For the Memory of Dragons (5 page)

“We should probably start there.” Alex held
his hand out for the box.

She gave it back.

“Maybe someone there will know who I
am.”

A small laugh came out of Terra. She rested
her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “We will find out who you
are,” she promised, “but we should probably start with finding you
clothing. I don’t think they would like you in that pub wrapped in
just a blanket.”

“Point.” Alex smiled up at her. “Clothing
first. Then food. Then we will go hunting.” He didn’t know about
Terra, but his stomach was telling him he had missed more than one
meal.

“Deal.” Terra pressed down on his shoulder
as she stood up.

He let out a soft sigh. The feel of her hand
on him stirred things inside him. When she offered to help him up,
he took it. Her hand was soft and warm in his. Desire washed
through him, and it was all he could do not to pull her in against
him. To feel her pressed into his body. His arms twitched with the
impulse, but he stopped them before they could act. Alex knew where
these feelings came from and understood the forces that drove
dragons, but she was human. She would not understand mating
instincts. Nor would she understand how his dragon side had latched
onto her.

He pulled away from her and reached for the
car. “So, where to first?” he asked. Maybe if he put some space
between them, his instincts would settle down. Then again, maybe
not.

***

What just happened?
Terra looked at
her dragon man, confused. She had gotten the oddest feeling when he
had taken her hand. The way he touched it. The look in his eye.
Desire had shot through her. But then he had turned, and it was
gone. Shaking herself, she answered his question. “Meijers.”

He nodded as he climbed in the car.

Terra watched him as he sat in his seat with
his head down and eyes closed. There was something about him that
drew her. Sure, she had always been a sucker for hard-luck cases,
but still, most never sparked the feelings he did.

Circling around the car, she got in and
started it up. It was weird with him in the car as a human. “So,
what do you remember?” she asked, prodding him into talking before
the silence could get stifling. There was something going on that
she didn’t understand.

Her dragon man let out a deep sigh. “Not
much.” His brow furrowed as he thought. “Just pieces.”

“Well, why don’t you tell me what you
can
remember?” Terra offered. “Maybe saying it out loud will
help.” It would also give her a better idea of who he was.

After a moment of silence, her dragon man
let out another long breath and nodded again. “All right.”

He tilted his head back to the headrest.
After a few more moments, he started rambling. The words came out
slowly. Only fragments of stories at first, but the longer he went
on, the longer his stories got.

His life sounds interesting.
Most of
it was either him in dragon form or centered around training of
some type. “Were you in the military?” Terra asked.

The dragon man pulled himself from his
thoughts and looked at her. “No.” He shook his head. “Not the
military, and not the police, but something.” He raised his hand to
his head as if it pained him.

Terra reached her hand over and rested it on
the blanket over his leg. “At least you remember something,” she
tried to comfort him.

He dropped his hand down over hers. “Yes.”
Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes again. “But it’s all
pictures and feelings. There is no sound to any of it.”

The soft slide of his thumb across Terra’s
skin sent tingles up her arm. She hadn’t meant for him to hold her
hand, but now that he had it, she didn’t want to pull it away.
Giving in to her strange desires, she rolled her hand over and
laced her fingers together with his. “I’ll help you get through
this,” she promised. She couldn’t very well leave him as he
was.

The dragon man drew in a deep breath and let
it rush out from him, then squeezed her hand. “Thank you.” Rolling
his head over, he stared at her. “For everything.”

There it was again. That odd wash of desire
passed through her again.

Terra stole a quick glance at him. His eyes
were just as beautiful now as they had been as a dragon. She would
have loved to look at them longer, but she had to pay attention to
the road.
Later.
She would find a time later to really study
them. Then maybe she could figure out what to call that amazing mix
of colors. Hazel just didn’t cut it.

Unsure of how to respond to him or to the
feelings swirling through her, she simply drove on as he held and
caressed her hand. When the silence got too intimate for her, she
gave him another quick glance. The look in his eyes heated her
insides more than anything her last three boyfriends had done.
And that was just a look.

