Destined Dragons: BBW Paranormal Romance (Dragons of New York Book 3) (3 page)

“We will, of course, have to erase your memory of this. But you’ll be none the wiser if it plays out that way,” Sterling added.

“How did you know I want to go to cooking school?” Roxy asked, puzzled.

“If you hadn’t already noticed, we can read your thoughts. It’s been on your mind several times since we’ve met,” Sterling said.

There was a short pause as Roxy considered her options. Her dream of being a chef would finally be hers. What was the worst that could happen?

Perhaps falling for these men and giving up on her dream completely. But would that be so bad?

A tiny part of her thought so.

Gentry cleared his throat. “But just so we’re clear, while you’ll have access to anything you want while you’re here, we have to ask that you stay here at all times. We’re sure the men that captured you before would do the same or worse without hesitation if they found you. The whole purpose of my and Sterling’s partnership is for protection, and now that you’re considering becoming a part of that, that protection extends to you,” Gentry said, his tone a little more serious than their preceding conversation had been

“That includes contacting anyone from home,” Sterling said.

“Can’t say I have a lot of connections or familial relations that’ll be missing me. My employer has probably written me off already,” Roxy said, trying to be cheery about the fact that she had practically nobody else in the world. “My father is dead, and he raised me on his own.”

Thoughts of her father made it even harder to consider what they were asking of her. She took a deep breath, trying to focus.

Her logical brain said this whole thing was crazy and she should try to get out of there as soon as possible. But her intuition, the side of her she always trusted most when things were at their worst, said go for it.

How bad could it be to spend a week with two men like Sterling and Gentry in a house like this?

And if she was completely honest with herself, Roxy was feeling an insanely strong attraction to these men in the room with her. She wanted very badly to get her hands on one, or both, of them and find out if those muscles really felt as good as they looked.

“Yes, I would imagine they do feel as good as they look,” Sterling said nonchalantly.

“But that’s for you to decide if and when you want to try,” Gentry added. “We won’t pressure you.”

Well, to hell with it. Maybe this was life’s one-in-a-million chance opportunity for Roxy. Columbus didn’t find the new world by staying home and working in a convenience store.

“All right,” she said. “I’ll give it a try. At least I think I will. Right now, I just want to get some sleep, if that’s okay. I’ve spent five days on the ground in the dark, and a bed is going to feel amazing.”

“I’ll have Sterling bring you another shake and then show you to your room,” Gentry said. “Try and drink it if you can so you can get your strength back.”

She nodded gratefully. “Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate that. And thank you for saving me as well. I’m still a little bit in shock, but I don’t know what would have happened had I stayed…”

Gentry winced slightly, just a micro expression that was there and gone, dampening his polite smile just slightly. “We’re glad we found you.”

She nodded. There wasn’t much more to say until she was rested and fed. And had a little more time to deal with the fact that dragons existed and they were gorgeous and wanted her for a mate.

“Good night, then,” she said hesitantly.

“Good night, Roxy,” Gentry replied.

Sterling just stood and motioned for her to follow.

T
he next morning
, Roxy planned to sneak into the kitchen and make breakfast before anyone else could. She’d missed cooking while being imprisoned. Missed having good food.

Somehow, some clothing had arrived at her door overnight, and she changed into a pair of comfy sweats with a tank top and matching jacket and went downstairs.

She couldn’t get over the feel of the castle. Luxurious but isolated and remote and lonely. There was a silence that hovered over it, and even though it was filled with beautiful objects, she couldn’t get over the feeling there was something missing in the big empty house.

She sighed when she saw Sterling was already downstairs, looking in the fridge in the huge kitchen. It was the type of kitchen made to serve huge groups of guests. Gentry was seated by a back window, reading a newspaper and occasionally gazing out over the patio.

Sterling murmured to himself while rummaging through the fridge. “What about omelets?” he asked Gentry.

Gentry nodded mildly and went back to reading.

Roxy felt like she was watching some kind of odd tableaux. Men who were really dragons, reading the paper and deciding on breakfast in their ridiculously huge mansion. She still couldn’t figure out if she was walking in a dream or this was actually real.

“It’s real,” Sterling said flatly, walking away from the fridge and closing it with a kick of his foot. He set eggs on the counter and pulled out a cheese grater.

Right. They could read thoughts. She’d never get used to that. “I was hoping I could cook this morning,” she said, eyeing him tentatively.

Sterling cocked his head, his silver eyes taking an odd light. “Why?”

“Because I love it. And because if I’m going to stay here, it would make me more comfortable to have something to do.”

“We’re here to serve you,” Sterling said, ignoring her and cracking the eggs into a glass bowl. “You don’t have to do anything. You can just take a seat and wait for me to be done.”

She frowned. “That’s not going to work for me. I want to cook. You said if I stayed here, I’d have access to anything I want. This is what I want.”

Gentry put down his newspaper and watched them with interest.

Sterling clearly wasn’t used to being contradicted because he approached her with folded arms, trying to intimidate her with his height and his perfect posture and those icy gray eyes. And the heated chemistry between them.

