The Dragon's Mail Order Mate: A Paranormal Menage Romance (5 page)

Pulling on her shorts and a white tank top, Oksana didn’t bother with a bra or underwear. She figured she wouldn’t be up for much longer. The jet lag was getting fierce and she was almost ready to call it a night, but the sun was still up and she wanted to explore a little bit of San Francisco before she fell asleep. She couldn’t spend her first day in America alone in a house, pining over a relationship that was just beginning. She would go insane if that was her plan.

So, she went down stairs, found that Mike was in the living room, watching some comedy show with cartoons that she didn’t really understand. All of the humor was above her head and all she could do was smile and pretend to chuckle when he chuckled at the screen. It was awkward and when the commercials finally came on, she hoped he might be willing to accompany her on the walk that she was about to go on.

“Hey,” she said, touching him on the shoulder. He turned his head and looked at her with those dark, smoldering eyes. “I’m going to go on a walk. Would you like to come?”

He looked at her for a moment and shrugged. “I don’t really like spending time out in the open for long,” he said with a tone that suggested that there was probably a reason behind that.

She didn’t want to press it any further and simply smiled and nodded at him. Standing up from the couch, she gave him one last look and felt sick that he was more interested in looking at the TV screen than he was in looking at her. She felt sick in her stomach and she opened the door, heading out into the afternoon warmth of the San Francisco world.

She didn’t remember much of the walk. All she knew was that she was probably in trouble if Mike was more interested in a comedy cartoon than he was in spending time with her. She tried to assure herself that he was probably just trying to play hard to get with her or he was telling himself not to smother her and scare her off. As she tried to justify his actions, she felt bitter and resentful toward him, wishing it had been Will who was home with her. He probably would have taken her all around the city and shown her everything that there was to see in the world. All she could hope was that there would be something different when she woke up tomorrow. Maybe Will would do all the things she wanted to do in the city. There was nothing exciting this far and that scared her.

When she made it back home, Mike was texting and still watching TV, but at least it wasn’t cartoons this time. He looked up from his phone and asked her how her walk was. She wasn’t sure how to answer that, because she hadn’t spent much time actually looking around when she was walking. She’d spent the entire time in her head, which was never a good place to spend your time when you’re out on a walk. She looked at him with a smile and headed up stairs. She could feel his gaze on her, but it was too late for that. There was no playing anymore, no flirting, and no gazing. She was going to go to bed early and she planned on waking up tomorrow to Will, who might actually show her a good time, one way or another.

Chapter Three

When Oksana woke up, she realized that she had thrown off most of her blankets and sheets, overheating at some point during the night. She looked at the dark, nocturnal world all around her. She blinked and checked the clock, seeing that it was just after midnight. She did the math and found that she’d been asleep for seven hours and felt more alive and awake than she’d felt in a long time. It was like she’d been asleep for ages and she was more refreshed than ever.

Sitting up in bed, she could feel the cool of the evening and was happy to feel it was still warmer than anything she’d felt in summer in Ukraine. Here, everything was truly golden. She threw off her one remaining sheet and stood up, feeling her toes and the soles of her feet squishing into the soft carpet as she walked over to the window and stared out. They were situated on a hill that rolled toward the city, but she could see the bay and it was an incredible field of twinkling lights as the city continued to power on. She was standing there, before a city and all she could think about was the fact that she hadn’t seen any part of it. As she watched the lights, she wished she’d taken a cab or something to go see the city. Instead, she was going to have to wait for all of it.

There was a noise downstairs and Oksana turned, looking at the closed door and wondered what had made the noise. She was in her underwear and a tank top, in no position to deal with a burglar, but she wasn’t as helpless and defenseless as so many people would think. In fact, she knew enough to protect herself and then some. As she took a step toward the door, she could hear something else downstairs, movement and commotion. All she could think was that the worst thing that could happen would be someone breaking into the house and robbing them on her first day there. She opened the door and looked toward the stairs where she could see light climbing and resting on each of the steps and painting the wall in soft, orange light as she stared at the stairs. She could hear footsteps downstairs and she knew someone was down there.

