving in coordinated harmony brought her attention to the erection that had as much pollen on it as her body, but on him, it looked sexy.
He wrapped an arm around her waist as they returned to the B and B. Dira was amazed by how easily he touched her now. Waiting for a male who appealed to her had meant that she spent a lot of time alone. Being this close to a male was peculiar, but it wasn’t a bad thing. She would simply have to get used to having a mate.
She grinned and chuckled as a thought occurred to her.
“Why are you laughing, my dear mate?” He whispered it in her ear.
“You don’t want to know.” She slipped the shirt back on when they reached the house.
“Oh, but I do.”
“If this doesn’t work out between us, I can always eat you.”
He froze in place, and she laughed wildly as she entered her house. “Told you, you wouldn’t want to know.”
Chapter Nine
Dira quickly fixed a batch of muffins and baked them while Mak watched. He was grappling with her sense of humour, and she regretted her words when she saw his face as he entered the kitchen.
“I am sorry that I mentioned eating you. I haven’t eaten anyone in a very, very long time and never another shifter.” She didn’t add that she used her fire on any number of attackers. Killing was different than consuming.
“It is fine. I suppose I could simply spear you with my horn and call it a day.” He crossed his arms over his chest in a classic defensive measure.
“I thought that is what we were doing in the meadow.” Dira winked at him, and he was startled into laughing.
She felt the door upstairs open, and she quickly put a dozen muffins on a plate, moving around her mate to set the table for her incoming guest.
While Mak watched, she heated water for her coffee press and cooked a rasher of bacon with her hands extended.
“So, heat just comes out of your hands like that?”
She winked. “Yes, yes it does. I am a fire-affiliated dragon. Learning how to bake with precise control took practice, but I really enjoy it now.”
When Theodore called out from the front room, the tray was ready, and she started to bring out the bacon and four cups of coffee.
Mak stopped her and took the tray. “You are not going out there until you are dressed, young lady.”
She laughed and slipped the shirt from her shoulders, tucking it over his arm like a napkin. “Be a good host, and I will be back in a moment.”
She left Mak to serve Theodore and his new ladylove while she headed to her lair.
He was around the corner when she opened the door to her private rooms and headed down the stairs. Images from centuries of life covered the walls. She had to admit that she liked having her picture taken, even with oil paints and grouchy artists.
Her mother had been an Asian dragon, but her father was a European griffin, and the European artists had called to that part of her soul.
She walked around the room quickly and visited all the images of her around the room before taking a fire bath and getting dressed. Her floor was paved with gold coins, and she enjoyed the slick feel beneath her feet until she put on low-heeled sandals.
While she puttered around and put on earrings, she made the beds and checked the mattresses for damage. It was a routine that grounded her for the uncertain day ahead.
Dira looked around her lair and calmed herself with the familiar surroundings before she climbed up the spiral staircase and reappeared in the kitchen.
She walked out into the dining room and took a seat. “Good morning, Theodore. Is this your charming mate?”
The woman was a bear shifter, but she looked like a pixie that Dira had met centuries earlier.
Theodore shyly introduced his bride-to-be. “This is Amalie.”
“Welcome to the Open Heart, Amalie. Congratulations on finding a mate.”
“Thank you, miss.” The woman had honey-brown hair and huge blue eyes.
“Can I get anyone some eggs, toast or pancakes?”
Mak was busy munching. “I am good with these muffins. Are these the blueberries we picked?”
“They are. The bacon was brought in from an artisanal butcher shop.”
The platter of muffins was down to three, so Dira got to her feet. “I will get some more if you like.”
As one, all three people sitting at the table grabbed for another muffin.
Dira laughed and returned to the kitchen, preparing a fresh platter with a dozen muffins from her earlier baking exercises.
When she brought the muffins in, everyone smiled with relief and took another one of them.
Theodore looked at Mak and then at Dira. “Mak mentioned that you two were going to formalize your union today. Congratulations are in order for you as well.”
Dira sucked in a deep breath. “I suppose they are. I have never thought about me finding a mate, but in keeping with the name of my bed and breakfast, I suppose that keeping an open heart wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
Mak munched a strip of bacon. “Sucks when it applies to you, doesn’t it?”
She reached out and flicked her fingers across his sleeve. He had shrugged into the shirt she left him. She left a scorched mark across his shirt, and he winced at the heat.
Theodore blinked in alarm, and Amalie moved closer to him. “I will be leaving today. It is time to meet Amalie’s family and then mine.”
“Congratulations once again. May joy find you every time you need it.” Dira grinned.
Theodore piled three more muffins into his hands, and he chased a giggling Amalie back up to his room.
Mak looked at her. “You really make good treats. I am going to weigh a ton if I don’t watch myself.”
