by Zoe Chant
All of it, he thought, I'm going to give her all of it, as much as she wants.
But he still needed to find his damn letters, and with an angry puff of air that was all right, a lot warmer than it should have been, he opened the next envelope. It turned out to be from a Mrs. Siddons, who seemed to have mistaken The Millbrook for some kind of housekeeping journal and was rather put off by the serialized novels they had started putting out.
Somehow, he managed to get back into the groove of carefully opening ancient envelopes and scanning minuscule text in the hopes that he would find his prize. Thoughts of Norah simmered at the back of his mind, but he was very pleased that they didn't boil over more than a little.
Val was actually startled when she rapped lightly on the doorway, a slight smile on her face. Her smile was utterly adorable, and he still couldn't quite get over that she had shown up to meet him in a dress emblazoned with red dragons. Some things were fate, and others were just perfect.
"Hi," he said, sounding shy in his own ears.
"Hi. So the library's shut down. How about if I join you for an hour or so, and then you can buy me way more garlic bread than you think I can eat?"
"How much garlic bread can you eat?"
"All of it. There is no such thing as too much garlic bread."
"Well, you're not wrong."
He wanted to sweep her away immediately, but the sooner he found his letters, the better.
Norah took a seat beside him, but he wondered if there was something a little off about her expression, something more reluctant and worried than she had been earlier.
"Norah? Are you all right?"
"Oh yeah, just a little distracted, I guess. You know. The whole thing with the thief has everyone up in arms."
"Ah, yes."
It was fine, but there was more there. He resolved to get the rest out of her over a mountain of garlic bread if that was what it took, or perhaps she would tell him what was the matter as they left town together. He liked that idea a lot.
They worked companionably for an hour, and then it was Val who stood, shaking his head and cracking his back loudly.
"All right, that's enough overtime," he said. "We're leaving now."
"We are?"
"Executive decision. We cannot proceed without food."
"Man after my own heart,” Norah said with a sigh.
"Come on. You work here, you don't live here."
"I think I kind of did while I was doing my master's degree," she said, but she went to get her things. "I know I spent more than a couple nights crashed out in the student's lounge. There's a pretty comfortable couch down there."
"All the more reason for us leave. This place has gotten enough of you."
He hadn't been able to park in the employee lot, but after what had happened last night, he insisted on walking her to her car. She gave him the directions to the restaurant, and then she paused before getting into her car.
"I just want to tell you," she said, more shy than he had ever heard her, "I like you. I like you so very, very much."
It was the best thing he had ever heard, and Val laughed.
"I think I'd give a hoard of rubies to hear you say that again."
"Oh, well, I'm not that mean. Here, I'll give it to you for free. I like you, I like you, I like you …"
When his parents were young, three times meant that it was true, and he couldn't stop himself from leaning in and kissing her. The first touch of her lips to his were electric, and then he was pressing her against the car, claiming her mouth with a hungry need that seemed to stretch beyond his skin. She moaned underneath him, her hands coming up to clutch at his jacket, and it was only with a titanic force of will that he managed to pull back.
"Later," he said. "Later, not in your workplace parking lot."
"Aww, fraidy cat," she said, breathless. "But all right. We'll have dinner like civilized people, and then we'll find another empty lot to kiss in."
Val knew that he was grinning like a lunatic, but he shook his head, taking a step back from Norah before he could throw all of his fine words straight out.
"Whatever you like," he promised her.
He wondered if it was always going to be like this, Norah turning him inside out as she took her place as his true mate. Humans mated to dragons acquired their long lifespans, and he imagined the years ahead, years spent together. They could do whatever they liked, and he couldn't wait to show her the world.
He was almost back to his car, still walking on air, when a surprised shriek cut through the quiet night. It was like someone had poured strong coffee directly into his blood, and right away, he knew that that was Norah, his Norah.
Val turned on his heel, and even before he had completed that turn, fingers had been replaced with claws and red scales replaced skin. He roared, and his leathery wings came down hard to throw him up into the sky. It was a painful way to gain the air, wrenching and abrupt, but he didn't care about any of it. All he cared about was getting back to his true mate, to finding her and making sure that whoever had made her cry out like that was turned into a damned piece of kindling.
He went over the library rather than around it, and when he looked down into the employee parking lot, he saw Norah's figure tangled with that of someone much bigger, someone who had his hands on her, someone who was shaking her violently.
No.
Val roared again, and he struck the ground not five feet from where some asshole was attacking his true mate. He threw his head back, almost spat flame, but then he only leaped at the man who had now pushed Norah away with a violent shove and was backing away.
Didn't matter. Val advanced on the man with a low growl. Red dragons were smaller than some of the other species, but they were still a hair bigger than Clydesdale horses. Either way, they were deadly when they were angry, and Val was very angry indeed.
The man tried to edge away, but Val followed him, cutting off his escape. All he could see was someone who had tried to hurt his true mate, his Norah, and his mind and heart and dragon were all united in the fact that that would not be tolerated.
