Cowboy Dragon Page 8

  She watched his face, so calm and relaxed, a completely different Harrison from the one that had been stalking around her all week, avoiding her with his judging gaze and hard-ass personality.

  No, this was the face of the Harrison she remembered looking down at her while he’d still been deep inside her body, making her crazy while he made love to her.

  Perhaps not a stranger after all.

  Whoosh, whoosh.

  The sound that had woken her was getting slightly louder, as if it had gone away then come back again. She sat up in the bed, trying not to wake Harrison, and went to her pile of clothes.

  Hm, her panties were useless, split down the side. When had that happened?

  Granted, all she remembered was hours of pleasure as he’d licked her clit senseless, covered her with kisses, and finished with such hot, erotic sex she could still feel the effects of his lovemaking everywhere on her body.

  She pulled her jeans on, hooked her bra, then last her T-shirt, going to the window to try to locate the direction the sound was coming from.

  Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

  It was louder than a helicopter, but a rhythmic beating more like giant wings than the whirr of metallic blades. She looked into the sky but only saw twinkling stars and a few scattered clouds.

  She watched as dust started to kick up in the middle of the courtyard, like something was definitely getting closer, but try as she might, all she could see was darkness and nothing else.

  Suddenly, there was one final, heavy sound as air pushed all around her, blasting her hair backward from the force of the gust. Then a heavy, pounding thud that shook the entire ranch, like a tractor trailer had just been dropped from the sky.

  Then, where there had only been a slight blur where she’d tried to look at the center of the courtyard, she suddenly saw something that defied all semblance of logic.

  Like a veil had suddenly been pulled away from it, there stood in the center of the ranch a giant, four-legged monster with huge talons and a long tail and a huge head. It was gray and brown, covered in rocky scales that glittered like granite, and it had enormous horns and razor-sharp spikes going all the way down its back.

  A dragon, if such things existed.

  Which they certainly did not.

  Was this just some crazy, post-orgasm dream?

  She pinched herself. Nope, not a dream.

  The gigantic dragon listed to one side, and Marian feared it would trip and knock out the whole barn—which the creature made look small by comparison—if it fell over. Thankfully, it righted itself, stumbling a bit before opening its mouth and letting out a loud belch.

  Since when did dragons do that?

  What was going on? Was she going insane? Had the Texas heat and the fevered lovemaking truly broken her brain?

  She was about to either scream, pass out, laugh hysterically, or all three when quick footsteps behind her preceded Harrison’s sudden appearance at her side.

  He looked down at her with worry, then out at… whatever it was in the courtyard. But instead of mirroring her shock and surprise, his brows lowered, and he opened the window wider and leaned out.

  “Beck, get your ass into the common room, now!”

  Marian didn’t know which was more surprising, the fact she was looking at a dragon or the fact that Harrison had called it Beck.

  Gray-silver eyes drifted in her and Harrison’s direction, and for a moment, she wondered if it was possibly so. And before she could wonder any further, the dragon disappeared in a cloud of shimmering dust, leaving a wobbling, quite drunk-looking Beck standing in the middle of the ranch.

  “‘Kay, boss,” he called up, saluting haphazardly.

  Then he took a step forward and fell flat on his face.

  “Come with me,” Harrison said, still seething but calming at least for a moment when he looked at her. In fact, if she wasn’t mistaken, there was a sultry grin there that made Marian think last night definitely hadn’t been a dream.

  “But…” She was about to say something about the fact Beck had just face-planted, but when she looked over her shoulder, he was already getting up, brushing himself off, and making his way toward the house.

  A minute later, everyone on the ranch had apparently heard either the dragon or Harrison’s fury, and all were seated or standing around the big table in the kitchen. Clancy was surprisingly normal-looking in just jeans and an undershirt, while Reno was still-half asleep in pajama pants and a beat-up Metallica shirt. Dallas was fully clothed from head to toe, as if he were already ready to work.

  Beck just sat across the table from Marian, covered in dirt, already looking more sober than he had a moment ago.

  Harrison just paced, shirtless, around the table.

  Don’t stare at his pecs.

  After all, there was a lot of explaining to do.

  “What the hell were you thinking, Beck? Flying into the ranch in dragon form?” The way he spoke so casually about dragons, it was like she was the weird one here.

  “Didn’t wanna walk home.” Beck’s half-open gaze would be a bit funny if Harrison wasn’t so pissed right now.

  Harrison’s attention flew to Reno. “Why’d you leave him there at the bar?”

  Reno raised both hands. “He said he’d get a ride from one of his poker buddies. Don’t look at me.”

  Harrison ran a hand angrily through his thick brown hair, making it stand up in every direction. “Exactly how much did you drink, Beck?”

  He coughed. “Half.”

  “Half of what?”

  “Half the bar,” Beck said with a shrug.

  Clancy stood up from his corner. “He’s probably just joshin’.”

  Beck shook his head.

  “Godammit, Beck.” Harrison’s bare feet still made the floor rattle as he paced back and forth behind Beck, blue eyes full of that ‘what the hell am I gonna do with you’ look. “How could you be so careless?”

  Marian, unable to hold back any longer, merely raised a hand.

