A Dragon's Dream of Love (Song of the Sídhí Series #2) (3 page)

“We’ll see about that,” Mort said in a
face twisting snarl.

“They’re just idiots,” a PuckinKnück
twin said with a look of hatred aimed at Leah.

Derek flexed his muscles, getting ready
for a fight that would please him to no end. There was no way he'd let that
monster anywhere near Leah.

“You’re right Bart, we should’ve known
since Leah is talking to them,” the other twin, who had to be Burt snickered,
agreeing with his mirror image. “We’ll find some smarter shifters for you,
Mort. These three are valley scum.”

Derek watched as they stormed off the
deck, disappearing down one of the many trails winding through the thick forest
of the surrounding mountains. He chuckled. Turning back to Beth he spread his
hands out wide and innocently asked, “Gee, should we have told him you’re Alpha
Prime of Haven Valley?”

“Alpha Prime?” Leah questioned her
voice curious as she studied Beth’s face.

“As in, ultimate life-long ruler,”
Derek said, grinning at Beth’s sour expression. “Haven Valley is not a
democracy. We’re more along the lines of a feudal clan monarchy or something.
And my little sister does a bang-up job of keeping everyone in line.”

“True, but as the dragon so eloquently
put it, at the moment I’m just another teenage brat,” Beth said, shrugging her
shoulders, she smiled at Leah. “I hope you’ll still join us for pizza.”

Leah's confused expression said more
than her words. “I’m an exile, just like Mort and thugs.”

“You aren’t anything like those three,”
Derek said snappishly. Blinking, he realized the truth of his blurted words. He
looked into her confused face and felt his chest grow tight with a desire to
comfort her. He didn't like seeing her upset. “My hackles don’t rise around
you.”

“Um,” Leah said, hesitating, she
glanced toward the main building.

“This’ll be your first meal of solid
food. It might be good to have us around.” Derek said, smiling at the
uncertainty flickering across her face. He didn't understand his reaction
toward her; he couldn’t seem to resist her. She was so cute with the tiny
wrinkles between her eyes. Sucking in a lungful of air, he felt his body
respond to her sweet scent. It tightened in all the right places, growing more
than a little uncomfortable in the snug jeans he had on.

He needed to be careful with this
dark-haired beauty, because if he wasn’t extremely careful, he might actually
fall for her and he was not a one-girl type of guy.

“Yeah, thanks, I think I will.” Leah
looked up at him with a frown marring her face, and hastily added, “That
doesn’t mean I’m interested in you. That hasn’t changed.”

Derek scowled at her, muttering, “Of
course not, I’m just valley scum.”

“I didn’t say that! Stop putting words
in my mouth!” Leah demanded and then chuckled. “You’re just an empty headed…
well, not quite empty headed, but you’re a completely conceited guy, who is too
good looking for words, who thinks every girl should drop at his feet in
ecstatic glee, begging for a smidgen of your wonderful attention.”

His eyes narrowed on her laughing face.
One minute she gave him a backhanded compliment, the next she figuratively
slapped him in the face.

“I’m not that bad,” he darkly muttered,
faintly wishing he hadn’t encouraged her to eat with them.

“Yes, you are,” Brianna – his little
sister's best friend and a pain-in-the-backside – disagreed with him; grinning,
she hurried inside. By the time he caught up with her, she had grabbed a yellow
tray off the multi-colored stack and started down the buffet filled with every
kind of pizza, salad, and a variety of other stuff.

Leah stood stock still, not knowing
what to do when faced with such a huge selection of food. She didn’t have a
single clue where to start. She swallowed hard, and clutched her tray in
nervous hands. Watching as the others filled their plates, she slowly started
forward, following Derek as he piled everything imaginable on his plate.

“Leah.”
Derek’s softly spoken
word appeared in her head, making her jump.

She jerked her eyes to his, out of the
corner of her eye, she watched him slide his tray closer to hers.
“If I
promise not to ask for ‘ecstatic glee’ in payment will you let me help you?”
he telepathically asked.

“There’s just so much to choose
from. I haven’t got a clue what I might like or not like,”
Leah said,
revealing a slightly crooked smile.

“Let’s get a variety. In the
beginning, maybe you should only eat a little bit,”
he said, slipping a stick
– of what she thought was bread – on her plate. It looked shiny with small
globs of powdery stuff sprinkled on top.

