I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie (The I Like Big Dragons Series) (18 page)

He was different.

Something about him was off since the last time I’d inspected him, but I couldn’t tell exactly what.

The next thing to go were his pants.

I don’t know when he’d shucked his boots, but the pants slipped all the way down until they were resting on the concrete that surrounded the pool.

“I’m making sure you’re protected,” he finally said, taking a seat in only his boxers, letting his feet dangle over the side of the pool.

The dragons immediately went to him, butting at his feet to garner his attention.

“How?” I asked stiffly.

He leaned down, allowing his hands to dangle in the water, and chilled the water around the swimming dragons.

What he didn’t do, however, was make the water around me cold.

“Whoa,” I said breathily, realizing what he was doing. “How are you doing that?”

“Practice,” he teased, repeating my earlier words.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“You didn’t answer how you were protecting me,” I told him stubbornly.

He leaned back, placing his hands directly behind him, displaying his stomach—and abs— to me.

I licked my lips, temporarily distracted once again.

I really needed to get a hold of these hormones. They were going to be the death of me.

Suddenly he stood, gesturing to me.

I made my way out of the water, walking to the side of the pool until I reached the stairs, and climbed out.

He was there waiting for me with a fluffy beach towel I’d made him purchase for me at the Wal-Mart on one of his secret missions.

The early ones where I wasn’t quite so concerned about what he was doing while alone for hours on end.

I took the towel and slipped my feet into the flip-flops he had waiting for me, then took his hand that he had extended out to me.

“Where are you taking me?” I
questioned, following behind him easily enough.

He walked me through the sanctuary and not one single time did I get a dirty look.

“Why aren’t any of them looking at me?” I wondered.

He laughed.

“Because they can’t see you,” he offered.

I blinked, taking in the area surrounding me.

“Why’d you do that?” I questioned, sticking my hand out to touch a man’s forearm.

He blinked and turned, but didn’t see anything so he went back to the conversation he was having with one of the men from the stables.

Another place that I’d found that I adored going to over the past few weeks.

Keifer tugged my arm when he realized that I’d stopped, and I followed behind him once again.

“Because I don’t want them to see your near nakedness, I think I’ve shared you enough for one day,” he informed me.

I huffed out a laugh. “They didn’t see anything important. Not to mention I’m completely covered in a towel. What are they going to see now? My shoulders?”

He pinched my ass through the towel, causing me to yelp in surprise.

People who’d been milling about turned to look for the person who’d made the sound, but quickly went back to their conversations or duties.

Darcy Manor and the sanctuary beyond it resembled a small city.

It took a lot of upkeep to keep the surrounding one hundred miles of the sanctuary in order.

So, at any given time, there were over two hundred people on-site maintaining the grounds, caring for the plant life, keeping the sanctuary mowed and weed free. There were stables, so there were people to keep the stables in working order.

There was an infirmary the size of a small county hospital also on the grounds, which was where I’d been spending more and more of my time.

There was a small restaurant and café.

A bank.

Staff living quarters.

And a bar.

Everything a small town needed.

All of it was packed into a small area that was always bustling with activity, and I’d learned that it’d all been because of Keifer.

Keifer made all of this possible for his people.

They needed a safe place, so he provided it, making sure it met all of their needs.

As long as they were willing to help out, he was happy to make sure they had everything they needed.

“How do you like working in the infirmary?” Keifer asked suddenly, interrupting my thoughts about his small city.

I shrugged. “It’s a little low key for what I’m used to, but I think I can grow to like it.”

He studied his hands. “There’s about to be a lot more use for it, once we go to war.”

I turned to him suddenly.

“I’ve not heard anything about war!” I insisted.

He shrugged. “That’s what this is all about. During the day, we go hunting to find those Purists intent on destroying our cause.”

“And how exactly do you find them?” I questioned.

