by Zoe Chant
"But you did get me here," she pointed out. Unwrapping the second slicker from around her legs, she passed it to him. Darius gave it a miserable glare and then bundled it around himself. "There's a utility door in the fence, around the side of the building. It's locked from the outside, but you can open it from this side. Just lock it behind you. Can you get back okay?"
"Oh, I'll be fine. I'll walk until I find a secluded place to shift with enough room to fly properly." He turned a glare on their round-eyed, pint-sized audience, gazing raptly through the window. "At least they're only children. No one will believe them." With that, he gave her a quick, rain-flavored kiss.
She had to force herself not to laugh at his bedraggled appearance, knowing he wouldn't appreciate it. Anyway, she actually liked this look on him. He looked much more ordinary this way, with his hair plastered down with rainwater and the dorky slicker wrapped around his shoulders.
"I'm going to enjoy stripping your wet clothes off later," she murmured.
"They won't be wet then," he murmured back, and gave her another quick kiss before taking off in a fast walk across the playground.
Loretta let herself in the back door and was promptly mobbed by curious preschoolers.
"Miss Loretta, who's that?"
"Miss Loretta, is that your dragon?"
"Miss Loretta, are you married to a dragon?"
"No!" she said. "No. No! Who wants to help me find the crayons? I just need to take my raincoat off, and then we're ready for art time."
"Noooo, we want dragons!"
"Miss Loretta, can we ride on your dragon?"
"What are they going on about?" asked Becky, her co-worker. "Oh, Loretta, I didn't see you come in. Heavens, you're soaked."
"It's pouring buckets out there. Just a minute, let me get this off—sorry I wasn't here yesterday."
"Miss Becky, Miss Loretta has her own dragon!"
"That's nice, Colin," Becky said absently. "Loretta, was that your apartment building on the news yesterday?"
"Now you know why I wasn't here." At least, she realized, she had a reason for acting slightly distracted and odd.
Becky embraced her, slicker and all. "Oh no. I'm so sorry. Do you have a place to stay?"
"I'm good. I'm staying with a friend."
"Her friend is a dragon!"
Loretta gave Becky what she hoped was an indulgent, aren't-they-cute kind of smile. "Let's go get the crayons and we can draw some dragons, okay?"
***
They drew dragons. They drew dragons all day. At storytime, the requested books were about dragons. At playtime, the whole group fought over the one and only dragon toy in the toybox. There was no outside recess because of the rain, but unsurprisingly, there was a lot of running around and growling and flapping make-believe wings.
"It's so cute when they all get into something like this," Becky said as they were cleaning up afterwards, as the parents picked up the last stragglers. There was a stack of dragon pictures on the play table (bright colored, some with orange and red flames scribbled around them) "for Miss Loretta"; several of the children had insisted on giving her their drawings. "Tomorrow it'll probably be superheroes, and the day after that, unicorns."
"You might be surprised," Loretta murmured, tucking the pictures into her handbag.
"They seem to think you have a boyfriend." Becky winked at her. "Is that like the dragons, or did they see someone drop you off?"
Well, it wasn't like she'd be able to keep it secret. She just hadn't expected the cat to get out of the bag so soon. "The kids are right. I, um. I might be seeing someone. But it's really new, so don't get too excited, okay?"
New ... and yet it felt so right. Being with Darius was like unwrapping an endlessly complicated series of packages nested inside each other. It wasn't just that the man was full of so many secrets that she could spend a lifetime uncovering them. She didn't think she'd ever get tired of coaxing out his quiet smiles and his soft, delighted looks. Every one of them was like a gift.
Although she'd forgotten to tell him when to pick her up, there was a sleek, dark car waiting for her on the rain-washed street outside the day care. She expected Maddox at the wheel, but instead Darius leaned over from the driver's seat and opened the passenger-side door for her.