She didn't think any of it looked very
appetizing. The bread looked hard and the pizza had all sorts of red and white
stuff oozing out of it, but it smelled kind of good. At this point, she
would've eaten almost anything. She was starved.

“I’ve heard if someone hasn’t eaten
in a long time their stomach shrinks and if you eat too much, you could get
sick,”
Derek said, spooning a bit of red sauce onto her plate and adding a
couple pieces of pizza and green leafy stuff.

“Ew! Okay I see your point, but how
will I even know what too much is? I doubt if drinking blood has the same
feeling as eating food,”
Leah said, baffled by the concept of getting sick.
She’d never been sick, not ever. The only sick Sídhí she had ever heard of was
synth sickness during pregnancy; a woman went through the sickness, but only
after the unborn baby had a growth spurt. Maybe eating solids wasn’t such a
great idea after all.

“Well, it might help if you eat
slowly,” Derek said softly, grinning down at her upturned face. “I usually
inhale my food.”

“Inhale? How?” she asked in shock, her
eyes growing huge with the concept of breathing in a solid chunk of food.

“Not literally,” he said with a
chuckle, leading her to several large machines with spigots on them. “I just
eat fast.”

Derek put a small amount of brown foamy
liquid in a cup and handed it to her. “Here, take a sip of Pepsi and tell me if
you like it.”

She put it under her nose and sniffed
it. “Ew! That burns,” Leah frantically rubbed her nose, “or tickles. I’m not
sure which.”

“Pop has carbon in it. It gives it
fizz,” Derek said, speaking between deep chuckles.

“No thanks,” Leah said, refusing the
drink. She vigorously shook her head and tried giving the cup back to him, but
he wouldn't take it.

“Give it a small sip. Just don’t breath
through your nose when you do.” He encouraged her with a heart stopping smile
that made her perk-up and take notice. Either the smell of food was making her
feel light headed or his good-natured bantering was doing a darn good job of
cracking the wall she had insisted on erecting between them. She frowned into
the cup of liquid, refusing to believe the fluttering in her stomach had anything
to do with him.

She'd known him less than an hour, but
every time she turned around he was doing something nice. Whether it was
helping with her first meal or standing between her and the PuckinKnück twins.
She also noticed Derek didn't start growling until Mort threatened her.

She pulled her rambling thoughts back
to the matter at hand and wondered if she should trust his suggestion. The
brown liquid kept popping and her nose still twitched from the first time.
Sighing, she held her breath, and took a very small sip.

“Hmm!” She sipped again and then gulped
the rest down. “That’s great! I definitely want... BURP!” Her face bloomed
bright cherry red, as she stuttered an apology.

He choked on his laughter. “Don’t drink
so fast. Pop always makes people burp, but drinking it fast makes it worse.”

“Thanks, for the warning,” she said,
her voice dripping with sarcasm, while desperately ignoring the appearance of a
thousand butterfly wings churning in her stomach. Derek wasn’t good looking,
his smile made him absolutely gorgeous. She tried covering her stunned
reaction. Yeah, right, good luck with that one. She was so stunned, she felt
nailed to the floor; she couldn’t move as long as he smiled down at her with
sparks of fire twinkling in his amber eyes.

She was not – absolutely, was not –
going to fall in his lap like a hundred other simpering, empty-headed girls.

She watched Derek fill his cup and she
followed suit, adding a gush of pop over the chunks of ice.

They joined the girls at a small table.
Leah mimicked Derek’s actions as he unloaded his tray on the table. Glancing at
the various plates, she noticed Beth had white powder all over her pizza and
Brianna dipped hers in a thin white sauce.

Derek lightly touched her shoulder,
making her jump. She turned to look at him with wide eyes. The tingling
sensation in her arm – where he lightly touched her – distracted her to such an
extent she forgot to be angry with him. His smile only intensified the effect.
She really needed to get a grip.

“Beth has parmesan cheese sprinkled
on her pizza and Brianna is dipping hers in ranch salad dressing,”
Derek
said mentally, while taking a bite of pizza with chunks of stuff all over it.

“Thanks, I wondered,”
she said,
nodding her thanks. She glanced at her plate, gingerly picking up a slice, she
took a small bite. WOW! Flavor exploded in her mouth.

