Fire & Ice (8 page)

Angel glanced over to Zen and then up to the bartender. “I am sorry, but I am new here. I don’t know what all you have. What would you suggest?”

Zen spoke up, “Francis, I think the lady would enjoy a Flying Dragon and I’ll have a Dragon’s Breath.”

The bartender turned to Angel. “If ye’ find ye’ don’t like the drink, my lady, feel free to say so. I am sure we have something that will tickle your taste buds.”

After the bartender walked away, Angel turned to Zen. “They serve food here also, right?” There was no way she could begin to put alcohol in her system without adding food as well.

“Oh yes, my love,” he was quick to assure her. “Would you like for me to order for the two of us?”

Angel looked down at the menu in front of her and didn’t recognize a single thing on it. It looked as if she was going to have to trust this man to order her food. She sighed. “Well, since I can’t even read this, yes, if you don’t mind.”

Zen studied her for a moment and then gently placed his hand back on top of hers. He couldn’t get enough of feeling her soft, smooth skin, and touching her helped calm his dragon immensely. “Have no fear, my mate. I shall take care of you.”

The bartender walked up with their drinks and a basket full of something that looked like bread, only it was an extremely large loaf. There was a butter knife sticking out of the top of it. After setting everything down, he turned to Zen.

“Since the lady is new, will you allow me to prepare her a sample plate; that way she has much to choose from and can learn a bit about our culinary delights?”

Zen grinned up at the man. “Make it an extra-large platter, and we will both just share it.”

The bartender hurried off and Angel was so hungry, she didn’t hesitate to cut off a piece of the bread looking substance and pop it into her mouth. As soon as the food hit her taste buds, her eyes bulged. This had to be the best darn bread she had ever eaten in her life! Soft, buttery, and with a hint of sweetness to it. She wondered if all the food was this good.

Zen watched her pop the Wheadirskon into her mouth and saw her eyes widen, but he didn’t know if she liked it or not. “Do you like it?” he inquired softly.

Angel was already helping herself to a second slice of heaven. “Oh, yes!” she breathed as she popped it into her mouth.

She chewed the second piece a bit slower, trying to savor and enjoy the unique flavor. Realizing she was thirsty, she grabbed her drink to take a swallow, when Zen’s hand stopped her. “You might want to drink that slowly. It tends to catch up with you rather quickly.”

She nodded to show she understood, and then took her first sip. She could just imagine how it caught up with you quickly, since she could hardly taste any alcohol in it whatsoever. Still, she took Zen’s advice and took slow sips.

She sat back in her seat and admired the eye candy in front of her. “Okay, you said I was your mate. While I admit I am flattered that someone like myself would catch the eye of a hunk like you, maybe you should explain exactly what you mean by that statement.”

Zen reached over once again to touch the soft skin of her hand. He ran his thumb back and forth over her skin. It was so amazingly soft, and he wondered just how soft the rest of her was. His dragon was already giving him pictures of what he thought she would look like naked, which was doing nothing for the raging hard-on he had been sporting since he first glimpsed her.

“We search our entire lives for our true mate, the one that was made just for us. Actually, our dragon is the one that has the ability of scenting and picking our mate out. You may have noticed that we do not have very many females on our world. The male gene is very strong, and so even when a female dragon mates with a male dragon, the chances of them having a male youngling is high. Almost ninety percent of our young are male. We have had our best researchers work on this problem for years, but have not been able to fix the problem.

“So, several years ago, many of our males started leaving Dragonose in search of their mate. Some have returned and settled here, others have stayed on the foreign land, and others are still out there searching. The hope is that by bringing in new blood, such as humans, we may be able to turn things around and start producing more female dragons.”

His mate gave him a very sour look. “So, what you are telling me is that you basically want human broodmares?”

“What? No, no, you have it all wrong. Once our dragon recognizes you as our mate, that is it for us. I have heard that your country has some sort of ceremony that ties you and your mate together. Is this not true?”

“Yes, it is called a wedding. Two people find each other attractive, usually date, getting to know one another for a while, and if they fall in love, then eventually they get married and start a family.”

“Okay. See, our ways are not that much different. Our dragon spots our mate, we fall in love with them almost instantly because we know they are it for us. You are my other half.”

“Wait a minute!” she interrupted as she held up her hand. “I said two
people
find each other attractive and date. All I am hearing from you is you and your dragon. Where do I come in? What about
my
feelings?”

The dejected look that crossed his face surprised her. Gone was the easygoing manner which he had displayed for the last several hours. Suddenly he looked as if he had just had his favorite toy taken away. “You do not find me attractive? You do not care for me?”

What?
Whoa! We just met a few hours ago! Why does he look like his life is suddenly over?
And yet, the desolate look that seemed to be taking over his entire body made her quick to reach out. Now it was she placing her small hand over his much larger one. He turned his hand over and entwined their fingers, as if he were afraid she was going to walk away from him forever.

“That is not what I said at all. I would be crazy not to find you attractive. Hell, I would venture to say every woman on Earth would find you attractive. As for caring for you? I just met you. I will admit there is a mysterious pull to you that I can’t explain, but I am on new land and know nothing of your ways. All I am asking is that you give me a bit of time to learn not only your culture, but also get to know you.”

Suddenly the bartender was at the table, holding the biggest platter of food she had ever seen in her life. It took up the entire table. “Oh my goodness, there is no way we can eat this much!” she exclaimed.

