Chapter Eleven
Days passed, and it took all Connor’s willpower not to spend every waking minute thinking about, seeking out, or trying to engineer ways to bump into Jenna in better circumstances than last time.
It’s not like that ended badly, his dragon said smugly.
No, it hadn’t, and he’d relived that kiss every night since. So much that he could barely keep his head on straight when it came to other things. But he’d come to Maui to prove himself a worthy dragon, not prove himself a fool.
So instead of hunting down Jenna, he spent long, tedious mornings tailing Draig to various corners of Maui, making sure the old dragon was behaving himself. Anton was gone, sent back to Miami in disgrace, which left just the old man to keep an eye on. According to Kai, Draig had been all in with disciplining Anton, so everything had settled down again.
So far, Draig played by the rules, which meant Connor had to endure hours of watching golf — or even worse, hanging around wine tasting places way up on the slopes of Haleakala where Draig demonstrated just how much of a wealthy snob he was.
“Dry but fruity, don’t you think?” Draig said to one of the half-his-age redheads he always kept close by his side.
Connor scowled. Could it really be worth it to have a sugar daddy like Draig?
The old dragon swished the wine around his glass and sniffed. “A floral bouquet…”
Connor hid a snort. What the hell did that mean?
At least the old dragon posed no danger, and with his hotheaded nephew safely off Maui, Connor found his mind constantly drifting to Jenna. Where was she? What was she doing just then?
Sanding. No, wait. She’s sweeping the shop, his dragon said.
Which blew him away completely. How did the beast know that?
He closed his eyes, pictured her face, and — bang, there it was. Exactly that image of her at work. The more time passed, the better he became at sensing where she was. He pictured her hunched over a surfboard, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Another time, he’d sensed her driving along the road to work with the wind in her hair. And then there were the times he pictured her at night, touching herself on the bed…
He’d gotten so swept away with those images that he nearly lost track of Draig — an error that could have cost him his job if he hadn’t snapped to his senses in time.
“Hand me that hammer, will you?” Tim called.
Connor blinked a few times. Damn it, he’d just tuned out again, this time, on the roof of the plantation house. That was the other part of his job — fixing the place up. Kai hadn’t set a deadline, but the plantation house had to be renovated before anyone could work on their individual homes. So far, Cynthia and Joey lived upstairs, while the guys shared two bedrooms in the wings of the house. They were used to barracks living after years in the military, but the prospect of setting up their own places — not to mention the incentive of moving out from under Cynthia’s watchful eye — made everyone work double time.
The jury was still on out on whether Cynthia belonged in the unbearable bitch category or pretty okay, but two things were for sure. Cynthia knew all about pulling long hours, and second, she knew how to get things done. Even Tim had whistled as another perfectly timed delivery rolled in.
“She’s better than the best supply sergeant I’ve ever seen.”
And he wasn’t kidding. In the military, there was always a point when something ran out. Caulking. Elbow joints. Cables of a certain diameter. Sooner or later, construction works always ground to a halt.
Not with Cynthia in charge. Less than a minute after Connor and the others had descended from a full day of repairing the roof, a truck had rolled in with stacks of siding.
Cynthia had nodded, pointed, and said, “Good. Now you can start on the walls.”
The thing was, no one could complain, not when she was the first one up and the last to turn in. Even Joey pitched in, and it was amazing to observe Cynthia go from alpha boss lady to warm, cuddly mom.
“Wow! Sweetie, what a great job!” she cooed when Joey pulled protruding nails out of the floorboards on the porch.
Connor, on the other hand, got a stern, “You’re finished? Good. That means you can start on the kitchen.”
The woman was a dynamo, he had to give her that. Beyond being bossy, she was a good mom. Protective. Nurturing. Even tender, which pretty much blew Dell’s Ice Queen theory away.
“Oh, honey. You hurt your finger? Here, let me kiss it.”
That was just about the only thing Cynthia took a break for — cuddling little Joey and rocking him from time to time.
