by Sadie Sears
“So,” I said. “How was school?”
“Amazing,” she said, momentarily forgetting she was talking to me. I stayed quiet and let her get on with it. The more comfortable she got with me here, the better it would be in the long run. “Zoe can’t wait to come over and see your house, but she had to go do something with her aunt today.”
“Too bad.” I pulled my key ring out of my pocket. “All the dragons have a key to my house, so you never know which of them might be there.” For that reason, I had several spare keys on my ring. “But here, you can have your own key. If you ever need to come over, even if it’s just to have a moment to yourself, that bedroom you chose is forever yours, okay?” I held out one of the spare keys.
She took the key and looked at me suspiciously. “What about Mom?”
“Whatever happens between me and your mom, my offer stands,” I said. “I’m your friend, one way or another. You like my house, and I like having lots of people in it, especially a cool kid like you.”
She didn’t look like she totally bought my words, but she pocketed the key. “Okay.”
Her enormous banana split came, along with my sandwich, and I smiled as she chattered between bites, telling me all about her class on robotics that had started today. I had to admit, it sounded pretty cool.
It was entirely too easy to pay attention to her. She went on about things important to a kid her age, but she was still charming and intelligent. When the conversation veered to dragons, I sat up and chose my words carefully.
“What’s going to happen if Zoe takes her mom’s bite?” she asked before biting into a big hunk of banana.
“Well, she’ll become a dragon, but she won’t change. She’ll still be your best friend, with a new ability to shift into a dragon.” It would be hard for her to accept her friend’s change. Maybe I’d be able to help soothe the transition.
“Will she be hurt?”
“No,” I said firmly. “Not at all, since it’ll be her mother changing her. I have never heard of a parental bite causing any problems, not like the mating bites can.” I knew she’d heard about the woman that had gone crazy. Everyone in town had. “And for the record, that lady is in a facility for supernatural medicine. They’re working on a cure.”
“Can’t they cure her magically?”
“Her real true mate’s bite would cure her. They’re working on an initiative to magically find him, if he exists.” That would’ve been cool, and something we all hoped they’d manage. If they could find a way to help dragons find their true mates… the possibilities that would open up were limitless.
She nodded, accepting my answers with the trust only a child could have. “Okay. I believe you.” When she looked up from her ice cream, she didn’t seem as unsure of me as she had before. “I can tell when someone is lying, you know.”
“I did not know that. What a handy gift.”
“Yeah, it is.” She arched one eyebrow as she took a huge bite of chocolate ice cream.
“Things are just changing a lot,” Shae mumbled through the bite.
Now we were getting somewhere. “Change is never easy. Your house going nuts isn’t helping, I’m sure.”
She nodded her agreement, then saw someone from school walk by. Her eyes widened and she ducked in her seat. “That’s Noah,” she whispered.
I jerked my head around in time to see a skinny kid disappear around the corner. “And Noah is?”
She’d sat up while I looked. “Nobody.”
I gave her a dry look. “Now who’s lying?”
“Hey!” she exclaimed.
We both laughed, and I began to relax and genuinely enjoy Shae’s company.
Maybe this thing with Sophie could work out after all.
9
Sophie
The enormous kitchen bustled with activity. After Cam picked me up and brought us all home, he and Shae got started on dinner while I went upstairs and put up the jewelry he’d brought from the house. It all seemed to be there, to the best of my memory. At least the shadow worker hadn’t gotten it.
I came back downstairs to see Shae carefully chopping carrots and cucumbers behind a big wooden salad bowl. Taurus and Vince were at the table, teasing Shae about someone named Noah. I was amazed at how much Shae had changed her tune. She talked to Cam as if she’d never had any attitude with him, and they moved around the kitchen as if they’d always worked there together. When had she started getting along with Cam so well?
He was quiet and reserved, only chiming in a few times as the other two really dug into her. I gathered that Noah was someone Shae might have had a crush on. Her cheeks were pink, but she smiled and laughed with them.
Cam handed me a glass of wine and winked. “You look like you need this.”
The day had been fairly uneventful, besides the enormous information rushing through my mind, but I never turned down a glass of wine, especially the good stuff Cam had. I sat at the end of the smaller table in the breakfast nook beside Vince and let this new dynamic settle in as I thought about the day.
Kissing Cam made me feel something I’d never felt before, not even with Riley, though I never would’ve admitted that out loud. I knew for sure I wanted to pursue things, even in the middle of all the chaos that was my life lately. Being with Cam made me feel safe, and the way he looked at me as he walked around the kitchen and got what looked and smelled like a lasagna out of the oven, set my heart on fire.
My mind spun. What did it all mean?
Could I really be with a dragon? Really? Would I become one myself? Flying around the sky sounded both terrifying and exhilarating. And if Cam bit me, I’d become an ether dragon, which was already up my alley, given my gifts and my apparent witch heritage, which I still wanted to somehow confirm. Not to mention the implications of being a witch getting a dragon bite. Was that a thing? Had it been done before? There were so many different implications.
The idea was actually thrilling. But oh, damn, what about Shae? I wished Lila were around to talk to about what’s going on instead of on her camping trip. Zoe had come back to stay with her Aunt Gretta since she had to go to school, but Lila and Leath had stayed on for some private time.
