What Fire Dragons Treasure - Cristina Rayne Page 0,56

thought made her regret not trying to eat more at breakfast. She probably should have at least brought a bottle of water with her.

The next two hours were the longest Amber had ever experienced.

The elderly couple, the brunette in the business suit, and Mr. Bored and Mr. Thirty-something all were called back well before Amber. Only a couple of other people had arrived during that two-hour interval, and even one of them was called back before her. It was lucky that she wasn’t in a position to see the coffee shop across the street where Raphek and company were observing her and the building because she would have been hard pressed not to keep glancing out the window at it every few minutes.

As far as glancing at her, apparently all her worry had been for nothing. No one had even looked at her when she had walked past them to take her seat, and none had looked since. Otaron had been so right about people and their phones.

Unfortunately, all that forced idle time left her mind plenty of time to wander towards her newest possible upheaval. She’d had unprotected sex last night while her birth control schedule had been disrupted. Amber knew that dragon-shifters and human women could have children together since Princess Briana and Prince Astaron had a son. That meant Raphek was well aware, too. What did that mean?

That the possibility of a pregnancy didn’t enter his mind just didn’t mesh with the type of gravely serious man Raphek had presented from the day she had met him. Still, after spending a few days among the Rekkan, Amber was beginning to understand, not more about them, but just how woefully ignorant about their society and nature she was. It was obvious from the way Airon and Otaron had treated the whole courtship thing and what had happened last night between Raph and her that the old-fashioned human idea of courtships she’d had in mind wasn’t the same as a Draknos’s courtship. It was entirely possible that having children within Draknos courtships was a common practice.

Amber suddenly had a powerful urge to start bashing her head against the nearest wall. Why hadn’t she asked more questions like any normal, sane woman would have?

“Lucy Stephens.”

Amber jolted out of her self-castigation. The receptionist was staring at her expectantly. Crap! It was finally her turn—and it had to be when she had just finished twisting her emotions into a giant-sized pretzel of anxiety over a possible unplanned pregnancy.

“Ms. Madden says she can see you from now until noon. Not a minute past as she must leave the office to meet another client. Her office is the large one at the end of the hall.”

“Thank you.”

Yikes. That meant Amber only had twenty minutes to conduct her business.

Her lawyer’s brusque voice welcomed her in after one knock. Amber had never met the chestnut-haired forty-something woman sitting behind the desk in person, but she had spoken to her at length three times to date.

“After our last conversation, I have to say that I’m surprised to see you here in person, emergency or not, Mrs. Johnson,” Ms. Madden said as Amber took off her sunglasses and sat in one of the empty chairs in front of her desk.

Straight to business. Amber liked that.

“I know that our time is short, so I’ll make this as quick as I can,” Amber replied. “After the senator’s press conference, I thought it would be best to see you and let someone in the professional sphere know that I’m not dead rather than send an email that can’t really be one hundred percent proven that it came from me.”

“Indeed. The Johnson patriarch acted just as you said he would,” Ms. Madden said grimly.

“I know this whole mess is putting you and your practice in an uncomfortable spot, but I appreciate you seeing me today more than you know. Things escalated to absurd levels more quickly than even I expected. Senator Johnson has brought the FBI into my and Matty’s so-called missing persons case, and—”

“How do you know this?” Ms. Madden cut in sharply.

“I wanted to end that whole ‘missing persons’ nonsense, so I called the Houston PD a few hours after the senator’s press conference. I was transferred to an FBI agent. I told him about Garrett’s abuse and the fact that I was about to serve him with divorce papers but also was going to file a restraining order. I have a legal volunteer at a women’s shelter helping me