A Way to a Dragon’s Heart (15 page)

“Yes,
ma’am
.”

His voice flowed soft, small and edged with a sound that made Kryssa squeeze her thighs together. He rubbed his face against her skirt.

“You need to get up, Landon.”

He inhaled and gave the breath back to the world with a purr. “Your scent is receptive.” He rubbed again, and the skirt gave up inches of itself to reveal flesh. “I caused it; I’ll relieve it and go.”

Well, he had caused it and—no. “No, I’m fine.”

He raised his head. “Because you haven’t talked to them or because you don’t want me?”

“Does it matter?” she asked.

“You keep calling them your friends. If you have to talk to them about who can put their mouth where, they aren’t friends. They’re lovers and not in a casual sense. I think that matters to them. If I’d already have your taste on my tongue, either with their permission or with their absence from the equation, then that matters quite a bit to me.”

Kryssa couldn’t see an answer that led anywhere good. “I have a client meeting coming up.” She stood, pushing her chair back as she rose.

“Have they seen your Dragon Form?” he asked without meeting her eyes.

She studied his face. “Is this where you remind me that others are just as disapproving as you are?”

“My
mistake
is not unique. I at least recognize it as such. I know what you are and what it means, and I’ve adjusted my thinking. I don’t want you to undervalue your offspring choices because you think it’ll be easier. I’ve looked into both their pasts and they come from significant families with specific ideas. Mixed breeds have their own personal standards and expectations—like Mr. Luciano’s tattoo. Even lesser breeds can be judgmental.”

She took a step back. “Did you just try to get in my panties in one breath and then call my beloveds lesser breeds in the next?” Kryssa shook her head. “Six months of therapy is clearly not long enough to overcome thirty-five years with your evolutionary-elitist idiot family. I don’t want you to have to adjust your thinking. I don’t want to be
tolerated
. There’s nothing wrong with my form.”

She walked to the door and opened it, turning to him as she did. “And don’t pretend you know Xander and Caleb because you can afford to send private detectives or Strix family sycophants to go stake them out at the café. Xander’s tattoo is a symbol, not a personal ad, and Caleb doesn’t have a presumptive bone in his body. I don’t have to fear some pedigree rundown from them. And it’s not because they’re mixed. It’s because they’re decent men who love me. The same two years you spent learning to tolerate me and finding paperwork to justify your interests, Xander has been my best friend. He’s been cleaning up the mess you left behind and doing it with a smile because my friendship and happiness are worth it to him. Caleb stepped up to carry this relationship so I could get over myself enough to realize they weren’t going anywhere and I don’t need to either. Again a leftover tidbit from me and you, but he did it anyway. So you don’t get to call them lesser, you don’t get to judge my lovers, my triad, when they’re still wading through your failures and making it to shore with flying colors. They’re not just out of your league, Landon; you don’t even qualify for their sport.”

“Damn!” a vaguely familiar male voice said.

Kryssa still burned with enough righteous indignation to avoid the horror movie slow-motion turn to look into the outer office. Dominic, Caleb, Xander, an intern and the man who had spoken—one of her new clients—all stood in the reception area.

She looked back to Landon. “Well, this was a productive meeting. My next appointment is here. You should go.”

Chapter Twenty-One

“Oh no, my dear, I wouldn’t dream of interrupting,” the client reassured her. “The young man looks like he has something to say.”

Caleb fought to keep a straight face as Kryssa smiled at the man over her shoulder.

“I’m sure he’d prefer to speak later,” she said.

Landon glanced at them unmoved. “No, he’s right. I’d prefer now.” He walked closer to Kryssa, and Caleb straightened up. Landon ignored him. “I won’t dispute your words; I’d just like to add my own. It was my fault, my mistake, my mess as you said, but you aren’t the only one who went through a break-up, Kryssa.
I
messed up, but
you
left me. I tried to fix this immediately; I never stopped trying, and all well before I ever did the research. The approach boasts flaws but bears sincerity.”

