The Dragon's Lost Letters

by Zoe Chant

  "It's fine, Val. I'm a big girl. I can handle a shoplifter."

  Val tried to smile.

  "I'm glad," he said. "Just, you know. Just like it's okay to let a taller person get the thing from off the high shelf, it's okay to let other people handle the criminals."

  Norah gave him a mock glare.

  "Listen, mister, unless you intend to be around every time I need to get the repair supplies down from the high rack, I don't think you get to make that call."

  "I will," Val promised recklessly, looking into her eyes. "I will be, every time. I will continue to be taller than you, and I will continue to get you whatever you need from the high shelves, whether it's repair supplies, books, food. Rubies. Money orders. Gold ingots ..."

  He realized he was somehow still talking and shut his mouth abruptly, but Norah laughed at him.

  "You're in worse shape than I am, aren't you? Poor thing, you didn't expect this at all. And I never even thanked you for being my knight in shining armor."

  "Oh. No. Please. No, that's awful, no."

  "Well, thank you," she said, and before he knew what she was doing, she leaned up to kiss him.

  She had clearly meant for it to be a kiss on his cheek, but Val was maybe a little twitchier from everything that had come before than he liked to admit. He half-turned, and instead of his cheek, Norah's kiss landed on his lips, and.

  Oh.

  The flames that had been waiting inside him for what felt like his whole life flared up, and suddenly Norah was in his arms, her hands on either side of his neck, hanging on to him just as fiercely as he hung on to her. The kiss was the beginning of everything, and somehow, he knew she could sense it as well, a beginning, a promise, a future for both of them.

  In that moment, someone could have dropped a thousand carats of pigeon blood rubies right next to him, and he wouldn't have cared. A contingent of medieval knights could have come clanking up, and he would have waved them on without looking up.

  This was Norah, she was his, and he was hers, unquestionably.

  Unfortunately, even the most magical of moments needed oxygen, and Norah pulled back with a gasp. Even in the dim light, her lips looked lush and plump from their kiss, and he moved forward to capture them again.

  Norah took a step back, shaking her head.

  "Wow. Wow, that was. Wow."

  Val blinked, and Norah took another step back.

  "Okay, there's a lot of adrenaline going right now. Are you all right?"

  "More than all right," Val said, and he had to stop himself from crowing with triumph because he could tell that Norah was feeling the same things he was, even if she had no idea what they were.

  She laughed.

  "You know, for all that I almost got run over here, me too! I'm feeling great. I'm feeling like – well, maybe we don't get into that. But we really shouldn't, um. Do what I think we're both thinking of."

  "Why not?"

  "Because this is a parking lot, and even if the security cameras are out, people still drive by."

  It took Val a moment to realize what she was saying, and he stared at her.

  "You mean you would-"

  She looked at him seriously.

  "My car has a huge back seat, and you are one of the most gorgeous men I have ever talked to in real life. Yes, I mean I would."

  He was still trying to keep his dragon from puffing up forever with pride when Norah continued.

  "And we can't. Really, that's hormones, and we can't. I'm going to go home and have a long shower and a glass of wine before I sit down with some bracingly boring paperwork. And then tomorrow, how about we figure out how much of this was just adrenaline?"

  "None of it," Val said immediately. "I'll be just as ready to step into your car's backseat as I am right now."

  "You say the most flattering things," she teased. "But tomorrow?"

  Val didn't want to wait for tomorrow. He wanted a lot of things, starting with exploring the potential for her car's backseat and then flying her straight to his family to show off his new mate. Instead, he nodded.

  "Tomorrow," he said. "Let me walk you back to your car, at least."

  Val found himself glancing at the backseat, and then blushing when Norah caught him at it.

  She made a brief arrested motion as if she wanted to kiss him again and then thought better of it. She squeezed his hand again.

  "Tomorrow," she said, a promise and a beginning.

  "Tomorrow," he echoed, and he watched as she drove off.

  No, he said to his dragon. We cannot just wait here until she comes back.

  Instead, he walked back towards his own car, and drove off into the night.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ∞∞∞

  Norah had some very weird dreams that night.

  Well. No.

  Weird wasn't the right word for them. A better word perhaps would have been incredible, or maybe arousing. Definitely you could call them hot and intriguing, and if you wanted to go further than that, you could say I didn't know you could do that, but wow, I really want to try.

  But at the moment, she was going to go with weird, because what else did it mean when you met someone and over the course of the day went from being outraged that he thought he could buy an academic archive to waking up with a burning desire to see him again, to make sure he was real and to make sure he didn't get away?

  He's not some kind of prize that I can just bring back to my house and lock up in my bedroom, Norah thought appalled, but maybe there was a little part of her that wondered if he would like that, and if he liked it, then there could surely be no harm, could there?

  She made herself shower, allowed herself to put on her favorite dress with a pair of low-heeled shoes a little fancier than she usually bothered with, and picked up some coffee from the place around the corner that she liked.

  Hopefully he likes coffee, she thought belatedly. Norah thought she should probably wonder if he would be there early enough to get it while it was hot, but somehow, she knew he would be.