Clearing her throat, she broke into the
silence with the first thing that popped into her head. “So… What
type of clothing do you want?”
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Of
all the dumb things she could have picked to break the silence
with, she had to pick the one thing that reminded them both that he
was naked. She glanced back over at him. A grin had slid across his
face.

“At this moment, anything would be better
than what I’m wearing,” he teased.

With a quick turn of the head, she shot him
a dirty look. “Are you dissing my handmade quilt?” she sassed
back.

“I would never dream of it.”

The fake innocent tone he took made Terra
laugh.

“But seriously, jeans and a T-shirt will be
fine. And I promise, as soon as I find out who I am, I
will
pay you back.”

Another laugh bubbled out of her. “I’m not
worried about it.” She gave him another glance. “So…” She bit her
lip and jumped into the question now pulling at her mind.
To
hell with caution and propriety.
“Boxers or briefs?”

He chuckled. “I don’t remember,” he said and
gave her an amused smile. “Why don’t you pick, and we’ll see how it
goes.” His smile took on a naughty edge. “Of course, if I don’t
like them, I could always go without.”

The blush that had been hinting at Terra’s
cheeks flamed into life.
Oh good Lord!
Even if the man
couldn’t remember anything else, he certainly remembered how to
flirt.

Luckily, they didn’t have much farther to go
until they reached the store. She hated to do it, but she pulled
her hand from his so she could turn into the parking lot. Picking a
spot away from the building, she pulled in and killed the engine.
At least he would have a little bit of privacy while she went
inside. Biting her lip, she turned to look at her dragon man. There
were so many ways she could respond to his suggestion, but all of
them were inappropriate and would likely get her into more trouble
than she was already in. And she was already in trouble. Deep. But
then again, an inappropriate response could make for a very
entertaining evening. It was, after all, starting to get late. She
chewed on the idea for a moment longer before deciding.
No.
She knew nothing of this man. He could have a girlfriend, or worse,
a wife. It was best to keep everything on a more professional
level.

“Wait here. I’ll be right back.” With that,
Terra slid from the car and escaped to the safety of the store. For
all she knew, he could be trouble just looking for a place to
happen.

***

Alex let out a long sigh as he watched Terra
head into the store. Somehow, he knew it wasn’t like him to flirt,
but she made it so easy. Leaning his head back against the seat, he
closed his eyes and thought about her. The softness of her skin
against his. The flash of those blue eyes as she stole glances at
him. And how could he forget the soft pink that colored her cheeks
and stole his breath away. He could have easily spent hours just
staring at her.

She wasn’t a beauty by any sense of the
traditional views, but she was easy on his eyes. Her soft, brown
hair looked as if it had been styled short and left to grow out.
Too short to pull back, and too long for the cut. Physically, she
was built as he would expect a farm girl to be. Long and lean. She
was probably much stronger than she appeared. He couldn’t remember
if he had a favorite type of girl, but she just became it. The
dragon bit of him curled around in contentment at the idea of
keeping her.

He slammed that thought down before the
roots could grow any more than they already had. There were more
important things to worry about right now. Like finding out who he
was. For all he knew, he had a girlfriend somewhere. That thought
made him pause. No, he didn’t have a girlfriend, but that didn’t
mean he had time to get one now. No, he needed to concentrate on
finding out who he was and remembering that important thing he was
sure he’d forgotten. Later, there would be time to pursue other
interests. And, oh boy, would he enjoy that pursuit.

Opening the door, Terra slid into the car
with her bags. She glanced over at her dragon man resting in the
seat. He had tilted his head back against the headrest and closed
his eyes. Sound asleep. Terra smiled at him.
Damn, he was good
looking. And that little bit of stubble on his cheek made him that
much hotter.
Balling her fingers in the bags, she resisted the
urge to reach out and feel the coarse hair.