"Awww, you're dry," she said, giving him a quick kiss. A little thrill ran through her. She had a boyfriend! A hot, smart, rich boyfriend.
"I thought about staying wet for you, but decided it wasn't worth standing in the rain all day, waiting."
"Hmm. Probably best." She dug into her purse. "Look, the kids drew you."
"They what?" Darius looked alarmed.
"They're just kid pictures of dragons. Most of them look like pillows with spider legs anyway. None of them are recognizable as you."
"Yes, but ... I shouldn't have done that. It was unwise." Darius spread out the drawings on the steering wheel and studied them. "Hmmm. I can see these children need some grounding in basic life drawing skills. And critical observation as well. This one has twelve legs."
"Darius, they're four. Anyway, do you want them drawing accurate pictures of you?"
"True." He handed the drawings back to her and put the car in gear.
"We should put these up in the Daffodil Room."
"I hope you're joking."
"I'm completely serious. It needs a few things to make it look less like a hotel room. I think these might be just the thing."
"You can decorate it however you want," Darius declared. "You can paint every room in the mansion yellow if you like. It is yours now. All that I have is yours."
"I really wish you'd stop saying things like that."
"It's true," he said simply.
She had to look away, in part because all she wanted to do was fling herself over the gearshift and kiss him senseless. She didn't know how to cope with Darius saying things like that. It was wonderful and flattering and terribly, terribly overwhelming, all at once.
After a moment, Darius said, "Do you need to do anything in town? I was thinking ... it's completely up to you, whether we get dinner in town, or drive back to the mansion and Elvie can make us something. We can go to the finest restaurant in the city, if you'd like to."
He was trying. He really was. And a slow smile crept across her face. "What if we pick up takeout burgers and eat in the car on the drive?"
Darius looked horrified.
"Come on, it'll be fun. I would suggest a picnic, but this isn't really the weather for it."
Darius took a deep breath and assumed the resigned look of a man going to a funeral. "It's your choice. Pick your ... fast-food restaurant, I think they're called?"
"You'd really do that for me?"
"Loretta," he said gently. "I would do anything for you."
***
She decided not to inflict McDonald's on Darius quite yet—he'd probably have to work up to it. Instead they stopped at a fairly nice family diner on the highway outside town. On a chilly, rainy day like this one, they had the place nearly all to themselves, and a lot of attention from the waitress. Actually, Loretta was pretty sure it was Darius, specifically, getting a lot of attention from the waitress. She glared at the woman's back and tried not to be jealous.
"I like that look on you," Darius murmured.
"What look?"
"The look of a dragoness defending her territory."
"I don't know what that's supposed to look like, but I'm pretty sure I don't look like it."
He smiled and reached across the table to touch her cheek, smoothing back her hair. She tried not to think of what the humidity was doing to her red frizz.
"Yes, you do. My fierce mate. My fierce, beautiful mate."
"Your fierce, beautiful mate is wondering what we have to do to get a slice of apple pie around here."
They had two slices, loaded with ice cream.
"Admit it," she said, as they walked out of the diner with their hands twined together. Darius paused to hold the door for a
family with a swarm of kids. "The food's just as nice as that fancy place in the city, and the atmosphere's better. That place didn't even give us complimentary breath mints." She held up the plastic-wrapped mint she'd snagged from a little basket next to the cash register.
Darius looked like he was trying not to grin. "I must admit, at the age that I am, it's good to have new experiences."
This sobered her slightly, thinking of the vast gap of age and experience that lay between them. And she was no spring chicken herself. Yet ... it didn't seem to matter when she was with him.
There was still one question she had to ask, though.
"Darius," she said as he held the door of the car for her. It was still raining lightly, dampening her shoulders. "What happens when ..." And here she stopped; the words wouldn't come.
She simply couldn't imagine being without him. Couldn't imagine him without her.
"Yes?" he asked quietly. He looked at her over the top of the car with rain frosting his hair.