Kryssa crossed her arms and nodded. “You’re right. There are always at least two sides, and you have your own. It’s valid, and it comes with whatever pain you’ve been going through. I wish it could have been different.”

He touched her arm. “It can be different.”

She pulled away. “Your idea of making amends involves explaining why my formerly inferior genes are now acceptable due to research. Just to add flavor, you threw in a few lesser breed comments and then want me to think you’ve changed. That isn’t changing. I showed you my Dragon Form, and because it shows my Sylvan heritage, you laughed and said I was cute, but that you’d never considered offspring with a
PseudoDragon
.”

Caleb reeled, and everyone is his peripheral recoiled at the words. Sylvan Dragons, or Fae-Dragons, were still
Dragons.
To call her a pseudo-dragon as if she were somehow posing went beyond a slap in the face. But to question offspring with her because of it went beyond the pale. It just wasn’t done. One never said anything negative to a healthy female Therian concerning reproduction. As a male you never really said anything about reproduction except for “yes”. That was it. Other things…well, they caused people to escort you through doors without opening them. Caleb just didn’t have the words.

“I didn’t mean it the way it came out, Kryssa. I don’t pretend to have taken it with the reverence and excitement I should have, but I was so thoroughly taken off guard that ignorance slipped from me before intelligence could get its bearings.”

Caleb wanted to beat Landon until his arm got tired. That made feeling a sense of sympathy for him as well a bit awkward. But he really did talk a good game and seemed to mean it.

“Your frontal lobe just needed a chance to engage, is that it?” she asked. Then without preamble or pause, the telltale heat-off-asphalt shimmer of preternatural energy covered her human form in one breath and revealed a Dragon in the next.

She stood bipedal with a body set that was a lithe streamlined variation of a velociraptor, at least the image made famous by Hollywood blockbusters. Although no more than seven and a half feet in height, the form was classic Dragon. Large cranium, head ridges, horns, fangs, bright oversized eyes, claws, scales, wings, long sinuous arrowhead tail… It was all there. The startling thing was in how it was all put together.

The light sparkled off jeweled amethyst and sapphire scales. Sweeping stained-glass wings rose up off her back in the brilliant tones of the Blue Morpho butterfly. The sounds of tropical rain on leaves seemed a faint song in the background as the wings moved softly. She turned a full circle. The arms were human-like in their proportion to the body and still sported five digit hands with opposable thumbs, like her Wereform. A swell and valley to the chest made scaled breasts a breath more than suggestion. Feathers in the same shifting purples, blues and blacks of the scales fringed the eyes and head ridges, lending yet another feminine aspect.

Kryssa regarded Landon with a tilt of her head. “What do you see?” she asked in the regal purr of Dragon Form.

His face closed down, but his voice revealed depth. “I see what I lost.” He looked out into the reception area. “And despite how you view the research, it has helped me to see what they see.”

She turned around, and large liquid orbs sparkled with surprise. It made Caleb look as well. Like himself, all but Dominic had taken to a knee.

“Nicky, why is everyone on the floor?”

Dominic looked to Caleb. “Why did you kneel?”

He smiled at Dominic but answered directly to Kryssa. “Instinct. I’m in the presence of your True Dragon Form for the first time, and you have not yet asked me to rise. If we were in full public, I would have only bowed my head but this is intimate enough to kneel.”

“That still happens?” she asked Dominic and then looked at everyone again. “Get up please; you’re freaking me out a bit.”

“This is the reason we do not shift in public.” Dominic smiled. “It used to be to cut down on the screaming and running in terror as well, but now mostly it’s the reverence instinct and being freaked out by it.”

Caleb watched Xander drift over to her. Thyme-hued irises flashed bright and electric as he took in her details. His hands came out and hovered, but he seemed unable to bring himself to break the spell of viewing by touching. “I’ve never seen anything so…it felt right kneeling.”

