The Island Of Dragons: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (12 page)

A short time later, Hugh, Sadie, Melissa, and I were down by the shore, and once again, the three of them were trying to coax me into the water. Hugh made some sort of a joke about looking out for “ferocious biting seashells,” which I didn’t really appreciate.

I got in up to my thighs before my heart started pounding. I just couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t swim in the ocean. All I could think about was my parents, and how they’d died beneath crashing waves.

I began backing up toward the shore, shaking my head. “I’m done, guys. I’m not doing this.”

After telling Hugh and Sadie to give her a second with me, Melissa walked over through the water and just looked at me for a long moment before speaking. “Ellie.”

“What?”

“Do you think Warren’s brave?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then, don’t you think he deserves to spend the rest of his life with a woman as equally brave?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My throat was suddenly tight and constricted, clogged with some sort of a lump.

While Hugh and Sadie floated on their backs a good distance away, Melissa continued. “Don’t you think Warren deserves to spend the rest of his life with a woman brave enough to face her fears and just take a little swim in the damn ocean?”

I suddenly turned and began striding back to shore. “I don’t need this.”

“Wouldn’t it be worth it to you? To know that you and Warren are equally matched in terms of character and bravery?”

“We’re equally matched plenty well enough.”

“Enough so that if you and Warren have children someday, he can feel fully proud about the character of their mother?”

I stopped dead in my tracks, back to her, but only for a second. “Leave me alone, Melissa.”

I continued striding through the warm turquoise water to the shore, feeling as if the hot lava flowing through my veins could make the ocean boil.

But just then, my mood suddenly improved, and not by a little. Dalton was just a little ways down the beach, waving at me.

I waved back, moving faster. “Hey, Dalton! Let me get dried off and I’ll come down there and say hi!”

Soon I was walking down the beach in my shorts, tank top, and flip flops.

When I reached Dalton, I smiled. “Thank you. You just saved me from a swimming lesson from hell with Melissa.”

He grinned, making his green eyes sparkle in the sun. “Sounds awful.”

“You don’t even know.”

“Well, I’m glad I could be of help. I wanted to talk to you because I heard you say yesterday that you wanted to ask me something about a shell. And I’m sorry I couldn’t come out and answer your question right then, but I was deep into a project.”

“Oh, no problem. It was nothing important.”

“Well, what’s your question? I hope I can be of help.”

I hadn’t actually thought about what my phony “shell question” would be. Now, I really wished I had.

“Well, my question is just... well... it’s about those funny-looking peach-colored shells up by the jungle. Those teeny-tiny ones. I just wanted to ask you how you think they might have gotten there from the beach.”

There actually
weren’t
any teeny-tiny peach shells up near the jungle. I’d just made the whole thing up.

Dalton began heading up to the jungle from the shore, motioning for me to follow him. “Let’s go have a look. I’m sure kids probably just carried the shells up to the jungle, but who knows. There might be a scientific explanation. Maybe the remnants of old tidal pools or something. We can study the area and try to find out.”

I followed him back to the area of jungle to the west of the castles, which was the thickest and densest part of it. I figured the more secluded the spot, the more likely Dalton might be to spill some secrets. Not that we’d be entirely alone, though. His two guards were still tailing him, though at a far enough distance that they certainly couldn’t even hear us speaking.

On our way to the jungle, we made small talk, mostly about life on the island as far as food, climate, and similar things. Once we entered the dimly-lit jungle, Dalton was all business, immediately searching the sandy, rocky ground for the tiny peach-colored shells I’d mentioned.

But after just a short while, he looked up suddenly, with some sort of knowing look in his eyes. “As I guessed. No tiny peach shells. You just wanted to get me in here so we could have some privacy to talk. Which is fine by me, since I’ve been wanting to talk to you, too.”

Stunned, I spoke in a squeak. “What about?”

Dalton, who was a small but wiry man about my age, was maybe ten or twelve feet away from me, standing on the first of a line of about a half-dozen smooth, flat rocks vaguely resembling stepping stones. Between them, the ground was sandy mud. Displaying a bit of athleticism as well as grace, Dalton began hopping from one rock to the other to get back over to where I stood.

But suddenly, he stopped on the fourth rock and looked at me, frowning. “I’m just going to say this right this second, before I lose my nerve. I’ve debated endlessly whether to say anything to you at all, but now I know I have to. I can’t just let you and everyone else die.”

