Sneak Peek of Dragon Isle Book Five!
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“Two weeks,” Audrey said with a frown on her face.
“One week,” Gabriel protested.
“Two.”
“Fine.”
Audrey smirked, thinking she had won the argument, but Gabriel planned to bug her endlessly until she got the pictures back sooner. He knew she could work faster than that, but he also knew his little spitfire was a bit of a perfectionist. She always needed everything to be perfect.
If only she felt that way about her own life.
Audrey pushed away from the table and stood, smoothing her black dress. She grabbed her red hat from the table and slipped it on, completing her pinup girl look. She was forever living in the past, but Gabriel suspected it had more to do with her love of photography and the trendiness of 50s fashion, rather than a personal statement.
Gabriel stood as she did, his large frame towering over her small one. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was intimidated, but he did know better. Nothing scared Audrey. Nothing. Not deadlines, not arguments, and certainly not dragons.
She was the fiercest human on Dragon Isle.
Maybe anywhere.
“I have to go,” she looked at her cell phone to check the time. “I have a meeting with Emerson about taking photos of his new baby. Then I have to meet with some of the older dragons to talk about pictures for their church directory.”
“There’s a church on the island?” Gabriel said with a smirk. Audrey just rolled her eyes. The dragons were more open to sexual deviances than most humans, but the older generation still appreciated the solitude that church offered them.
“Yes, Gabe, there’s a church.” Audrey smiled playfully at Gabriel. Fuck, she was beautiful. If only he could convince her there was so much more than friendship between them. Audrey had been adopted by a dragon couple as a small child and had grown up on the island. Though she and Gabriel had grown up together and were the best of friends, she hadn’t made a move to pursue anything else between them.
And it was killing him.
Each day that passed was one more without her. Gabriel wasn’t sure how much more he could take. He needed Audrey like he needed his next breath. She was all he could think about. She was consuming him.
“Want me to fly you?” He asked, desperate for a few more minutes with her. She cocked her head in surprise and raised her eyebrows. “To Emerson’s? No. I’m going to his house. It’s not too far to walk. You can walk me, though,” she added, fluttering her eyelashes in joke seduction.
He’d take it.
Gabriel dropped some money on the table to pay for their drinks, looped his arm through hers, and led Audrey out into the bright summer sunshine.
She chatted aimlessly as they made their way through the village and to the clan leader’s modest house. The entire time, Gabriel was wondering how much longer he was going to let things stay the same. How much longer could he stand being her best friend? How much longer could her handle being the guy she ran to with all of her problems? How much longer could he be the one she cried on when some other loser broke her heart?
How much longer could Gabriel wait for Audrey to realize he was standing right there?
When she kissed his cheek to say goodbye, he held her in a tight hug for a few seconds too long, wanting the moment to last just a bit more. He knew they were reaching a turning point. He was going to break or she was, and he wasn’t sure which, and he wasn’t sure where they were going to end up.
He would always love Audrey.
But if he couldn’t have her, he couldn’t wait around to see who would.
***
Audrey watched her best friend turn and walk away before he stripped down, tossed his clothes in a nearby basket, and shifted. Fuck, if he wasn’t the most gorgeous dragon she’d ever seen. Did Gabriel even know how much she wanted him? Craved him? She doubted it. She’d had a huge crush on him since they were kids, and she didn’t know what to do about it.
She didn’t know how to tell him she was crazy about him, that she dreamed about him every night. She didn’t know how to tell him that when she touched herself, it was to thoughts of him.
She had left Dragon Isle the moment she turned 18, but she had come back for him.
And he had no idea.
With a sigh, she finally pulled her eyes from Gabriel’s retreating form and knocked on the door. Janae opened the door and Audrey was immediately greeted with the sounds of a wailing infant. Janae’s eyes were hollow and tired. She was bouncing the baby, but she looked like she was about to pass out from sheer exhaustion.
“Let me take him,” Audrey said gently, and Janae happily handed the baby over before laying down on the couch and promptly passing out. Audrey carried baby Weston around the house, bouncing him quietly and singing to him. Soon the baby was calm and content, cooing up at her as she told him stories about growing up on the island.
“You’re really good with children,” a voice said from the doorway. Audrey turned to see Emerson, the clan leader, watching her with a curious expression on his face.
“Thanks,” she said. “I love babies, but who doesn’t?” She shrugged. “Janae seemed really tired, so I took the baby for a bit while she rested.”
“Yeah, she’s still passed out on the couch. He hasn’t been sleeping much at night.” Emerson looked grim. “I knew parenting would be hard, but I didn’t realize how tough it would be to go back to work and have to leave Janae with him on her own. He’s a handful, and I feel bad, but the clan needs me.”
They both turned to look at Janae, who was curled up under a blanket and snoring loudly. Audrey hadn’t realized how tired her friend had been.