She couldn't quite ask the question she needed an answer to; instead she asked, "How long do dragons live?"
Darius was silent, his face gentle. At last he said, "If you're asking how long a dragon can live, the answer is a long, long time. I've known a few who make me look young. Heikon, the head of the Corcoran clan, is at least four hundred and possibly more."
Loretta only nodded, unable to trust her voice. He would go on for that long without her, then. She could bear the thought only because she had no choice. It hurt her down to the bottom of her soul.
"But if you want to know how long a mated dragon will live," Darius went on, "the answer is that we live as long as our mates ... and vice versa. The lifespan of a dragon and his or her mate will always adjust to fit each other. That means you'll live longer than a normal human, and I will not live quite as long as an unmated dragon."
It was like the vast relief after illness, the cessation of that pain. "You're giving up immortality for me?" she asked, stunned.
He smiled, a brief, gentle curve of his lips. "It's more than worth it, let me assure you. An endless lifetime without you would be endless torment. I'd trade it in a heartbeat for ten minutes with you."
The hyperbole allowed her to get herself together again. She laughed shakily and dashed at her eyes. "Let's not get too carried away here. I expect we both have a lot of years ahead of us. Plus, we're getting wet out here."
Darius started the car and cranked the heat, blasting warm air over both of them. As he pulled out onto the road, Loretta reached over and laid her hand on his thigh. He closed his fingers over hers.
She was thinking long-term about this now, she realized. Years with Darius. A lifetime with Darius.
That actually sounded pretty good.
Chapter Thirteen: Darius
After another night of bliss, Darius woke in sleepy luxury in the gold and white splendor of the Daffodil Room, with the buxom warmth of his mate in his arms ... or, rather, squirming out of his arms and sitting up. She was reaching for her phone, vibrating on the bedside table. Darius was still struggling out of his sleepy lethargy when the alarmed note in her voice penetrated his sleep-dopey haze. "They did what?" she was saying. "Where? What are we going to do?"
Darius's first thought was some new disaster involving Rodan Sharpe. That enemy had receded into the distant background of his consciousness since he had found Loretta. Sharpe was still trying to take over Darius's business holdings; each day brought new reports of corporate takeovers, new fluctuations of his stock. And, for the first time ever, he didn't care. Sharpe could have Darius's entire business empire if he wanted to. A week ago, making money was what had mattered to him most. Now he'd found something more important.
Sharpe could take everything else away, Darius didn't care, but if he laid one hand on Loretta, Darius would rend him limb from limb.
He sat up with these thoughts in mind as his mate laid aside the phone and looked at him with wide, alarmed eyes. "Stupid construction work!" she said.
Darius's fierce determination to defend her ran into a snag. "Who? What? Is it Sharpe?"
"Who? No, there's some utility work up the street from the day care and they accidentally cut a major power line. The power's out to the entire block. We're scrambling right now to figure out what to do. We can't very well open without power, but a lot of working parents rely on us. Some of them have probably begun their commutes already. We're going to have to get word to all of them, and help them make other arrangements—"
"What if you moved the kids somewhere else?" Darius asked.
"What?" Now it was her turn to be confused.
"I own a number of properties in town. Surely one of them can be utilized on short notice." He reached for his phone. "Possibly the ballroom at the Paradise Hotel; I don't think we have anything scheduled for today ..."
"You want to put a bunch of preschoolers in a hotel ballroom?"
"Certainly, why not? It has power," he pointed out, "which puts it ahead of your current location. And it's only a few blocks away."
"I ... oh ... I'm going to get dressed," she said, and stumbled into the bathroom.
When she came back some twenty minutes later, wearing the gold skirt and clipping on earrings, Darius was just laying aside the phone after making arrangements. "I took the liberty of speaking to your employers. They are preparing to move some necessary equipment. I haven't any idea what necessary equipment is involved for small children, but I expect they know what they're about."