“Mmm!” She couldn’t compare it to any
experience she had ever known. Blood was blood, metallic, tangy, and uniformly
the same unless you considered the temperature: hot and yuck or cold and
yuckier.

Derek caught her gaze and grinned at
her. “You're eating all meat, thin crust. Before you eat the whole thing try
the garlic stick.” He picked up one of his garlic sticks and dipped it in red
sauce. “Try dipping it in the marinara sauce.”

After the pop episode, she began
trusting his suggestions so she dipped the bread stick in the sauce and took a
small bite. “Mmmm!” Leah’s eyes closed, savoring the expanding flavor as she
chewed. “Oh, my! That’s to die for!”

A short time later, Leah wistfully
looked at the pizza left on her plate. She felt ready to explode, but the
others continued eating.

“Full?” Derek asked.

“I think so, I really wish I wasn’t.
Mom told me how good food was, but I didn’t have anything to compare it with.”
Leah shrugged her shoulders, still eyeing the pizza on her plate.

“What was your favorite?” he asked.

“All of it, but the garlic stick and
red sauce – Mmm! – that's fantastic,” she said enthusiastically.

“They’re the best,” Beth agreed,
nodding toward the cafeteria doors. “You can get more.”

“No, thanks,” Leah shook her head,
“I’ve never eaten food, but mom drilled me for hours on table manners.” She
sighed, feeling a bit uncomfortable talking so freely. “I’m sure one day I’ll
change my mind, but if I ignored everything she taught, I’d feel like I was…
well, hurting her or something. She’s had enough of that.” She squirmed in her
chair as she felt herself turn a light shade of pink that darkened her sunburn.

Derek excused himself and went inside
the building. He came back a few minutes later with a plate piled full of
stuff, which he sat in the middle of the table. He grabbed her plate and dumped
her remaining pizza on top of his. He grinned at her. “Problem solved. I got
enough garlic sticks, sauce, and cinnamon sticks for everyone.”

Leah smiled and reached for a garlic
stick. “Thanks, Derek.” Feeling a twinge of remorse, she let out a loud sigh.
“I’ve been nothing but unpleasant to you and yet you keep doing things like
this.”

She pointed the garlic stick at him,
trying her hardest to figure him out. “I just don’t understand you.”

Derek casually shrugged his broad
shoulders. “We’re going to be in the same cabin for four months. We might as
well get along.”

“That’s all?” Leah questioned him,
doubt crept into her voice as both Beth and Brianna chuckled outright.

“I like you,” he said, giving Leah a
sweet smile, which lifted one corner of his firm lips a bit higher than the
other one. “Isn’t that enough?”

Leah narrowed her eyes at his seemingly
casual answers, silently watching him as he took a large bite of pizza and
washed it down with a drink of pop.

“I will not have sex with you,” Leah
said tartly.

He choked on his pop, madly grabbing
for a napkin as it spewed from his mouth. He struggled to breath and his face
turned an alarming shade of crimson red. Pizza crust and pop made a terrible
throat blocker. He couldn’t quit coughing.

Beth and Brianna's chuckles turned into
gales of laughter, while Leah maintained her quiet observation; she sat back
and watched Derek gasp for breath.

“That wasn’t funny.” His voice sounded
rough and his eyes watered as he snarled at the girls.

His grumpy words made them laugh even
harder.

Beth was laughing so hard she couldn't
speak, so she mentally crowed,
“Yes, it was! I can’t believe she hit it on
the head! Literally! I think you've bedded every debutante at court.”

“She’s got you totally pegged!” Brianna
said, rocking with laughter.

Derek ignored them both. Turning to
Leah he snapped at her, “I can’t believe you think that.”

Leah sighed; she felt a bit guilty, but
from his sister's reaction she must've guessed correctly. Her lips twitched,
trying very hard not to laugh at his disgruntled look. “Well, I’m not sorry I
said it. I’m probably the very first girl that has ever turned you down. Derek,
I’m not an idiot. My refusal makes me a challenge for you. I should’ve realized
it before now, but I just wasn’t thinking.” She motioned toward his face and
muscled body. “Guys, especially the 'beautiful people of the world,' never refuse
a challenge. I’m sure you’re no different.”