Drago (Second Wave Book 2) Page 8

  Devon laid her hands on the top of the dresser and studied her face in the mirror, trying to ignore the slight tremble in her hands. She thought of her plans and shook her head at what she knew she had to do. Damn if this wasn’t one of those times when she really hated who she was, she thought sadly.

  With a heavy sigh, she went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Her thoughts on the enigmatic man coming for dinner, she went through the motions of bathing mechanically. Before she knew it, she was drying off and getting ready.

  Finally dressed, she ran down the stairs pulling on a cardigan to block the chill. She headed into the kitchen and after looking into the refrigerator and seeing nothing but a bottle of wine and several take out containers that should have been thrown out days ago, she grabbed her stack of local menu’s and flipped through them quickly.

  Making her choice she called in her order before grabbing a glass and pouring herself a healthy volume of wine. She took a large sip before grabbing two more bottles from the cabinet and putting them on the counter. She looked out of the kitchen window and cursed the timing that had brought Drago fle’ te’ Trugh to her door.

  The worst part, in her mind, was that she liked him. He had been courteous and sweet. He may look like a sexy and dangerous giant, but he was so kind, you easily forgot the dangerous part. Sadly, that was the part she needed to worry about the most. Especially tonight.

  Tonight, she would have to pick the brain of an alien species and find out why he was here and what he was doing. And make sure he wouldn’t interfere with her plans. That was the most important part in her mind. With her boss in town, it didn’t bode well for any of them that a Tezarian had shown up. Especially when he was right down the road from her. What were the odds of that? She thought to herself sarcastically.

  Devon was no fool. The calls she had made about Drago and the things she had learned had not surprised her in the least. She had known what he was when she first saw him. Tezarians, Valendrans, Relians… blah, she thought, they were all hard not to recognize. Their sheer size was the first giveaway. The information she learned later had only confirmed her suspicions and created more questions that she wanted answers to.

  Devon took a large gulp of the wine before refilling the glass. She would have to keep her shit together tonight if she wanted to find out everything she needed to know from Drago. The only problem she saw with that, was that her body seemed to have its own damn mind around the man. It didn’t help that his sweet and polite nature kept throwing her off guard.

  Devon was convinced that he was more of a danger to her and her plans than even the boss coming to town. Taking another large gulp of wine, Devon poured the rest out in the sink. She needed a clear head tonight and certainly didn’t want alcohol to cloud what had to be done. No matter how much she would hate it.

  Devon moved to the cabinets and began to set the table for two, using the fine china and silver plated utensils. She had to stop herself from adding the candles to the table, reminding herself that there was nothing romantic about this evening. It was all business and she would keep it that way, she vowed. And in her business, she was the predator. Tonight, Drago would be her prey.

  Chapter Six

  Drago walked determinedly down the sidewalk to Devon’s house. He’d been tempted to turn back more than once to beat the hell out of his brother Dread, who thought it necessary to treat him like a child. Drago had finally blocked his brother from his mind, ignoring his attempts to nag him incessantly through the Shengari’ the entire way to Devon’s house.

  He walked past the two small boys throwing snow balls at one another and ignored their whispered encouragement. He didn’t need Trick and Mir to add to his brother’s paranoia and flipped the kids off as he passed. He knew it was childish, but he still felt a little better when the illusions of the two children burst out laughing and rolled in the snow.

  He chuckled when he heard Dree whisper laughingly in his head, “Gentle giant my ass!”

  Concentrating on the mission at hand, Drago asked Dree through the Shengari’, “Are you seeing clearly?”

  He heard Dree’s sigh in his mind before she answered. “Yeah, it’s crystal for me. Weird as hell and not my favorite thing, but clear. Don’t worry my friend, we’ll get through this as quick as we can and maybe figure out what’s really going on in the process.”

  Drago grinned. He knew exactly how she felt. He felt awkward and clumsy as he tried to practice turning the ability on and off. But, he knew all the practice in the world wouldn’t help him when he saw Devon again. When he touched her.

  Drago was no fool. He knew that there was a very real danger that he might get so caught up in Devon that he could easily make a mistake. And mistakes were not something they could afford when they were dealing with someone as dangerous as his beautiful mate was supposed to be. And who her boss might be.

  Suddenly, he was standing in front of her door. He shifted his feet nervously for a moment, knocking the snow off of his boots as he tried to bolster his determination. Just when he felt strong and sure of himself, the door opened and his breath left his lungs in a rush.

  Damn, she was incredible, he thought. Her long, blonde hair hung in bouncing curls to the middle of her back, while her blue/gray eyes twinkled warmly at him. Drago wasn’t sure how long he stood and stared at her, but when he noticed her shiver, he came to his senses.

  Grinning broadly, he asked, “May I come in?”

  Devon’s heart had skipped when she saw him and was a little startled when he spoke. Shaking her head over her own idiocy, she stepped back and smiled at him as he took up the whole doorway before coming inside.

  Wow, Devon thought as she rubbed her arms. She had forgotten how much he made this place look smaller and feel warmer with just his presence. The guy was so big he probably had his own climate, she thought as she led him to the living room.