“What are you talking about?”

He paused to push his glasses up higher on his nose before speaking again. “See, Ellie, Chief Knight’s not wrong about me. I know much more about this island than I’ve told. I know most everything about it actually, right down to its very molecular biology. I know how the golem came into existence, too.”

“Well, please tell me! We need to know, Dalton.”

“I will. But first, let me tell you what I’m afraid I might lose my nerve to say. I just need to get it out, and then I’ll explain why.”

“What is it? Please just say it.”

He took a deep breath, seeming like he was having a difficult time maintaining eye contact with me. “Well... here it is. I know you and Chief Knight have become....” He cleared his throat, freckled face reddening. “Very close. And what I need to tell you is that... well, you and Chief Knight can’t have... relations anymore. You can’t sleep together anymore. It’s absolutely critical that you don’t. It has to do with the golem. You and Chief Knight absolutely cannot be together again in the intimate sense while that creature still exists.”

I stood speechless momentarily. “But....”

“Here. Let’s find a log or something to sit down on, and I’ll explain.”

He went to hop to the next stepping-stone, but he didn’t quite make it. Instead of landing on it, he seemed to trip or slide or something across its smooth surface, and he fell backward, his feet going out from under him. Before I could shout, try to catch him, or do anything, he landed on his back, his head striking the stone behind him with a sickening crack.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Almost instantly, the stone Dalton’s head landed on became covered in blood.

I screamed, hands flying to my face. “Help! Somebody help! Please!”

The two guards, who’d been lurking around nearby, came flying over. In a shaky voice, I quickly explained what had happened, and after that, everything happened fast. One of the guards shifted into dragon form, and the other, in human form, situated Dalton on the dragon guard’s broad, scaly back. Then, the guard in dragon form lifted off to fly Dalton to the medical center. The remaining guard then shifted as well and flew me to my castle.

Not even five minutes after Dalton had cracked his head, I was sitting in my living room with Melissa, absolutely stunned. I could barely manage to speak, but somehow managed to tell her, in bits and pieces, everything of importance that Dalton had told me.

When I’d finished, Melissa looked at me with an expression of incredulity. “So, wait. He told you that you and Warren can’t have sex anymore?”

I nodded, beginning to feel ill. “Yes. Something to do with the golem. Dalton said that as long as it still exists, Warren and I absolutely cannot be together again physically.”

“Well, what in the hell...?”

“Yeah. I wish I knew.”

Melissa and I speculated for a while as to what it could all mean, and what Warren and I having sex could possibly have to do with the golem, but neither of us was able to come up with anything that even remotely made sense.

After pulling her dark hair over one shoulder, Melissa sat back on the couch, hugging a plush, cream-colored pillow to her chest. “Well, let’s just hope Dalton’s okay and can tell us just what in the hell he meant.”

“Yeah. I hope he’s okay just because he’s a fellow human being, but I’d be lying if I said I’m also not a bit curious, to say the least, to hear his explanation for everything.”

I should have known he wouldn’t be okay.

Soon Melody let herself into my castle and came rushing into the living room. “Dalton’s in a coma. Dr. Benson’s running tests on him right now.”

Not a second after she’d finished speaking, the alarm sirens began pealing, and she began dashing back out of my castle. “I’ve gotta get back to the clinic to assist Dr. Benson!”

She called a short while later to let Melissa and me know that she’d made it to the clinic before the golem was anywhere near the village. “He’s getting kind of close, though. As I ran down the beach, I could feel his footfalls the heaviest I’ve ever felt them yet.”

Melissa and I had been able to feel his footfalls, too. Each one made a stack of books on my coffee table bounce.

The alarm sirens blared for an awfully long time before finally falling silent. Warren and his men had presumably driven the golem back to the lake once again, though not without the most difficulty they’d ever had, it seemed. By the time the sirens had stopped, not only were the books on my coffee table bouncing at least an inch in the air, my teeth were clacking together, too.

After Melissa left that afternoon, I took a late-day nap, suddenly bone-weary now that my adrenaline had finally ebbed. When I awoke, I called Melody at the clinic, and she reported that there was no change in Dalton’s condition.

