“I could sleep somewhere else…wait, a ten? That’s it. Those sunglasses must be prescription. You can’t see anything with them off.” She held back the urge to wiggle her bum into his groin.
“As a dragon shifter, I have amazing eyesight. Just because I’ve slept with a lot of sixes and sevens doesn’t mean I can’t recognize a ten when I find one.”
She snorted. “If you’ve always thought I was a ten, then why didn’t you ask me out?”
“Do you really think I have any chance with a ten? I’m a solid two.” He tightened his grip around her waist like she might run away now that he’d revealed himself to be undesirable.
Which she totally didn’t believe. “I had a crush on you for a while,” she confessed. It was all too easy to let out her secrets in the dark. “I waited for you to ask me to go home with you. I waited for any bit of attention you wanted to throw my way. I’d convinced myself we would be perfect for each other. That’s why I followed you the other day. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“You’re going to find out that I don’t deserve you,” he said.
“Oh, I already know that. You bit me and changed me. Remember?” She kept her tone light and playful because she still didn’t care. She kept waiting for reality to hit her, but since Erik had shown up on her doorstep with answers, she’d stopped fretting.
He pressed his forehead to her spine like he could hide from her while wrapped around her.
“I’m going to call work tomorrow to make sure I still have my job, but can you take me back out to the field again? Either I have the worst case of indigestion of my life or there’s fire in me that needs to get out.” She diverted the conversation even though his confession still had her heart racing.
“There’s nothing I would rather do,” he whispered.
Bree nestled into him, trying to reassure him with her body that she wasn’t mad. She had the feeling that he wore guilt like a badge, and that if he didn’t show others that he was guilty then he wouldn’t be himself anymore. She wanted to wrestle it from him and toss it aside so she could meet the man waiting beneath that mask.
She had time. Now that she was a dragon shifter, she would need Erik’s guidance more than ever. His family was nice, too. She would figure out how to make amends with Evangeline if it was the last thing she did.
***
Bree rolled her shoulders. Dressed in her own clothing again, she found that the world had returned to normal. She missed the bit of altered time and space from the night before, but the world wouldn’t stop spinning for anyone.
They’d returned to the field from the day before. Instead of flying, Dillon had dropped them off at Erik’s truck. While Erik drove into the country, she’d called the bar and explained that she’d been dealing with some personal issues that’d kept her from reaching out to them. Her vague story did the trick. She wasn’t fired, but it was clear that she would be watched closely for the next few days.
Which meant that she had three hours to train. The thought of learning everything it meant to be a dragon shifter should have been exhausting, but she couldn’t help her excitement.
The sun hid behind a cover of clouds. Erik promised her that days like these were perfect for flying because she would be able to rise above them to bask in the light, but she knew flying was a long way away. She could jump off a mountain, like a bird leaping from a tree, but that might be a bit too conspicuous.
“All dragons have some sort of fire,” Erik said. He paused, leaned back, and a bit of smoke poured from his nose.
When his lips formed an O, he blew out a series of smoke rings like he’d taken a hit from a pipe.
“Show off,” Bree muttered under her breath.
Erik ignored her insult and turned a triumphant grin toward her. She shook her head, but still laughed.
“Teach me something useful,” she said. “Not a party trick.”
“Come on. You can’t tell me that wasn’t cool. It’s the perfect example of control and will probably charm your bar patrons into giving you loads of tips.” He winked.
“I don’t need loads of tips. I need to keep myself from turning every liquor bottle into a Molotov.”
He shuddered. “Had an incident with those a few weeks back. I get what you’re trying to say.”
Bree cocked her head. It occurred to her that the cabin she’d left that morning had been the one that burned two months ago. She’d been asleep when they’d arrived, so she hadn’t noticed then.
She’d assumed that the fire had been started by one of them, now that she knew what they were and what they could do. Erik’s statement made her pause and reconsider her assumption.
“You think someone started that fire on purpose?” The words left her before she could think better of it.
“Oh, we know who started it. Casey found his mate while she was dealing with a total asshole of an ex-boyfriend. The ex thought he could intimidate a bunch of dragon shifters by setting their house on fire.” Anger lined Erik’s features.
“That should have been all over the news!”
Erik shook his head. “No. We can’t risk exposure like that. The more eyes turn toward us, the greater the chance that humans will catch on to what we are and run us out of town. I’ve heard of some mountain towns protecting the secrets of their local dragon clans, but we’re new here. We don’t have the kind of roots they do. Evangeline, Isabella, and Nellie have lives here. If we get ousted, their lives get uprooted.”
Bree digested his words. “I’m going to need a babysitter at all times. I’m a giant liability!”
Erik sauntered up to her, a swagger in his steps even though she suspected it was forced. “Thankfully, I really like to drink. Don’t worry. You won’t be alone tonight.”
She stared up at him and tried to hold back her yearning. Could he see it in her eyes? Could he tell she wanted to press her chest to his and breathe in his scent? She didn’t know if this would get easier, if it would go away once she did what her dragon wanted. The part of her that wanted to make sure he stayed held her in place.