I pulled myself out of my musings when Cam set the lasagna on the table and Shae put the salad beside it. They smiled at each other, and I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or suspicious.
“So, what did you two do after school?” I asked as we passed everything around.
Vince jumped up and got the basket of bread from the kitchen island, and we all settled in as if we had dinner like this every night.
It was so comfortable. Familiar, even.
Something I could really have gotten used to doing.
“Cam took me for a bite at the Snowshoe,” Shae said evasively.
“A bite?” I asked. I knew exactly what that meant. “You better eat an extra big helping of salad.”
She speared a carrot and dipped it in ranch before grinning at me, all teeth. “Of course, Mom.”
I stuck my tongue out at her before gazing at Cam. “A bite?” But I winked. I’d known what she would eat at Snowshoe, and I didn’t mind if it meant they got along this much better now.
Taurus got a text halfway through dinner and he and Vince gobbled down the rest of their food. “Sam needs help with something,” Vince said by way of explanation. “We’ll see you later!”
“Leave the dishes,” I said. They’d begun to gather them up. “I don’t mind.”
“Thanks,” Taurus called as they ran out the back door, already pulling his shirt off.
Shae and I both looked at Cam. He froze mid-bite and raised an eyebrow. I nodded my head to the back door. “Do you not need to go with them?”
Cam shrugged. “If Sam needed me, they would’ve asked.”
“You’re not worried?” I asked as Shae watched us. She was taking it all in, for sure.
He shook his head. “No. They all know what they’re doing. If they need me, they know how to find m
e.”
Having such confidence in his family meant they’d proved themselves to him one way or another. If he trusted them that implicitly, then I would too. The light conversation after they left was comfortable, and it gave me real hope that my daughter was coming around.
Later, when I emerged from Shae’s room after seeing her off to bed, I was too keyed up to sleep myself. I wandered back downstairs to find Cam had started a fire in the enormous fireplace in the living room. “Mind if I join you?” I asked.
He patted the sofa beside him. “I was hoping you’d come back down.”
“So, I’ve been dying to ask. Did you find anything at the house?”
“I did, but Taurus and Vince didn’t. What is the room between the living room and kitchen?” he asked. “It was totally empty.”
“That’s the space I used for tarot readings when I did them out of my house.” I shivered, thinking about all the stuff that had happened in that house over the last couple of weeks. “I moved everything in it to Sacred Spaces thinking it would help. I’m not going to do readings from home anymore.”
“The witch energy I sensed went from the front door to that room and nowhere else.”
I sat back against the sofa, fixing my skirt around me, and thought about my clients that had been in that room.
“It has to be someone you haven’t seen at Sacred Spaces,” he pointed out. “That place is blessed. A shadow worker can’t go into a blessed space.”
Oh, that was true. That changed things. I ran through my client list but kept getting distracted every time Cam moved. His leg brushed against mine, and my train of thought derailed again. I was so curious about him. When it came right down to it, I barely knew anything about him, even though my spirit knew we were connected. “Tell me about yourself,” I prompted him.
“Well, I’m not sure where to start,” he said. “There’s a lot to tell.”
“Start with your family?”
He nodded. “Sure, yeah. I had a brother, but he’s gone now. He was in the military, like the rest of us were. We were being transported via convoy in the Middle East. There was a huge crowd in the town, so we were driving slowly, and no one saw who stuck the IED under my brother’s Humvee.”
I gasped and covered my mouth. When I had pictured Cam in the military, I’d only seen the uniform and the badassery. I hadn’t even imagined the loss that he might have brought home.
“I was in the vehicle behind him, and when it went off, it killed dozens of people nearby and flipped us over. He didn’t die instantly, as you would think in an explosion like that, so I heard his screams as he burned to death. By the time I managed to fight out from under my vehicle, there was no saving him.”
Tears pricked at my eyes for him. After he told me about his brother, I felt like he understood the part of me that still grieved Riley and probably always would. I’d always thought that I wished I could’ve been there in his last moments, holding his hand, but now I was grateful I hadn’t been. Hearing someone you love dying and knowing you couldn’t save them would’ve weighed so heavily on me, as it seemed to on him.
“No one can ever replace the people we lose,” he said in a soft voice.
“I agree completely.”
“You know, I never would begrudge you what you had with Riley. It will be a special part of your life, always.”
I scooted closer and put my hand in his. “Thank you for saying that.”
He looked deep into my eyes and leaned close. It made me a little nervous, so I asked another question, steering the conversation away from the pain. “Do you like living here?”
Sucking in a deep breath, he looked around. “I really do. I’m glad I bought this place.”
“So, you just bought it? Just like that?” I couldn’t help but be curious what he did for a living that he could purchase a house this enormous.
He nodded. “And restored it. No big deal. I dabble in the stock market and wanted a place big enough to house my brothers if they ever needed it. As you’ve seen, this place has several bedrooms, plus the den off the kitchen—which I haven’t even done anything with—could be converted. So could the old stables.” He cocked his head. “Although, I’d love to raise some horses.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “You dabble in the stock market?”
