Haunted By Her Dragon (The Dragon Guard Series) (4 page)

As
he braced his hands on the frame of her car and leaned in to take a look, she
spoke, “Do you live around here?”

He
loved the sound of her voice. It was a little lower than most women’s and
smoky. He longed to hear it whispered in his ear while he tasted and explored
her silken skin with his hands buried deep in her long brown curls, feeling her
body moving against his. He took a deep breath to rein in his wayward thoughts
and focused on the gorgeous woman in front of him. He had noticed the curiosity
with a bit of suspicion in her voice and knew he would have to tread very
lightly. His Samantha was a smart cookie, and from what he had seen, she was
also as tenacious as a bulldog. There was no way she was going to let the
subject drop until she was satisfied with the answers her gave her and he
decided honesty was the best policy,  but that did not mean he had to tell
her
everything
.

“Not
far, I just like to ride out here in the open.” He pointed at his Harley.
“Riding in the city with all the buildings, people, and stoplights, takes all
the fun out of it.” He glanced over his shoulder and saw that she was seriously
considering what he’d just told her while she moved a few steps away from him
and her car. Within a few seconds, he recognized that she had decided he was
being honest. Her shoulders relaxed, and the lines that had been bracketing her
intense, dark eyes disappeared. Missing the sound of her voice already, he
asked, “You live out this way?” Even though he already knew the answer to the
question, he had to try to protect his secrets.

“Yeah,
not too far, just over the next hill at the edge of the woods,” she answered.
As she started walking back towards him, he was sure that the earth tilted on
its axis. The way her long legs stretched out in front of her, the slight sway
of her hips, and her hair blowing in the wind, made him take another deep
breath just too keep from grabbing her and kissing her until neither one
remembered where they were. Just as he was about to turn away, the wind changed
direction and his entire being was filled with the scent of jasmine and
honeysuckle. He inhaled long and deep, fighting to keep his eyes open. Her
scent was absolutely intoxicating. He felt his dragon roll over and purr from
just a whiff. He snapped his head back towards the engine and prayed that she
hadn’t noticed his odd behavior; because there was absolutely no explanation
his lust-fogged brain could conjure.

Deciding
he needed to think of anything
but
the alluring woman at his side, he
turned, poking around her engine. It didn’t take long to find the problem. “How
long has it been since you had a tune up? These spark plug wires look beat to
hell, and your engine coil is most likely shot, too.”

He
heard her feet shuffle in the gravel and couldn’t resist looking up. A slight
blush covered the apples of her cheeks and she was worrying her bottom lip with
her teeth, making him once again have to resist the temptation to pull her
close. He waited while she worked up the nerve to answer his question. “Well,
would it surprise you if I said I just
can’t
remember?” She hurried on,
and he listened, loving her voice more with every word. “I know I had the oil
changed like eight or nine months ago, and I think I remember them saying
something about there being more work I needed to get done, but honestly, I
wasn’t paying attention. I’d just been called from the hospital. See, I’m a
doctor, well almost a doctor, and I’d been called back into work, so I just
paid them and left. I know this car is old, and I try to keep up with the
maintenance, but I work some pretty crazy hours and sometimes I forget to get
things done.” She paused to take a breath, and his hands itched with the need
to reach out and tip her head up so that he could look into her eyes while she
scrambled to explain the disrepair of her car, but he knew if he touched her
right now, she would most likely slap his face, so he waited for her to
continue.

“I
know I should’ve gotten a newer car, but I really only go from my house to the
hospital and back again, and I was hoping to keep this one running at least
another year while I finish my residency. Then when I get a better paying
position, I can start paying off my school loans and get better
transportation.” She stopped abruptly, gasped, and speared him with her big
brown eyes.

“And
I have no idea why I just told you all of that. I’m so sorry.” She blushed
again, and he had to tuck his thumbs in his pockets to keep from touching her.
This woman packed a powerful punch, and he wanted her more than he had ever
wanted anyone or anything in all of his one hundred and twelve years. Just when
he was sure he would lose his mind from trying to resist the gorgeous woman
standing before him, the most amazing thing happened. She smiled right at him.
With that one small act, he knew without a doubt why his Commander acted like a
crazy man and Aidan acted like a lovesick puppy after finding their mates. He
had no doubt that he would move heaven and earth to see that very smile every
day of his life, and if all else failed, he would stand on his head or
twerk
with
Miley
Cyrus. Whatever
it took, he would do it just to see her smile.

“Is
she dead?” she asked, and for the first time he realized she had a slight
southern accent. Nothing like
Kyndel
, his Commander’s
mate, but it was there, nonetheless

He
cleared his throat and chuckled to hide his reaction, “She? Your car’s a girl?”

Again
her cheeks colored, and he wondered if she blushed all the time. Then he prayed
it was only for him because he was sure he would kill any other man that ever
made her blush. 
WHOA! Where the hell did that come from?
He
quickly shoved all murderous thoughts aside. Sam was talking again, and he
didn’t want to miss a word coming from those kissable lips.

“Yep!
Her name is Bonnie Blue.” She said with pride, and he could not stop the grin
that spread across his face.
Damn!
She was really something else.

He
bit the inside of his cheeks as he was sure she would
not
appreciate him
laughing at her choice of names for her car.
“Bonnie Blue,
huh?”
She nodded her head, and he could tell she was waiting for him to
tease her, but he moved on. “Nope, she’s not dead, but she’s not going anywhere
tonight. I don’t have the parts or the tools to fix her with me right now.”