Erik showed her how to control her fire. She couldn’t believe she could breathe fire in her human form. The flames gathered in her mouth and licked her tongue before flying into the air. She jerked with alarm the first few times, but eventually got the hang of it.
When she brought up that this full force breathing wouldn’t help her learn control, he assured her that letting of some steam helped a lot more than she would expect. And, it did. When he showed her how to tense her throat and limit her blowing, she found it easy to breathe thin lines of fire into the air.
“What do I do when it’s overwhelming? When I can’t think of anything but the heat in my chest and throat?” She nervously adjusted her weight to the other foot.
“That’s when you focus on something that calms you. I haven’t found what works for me yet, but I know Casey always threw himself into construction when he felt out of control. Not sure Dillon has ever been out of control a day in his life. Not even when he beat my ass for breathing too close to Isabella.” Erik turned away from her.
As she watched him, she thought about the fire that had been persistent those first few days. She’d felt like it would consume her from the inside out. Ever since Erik had shown up, the fire had stopped bothering her. She didn’t feel like it would be the end of her, but the beginning of something else. Perhaps that was because the fire had turned to a heat, one deep in her core.
When she broke free of her thoughts, she found him taking his shirt off. The warmth in her body turned to an inferno. She couldn’t look away, though.
“Start undressing,” he said. “It’s time to try this in your other form.”
At first, his words took her thoughts along a sordid path, then she took in the rest of what he’d said. A blush reached her cheeks, but she turned away and began to remove her own layers of clothing. Her beast slithered under her skin. What had been a voice now turned into a physical presence. All she had to do was open the
door, and it would come out.
Bree stole another moment to glance back at Erik. Just like the night before, he watched her. Without his sunglasses, she could see the intense heat of his gaze. It flickered over her skin like wildfire. She yearned for more, but it was too late. Her beast had control, and it wanted out.
The sensation was strange. She needed a moment to adjust as the world grew smaller around her. Trees that had towered were now merely shrubs. Her vision wavered when she tried to look down. The little hint of vertigo told her that flying would be an interesting experience, one that she was not ready for.
Erik, the bright blue beast she’d seen before, sidled up to her. His movements were smooth and natural. By comparison, she wobbled around like a drunk hippo. She didn’t need to move for this, though.
She watched his maw open and flames gather in the back of his throat. With the flick of his tongue, he launched a ball of fire into the sky. It shot overhead for a few hundred feet before fizzling out into nothing. Bree didn’t know if she could do that, but her own flames began to climb her throat, all too ready to be set free.
Erik nudged her with his shoulder to make sure her eyes stayed on his mouth. Patient, Erik walked her through the steps. She brought her fire into the back of her throat. It tickled, like a dangerous moth caught on her tongue. It pressed on her throat, tickled her lungs, and tried to frantically break free of the confines of her mouth.
Unable to bear it any longer, she coughed and set it free. The ball of flames didn’t rise into the air. It skidded across the ground, leaving black char in its wake while she gagged. Erik surged forward. She wished he’d stayed by her until she finally looked up and saw what she’d done.
Fire climbed the side of a tree. It reached a branch and leapt from one tree to the next. Dry grass caught and crackled. Panic stabbed her through the chest. She stood and wobbled on her new feet. The trees popped and hissed. The sound pained her. She hobbled forward and tried to stamp on the grassfire, but for every small section she put out, another stretch flared.
Making her a dragon had been a mistake. She would never be able to get the hang of this. This monster would have to stay trapped inside her skin for the rest of her life. If she let it out, the world around her would burn. She dreaded the destruction she would leave in her wake.
She frantically slapped the ground in an attempt to staunch the spreading grassfire. When she looked up, Erik was nowhere to be seen. Her heart leapt into her throat where it pounded wildly. She couldn’t tame this blaze on her own. How could he have left her?
Smoke surrounded her. The sound of more trees catching, that sizzle of sap trapped beneath the bark, made panic tighten around her throat. She could barely breathe.
A flood of water rained down over her head. She crouched, alarmed and dripping. Daring a glance into the sky, she saw Erik flying away with some sort of bucket. No, it was too large to be a simple bucket. She thought it could be a water trough or maybe a…dumpster?
Either way, the wildfire had been staunched. The earth under her feet squelched as she backed away. A group of trees had black marks up their trunks and a few branches had burned away completely. The grass didn’t look any better.
When Erik returned, he shifted as he descended. Bree watched with awe as human feet touched the ground. He didn’t pause before heading toward her. She reached for her beast and tried to pull it back, but the creature refused to budge.
You will not lock me up forever.
Bree’s frightened decision to never shift again had scared the beast. It clung to their current form and wouldn’t let Bree talk to Erik.
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Erik said, nonchalantly.
Bree desperately wanted to say something, anything. She tried to fight her way out of the beast, like when it made her feel too small for her own body, but she didn’t have enough presence to make a dragon feel small. She couldn’t grab the reins and pull. Trapped and helpless, Bree wanted to cry.
First the fire, now this. She was the worst dragon to ever come into existence. Nothing she did would ever amount to anything more than a problem.
“Bree? You alright?” Erik’s voice sounded distant.
