In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,4
pulled back the opening and stepped into her little ‘room’.
Damn. He’s just as hot as he was last night.
Part of Laura had hoped her fear-addled brain had imagined it. As it was turning out, it might have been understating things. She tried to ignore the obvious muscles contained beneath his shirt and focus on his face. His handsome, weathered, and delightfully cheerful looking face.
“Yes?” he asked when she didn’t immediately speak.
“Umm.” Laura licked her lips—you are not nervous around him. You are not!
“Do you need the nurse?” Rakell asked. “I can call Cindy if you want, she’ll be here in a second.”
Laura fought down a ridiculous surge of irritation that he was on a first name basis with her nurse already. Why the hell should that matter? Why wouldn’t anyone be friendly with this suave, charming, salt-and-pepper haired hunk? It was just too easy, really. He inspired that sort of calm, trusting manner where you were comfortable opening up around him.
Fighting down the same urge within herself, Laura shook her head in response to his question. “No, you’re the one I wanted to talk to.”
Rakell looked startled, then perhaps a little pleased. “I am?”
You won’t be once I keep talking.
“Yes. I want you to go home, Rakell,” she said, fixing him with her best stare, so that he would know she meant business. “I’m not interested in having you follow me around like some sort of lame puppy dog.”
The big man snorted. “What a cute comparison.”
“I mean it Rakell. I don’t need your service as some sort of ‘bodyguard’,” she said, trying to remain as firm as possible. “If I were going to hire someone, I’d make sure they were properly trained as well.”
Rakell’s eyes glowed with insult. “I assure you,” he said in a quiet voice. “That nobody you hire would be as well suited to this particular job, at this particular time, as I am.”
Fighting off a shiver at his vague, nearly ominous words, Laura sat up in the bed. “And I can assure you, that I’m perfectly fine and can take care of myself. I. Don’t. Need. You.”
Nor do I want some unknown man following me around. Like I would just let you into my house?
Laura started considering different options, if she couldn’t persuade him to go on home and leave her alone. A plan started to formulate in her mind.
“I’m not here to take care of you,” Rakell pointed out. “I am your bodyguard, not your nanny. You will only notice me if an external threat presents itself.”
“Oh, I see. So until then, you’re just going to what?” she asked him, crossing her arms sourly. “Do you hide in a lamp? If I rub it will you come out and beat up the bad guy? Or what, how does it work? Because in case you missed it, you kind of stand out in a crowd Rakell. You’re huge, tall and wide.”
For a brief moment she seemed to have perplexed him.
“I can be very stealthy if I need to be,” he said at last, nodding as if he’d managed to convince himself with that statement.
“You’re as stealthy as Shaq playing against a group of middle-schoolers,” she muttered.
“Who?”
“Never mind,” she said with an irritated wave of her hand. “Is there anything I can say that will convince you to leave me alone and just go back to wherever you came from?”
“Mount Teres.”
Laura sighed. “Fine. ‘Mount Teres’. There, will you go now? That seems kind of silly as a code phrase you know.”
Rakell was frowning mightily.
“What is it? If you keep looking at me with that expression, it might become permanent.”
“Mount Teres,” he repeated. “That’s where I came from.”
Laura’s mouth dropped open. How had he missed the sarcasm? Okay, time to make it more blatant. “Well duh Rakell. That’s where all you dragon shifters hang out. I know what you meant. I was making a joke, because you’re annoying me already.”
“What’s a dragon shifter?” he asked. “Why do you keep saying that?”
“Oh my god,” she moaned. “Why can’t you just drop the ‘I’m dumb and ignorant’ act and accept that I know? This is so irritating. We both know that you’re full of it and you know darn well what I mean.”
Rakell frowned. “I actually have no idea what you mean Laura. Dragon shifters? Why are you so convinced that I am one of these things, whatever they are?”
“You know what?” she said, wishing there was a wall she could bash her head into in frustration. “Never. Mind. Just