Billionaire Dragon's Mate: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Dragon Romance Nove (8 page)

Despite her objections, Cillian had insisted on getting another bike for the hour-long trip from the airport to his home. Unsurprisingly, he had one waiting for them already. Apparently one of his servants had driven it over when he’d let them know he was arriving. It was a Hayabusa, an even bigger, faster, scarier bike than the Fireblade they’d ridden in Chicago. Though she wouldn’t let on, she loved it.

Cillian was no slouch about hitting the gas when there was nothing but open road ahead of them, and the way the wind whipped past them and the road seemed to disappear under the wheels of the bike was exhilarating. Cillian had managed to make her heart race faster in less than a day of knowing him than Cable had over the entire time they’d been together (and then not together). The dragon was certainly… interesting.

When they reached the edge of his lands, Cillian called over his shoulder to let her know that they were almost home. He said it with such ease that she almost believed him. Home. The grounds were gorgeous. Rolling, thick evergreen forests that bowed and swayed over high slopes and seemingly endless valleys between rocky mountains tipped with sparkling white snow.

They passed a small town hidden in a valley, looking a little rundown but picturesque with its golden yellow roofs and windows and doors trimmed with green. Cillian told her that it was called Emerald Court – after the green stone court in the middle of town. He’d slowed down a lot as they entered the Greenmeadow lands, and when his house came into view, she understood why. It wasn’t so much a mansion as it was a castle.

Ancient and regal, it towered above the town and the forests like a stone watchman keeping guard. She thought she spotted some signs of neglect here and there, a few rotting windowsills and unkempt stones, but it was still positively breathtaking to behold. Suddenly, she felt like a princess being brought to her new kingdom. It wasn’t an entirely distasteful experience.

Thick moss crept up the sides of the castle, giving it a look of being invaded by the forest, or as if the castle was wearing a cape of green, befitting the lands it kept close guard over. Cillian drove them up to the small, nicely tended circular stone pathway in front of the castle. As soon as the engine shut off, the doors flung open. A small woman, standing a good foot shorter than Ruby, came skittering down the steps, screeching with joy.

She grabbed Cillian in a tight hug before he could even take his helmet off and he responded with equal vigor, laughing. Ruby couldn’t help but grin. As much as he was a rat bastard, she had to admire Cillian’s spirit and personality. He was great to be around, and not just because he was easy on the eyes.

“Master Cillian! So happy to have you home! The keep has not been the same without you,” the little woman said, giving Cillian a moment to wrestle off his helmet.

Ruby had taken off hers as well and was now holding onto it a bit awkwardly.

“Glad to see you too, Denna. I’m going to be staying for a while now.”

“For a while! I thought I’d never see the day again. And you brought a friend!” Denna said, turning her lavish attention to Ruby.

She smiled in response, unsure of what to do next. There wasn’t a lot of pure joy to go around in the underbelly of Chicago, so Ruby wasn’t exactly equipped to dealing with people who were… nice.

“I have. Denna, this is my bride, Ruby Accardo. We’re going to have to make her comfortable here.”

Denna’s eyes positively lit up at the news, and a moment later, Ruby found herself on the receiving end of one of her exuberant hugs. She laughed, hugging her back – it was impossible not to. The elderly little woman’s glee was infectious.

“Pleased to meet you, Denna,” Ruby managed, feeling like a prop at show and tell.

She didn’t mind. It was good to be around laughter again.

“A bride! How wonderful! It has been too long since a Greenmeadow wedding took place in the keep. Not since your father and Dahlia. Oh, I’m so thrilled! And she’s so pretty!” Just as quickly as her excitement had built, it came to a halt.

Her round, flat-nosed face could go from joy to worry in less time than it took Ruby to blink.

“But when!? All the preparations! The gold moon is in two weeks! We will never have time to…“

“Shh, Denna. Calm down. It’ll just be us. And someone from the council to mark the occasion. No need to plan anything big. We can have a party at Emerald Court later,” he soothed, patting her on the shoulder.

Denna seemed to calm down a bit. Ruby thought it was adorable – at least someone was excited for her wedding.

“Well, there are so few of them there now… Whatever you wish, Master Cillian. Will I send George? Do you have any bags? I should get back to cooking, lest you go hungry! Can’t have a malnourished dragon, can we!” she chattered, clapping her hands together at her own little joke.

“I think we’re good, Denna. Just have George set up the bedroom next to mine. I want to give my bride a bit of privacy, if she wishes it,” Cillian said with a wink at Ruby.

She was proud that she didn’t blush this time. Though, yes, she wanted to.

“Oh, she won’t want it for long. No dragon princess ever does,” Denna remarked sagely, before twirling around and disappearing into the castle as quickly as she had appeared.

“Is everyone here so…”

“Exuberant?”

“I was going to say friendly, but that works as well, yes,” Ruby said, attaching the helmet to the seat and fluffing her hair a bit.

“They like to see their dragons happy, that’s all,” Cillian remarked mildly, showing her towards the door.

Making him happy didn’t sound like the worst thing in the world. Perhaps Colorado could be fun after all.

***

Ruby had spent a few days at the keep already, and though it started feeling homier, she was also beginning to get bored. Other than reading a book and lounging on the roof, trying to get a tan in Colorado, there wasn’t much to do. And Cillian, who had been peculiarly scarce as well, was of no use in aiding her. Her stuff had arrived the very next day after they’d got to Emerald Ridge, and from what she could tell, her parents were certain that Colorado was Amish country, and she had to dress the part.