“Do you still want to do infant pictures?” Audrey asked, looking down at little Weston. “I can come back, but I don’t mind surprising Janae. He seems to be in a good mood.”
“Let’s do them now,” Emerson agreed. “Who knows when we’re going to get him smiling like this again?”
When Audrey left, Janae had gotten in two solid hours of napping and Emerson had grudgingly decided to wake her so Weston could nurse.
“I’ll have the pictures back to you as soon as I can,” Audrey promised. “Probably two weeks. Maybe less.” Emerson tried to pay her, but she waved him off. “Consider it a baby gift,” she whispered, then sneaked quietly out of the tiny house.
As she walked away, Audrey’s heart ached. She was almost 30. She was almost 30 and she wasn’t any closer to getting married and having kids than when she’d been 18. She bit her lip as she navigated the quiet roads. It was dark out, but she’d spent so much time running up and down these streets as a child that it barely fazed her.
She had left Dragon Isle on her 18th birthday with plans to see the world, fall in love, get a job, and have wild adventures. She had successfully gone to college and gotten a job, but then what? Nothing. Nothing else had happened. She had lived, comparing every man she met to the dragon who had stolen her heart – and her first kiss – when they were kids.
When she finally decided to go after her dreams, Audrey worried it was too late. She sold all of her belongings, told her parents she was moving back, and bought a camera. She would be the official photographer on Dragon Isle and she would somehow find a way to tell Gabriel that she was in love with him.
Somehow.
But she’d been back for six months now and she was no closer to confessing her secret love than she’d been when they were kids. And why? Because she was afraid he’d reject her? Surely that couldn’t be worse than this. This not knowing. This endless sea of nothingness she felt whenever he wasn’t around.
If she was honest with herself, the real reason she hadn’t told Gabriel how she felt was that her feelings didn’t involve just him. Her fantasies didn’t just include her and Gabriel living happily ever after.
No, Audrey was much too weird and fucked up for that kind of normalcy.
Fuck.
No, Audrey couldn’t be happy with just one dragonman. She wanted two of them. At the same time. And how strange was that? She’d been around dragons long enough, having grown up on the island, to know that some dragons were in ménage relationships. While most humans clung to the idea that true, endless marriage was for one man and one woman, some dragons didn’t mind sharing a mate.
And that’s what she wanted.
She had only confessed her deep, horrible secret to one person. She’d been drunk at a party and the next day, she’d been outcast as a super-weirdo no one wanted to go near. After all, what kind of slut wanted not only to sleep with two men at once, but to marry them?
Audrey’s thoughts consumed her. Instead of going to her small cabin, the one she rented from a kindly old dragonwoman, her feet carried her to the mansion Gabriel shared with his best friend, Anthony. The three of them had hung out endlessly in high school and kept in touch for awhile after Audrey left. For a long time, Audrey had thought he and Gabriel were gay, but in fact, they were just very close. Almost like brothers. To each other, not to her.
No, there was nothing brotherly about the way Audrey felt about the two men. Lust stirred deep inside of her, and she wished she was braver. She wished she would go after what she wanted. She wished she would just tell them.
She stood in front of the mansion for a long time, staring at it. Should she go up to the door? What would she even say?
“Hey, guys, I just want you to know I’ve been fantasizing about the two of you taking me roughly since I was about 16 years old. Sorry it took me so long to come to terms with it. Please, will you pin me down and take me? It’s best if you make it hurt. It’s the only way I can come.”
“It’s a good start,” a deep voice said from behind her. She screamed and jumped into the air, but strong arms caught her and pulled her close.
“I didn’t know I said it out loud,” she whispered. The man’s body was warm and firm against her. She could tell, even without turning around, that he was completely naked.
“You should be careful about what you say, little one,” the voice said again. “You never know who is listening.” She pulled back and looked at the dragonman who was holding her.
“Theodore?” She asked, surprised. “You’re naked!”
He shrugged. It was nothing she hadn’t seen before. Most dragons didn’t care about nudity. Theodore was no exception.
“I flew,” he answered.
“What are you doing here? Oh shit,” she blushed. “Please don’t tell them what I said. You can’t.” She had known Theodore for as long as she’d known the other dragons, but unlike her, he had stayed on the island his entire life.
He chuckled, released her from his grip.
“No worries, love, your secret is safe with me. Although,” he looked toward the house for a moment. “I don’t think you need to be as afraid of rejection as you are.”
With that, he started walking toward the mansion. What did he mean by that? Did Theodore know something she didn’t? Audrey didn’t follow at first, and he turned back.
“Coming?” He held out his hand. After a deep breath, she gingerly took it and followed him up the steps to the mansion, wondering what she was getting herself into.
Find out what happens next!