  When Norah went to unlock the doors of the archive, she was a little disappointed that he wasn't there, but then rapid footsteps came up behind her. She turned to see Val carrying a bouquet of heavy-headed white peonies, and she couldn't help breaking out in a large smile when he offered them to her.

  “I remembered that you said no food and nothing but water in the back room, but I was hoping that flowers would be all right.”

  “Well, we can't have them in the back room, but the front is fine. Val, they're gorgeous. I love peonies.”

  The flowers enveloped them both in a rich sweet scent, and Val smiled at her pleasure.

  “I love them too – wait, what are you wearing?”

  She smiled a little self-consciously, doing a little twirl while still holding the coffee caddy and the flowers. Her dress flared around her, and she definitely saw the way Val's eyes tracked the sway of her wide hips and her legs in dark tights.

  "Well, after that conversation we had yesterday, I guess I was thinking about knights and dragons. Aren't the little dragons cute? I got it from this woman who does exclusive prints online."

  For a moment, Norah worried that Val was one of those guys who couldn't stand cute or silly things and insisted on everything being super grim and dark. She hoped not, because regardless of how handsome he was, that was a clear turn-off, but instead Val grinned, utterly delighted.

  "You like dragons?" he asked as she let them into the archive.

  "I do. You know, all the old Anne McCaffrey stuff, all the fantasy bricks. How about you? Did you really like Game of Thrones?"

  Val snorted.

  "Are you joking? There was barely any dragon stuff in Game of Thrones at all, and they're supposed to be this big deal. I mean, they're meant to be extinct. How is the world not losing their minds over finding three dragons all of a sudden?"

  "I don't know, but I thought the dragons looked pretty good," Norah said placidly. "I was just there for the eye-can
dy, you know, dragons and Jon Snow and all that."

  "Well, Kit Harington is a very good-looking man. I can't blame you for that," Val allowed with great dignity.

  Norah could have spent all morning talking with him about what he liked to watch and read, but the clock ticked over, and she had to open the archive.

  "I need to call the head of security over what happened last night, and then I'll have some work I need to take care of," she said reluctantly. "Are you going to be okay in the back on your own?"

  Val tossed out his empty coffee, nodding and squaring his shoulders as if he was getting ready to go to war.

  "I'll do my best," he said. "If you want to come back and laugh at my woe, please feel free to do so. And ..."

  "And?"

  Val stepped close and before she knew quite what he was doing, he brushed his lips across hers, soft and tender with a promise of heat.

  "Dinner tonight?" he asked, and her cheeks flaming, Norah nodded.

  "Yes. Absolutely."

  Val gave her a smile that was all teeth, and then he disappeared into the back room just as the first frazzled academic of the day came in.

  After she had the academic squared away, she had to make that call to Sayeed, who sounded even more serious than he usually did.

  "I'll make sure that we get those cameras repaired," he said. "And please, Norah, no more chasing people down, all right? That is absolutely above your pay grade."

  "How many chances does a librarian get to apprehend a thief? But all right, I see your point and Val's. I'll keep my crime-fighting restricted to trying to get lost books back from forgetful professors."

  "Oh, Val? Is that the guy that Phil was talking about who tried to buy the archive?"

  "Yeah. Phil mentioned him?"

  "Just that he was really good-looking, and he thought you were lucky," said Sayeed with a laugh.

  "Phil's husband does mixed martial arts, he has nothing to be jealous about," Norah retorted, and she hung up before she could get too involved in the idea of Val in nothing but skimpy boxer shorts and with his hands taped up for a match.

  Then things got legitimately busy for a while, with some desperate undergrads who absolutely knew that she had the perfect sources for their papers and one professor who needed help figuring out how to use library's digital catalog.

  The whole day, Val hovered in the back of her mind, how they were only separated by a single door, how easy that door would be to lock, and then how they could continue that kiss that they had shared the night before.

  Finally, noon came, and she could put a closed sign on the archive door for an hour. She'd utterly forgotten to bring a lunch from home, and after a moment, she walked to the back, poking her head through the door.

  "Hey, I was thinking we could call for some – Oh. Oh, are you okay?"

  She would give Val one thing – he was as careful with the papers as she had asked him to be. He'd cleared a neat space at the center of the table, and it was free of delicate documents before he laid his head down in what looked like utter despair.

  "Fine," he said without looking up, and she approached him cautiously.

  "You don't look fine. What's the matter?"

  She laid a gentle inquisitive hand on his shoulder, ready to pull away if he looked as if he didn't like it, but he shifted so he was pressing his head against her hand, so much like a big dog looking for comfort that she had to stifle a smile.

  "There's just so much," he said, sounding more than slightly horrified. "There's so much, and people talk so much, and they write so small, and there's this woman who wrote in to The Millbrook every single time she thought she saw them favoring one member of Parliament over another. I mean, every single time, who has the time for that?"

  "Well, people don't stop being people, no matter how far back in time you go," she said, petting his dark hair. She maybe got a little too involved with petting him because before she knew it, Val had tilted over, and she was stroking the side of his head, running her fingertips over his cheek and the line of his jaw.