“He’s still in a coma, though Dr. Benson said that his brain scans are absolutely fine. He’s probably just knocked out as a result of a massive concussion. He’ll probably come out of it within a few days.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. That’s good to hear.”

I was glad to hear that Dalton would be okay, but also to learn that getting answers from him would probably just be a question of waiting a few days. And in the meantime, I’d just have to do my best to keep my hands off of Warren, and his hands off of me, though I knew that would be a lot easier said than done, and it was.

When Warren showed up for our “date” at my castle that evening a half-hour early, looking even more handsome than usual in dark pants and a white dress shirt open at the collar, the first thing he did after asking me if I was all right after the day’s events was pull me into his arms and kiss me. His mouth, firm and warm, felt heavenly against my own, as did his hands, which he was slowly running down my back towards my rear.

Knowing that I had no other choice, I broke our kiss with difficulty and pulled away. “We can’t, Warren. We can’t. We can have dinner together, but that’s it. We can’t kiss anymore. We can’t touch each other. We can’t do anything, because of what it might lead to.”

Warren looked miles beyond mystified. I’d assumed that maybe Melissa had blabbed to him.

“Now, why on earth can’t we—”

“Because Dalton said we can’t. It has to do with the golem. He said that it’s absolutely critical that we don’t engage in ‘relations’ anymore.”

Frowning hard enough to make a crease between his dark brows, Warren led me over to the couch, where I explained everything to him, and told him every single word that Dalton had said to me.

When I’d finished, Warren sat quietly, appearing to be thinking, for a few long moments. “Well... well, certainly Dalton had to have been joking.”

“He absolutely wasn’t, Warren. I think that’s just wishful thinking.”

“Well, maybe he meant no more lovemaking between us after
today
. Meaning, we still have this evening to—”

“Warren. We can’t make love again while the golem still exists. That’s what Dalton said. And since he admitted that you’re right... that he
does
know a lot of secrets about the island, and the golem... I’m sure he didn’t tell me what he did about our lovemaking for nothing. There
has
to be a good explanation for it. Even though I can’t imagine what that explanation could possibly be.”

Still frowning hard, Warren was quiet for a few moments before speaking while looking deep into my eyes. “I don’t know how to say this politely, Ellie, but I
need
you. I need to feel your beautiful body against mine. I’ve been dreaming about it all day, and now, just seeing you in person, with you looking as gorgeous as you do, with your hair like that, and with you wearing those clothes, and your face so beautiful and radiant....”

I wasn’t so sure about all that. Though my shorts were fairly short, they were just sweatpant shorts. My top was a plain red t-shirt. Between putting dinner in the oven and Warren arriving early, I hadn’t had time to put on a dress, as I’d planned to. My hair was in a very sloppy bun, anchored with a partially rusty bobby pin. And as far as my face went, I was pretty sure that one of my cheeks still bore a distinct mark from my face being pressed against an embroidered pillowcase while I’d taken my nap.

Taking my hands in his, Warren swallowed before continuing, desperation evident in his voice. “Ellie, I
need
to make love to you. There’s something about you that gets my passions worked up to a level that no other woman ever has, or possibly ever could. There’s something about you that can make me feel half-sick with desire sometimes... and this is definitely one of those times. I’ve honestly felt half-sick with desire the past several days, when we haven’t been able to enjoy physical intimacy together. And then when I thought we might take a shower together but couldn’t, and now when I’ve been waiting all day for our date....” He swallowed again, beginning to rub slow circles on the backs of my hands with his thumbs. “Did Dalton say anything about us, well... touching each other, without actually making love?”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Warren.”

“Well, did he?”

I thought about it for a moment. “Well, I guess not.”

The feel of Warren’s thumbs stroking my skin was beginning to make me feel slightly light-headed in a pleasant sort of way, though I tried to ignore the feeling.

“I guess not, but that doesn’t mean we should test it out. If he hadn’t hit his head, Dalton might have went on to tell me that even the two of us touching—”

“Screw Dalton.”

“Warren! He’s in a coma!”

“Just let me hold you, Ellie. Just let me hold you in my arms, on my lap, and just let me touch you. Please. I’m begging you. Just let me give you the pleasure and release that I can sense you need just as much as I do. And then, if you want to, maybe you can touch me, too. And in this way, maybe we can—”

“We’ll have to be quick about it. Just in case we shouldn’t be doing it.”