  All eyes looked at her.

  “Um, can I ask what’s going on?”

  There was a long pause. Harrison’s lips flattened. Clancy looked from the boss to her and back. Reno grimaced. Even Dallas made an expression, though the subtle rise of his eyebrows was barely noticeable.

  Beck just made a gurgling sound.

  Harrison scratched the back of his head, then let out a long, weary sigh before taking a seat between her and Beck, facing her as he folded his hands.

  “Might as well let you know, since there’s no taking back what you saw. Not without consequences.” He paused again, and there was a slightly animal gleam in his eye that reminded her of the dragon’s eyes she’d seen only a minute ago, only much, much bluer. “We’re dragons.”

  “What?” She was dumbfounded. Marian had heard legends. Tall tales. Children’s stories.

  But this was too much.

  “You’re joking,” she added after nobody started laughing.

  “Nope.”

  “Sorry, missy, but Harrison isn’t one to bullshit people when things get real,” Clancy said matter-of-factly, walking over to stand between Harrison and Beck.

  Three giant, unnaturally handsome cowboys that could do the work of thirty men in a single day.

  A remote ranch in the middle of nowhere, shrouded in mystery.

  And the boss-turned-sex-god who had fucked her so hard Marian actually thought she’d been seeing things a minute ago.

  If there were such a thing as dragons, it seemed like Texas would be the place to hide them.

  “Wait, what?” Her brain was doing backflips, rearranging everything she thought she knew about the universe.

  “Dragons,” Harrison said.

  “Fire-breathing, flying, destructive monsters.” Clancy had an amused grin.

  “D-R-A-G… Whatever, fuck it.” Beck stopped halfway.

  “So you guys are just dragons, running a ranch? What, do you guys have a treasure horde or something out here?
” She stood, feeling a little bonkers just talking so plainly about magical creatures.

  Clancy just laughed hysterically. Harrison wasn’t as amused by it. “No. We enjoy freedom, land, and peace n’ quiet.”

  She supposed that made sense. If she was a dragon, she’d want to be left alone too.

  “Do you all look like that… thing I saw?”

  Harrison leaned back in his chair a bit. “No. Beck’s a mountain dragon, which is why he looks that way.”

  “And you?”

  “I’m a plains dragon. Grasslands, prairie, any wide-open, flat space, that’s where I make my home.”

  She supposed cowboy was the perfect profession for such inclinations.

  “And Clancy is a…” He waved a hand toward Clancy, and suddenly, his amenable, cheery demeanor fell to a cold stare down at Harrison. “He’s a different kind of dragon.” Harrison finished with a shrug.

  Marian was definitely curious, but whatever the truth was, Clancy had no intention of letting her know.

  “Are Reno and Dallas dragons too?”

  Beck sputtered a laugh.

  “They’re just shifters. Alpha wolf and tiger, respectively,” Clancy said, looking normal again.

  Reno smiled nervously. Dallas was… Dallas.

  “We shouldn’t go telling her more than she already knows.”

  “Cool yer jets, boss. She’s one of our crew now, ain’t she?” Clancy said.

  “She’s a human.”

  “How long have you guys been out here, working this land?” She was too curious to hold back all her questions while she was at least still getting answers.

  The three dragons paused again. “A while,” Harrison said flatly.

  “How long’s a while?”

  “Let’s just say before electricity was a thing,” Clancy said.

  Her mouth hung open. She wasn’t a history major or anything, but that was, well, a freakin’ long time.

  Suddenly, something that had been bothering her this whole past week was starting to make sense.

  She pointed a finger at Harrison. “Wait, so the dragon’s talon… My father…”

  Harrison folded his arms. “Yes, I met your old man.”

  “Way before he was even old. Or even my father, right?”

  He just nodded.

  It was her turn to stand up, pacing around as all the puzzle pieces fit into place in weird ways. Like she’d only had the edge pieces, constructing a picture she couldn’t see was at the center of it.

  Dragons.

  She wouldn’t have believed any of it, if not for the fact that everything only made more sense than it did before.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were the same Harrison when I showed up?”

  “You think that wouldn’t have led to more questions?” He clasped his hands in front of him.

  He was right, as usual.

  “So what do we do, boss,” Reno asked. “We’re not going to have to… y’know?”

  Harrison shook his head. “I trust her. We can trust you, can’t we, Marian?” His voice was smooth, reminding her of the man he’d been since last night. The one at the bar. The one dancing with her under the stars. The one she’d shared a bed with all night.

  “Of course. I’ve never been a snitch, and I don’t intend to start now.” Frankly, who would she even tell? She had no friends, no family she was close to. Random strangers would think she was as drunk as Beck had been when he’d landed in the middle of the ranch like a drunk 747.

  And deeper than that, she felt a strong connection with each of these men. Like they were her new family. Bound by something stronger than blood. She’d never betray them like that.

  Granted, she was trapped between that and the fact they might never let her leave now. But that was almost more comfort than worry at this point.

  “So what do we do with her?” Clancy, who sounded most suspicious of the whole situation, asked Harrison.

  “We leave it, for now.”

  “But what if she—?”