"Um ... thanks." She sat on the edge of the bed, leaned over and kissed him deeply. "Thank you. Seriously."
He relished the honey of her lips before drawing back to make the best approximation of a courtly bow that he could manage while sitting naked among rumpled bedcovers. "Would you care for a ride to work, my love?"
Loretta glanced out the window at the low gray clouds, another gloomy day providing cover for all who went dragonback. "Are you sure it's no trouble?"
"None at all, and I should be there myself anyway, to oversee whatever preparations are needed. I'll meet you on the east wing balcony after I've had a quick shower."
It was not too much time later—all too short a ride, with her thighs clamped around him—when he touched down on the roof of the Paradise Hotel under the cover of heavy fog and let her down before shifting back.
"You know," she said as he unlocked the roof access, "we're going to have to figure out a permanent solution to this commuting-to-town issue sooner or later. I can't keep living a two-hour drive away from where I work."
"Well, I didn't expect you'd continue to work there, of course," Darius said reasonably, and was baffled when she looked upset.
"I can't just quit my job! I love my job."
"But I can buy you anything you want. You will never need money again."
"Yes—but—that's not the point!"
"Isn't that the entire point of working?" Now he was the confused one.
Loretta stopped at the bottom of the stairwell and leaned against the wall, pressing her hand to her head as if she had a headache. "I keep thinking it's all going to work out and then I feel like you don't understand anything about me. What do you think I'd do around your mansion all day?"
"Well ... whatever you wanted. You could grow roses in the gardens, or read books—"
"And how long do you think I'd be happy like that?"
He tried to think of an answer that would please her, when what he was really thinking was, Why wouldn't she want to live in luxury? Why were human women so complicated?
Loretta sighed and opened the stairwell door. "Where is this ballroom of yours?"
At least she let him settle a hand in the small of her back and escort her. She didn't seem to be terribly upset, just distant and sad. He hoped she would cheer up when she saw the vast space of the ballroom, but instead she looked even more worried.
"Darius, this is never going to work for preschoolers!"
"Why not?"
"What do you
mean, why not?" She swept a hand around her at the brightly lit room with its high ceilings, gilt wallpaper, and chandeliers. Darius, baffled, thought it looked just fine for any purpose. The tables had been moved out, and it was suitable to be converted for any sort of event.
"If the children aren't impressed, I'm sure their parents will be."
"It's not about impressing people, Darius, it's about providing a safe and enriching environment for children to play in."
"If you point to anything unsafe, I shall have it removed."
"Darius ... I ... oh no, there's Becky ..."
She went to meet her co-worker, and Darius stood to one side and watched with interest as Loretta directed the installation of colorful floor mats, tables, and boxes of toys. It did certainly change the nature of the ballroom, he had to admit. He went off to find a couple of hotel workers to make sure that the main ballroom doors were closed and nothing unsafe for small children remained in the ballroom (not that he had any idea what constituted a lack of safety for human children, but surely someone who worked at the hotel must have their own small children and would know).
Darius had meant to be gone by the time the human spawn started pouring in, but he got engrossed in an argument with the hotel's day manager over removal of the room's chandeliers—what if they fell on a child and injured them? So what if it would involve bringing in ladders and a work crew? He was going to make this room so safe that no one could find fault with it, Loretta least of all.
And then he found himself hip-deep in small children. "You're Miss Loretta's boyfriend!" declared a small child with a halo of dark curls.
"All is well, small children," Darius told them, attempting to edge away. "This room has been made safe for you."
"Can you turn into a dragon?" asked a small girl in a bright pink princess dress.
"There is no such thing as dragons," Darius informed them.
"We saw you."
"Children," Loretta announced, swooping down on them with a fetching-looking flush on her cheeks, "this is Mr. Darius. Say hello to Mr. Darius."
"Hello, Mr. Darius," several small voices chorused. Darius distinctly heard one of them say "Hello, Mr. Dragon" instead.