Page 5 of The Last Bachelor Dragon (Mysteries of Dragon’s Island #8)
CHAPTER 4
***MAX***
M ax was standing in front of the coffee pot, gulping down his first cup of the day, desperate to clear the cobwebs from his sleep-deprived brain. He’d felt just fine walking away from Nora and leaving her in the dark cabin the night before until he got back to his cozy little home. The guilt had started then and not left him alone all through the long night, leaving him tossing and turning until the early morning hours when he’d finally fallen into a restless sleep.
He'd woken feeling less that rested only to realize that his alarm hadn’t gone off and it was nearly nine o’clock, putting him an hour behind schedule already. Taking another gulp of the scalding coffee, his brain feeling like it was pudding, he set down the cup and headed for a cold shower, hoping that would help. Before he made it out of the living room there was a loud knock at the door, and he was forced to make a detour, even though the last thing he wanted right then was to interact with anyone.
“What?” he growled, throwing open the door. “This had better be important. I was just getting in the shower. ”
“Well, isn’t that nice for you,” Stella said, her face a mask of anger. “It must be nice to have access to hot water and clean towels. Not all of us are that lucky.”
That woke him up instantly, “What’s wrong with the bathrooms?” he asked. “Is Keith working on it?”
“I wasn’t talking about me,” Stella said, shoving him. “How could you put Nora in that cabin and in the middle of the night? What’s wrong with you?”
“This is about Nora?” he asked, anger surging to life. “Is that woman all anyone talks about around here?”
“She is when you treat her like a second-class citizen or something,” Stella said, not backing down. “Nora has never done anything to you, Max. She’s just trying to survive like the rest of us, and I don’t want to hear a word about her not telling you who she is. There’s more going on here, and you know it.”
That shut him down for a second, but he wasn’t ready to admit the truth, not to himself and certainly not to Stella. “All that’s going on here is I’m trying to make her unhappy enough to want to get off this island,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “It would be much easier if all of you would stop being so nice to her. At this rate she’ll never leave, and I’ll be stuck with her forever.”
Stella studied him for a second, then shook her head. “If you really want her to leave, you might want to think about helping her instead of torturing her,” she finally said. “But I’m beginning to wonder if you really want her to leave.”
“I can’t help her if she won’t tell me who she is,” he said very slowly. “That’s the whole problem. Now if you’re done yelling at me, I’m running late, I overslept this morning.”
“I bet you didn’t sleep very well last night. Guilt will do that to you,” Stella said, then flashed him a big smile. “But don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything.”
She turned and walked away before he could ask what she meant, then decided that he didn’t care. If he was lucky, the cabin had done its work and Nora would be ready to tell him who she was. The thought lifting his spirits, he closed the door and headed for the bathroom. A nice hot shower was just what he needed, and he was going to enjoy it even more, knowing that Nora would only have cold water to greet her this morning.
Images of her taking a cold shower popped into his head before he could stop them. He pushed them away as quickly as they came, but the damage had already been done. His body was awake and tingling, desire racing through his blood, the dragon inside him suddenly at attention. Refusing to believe that Nora was the woman he was destined to love, he decided his first task would be to look through the reservations and try to figure out who that woman really was. The sooner she got to the island, the sooner he could shed his unhealthy attraction to Nora and get on with his life.
After a shower and another cup of coffee, he was ready to face the day, his guilt buried as deeply as he could get it. He headed straight for his office, looking forward to a few minutes alone to gather his thoughts for the day, but when he walked in, the room wasn’t empty. Marie sat perched in a chair, a frown of anger on her face, and when she heard him come in, she jumped to her feet.
“Now Marie, I had to do it,” he said before she could say a word. “I need to know who she is, and it was the only way I could think of getting her to talk. She’s perfectly safe. I had the maintenance people check the cabin before I took her up there, I don’t want her hurt, just a little more cooperative.”
“This is not like you,” Marie said, shaking her head. “You have always been so generous, so concerned for others. I don’t know the man standing in front of me anymore. The old Max would have never let Nora spend a night in that filthy cabin, he would have never taken her there in the middle of the night. You should be ashamed, I know I am.”
Marie marched out of his office without another word, her chin tipped up in the air, a disgusted snort the last thing he heard. “I will not feel guilty,” he called. “She brought this on herself.”