  “She won’t. She’s a good person. I know it, and all of you know it.”

  Nods of assent from the other men.

  Clancy still didn’t seem fully placated, but Harrison brooked no further argument. “Get to sleep. We’ve still got a ranch to run, and the sun isn’t going to stop for us just because we’ve been up wasting time. And sober up, Beck.”

  “Already am,” Beck said, and he surprised her by lifting himself off the chair and strolling casually for the exit.

  A moment later, she was alone in the house with Harrison, who was looking devastating in just a hat and Levi’s as he folded his arms, looking down at her. “I can trust you, can’t I?”

  “I may not like cowboys, but a certain crew of mysterious ranchers is starting to change my mind slowly.”

  “What about one cowboy in particular?” He walked up to her, sending a thrill down her spine that reminded her exactly why she’d done what she’d done last night.

  “I’d say the jury’s still out.” She gave him a wink, and he wrapped an arm around her, placing a kiss on her forehead.

  “Let’s get some sleep.”

  But as she followed him back upstairs, between the talk of dragons and the sight of Harrison’s shirtless body, sleep was about the last thing on her mind.

  13

  Marian was up late the next morning, and as she groggily got up, she realized Harrison was already gone.

  First up, last asleep. Not a bad recipe for a leader.

  She found her way back to her room at the rear of the house, changed, took a quick shower, and got breakfast just as Reno came into the kitchen asking her to help him unload a truck with things he’d just picked up in town.

  Her body was still sore from the sex, her mind still hazy from the overload of information that was still settling on her thoughts like thick syrup.

  For a few minutes, she was quiet as she picked up bags and took them inside to place on the table, while Reno carried heavy sacks of things like potatoes and rice. She could feel Reno eyeing her, watching her like she was going to go off or something.

  Instead, she just noted that he carried about two hundred pounds of stuff with ease and nodded to herself.

  “So Clancy said you’re a wolf. That true?” she asked, curious to hear the man’s own story.

  “Through and through. Though, I don’t have a pack, so that makes me more of a rogue wolf.”

  “So there are actual packs of wolves? Wolves like you?” He handed her a bag of oranges, which she started to carry inside.

  “There are a lot of different types of shifters—those are people that can change into animals—out in this world. Wolves, bears, cats, lions—”

  “Dragons?”

  “Even dragons. There are whole hidden societies with rules and enforcers for those rules and leaders, the whole shebang.”

  “So where does the Dragonclaw Ranch fit into all of that?”

  He just grinned, noting how sharp his canines were when he did. Like a wolf’s. “It doesn’t. That’s why I love this place.”

  “Even when Beck’s giving you crap?”

  He laughed nervously. “Beck means well. But yeah, even when he’s at his worst. The five of us just live, away from all of—” He waved a hand out in front of him, toward the east. “That. We get to make our own rules, live off the land with total freedom. Just us and nature, you know?”

  She nodded. The idea of it was more interesting than even she thought possible when she’d first driven here on Freddie’s last good leg.

  “Don’t get me wrong. There are still some rules.”

  “Like what?” she asked.

  “Like not revealing the existence of shifters to people. I mean, can you imagine the fuss?”

  “I can.” She laughed, imagining what Aunt Edith’s reaction would be to what Marian had seen last night. “What other rules are there?”

  Reno paused, light-blond hair almost translucent in the sunlight. “I guess that’
s about the only major rule. I mean, most types of shifters have their own rules about their societies, diplomacy, mating…”

  “Mating? What’s that?”

  Reno looked away awkwardly, mouth shut as if he wasn’t sure if he’d somehow gone too far.

  Before he could answer, though, she heard the clop of two horses approaching, and she turned around to see Harrison atop his giant stallion, Rusty, and leading another horse by the reins behind him.

  She recognized the dappled gray mare as Cookie, one of their shortest range horses.

  Harrison was handsome, as always, wearing a plaid shirt with the cuffs rolled up and his big, scuffed brown cowboy boots.

  He nodded directly at her. “Get on. We’re riding.”

  She turned and looked up at him, glad a few clouds had blocked the sun for a moment so she wouldn’t have to squint. “What if I don’t feel like it?” She was curious to hear more of what Reno had been talking about. That, and she didn’t really know what to say to him, the awkward air hanging between them, threatening like storm clouds.

  What did she even have to say to him at this point?

  That was an amazing night, but I don’t date cowboys. Oh, and you’re also a dragon, so that makes us… incompatible?

  How did marriage even work for dragons? None of these men looked hitched at the moment.

  “You’re coming,” he said again. “Reno will be fine unloading the rest of the truck.”

  She turned in the hopes Reno would be understanding, but he was already halfway to the house, hands full.

  Harrison came alongside Marian, so toweringly big and sexy she didn’t even see something resting on the horn of his saddle until he’d picked it up and plopped it on top of her head.

  She grabbed the white Stetson he’d unapologetically put on her without asking and took a better look at it.

  It was surprisingly lightweight, brand new and probably quite expensive, made of sturdy materials while still having a small black band around the crown with a turquoise stone set in the front. The kind of hat you could wear six days a week on the range and still take to church with you on Sunday.