“Well,
shit!” She gasped as her hand flew to cover her mouth. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t
have said that.”

Lance
laughed out loud. The longer he laughed the more relaxed Sam became, until she
was laughing right along with him. “
Darlin
’, you have
absolutely nothing to be sorry about. I’ve heard worse.
Hell
, I’ve said
worse,” he said still laughing, but now he was using it as a cover to listen to
her laughter. She didn’t have the tiny, tinkling, little laugh most women had.
His Sam had a full laugh that filled the evening air. The kind of laugh that
made other people
want
in on the joke so they could
laugh right along with her.
Mental note:
keep his Sam smiling and
laughing as much as possible
.
And there it was again,
His Sam,
and thoughts of keeping her happy. What the hell was he doing? He wanted her
more every second of every day even though he knew it was not the right time.
There was no way he would take chances with her safety. It was time for him to
get his head out of his ass and catch that little fucker, Andrew. Then he could
be with Sam.

As
their laughing died down, she started looking at the ground again and shifting
from one foot to the other. He could tell something other than her car was
bothering her. “Don’t worry about your car…
er
I mean
Bonnie Blue. I’ll get her fixed right up.”

“It’s
not that. It’s just that I let my Triple A membership lapse, so now I’m going
to have to call a tow truck, and everyone that I know is working tonight, so
I’ll have to walk home.” She turned and started back towards her car.

Before
he could think about what he was doing, he reached out and touched her arm. The
electricity that flew between them went straight to his cock, and his mind was
flooded with images of their bodies intertwined and sweaty while he tasted
every inch of her lovely golden skin. It was all he could do to keep from
falling at her feet and begging her to be his. He did everything in his power
to regain control, to keep himself and his dragon in line, as he withdrew his
hand and said, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll have my
bre
...brothers
come and pick
her
up, and I’ll take you home. You aren’t scared to ride
a Harley are you?” He wiggled his eyebrows and was graced with another of her
dazzling smiles, while all he could think about was what it would feel like to
have her wrapped around him while they rode to her home. Oh
hell
, he was
totally fucked.

CHAPTER TWO

She had tried every
argument she could think of, but nothing seemed to get through Lance’s thick
skull. He was bound and determined to have his brothers pick up her car and
that he be the one to take her home. She even tried calling Charlie, the only
person she could really call a
friend,
but the nurse that answered the
phone on the surgical floor said she was assisting with another appendectomy.
They seemed to be running a special on those lately. It was either ride on the
back of the motorcycle of the guy that had haunted damn near every thought
she’d had for  seven months, or walk the almost ten miles home. It wasn’t
that she couldn’t walk it, but she had been at work for thirty hours, hadn’t
gotten much sleep the night before, and was basically being held up by the
sexual tension that seemed to jump between her and her now two-time rescuer.
When he had touched her shoulder, the electric current that ran through her
body and landed in her pussy was potent enough to light the entire metropolitan
area. Her panties were immediately wet and her knees went weak. She was sure he
felt it too. His eyes had widened and his nostrils had flared, but he quickly
schooled his features and went on to help her with her current situation. She
was sure she had seen him sniff the air and then smile, but that had to be her
imagination. Otherwise, the man that headlined the best erotic dreams of her
life was in need of a psych evaluation.

His
brothers arrived a short time later, and she damn near lost it. They were the
biggest and best looking guys she had ever seen. Not as good looking as Lance,
but she knew loads of women that would let those beefcakes eat crackers in
their beds
anytime
. She kept looking from man to man, searching for
physical attributes that they might share. He had said they were brothers, but
she saw nothing at all to indicate that they shared any genetic material. As a
matter of fact, the tall red-headed one,
well hell
, she decided she
should call a spade a spade, the carrot-topped
giant
was in no way
genetically related to Lance, but she guessed they were just really close
friends. He had said his name was Royce, and from the way they bickered and
worked together like a well-oiled machine, she could see that they had known
each other a very long time. She’d had a few people like that in her life. It
was shame she had lost touch with them, but they still held a special place in
her heart; without them, she would have never survived foster care before Momma
Maybelle
came along.

“Look,
you pain in the ass, I’m telling you to move the hell out of the way and let me
secure the car to the trailer,” Royce was growling through gritted teeth.

“Okay,
Old Man, I was just trying to help,” Lance answered and then looked at her and
winked. She’d never noticed it before, but from this angle, she could see that
he had a little dimple in his cheek that seemed to wink right along with his
amazing blue eyes. On anyone else, she would have said it was cute, but on that
beautifully masculine face, it just made her want to kiss it to see if it
tasted as good as it looked.

“You
better get your ass
outta
the way, Lance. You know
the old guy has a short fuse these days.” She looked up, surprised that the
quiet one that had barely said ‘Hi’ when they arrived was actually talking. The
longer she looked at him, the more she realized that just like the giant, there
was no way the tall, lean drink of water with light gray eyes, olive skin, and
hair so black it shined, was related by blood to the muscular, tanned,
blonde-haired, blue-eyed man that was her infatuation.

“
Royce’ll
be fine, Dev. He just needs to blow off some
steam. Since I haven’t been around the
lai
…I
mean…home much lately, he hasn’t had anyone to argue with. Isn’t that right,
Grandpa
?”
She watched as Lance slapped the big man on the back so hard she would have
sworn he had dislocated his shoulder.

“Why
don’t you two knuckleheads do something besides irritate me? Go over to the
other side of the trailer and make sure everything is secure.” Royce sounded
gruff, but she picked up on the affection they had for each other.