She grabbed some sort of vase Will had purchased and set on a table that hugged the corner between Mike’s room and her room. Gripping it in her fingers, she was right to judge it was heavy and that it would do some significant damage. As she headed to the stairs, she could see the lights were on downstairs and that there were shadows moving in the burning light. As she slowly crept down the stairs, she could smell something burning on the stove and she wondered what these people were doing. Mike had to be asleep and Will was still gone at his work. Who could that be?

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was hunched over and heading into the kitchen when she caught sight of the intruder. He walked over to the stove and was doing something with his back turned to her and that was when she let out a heavy sigh and lowered her weapon. The sound of her sigh startled the intruder and he turned around, wearing an apron and holding a knife he was using to cut herbs.

“Christ, Oksana!” Will cried, his eyes wide in horror as he held the knife all wrong if he were going to try and defend himself.

She smiled and shook her head at the sight of him as he quickly blinked and his mind darted back to what he was doing. She suddenly realized how incredible the kitchen smelled and she looked at everything Will was doing. The man was cooking up a storm, everything from browning Italian sausage and ground beef to sautéing vegetables for the sauce that he was making. He turned back to his work of adding the herbs and spices to the sauce before he turned and took a swig out of the wine bottle he’d been using in the sauce and turned to look at her.

“You scared me to death,” he said, his eyes landing on the ornament in her hand and he shook his head. “Were you going to bludgeon me to death, Oksana?”

“I thought you were a thief,” she said, shaking her head.

“Well, thanks for watching our back,” Will said, chuckling as he went to work. He looked up and stole a glance at her and she felt flattered by it before he nervously went back to work. “I’m sorry if I woke you. Mike went out with a couple of friends and I thought it would be a good chance to make some dinner before going to bed. He always gets angry when I wake him up cooking.”

“Does the smell make his stomach growl?” she teased, walking into the kitchen and taking a perch on one of the stools on the island.

“Fun fact,” he said as he stirred the sauce. “You don’t actually smell when you sleep. But no, it’s the banging and all the noise I make while I’m cooking. Thankfully, he needed a beer and a good laugh with some friends. Mind if I asked how badly he blew it with you?”

She looked at him and tilted her head, not sure what it was that he meant by that. There was nothing she could think of with him blowing it. “What do you mean?”

“When things don’t go Mike’s way, he tends to need a drink,” Will chuckled as he adjusted his glasses and looked at her. “I’m guessing he tried to make a move and it didn’t go so well.”

“Not really,” Oksana shrugged. “He didn’t seem that interested in me, honestly. He was watching some kind of cartoon when I went for a walk and that was about it.”

“What?” Will laughed. “He was watching a cartoon?”

“Yeah,” Oksana nodded. “I don’t think that Mike likes me very much.”

“Well, I can assure you that he’s crazy about you,” Will told her with a smile.

He tested the sauce and then held out the spoon for her to test as well. She smiled, leaning in and wrapping her lips on the spoon and making sure that she didn’t lick the spoon like she had been taught. As she tasted the sauce, her eyes widened in approval. Was there anything that Will couldn’t do? That was something she had come to really respect about the man.

“We both are,” he continued. “You’re the most attractive woman we’ve ever seen, objectively speaking. But, Mike tries very hard to be someone that he’s not. He has this image of himself and that image is kind of his guiding star. He makes terrible decisions with it.”

“What’s you’re guiding star?” she asked, looking at the night world beyond the windows and wondering if the city was still awake for them and interested in coming out to play. She wanted to go out there and do something, but she also wanted to eat this sauce Will was crafting. It was incredible tasting.

“I don’t know really,” Mike shrugged. “I just try to do right by the people I know. I don’t want people to think ill of me. Maybe to a fault. What’s yours?”

“Happiness,” she said with a smile on her lips and a shrug. “Every decision I’ve made has been done in the name of happiness. I don’t think anyone should do anything that doesn’t make them happy, even if it’s hard. Sometimes choosing happiness is the hardest decision.”

