Dragon's Second Chance Romance - Riley Storm Page 0,1
of his upper body. “You know that. It’s not that easy.”
Despite herself and the situation, Claire snorted. “Yes Pete, it is that easy. I’m out, and that’s that. You need to get that through your head.”
“Nobody just gets out,” Pete growled, face darkening with anger as she continually defied him.
Claire knew him well though. Pete wasn’t a genius, but he was well aware that they were in public. That anyone could be watching through the windows. He wouldn’t do anything to endanger her, which in turn emboldened Claire.
“What do I have to say to tell you that I’m done, Pete? That you and I are done?”
She should have known better than to say yes to going out with Pete. But Claire had always been a sucker for tattoos, muscles, and boys who broke the rules. It was a combo that always seemed to get the best of her.
Until Pete, however, she’d never let herself get involved in whatever it was they were doing. She had a strict rule against that, but Pete…Pete had just been so convincing. Now he wasn’t letting go.
“We’re not done unless I say we’re done,” Pete snarled at her, his chest swelling as he puffed it up like a peacock, thinking it would perhaps intimidate her into coming back.
“I’m not going back. End of story,” she said, standing her ground, trying not to let her nerves show as she swallowed around the lump in her throat.
Stand your ground, girl.
“Yes, you are,” Pete hissed. “You’re coming back with me, or else.”
Claire’s blood turned to ice. It was the first time that Pete had ever threatened her so blatantly. He’d yelled and screamed before, he’d guilt-tripped her, but never had he been so direct about it.
“Or else what?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Pete sneered. “Or else I show everyone how ‘not innocent’ you really are. I’ll show them what you were really doing with me up in Kennewick Falls.”
Claire sighed. “You know what Pete? Honestly. Go ahead. If you want to release a tape of us having sex to embarrass me, go ahead. At least then it’s out there and done, and I don’t have to have it hanging over my shoulder anymore.”
He laughed in her face. “Oh no, those tapes stay with me. Nobody but me gets to see those.”
The urge to vomit came rushing back at the thought of what Pete did when he watched those videos.
“What the hell are you talking about then?” she asked, unnerved by his reaction.
“You come back with me, or this makes it out to the news stations,” he said, holding out his phone and hitting play.
Claire watched stony-faced as the video played. “Shut it off,” she said quietly.
“How do you think your lawyer daddy will take it when he sees that, hmm?” Pete said, all but crowing with victory. “Or that precious little BFF of yours who you never told about me? How will she judge you?”
“You wouldn’t,” Claire said icily, trying to intimidate Pete.
It was hard, given that she was a full foot shorter than him; 5’3 wasn’t anyone’s definition of an intimidating height. Not to mention where Pete was built like a tank, she was rounder. Softer.
She’d never understood what he saw in her, but Claire had fallen for the attention, and now he had a huge amount of leverage over her.
“You have two days,” Pete said with icy calm. “Then we’re heading back to Kennewick Falls together. Or you’ll be in jail after this gets out.”
Claire shivered.
“The choice is yours.”
Then he was gone, leaving her to ponder her choice.
God, dating him was such a mistake.
Chapter Two
Pietro
Embarrassing memories were the worst. They never went away, and they insisted on popping up at the worst of times. In the shower. Late at night while trying to sleep. Or while utterly bored doing nothing.
Pietro was bored out of his mind. He shouldn’t be, of course.
Guarding a Gate to the Otherworld wasn’t boring in practice. The oval-shaped tear in reality in front of him could spew forth any number of evil creatures, at any point in time. The dark inky black haze of energy, occasionally shot through with deep hues of purple or blue, was surrounded by a gray-white sparkling border of energy where the Gate met reality and blended together.
It was both quite beautiful and quite unnerving. If looked at for the first time. Or the tenth. But Pietro was in his mid-thirties now and had been pulling Gate duty since he was twenty-one, like every dragon shifter.