The Old Dragon of the Mountain's Christmas (Dragon Lords of Valdier #9) (6 page)

Edna couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so much. Her gaze followed Christoff as he played with Bo and his symbiot. She decided she needed to come up with a name for the creature. Another laugh escaped her when the symbiot turned to look at her as if knowing she was thinking about it and Bo tackled it, causing it to roll in the snow. Her eyes widened when it stood up and shook. Snow flew outward, coating Christoff and Bo, tiny sparkles of ice crystals clung to its’ body.

“Spark,” she murmured. “I’ll call you Spark.”

Warmth sweep through her from the twin golden bracelets she wore, showing her that the symbiot was very pleased with its new name. Deciding that the three of them were having way too much fun, she bent to scoop up a handful of snow and formed a nice little snowball. Taking aim, she threw it, striking Christoff in the chest. A soft squeak escaped her when he turned in surprise.

“Oh, dear,” Edna whispered, realizing that she might just have started something she wasn’t sure how to finish if the heat in his eyes was anything to go by. “Christoff…,” she started to say, backing up.

A soft gasp escaped her when her foot caught in the snow and she started to fall. She found herself wrapped in Christoff’s arms before she could hit the ground. He rolled with her so that he was lying in the snow, not her.

“You must be careful,” he whispered, gazing up at her.

“How did you move so fast?” She asked in wonder.

Christoff’s expression grew serious. “I am not as fast as others of my kind,” he admitted, turning his head to look at where his symbiot and Bo chased each other. “I am… smaller compared to other males of my species.”

He turned back to look at Edna when she gently cupped his cheek. His breath caught in his throat when she bent her head to brush a tender kiss across his lips before raising her head to look at him again. There was a look of uncertainty in her gaze, but also something else, a tenderness that warmed his soul.

“I think you are perfect the way you are,” Edna whispered, gazing down at him with a serious expression. “I’ve never liked men who were really tall. It is hard when every time you want to talk to them you have to look up. It gives you a crick in the neck. It’s also harder to kiss them.”

Christoff’s gaze moved to her lips. “Do you try to kiss many of them?” He murmured.

“Only one, and he’s just right,” Edna replied, bending her head again.

She sighed as they kissed. They had kissed more in the past few hours than she had in the past six years! She felt like a horny teenager instead of a mature mother and grandmother. A moan escaped followed by a startled squeak when a very, very cold nose touched her cheek. Raising her head, she turned to glare at Bo.

“I swear you have the worst timing, Bo,” she muttered before she remembered where they were. A look of dismay crossed her face as she realized that Christoff’s backside was probably a Popsicle by now. “Oh, Christoff, you must be frozen.”

He chuckled and slid his hand down to her hips, pressing up with his so she could feel him. Her lips parted in an ‘O’. Well, at least that part of him wasn’t cold.

“I think Bo is ready to go back inside,” he said in a husky voice, grimacing when Bo tried to lick him. “The snow is falling harder and my dragon can sense a storm coming.”

She didn’t question how his dragon could sense a the upcoming storm, she just trusted that it could. Scooting down him, she blushed when her hand dipped below his waist and she could feel the evidence of his desire still pressing against his pants. Rising, she held her hand out to him.

He rolled to his feet, grasping her outstretched hand once he was standing. Pulling her closer, he bent and swept her up into his arms. He ignored her protests as he stepped through the thickening layer of snow.

“I can walk,” she protested. “I’ve lived in this area for years and can walk through a bit of snow.”

He shrugged. “I want to carry you,” he said. “I like you in my arms.”

Edna bit back the desire to release a childish sigh of exasperation and roll her eyes at him. Instead, she relaxed back against his warmth. A sudden thought caused her to frown.

“You feel so warm,” she said as he stepped up onto the porch.

Christoff bent his knees so he could open the door. He paused long enough to let his symbiot and Bo enter before he stepped in and closed it behind him. Only when they were standing in the warmth of the cabin did he set her back onto her feet.

“My dragon keeps me warm,” he admitted. “I am also used to living high in the mountains.”

Edna pulled her cap and gloves off, then unbuttoned her coat. She smiled her thanks when Christoff stepped around her to help her take it off. He hung it on the peg by the door before removing his coat.

“I tell you what,” she said, walking across the living room. “You put more pellets in the stove and another log on the fire and I’ll make us some hot chocolate and warm up some pie. Then, you can tell me about your mountain and I’ll tell you about mine.”

Christoff’s expression clouded and a small pout pulled at his bottom lip, making him appear younger than his years. The twinkle in his eyes didn’t hurt that image either, Edna thought as she turned away. If she wasn’t careful, she would end up back in his arms and something told her the next time that happened, it wouldn’t matter that they had only known each other for a few hours.

No, we’ll be in the bedroom – together before the night is over if he keeps looking at me the way he is,
she thought with amusement.

Walking into the kitchen, she pulled a small pot out and retrieved the milk. Within minutes, she was carrying a tray back into the living room with two steaming mugs of fresh hot chocolate and two pieces of apple pie with whipped cream, one slightly larger than the other carefully balanced on the decorative platter. She bent and set the tray on the oval coffee table. Her eyes glittered with amusement when she saw Bo and Spark curled up on Bo’s large doggy bed. Bo was passed out from all his playing and it looked like Spark wasn’t far behind the Golden.

“Spark appears to have found a friend,” Edna observed handing Christoff a cup of hot chocolate and the plate with the pie.

“Spark?” Christoff frowned and looked over to where his symbiot lay contently next to Edna’s furry creature.

She raised an eyebrow at Christoff. “I could hardly keep calling it your symbiot and I don’t recall you calling it by a different name,” she replied.