Both men grinned. “The lass has yet to see a dragon eat,” the bartender chuckled as he walked away shaking his head.

Angel looked at the table covered with food and then up to Zen. “You can eat this much?”

Zen shrugged, as he picked up what looked to be a large yellowish-green pepper. “Here, try this, it is a house specialty.”

Angel allowed him to guide the food to her lips and bit off a small piece. She had expected to be eating some type of pepper since that was what it resembled, but the flavor bursting over her tongue told a different story. What surprised her was that it had an almost grain type flavor, reminding her of a spiced rice dish from home.

“Umm, that is absolutely delicious!” she raved as she watched him devour the remainder of the piece of food.

They spent the next hour making their way through the huge platter before them. She allowed him to feed her, bringing each morsel of food to her lips with his fingers. She soon found herself relaxing and chatting in between bites, as the bartender brought a neverending supply of drinks over to their table.

Angel sat back in her seat and sighed, rubbing her very full stomach. She glanced down at the now almost empty platter before them, shocked the two of them had been able to devour that much food. Even though Zen had only given her small bites of everything, then made short work of eating the remainder, she was still amazed she had eaten so much.

But over the last hour she had grown more comfortable, even going as far as to lick a bit of sauce off the end of his fingertip as he had fed her a tender piece of meat. She had watched his dragon rise and shine through his eyes, giving her the first real glimpse of his beast. Of course, the neverending supply of drinks arriving at the table was helping to boost her confidence, too. She thought the drinks had helped both of them relax and loosened their tongues as well, because by the time they were ready to leave, they had both told stories of their childhood to each other. It was only when they went to get up from the table, when Zen’s quick reactions kept her from face-planting on the floor, did she fully comprehend his earlier warning regarding the drinks. Now as she stood next to the table, and leaned heavily on Zen, she wondered how she was going to be able to walk out of this place.

Zen leaned down to his very drunk mate and whispered in her ear, “Baby, trust me, I will never let anything happen to you.” And with that her world suddenly tilted as he leaned down and picked her up, bringing her to rest securely against his chest.

He confidently walked out of the eatery with his mate in his arms, chest puffed out in pride that she was allowing him to take care of her. He surmised it was only because she was too drunk to walk, and come tomorrow when she sobered up he would probably catch hell, but tonight he was going to enjoy her compliance.

About halfway back to the castle he heard a strange noise coming from her and looked down to see her fast asleep. Her mouth was open slightly, and his dragon fed him a picture of her mouth around his very hard, very aroused dick.

'Not now, Q. We must win her trust in us first
.'

His dragon was practically purring from just having her body up against his. '
Oh, I know we must wait, but she is so incredibly soft. And pretty. And smart. And…so…our mate.'

Both man and dragon sighed as Zen gazed down at his beauty. He counted himself a very, very lucky man. Soft dark brown curls were trapped between his arm and the back of her neck, but his hand still itched to run his fingers through them. And though her eyes were closed now, he remembered from earlier that she had the softest moss-green eyes he had ever seen. As he studied her sleeping face in detail, he wanted to place the tip of his tongue on the very edge of her slightly upturned button nose. And those lips. Her lips were made for kissing a man for hours, something both he and his dragon yearned for.

Thankfully, the castle was quiet when he entered. He did not want to take a chance on running into King Thoran, afraid he might get a lecture on allowing his new Earthling mate to get drunk on her first night in a new land. Thankfully, there was a guest bedroom right across from his own, and he settled her in there, pulling back the bedcovers before removing her shoes and tucking her in gently. Q was trying to convince him she would be more comfortable without her clothing on, and she might well be, but he wanted her trust more than anything. Waking up in the morning to find out he had undressed her when she had been helpless did not seem like a very good way to start earning that trust.

He forced his feet to walk back out the door, quietly but firmly shutting it behind him, and walked across the hall to his own bedroom.

Chapter Seven

King Thoran slipped silently into the room that held his two sons and their mate. He stood undetected by the door for a moment, listening in on his sons’ telepathic conversation.

They were on either side of their mate, each holding one of her hands. '
I wonder how mad father
is at us
,' Adrian asked.

'
I don’t know, but what’s done is done, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to know I was saving our mate
,' Aiden growled.

'
I agree, brother. I just hope father feels the same way. Maybe we shouldn’t have brought Angel. He is not going to be mad over us bringing Evangelina;
he would have been irate if we had not brought her under these circumstances. It’s going to be Angel’s presence that will be the problem.'

'
Don’t worry about it, brother. When father comes in, I want you to stay silent. Someone needs to stay and care for our mate. I shall take whatever punishment he wants to dish out for bringing Angel. You just promise me to stay with Evangelina until I return.'
The king could easily sense Aiden’s loyalty to the throne, his family, and to his mate in that statement. He cleared his throat.

“That will not be necessary, Aiden.”

Both sons jumped slightly in their seats as they realized their father was standing behind them and had probably heard every word they had communicated. Their father was a powerful mind-reader and as such, could pick up on his sons’ telepathic conversations from quite a good distance away. The fact he had probably been standing right behind them the entire time was not lost on them.

They both sat quietly as the king gazed softly down at the young woman in the bed. She would one day be the queen of his country. “You two are off the hook for bringing Angel. It turns out she is Zen’s mate.”

“Really?” Adrian asked in disbelief.