She gulped. His lashes were so dark, contrasting his irises perfectly. She wanted to reach a hand up and touch his hair to see what it felt like.

“You can if you want,” he said wryly. “It feels like hair usually does, I imagine.”

She put a hand up to touch the locks. They were soft but wiry. Very short, tickling her fingers. Heat waved through her, and she pulled back her hand as quickly as she’d put it out.

She took a step back, feeling blood rush into her neck. “Can’t I cook?” she asked, taking a step back. “I promise it’ll turn out well.”

“It’s all right with me,” Gentry said. “Come on, Sterling. Do you actually enjoy all the work of cooking?”

“No, of course not,” Sterling said. But he still looked reluctant to leave breakfast in her hands. “I’m just used to taking care of things.”

“Doesn’t Gentry ever cook?” Roxy asked, looking over at him. Before Gentry could answer, Sterling cut in.

“Of course not,” he said, like it should make all the sense in the world.

“Why do I get the impression this relationship isn’t exactly on equal footing?” she asked. “Is Sterling some kind of servant or something?”

Gentry threw back his head and laughed while Sterling glared but perched on a stool at the counter so he could watch her cook.

“I’m no one’s servant. I merely like taking care of my partner.”

“Sterling’s the most overprotective dragon partner I’ve ever seen,” Gentry said, walking over to join them. “I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Maybe the fact that you’re the dragon in charge of our region, with the most attempts on your life. Maybe that would explain it,” Sterling said. “Then again, logic was never Gentry’s forte. He thinks with his heart.” Sterling said it like it was a bad thing.

Roxy cracked the eggs into bowls and pulled out more ingredients for omelets as she listened to the men talk. She was becoming accustomed to their voices and manners already. There was something about them that just felt safe.

Sterling and Gentry talked about things going on in their world, things she didn’t understand about other dragons taking mates and creatures called wyverns being a problem, while she finished making breakfast.

“What’s a wyvern?” she asked.

“It’s what happens when you give a shifter dragon blood. It’s a smaller dragon creature that has a poisonous bite and no dragon powers. They can kill dragons.”

“I see…” she said.

“But they are rare. You need dragon blood to create them, and no dragon has been captured recently.”

“Ah,” she said. There was so much to learn about this world, and her head was already spinning.

When she was done with the first large omelet, she slid it to Gentry.

The orgasmic noise he made when he took his first bite sent a chill up her spine and put a definite scowl on Sterling’s face. Sterling reached over with a fork, but Gentry guarded his plate playfully.

“No, get your own,” he said, taking another bite and moaning.

Roxy grinned. She loved feeding people almost as much as she loved eating. When she was done with the second omelet, and a little turned on by the sound of Gentry’s sexy voice, she slid it to Sterling.

She paused before making her own, waiting for his reaction.

His eyes were skeptical as he brought a dainty bite to his perfect lips. When he touched it to his tongue, his eyes went wide and he turned away from her, hiding whatever expression he’d been about to make.

Soft chewing sounds came from his direction and then a small sigh. “It is… adequate,” he said, sounding resentful.

She smiled. That was probably all the compliment she was going to get from the other man.

“Are you kidding?” Gentry asked. “That’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”

Little chewing sounds still came from Sterling’s direction, along with mutters of disbelief.

When he was done, he grabbed his and Gentry’s plates and started for the sink.

“I at least get to do the cleanup,” he said.

Roxy shrugged at Gentry. She wasn’t going to argue.

“All right, Roxy and I will be outside. I want to show her the garden,” Gentry said.

“Don’t go far,” Sterling said.

“Yes, Mom,” Gentry said playfully, putting an arm around Roxy and leading her outside.

W
hen they stepped outside
, Gentry yawned and stretched in the sunlight. She couldn’t help checking out his impressive pecs and wide chest but then forced herself to turn her attention to the gorgeous gardens in front of her.

The grounds were huge, and the perimeter was surrounded by an old iron fence with beautiful metalwork designs in curling patterns. There were bushes and plants in rows along the grass and little benches here and there for sitting. Gentry led her to one of them and she sat next to him, waiting to see what he was going to say.

Instead, he just put his arms along the back of the bench, crossed his legs, and leaned back his head, enjoying the sunlight. His body was so huge compared to hers.

Despite how relaxed he looked, something was still bothering her. Something they hadn’t answered before. “Gentry?” she asked quietly.

“Yes?”

“How did you find me?” she asked. “How did you know where I was? You can’t have even known I existed. Is it something to do with dragons?”

Gentry stood up abruptly, looking disturbed. “I think we better go back inside. Sterling will be waiting for us.”

“But we just got out here—”

Gentry ignored her, walking back toward the house. She sent a reluctant look behind her and then followed him in, wondering why he didn’t want to talk about how he’d found her. Was there some kind of secret there? Something she didn’t get?

She hoped to find out soon. There were far too many secrets in this house.

When they got back inside, Gentry told Roxy he had some business to discuss with Sterling and pointed her in the direction of the library, encouraging her to explore.

