Dragon Craving Read online

  “Why do I get the feeling if I say yes you’re going to drop me on the ground?”

  Rowe grinned, making her insides twist into knots even as they filled with heat and happiness. What was it about this man that he could take her from zero to sixty in the snap of his fingers?

  “I would never drop you,” he purred, his eyes glancing down to where his arm was tucked securely across her upper back. “As you can see in exhibit A.”

  “Considering it was your ridiculous announcement of your presence that put me into this predicament, I’d say you’re still hovering around neutral. You didn’t gain any points for this.”

  “Hmm. Well, what would get me points?”

  “Having breakfast made. Or coffee. Coffee would be good about now.”

  “Sorry, fresh out. But I have something else that might wake you up.”

  “Dark roast?”

  He rolled his eyes. “No, silly. This.”

  Then he kissed her.

  Cheryl’s eyes went wide for a moment, stunned by his forwardness. Then, when she realized she was staring at his forehead, she pulled them shut. Her lips, on the other hand, had no such performance issues and were moving against his all on their own. He was a good kisser. Strong, aggressive, but without the overuse of tongue and strength that was all too common in men. He kissed her hard and passionately, but while he toed the line, he never crossed it, which was all it took to drive her wild.

  She wanted to wrap her arms around him by instinct, but they were folded over her chest and held in place by his body as he leaned over her.

  It was good. If it weren’t for another call from her body, she might have just let him continue. But the urgent demand couldn’t be ignored any longer. She needed to answer it, and now. With more regret than she would have expected if someone told her what was about to happen ahead of time, she tilted her head downward, breaking the kiss. Surprised at her heavy breathing, she took a moment to suck in the air necessary to speak.

  “Can you stand me up?”

  He did, gingerly, then backed away quickly.

  “Relax,” she said with a wave. “It was good. You…wow. I’m still not sure how I feel about it having happened, but yeah, whew.” She waved her hand across her face, simulating heat. “There’s just one problem.”

  Rowe’s face fell. “You’re taken. Oh God. Cheryl, I apologize, I didn’t know. I judged by your flirting that you were single and interested in me and—”

  “Coffee,” she said, not feeling the politeness that might normally be used at such a time. “I need coffee.”

  “Oh.” He darted across the kitchen and slapped the machine on. Clearly he’d had it ready to go again.

  Maybe there was a benefit to keeping him around. Now if only he could be taught to turn it on when he heard her leave her room so it was almost ready when she got downstairs. That would be the best Christmas miracle she could imagine.

  They waited in awkward silence until the cup was done. Shoving some sugar and probably too much cream into her cup she swirled it around, trying to figure out what had just happened. A few sips later she had it.

  “That was a one-time thing,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “Payment for saving me from the embarrassment and pain of falling on my ass. We’ll ignore the fact it’s your fault, since you’re a good kisser.”

  Rowe was biting his lip, but when she looked at him expectantly he nodded.

  Her eyes moved from where he stood to the table. A chair was pushed halfway across the room, and the newspaper—since when did they get newspapers delivered?!—had clearly fallen, not been set down. Cheryl looked back and forth again from the table to the doorway that led to the stairs. It was an awful long way…

  “How did you get there so quickly?” she asked. “I didn’t even hear you move after you shouted my name at the top of your lungs.”

  “You were probably busy freaking out and falling,” he suggested.

  “Maybe.” She moved around him, snagged the chair and sat at the table, cupping the coffee mug in both hands, letting the warmth seep into her skin. “I shouldn’t have even done that. I’m just so stressed with everything going on here.” She closed her jaw abruptly.

  Opening up to Rowe was not the answer. He had already crossed the line from friend and coworker to…something more, and she hadn’t disliked it. This was going to be trouble. Cheryl should have just told him from the start that he wasn’t coming to work for her. Now things were going to be awkward. She was going to have to pretend like he hadn’t kissed her. Ugh.

  “You look a little stressed,” Rowe agreed, moving behind her.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Helping you relax,” he murmured, his hands landing on her shoulders.

  “Rowe, no, I…Oohh.” Strong fingers dug into the knots under her skin, sliding easily across the muscles and immediately relieving some of the tension.

  “Wow, you are tight.”

  Her brain twisted those words into something decidedly less appropriate. Clamping her lips together she just nodded, not trusting her voice or even any sounds she might make. She should be telling him to stop. To take his wonderful hands off her shoulders. But she couldn’t form the words, because each time she built up some strength he “hmmmed” at her, and worked a different area. It was like the thought of pushing him away made her tense up.

  That made no sense. Was she supposed to let him get closer to her? How did accomplishing the major job that lay before her become less stressful if she also had to deal with a budding romantic…whatever this was?

  True, she did feel safer with him around. When they had been out on the perimeter the afternoon before and he’d mentioned wolves, his presence back on the ATV had calmed her almost instantly. Then there was the way he’d caught her just this morning, as if sweeping her off her feet, before delivering an ultra-cheesy line that somehow still fit the situation! Cheryl hadn’t even blinked when he’d said that and then kissed her.

