Daddy Dragon Guardians: The Complete Series Boxset, page 21
Once the chaos had died down, it was Holden’s turn to challenge. “Beau, truth or dare.”
The crowd faced a blonde man across the circle. Autumn knew he was a shifter like Holden was, but she hadn’t officially met him. His pale hair was swept back, revealing a strong face and full lips. He had been quiet so far during the party, and now that it was his turn, he leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs. Autumn realized this was the same man she had admired near the fire. “Truth.”
Holden, apparently feeling that he could still get something in on his fellow dragon, nodded. “Alright. Tell us what wish you sent up to the dragon spirits.”
Beau looked shocked for a moment, his eyebrows raising. He pulled in a deep breath, and Autumn thought for a moment that he might refuse and take a dare instead. “To find a mother for Elliot and complete my family.”
“I’m glad to hear it!” Holden stood up and crossed the circle to clap his brother on the back. “Your turn.”
Autumn wondered to herself why this time of year seemed to focus so much on finding love. Was it because the dark winter months were coming, and nobody wanted to spend them alone? Or was it some innate biological urge so that babies would be born in the spring like other animals? She shook her head. Her mind was wandering to strange places that evening.
The corner of Beau’s mouth tipped up, a handsome look on his face as he turned to Xander. “Truth or dare?”
Xander, who was the one who had been so interested in the game in the first place, replied, “Dare!”
“I dare you to eat a piece of celery.” Beau nodded to one of the food tables.
He had been so animated only a moment ago, but his face instantly molded into one of disgust. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Nope.” Beau shook his head. “You took the dare.”
“Fine,” Xander replied with a sigh. He went to the food table and picked up a green stick between his thumb and forefinger, barely wanting to even touch it. “God, and it’s got cream cheese on it, too!”
The other dragons exploded in laughter, and even Leah had her fingers over her mouth as she giggled. “I’m sorry, Xander. I didn’t know until I’d already made them that celery is basically the antithesis of anything dragons like.”
“It’s not your fault,” he replied, glaring at Beau. But he gamely took a bite, chewing and swallowing as quickly as he could while everyone else laughed and wiped tears from their eyes.
Several more truths and dares were traded around the room without the game losing its energy, and Autumn suddenly found herself asked the question, “Truth or dare?” It had come from Summer, of course.
She didn’t want to be there in the first place, but she wasn’t about to be the one who ruined the party. “Dare.”
Summer looked particularly devious. “I dare you to do that one thing you used to do when we were kids and we were bored.”
“You don’t mean…?”
Summer nodded. “I do.”
“Alright.” She felt ridiculous, but what Summer was asking wasn’t nearly as personal as Holden turning into his dragon or Beau admitting his most secret desires. She danced her finger through the air, feeling the eyes of everyone else on her. Thinking of the way that George Stone and his followers in town thought of her, she wasn’t sure she should be performing any kind of magic in front of others, even if they were supposed to be Leah’s trusted friends. Still, she couldn’t stop now. The carrots on the table stood up on end, dancing in a row. Several of the strange Charokian meatballs rolled off their platter and intermingled with the carrots, creating an intricate dance as they wound their way to the end of the table. This was a trick she had used often, but not for many years; it was what had helped Autumn realize that the magical gene she had hoped to inherit from her mother was alive and well inside her.
Summer clapped, starting a new wave of applause amongst the party guests. “I think you’ve gotten even better!”
Autumn waved off the flattery. It was a silly child’s trick, and she felt heat in her cheeks as she realized everyone was staring at her. She dropped her finger, and the snacks fell where they were. The handsome blonde man on the other side of the circle was smiling at her, and she quickly looked away.
After several more rounds, Autumn felt she could finally get away with slipping out. Summer, enjoying spending the evening with Xander, didn’t seem inclined to leave anytime soon, and Autumn didn’t want to ruin her time. Truth or Dare was beginning to wind down, and she managed to excuse herself from the circle on the back patio. She bumped into Summer, who was just coming back out of the house with a plate in her hand.
“Where are you going?” her twin asked suspiciously.
“Home, preferably. Should I get a taxi, or are you planning to get a ride back with Xander?” He had come to the party early to help set up and to get Nora settled in with the others.
“I’ll ride with him. Besides, it would take forever for a taxi to get all the way out here and then find the place. You sure you want to leave? It’s still early.”
“Not really.” Autumn glanced at her watch. If she left right away, she could get home and be ready for bed in just over an hour. There would be just enough time to squeeze in about seven hours of sleep before getting up at her usual time. If she had things her way, she would wake up a little early and get some time in with the computer before she officially had to open the store.
As she made her way through the sun room and into the house, she stopped in her tracks when she saw a tiny boy standing in the hallway that led to the front door. He dragged a teddy bear by the leg and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “Dada?”
It had been a weird night, and she had spent most of it feeling uncomfortable and irritated, but now she only felt warm and loving inside as she bent down to kneel in front of the little one. “You’re looking for your daddy?” she asked gently. “I can help you.”