“That’s what we’ve been doing in the first part of the days. We locate them and then pay them a little visit. If we don’t like how those men and women conduct themselves, or if they try to explain away what they’ve been doing to plot against us, we take care of them,” he said simply.

I was a little taken aback.

“So what…you kill them?” I asked in alarm.

He shot me a reproving look. “You damn well know I don’t just kill them.”

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “But you have to do something with them.”

My observation fell on deaf ears when I walked around the corner of the hospital.

I’d never ventured that far.

I didn’t know why.

Maybe a sense of self-preservation. I couldn’t really tell you why, only that I just never did.

And now, with my eyes on the big purple behemoth in front of me, I knew why.

There be dragons.

-T-shirt

Blythe

“He’s beautiful,” I breathed, eyes wide in wonder as I got my first good look at the old dragon.

Keifer nodded. “He is.”

His scales were the deepest hue of purple, edged with an iridescent silver, but when he took a breath, his scales would shimmer, and varying shades of purple would be revealed, nearly blinding you with their beauty.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked quietly.

Keifer shrugged. “He lost a wing, and after that, he kind of decided he no longer wanted to participate in life.”

When I made to take a step forward, he caught my wrist and stilled me.

“How horrible. How does he live?” I gasped in outrage.

“He’s able to live just fine. He just can’t fly. At least not for the time being,” he explained. “Dragons can grow missing body parts back. It just takes a very,
very
long time. Years, sometimes decades. He’s also cantankerous,” Keifer continued. “Let him be. I don’t want him to hurt you.”

“I won’t get too close,” I ignored him and kept walking, Keifer at my back.

I came to a stop underneath a tree, gazing down on the massive beast who was dozing just down the hill, only feet away from the large pond that I’d only heard about, but had yet to find.

“Is he the reason no one will tell me where the pond is?” I asked with a smile.

Keifer came up to stand beside me, his shoulder brushing mine.

“Yeah, he’s it,” he confirmed. “He’s old, irritable and doesn’t like people much. He was my father’s bonded dragon, and he hasn’t been the same since my father was killed.”

“He’s heartbroken,” I murmured, tears threatening to spill.

Keifer shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows? He doesn’t talk to any of us either. The younger dragons,” he indicated a few of the dragons that were flying over our heads. “They bring him food so he doesn’t have to move. I don’t know if they do that to be nice, or because he makes them. Whatever the reason, he doesn’t have much reason to move.”

“Where does he poop?” I asked.

Keifer huffed out an amused snort of laughter. “I don’t know. I don’t really care as long as it’s not in the middle of the road where we have to walk.”

Such a man, not caring what happens as long as it doesn’t affect him.

“What makes him so dangerous?” I questioned.

Keifer slung his arm around my shoulder.

“He bit a man’s leg off a couple of years ago,” he expounded. “He was only walking down to the pond to fish, but Angus counts the fish as his friends and took offense to him trying to catch them.”

I laughed. “You’re lying. I saw the one-legged man at the hospital. It happened because he was beating a woman and some dragon took offense.”

He was trying to scare me off from the wounded soul down below, but I wouldn’t be.

The dragon, Angus, needed a friend, and I’d be just the one to offer him one.

“So why are you showing me Angus?” I asked softly.

I knew he had something on his mind.

He wouldn’t have brought me here if he hadn’t had something to say.

“When I become King…there will be new duties. I’ll be away more, expected to travel. I’ll have to give up the club, because there are those of us that don’t like the fact that the Dragon’s Warriors MC is so hardcore looking,” he sighed. “Which means I’ll have to become someone who isn’t, well,
me
.”

“That’s why you didn’t want to be King. You don’t want to be, period. You want to live your life, not have how you live your life dictated to you by others and their expectations,” I surmised, awareness of the situation dawning.