Which made her hard to hate, and frankly, hard to beat, too. Who better to run things than a woman ready to sacrifice herself for another member of their fledging clan?
Dell shook his head, reading Connor’s mind. You never know. If the shit ever hit the fan, she could get too emotional and distracted to make a strong leader. Not chopping on women, he added quickly. I’d be the same if it were my kid.
Connor considered. Maybe that was one of those perspective things.
Your advantage, bro, Dell pointed out.
Connor hid his inner snort. Like he wasn’t getting all emotional or distracted with Jenna constantly on his mind. All he could think about was protecting her. Getting to know her. Making her happy.
So he couldn’t exactly claim to be better suited as leader of the Koakea shifters, not unless he got his head back in the game.
“Me and Chase are ahead of you slackers,” Dell taunted from the porch. “Right, Chase?”
Chase didn’t say anything — nothing new there — but he did flash a grin before disappearing into the house with a roll of cable. And that grin reminded Connor of what else was at stake here. Namely, the other guys. If he screwed up here, they’d all be out of a job. Word would get around, and then what would they do? Most of their skills had a military slant, which meant their only other option would be hiring out as mercenaries.
Fighting for a cause was all right. But fighting for money? Every one of them hated the idea.
Otherwise, their only real option was taking regular security jobs, but that wouldn’t provide the focus and challenge they needed. Before long, they’d be bored — and in trouble all over again. Worst case, they would have to break up and go their separate ways. Shifters didn’t need much company, but they needed each other. A clan, a pack, a pride — it didn’t matter what you called it. They needed each other to stay sane in a fucked-up, human-dominated world.
Connor ran a hand through his sweaty hair. Everything depended on this job. Which meant everything depended on him.
Jenna depends on us too, his dragon insisted.
So what the hell was he supposed to do?
An hour later, he puffed out a long breath. Work was winding down, and the sun was setting. The afternoon breeze was dwindling, and the sky was turning a golden color. The only thing he needed to make this a perfect evening—
You mean, other than Jenna? his dragon butted in.
—was the scent of steaks sizzling over a fire. But Chase was on kitchen duty that evening, which meant…
“Spaghetti! Yay!” Joey cried, racing by.
Connor headed over to the solar shower set up around the back of the barn. Cynthia’s bathroom on the upper floor of the plantation house was finished, but the guys were still showering outside.
Jenna, his dragon whispered over and over, driving him nuts.
At least dinner wasn’t far off, as he discovered by the time he wandered back to the house. Joey was on the porch, setting the table as Cynthia lit candles around the big table where they’d eaten together, family style, for the past week.
“Am I doing a good job, Mommy?” Joey asked so earnestly, Connor’s heart ached.
“You’re doing a great job, honey,” she said, kissing him on the head.
“But there’s no tablecloth,” Joey said with a frown. “And the wrong kind of serviettes.” He held up a paper napkin.
Connor thought that over as he edged around them to distribute glasses. Tablecloths. Serviettes? Between those comments and the shiny string of pearls Cynthia always wore, Connor was sure she came from some highfalutin dragon family. The question was, what had happened to change her fortunes? His guess was some kind of dragon battle — one that had killed her mate.
“As long as we have each other, sweetie, we have everything we need,” she said to Joey.
Damn it. The woman was getting harder to resent every day.
Then all hell broke out as Dell roared from the porch stairs. “Watch out. Incoming lion!”
Joey squealed in delight and ran. He didn’t get more than three steps before Dell tackled him in a carefully timed roll that made sure Joey got all the thrill of a play-fight without the bruises.
“Gotcha!” Dell declared, loosening the loop of his arms just enough to let Joey escape. “Wait a second…”
“I got away, I got away!” Joey laughed, scurrying ahead to grab the cardboard sword Tim had made for him. “You can’t get me.”
Dell pounced slowly enough to let Joey hit him with the sword, at which point Dell collapsed in an exaggerated death scene.
