Ever Mine (Dragon Lore) (4 page)

Hope shook her head and turned toward the dresser. After rummaging through one of the drawers, she handed Katenia a pair of pants and a shirt. “Get dressed. I need to talk to Nathan for a moment.”

Not wanting to make a fool of herself again, Katenia clutched the clothes to her chest as she smiled at Hope. “Thank you.”

The other woman nodded and hurried out of the bedroom, leaving Katenia standing there alone. She carefully put the borrowed garments on the dresser top. It felt weird maneuvering without her wings, but she only stumbled once slipping out of his jacket.

The clothing Hope gave her confused her. She stared down at the unfamiliar fabrics and pieces that would cover way too much of her skin. An overwhelming sense of panic hit her hard.

Fairies were comfortable with nudity, more concerned with comfort and lightness than covering themselves.

She considered stumbling her way out of the bedroom and telling Nathan and his sister thanks for the help, but she wouldn’t be able to breathe in the borrowed clothes. He was helping her, though, and covering her up seemed to be important. So with a dejected sigh, she struggled into the new outfit, determined not to be ungrateful, no matter how uncomfortable she was. Until she found a way home, she was stuck in their world, and it meant abiding by their dress code.

* * * *

Nathan glanced up from his tea-party when his sister stepped out of her bedroom. As if the mutinous look on her face wasn’t terrifying enough, she marched right over to him and flicked him hard in the ear.

“What kind of bimbos are you bringing here, Nathan? Damn it, you can’t just bring any woman off the street into my house with Lux here!” All furious female, she planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “What were you thinking?”

Aware his niece was watching them with wide, worried eyes, Nathan stood slowly, temper tightening every muscle in his body. “What the
hell
are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the woman in my bedroom, whose boobs are apparently so new and so much bigger, her entire body’s equilibrium is off! Are you serious?”

Clenching his jaw, he barely managed to grit the words out. “She’s a fairy. Twenty minutes ago she was the size of Thumbelina and sleeping in a goddamn flower.”

Hope blinked at him. “Great.” She threw her hands up and stalked past him, scooping her daughter out of her tiny tea-party chair. “Now you’re on drugs. Anything else I should know?”

“She was a gift from Aunt Mellie, who was apparently aware tonight was my dinner with…” His words trailed off as he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Fuck. Rhiannon.”

Her eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of her head. “
Rhiannon?
You’re seeing Rhiannon again? For sweet Pete’s sake, big brother, do you not remember the kind of hell she put you through? Why would you want to open that door again?”

Momentarily satisfied she wasn’t going to cause him physical harm or kick him out, he sat on the couch. Leaning forward, he shoved his fingers through his hair before he braced his arms against his thighs and shook his head. “It seemed like the right thing to do. She was devastated when I called everything off, and she said she needed answers.”

“It’s a bad, bad road to go down, Nathan.” She sighed, and moved over to sit next to him on the couch. “That woman is a manipulative monster, and she tore you up a hell of a lot more than you hurt her. You just never saw it.”

He shrugged, because he didn’t have an answer. Rhiannon had needed him—she’d always needed him, ever since they were kids. She was self-destructive, her desperation for him toxic, and no matter what he’d done, he’d never been able to pull her out of her downward spiral.

Hope nudged his arm with her shoulder. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kick you out of my house for bringing a half-naked woman into it?”

“Fairy, Hope.” He turned his head to look at her, and arched a brow. “
I
am talking about a fairy. She can’t walk because she lost her wings when she got spooked outside my office, and her entire equilibrium is off.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’re serious. You actually believe this.”

“It’s either that, or I’m insane, so yeah. At the moment, I believe this.” He let out a bitter laugh. “As soon as she’s decent, we’re heading to Mellie’s place so I can demand some answers.”

His sister nodded slowly, her brow furrowing in thought. “Okay, let’s just say you’re not mental, and this is really happening. Why would the old bat send you a fairy?”

He snorted so hard he was sure he popped a vein somewhere. “Because, like the sane person she is, she said if I took care of the plant, it would love me forever.”

“Plant?”

He nodded, past caring how demented he sounded. “Yes, plant. The one that opened to reveal a fairy inside of it.” He dragged a hand down his face. “A fairy who was apparently kidnapped from her home, and has no idea how to get back to it, or how she became almost five-feet tall.”

“Oh. My. God.” When Nathan’s gaze snapped to Hope, she slowly got to her feet, her face astonished. “You like this woman, this fairy. Like,
like
her, like her.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, irritated.

It was her turn to snort. “Dude, in the five minutes we’ve been sitting here talking, you’ve glanced toward my bedroom ten times. Ten. I counted. Besides,” she chirped, pointing at him and grinning, “it’s written all over your face. You look somewhere between dazed and completely thunderstruck.”

“You’ve lost your…” His words trailed off as Katenia finally opened the bedroom door. Anything else he’d been about to say was gone. His tongue swelled in his mouth and his heart lodged in his throat.

Sweet Jesus, she was beautiful. The skinny jeans clung to her like a second skin, and the soft green V-neck t-shirt Hope had loaned her was too tight across the chest, showing off quick hints of the soft globes hidden inside. Her body was X-rated and all kinds of dangerous, but it was like the woman glowed from the inside out. Her green eyes sparkled with some kind of inner light, and for the first time, he noticed the faintest smattering of freckles over her cheeks and slightly upturned nose.

“Okay,” Hope whispered behind him, her voice almost as dazed as he was. “Maybe I believe you. No one who looks like that can be human.”

He nodded, acknowledging Hope’s comment, but his focus was on the fairy. He told himself to stay away from her, to keep his distance. Instinct overrode every one of the internal commands he was giving his body, and within a second, he closed the distance between himself and Katenia.