Red blossomed along his cheeks, enhanced by the firelight. “It’s nothing.” He tried to wave it off. “I’m an ether dragon. We’re usually of a higher intellect, and I get bored. Working on the stock market helps me keep my brain muscles flexed.” He flared his nostrils as he said it, causing me to giggle at him.
“Your brain muscles?”
He shrugged. “Well, I don’t have all the big muscles like the other dragons.”
I couldn’t stand for him to think badly of himself, and he’d said it as if he was ashamed that he didn’t have the enormous physique of some of his brothers. Boldly, I grabbed his arm. “You have plenty enough for my liking,” I said in a low voice.
What had come over me? Maybe the wine had given me the courage I needed, because I wanted to keep touching him.
All over.
“Oh, do I?” he asked.
I nodded and stared at his lips. Flashes of our kisses at Sacred Spaces made me lick my lips, anticipating what it might be like to kiss him here in front of the fire.
“We can go as slow as you want,” he said, his gaze glued to my mouth. “You set the pace.”
I said the first thing that came to mind. “Right now, I want to go fast.” I widened my eyes when I heard what I said and how bold it sounded, but I couldn’t find any regrets.
His lips met mine, and I couldn’t remember who leaned into whom, but the soft, hesitant touch quickly turned to a roaring fire. My head felt dizzy from sheer arousal as he grabbed my thigh and squeezed. I didn’t need any encouragement, though, to toss my leg over his and climb into his lap. His hair felt incredibly silky as I threaded my fingers through it.
Heat raced up my legs under his touch, which still seemed to hesitate around the top of my thighs. In another moment of bravery, I grabbed his hands and slid them under my skirt and around to my ass without breaking lip contact. He moaned in my mouth, pressing me hard against him.
Nothing had ever felt so right in my life than being like this with Cameron. I could practically see the fireworks exploding in the background, announcing it to the world. I’d known him for such a short time, but my soul felt like it was home with him.
His shirt landed on the floor behind the couch, and I took a moment to admire his physique without feeling rushed. Despite his obvious doubt, I found his slim build and more subtle muscles incredibly attractive. My fingers trailed down his chest and skipped over the hint of abs, then I kissed him again as I fumbled with his belt in a rush to get closer.
He pulled my hand away and grabbed me, throwing both of us lengthwise across the couch. Our touches were wild and exploratory, and I needed him like I needed air to breathe. As I tugged at his belt, he grabbed my hands and pulled them up above my head.
“Damn, Sophie,” he murmured. “We can’t do this here.”
Disappointment shot through me. “Why not?”
“What if Shae comes down and sees us, or Vince comes home?”
Oh, he meant in the living room. It wasn’t a rejection. I lifted my head and pressed my lips to his again. “Then take me to your room.”
Cam’s pupils dilated and he exhaled raggedly. Wrapping my legs around his hips, he lifted me off the couch. Our lips crashed together again as he navigated the house like a pro, avoiding tables and walls to get us upstairs. It didn’t matter what he thought about his slimmer build, if he could lift the kind of curves I carried without any effort, he was more than strong enough.
In the glimpses I got between kisses, he was taking me to a different part of the house than where Shae slept across from my room. He carried me through a doorway, kicking it shut behind us, and we fell across an enormous bed. A breeze blew through the room from a par
tially open balcony door on the other side of the room.
This time, when I reached for his belt, he let me, pulling back enough to meet my eyes. “Are you absolutely sure, Sophie?”
I whipped the belt through the loops and tossed it across the room. Never leaving his gaze, I unbuttoned his pants and shoved my hand inside, grabbing his length. He hissed and pressed his forehead against mine. I was nearly in pain from wanting him so badly.
Cam slid away from my hand, trailing kisses down my throat. I arched my back and tangled my fingers in his hair. He continued down and over the top of my breasts, his fingers sliding up under my shirt and across my skin. Every touch and caress stoked the heat inside me until I thought I was going to combust.
My shirt was tossed away as carelessly as his belt, and he took the same opportunity to admire me as I did with him. I wasn’t twig-thin like Lila, but I wasn’t self-conscious either. I owned my curves, from my bust to my wide hips to my solid calves. Cam looked at me as if I was a goddess, and I smiled up at him.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered.
Before I could respond, he captured one of my nipples in his mouth. I gasped and pressed myself closer instinctively. Fingertips skimmed across my belly and down, lifting my long skirt to skate along my thigh, and I felt like a pot that was about to boil over. The anticipation was killing me.
His fingers brushed over my clit, and I groaned, bucking my hips. Then he applied pressure through my underwear, and I was ready to shatter too soon. It had been far too long, and I loved this man far too mu—
Whoa. Peace settled in my chest as I realized that was exactly what it was. Love. I was falling in love with Cameron Charles. I was his destined mate. He was everything I needed in my life.
I drew him up to kiss him and yanked at his pants. He pulled them off awkwardly and kicked them away, then moved down, fingers hooking around the waistband of my skirt and panties. Lifting myself up, he tugged them down over my legs, then placed kisses all the way up the inside of my left leg. When I tried to pull him back to me, he chuckled against my skin.