She took one of the muffins and perched it on her fingers, warming it for her. “It is practice, like anything else. You mix a little of this, a little of that and you find out what works. The first guests here gnawed on something resembling a baseball. That is why I started to make doorstops…I mean pancakes.”
Mak snorted and picked up a piece of bacon, “So, is there someone who can take over for you if you take a day or two off?”
She scowled. “I suppose that I could. There are other facilities that can be opened to take in guests. When Theodore leaves, I will technically be empty for a few hours. Why?”
“I want to introduce you to my family.”
She sat back and blinked. “Well, in that case, when we get to the human world, I will make a few calls and have what is left of my family meet you.”
Mak jolted in place. “What? I thought you said your sisters were gone.”
“I did, but Dinyali had daughters with a djinn, and they had daughters, lots and lots of daughters. I still keep in touch, but none of them are shifters.” She sighed.
“Really? What are they?” He leaned in curiously.
“They are my nieces, and I enjoy my time with them, when I can get away. It has been a few decades since I have seen any of them, but I call them frequently from the Meditation Centre.”
“This is mindboggling. I had you pegged as all alone in the universe.”
“No other member of my family is a shifter. They are all gone. Mixing the blood with the desert fey makes children who have magic in them but not the ability to shift. Same as a half-breed with a regular human. Loving family but no more shifting.”
He nodded. “I see. My family prides itself on bloodlines.”
&
nbsp; “That will change once you mate with a dragon. Bloodlines are harder to adhere to when you live longer than most species and several civilizations.”
“So, if our children wanted to marry a human or a magical one, you wouldn’t mind?”
“If they loved and loved with their whole heart, I would give my blessing with a threat by the soon-to-be mother-in-law.”
He grinned. “You seem like you would be a good mother.”
“Dragons are good mothers by our very nature. We dote on our young.”
“I am relieved to hear it. I would like at least three kids. Four if you are willing to keep going.” Mak grinned hopefully. “We are rare creatures, and we need to keep the odds in favour of mythic shifters.”
Dira cocked her head. “I agree, but the Crossroads is no place for children.”
Mak took her hand. “That is why I hope you will give my family a chance to offer you a life in the human world with minimal contact with actual humans.”
She smiled back and squeezed his hand. “When do you want to go?”
“Let me just change clothes and we can register at the Meditation Centre and then head to my family’s country home. We keep a spot with plenty of room to run.”
Dira imagined the open space, and she bit her lip. “What is the air corridor like?”
He blinked. “Oh, you mean for planes?”
“Yes.”
“We are against a mountain range, so there are no aircraft overhead.”
She perked up, “Mountains?”
He grinned and kissed the back of her hand. “Intrigued?”
“Willing to try it, but we need to get to the Meditation Centre before my guests start arriving so Tony and Teal can redirect them to the other B and Bs. We need to move fast.”
He was on his feet and sprinting up to his room in a moment.
Dira called a bag, with underwear and a few changes of clothes, up through the floor. It would be strange to be away from her lair, but she focussed on the adventure of doing something new with someone new.
She felt him return, and as Theodore and his lady left the building, Mak was on their heels with his key in his hand. Dira filed all the keys, picked up her bag and the paperwork and took his arm to make their way to the Meditation Centre. “Damn it, the cake!”
She dropped his arm and her bag, returning to her home to get the strawberry shortcake that she had made before everything got intimate the day before. She put it into her delivery basket and closed the lid. Grinning, she locked up her door and returned to Mak’s side. “It’s tradition.”
He carried her bag and she carried the cake and the reservation sheets to the Meditation Centre. As they walked through the door and the guardians looked up, she smiled. “Happy Anniversary.”
She offered them the basket, and Teal rushed forward to take it with a one-armed hug. “Teal, you may know Mak. He and I are taking a few days to meet his family.”
Tony grinned. “Are those the reservations?”
He took the paperwork from her and gave her a hug in exchange. “I will take care of them. Take as long as you need, the Open Heart will officially be under renovation during your hiatus. The beavers are eager to give it a face lift.”
Dira scowled. “Just the exterior. If they touch my rooms, I will burn the fur off their furry butts.”
“No one will set foot inside. I will keep an eye on it. Now, go, enjoy seeing the human world again. You won’t believe the changes that they have gone through in the last few decades. I can’t wait until you see the Internet. You are definitely going to want to install a computer in your B and B.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I have heard about them but still haven’t seen one, so I will simply keep an open mind until I experience one for myself.”
Mak was staring at her in shock. “You haven’t seen a computer?”
“Nope.”
He put an arm around her and whispered, “This just might be a deal breaker.”
She punched him and her friends laughed, hauling them to the transport zone. A moment later and she was back in a world that she hadn’t seen for a very long time.
Chapter Ten
Cool air and a bright band of sunlight brought Dira’s senses to life. “I had forgotten what it felt like.”
