Chapter 6 #3
“Good. There are also a few beings that are even more rare, things like the creature you call the mothman—it’s more like a harbinger of death and destruction.
The Loch Ness monster is real too, but it’s really only one of an entire species.
There are a few dozen of those around the world in rivers, lakes, and inland seas.
Again, like I said, it doesn’t make sense that some random priest in the Middle East around five or six thousand years ago created all these things.
I mean, how the hell would those guys have gotten a sasquatch into Canada or a big lake monster into Scotland?
” I shook my head. “Nah. My theory is we’ve all always been here, evolving right beside you guys,” I said, as I dressed my own waffles.
When I looked back up, Shyanne was chewing slowly and staring at me.
“You know, this is the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had in my life,” she said after swallowing.
“This is real, right? Like, you didn’t knock me out with a wrench in the garage, and I’m still lying there, dreaming all this, right? ”
Taking a chance, I reached out and very gently pinched her bicep. “Does that feel real?”
She glanced at her arm and smiled ruefully. “I guess so.” Putting her fork down, she ran a hand through her hair. “Okay, back to the main issue. This fucking car. You need it fixed.”
“And fast. He gave me three days.” I glanced at my watch. “I’ve got two days left. Do you think we can do it?”
She sighed. “It’s gonna take some specialty work. Plus, it’s not just the mirror and some paint scratches anymore either.”
“What?” Jerking my head up from my impromptu meal. “What do you mean?”
Shyanne glanced down at my hands. “You know you’ve got really sharp talons when you’re a dragon, right? You punched a bunch of holes in that suede roof upholstery. It’ll need to be replaced.”
“Shit.” I smacked the heel of my palm against my head. “That was so dumb. I should have realized it.
“Better than letting it fall into the river and get totaled.” She shrugged as she popped the last bite into her mouth. “And killing me along with it.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that would we?” I said and, taking a bit of a risqué chance, let my eyes traverse up and down her body. “It’s rather lovely. I wouldn’t want to mess that up.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes, but a flush crept up her neck and cheeks even with her dark complexion.
“You’re a smooth talker, aren’t you?” she said, pushing her plate aside and leaning on her elbows again.
“What? You think revealing yourself to be some rich magical being will get me to throw caution to the wind? Huh? Lie back on the bed, rip my shirt open, spread my legs and say come and get it, daddy?”
As she spoke those words, a movie played in my mind of that exact thing. Her fingers grasping fabric and wrenching it open. Small but shapely breasts erupting from beneath the shirt, dark nipples hard against the cool air. Lower body fully unclothed, her legs easing open to reveal—
“Oh my god.” She laughed and tossed her napkin at me. “You were totally picturing that!”
“No I wasn’t,” I said, doing my best to sound both aloof and unburdened by the accusation. I finished my bite and put both plates in the sink. “Sounds like you might be projecting a bit on me.”
Her eyes opened wider in mock indignation. “I’m sorry, did the sexy monster man say I’m imagining him naked?”
“Hmm.” I winked at her. “So, you do think I’m sexy.”
Her face flushed again, and she tore her eyes from mine. “I didn’t say that.”
“No, I heard it. ‘Sexy monster man’. You can’t deny it now.” I was strangely pleased that she found me attractive. My inner dragon growled happily, and it drew me even more to this woman. This human.
She stared at me, our eyes connected in a way that acted almost like physical touch, a simmer of heat brewing with each second that passed by.
For the barest fraction of a second, I contemplated the most outlandish thought possible, and thought about asking her up to the bedroom with me.
I’d known her for less than two hours, and for ten minutes of that, she’d done her damnedest to injure me.
My balls still ached, but there was a certain activity that might help cure that pain.
As quickly as those thoughts appeared, I pushed them away. I was a gentleman, for God’s sake. I wouldn’t allow my hormones to overtake my mind. There were important things at stake here, not the least of which was my sister’s life.
Shyanne seemed to sense the change in me, because her face softened and lost some of that sensual depth.
“So, like we were saying… the car.”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah. The car. We’ll need to fix the roof upholstery too, I guess.”
“You said these guys needed it back in mint condition, right?” Shyanne asked.
“Yup.”