“Oh, he got me! He got me…”
Joey bounced down to declare victory, but Dell rolled and snatched him up, sweeping him over his shoulder. “Snag! Now I really have you.”
Joey squealed. “Look, Mommy! I’m upside down!”
Cynthia’s mouth was set in a thin line. “Yes, I see that.”
Tim lumbered up the stairs with a quick wave. “I see Dell finally found someone at his maturity level.”
“Yeah,” Connor added. “He’d be a great dad if we could find him the right woman.”
“No way, man,” Dell said, swinging Joey around. “I’m strictly uncle material. You have to be responsible to have kids.”
“You don’t say,” Cynthia murmured. “Joey, sweetie, time to get down.”
But Dell was tickling Joey, who didn’t hear.
“Do they have to play so rough?” she sniffed, fingering the middle pearl of her necklace.
Tim shrugged. “Connor and I were that rough as kids, and look at how we came out.”
“Exactly my point,” Cynthia said dryly.
Connor hid a grin and headed back to the kitchen to check with Chase. “You nearly done?”
The wolf shifter was bent over a steaming pot, his mouth pulled in a tight frown of concentration as if he were preparing a five-course feast and not spaghetti Bolognese.
“Almost,” Chase growled.
Almost meant Let me concentrate, so Connor went outside — just in time to whip his head around at a shadow coming around the side of the porch.
“Hello there,” a woman called from the dimming yard.
Connor stopped short.
“Hey,” Tim called back like that was just anyone. But it wasn’t anyone. It was Jenna.
She strode up just like she did in his fantasies, with her hair bouncing around her shoulders and her long, bronzed legs sticking a long way out from her cutoff jeans. Her white blouse was like the rest of her — fresh, pure, and bright. She held out a tray and smiled her perfect smile to everyone, making his heart thump.
“Special delivery from next door. I’m Jenna, by the way.” She waved to everyone on the porch.
We’ve met, his dragon rumbled inside. Boy, have we met.
Their kiss replayed in his mind in torturously slow motion, and he gulped, hoping she could read the emotions in his eyes.
I want a thousand more kisses like that one, but I can’t. We can’t. Would she understand why?
She looked him straight in the eye and smiled in a way that said yes, she wanted more kisses, but no, she wasn’t about to let can’t get in the way.
“Tessa asked me to bring this over,” Jenna said to Cynthia. “She heard spaghetti was on the menu, so she sent over a batch of garlic bread.”
She pranced over with a wink in his direction, telling him she’d engineered the whole delivery thing. Smart girl. Maybe he should find something to bring over to the estate sometime.
“Perfect. We’ll have something to eat if Chase messes up the spaghetti.” Dell grinned, setting Joey back on the floor.
“Got the takeout menu right here,” Tim added.
They were just kidding, but both paled a second later when Connor pinned them with a killer glare. Nobody knocked his younger brother. It didn’t matter that military guys were used to poking fun at each other. Connor made damn sure no one did it to Chase. The wolf shifter had spent too long in the wild to understand sarcasm or good-natured jokes. How the hell was Connor going to keep his brother on the human side of the shifter line if the other guys messed with his head?
“Dinner’s ready,” Chase called from the kitchen.
Tim hurried inside to help, while Dell hoisted Joey to his shoulders.
“See? Now you’re as high as a dragon.”
Joey waved his sword around. “I am a dragon.”
Everyone laughed except Jenna, who paled and shrank back.
Connor winced, remembering the conversation they’d had that night on the beach. Had no one told Jenna about dragons since then?
Sorry. This shifter stuff is all new to me.
Her eyes swept over everyone on the porch then landed squarely on him and went wide. Shit. He hadn’t actually gotten around to telling her what kind of shifter he was, had he?
I’m a good dragon, he wanted to say. You can trust me.
“Maybe someday I’ll be a mighty dragon,” Joey went on.
Dell grinned. “If you’re anything like your mother, everyone will be terrified.”
Cynthia didn’t bat an eye. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I knew you would,” Dell sighed.