He nodded. “The dragon riders are a very old bunch. There are millions of us in this country, and even more outside of the country. We’re loyal to our own, sometimes to a point of snobbery. And I don’t want to be that.
I want to be able to enjoy my life.” He ran his hands along his scalp, making the already unruly hair even worse
. “I’m up to be King because that’s what dragon rider’s law dictates. The firstborn son of the King in the royal bloodline will take up the mantle once the old King is no more. That’s me. And that’s what our son will have waiting for him as well.”

He didn’t sound happy about that fact.

“Who says you have to give up your life to become King?” I worried.

“Derek is from the noble bloodline. His father was my father’s chief advisor. A trusted member of the dragon family hierarchy. He told my father what to do, how to act, what was acceptable, etcetera. And that’s what Derek will do for me. But…I just don’t want to do that. I like working at the shop on my cars. I like being in my club. Being home with you on weekends. This last couple of weeks has been torture. All day meetings lasting until night has fallen. Hunting the P
urists once the sun sets.” He shook his head
. “I don’t mind the hunting part. But they won’t let me do that for long. Once I’m officially King, I’m gone. I become too important to lose.”

I turned him by yanking on his hand.

“What makes you think any of your future followers want that for you?” I asked him.

His beautiful gold eyes, bored into me. “Thousands and thousands of years of tradition. Advisors. Brothers. My mother. My sister. You. I have to be that for you all.”

I shook my head. “No. You do that for you…if that’s what you want to do. For us, you just be you. That’s all we ever want.”

He shook his head. “It’s not that easy. Trust me.”

I crossed my arms. “No, it probably is that easy. It’s you that’s making it that hard.”

He opened his mouth, and then shut it again just as quickly.

“We’ll see,” he muttered, turning to watch the dragon as he started to stand.

“If you leave your club, your friends that have been there for you when you weren’t King, then you’ll lose them. Do they know what you’re planning yet?” I asked carefully.

Keifer looked back down at me once again. “No.”

I smiled. “Then if you want my honest opinion, I’d say fuck ‘em. You’re not your father, and this isn’t fourteen years ago when he was King, or even two hundred years ago. This is a new era. You have to adapt to the time. Nobody wants a lazy King. They want one that they know they can count on to handle whatever lays ahead,”

“And Keifer,” I said, smiling, “that’s you.”

“That dragon right there. That’ll be me if I lose you,” he whispered.

I turned to survey the old dragon once again.

“Then we’ll make sure you don’t lose me.”

Keifer

Blythe’s words ran through my mind over and over again.

That’s you.

Maybe she was right.

I wasn’t the type of person to sit inside and hear grievances all day.

I was an action man.

I liked to get my hands dirty working on cars.

I liked to run outside. I liked to fight with Declan. I liked to shoot skeet and hunt.

Which begged to wonder…why was I going along with the wishes of another when that’s not what I wanted?

As I looked down at Blythe, her sleeping body cuddled close to mine, I knew I had a lot of decisions to make.

Starting right here.

And I would be the best father and, very soon, husband, I could be.

I opened up the box I’d kept in my pocket since two days after I’d met Blythe, and studied the diamond ring.

It was a simple band…from the outside.

On the inside, I’d had inscribed the dragon rider’s code.

Free. Hard. Forever. Until the last breath.

And I felt that that described the love I felt for Blythe to a T.

“What are you doing on my back?” Blythe mumbled sleepily, not opening her eyes.

A smile tipped up the corner of my mouth as I looked at her face.

So peaceful.

The moonlight reflected off her face perfectly, allowing me to see the light dusting of freckles on the bridge of her nose. The delicate black lashes of her eyes resting on her smooth cheeks. The sweep of brown hair that surrounded her beautiful face and trailed along her shoulders. The black satin nightgown that’d ridden up over her butt, giving me just a teasing glimpse of her sweetness.

“Your ring,” I murmured. “I was trying to decide whether to just put it onto your finger now or actually ask you.”

“Ask me,” she whispered huskily. “The answer may surprise you.”

I grinned.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, running two fingers down the length of her spine.