Chapter Three
J ulie stared down at the male dragon who’d kidnapped her and once again turned her life completely upside down.
No way.
“Do not tell me that you’re in trouble again,” Julie muttered as she tried to drag him a safe distance away from the stove.
Even though dragons were pretty hardy and immune to most environmental effects, she’d feel bad if she got it wrong and he started cooking in his sleep.
“You’ve once more not told me anything about your problems. Who’s chasing you?
Why drag me out to the middle of nowhere with no purse, no car, no cell phone?
I had a bubble bath and a whole box of chocolates, Sard.
It’s every flavor I like, including marzipan and caramel.
You said you’d make me fall for you again, and I have to say, you’re not convincing me. ”
He stretched, dropping his head onto the sagging couch. Dragons healed faster in their natural form, so she had to believe he’d be okay. She literally had no other choice.
Julie straightened and stretched out her back. Her voice shook. “You seriously came here to ‘win me back’ while you were in the middle of another catastrophe. And now you expect me to pick up your mess all alone. Again.”
Copper flew over Sard’s form, excited, having shifted as well so now he was an orange-red dragon baby inside a green dinosaur onesie. Because he was still a baby and the fabric had a lot of stretch, it still contained him, which was good because she had no spare clothes, diaper bag, nothing.
“Gah, Sard!” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Do not think you can avoid difficult conversations by passing out from blood loss.”
The dragon inhaled in a loud snore.
She shook her head. “Typical.”
“Julie…” he moaned, gruff and sweet. “Give Julie to me…Only want…Julie…”
Her heart squeezed.
Even unconscious, he said exactly what she most wanted to hear.
The old feelings surged through her. Her system felt shock, panic, and also vividly alive.
It was happening again, now, as if the last two years were a dream and she was striding into the waking world.
Her skin tingled, the warmth returning to her body with the sunlight, the old dreams, and fierce, fiery desire.
But mixed in, like dark clouds, was the memory of confusion, anxiety, and the agony of not understanding anything.
Julie set the blood-soaked jacket on the couch.
The middle cushions sagged under the weight of Sard’s dragon head.
She plopped beside him with a huge sigh.
His head rolled onto her lap, heavy but reassuringly strong.
She stroked his ridged scales. The silver piercings, which looked so large on his human frame, were small and delicate on his gemstone hide.
He was beautiful in any form. Awake, sleeping, or passed out from blood loss after kidnapping her to a snowed-in cabin in the middle of the North Cascades.
He rolled off her lap, groaned, and snored louder.
Okay. Well, it was time to save herself, again.
Julie rose and grabbed a pot, scooped snow off the porch—freezing even for the brief few seconds this took outside—then set it on the woodstove to melt.
Luckily, she’d cleaned up the dented, misshapen cans that had been around since her grandparents’ generation and replaced them with a few that expired next spring.
In a closet, she found a partial box of forgotten diapers.
Yes! One size too small for Copper, they were better than nothing.
Under the single bed around the corner in the walled-off bedroom, she found a package of baby wipes.
What she didn’t find was a phone, boots, spare clothes, or even a hat. So, there was no way of contacting the outside world, and unlike a dragon, she couldn’t brave the elements in her slippers. On the five-mile trek to the nearest neighbors for help, she’d probably fall into a drift and die.
Back in the main room, she kicked a small piece of wrapped candy.
Ah, this must have been in Sard’s pocket when he’d shifted.
She’d eaten dragon brimstone candy before.
It smelled like minerals. Females could make fire naturally, but males had to eat brimstone to make fire.
Even humans pregnant with a dragon shifter’s baby could eat a candy and make fire.
Her charred toilet had been a big surprise after that round of morning sickness…
She collected a big handful of the candies and put them in a dusty Mason jar. Sard had always kept a bowl on his singed desk, or so she’d been told. It was another incongruent thing with him. He looked like such a harsh, violent man and yet he had a sweet tooth.
In his leather jacket pockets, she found more candies plus a tube of dragon healing gel helpfully labeled with pictograms. He must’ve known he’d need it. She squeezed the gel on his chest and spread it with her fingers, which soon went numb again until she washed them off.
In response, Sard let out a deep sigh and shrank back down to human form.
Nude, he was a massive work of art, all muscle from his impossibly broad shoulders down to his multipack abdomen.
His thighs were like mountains. He did not skip leg day.
In the center of his body lay his thick, lax cock.
The hidden items that had surprised her so much the first time were still there, winking in the cozy firelight.
She’d never forgotten the way he’d used those inside her, the absolute bliss and utter love he’d once made her feel…
Her heart lurched.
His injury was already better, but still angry and red on the edges. It was some sort of laser wound.
She prodded his shoulder. “Float.”
He moaned, half asleep, and rolled upright.
She bound his wound with first-aid gauze from an ancient kit she found in the cabin closet. Then she convinced him to float into the one bed, pulling the blankets up to his waist.
He’d live. Probably.
The familiar sight made a small lump form in her throat.
She forced herself to leave him and hurried to the doorway.
“Julie…” he whispered.
It took everything in her not to U-turn and wrap him in her arms. Cover his cheeks with kisses and cry that she’d missed him so much. She’d been so scared, and she’d always loved him, always.
But she gripped the doorframe in her white fingers and stayed strong.
She’d left his drama behind! And despite all her plans and promises, here she was, getting sucked right back in.
No. She refused. She had to look after Copper.
Sard would not take her baby away from her.
She’d lie through her teeth if she had to, but at the end of this, Sard would be the one to go away, once more, and leave them both behind.
He absolutely would not trick her again. She swore it.
It was inevitable, like these injuries she knew nothing about, that Sard was keeping more secrets. She wouldn’t even be sad when he inevitably went away. She wouldn’t care about it at all.
She definitely would not be broken and devastated by him.
Not this time…