“You’re Jody’s sister, aren’t you?” Cynthia asked Jenna. “How are you enjoying Maui so far?”
Jenna’s eyes jumped to Connor and heated, showing mixed emotions. The kiss was great, they might as well have said. Finding out about dragons, not so much.
She whipped her gaze away from him and stammered to Cynthia. “Yes… Uh, absolutely.”
Besides finding out about shifters and dealing with a stalker, Connor figured she would have filled that blank spot with.
“Having a great time,” Jenna finished, looking stiffer than ever.
“Want to stay for dinner?” Dell asked.
When she’d first come up the stairs, she’d looked so relaxed and eager. But ever since Joey mentioned dragons, her eyes were worried and her face drawn. “Well, I’d love to, but—”
“Yay!” Joey said before she could protest. “I’ll get an extra plate. I’ll get it!”
Jenna stared as the boy ran into the kitchen, and without thinking, Connor pulled a chair up next to his. “You can sit here.”
“I…uh… Sure,” Jenna said as Joey came running back out.
“Perfect. Here you go,” Tim said, scooping a giant helping of spaghetti onto her plate.
Connor held up two bottles. “Wine or beer?”
Jenna stared.
Yes, we’re more human than animal, he wanted to say. And yes, my mother managed to teach us some manners along the way. Maybe not enough for the highest echelons of dragon society, but not too shabby when he was motivated enough.
And boy was he motivated. That was Jenna, after all.
“Beer,” she murmured.
He nodded in satisfaction. He was a beer guy himself.
Cynthia took wine — of course — plus the second scoop of spaghetti Tim served in a ladies first kind of thing. He served Connor next in accordance with the rules of shifter hierarchy, followed by everyone else.
“Saved the best for last.” Tim winked, setting a plate down in front of Joey.
“So, Jenna. I hear you’ve been working with your sister,” Cynthia said.
“Yes. She’s apprenticing with a master board shaper, and—”
“A master what?” Cynthia tilted her head.
“A guy who makes surfboards,” Dell said as he wolfed down a huge forkful of spaghetti.
“Or a woman who makes surfboards,” Jenna pointed out.
Connor grinned. Jenna might have been thrown by the dragon thing, but not for long.
“You two ought to go into business,” Dell said, ripping off a giant chunk of garlic bread. “You know, like boards made by women for women or something like that.”
“We’ve thought of that. We even have a name for it. Surf Chique.” Jenna’s eyes shone. “We could partner with my dad’s business — Wild Side Surf Shop.” Without skipping a beat, she rattled off dozens of ideas. “Custom-made boards…peppy colors…lighter materials…”
Connor listened in, as fascinated by the answers as by the differences between the two women. Jenna was alive, exuberant. Cynthia was stiff as a board. Had she had as strict an upbringing as poor Joey? And man, had she gone to business school or something? Cynthia asked questions about all the boring, practical stuff — Had they identified their target market? How much capital would they require? — but Jenna countered each like she’d done her homework and then some.
Connor found himself hanging on her every word and gesture until Tim kicked him under the table.
Stop drooling, bro. The spaghetti’s not that good.
Connor straightened quickly and tried to find something else to pay attention to. The light flickering from the candle? The crickets chirping outside? The sweet, nighttime air of Maui? But all that just seemed like background filler; Jenna was the star of the scene.
Still, he forced himself to look past her. Joey was forking through his spaghetti, looking disappointed.
“Here. Put some ketchup on it,” Dell whispered, handing Joey the bottle the moment Chase stepped into the kitchen.
Cynthia stopped talking to Jenna long enough to poke through her dish. “Isn’t there a single vegetable in this?”
A good thing Connor wasn’t sitting closer to Cynthia. She might have heard his growl.
Jenna heard it, though, and she turned to him with wide eyes.
“Spaghetti Bolognese doesn’t need vegetables,” Dell pointed out.
“It could, though,” Cynthia said, not getting the point. Connor would have to have a word with her, for sure.
