I didn’t sleep at all.
Chapter Thirteen
Lindsey
Waking up in Brody’s strong arms, his body next to mine, feeling his warmth, had to be the best sensation I’d ever experienced. Without his presence, his arms around me, I know I wouldn’t have slept a single wink. When I lifted my head from his chest, drowsy, still half asleep, I saw him wide awake, smiling.
“You didn’t sleep at all.” I yawned around the accusation.
“’Fraid not. I hated to move you, but I have to get to work.”
“Okay.”
Rising to my elbow, I leaned over to kiss him. “Take the truck. I don’t think the neighbors should spend the day looking at it.”
“I already reached that conclusion.”
Brody rose from the bed, wearing only his shorts, catching my breath at his utter magnificence. He dressed quickly, tucking his big package into his jeans, not afraid to grin when I watched him do it. Sitting up, wearing my shirt and undies, I crossed my legs.
“Will Rivers come after me?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I don’t like leaving you alone.”
I nibbled my lip. “Maybe I’ll go somewhere for the day. Take my laptop, work from a café or the library.”
“A most excellent idea.”
Leaning his hands on the mussed bed, he kissed me. “Don’t shower, don’t eat, just grab your computer and go.”
“But I stink,” I protested.
“Better stinky than dealing with Rivers alone,” he said. “And you don’t stink.”
“Yeah, I do.”
I climbed from the bed and donned a fresh pair of jeans. I turned my back as I removed my shirt and put on a clean one. Not out of modesty, not completely. I didn’t want Brody to see my unsightly scar. In my office, I grabbed my laptop, its charging cord, my Ford’s smart key. I seized my purse just as Brody hustled me from my house.
“Eat along the way,” he ordered. “Don’t come back here unless I’m with you.”
“Okay.”
I gave him the keys to the truck, watched him drive away with the engine roaring. Only then, witnessed by neighbors or not, I got into the Ford and left my house. I didn’t see anyone watching from doors or driveways and wondered why I needed to be secretive.
“They need to mind their own damn business.”
***
I worked at an internet café in the downtown area, eating sweet rolls and drinking coffee. The place was quiet, subdued, other people working on their laptops even as I did. I fit right in.
Except for the bandages on my wrists.
My rope-torn skin burned with a fire that neither aspirin nor ibuprofen managed to put out. My typing movements pained them, but I had to make a living. I needed the income. Badly. I dared not let my thoughts of what I truly was interfere, but it did, anyway.
I’m a dragon. A fucking, flying, fire breathing dragon.
How does one process the knowledge that one wasn’t human? That fire breathing dragons do indeed exist, and one is, er, one of them? Everything I’d ever thought about myself had been tossed into turmoil. My parents? They had to be dragons. Did they not know? Is that why they never passed that information to me?
Pausing in my work, I gazed into space, wondering if I should e-mail them.Hey, Mom and Dad! How the hell are ya? I’m a dragon shifter, I found it out the hard way. You guys are dragons, too. How about we all take a flight?