***Nora***
A shaft of warm sunlight woke Nora the next morning and she opened her eyes a bit disoriented for a second, then saw the mess around her and groaned. It hadn’t been a dream, she was really stuck in this horrible place. Daylight hadn’t done a lot to improve the cabin, only showed her just how dirty and filthy it was and she pulled the blanket she was wrapped in up over her head, fighting the urge to cry. Everything had just started to go well. Her job with Marie was going to be more fun than she’d anticipated, and she’d made a couple of friends. The only problem was that she’d forgotten how much power Max had.
He was clearly going to push her until she told him who she was, and use everything in his power to make her miserable enough to give in, but he didn’t know her very well. She could be stubborn when she wanted to. Pulling the blanket down, she sat up and looked around the cabin, trying to see past the dust and cobwebs that covered everything. It would take a lot of work, but she could make the little place livable. The truth was, now that she could see the cabin in the daylight, it was better than the room she’d been renting above the diner. There was a small kitchen, a little bathroom, and enough living space that she could spread out a little.
Feeling better, she unwrapped herself from the blanket, put her feet down on the dusty wooden floor, then slowly walked around the cabin, opening cabinet doors and envisioning what it would look like when she was done. The first thing she’d need was cleaning supplies, which meant a trip to the village to see what she could beg or borrow, and she was in no shape to interact with people. The thought of a cold shower wasn’t very appealing, but she needed a fresh start for the day, even if she’d be filthy again before it was over.
After digging out her old clothes so she didn’t ruin any of her new things, she stepped into the bathroom and stared at the filthy shower, almost changing her mind about getting in. Refusing to start the day with defeat, she turned on the water and quickly stripped out of the clothes she’d been wearing since the day before. It was impossible not to scream when the cold water first made contact with her skin, but she gritted her teeth, soaked her hair and body, then turned it off.
She was already shivering as she washed her hair, then soaped up, cursing Max the entire time, even more determined to do everything she could to stand up to him. By the time she rinsed off, not only was she shivering violently, her teeth were chattering, and she was sure that she’d never been that cold in her entire life. Shutting off the water with trembling hands, she stepped out of the shower, only realizing as she stood there dripping onto the dusty floor that she didn’t have a towel.
Letting out a string of curses that didn’t sound very convincing thanks to her teeth knocking together, she grabbed a sheet off the pile of bedding still stacked on the table and wrapped it around her shoulders. Looking up, she saw the bright sunlight out on the porch, headed for the door, and threw it open. Her only thought was to get warm. It barely registered that Stella was standing on the porch getting ready to knock on her door as she ran by, heading straight for the sunlight.
She instantly felt warmer when she stepped out of the shadows and she sighed with relief, then stood with her eyes closed, letting the heat soak into her before turning around to warm her back. Stella’s shocked face finally registered, but her teeth were still chattering, and all she could do was shake her head and close her eyes again.
A second later, she felt the blanket she’d slept wrapped up in the night before fall over her shoulders. She opened her eyes to find Stella standing next to her, with a look of amusement on her face. Pulling the blanket tighter, she let out a long sigh of relief when she stopped shivering, but felt her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment.
“I wanted a shower,” she finally said. “The water was freezing and then when I got out, I realized I didn’t have a towel.”
“Nora, you could have come over to our house for a shower,” she said, shaking her head. “All you had to do was ask.”
“I was being stubborn,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I guess it was kind of stupid, but I wanted to prove to Max that I could live here. It was such a dirty trick to play, I didn’t want him to know that he got to me.”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into him, this isn’t like him at all,” Stella said. “He’s usually so kind and compassionate, but with you he’s like a different person.”
“We can’t be talking about the same person,” she said, shaking her head. “Kind and compassionate are not words I would use to describe him.”
“I’m not about to defend him, that’s for sure. In fact, he and I had words about you,” Stella said. “Then I found out what he did last night, moving you up here like this, and I decided this isn’t a battle you should be fighting alone. Keith agreed, so here I am.”
“You’re going to help me?” she asked, a bit overwhelmed by her kindness. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you doesn’t seem like enough.”
Stella gave her a hug. “No thanks are necessary, we all need a little help sometimes,” she said, then pulled back. “You might want to go inside and get dressed. Keith and some of the crew will be here any minute to give the cabin a little makeover.”
The sound of voices coming up the path had her diving for the door of the cabin. “Don’t let them inside yet,” she called. “I’ll be right back.”