Billionaire Dragon's Mate: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Dragon Romance Nove (4 page)

“Again,” the mystery man said, throwing some bills on the counter.

“No, man, I don’t think you should be drinking with me. And in any case, I don’t need you to buy for me,” Ruby said, glancing at him from under lowered lashes.

His reddish-brown hair fell slightly on his forehead, and it looked so soft that she just wanted to run her fingers through it. Probably not a good idea. Unless she wanted to get his ass kicked by Cable & Co.

“Let me decide what I want to do, hmm, sugar?” he said, and the way he purred the last word made the hairs on the back of her arm stand up in excitement.

Where was he when she was looking for her adventure, huh? Ruby could bet he wouldn’t want to wed her to prove a point!

You really need to improve your taste in men, Ruby. Like, take this guy. He’d likely piss dad off
and
he wouldn’t sell you to the Mexicans if you got on his nerves. Best of both worlds.

She grinned at the thought. Though, as things stood, she thought she had learned her lesson. Better to toe the line a little than actually cross it and end up in a mess like this. And all for what? To rebel a little? She was a grown-ass woman for heaven’s sake! With a degree in medicine to boot! She didn’t need to be running around, making a fool of herself in skirts far too tight and with men far too idiotic to tolerate for more than an evening. But, as ever, all of those realizations came to her a tad bit too late.

“I’m not your sugar,” she retorted absently, receiving the shot from Joe.

He paused long enough that she had to look at him to see if he’d heard. He wasn’t paying attention at all; instead he had turned around and was leaning against the counter with his elbows, scanning the room. Ruby narrowed her eyes a little. He wasn’t just casually observing – like a bored man at a dreary bar. No, there was purpose to him. His gaze was calculating, strict, even though that twinkle of amusement in them could have fooled most onlookers.

A mystery man…

“Did you hear me?” she asked, cocking a well-groomed brow at him.

He met her gaze, and that despicable smirk was back on his lips.

“I did. I don’t agree.”

“Don’t agree with what?”

“I think you
are
my sugar, sugar. But we can argue about that later. In private. How does that sound?”

He spun around and grabbed his drink, clinking it against hers.

“I think you sound suicidal!” Ruby said, but she couldn’t keep the laughter from her voice. Hey, every court needed a daring jester, right?

“Could very well be.” They kicked back the tequila, and Ruby made a bit of a face as the bitter liquid went down.

When she looked up, he was suddenly so much closer. Ruby gasped as he leant in, smelling like a woodsy fire and black coffee. It filled her lungs, and for a crazy moment, she didn’t want it to stop.

“Get out of here while I distract them. I’ll find you,” he whispered, already receiving scalding looks from the people around them.

“Who are you?” Ruby asked, trying to find her breath again.

“Cillian. But you can call me whatever you want, sugar,” he said, grinning like a fiend.

She loved it. Next thing she knew, Cillian’s hand was on her cheek, pushing her chin up a little, and then his lips were on hers. She murmured in surprise, but the small noise quickly turned into a moan as her eyes fluttered closed and she dipped forward to meet him. His lips were so soft, like they were meant to be against hers, and the kiss they shared was flawless – no awkward bumping or teeth gnashing together. Just perfection. Like they’d been doing it forever.

Her body heated up immediately, every nerve and fiber in her screaming to get closer to him. He was wrenched away from her just as her tongue slipped into his mouth. She saw him thrown across the floor of the bar and sliding several feet until he slammed into a crowd of onlookers.

“What the FUCK do you think you’re doing!?” Cable roared, red in the face and heaving with blinding rage.

“Cable, no!” Ruby managed to yelp, jumping out of her seat.

The kiss still lingered on her lips, and her eyes met Cillian’s, who was up on his feet like a flash of lightning. He hooked brass knuckles around his fists, inclining his head towards the back exit ever so slightly before turning his attention back to Cable. He grinned like a man possessed, the bikers around him roaring for Cable to cut his head off. There was no way he was going to get out of there in one piece.

“Shut up, woman,” Cable grunted, bringing up his fists. “If prettyboy here wants to throw down, we can throw down. I’m going to rip every limb straight off your body,” Cable snarled, and Ruby watched with quiet horror as Cable lunged towards his leaner, faster opponent.

Cillian sidestepped Cable easily, and the big biker pounded into the wall, a drowning snarl of anger following him.

Okay, so he can handle himself,
Ruby thought, her heart constricting with worry.

On the one hand, she would have loved to stay and watch Cable get his ass handed to him, but she needed to get out, now. Trying to attract as little attention as she could in the packed room, Ruby slunk past the bar and disappeared into a passageway lined with bathrooms. Just as she was stepping into the ladies room, she heard a sickening crunch and then a cacophony of surprised gasps.

“Is that all you got, pup? Sheesh, I thought I was hanging with REAL men here!” Ruby heard Cillian’s voice bellowing over the tin, and then a moment later, a loud crack echoed all the way to the corridor – the distinct sound of a table being crushed by two bodies crashing into it.

“Fucking hell,” Ruby muttered, locking the door behind her.

She kicked off her shoes and picked them up, stepping into a stall. Even getting on the toilet bowl was a precarious trick in her tight skirt. Without a second thought, she ripped up the side of her skirt and reached for the window above. Then, it was a simple matter of opening the old, rusted shut window, heaving herself up on the sill, shimmying through the opening that was just barely big enough for her ass to fit through and then tumbling gracelessly down into the trash under the window in the alleyway.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she said to herself, eyes searching around frantically to see if anyone had seen her.