Bree’s beast lowered its head to Erik’s chest. He hugged her, his hands gently grazing the rippled ridge of her jaw before he leaned back to look her in the eye. Bree wanted to scream, to beg for his help, but no sound would leave the beast’s mouth.
Still, Erik’s brows furrowed as his lips twisted to the side. “I figured that would cause some contention. You have to let Bree out. The two of you will find balance eventually.”
Her beast huffed. Bree wanted to kick and scream and punch, but she had no form. Her willpower wasn’t enough to overpower a dragon, not even when fury consumed her entire being. She never wanted to be as helpless as she’d been today. If she thought the first few days as a dragon shifter had been bad, this was worse.
Finally, the beast relented. It gave way to Bree’s human form. She gasped, relieved to be free of the dragon’s confines. Erik caught her before she could drop to her knees on the wet earth.
He pushed back her hair. “That happens from time to time. We all have days where our human halves argue with the dragon half. It’s like when you really, really want a beer at noon but the logical part of you says to wait until five.”
Bree tried to laugh. The split between human and dragon had been terrifying. She’d lost all control over a single thought. The beast had cast her aside far too easily.
“Why did my beast listen to you?” Bree clung to him. She wanted to bury her face in his chest, but she realized he was very naked.
He cocked a sly grin and wiggled both brows playfully. “Maybe your dragon knows she can’t have a good time with me on her own.”
His fingers teased their way up her ribcage. His touch ignited a hot need in her core. Her entire body thrummed, but she still scowled at him.
“This isn’t the time for jokes! I nearly burnt down the valley. I’m never going to be able to get the hang of any of this. I’m always going to be a liability. What…what happens when I’m beyond help?”
Erik pulled her tight to his body. His voice deepened into a growl. “You’ll never be a liability. Don’t talk about yourself that way.”
Her heart fluttered like an excited bird, but that wasn’t enough to drown the doubt lurking in her mind. Bree wanted to fight. She wanted to make this work because, well, she had no other choice. Doubt overpowered her, though. It told her she would never be able to go anywhere without an escort.
Erik tucked a finger under her chin. “There isn’t a single one of us who hasn’t fucked up in the last…week. I require constant surveillance myself.”
His lips took on a sour expression, like the words that’d slipped from him had left an awful taste on his tongue. Bree didn’t dig. She didn’t have the energy for it. Instead, she let her head fall against his chest. The feel and scent of him comforted her. The knot in her chest wasn’t quite as tight.
“What if I set a fire at your place?” she asked. “There are so many people living there. I don’t want to endanger them.”
“Most of our family is pretty fireproof,” he said, a hint of laughter in his voice.
“A house isn’t fireproof. Evangeline and Isabella aren’t fireproof.”
He tried to get her to look at him again. She didn’t want to, not with so much going through her mind. Finally, she relented. His mismatched eyes shone with the light of the beast inside him. He didn’t look inhuman, but like he had gemstones for eyes. She could easily get lost in their multifaceted beauty.
“No one knows everything. You’re new and you have so much to learn. Don’t expect to be good at everything on the first try. What are you? A formerly gifted child?” he teased.
“You can tell?” Her laughter felt forced at first, until her lungs eased into the sound. The tightness around her ribcage finally gave away, and she found herself smiling again. “I was voted most likely to succeed
in my senior yearbook. It seems I don’t like being told what to do because I immediately started bartending, and I haven’t looked back.”
Erik shrugged. “Sometimes we aren’t meant for big lives. I’m more of a simple life kind of man. You. Me. A few goats. Maybe a llama that we can dress up.”
She froze. His words tumbled through her mind, leaving electricity in their wake. Had he just described a future with her? Surely, he couldn’t have meant it. Bree told herself that she was a stand-in, someone to fill the space while he told her what he wanted.
But the way his hand slid along the side of her neck made her question everything. His eyes darkened. They fell on her lips and made her heart flutter again. She’d never gotten so much cardiac exercise in her life. Every time she came near him, her heart did acrobatics.
“You’re going to do fine,” he whispered while he ran his thumb along her jaw.
Her lips parted. She wanted him to make the first move. If she did it, then she would never know if he actually wanted her or if he let it happen. She wanted him to want her. Oh, she needed him to want her.
His thumb found her lips. The slight touch sent shivers through her. He watched, seemingly transfixed. Could he feel her quake in his arms? Couldn’t he tell how badly she needed him?
Then she felt the rumble in his chest. The beast in him growled. For her?
With her hands on him, she felt the rumble intensify. She could have sworn there was more than one beast growling within him. That was impossible, though. Right?
She didn’t have long to think about the sound. Erik cupped the back of her head right before his lips found hers. What she’d thought would be a sweet and soft kiss quickly turned passionate. His tongue pressed its way between her lips. She yielded, all too eager to let him explore her. He filled her senses so completely, doubt had no room to lurk inside her. It was forced out by his touch, his growls, his scent.
She wound her arms around his neck and pressed into him. She thought he would lay her down and take her right then and there. Every part of her wanted it. The press of his cock against her stomach told her he wanted it, too.
Restoring The Broken (Rogue Dragons Book 3) Page 6