Chapter Five
Rowe
“This could take a bit.”
“Uh-huh.” He continued to lean against the wall next to her desk, watching her work.
“I have a lot to do.”
“I know.”
She sighed and pushed back from the desk. “That means please stop hovering over my shoulder and let me work. You can’t type up reports for me. I’ll be fine, I promise. These don’t need your help.”
Rowe nodded. He understood. Pushing off the wall with his shoulders, he wandered over to the nearby sofa. Lounging out, he arranged himself in a way that allowed him to peer over the backrest so he could continue to look at her. It was a little weird, sure, but she was just so beautiful he had a hard time not staring.
Plus if he could keep her like that, it would help his dragon maintain its composure. The silly beast had been going insane during the day, feeling her wrapped around his back. He was unbelievably glad it had been him riding up front, otherwise he would have had to awkwardly explain the raging erection he’d dealt with all day. She drove him wild, and truthfully Rowe wasn’t certain how much longer he could resist her.
“I can see you looking over here.”
He laughed, not bothering to deny it. So what? If she wasn’t cognizant of his flirting yet it wasn’t his fault. He’d been plenty open about it, especially once she started responding in kind, even if it was only occasionally.
“You have no shame, do you?”
“Nope.”
“Lovely. I hope you enjoy the back of my head.”
“It’s quite lovely. All that hair.”
She swatted self-consciously at her hair. It still hadn’t rebounded from both her hat and the ATV helmet. She’d made several comments about it, but he didn’t care. Rowe would think she was beautiful even if she were bald. Though he was perfectly okay with the long hair. It could stay.
It amazed him at how comfortable they were around one another. A little more than twelve hours ago she’d been screaming bloody murder and wanting to call the police on him. Now they got along like they’d known each other much, much longer. He found himself enjoying the silences between them, when neither side felt the need to speak and could just simply “be.” That was something that often took much longer to achieve between pairs.
He couldn’t wait to see what the rest of the week brought about!
Someone knocked heavily at the door, causing Cheryl to yelp. Her pen went flying.
“On edge?” he asked, getting up to see who was there while she retrieved the writing utensil.
“Your talk about wolves has me freaking out, okay?”
He chuckled. “They can’t open doors. They aren’t velociraptors.”
She glared. “So not cool. That movie freaked me out when it came out.”
“Really? How old were you?”
“I dunno. Seven, eight? Somewhere around there. I told my mom I was perfectly fine to watch it.” She shuddered. “I was not.”
Rowe was still shaking his head at the imagery of seven-year-old Cheryl sitting through a movie about dinosaurs gone rogue when he answered the door.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, receiving a very confused look from both Palin and Torran.
“We’re…” Palin peered past him to see Cheryl sitting at the table working away. “Traveling,” he added in a lower voice, changing what he was going to say. “Remember? I thought that’s why you came out here in the first place.”
“Right.” Rowe had forgotten all about that, his mind wrapped up completely with Cheryl.
Now, after things had gone from horrible to great in one day, he had to leave her behind while he traveled to the enclave with his fellow dragons. A three-day trip, it meant he’d be gone for a week, if not more. That was plenty of time for her to move on and forget all about him. Rowe couldn’t handle that.
“Let’s get a move on then,” Torran grumbled. “I don’t want to be away from Lilly longer than I have to.”
Palin rolled his eyes. “She’s only just coming up on four months pregnant. I promise you, she’s a strong woman who can handle herself.” He leaned in toward Rowe and whispered loudly. “Please save me, he won’t shut up, thinks his mate is made of fragile glass and can’t do a damn thing without him.”
Rowe smiled, but it was tight, unfocused. His mind was elsewhere. “Listen, you two go on ahead,” he said slowly.
“What?” Palin stood upright in surprise. Then his eyes narrowed. “You don’t want to go.”
“It’s not that, it’s just…” He caught his head before it moved more than a fraction of an inch back toward the desk where Cheryl sat, but it was too late.
Both Palin and Torran picked up on it. Before they could say anything though, Rowe stepped forward, pulling the door closed behind him.
Torran started it all, a lopsided grin on his face. “Rowe, are you smitten with the farm woman?”
Palin elbowed him in the side. “There’s nothing wrong with farm women,” he growled dangerously.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just didn’t know what else to call her,” Torran protested, rubbing his side.
“How about her name?” Rowe said into the momentary silence. “It’s Cheryl, by the way.”
“Ooooh, look at how upset he gets. Defending her honor already!” Palin cackled. “Yup, he’s falling, and hard.”
Rowe looked away, his lip pulling back at the teasing.
“You’re going to stay here and make us go then, aren’t you?” Torran complained.
“I won’t make you, but I would ask that you go. They will want to hear from both of you. If I hadn’t found her, I would go too.”
That was mostly true. Rowe had had a few revelations since he’d left the enclave for the first time several months earlier. One of them was that much to his surprise, he enjoyed living among humans. They were fun, energetic, and lived every day with a vibrancy the crusty old dragon shifters in the enclave just couldn’t match.
Even just thinking that filled him with pangs of guilt. How could it be that Rowe had done a complete reversal on his feelings toward humanity in just a few short months, to the point that he longer even wanted to live among his own kind? If anyone in the enclave ever found out about that, he was sure to be labeled a traitor. Part of him even feared they would force him to leave, never to return.
“I can’t believe you came all this way, made me agree to go, and now you’re backing out,” Palin grumped.
“Things are about to get crazy around here. She needs my help.”
“No she doesn’t,” Torran informed him. “Remember, she’s the one trained to do this sort of thing. She knows what’s going on, what needs to be done, and how to do it far better than you ever could. That’s why Palin hired her and not you.”
Rowe laughed. “Palin couldn’t afford me.”
“I prefer to pay for people with skills,” the bald shifter countered.
The trio smiled, and Rowe relaxed. They understood it was necessary to go and talk to the council. Especially Palin, who had violently refused to accompany them the first time for the exact same reason Rowe was refusing this time.
“I’m sorry about the way I treated you before,” he said, surprising all of them. Apologies among dragons weren’t especially common. Something about them being more than a little stubborn.
“It’s fine. I’m glad you understand,” Palin said uncomfortably. “We’re going to get going though. We want to fly as much as we can before we have to use other modes of transportation.”
He nodded, not saying anything. There was no need. They all knew that they would fly as close to the East Coast as possible before hopping on a plane to cross the ocean. It was the route they’d taken every time.
The trio nodded their farewells, and he watched them head down the steps and out into the fields. Once they were far enough away from the ranch house they would change and take to the skies, flying by night.
Rowe stood on the porch staring for a long time, trying to decide if he’d just made the right decision or not. Cheryl was his mate, of that there was no longer an ounce of doubt.
But the dragons were his people.