  Hell, she’d loved it.

  This was just too complicated.

  “Stop it,” he growled in that masculine tone of voice that no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t emulate when she needed it.

  “Stop what?”

  “Whatever you’re doing to tense up. Just sit there and let me work. You need it.”

  Okay. If he insisted. Glancing at the time, she made a mental estimate. “Okay, but only if you promise to stop in fifteen minutes.”

  Rowe coughed. “I’m continuing for another fifteen minutes am I?”

  Cheryl didn’t reply. She was too busy sinking into the moment, letting his fingers relieve stress that had likely been building for longer than she could recall.

  All at once it was over. She sat up, blinked, and realized to her dismay that the whole fifteen minutes was over. That had gone by far too fast.

  “Damn. Already?” she moaned, heaving herself to her feet with a sigh. “Okay, well, let’s get ready then.” She took a long sip of coffee. It had cooled to a bit below what she preferred by that time, but it was still drinkable.

  “I’m ready. What’s the plan for today?” he asked eagerly.

  “Today is going to be stressful. The first group of laborers are arriving to start putting things back into working order. So we’ll have to divvy them up, and then supervise to make sure stuff gets done the way we want it to.”

  Rowe nodded. “Got it. I guess I’ll come along as the hired muscle today, to keep them in line?”

  She laughed, nodding along. Outwardly it was all about humor.

  Inwardly though, she was thankful for him just then. Rowe might have all the faith in the world in her to get the job done, but the farmhands would have no such belief. She was more than a little worried to discover how they might react to knowing they not only had a woman as a boss, but one who’d never run a project this large before.

  She feared she would need Rowe’s muscles before it was all over.

  Chapter Seven

  Rowe<
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  “That was impressive.”

  Cheryl didn’t reply. When he finally glanced over to see why not, he found her blushing furiously.

  “What? It was.”

  “Thank you.”

  Rowe just bobbed his head, keeping his steps slow and measured so that he didn’t outpace the much shorter Cheryl. They were walking across the grounds, having just come back from inside the ranch for a few minutes so that she could write things down.

  The farmhands had arrived just as she’d said. Around twenty of them, trickling in by ones and twos in vehicles that now occupied much of the available parking. The sounds of people talking and power tools now came from the various buildings as they got right to work.

  It was starting to come alive.

  Rowe had stood back and watched Cheryl work. She’d waited until the last of the laborers had checked in before starting her introduction speech. He’d been startled to hear his name called during it, but figured since he was now up to his elbows in helping out, it made sense. After all, with Palin gone he was the one in charge of anything that was outside of Cheryl’s jurisdiction.

  Other than that brief moment where he was required to wave, he hadn’t done a damn thing. Any worries Cheryl might have had about the workers not respecting her had gone out the window. People innately understood when someone in charge knew what they were talking about, and Cheryl most definitely did. They’d dispersed into teams with a minimum of grumbling and started unloading their tools.

  Now they were going to make the rounds and see what they had dug up. Both of them were positive that all sorts of problems were going to be presented today. Until then nobody had done a thorough inspection of all the buildings, just a cursory overview. Once the workers started pulling things apart and seeing what was underneath all the dust and rust, they were going to see how big a project it was.

  Rowe had a feeling it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “Where to first?” he asked.

  She pointed off to the left. “The barns.”

  “Lead on,” he teased, earning him a reproachful glare from two very stressed-looking eyes. “Hey, it’s going to be fine. You’re doing a bang-up job.”

  “It’s not me that I’m worrying about right now. It’s the scope of the job. There is a lot of work that needs to get done around here, Rowe. I’m worried about not getting it all finished in time for the spring. I promised Palin I would.”

  “Oh.”

  “See, I can tell by your response. Even you think it’s unlikely to happen.”

  He winced. Had he really given away that much with one word? “We’ll get it done,” he said, hoping it didn’t sound like entirely empty words.

  Cheryl’s only response was a disinterested shrug of her shoulders. There was no need for more words; they both understood the near futility of trying to predict something five months or so in the future.

  The barn doors were open this time around and Cheryl walked right in. He paused for a moment outside, watching her go, letting her enter alone. The workers needed to know she was the boss, not him. He had no idea what was needed or not needed. She was doing a superb job as far as his limited knowledge knew, and he wanted her to know that he believed in her as well.

  Strolling in a handful of seconds later his eyes adjusted immediately. This barn had been used for storage, and there were still bales of hay lying around. Even as he watched the work crew assigned to the barn was testing out the bale lift, trying to get one of the old bales down as they cleared out the barn.

  “Easy does it,” the lead hand said, directing his pair of workers as they tried to swing the lift out over the empty floor. “She’s not in good shape. We need to be gentle with it.”

  Everything looked well in hand, so he kept walking.

  “Stop!”

  Something snapped and the loaded bale lift began to swing wildly as the already-frayed guide rope gave way entirely. Rowe watched from safety.

  “Well, I think that’s done for, don’t you?” he asked.