She didn’t even know she owned so many turtleneck sweaters and gray slacks. Cobbling together something out of the pile of clothes that could actually be worn had taken an afternoon, and she wasn’t even particularly picky. The thought had crossed her mind a few times that maybe she was trying a bit harder than usual to impress a certain dragon she knew, but as soon as it came, she made it go away again. No time to be boy-crazy. Not when said boy was
ruining her life
, sort of.

She was mostly over that by now, but it still stung a little that her voice hadn’t mattered at all in the decision. Was a little bit of respect so much to ask for?

Ruby sighed, curling her legs under her as she read a book on ancient dragonkin medicine that she’d found in one of the many, many living rooms. Most of the text was in some odd, slanted font and in a language she couldn’t pretend to speak (though she spoke Italian, French and a smattering of Latin for her work), but she could certainly understand the pictures. Or most of them, at least.

The entire dragon body was sliced and diced in minute detail on the pictures, and Ruby had learned perhaps even too much about dragon physiology by the time she was halfway through the book. Like, for example, some dragons had two hearts – one in the middle of their throat and one lower in their chest. These dragons tended to have longer necks. Also, dragon mating habits, when in their dragon form, were… brutal and came with spikes, and what she could only assume were some rather painful positions.

She had to wonder if sex in their human form was similar. Ruby grinned to herself a little. Cillian looked like the type who would pull hair and smack a girl around if she asked nicely. Yum.

There you go again. Down, Ruby.

She sighed, flipping through the pages and eyeing the various illustrations. Dragons came in many shapes and sizes, but the only dragon she was interested in was nowhere to be seen. She’d heard him in the corridors a few times, and she was pretty sure that the earthquakelike tremors that shook the house from time to time were just him landing from a flight. It had freaked her out the first time, but Denna had just given her a wistful smile over breakfast and told her how nice it was to have dragons around again. That had been the extent of their communication.

She almost felt… abandoned, for lack of a better word. However, it did give her some time to think, and that she was grateful for. She’d spent her life constantly surrounded by people telling her what to do, where to go and how to think, so being the master of her own domain for a while was a nice change.

Ruby certainly hadn’t had a hard life. Although her father had a bad reputation, and she was sure most of it was well earned, she’d never been subjected to its grittier side. She was Antonio Accardo’s only daughter, and that made her the apple of his and her mother’s eye. She’d been kept and pampered and surrounded by nothing but fluff all her life, and as she grew older, she couldn’t wait to get out of it.

And now, here she was, in her late twenties and still being pushed and pulled by her parents. It embarrassed her that she’d chosen to act out against it so late (wasn’t it something that teenagers were supposed to do?), but in a way, it had been liberating to do something so incredibly stupid that she would have been mortified to hear of it had it been any of her friends. Dumb? Definitely. Worth it? Well, maybe not… Unless she could count being whisked away by a mouthwateringly hot dragon as a bonus, in which case, abso-fucking-lutely.

Ruby was just about to delve deeper into the complex structure of the dragon wing, when Denna scampered into the living room, all smiles and smelling like pie as usual. Cillian had told her that Denna and the other servant, George, were both lizard shifters, and Denna had been more than happy to tell Ruby her life story. Ruby liked the two. They reminded her of her grandma and grandpa, though neither of them could have been more than sixty. They tended the keep and the Greenmeadows, when any were home, and it was obvious they loved doing it.

“Miss Ruby! Master Cillian is waiting for you outside. I think he has a surprise for you! Come quick,” Denna said, beaming happily as a conspiratory smirk clung to her lips.

“Oh? What surprise?” Ruby asked, uncurling herself from the chair and setting the book down.

She looked down at herself, judging the teal shirt and black yoga pants she was wearing, and decided that they would just have to be good enough. If she hadn’t made an impression on him by now, then it was a bit late to worry about her appearance anyway, right?

You’re not trying to impress the dragon. Never mind if he’s the hottest thing within a thousand miles of here. Maybe more,
she chided herself, flustered by her body’s continuous lack of cooperation.

Whatever she did, she couldn’t help but get a little bit excited whenever she heard Cillian’s name being mentioned.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you!” Denna laughed, showing Ruby out.

“Can’t argue with that,” Ruby agreed with a smile and followed her dutifully.

CHAPTER NINE

Cillian

Cillian was uncharacteristically nervous. For a dragon, who made his living keeping a cool head and finding solutions to other people’s problems, he was surprisingly headless in a situation that could determine his personal happiness. The more he thought about it, the sillier it seemed. And every time he decided to pull the plug on his grand scheme to win Ruby’s heart, he’d stop and force himself to sit down and wait it out.

Patience was not a virtue he possessed. He was seated on a red checkered linen tablecloth on a grassy knoll overlooking the vast, expansive dark forests that the keep lorded over. Emerald Court was somewhere down there, just a tiny little spec in the sea of green, its golden roofs glinting in the sunlight. He’d always loved the view from up there. He hoped she would too.

He heard the faint sound of Denna’s voice in the distance, and when he got up to look towards the keep, he saw the little woman waving at him enthusiastically and then skittering off, probably giggling like a schoolgirl. Ruby’s flame-red hair bounced on her shoulders as she walked across the coiffed lawn towards him, looking a bit taken aback, but still smiling. That was a good sign, right?

He thrust his hands in his pockets in an effort to make his body stop twitching nervously. He wore a white tank that showed off all his tattoos and a pair of ragged, worn jeans over combat boots that had seen better days, and strangely, felt both under and overdressed for the occasion. Brass knuckles hung from his belt as an added touch – a habit he had picked up after getting jumped one too many times. Maybe if he were shirtless, she’d find him more compelling to be around?