  She immediately noticed the almost identical jacket on him, as the one he left behind the night before. She felt better knowing he had another jacket to wear since she had no intention of giving him the other one back. For reasons she didn’t want to delve into, she had hidden it in the back of her closet and didn’t want to part with it. Devon knew that when everything was over and the dust settled, it would be all she would have left of him.

  “How was your day? Did you finally get some sleep?”

  Devon looked at Drago blankly for a moment before registering what he had asked. “Oh! Yes, I did get some sleep. Did you?” Devon asked politely as she tried to get her head in the game.

  Drago grinned, noticing that Devon truly seemed to be as smitten with him as he was with her. He tried desperately to detect any artifice or deception in her energy and couldn’t find anything that would lead him to believe it was a lie.

  Determined to keep the upper hand and keep her off guard, Drago helped her into the chair by the door, then took off his jacket and laid it on the arm of another chair. He sat down on the couch before answering her.

  “Yes, I did get some sleep,” he lied as easily as she had about getting sleep. Drago had noticed the dark circles under her eyes and knew that if she had gotten sleep, it hadn’t been nearly enough. He wondered if he was the reason that she hadn’t gotten enough sleep. A part of him hoped that he was. While another part told him not to care.

  Devon stared at Drago a moment before surprising them both by bursting out laughing. She turned amused eyes towards him. “You didn’t sleep for shit either huh?”

  Drago couldn’t help but laugh at not only her infectious laugh, but the adorable look on her face. He blushed and looked at his hands in his lap before answering, “I guess we had the same problem.”

  Drago sifted through her energy as she blushed adorably, looking for anything that would prove this amazing woman wasn’t what everyone thought she was. He was surprised when she stood quickly.

  “I don’t know about you, but this is a lot more awkward than I expected it to be. Since I had no food in the ho
use, because I suck at domestic things,” she turned and said with a grin before gesturing towards the kitchen before continuing.

  “I ordered us some take-out. We should probably eat before it gets too cold. Besides, I could use a glass of wine and you probably could as well.”

  Drago followed her into the dining room where there were at least half a dozen plastic and metal containers on the table along with two bottles of unopened wine. Thinking a glass of wine was a good idea, he moved to the opener and grabbed one of the bottles as Devon began opening the food containers.

  The smell of the food caused Drago’s stomach to growl and they both laughed. Devon grinned as she placed a hefty amount of food on both of the plates.

  “I’m starving too. The only thing keeping my stomach from growling are the threats I give to it daily to behave,” Devon said as she sat down and waited for Drago to finish with the wine bottle.

  Drago easily pulled the cork and poured both glasses before sitting down at the table, with Devon on his left. He wasn’t sure if she realized it or not, but Devon had sat him at the head of the table with her sitting in the traditional place of a Tezarian mate. He had to stop the shiver that almost ran down his spine at the thought. Instead he concentrated on the food in front of him.

  “This looks wonderful,” he said before he took a large bite of the steak tips smothered in onions and mushrooms.

  He gripped his fork a little too tightly when Devon took a bite and moaned. “Plagorini’s has the best steak in town. You wouldn’t think a Greek place would, but whatever they season it with is magic,” Devon said with a wink as she forked another bite into her mouth.

  Drago grinned and couldn’t help but agree with her. “This is really good. Can you cook this well when you have time?” Drago asked curiously, unable to stop himself from trying to learn more about her. And not for the mission.

  Devon laughed so hard she almost choked on her food and had to calm down. She wiped her mouth and tried to look at Drago without laughing again.

  “I can burn water. Literally. I was boiling water for mac and cheese one day and forgot that it was on the stove. Until the stove set off the fire alarm. The water had all boiled away and the bottom of the pot looked like it was being forged on the stove.”

  Devon snickered. “I was dumb enough to think that I should take the super-hot, glowing red, now empty pot and cool it in the sink by pouring cold water in it. Once the steam finally settled down and I got the alarms to stop going off, I saw that the bottom of the pot had been melted and cooled into the form of the drain in the sink.”

  Drago looked at her in stunned amazement while she tried not to laugh again as she continued. “My… roommates at the time were horrified and we ended up having to replace the whole sink. It was the latest in a long line of kitchen disasters that led me to the conclusion that I was meant to live where take-out and fast food were readily available or I would starve to death.”

  Drago couldn’t help but laugh. “It does sound like that is a better choice for you. Especially if this is your options,” he said as he savored another bite of the steak.

  Devon grinned back at him, feeling a little more relaxed. She took a sip of wine and asked curiously, “Do you cook?”

  Devon was surprised when Drago nodded his head. “When you are as large as I am, you learn young that if you don’t want to be hungry, you learn to cook. I have become quite good at it,” Drago answered with a pat to his stomach.

  Devon laughed and patted her own, curvier stomach. “You’d think it would have motivated me to learn as well, but it didn’t.”

  Drago detected no self-recrimination in her energy or the self-hate he felt from a lot of human women he encountered and was glad. He thought she was perfect exactly as she was and didn’t want her to feel self-conscious about herself. It wasn’t where he wanted the conversation to go anyway.