  "Are you going to be all right?" she asked, reluctant to stop touching him.

  "I will be if you keep doing that," Val muttered in a tone that was just short of rapturous. "That feels so good. You feel so good."

  He raised his hand and set it over hers, and Norah made a soft sound at how very warm he was. There was a tingle of electricity where they touched, and it traveled from that one spot until it had spread to her whole body.

  Then Val turned his head to kiss her palm, as chivalrous as a knight with his lady, and all right, they couldn't do this at the library.

  Why not? asked a sly little voice. The door locks. You're not even on the clock, come onnnnnn.

  "No,” she said firmly, pulling away, and Val sat up guiltily.

  "I'm sorry, too much?"

  "No, it's just. I just came in here to ask if you wanted sandwiches."

  The last line came out with a slight wail, because seriously, what was this?

  "I'm a sensible human," she argued, as if he had said she wasn't. "And I'm smart. And all right, I've not been with someone for a while, and you're basically just sex even if you are a sad lump in the back room."

  "Thank you?"

  "And I don't know why I'm feeling like this, and it's fast and I don't do fast and –"

  She stopped when Val's hands settled gently on her shoulders. She thought he might be upset or put off by her sudden burst of confusion, but instead there was something utterly understanding in his eyes. It was as if he had looked at her and decided that despite everything, she made total sense.

  "It's all right," he said gently. "We'll do whatever you want to do. Fast, slow, not at all, not for a long while, it's fine."

  "And ... you're okay with that."

  He grinned.

  "More than okay. I promise. I'm here for the long haul."

  She was momentarily confused before she glanced back at the pile of papers. He had apparently made it through part of a single box in the time he had been back there.

  "I guess you are," she said. "Sorry to dump that all on you. I just wanted to come back and to ask you about subs. There's a place that does good subs down the street, and they deliver. My treat."

  Val looked slightly insulted.

  "No, I can –"

  "And you can buy us dinner tonight," she said with a grin. "There, does that soothe your male hunter-gatherer instinct to provide?"

  Val seemed to give the matter some serious thought before he nodded.

  "It will do," he pronounced. "And you must let me take you to a very expensive place for dinner."

  "That sounds like an amazing deal for me getting you a five dollar sub. They do a really good Philly cheesesteak."

  "Oh, yes, one of those, please," he said brightly, and she laughed because she realized that even without the ridiculous sexual tension, she would have liked Val one way or another if he had showed up with that bright smile.

  She bought subs for them, and they enjoyed them in the cafe area of the library. They got a few curious looks, because it wasn't every day that a small plump reference librarian had lunch with a tall handsome treasure hunter (“Actually, that really is my job description.”), but the place was buzzing with the new security protocols that had been passed down, so it was less awful than it might have been.

  After lunch, Val stepped out to make a few calls, and Norah was in the back setting some books aside for a professor when she she happened to glance down into one of the open boxes in the stack. Right there on top, there was a packet of letters that had been banded together, and something made her pick them up curiously, breaking the band to open the first envelope

  Like so many of the other letters, it was addressed to the editor of The Millbrook, and even before her eyes went down to the signature line, a shiver went down her spine.

  In spite and in fury,

  Valentine Rychek

  Wow, Val's ancestor didn't see much need in restraining hi
mself, she thought, and with a kind of gasp, she realized what it was she was looking at. Along with the shock that she had just stumbled upon exactly what they were looking for, there was a sudden sense of intense disappointment and dismay. Without the search for the letters, there'd be no reason for Val to stick around, and that thought sent a deep ache through her chest.

  Then the door opened and without thinking, Norah shoved the letters back into the box, turning to see Val in the doorway.

  “Is everything all right?”

  She knew that she should hand him the letters immediately. She should give them to him and be happy that his search was at an end. She would, too, but not right now.

  “Everything's fine,” she said, slipping past him. “I should just open up again. I'll come back and help when I can, though.”

  Val's smile was as warm as the sun, but at the back of her mind, she could too clearly imagine the letters she had shoved back into the box and what they meant..

  CHAPTER SIX

  ∞∞∞

  Another day was ending, and while Val still hadn't managed to find the damned and damnable letters, he couldn't be too unhappy about it. Throughout the afternoon, Norah came back to pick up a handful of letters to sort at her desk in the front, and twice, he had coaxed her into a kiss, leaving them both red and breathless. He was only happy that she was the one who had to go running back to the front when the bell over the door opened. It would have been much more awkward for him.

  I'll tell her tonight, he thought, setting aside a letter that seemed rather angry at The Millbrook for its interest in foreign affairs. It doesn't matter what I've found or what I haven't found. I'll tell her tonight over pasta. We could eat at that restaurant she likes this evening, and we can watch the sunrise in Tuscany if that's what she'll allow.

  Even as he reached for another pile of letters, Val had a brief shiver over what Norah might want. She was his chosen mate Of course he was going to give her the world, but judging from what she had said the night before, she wasn't thinking of world travel or gold.