Mine.

The word echoed through his head, but instead of the warning bells he’d expected to come along with it, all he felt was need and rightness.

When he stood in front of her, her fingers plucked absently at the hem of the shirt, as if she was trying to stretch it out. “Nathan, I—”

He swallowed whatever else she was going to say with his mouth. The need to kiss her was so great he didn’t have the strength to deny it. Unlike the urge to devour her that had nearly knocked him unconscious in his car, this wasn’t about lust. This was about need, and something deeper. Something that scared him down to his core, and yet was as right as breathing.

His perfect, curvy fairy stretched up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, a purr of contentment humming through her when he straightened to his full height, hauling her completely off the ground, his mouth searching and pleading on hers.

Fucking hell, if he didn’t know any better, he’d swear it felt like he was staking his claim on her. And then, because it sounded like the best idea he’d ever heard, his hand shot into her hair, hauling her even closer as his mouth devoured hers.

Chapter 5

This was wrong. The primal need passing from Nathan to her, the primitive urge to sink in and possess him—it was all wrong. Every story the Elders had ever told her always repeated the same theme—humans were selfish, cruel giants who destroyed everything weaker in their path.

Katenia kissed him, anyway. Afraid if she didn’t, he’d devour her. He’d lifted her off her feet and walked her into the wall.
 
One large hand gripped her hip as the other held her by the back of the neck, anchoring her as the storm raged between them. She wound her arms around his neck, desperate to feel him everywhere as her new body started to make sense. She fit into him perfectly, and as need flooded her system, all common sense roared past her defenses.

Unconcerned with nudity, or their audience, Katenia gripped the front of his shirt and yanked, sure if she could get to his skin, this raging desperation would ease.

“Eww, Uncle Nathan.” Lux giggled from behind him. “You kiss funny.”

Nathan stilled against her, a thunderstruck look flashing in his eyes. He cleared his throat and dropped his head to her shoulder, dragging in huge gulps of air. “Sorry, Good-Lux Charms.” A low hungry sound vibrated in his chest when he finally lifted his gaze again. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what…” He shook his head, worry in the depths of his eyes. “I’ve never reacted that way before.”

Katenia’s head canted as she blinked at him. “Primal?”

He groaned and dropped his head against hers. “Not helping, woman.”

“I’m a fairy,” she reminded him, confused by his reaction. “Sex is natural, and not something to be ashamed of, or hidden.”

He groaned, his body going still. “Just stop talking about it, damn it!” He straightened and lowered her to her feet, though his grip remained steady on her hips. “Can you stand?”

She shook her head no, then answered, “I think so.”

Humor lit his face suddenly, and he leaned down to murmur in her ear. “It would probably help if you let go of me.”

She frowned up at him as delicious shivers raced over her skin. “I can’t stand up on my own yet,” she snapped in a whisper. “My legs aren’t steady.”

“I just asked…you know what, never mind.” He lifted a hand and gently untangled hers from around his neck. “We need to get to my aunt’s before it gets too late.”

“Right,” she grimaced, nauseous all of a sudden. Going home meant facing her father and the rest of the Elder Council in her new, human body. If Nathan’s aunt managed to return her to fairy form, there was still the Council to worry about. Even if they never found out about her body transformation, all human interaction was strictly forbidden. It would mean punishment and possible banishment. That she’d let a human kiss her… She shuddered, thinking about what they would do.

Worse, they had been threatening to pair-bond her to Aeron, the eldest son of one of the Council members, to preserve the untainted bloodline. She’d held them off by being on her best behavior, but if she went home now and they didn’t banish her, she had no doubt they would force her into the pairing.

Nathan’s face was right in hers. “Are you alright?”

She forced herself to nod. He’d done enough for her already, as it was. He was a fixer, but there was nothing he could fix about her life.

He studied her for a long moment, then nodded, said good-bye to his sister and his niece, and before Katenia could say her farewells too, he’d scooped her up and was carrying her out the door.

She shifted and frowned at him as the apartment door closed behind them. “I’m not going to learn to walk if you keep carrying me everywhere.”

His massive shoulders lifted in a shrug. “No need for you to learn if we’re just going to turn you back into a fairy.”

She couldn’t argue with that logic. She’d worry later about what would happen if his aunt couldn’t change her. She had more confusing things to think about at the moment.

“Nathan?”

“Yes?”

“Do humans ever mate for life?”

“We can,” he said, dropping his gaze to her face for the barest moment as they reached the sidewalk, “but it rarely lasts a lifetime.” He started across the traffic. “What about fairies?”

“Why did you kiss me?”

He hesitated in the middle of the road and frowned at her. “Are you changing the subject?”

“No. I just, when I said primal earlier—”

He cut her off. “Please stop talking about it.”

“I would if you would listen to me.” His gaze snapped to her, his hand frozen on the handle of the vehicle door. She nodded once and smiled at him. “Thank you. When you were kissing me, it felt like you were trying to stake your primal claim on me.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked as he opened her door and set her in the seat without looking at her again. “You’re mistaken. Humans don’t do that.”

“I didn’t think so,” she muttered, confusion lacing her words, “and fairies don’t usually, either, but…”

He hesitated. “But, what?”

“It can happen, and I know what I felt.” She sucked in a low breath and met his gaze before she could change her mind and hide the truth. “It would be a very bad idea, Nathan. For both of us.”

His expression went dark as he jerked his head in a nod. “Then it’s a damn good thing I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snapped, and slammed her door shut.

* * * *

As he stalked around his car, Nathan was so pathetically grateful for the seconds to get his emotions under control he could have kissed the damn ground. He was a terrible fucking liar, and if he would've had to face her for another heartbeat, she’d have seen the truth in his eyes.