CHAPTER NINE
Steph
“So now you don’t like the idea of claiming me?” Stephanie had to breathe to calm down. Ryan’s immediate reaction confused and disappointed her. When he clamped down on her shoulder what she had felt was not pain, but the most intense orgasm she had in her life. At that moment she and Ryan were one, intertwined, and it seemed he had reached to her very soul and took a piece of it. That now he regretted the act tore a hole in her heart.
She had never let a man use her, and she’d be damned if that man was going to be Ryan Kaur.
Ryan stood quickly and paced the floor in a parody of earlier in the evening. His face was twisted in concern.
“Every minute there is some new piece of madness in being a dragon,” he sputtered. “Why can’t I be regular old Ryan Kaur again, without the dragon part?”
Ryan’s self-anger matched the intensity of her indignation. He whipped around and stared her in the eye.
“Look,” growled Ryan. “Obviously, I’m out of my mind.”
“I’d say so.”
“But I’m pretty sure I’d claim you any time on any day.”
“Oh,” she said. Her anger deflated like a damaged beach ball and she sat and put her arms around her knees. A twinge of pain accompanied the moment, and she realized a new thing about Ryan.
“Come,” she said in a softer voice, “and put your arm around me.”
“What?”
“Sit down,” she said again. “When you touch me I don’t feel any pain in my body, but right now it is a little cranky.”
Ryan lay down, and she snuggled her head against his shoulder. It felt so good, so right to be here with this man even if she did meet him less than twenty-four hours ago.
“That’s much better,” she said as she descended into welcome relief. “You really are better than any pain killer I’ve ever had.”
“You too. Well, I mean, I feel calmer, more centered when I touch you.”
“Then I guess we need each other.” They lay in companionable silence while Steph listened to the thudding of Ryan’s heart in his chest. It was steady and reliable unlike the young man she met earlier in the morning. But she sensed a shift in Ryan too. Though his thoughts swirled with uncertainty, there was pride swelling in him as well.
“Steph,” he said after a long moment. “I meant what I said. I’d claim you anytime.”
“I know you spoke the truth. I think, from now on we’ll never be able to lie to each other.”
“You think?”
“I’m pretty sure. I know, right now, what you feel is possessive of me.”
“I do.”
“But you aren’t sure what your other feelings are.”
“I’m not.”
“And really, it is too soon to know. As your lawyer, I advise you to take one step at a time.”
“Is that what you want to do?” asked Ryan gently.
“Yes. I know a few things about dragons, but you’ve shown me I learned less than I should. We’ve tumbled off a cliff you and me, and we did it like two babes in the woods not knowing the consequences. I have no idea what claiming me means.”
“I’m pretty sure it means you are mine.”
“That sounds like the dragon talking. But you are aware that people don’t own other people, right?”
Ryan chuckled. “That’s not what the dragon in me says, but yeah, I know that.”
“And then there is the matter of how we are going to face the world. My career at my firm is probably toast.”
“I’ll talk to them.”
“Do you think that will do any good?”
“I’m still Ryan Kaur. And I’m pretty sure that the government hasn’t connected the dots between the dragon and me. I’ll call your firm tomorrow and tell them we are going on an extended vacation. Staying away should help my father get the government contract he wants, and I get to spend some time with my human. We’ll lie low.”
His wicked smile melted her and Steph could refuse him nothing. It occurred to her they were connected by a mystical force that bent the usual rules. This revelation tilted and shifted her world. It really didn’t matter what Ryan felt about her. A deep and abiding need filled her to be with this man-this dragon. Whether that was the result of a dragon’s seductiveness or something else deep within her soul she didn’t know.
The strange woman’s words from her dream visited her.
You serve a dragon then?
What odd words. Was this what it meant to serve a dragon? To have no desire but to do what he wanted? This thought disturbed Steph. While she had been a soldier and followed orders she never did it blindly. There was some faith and trust in her leaders but none of them had ever led her astray. But this dragon? All she knew was that he was wild and impetuous and didn’t make the best choices in life. How could she put her faith and trust in him?
“I know you aren’t sure about us,” said Ryan. “I do catch your thoughts, at least some of them. But when you are thinking seriously to yourself it is like a whisper I can’t catch.”
“I’m not sure how we can be sure of anything,” she said. “We have had an eventful day. Perhaps we should get some sleep.”
A roar that shook the cabin woke her. She slipped out of bed and wrapped the bedsheets around her. Walking toward where the fearsome noise originated she heard Ryan muttering, and she imagined him pacing the room he was in. She found him in the living room pacing as she suspected. A huge wide screen television mounted on the wall flashed their individual pictures. Ryan spotted her. The anger on his face was enormous.
“Can you imagine? They think I kidnapped you. Kidnapped!”
Steph walked to him and put her hand on his arm.
“Ryan, you have to know that under any other circumstance this would not be a news story. It must have been planted by the government to draw me out.”
“You?”
“Yes, they can’t go around saying that somehow I’m associated with a dragon. All they know is that a dragon shows up around me. You are incidental because you showed up at the hospital. For all they know the dragon has us both.”
“So, you don’t think the government suspects I’m a dragon?”
“They could, but then there is also your family. They would have been heavily vetted before they got a major defense contract. Besides, I’m thinking something else too.”
“What?”
“Since it was my firm that handled your adoption, they have heavy stakes in keeping your dragon identity a secret. If it were found out they handled the adoption of a dragon child, then every other adoption they handled would be suspect.”
Ryan stared at her. “You think they are in a conspiracy to place dragon children in the families of the wealthy?”
“Think of it. It could have been going on for years. The U.S. is one country where there aren’t dragon suppression laws, and we all know how much corporate money steers the political tides.”
“Holy,” said Ryan unable to speak. He dropped to one of the couches and Steph sat next to him.
“No wonder the government is hot and heavy to find a dragon. Someone suspects and they want to root out this conspiracy. But who would concoct such a plan in the first place?”
“I think I know,” said Steph softly.
“Who?”
“You’ll think I’m crazy, but yesterday when you first brought me here I had a dream. I was in a courtyard where the tiles were broken and filled with grass, a beautiful woman stood there and she asked if I was a dragon. When I told her no she asked if I “served a dragon.” She told me then to tell you to think about the queen of the dragons and that would bring you to her.”
“The queen of the dragons? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Neither have I. But think about it, Ryan. If anyone would want to put dragons in powerful positions, it would be someone like that.”
“It’s a crazy plan. How would she know if these adopted dragons would be loyal to her?”
“I’m as much in the dark as you are, Ryan.”
He nodded. “I think we have to do two things.”
Steph’s stomach rumbled from hunger. She barely ate anything yesterday and didn’t even finish the burger Ryan made her.
“Okay, three things.”
“You think?’
“First, you need to call your firm and see what they can do to quash this kidnapping story.”
“And the second?”
“I need to get some things together for our trip.”
“Trip?”
“Yes, my family has an island in the Caribbean. I think we should go there until the furor dies down.”
“Your family owns an island?” she said incredulously. She knew Ryan’s family was wealthy, but the idea of having so much money that they owned their own island boggled her mind.
Ryan laughed as if her question was silly. “Yes, and a villa in the south of France, a castle somewhere in Scotland, and a condo in Tokyo and a bunch of other places. But I’m feeling the need for some sun.”
Steph smiled. “I could use some sand and sun.”
“But the third thing is most important of all. Getting you some food.”