The man was sweating and terrified, which, good, and right before Val primed to make a final leap, a soft hand landed on his shoulder.
"Hey," Norah said softly. "Hey, it's all right."
Val twisted around to look at her, her touch like cool water on a fire, and suddenly he was massively ashamed of himself. He realized that he had been on the verge of butchering someone right in front of her, and while the dragon part of him was utterly fine with that, the human side cringed.
He tried to say her name, but of course he couldn't in this form. What came out instead was a stuttered grumbling whine as he tried to tell her that he wasn't always like this, he usually had much better control.
"I know, baby," Norah said sympathetically. "I know. It's okay."
He wasn't sure it was, but his bones unknit and his human side reasserted itself with a twinge of guilt and embarrassment. He regained his human shape just in time to see the man who had started all of this peel away in his car, and he roared, almost slipping his shape again.
"He's getting away!"
"It's fine, Val. It's fine, I promise."
"But –"
"It's fine because I took a picture of his license plate. That's why he came after me. It has a university sticker on it. The asshole goes to school here or works here. We'll find him.”
Val felt another rush of scalding anger flow through him, and he shook his head angrily.
"I can still catch him."
Miraculously, Norah laughed at that.
"I think citizen's arrest (or maybe that would be dragon's arrest?) isn't a great activity for date night. Come on. Why don't we step back inside so you can calm down for a little bit?"
"Calm down?"
"Yeah, you're still kind of smoky. Come on. A sit-down will do you some good."
Now that he was coming back down from his fury, Val could see the wisps of steam rising
up from his nose and his mouth. His human shape could spit fire just as well as his dragon form, and he took a few cooling breaths of evening air before nodding reluctantly.
"All right," he said, and then more softly, "Are you okay?"
Norah smiled up at him, poking at her dress and the red dragons cavorting over it.
"Better than," she said. "I love a fairytale.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
∞∞∞
Most people upon seeing a red dragon swoop down on them would probably be terrified or appalled. There would be a lot of panicked thoughts about how such a thing could be, and where a dragon fit into a North American ecosystem, what it could possibly eat and where it could hide.
Instead, she was herself, and the first thing she thought was Oh my God, that is so damn cool.
The second thought that occurred to her was, Oh, he's coming in pretty fast, and then Oh Val ...
She couldn't say how she knew, but she knew where she knew. It was in her heart, in that same place that had looked at Val just the day before and said where have you been? What took you so long? I've missed you.
She had had absolutely no sense of fear at all when she had walked up to keep Val from tearing that idiot thief to bits, but when they got back to her archive, she was shaking.
"Norah, are you all right?" asked Val anxiously, and she gave him a quick smile.
"Just need to send this all to Sayeed," she said. "He's going to go nuts that I got such a good picture. You know, he was the one saying that I took a great picture of my thumb when I had to take pictures at the last holiday party."
She sent the pictures of the license plate off to Sayeed, and then she heaved herself up to sit on the worktable.
"Oh my God. You're a dragon. And you almost ate a book thief. What if he talks and someone listens and, like, will a circus or the government come for you, or –
“I'm not worried. It was one man and if he doesn't want to add public intoxication to his list of crimes, he'll keep it to himself. This kind of thing happens from time to time, and it doesn't change much of anything.”
“Good,” Norah said with feeling. “I would hate to have to bust you out of jail or a circus or a top-secret government facility, but I would do it.”
"You're taking this pretty well," Val said hopefully, and she smiled.
"It's the coolest thing in the world," she assured him. "And I want to know everything. I want to know where you're from, if there are more like you, if you can turn into a dragon on command, all of it."
Val tilted his head at her, coming a little closer and offering her his hand.
"Ukraine originally, there are too many of us as far as I'm concerned, and it depends on who's commanding."
“What if it were me?”
Val looked around, dubiously.
“I don't think I would really fit in this room ...”
“But you'd do it for me?”
“Norah, I don't think there's a lot I wouldn't do for you. That's what being my true mate means.”
“I'm your true mate.”
It wasn't a question, and she knew it was true the same way she knew the sun was hot and water was wet.
“You are. I'm yours. That means that whatever you need, I'll get it for you. It means that I would tear down the world if you got hurt.”
She realized with a deep shiver what kind of responsibility Val was implying, and then she got a different kind of shiver when she thought about the possibilities.
“I think that would be a lot more scary if I didn't want to do the same for you,” she admitted, and Val blinked.
“Really?”
“Oh God, yeah. I mean, do you know how hard it is to say no to you? It's like having to turn down chocolate truffles wrapped up in hundred dollar bills.”
“You nearly bit my head off when I first showed up with money.”
“Because this is an academic- Oh. Right.”
She made a face, hopping down off the desk. Despite everything that had just happened, there was one increasingly clarion call in her head. She knew that she had done wrong before, and if they were going to move forward like she was so very much hoping they would, she had to fix things before they got any further.
Val gave her a puzzled look as she went to a certain box in the tall stack against the wall. The small stack of letters was right where she had left it, and with a small sigh, she handed them over to Val.