She leaned into Xander’s hands and reached out to Caleb. He walked over and stroked a hand down her arm, shivering as his own scale pattern emerged. He brushed his face over her hand and scale song rang out—in harmony. Landon had done the same thing, brushing his lightly scaled cheek just below the lethal arrowhead of her tail where it rested against his arm.

They stood there, the four of them locked in a moment. Then Landon spoke. “If I hadn’t broken things, if the person I am, say, two and a half years from now had been the one to propose to you those years ago, would we’d still be together?”

Her tail wrapped around his arm and pulled him closer. He caught his breath as she casually moved a stained glass masterpiece of a wing out of the way. Kryssa leaned in and inhaled him. She nodded.

Landon echoed the nod. “And if we were still together, would this moment have still happened? Would we still be standing with them, with you feeling as you do about them? Were they inevitable?”

She gave another nod. “Completely.”

He turned his attention to Xander. “Alexander, your utter wonder is the sincerest response I have ever seen. I regret it was not mine. But I must ask of the image on your chest.”

“One hundred and sixteen hours,” Xander replied.

“Pardon?” Landon asked.

“That’s how long it will take to remove it. I checked the day she left for Sydney. I didn’t like that it made her unhappy so I wanted to see how long it would take to remove it so the three of us could talk about it. But now…” He looked at Kryssa’s back. “I think I’m going to go for it. I obviously didn’t dream big enough.”

Landon’s gaze fell to Caleb. “You’re a pseu—” He cleared his throat. “DragonKin, you could have resisted kneeling.”

Caleb nodded and kept his features placid. “I didn’t want to.”

Landon stepped back and gave a bow at the neck. “I have a clearer vision now. I apologize for my harsh words and judgment. Our next occasion will be accompanied by a greater understanding.” He gave a deeper bow directly to Kryssa. “I’ve taken more than enough of your time. I shall let you get on with your day.” He pulled a small datapad from his pocket and nodded in acknowledgment to everyone on his way to the door.

“Then in ninety days?” Kryssa asked.

Landon turned and smiled. “No.” He held up the pad. “I sent the final agreement. If there are any further questions on my part, I’m sure the junior officers will be able to assist me from this point out.”

Caleb tried to hold back but couldn’t stop himself from asking. “So then things are going back to normal, with just infrequent emails and the occasional card on holidays?”

An arrogant yet genuine laugh poured from Landon’s throat. “Not in the least. I plan on quite frequent—if distant—communication from here on out. After all, how will I ever qualify for the sport if I don’t learn, and keep up with, the rules?”

Landon’s gaze turned to Kryssa, and his face took on an expression that let Caleb know there would definitely be a day when he did not hate the man before him.

“Happy sabbatical, Little Empress. May it bring you everything you deserve and more.” He gave an encompassing nod to the rest of the room and left without another word.

“I wouldn’t have believed it,” Xander said. “But I don’t
completely
hate that guy.”

Dominic pursed his lips. “I can see why you say that. I however will hate him enough for both of us. It’s in the bonded-sibling job description.”

“This is the best meeting I have ever had.” The gentleman at the door smiled.

Kryssa shifted to a humanoid version of her Fae-Dragon form. Horns and ridges disappeared, feathers grew at the hairline before glossy black spiral curls fell down her back between her wings and across her chest, obscuring the moment when suggested cleavage became full breasts. Claws receded to sharp but manageable fingernails. “Mr. Schleshure, I’m so sorry about all of this. I can start the briefing right now.” She looked down at herself. “Well, a minute or so from now when I can shift again. I’m a little overwhelmed.”

He waved a hand in dismissal. “Oh no, dear, don’t give it a second thought. You and your young gentlemen go on and start your sabbatical. Get in all the peaceful days before the one that left makes his next move. I’m in fine hands here, and I already know I’m going to sign on. This place is wonderful.” He turned to the intern. “Let’s go find the Drake twins and my wife to get the paperwork started. I’m sure by now the boys have solved the issue with the babbling woman having hysterics in the lobby. You should have seen it. My wife will have all the details. Come on.”