Warren’s stroking of my skin had begun to have a profound effect on me. It was actually making my nipples stiffen and my insides quake.

I had to work hard to find my voice again. “We’ll just have to be super quick.”

Warren gave his head a quick shake and spoke in a voice that was becoming increasingly low and husky. “Not a chance. If I’m going to touch you, I’m going to touch you the way you like to be touched. And I know that’s with long, slow, light-but-not-too-light strokes, and I know that once you’re near release, you like me to pull you back a bit, teasing you, before letting you get there. So, when it comes to touching you, there should be nothing quick about it.”

Even just while I’d been listening to him, I’d felt myself becoming slick. My sensitive feminine bud was now throbbing.

“Just do it already, then. Just touch me.”

Not wasting a second, Warren pulled me onto his lap in one swift, deft motion, displaying his shifter strength. Beneath my seat, I could feel that he was already hard, and incredibly so, which served to heighten my arousal even more, as did breathing in his clean, woodsy scent. Kissing me with a low growl rumbling in his chest, he tipped me back in one arm while sliding his free hand down the front of my shorts and underwear. It didn’t take him long at all to locate the throbbing source of my need, and the moment his fingertip connected with it, I broke our kiss with a cry.

“Yes. Don’t stop, Warren. Please.”

Making quiet little grunts and growls while looking from the front of my shorts to my face, he didn’t stop, and soon I was deeply focused on the pleasure he was making me experience with just the tip of one of his fingers.

But within less than a minute, something, I didn’t even know what, made me suddenly spring up from his lap to my feet.

“We can’t do this. Don’t you understand? We don’t know exactly what Dalton meant by ‘Don’t have relations.’ He could have meant don’t do exactly what we were just doing. And we have no clue what the consequences for doing
that
might be. And if there’s even a chance that the consequences might somehow hurt the people of this village....” I lifted my shoulders in a feeble shrug. “We just shouldn’t risk it.”

Warren groaned, dragging a hand over his face. He didn’t speak right away, and when he did, his deep voice was flat with resignation. “You’re right. You’re right, of course. I’m glad you seem to have a little more common sense and restraint than I do. My focus right now should be on my responsibilities as leader of this village. My focus should be on keeping everyone safe, and not....” Letting his gaze slide over my body, Warren seemed to lose his train of thought for a moment. “My God, Ellie, please don’t stand like that, with your beautiful, sexy thigh teasing and tempting me like that. Are you
trying
to torture me?”

I was just standing up normally, weight on my back leg and the knee of my front leg slightly bent, which I could only guess was giving Warren too close a peek at my inner thigh.

Breathing heavily, he abruptly got up from the couch. “I should go. I should go right this second before I get any further worked up.”

“I understand.”

I certainly did. His large, rock-hard erection was tenting the front of his dark dress pants.

Without another word, he gave me a very light, lightning-fast kiss on the mouth and left. Knowing that my own touch wouldn’t satisfy me after I’d just felt Warren’s, I immediately got into a freezing-cold shower, praying that Dalton would wake up and explain everything very soon.

*

Four days passed, and Dalton remained in a coma. I remained near-painfully sexually frustrated. Warren remained that way, too, if staying far away from me at all times was any indication.

Melody continued teaching my classes for me, still enjoying the change of pace from nursing. I was grateful for that, because I was becoming so crabby I probably would have spent more time snapping at the kids than teaching them.

Hugh, Sadie, and Melissa continued trying to get me to swim in the ocean, but I steadfastly refused. I refused until the fourth afternoon of them cajoling me, that is. That was when Melissa once again took me aside and asked me if I thought Warren deserved a mate as brave as he was. I said I didn’t care what he deserved, trying to act as flip and tough as she sometimes did, but then, with a pang in my chest, I immediately admitted that wasn’t true. I did care what Warren deserved, of course. I cared deeply. And deep down, I knew Melissa was right. Warren deserved a mate who was just as brave as he was. Or, at the very least, brave enough to swim a hundred feet out to a damn diving rock. Where no fewer than three people would be waiting to help her if she thought she felt like she was drowning.

This finally emboldened me enough to get into the water up to my waist. But before I could face my fears and take the plunge, two things Hugh had been repeatedly imploring me to do, my pulse began pounding and I felt like I suddenly couldn’t get enough air.