Mak wrapped an arm around her waist. “I am going to put our bags inside and call my mother. She will send out the alert, and the family will descend upon us.”
Dira was looking up at the sky, and she said, “Uh-huh.”
She heard him laugh as he walked into the structure behind her, but she was busy admiring the open space and the natural magic of the world under her feet.
Feeling the natural rhythms was rather freeing. She didn’t notice her separation from the Crossroads, but at the same time, she could still feel her home as if via a tether.
The greens were bright, the stand of trees nearby was an ideal place to plant some berry bushes and the rock face to her left was the perfect spot to dig a lair. Huge granite slabs would give way to her claws and she could create a lovely hideaway.
Dira finally turned to see the huge expanse of the home that Mak had disappeared into. “Or, I could just live there.”
Mak came out and took her hands. “The family is about to descend with supplies and enough enthusiasm for a stampede.”
“Then, please give me a tour of the territory so that I don’t have any odd responses. And do you have an Internet?”
He blinked. “Uh, yes. Yes, I do.”
“Can you show me that?”
He hugged her. “I think I can do that.”
She heard the smile in his voice, but she ignored it. She was out of date on day-to-day things that modern shifters took for granted. It would involve intense study, but she had always enjoyed learning. A new world, new mate and new ideas to explore. This could be fun.
The home was huge. “It seems your family has done well for itself.”
“They have. We have traded on our attractive abilities and good looks to make our money.”
Dira grinned as she checked out the eighth bedroom. “Apparently, your family is stunning.”
He laughed and grabbed her around the waist, whirling her in a circle. “You have no idea how happy I am to have you here.”
She laughed at his bubbly good humour. “I am getting an idea of it. Now, show me a computer.”
The next three hours were spent learning how to surf the streams of data that bombarded her from all angles. It was like reading a dictionary with pictures and half the entries were false. Common sense had to reign.
“This is amazing. What is your family’s company called?”
“Unicareli Fashions.”
With two fingers tapping, she brought up the website and went scrolling through the images. “Oh, my. Is that your brother?”
Mak crouched next to her and looked at the screen. “Yes. That’s Donovan. Under ladies wear, it is Lilan and my mother.”
She looked from Mak to the male in the picture. “Maybe I rushed my choice.”
He growled and swivelled her chair around, crouching next to her, “You did not. You chose the right man for you. My brother is an idiot.”
She leaned forward and kissed him, taking his lower lip between hers and nipping. Four strange beings had walked into the home, and they were on their way to the library where Dira and Mak were currently making out.
He tugged her across his thighs and caressed her from neck to hips in slow sweeps. When he started to shift her skirt up toward her waist, she stopped him.
“I suppose I should tell you that your family is here.”
He groaned as his fingers caressed the backs of her knees. “Of course they are. They are all very eager to meet you.”
She chuckled and placed her hands on his shoulders. “That is fine. I will not mind meeting them.”
A voice behind them was amused. “Good, because we are delighted to greet you and welcome you to the family. I am Mikhela, by the way. This is my da
ughter Lilan, my son Donovan and my husband Enker.”
Dira tried to get to her feet, but Mak held her in place. “I am Dira.” She looked over her shoulder at the collection of ridiculously attractive people in the library entrance.
Mak laughed, “We are going to have to file for paperwork with the Shifter’s Council. Dira hasn’t been out and about for a while.”
Mikhela’s eyes widened. “Oh my, yes. Of course.”
Enker tilted his head. “She is smaller than I would have thought for a dragon.”
Dira grinned. “I get a bit bigger.”
She was still straddling Mak’s lap, and her body was enjoying the exterior warmth. “Mak, let me up.”
“No, I want you here.” His whisper was low and meant only for her.
“We are being rude, so either let me up, or I will just get up and that will hurt your masculine feelings.”
To make her point she flexed her fingers, and he winced at the pressure. “Understood.”
He released her hips, and she got to her feet with him standing behind her a moment later.
His erection pressed against her hip, and she smiled as the reason for using her as concealment was made clear.
With them both upright, the Norwins surrounded them, hugging, kissing and shaking hands. It was as warm a welcome as a new mate could hope for.
Going by the groceries, the Norwins enjoyed a variety of gourmet foods. Dira chatted with Mikhela and Lilan while the men set the table. Dinner was prepared while the Norwins watched, and she had to admit it was fun to cook with her hands with an audience.
When Donovan asked his brother, “You let her touch your junk with those hands?” she realised that she had definitely gotten the correct brother the first time around.
Lilan had tossed a salad and Mikhela sliced the bread, so within five minutes, they were sitting around for the first family meal Dira had experienced in a very long time.
Enker asked, “So, you run a bed and breakfast?”
“I do. I run the Open Heart at the Crossroads.”
The two younger Norwins looked excited.
Lilan asked, “How many couples have come through your doors?”
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