Unable to help herself, she scooped the child into her arms. He was warm and soft, smelling of bath soap and sleep. Autumn suddenly realized just why Summer had taken such an attachment to Nora. There was something about a child this age that was simply irresistible. “Come on. You can show me who your daddy is.”
Her desire to leave was instantly dissolved, relegated to the back of her mind as she stepped back through the sun room and outside. The boy in her arms, still clutching his teddy, pointed at the big blonde man Autumn had seen earlier. Her stomach lurched a little as she walked up to him, and she instantly chided herself for feeling nervous. He was just another person, and his son needed him. “Excuse me, Beau?”
He turned around, his eyes grazing across her face for a moment until he realized who was in her arms. “Elliot! What are you doing out of bed?” He immediately took the child into his own arms, not angry or upset that he had interrupted the party, and cuddled him close.
Autumn felt a distinct emptiness where the little one had been only a moment ago. “I found him in the hall, and he was asking for you.”
Beau smiled down at Elliot. “Did you have a bad dream or something?”
But Elliot pointed at the bonfire. “Party!”
The big man laughed. “We already had the party, remember?” He turned to Autumn. “We let the kids have their own little version of Zimryr earlier in the evening. I guess he didn’t quite get enough. Let’s get you back to bed.”
But Julian appeared, the worry on his face instantly turning to relief when he saw Elliot in his father’s arms. “There you are! I was sitting there reading, and then all of a sudden, he was gone! I should have known, though. He was so excited about the party that he didn’t want to go to sleep.”
Beau gave his son more hugs and kisses before he let Julian take him back to bed. He watched them go through the house and down the hall before he turned back to Autumn, his eyes still warm. “Sorry, I hope he didn’t interrupt your fun. The two of us are pretty close.”
“I can see that.” And she truly could. The bond between the two of them radiated such energy that it was impossible to miss, even if she wasn’t a psychic like Leah. “He’s adorable.”
“Thank you. I don’t think we’ve officially met. I’m Beau.” He held out his hand.
Autumn took it, instantly feeling that same warmth she had seen in his eyes radiate up her arm and through her chest. She didn’t know what it was, and she normally would have questioned anything that seemed like magic if she didn’t understand it, but this man was sweeping her off her feet. “I’m Autumn. I’m Summer’s twin.”
Beau looked across the patio at Summer and then back at her. “Are you sure? The two of you don’t seem to be anything alike.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Autumn replied with a surprisingly girlish giggle. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my sister, but everyone always expects the two of us to think the same way and like the same things.”
“I can understand that.” Beau stepped aside to a table of pitchers and cups. He poured a drink and handed it to her before pouring one for himself. The cup looked small in his large hands. He looked completely comfortable in his body, showing no sign of having to live between two completely different forms. “I have a feeling everyone here imagines that Holden, Xander, Julian, and myself are all the same guys since we’re all from the same planet. And then there’s that whole part about us being dragons. But there’s really quite a few differences between us.”
Autumn took a sip of her drink. It was fizzy and tasted like nothing she’d had before, though she couldn’t quite place it. It must have been another one of Leah’s attempts to replicate Charokian holiday traditions. “Like what?”
Beau gestured around them at the grand house. “Take this place, for instance. It suits Holden well, but I don’t think I’d like to rattle around in such a big house. Everyone needs a little space, but I like things to be a little bit more cozy.”
“Makes sense to me.” Autumn’s house was huge compared to Summer’s little cottage, but it was merely a guesthouse compared to the lavish mansion Holden had. “I bought my house because it has these great old wooden floors and little secret passages that go between some of the rooms. I feel like the spirits of those who lived there before are still there, and I just adore it.”
“My place has some neat features, too, and I’m adding to it all the time.”
“You do the work yourself?” If someone had asked her, Autumn wouldn’t have said she found it attractive when a man knew how to use tools and build things with his hands, but for some reason the idea made her stomach jump around.
He nodded. “I do. I’m pretty passionate about it, really. The guys have suggested that I start doing it for a living, but I’m not sure. I don’t want to ruin it with money.”
Autumn started to agree with him simply because she found herself so entranced by this handsome blonde man, but she realized just before she answered that she didn’t feel the same way. “It’s pretty nice, actually. I love running The Enchanted Elm because it allows me to get involved in my craft without having to feel guilty about it. I never have to take off work to do the things I love because I’m already doing them. Really, it’s the opposite. I almost didn’t come tonight because I wanted to work.”
“That would have been a shame.” His eyes flicked to her lips and then back up again, just enough to let Autumn know he was feeling the same things she was. “What sort of work would you have done if you hadn’t been suckered into strange food and party games?”
Without going into too much detail, she told him about her ideas for expanding to an online store and starting a blog. “As a matter of fact, I was just getting ready to go. It’s too late to work on it tonight, but I’ve got to get up early and get back to the office.”
“I’ll walk you to the door.”
Autumn felt extremely aware of every part of her body as she stepped alongside him. She could still feel those waves of heat rolling off his body, fighting off any bit of the autumn chill that was trying to settle in the air. It was a pleasant sensation, and she was wondering if it had anything to do with the fact that he was a dragon, but she didn’t dare ask.