The hooting and distant sounds of punches told her that everyone had something better to focus on than the boss’s girl making a break for it. Seeing as all directions were equally bad, she picked one and broke off in a run, hoping to put as much distance between herself and the bar as she possibly could before anyone noticed her missing.

Welcome to your funeral, Ruby.

CHAPTER FOUR

Ruby

It felt like she had been walking for hours. Her silver shoes dangled from her fingers and her red skirt clung wearily to her thighs, the high rip making her look more like a battered streetwalker than the sexy minx she had been going for. Soon, it would be sunrise, and she wasn’t exactly sure where she was walking to. Or whether or not she’d been walking for very long at all. Her first instinct had been to go home, hug her mother, receive the cussing of a lifetime from her father and deal with the jokes and jabs of her countless older brothers.

But the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to do it. This whole mess she had concocted for herself had begun with her wanting to step out of their massive shadow – the Accardo name being not so much an umbrella as an armored tank around her, keeping her from anything fun life had to offer.

So no, going home wasn’t an immediate option. But what else was there? She was determined not to use her credit cards (paid by for her father), and she only had maybe fifty bucks of cash in the deposit box she had stashed her stuff in. Her only real assets were her name, which was problematic as she knew, her medicine degree (though it’s worth was questionable, seeing as she had missed her last half year of interning because of her sudden need to find herself) and… well that was about it, really.

Ruby’s mouth was pressed into a hard line – a nervous tick she’d picked up from her father – as she trudged through the streets. An adventure she had certainly got, but whether it was the one she had wanted was yet to be seen. A part of her felt like a petulant child, wanting something so badly, and then when she received it, finding that it wasn’t what she desired at all. But what was it then? What was it that Ruby Accardo needed from life to make it worthwhile, to make it both exciting and meaningful at the same time?

Her train of thought was cut short by the sound of a bike revving its engine somewhere behind her. Out of instinct, she jumped further from the curb, whipping her head around to see who it was. She was certain it had to be Cable or one of his guys, finally having tracked her down. But unlike the heavy chromed, low choppers Cable’s crew rode, this one was a flashy, fast superbike. A Fireblade, she guessed.

You’ve been hanging around bikers for too long,
Ruby chided herself, though she relaxed seeing that it wasn’t an immediate danger to her.

The bike pulled up next to her and stopped, one strong, booted leg propping it up against the curb. Ruby frowned but stopped, her hands wrapped around her body. It was cold out, or at least cold enough to need more than a tiny top and a skimpy skirt for a nighttime trek.

The streetlight illuminated the man as he pulled off his black and green helmet, revealing Cillian’s tousled hair and familiar grin.

“It’s you!” she exclaimed, her surprise quickly morphing into worry.

He was sporting a nasty black eye and bruises on his neck, and the way he was holding himself a bit hunched over, told her trained eye the obvious story – he was badly hurt. Cable and his guys must have done a number on him.

“It is I!” he agreed with equal fervor.

He deposited his helmet behind him and handed her another helmet that had been strapped in behind him on the small seat.

“Put this on. This is no place for a lady to be traipsing around.” Ruby took the helmet uncertainly, holding the heavy thing in her hands. “Go on, put it on. I won’t leave you out on the street like this,” he urged, his emerald eyes weary but still so bright that she wished she could keep staring into them forever.

He gingerly peeled off his leather jacket and held that out for her as well. The yellowish light of the streetlamp licked at his strong arms and the flat, inviting plain of his chest. He had full sleeves of tattoos, all exquisite work, and she could spy a few more underneath his shirt. She wondered what else he was hiding. But as she admired his stunning body, she also noticed the trickle of blood that had seeped through his tee and the black and blue bruises popping all over him. She wouldn’t have been surprised to find him sporting a few broken ribs.

“You’re hurt,” she said matter-of-factly.

“You’re right. And if we continue this for very long, I’m going to be cold too. Now humor me, sugar, and put the helmet and the jacket on so you wouldn’t catch a cold and die on me, alright?” he said, dangling the jacket in front of her. She wouldn’t budge just yet though.

“Why should I come with you? And where the hell are you taking me anyway?”

His expression fell a little, and she wasn’t completely sure, but she thought she saw smoke rising from his nostrils for just a second.

“If it’s better than The Rusty Nail, do you really care?”

He made a compelling point. Damn him. And his sexy arms. She pulled his jacket on, and the warmth hugged her like a safe cocoon. She zipped it up and then wrestled the helmet over her head. She was completely surrounded by his scent, and she had to admit, it was not unpleasant.

“Now the shoes,” he directed, and she put them on, cursing under her breath. “Get on, sugar. Let’s ride,” Cillian said, flashing her a grin before pulling his own helmet on.

“I’m still not your sugar,” she grumbled.

“And I still don’t agree.”

Tentatively (and with some difficulty) Ruby threw her leg over the back of the bike and settled in behind him, her hands around his waist. He felt so warm to the touch, almost hot. 

“Aren’t you going to be cold?”

“With a girl like you keeping me warm? Never,” he said, that warm rumble of his voice doing things to her again.

She considered snipping back at him, but he felt so good next to her, and frankly, she was relieved to get some direction for the night that she didn’t feel like ruining it with being smart. He revved the engine again and took off down the street, leaving nothing but tire marks on the pavement to indicate that they had ever been there at all.

CHAPTER FIVE

Cillian

For a split-second before letting Ruby into his penthouse apartment, Cillian wanted to apologize for the state it was in. Then, he remembered that not everyone in the world was as pretentious as dragons, and that every sane person would be floored by his Chicago home, all whites and gold and ridiculously expensive furnishings with floor to ceiling windows. Still, there was that lingering, nagging feeling that if only the Greenmeadow fortune wasn’t in the state it was in, then maybe…