She spent an hour hunting down old cookbooks and then curled up in an oversized chair to read them. She lost track of time until Sterling called her for lunch, and as a result, she had to choke down dry sandwiches he’d prepared the previous day.

She was more successful at dinner though, managing to sneak in and start a simple stir-fry before Sterling could complain.

Once again, it got a great reaction from Gentry and mild resentment from Sterling.

She understood Sterling expected himself to be the one doing everything in the house; she just didn’t get why. There was an odd feeling to the relationship, something suppressed about it, something she intended to get to the bottom of.

When dinner went by with quiet politeness, she felt nearly ready to burst. There was so much she wanted to learn about these men, and her chances seemed to keep passing her by.

As they stood to get ready for bed, she stopped them with a loud clap.

Both tall, gorgeous men turned to look at her curiously.

“That’s it?” she asked. “We’re supposed to get to know each other while I’m here, and that’s all I get?”

Sterling folded his arms. “What more do you want?”

“I asked Gentry a question in the garden, and he just walked away. I asked why your relationship was weird, and no one explained it. Just who are you two, and what should I know about you if I’m going to be your mate?”

Gentry paused, looking more serious than she’d seen him. Then he gestured for her to follow them into a sitting room.

She sat on a soft chaise while Gentry paced and thought. Sterling leaned against a bookcase, looking bored. Though one could never tell with him.

“Dragons have colors. One of each per region. I’m the purple dragon,” Gentry said. “Sterling’s the silver. The first thing you might want to know about dragons is we have different powers according to our colors. That’s how we pair up. To complement each other.”

She nodded.

“As the expected leader of a region, the purple dragon has powers that help him predict the future. I myself have visions of things that will happen. As for Sterling…”

Sterling waved a hand and a small metal apple floated off the shelf and hovered in front of her. She caught it with both hands, astounded.

“Sterling can move things with his mind. He also has enhanced telepathy, if you hadn’t noticed, and hears thoughts more easily than others. He’s also an excellent strategist, and he figures out what we should do after I have my visions.”

“Ah,” she said. “And how do I fit into this?”

“If you are a dragon-heart, which risking death on a subway platform for a stranger would suggest, then when you mate us, you will get one of the dragon powers.”

“What would I get?”

Gentry hesitated. “No one knows until after the mating. But let’s not worry about that yet. Anyway, what else do you want to know?”

“How did you find me?” she asked. “Did you have a vision about me?”

Gentry turned away abruptly, bracing himself on a bookcase. “If there’s one thing I could ask of you, it would be that I don’t have to talk about that.”

Her heart sank. Had it been a bad vision? But she would respect that he didn’t want to talk about it, for now.

“So you had this vision and then came to save me. And decided you wanted me for a mate just based on that?”

Sterling hmphed. “Who wouldn’t want a dragon-heart? With three dragon powers, we’d be much more able to fend off adversaries.”

“So you just want me for what I can do,” she said warily.

Sterling looked confused. “I don’t see why that is a bad thing,” he said. “We understand what you are and we value that.”

“I sort of wanted to be more than valued when I did settle down.”

“More than valued?” Sterling asked, and Gentry let out an exasperated sigh.

“Loved,” she said impatiently. “I wanted to be loved. Are you going to tell me that’s some silly human thing and I shouldn’t want that either?”

“Of course not,” Gentry said, ever the peacemaker. “It’s just that things work a little different in the dragon world.”

“Well, I’m still hoping to fall in love,” she said, folding her arms. “What’s the point of eternity without it?”

Sterling seemed frustrated. “If we hadn’t pulled you out of that basement, how much love do you think you would have found?”

She opened her jaw and then snapped it shut. She didn’t have a retort, but she was irritated with him for not even trying to understand.

Gentry walked over to her. “Don’t let it offend you,” he said. “Sterling means no harm. He just isn’t very aware of emotions. Dragons can love their mates; it’s just a little different from humans. But I promise you you’d be treasured.”

She turned away. “I know you are good men. But I’m just not sure he’s ever going to understand me.” She stared at Sterling. “I guess it’s good we have a week to try this out and see.” She started to stand and leave for her room and then stopped. “In the meantime, what’s being done about the men who captured me? I’m assuming you won’t let me leave until it’s safe to go home.”

“Of course,” Gentry said. “We have some of our best dragons on it.”

Sterling was quiet and broody. Then he stood abruptly and left the room.

Gentry sighed as they both watched him go. “It just takes time. It takes time in human relationships too, doesn’t it?”

She nodded. “True. But much longer than a week, generally.”

Gentry shrugged. “Well, we’ll just have to see.” He turned off a lamp and put a hand out to help her to her feet. He walked her to her room. “You know, it couldn’t hurt to try things out with us physically. It’s one of the main benefits of being with dragons. It might just change your mind.”

She grinned at him. “A benefit, hm?” she asked. She couldn’t deny it would be amazing stress relief, and the sexual tension in the room had been off the charts, even when she was arguing with Sterling.