Now, with her hand on the doorknob, she looked up at Beau. Autumn always felt tall and distant from those around her, but this man completely changed that. If she had wanted to, she could have tucked herself right under his arm. It was a very tempting thought. “Well, it was nice to meet you.”
“Maybe we could talk some more sometime? Over dinner perhaps?” His cobalt eyes burned into hers as he waited for her answer.
He was so charming he was even making her tongue tingle, and Autumn pressed it firmly against her mouth for a moment to make sure it behaved itself. “Sure. That’d be nice.”
It was difficult to drive home. It wasn’t that she had a problem with driving or that her night vision was poor, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Beau. To make things even worse, she couldn’t stop thinking about Elliot, either. He and his father were equally appealing, in different ways. And the way Beau had looked at her as she had slipped out the door made her think that if the circumstances had been just right, he might have kissed her right then and there.
When she got home, her house seemed empty and quiet compared to the noise and vigor of the party at Holden and Leah’s. She locked the door behind her and began getting ready for bed, wondering if she would even be able to sleep with thoughts of Beau spinning in her head. As she got undressed, she once again found the tiny gold ring that Leah had baked into the hors d’oeuvres, the one that was supposed to symbolize Autumn finding her true love. She delicately set it on the dresser, wondering just how much power had been put into the slim band of metal.
4
Beau walked through the living room and toward the kitchen to get a snack for Elliot.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Holden asked from the couch, his dark eyebrows raised.
“Elliot always has a snack around this time. I don’t want him to miss out just because I’m going out for the night.” It had occurred to him just as he was getting ready to shave. It was no wonder he was always the one who volunteered to stay behind with the kids, because he never stopped worrying about them otherwise. Even having them right there at Holden’s house during the Zimryr party had only comforted him a small amount.
“He’s not going to miss out on anything,” Holden argued. “Let me take care of it. You need to go put some pants on. I have a feeling the restaurant isn’t going to let you in without them.”
Beau looked down to see that Holden was right. He had ironed and put on a nice, button-down shirt and had spent far too long picking out a tie. He had even made sure his socks coordinated with the rest of his outfit, but he had left his freshly-pressed trousers lying on the bed and was standing there in his boxers. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”
When he was ready to go, he went back to the living room and glanced at the mantel clock. Even spending what time he had on his outfit, it was still far too early to leave. He paced in front of the large picture window that faced the street.
“You look like a caged animal,” Holden remarked, looking far too relaxed from his position on the couch. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Mostly.” He was a dragon. He was far stronger and more powerful than any human—and most of the animals—on the planet, yet his nerves were rattling against his bones.
“This is exactly why I’ve been trying to get you to go out more. It’s too difficult to handle when you’re not used to it.” Holden leaned forward to give Finn and Elliot each another cracker, but he kept his eyes on Beau.
“I don’t think that’s it.” Beau had been over and over it in his head, wondering if it was at all possible. “I think I would be nervous no matter what.”
“Oh?” If possible, that eyebrow went a little higher.
Beau hesitated to tell Holden just what he had been thinking. If he was wrong, then he would look like a fool. But if he was right, then he would probably need the assistance of his fellow dragons just to keep himself a check. “Don’t get excited, but there’s a possibility that she just might be the one.”
Holden was on his feet, his hands out in the air as he exclaimed. “Seriously? That’s wonderful! Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I don’t know. I just kept questioning myself. I remember what you and Xander had both said when you met Leah and Summer, and about how being around them drove you absolutely crazy. I certainly felt something with Autumn, but I’m not sure it was completely the same.”
“Tell me.”
“It started when we were out at the bonfire behind your house and putting our requests into the fire. I wasn’t kidding when I said I had written down that I wanted to find my mate. I felt a little silly about it, because I wasn’t even sure if things would work the same way on Earth. But as I watched that paper curl up and turn to ash, it was like all of a sudden I felt something crawling under my skin. I can’t be certain, but I think it was about the time that Autumn arrived.”
Holden gestured for him to continue. “And then what happened?”
“Well, I kept looking at her, but she hadn’t even so much as given me a glance. So I thought I was just wrong, or that maybe I’d gotten all caught up in the holiday. But then we started that game of Truth or Dare, and she finally looked across the room at me.” He could still recall the way she had completely set him on fire with something as simple as a curious glance.
“Did she make you feel like you needed to shift right there on the spot? Like you couldn’t hold your dragon side back anymore?”
And this was exactly what had made Beau wonder if he had been wrong. “No. I mean, not at first. I could definitely tell I was attracted to her, and it was a strong feeling, but it wasn’t like that. It was just pleasant to be near her while we played and then later on when Autumn and I talked. And I have to say, she looked amazing as she came up to me with Elliot in her arms. It wasn’t until she left that I thought I might lose it.” Beau had watched her walk down the driveway and get in her car, gripping the doorframe to keep himself from running into the night and pulling her into his arms. He hated the idea that she might go out there into the world without him, that something might happen to her and he would be powerless to stop it. “I only had to wait a couple of days before our date, but it’s almost been too much. I can’t tell you how many times it occurred to me to just go to her. I wanted to go right down to her shop and demand that we go out right away.”