  “I hope I didn’t get you in trouble with your job or anything. I’m sure you were exhausted today. I’d like to say I am sorry, but to be honest, I enjoyed the time with you and don’t care if it put anyone else out or disrupted their plans,” Drago admitted before mentally kicking himself for saying too much.

  Devon blushed and looked down at her plate to hide her pleased smile. “Thank you. That’s sweet of you to say. Actually, I was able to get some work done before I took a nap. I mostly… do my own thing so there was never anyone to bother. Were you able to get any work done?”

  Drago mentally congratulated her on her evasiveness. Well played, he thought with a mixture of irritation and respect. “We’re playing tourists, so we went to the reflection pool and a few of your other monuments. I have to say, this has been the best part of my day though,” Drago said, hoping charm would keep her off-guard.

  Devon laughed at him, before asking, “Why is that?”

  Realizing the bright woman knew what he was doing, he switched tactics. “Because it’s warm in here. I would have been more than happy to look at a less frozen version of the reflection pool at a better time of the year. One that didn’t require trekking through what seemed like several feet of snow.”

  Drago knew that his tactic failed when Devon just smiled and took another bite of food. They ate in an awkward silence for a few minutes before he realized what was wrong. Sadly, there was no way to fix it though. She obviously knew who he was and knew he was looking for information. And she was doing the same thing.

  With nothing to lose, he opened the pathway to Dree, hoping to salvage the evening by at least finding the original illusion. Drago knew by the odd sensation he felt, that Dree was actively looking through his eyes around the room and he tried to help. He cleared his throat and looked around the dining room, giving Dree a look around more of the home.

  “This place is really nice. A lot like the one we are staying in. Other than what appear to be a few design choices, they are very much alike,” Drago said nonchalantly, hoping to figure out a way to put Devon more at ease. He felt Dree’s mental shake and knew the illusion wasn’t in the dining room or kitchen area at the same time that Devon nodded her head.

  “This area is an older district. Most of the homes were built kind of cookie cutter. It’s one of the reasons I really hate this place,” Devon said before cutting herself off. Damn, she thought, wondering why she couldn’t seem to stop her mouth from saying too much. He didn’t need to know anything that personal about her.

  Drago smiled softly. “I have to agree with you. Although it appears to be a pleasant place to visit, in warmer temperatures, I would never be happy living here. Too many people, too much… bad energy,” Drago said, uncaring that he used terms that were not common among the humans.

  The slight snort Devon made before looking back down at her plate, told Drago that she was more than aware of the bad energy in the area and she knew exactly what he had meant. She confirmed his suspicions with her next words.

  “Yeah, that describes this place. At one point in Earth history, DC was an amazing place. Where amazing ideas were put forth and great men and women made them happen. Now, there are no great men, or women. Only liars, thieves and traitors who force the people to vote for one mediocre liar after another while they break their backs with taxes and regulations. All while allowing what they call the ‘elite’ class to get away with murder. Literally,” Devon said angrily, before she stood and put her plate on the kitchen counter.

  Drago was getting ready to reply when Dree interrupted him through the Shengari’. “Drago, be careful, she is not what she seems. Are you sure she is not a hybrid?”

  Drago looked at his mate carefully as she cleaned off her plate and rinsed it in the sink. By her words, it had sounded as if she were a hybrid. But there was nothing in her energy to indicate that there was anything different or unique from any other human.

  “Can you tell if she is?” Drago asked Dree, hoping her eyes or senses would see something that he had missed that would confirm or deny it for him.

  He stood and began to help clea
r the table, bringing the items to Devon in the kitchen so that Dree would be able to see her close up and maybe get a better feel of Devon’s energy, through his own. He could feel his own energy spike from being so close to his mate and he had to force himself not to touch her.

  He stacked the dishwasher as Devon rinsed the few dishes and pieces of silverware. While he threw out the old containers, Devon placed a few new ones in the refrigerator. With the kitchen clean, Devon turned to him and blew such a heavy sigh that the front of her hair fluffed out, framing her face and he grinned at her.

  “It seems to have been a rough day for you. Is there anything I can do to help?” Drago asked, hoping that she wasn’t the cold and calculating woman that Viper had read about and that she would open up to him. He was becoming concerned at the cold attitude that she seemed to have adopted overnight.

  Devon looked at the floor distractedly before grinning up at him. “Come on big boy, neither of us are that stupid. I do have to admit that I am really attracted to you and I’d love to pretend we aren’t after completely different things here. At least long enough to get bored with each other.”

  Devon looked at him sharply before continuing. “But, I think we both know that probably isn’t going to help either one of us. And I don’t need any more complications right now. Do you?” She asked with a challenging look that Drago couldn’t ignore, but strangely respected.

  He leaned back against the counter and ignored Dree’s warning to tread carefully, that she had no idea what the hell Devon was or what he was dealing with. “I agree. The attraction is rather intense. I find myself thinking that the intensity is what is clouding my judgment where you are concerned. But there is a chance that maybe we are after the same thing,” Drago hedged, giving her an opening to tell him that she wasn’t the monster she was said to be.