“Here you go,” she said with a wince. “I promise. I found these today. It's not like I knew where they were and just kept them from you.”
Val took the letters, but he didn't look at them. Instead he looked at her, his eyes as black as night.
“Norah, why?”
“Because … I don't know. Because I thought that if you got your letters, you would go. Things were happening so fast, and I couldn't stand the thought of you leaving. That sounds really dumb now when I say it, but I wasn't really thinking much. I just knew I didn't want you to go.”
She was getting steadily more miserable the longer she talked, but then Val reached out to cup her cheek in the palm of his hand, the expression his face incredibly tender.
“I'm not going anywhere,” he said, and he leaned in to kiss her.
His lips on hers were so terribly gentle, and Norah leaned into him as if she were drowning. Her hands came up to to cling to his jacket, and she could feel how hot his mouth was underneath hers. The kiss might have started out comforting, but it grew abruptly more intense as Norah leaned back against the steel rack behind her and pulled Val firmly against her body.
“Oh, this feels so good it should be illegal,” Norah moaned, and Val laughed without quite pulling away. He pushed his fingers through her hair, tangling them through to hold her still as he deepened their kiss. His tongue slid into her mouth, and Norah sucked on it shamelessly, drawing a gasp from her true mate. He shook for her, and she was just thinking that she was going to get the better of him before he stooped down and scooped her up with his hands under her thighs and her chest pressed hard to his.
“You're dangerous,” Val murmured even as she yelped in surprise. “You ought to be secured.”
“Like a criminal?” she asked breathlessly, and Val laughed, carrying her back to the worktable. They had cleared it before they left for the day, thankfully, and there was plenty of space for him to lay her down on her back, her knees bent and her legs hanging over the edge.
“Like something utterly precious to me that needs to be protected,” he said, and she let out a short sharp gasp as he stepped between her legs, spreading her thighs wide. Her dress was riding up almost to her waist, and Val reached for the waistband of her thick tights.
“How much do you like these?” he asked, his voice rougher than it had been a moment before. His hands were hot where he touched her, and she wiggled desperately.
“I hate them,” she half-moaned. “They're awful. They're a prison for my legs.”
“Then they absolutely have to go.”
She whimpered with pleasure when Val tore the tights straight off her her body, letting them fall in tatters to the floor. It felt so very good and so very right to be as close to Val as possible, skin to skin with his hands sliding along her thighs with a possessive grasp that took her breath away.
He pushed her dress up even farther, and then he paused, looking own at her with a particularly intent look on his face.
“Well. What kind of plans did you have for our first date?”
She laughed and blushed at once as she remembered what she had slipped on that morning.
“No plans, just hope,” she said. “Also, it's laundry day, so I raided the special occasions drawer.”
Val plucked at the side ties that were all that held the scraps of pink lace to her hips. After his willful destruction of her good tights, he was almost unbearably delicate now, pulling loose the bows that she had tied early that morning. She whined, shifting her hips hopefully, but it didn't make him a single bit faster. It seemed to
take an age before he let her panties drop to the floor, and Norah uttered a full-throated moan as he cupped her mons.
“You're just made perfectly,” he said with admiration. “Perfect to look at, perfect to touch, and all I can do is think that I actually get to keep you.”
Something about the way he said the words struck a deep chord inside her. Tears welled up in her eyes, and they might have spilled but instead she laughed, the joy bubbling up inside her like a froth of champagne and the pop of fireworks.
“Keep me,” she said, reaching for him. “Keep me with you for always.”
In response, Val leaned down to take her in his arms, hugging her so tight that she could feel the tension of his body against hers, how every muscle in his lean frame was primed over her. She marveled at how hard he was against her and how his breath felt far hotter than it should have.
“I want you,” he said, so fervently that it was practically a prayer. “I want you, Norah, please.”
“Take me,” she whispered in his ear, and immediately Val reared back just enough so he could get his hand between them, stroking her delicate flesh with the perfect amount of firmness and care. Norah gasped as his fingers strummed a primal rhythm on her body, parting her just enough that he could press against her clit. Somehow, he knew precisely where to touch her, exactly what she needed, and she buried her face in his neck, her arms tight around him.
“I want more than that,” Norah insisted breathlessly, and Val laughed.
“I could never deny you, but teasing you, that I could do.”
She moaned, and Val kept stroking her, bringing her straight to the edge and then somehow keeping her there. No matter how she pressed against him, no matter how she rocked against his touch, he wouldn't give her the release she craved, and then with a groan of frustration, she gave up.
“Please,” she said, her voice broken to bits. “Please, please, Val, I need you.”
A deep shudder ran through him at that, and when he pushed her to her back on the table, she could feel the break in him as well. It had cost him to tease her as he had done, and he was paying for ot now. He pulled back just far enough to tear at his trousers and free his erection. There was one brilliant moment where she could feel the hot velvet length of him pressed against her thigh, and then he pushed inside her with one long stroke, filling her so perfectly that she had to shut her eyes against the sudden rush of pleasure.