“Then, that’s a problem. The mirror is easy—we get that at the local dealership. My guys can mix the paint. The upholstery is a different story. Dealerships won’t have reams of that stuff on hand. It’ll be a special order. Might take three days to a week to get it in.”
“Shit,” I hissed, banging my fist on the counter in frustration.
“Hang on,” she said, holding a hand out to calm me down. “There is another option.”
“I’ll take anything you got,” I said, sighing, and despite my early warning to myself, I mimicked her stance on the counter and leaned in close, hungry to be near her, to smell her and look into her eyes.
“There’s a guy who owns a tuner shop on the other side of town. He’s mostly in the aftermarket business. Especially interiors, audio-visual systems, accent lights, upholstery, custom displays—the works.”
“You think he’ll have this stuff?” I asked, hope creeping past the disappointment.
“Most likely, yeah. All the big names go there to get their stuff tricked out. He does a shit ton of business, so he’d have tons of things like that on hand. He’s done cars for NBA, NFL, and MLB players, rappers, rock stars, country stars…”
I detected a hint of annoyance in her tone. “You don’t like this guy.”
She blew out a disgusted breath. “That’s putting it mildly.”
“Spill it. I need the whole story if I’m going to agree to anything.”
Shyanne weighed that, and finally shrugged. “My shop hasn’t been doing so great the last few years. In fact, it’s because of that out there,” she said, pointing her thumb at the door and the Lamborghini beyond.
“I’m lost. What’s the problem?” I frowned at her.
“In a twist of fate God himself would marvel at, your car owner’s dad used to give us a ton of business, but when he retired and left the business to his kid, that dried up.
There were some other things too, but that was the big one.
We’ve been on a downward slide ever since.
This other shop has been wanting to expand and branch out from doing custom interiors to under the hood and bodywork as well.
He’s offered to buy me out three times in the last eighteen months.
He’s a dipshit who doesn’t know a pair of pliers from a screwdriver.
The guy’s great with other stuff, but I wouldn’t trust him to change my fucking oil.
Plus, he’s offering bargain basement prices. ”
I nodded. I knew enough about business to see the guy’s angle. “He doesn’t want the hassle of finding real estate and retrofitting it. He wants something turnkey.”
“Bingo. He hopes to swoop in and yank the shop from me for pennies on the dollar and come out ahead.”
“What’s the play, then?” I asked. “By now, Alessio Torrence has probably reported the car stolen. I can’t very well pull it into that shop. It’ll be impounded in a minute, and I’ll go to jail.”
“I distract the guy.” She flashed me a cocky grin. “I’ll call him, ask for a meeting.” She held up a finger. “I’ll make sure it’s either before or after work hours, and tell him I want to discuss the sale of my garage.”
“But you said—”
“I’m not actually selling,” she said. “It’s a distraction, so you can get in there and grab what you need and get out.”
“I don’t know what I need,” I said, sudden panic rising in my chest. “I don’t know the first thing about upholstery and colors or anything else.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, then licked her lips. “I can teach you.”
Again, my inner dragon pushed me further than I would normally go.
“What else could you teach me?”
This time, she didn’t take her eyes from mine. She held my gaze long enough that the electric tension between us seemed to burst in the air around us like fireworks.
Then, when things felt like they’d reached a head, she leaned even closer, eyeing me speculatively.
“What does a dragon do for fun?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Shyanne took a deep breath, pulling the air into her lungs, then turned away, obviously doing her best to not think about the same things I was trying not to think about.
Some strange connection had bound us, a sexual energy fed back and forth between us that both she and I noticed.
If we hadn’t been in a life-or-death situation, I might have tried to make a move, to see if she wanted what I wanted.
I’d never been one for one-night-stands or to jump into bed with someone I just met, but…
dear God, there was something about her.
I hungered for her—her scent, her look, her personality.
I’d never been this attracted to someone so quickly.
“I’ll put a call in to the guy tomorrow morning,” she said. “I’ll either need to use your phone or go back and get mine.”
“I can head back. I’ll get your phone and close up the shop door. I feel bad about leaving it open.”
She blinked at me in confusion. “You’d go all the way back there?”
I shrugged. “I can fly. I’ll probably be back in less than an hour. Where’s the phone?”
“Do you always play the white knight when you aren’t playing the bumbling car thief?”
“Whoa!” I said with a laugh. “Who said I was bumbling?”