  When Cheryl didn’t respond he glanced down, only to see her backing away nervously from the center of the open area. Had she not stopped to watch? Rowe lurched into action, intending to usher her to safety, just in case.

  “LOOK OUT!” the lead hand shouted as the rope holding the bale of hay started to let go. It was wound so tightly from the spinning lift that the old strands couldn’t take the stresses anymore and were parting with alarming frequency.

  If they gave way, the entire thing would plummet to the floor. Right on top of Cheryl.

  He exploded into action, moving forward with blistering speed just as the entire contraption snapped and gave way, hurtling toward the floor. It was a race between the killer hay bale and Rowe’s dragon speed.

  Dragon speed won by a hair, and he shielded her with his body as they leapt out of the way.

  He grunted as his shoulder was clipped by the corner of the wooden lift itself, sending him spinning. Wisely he let go of Cheryl, who was now safe. She tumbled to the ground with a yelp, but was otherwise unharmed.

  Rowe was slammed down so hard he bounced back up off the ground and then kept rolling as his momentum took him into one of the horse stalls. He lay there wincing in pain while trying frantically to get himself to calm down. As part of his dragon defenses scaled armor had risen to the surface of his skin, preventing him from suffering any real harm.

  The protection was welcome, but if he couldn’t get himself to calm down now, they wouldn’t go away. The last thing he needed was for anyone, especially Cheryl, to learn of his secret. He had every intention of telling her of course, but there was a difference between him revealing it to her at a time of his choosing, and being found out simply because an idiot worker hadn’t done a proper job of checking the quality of the ropes before using them.

  “Rowe?” Cheryl came climbing frantically into the stall, practically lunging for him. “Oh no. Rowe, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he said, getting to his feet and dusting himself off as the scales finally slid back under the skin of his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Miss Payne?” the lead hand came down the ladder, moving faster than any human Rowe had ever seen.

  Someone knew they were in deep shit. Although he wanted nothing more than to tear a strip off the man, he decided that perhaps it would be better to step back and let Cheryl do it. The burning in her eyes, turning them from a mild blue into something electric and dangerous, told him she had it under control.

  “Explain yourself,” she snapped, wheeling on the man. “Who was in charge of inspecting the ropes?”

  “This is my worksite,” the lead hand said. “I’m in charge of everything. I…” He fell silent.

  “Go ahead. Say your piece,” Cheryl told him, her posturing never relaxing.

  “I was going to say that we weren’t overly concerned about it, because we knew it was only us in here.”

  “Except it wasn’t just you.”

  “I know. Either way, it’s my fault,” he insisted.

  Despite his earlier desire to tear the man’s arm off and beat him with it, Rowe felt a grudging respect forming. Judging by the man’s words, he wasn’t the one who had been tasked to check the ropes. As the lead hand for this area though, it was his responsibility when the worker in charge didn’t do as he was told. His stubborn refusal to blame it on someone else was winning him points from Rowe, and apparently Cheryl as well.

  “I take it you know you screwed up?” she said quietly.

  “Badly, ma’am.”

  Cheryl thought about it for a moment, tapping her jaw. “How do you normally handle mistakes…?”

  “James, ma’am. I normally handle them by dealing with the cause, and correcting procedures so that it or anything like it doesn’t happen again.”

  “I see. And what would you do in this case?”

  “In this case I would do several things, including checking t
he ropes myself, having someone appointed to keep the area down here clear, and taking our time about it all.”

  Cheryl nodded. “Very well, James. Back to work then. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that you don’t get another mistake, but I will anyway. Fix your mistake, and show me that you can learn from it.”

  “I will, ma’am.” The lead hand paused, but Cheryl was already turning away from him. Realizing he was dismissed, he took off.

  “That was…very well done,” Rowe remarked from where he had taken up a spot on the back wall. He’d watched his mate properly discipline the lead man before making him into a staunch supporter of hers, all while ensuring safety violations like that never happened again under his watch.

  “What do you mean?”

  He pushed off the wall, tugging her arm so that she followed along until they were outside the barn. Having an inkling of what was going to happen inside, he pulled the door closed behind them with a casual tug of his arm. No sooner had it crashed shut did someone start yelling. Rowe grinned as he heard the lead hand use an interesting command of the English language to explain his feelings toward whoever had screwed up.

  “Do you plan on explaining anytime soon?” Cheryl asked.

  “Just the way you handled that. Many people would have gone apeshit, lost their temper and fired the man on the spot, even if it wasn’t his responsibility.”

  “It was his responsibility,” Cheryl countered. “He was the one I assigned to lead that project. Even if another worker was supposed to check the ropes. That’s why I kept pushing him, to see if he would accept it or eventually cave. He didn’t, so I gave him another chance.”

  “I know. I’m just saying that you’re an excellent leader.”

  You would make a great dragon. The thought stuck with him.

  Why was it that she couldn’t just make a good human? Was it the many years of hatred of all things human that he’d been taught rearing its head? Forcing Rowe to think of his mate as lacking unless she exhibited dragon traits? It wasn’t like being a good leader was something unique to dragons.