She shook her head, trying to clear it. What
in the hell had come over her? Sure he was hot, but she’d met a lot
of good-looking guys. That didn’t mean she wanted to crawl into
their laps and lick their faces. It had to be all the excitement
and mystery that went with him.
Yes. That was it.
She was
just turned on by the whole idea of what was going on. A strange
man without a memory. And naked to boot! She just needed to get her
hormones under control so they could solve his problem.

Reaching out, she patted his leg. “Hey.”

He drew in a deep breath as he woke up from
his nap.

“Here.” She held out the bags for him to
take.

It took a second for his brain to kick into
gear and take the shopping bags from her.

An amused smile slid across Terra’s face as
she let out a soft laugh. “Listen. I know this trip to the bar is
important to finding out who you are, but it’s starting to get late
and we’ve both had a really long day.” She didn’t know how it
showed on her, but she could see how the day had worn on him. “What
do you say we grab a pizza and find someplace to hole up for the
night?” Her stomach rumbled just thinking about food.

A smile spread across his face. “Sure,” he
answered. “I think food and some rest would be a great idea.”
Taking the bags, he pushed one of them to the floor.

Terra nodded and started the car up as her
dragon man rummaged through a bag. “So, what do you like on your
pizza?”

The man looked up from his search and
considered Terra’s question. “I don’t know.” Concern crossed his
face as he tried to remember. “I guess just get whatever you like,
and we’ll go from there.”

Whatever I like?
Terra’s grin
widened. “All right. One anchovy and jalapeno pizza coming up.”

A look of disgust crossed the dragon man’s
face. “Fish? On pizza? Please, no.”

Terra laughed. “All right. How about a large
deluxe with everything?”

“Now that sounds reasonable.” He nodded.
“But you had better make it two.”

She glanced at her passenger curiously. “Two
larges?” She could feel his eyes run over her as he evaluated
her.

“Better make that two larges and a
medium.”

This drew Terra’s full attention. She turned
and stared at him openmouthed. “Are you planning on putting away
two full pizzas by yourself?” There was no way the two of them
could go through that much pizza.

He just shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a
dragon.” With that, he went back to rummaging in the bag.

Okay…
Terra turned her attention back
to the road to hunt down a pizza joint. If he could put away two
full pizzas in one sitting, she would hate to see what his food
bill for a month would be.

“What’s this?”

Terra glanced over to see what her dragon
man had pulled from the bag.

He held up a pack of low-rise, cotton
panties.

Reaching out, Terra shoved the pack back in
the bag. “That’s my bag!” She yanked the plastic from his hands and
shoved it into the back seat.

He snickered. “I was wondering why you had
gotten me pink underwear.”

Terra shot him a dirty look. Only one pair
of the panties was pink. The other two were flowered. “Well excuse
me for wanting clean underwear,” she huffed. “It’s not like I could
go home and get any.”

The dragon man let out a long sigh. “I’m
sorry.” Regret was heavy in his voice. “I didn’t mean for you to
get caught up in my problems.” He pulled the blanket back around
him tightly.

Nice going, numbskull.
“Hey.” Terra
reached over and dropped her hand on his leg. “I didn’t mean to
snap at you. I know you didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” She
patted his leg in a comforting way. “We’ll figure it out.”

A weak, ironic laugh slipped out of him. “At
least you can walk away from this any time you want.” There was a
depressed note in his voice that made Terra’s heart clench.

“No.” She patted his leg again. “I won’t
leave you like this.” She glanced over to see him staring at her
with those beautiful eyes. “I’ll help you find the answers you
need.”

A spark of hope lit his face.

“But first,” she said as she pulled her hand
from his leg. “Let’s see about some food.” She turned the car into
the parking lot of a pizza place. “I’ll be right back.” She paused
before jumping out of the car and considered him. “Will you be okay
here by yourself?” There was something in his posture that made her
want to hold him close and tell him everything would be fine.