“I’ve never thought of naming it,” he said, lifting the drink in his hands to his lips. His eyes widened in delight when the rich chocolate washed over his tongue. “This is very good. What is it?”

“Hot chocolate with whipped cream,” she chuckled, watching as he licked the sweet, white cream off his upper lip. “Tell me about yourself, Christoff. Tell me where you come from,” she asked in a husky voice.

“There is not much to tell,” he replied.

Edna watched as Christoff’s eyes dimmed. He took another sip of his chocolate, remaining silent. It was as if he were afraid to share his life. Deciding that maybe if she told him a little bit about her life that he might relax, she released a sigh and sat back on the couch. Taking another sip of her drink, she set it on the small side table before leaning forward to pick up her own plate as she tried to think of what to tell him.

“Mm, I’ve always had a soft spot for hot apple pie and whip cream,” she reflected. “Of course, anything goes well with whipped cream, if you ask me.”

“Anything?” He asked, looking at the white, fluffy cream then at her.

Edna waved her fork at him and laughed. “You have a very one track mind, my darling alien,” she replied dryly before taking a bite of the pie.

“It’s not that hard to have when I am near you,” he muttered before bending his head to focus on his own dessert.

“You are amazingly good for my self-esteem,” she replied. “Hanson was too in his own way. We met at a Hollywood party. Back then, it was all glitter, glitz, and an insane amount of money. The big studios held the world in the palms of their hands and musicals were still very popular. I had been hired as a singer in one of the new ones being produced with some of Hollywood’s biggest names at the time. Abby’s grandparents were working on the choreography and music while Hanson was one of the producers.” She smiled as she remembered the days. “I don’t miss it, but it was nice to have been a part of that era. He came to me and that was it. We spent the rest of the evening dancing and talking. We did that for almost forty years before he fell asleep one night and never woke up.”

No longer hungry, she set the plate down on the small table next to her drink. She hated it when she got melancholic. Even though the memories were happy, they still hurt when she thought that Hanson was no longer there to share them with her. So many of her friends had either moved away, lost contact or passed away that she sometimes felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness inside her that she wondered what the future would hold for her. The one bright spot in her life was Shelly, Crystal, and Jack.

*.*.*

Christoff leaned forward and set his empty plate down on the table in front of him. Sitting back, he turned to look at her. She had that sad smile on her face again and her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

“You are lucky to have had someone,” he murmured, reaching out to touch her hand. “I have spent centuries alone. Until today, I never really knew just how alone I was.”

Edna looked at him in confusion. “Centuries? How is that possible?” She asked.

Christoff turned her hand over to stare down at her palm. He ran his thumb along the sensitive skin, noting how soft and delicate it looked against his own rough, scarred hand. He wondered how much to tell her, before deciding she deserved to know the truth about him before he claimed her.

No, after!
His dragon roared, fighting inside him.
She not want me.

She might… want us if she knows,
Christoff replied in a hesitant whisper to his dragon.

She not,
his dragon snarled with a shudder.
You see other girls in village. They make fun, laugh at us.

She didn’t laugh at me for being smaller than other males,
he argued.
She said she liked my size.

She not see little wings,
his dragon mourned.
Her dragon no want me.

“Christoff,” Edna said in a gentle voice, touching his cheek. “What is it? I see… I see something running across your skin.”

“My dragon, he is afraid,” Christoff admitted in a soft voice. He released her hand and stood up to stand by the fireplace. He stared down at it for several long minutes before he turned to look at her again. “I was born premature. I should have died. I would have, if not for my mother and father’s determination. Because of that, I was… different from the other younglings in the village. I was smaller, not as strong, and….”

He stopped and glanced at where Spark was on the bed next to Bo. His symbiot lifted its’ head and looked at him with sad eyes. He glanced at Edna before turning back to stare at the fire.

“And…,” Edna asked, rising from the dark brown leather sofa.

Christoff swallowed and straightened his shoulders. He ignored the howl of his dragon as it circled inside him before lying down and burying its’ head in sorrow. Edna deserved the truth about him.

“My symbiot and dragon were smaller as well,” he said, turning to gaze at her. “I was considered unfit to be a warrior; unworthy to be a true mate to a female. My dragon cannot fly. His wings never developed the way they should and cannot support our weight. I am… defective as a warrior.”

Edna shook her head and reached up to touch his face. He turned his cheek into her palm and closed his eyes. It felt so good to be touched. He was terrified now that he had experienced what it was like to be with someone else, someone that made him feel whole, that it would be impossible for him to go back to the solitude that had filled his life before.

“I’ve already told you that I like you just the way you are,” she said, gazing up at him. “Not too tall, not too short, just right as Goldilocks would say. I’ve never seen a dragon, so I wouldn’t know what to think in the first place.”

“Would you… Would you like to see him? My dragon?” Christoff asked with an expression of uncertainty. “This way you will know what I am.”

Edna blinked several times in surprise. He could see her hesitation and a mixture of fear and uncertainty. He braced himself for her answer even as his dragon roared at him in rage. He winced when he felt the sharp claws raking at his insides.

“Can you change… in here?” She asked, waving her hand at the living room. “I mean, aren’t dragons supposed to be huge? Even small ones?”

Christoff frowned as he glanced around the living room. He would have to move the furniture, but his dragon would fit in the large, open room.

“I will move the furniture back, but I can fit,” he assured her.

Edna released a soft breath and chuckled as she shook her head in disbelief. With a wave of her hand, she grinned up at him. He could see that she was scared, but she didn’t say no.

No yet,
his dragon growled in frustration.
She no want me. She no like me when she see me.