Jenna looked between him, Cynthia, and the kitchen, slowly catching on.
Dell nodded. “It could have vegetables when it’s your turn to cook. Oh, wait, I have a different idea. Chase and I can swap. He does my chores, I take his turn to cook.”
“I don’t know,” Jenna said as Chase came out from the kitchen. “This spaghetti is delicious.”
Connor could have hugged her right then. And really, the spaghetti wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t great.
“The garlic bread is good too,” Connor murmured, using the cheap excuse to look in Jenna’s eyes. They were shining again, and the hesitation had faded all the way to the back.
“It is good,” Dell agreed. Then he pointed his fork at Cynthia. “But I can make spaghetti with vegetables. In fact, I can make a lot more. Like steak. Meatloaf. Coq au vin.”
Cynthia’s jaw dropped. “You know what coq au vin is?”
Dell smiled. “Of course. French for fancy chicken.” He kissed his fingers and flicked them outward. “Old family recipe. I only use genuine Burgundy, of course.”
He was working Cynthia hard, that was for sure.
“I can make lobster,” Dell went on casually. “Grilled swordfish. Sushi. Pizza…”
“Pizza!” Joey bounced up and down.
“Or are you more of a seared foie gras kind of girl?” Dell asked Cynthia.
Seared what? Tim asked in a quiet aside.
Shut up. It’s working, Dell shot back.
Cynthia’s mouth hung open. “You know how to make seared foie gras?”
“Lady, I can make anything you want.” Dell leaned forward, going into full seduction mode.
Connor thought Cynthia was going to drool, but she caught herself and took a hasty swig of wine. Then she pressed her napkin delicately to her lips and said, “I suppose we could make one change to the schedule.”
Dell gave Joey a high five and reached for the whiteboard.
“I’ll do that,” Cynthia said quickly, grabbing it out of his hand.
Way to go, man, Tim chuckled.
Cynthia, meanwhile, took her napkin, neatly wiped Chase’s name off the cooking roster, and substituted Dell’s in her perfect script.
“Where did you learn to cook?” Jenna asked.
Dell yawned. “The army.”
“What?” Cynthia screeched.
Dell grinned a mile wide. “Ha. Gotcha, Cynth.”
Cynthia scowled and opened her mouth to protest, but Dell didn’t give her a chance.
“I come from a family of chefs. You can say I’m the black sheep of the family.”
“Do lions come in black?” Joey asked.
Connor tensed the second Jenna did. “Lion, huh?” she murmured.
Dell looked at her, then Connor, then back to Jenna, and spoke carefully, like he knew he’d messed up.
“Yes, ma’am. A very nice lion shifter.”
Jenna made a hmpf sound and pointed at Tim. “And you are…?”
Connor blinked. Wow. Jenna could be as bossy as Cynthia sometimes. Only Jenna being bossy was cute, not grating.
“Um…a very nice bear?” he managed.
Connor exhaled. Bear sounded better than grizzly, for sure.
Jenna’s finger jerked one spot over to Chase.
“Wolf,” he growled.
Connor kicked him under the table.
“Very nice wolf,” he added.
Jenna rolled her eyes then smiled at Joey. “Obviously, you’re a mighty dragon. Which means your mom is a dragon too. Right?”
Cynthia nodded, and everyone went quiet as Jenna turned to Connor. “And you?”
His throat had gone all dry, so he took a sip of water before answering. “Dragon, of course.” He tried to make it sound as natural as possible, though every nerve in his body was tight.
“A very nice dragon,” Dell added with a sly look.
Jenna swung her jaw from side to side, and Connor drew back, anticipating the worst. But all she did was scan all the faces at the table and mutter, “Of course.” Then she took a quick swig of beer and stared into her glass.
Who knew what she might have said next if Dell hadn’t saved the day. He stood, making his chair screech, and reached for the serving bowl with a look that said he was having way too much fun.
“Seconds, anyone?” Dell grinned.