Caleb watched them disappear and couldn’t help but laugh, keeping it as soft as possible since Kryssa didn’t appear particularly amused.

She shifted close enough to her human form that her clothes returned, but the cuffs of the blazer hung open. “Dammit, I knew those buttons weren’t pure bone.” She covered her face with her hand. “Nicky.”

She didn’t need to say more. Dominic walked over and hugged her. When Caleb and Xander tried to step back to give them room, he pulled them closer. “It’s okay; it’s all okay. You settled the Sydney deal, had a major, semi-public drama with your ex and still landed a seven-figure client. You’re the best.”

Dominic kissed her forehead and stepped back. “This is where I say happy sabbatical and make my discreet exist so the three of you can talk while I get the plane ready.”

Kryssa took his hand. “Plane? I still have the six months on-call, the first one is here at the office. What do we need the plane for?”

He kissed her hand and disengaged himself again. “Change of plans. The boys have this. Your first standby/on-call month will be spent babysitting offices in Italy instead.”

“Where in Italy?” she asked.

Dominic shrugged. “Wherever it says on the list Xander and Caleb made. As long as there’s still time for a bit of sight-seeing and all sorts of other vacation-sabbatical-running off in love type things you young people do when forming new families, you can cover all the offices. Xander and Caleb are happy to help. I’ll see you three next month at the Drake family estate for the formal sabbatical party. I took the liberty of inviting your families, gentlemen. Xander, your twin, Drew, was quite helpful as was Caleb’s Kathleen. She going to help Drew and I look at property in Port Jacobs. So much to be done.” Dominic placed a kiss on her check, turned, and left without another word, leaving them to look at one other.

“So, Italy?” she asked.

Caleb pulled an itinerary from his pocket. “Surprise! We cleared it with Dominic yesterday. I rented a villa, and we have a complete gastronomy tour of Tuscany that starts the day after tomorrow. Xander and I planned to talk to you about it over lunch.”

She looked between them. “What about the café? What did Kathleen say?”

“My sister’s entire Compass has pitched in. With two wives and a husband, there are more than enough hands on deck. She was so anxious to get me through the door I think there’s a shoe print on my back where she literally kicked me out.”

Xander slipped his arms around her. “She wanted to make sure we got the chance to talk about it and make plans since we’re on somewhat of a timetable. Of course now we have a great deal more to talk about. I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Neither do I,” Caleb agreed. “Although I’m voting we skip the Landon issue until there’s a lot more wine involved and go straight to the lover and triad comments.”

Kryssa took a deep breath and nodded. “So, you heard all of that, huh?”

Caleb smiled. “Nearly every word and I plan on making up the parts I missed.” He exchanged a look with Xander. “But we can wait; give you a chance to catch your breath. In the meantime I’m sure we can just show you how we feel.” He ran his hand over her hair, caressing the feathers at her hairline. “It’s a long flight to Italy, and these mixed-forms make me think it’ll be very interesting to show you through the Bond while on the plane.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Xander agreed. “We should try this on the plane. I want you to know what this means to me as soon as possible.”

She laughed in their arms. “I just bet. When did the two of you suddenly get all patient on the sex front, let alone the Landon front? It’s okay. I haven’t gone all fragile. We can sit and talk over lunch.”

Xander shook his head. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited to hear what you said to him. Everything I’m feeling right now will take a plane ride and more to convey, but I’m willing to wait.” He flashed a brilliant grin. “After all, your brother just kicked you out of your own office for a month, horned in on our eating vacation by including business, roped Caleb and me yet again into work—that as far as I can tell he expects for free—and did it all in one breath. I’ve learned that always turns out well for me.”

Kryssa kissed Xander and then Caleb. “It has turned out pretty well.”

Caleb laughed. “Agreed. Now I think we should head out. I noticed something on our tour. That babbling woman in the lobby… If the description I heard is accurate, she
might
be a problem. When can we leave?”