“Sounds nice,” Will said as he wiped his hands and started to combine the last of the ingredients and made the sauce come together. “Is that why you decided to put yourself out on a mail order bride website and see who was interested in you? Sounds very dangerous and very bold.”

“Maybe,” she shrugged. “But it’s paid off well so far. I’m in America and I got to meet you, Will.”

“You got to meet me,” Will chuckled. “That’s something I never thought a beautiful woman would ever tell me.”

“Mike told me you don’t have much luck with women,” Oksana probed, feeling like she might be pushing it too far. Will looked up at her and smiled, his cheeks flooding with red that clearly told her that she’d hit a nerve with him. She didn’t like the idea of embarrassing him and backpedaled as quickly as she could. “I think they’re all fools. You’re a wonderful man.”

“Thanks,” he said, not buying it for a second. “Well, it doesn’t surprise me Mike tried pulling that. Did he tell you about how we’re leaving it up to you in order to pick who you end up with?”

“Yeah,” Oksana grinned, still not sure how she felt about that. “Aren’t you worried I’ll go with the one with more experience?”

“Not in the slightest,” Will said with an optimistic grin that gave her hope in the goodness of the world. There was something about him that wouldn’t be caged and wouldn’t be told to quit. She liked that a lot about Will. “Mike is a manager for a movie theater, he picks up desperate girls at the bars, and he pretends he’s someone that he’s not. I may crash and burn, one hundred percent of the time, but I’m doing it on people I believe in and I crash going for what I want. I believe if you’re meant to be my mate, then everything I do for you and all the work I put into this isn’t going to be wasted and blow up in my face. A romantic has to dream and I’m the biggest romantic you’re ever going to meet.”

“I believe it,” she said it as a compliment. “Do you have extra?”

“Of course,” Will said, dishing her up pasta and slathering it in the fantastic, rich sauce that tasted more amazing complete than it had just in its base perfection.

She looked at him while he ate and she wondered who these foolish women were that had abandoned him and turned their backs on him. They were fools and she had a mind to find each and every one of them and rub their mistake in their face.

“So what’s your master plan?” Oksana asked him. “Are you two just going to live life as usual around me? Or, are we going to go at this in turns? How did you figure this would all work out?”

“I already ran this by Mike,” Will said with a grin. “I think we should each pull out all the stops and go on a fantastic date with you to get to know you better, show you what qualities we have to provide for you, and see what kind of chemistry we have together. Once the dates are over, you’ll have a good idea of who you’re dealing with and that should help you make a reasonable and educated decision.”

“You think that one date is enough?” Oksana asked him with her eyebrow raised, devouring the pasta with ravenous delight.

“How do you figure?” he asked her, not sure what she meant by that.

“Well what if you’re both extremely good on your first dates,” Oksana proposed the problem in his plot. “But on the second date, you’ve got nothing. If you play a really good, single game, then what’s to assure me you’re quality all the way through.”

“Fair point,” Will said, chewing his lower lip as he thought it over. “What would you suggest we change about it?”

“I agree with the date plan,” Oksana said with delight. “But, I think you should let me decide after we’ve actually lived life as well for a while. I’ll know what you are at your most fun and romantic, then I’ll also know what you’re like on a normal day as well.”

Will thought about that for a moment, chewing his bites long and thoughtfully while he stared at her. She smiled at him, feeling like she was such a let down for him, but as he began to smile, she knew that he liked the idea. If anything, she felt like it was going to be a boon to him more than it would be for Mike. Mike could probably bring a really fantastic first date out of his repertoire that would be more fun and more sexually charged than Will could. Mike’s Achilles Heel was going to be his lack of effort in normal life. While she watched him think, she knew Will was also making those calculations, coming to those conclusions on his own. She liked that about him. He was going to figure things out in the end.

“Fine,” he said with confidence. “I like your plan, too. We’ll wait two weeks for you to make up your decision, but we’ve got to do the dates up front. I know both of us have already made plans and we can’t really change some of them.”

“That sounds good to me,” she said, smiling at him.

It was strange he hadn’t made a move or commented on her attire. There was something about Will that made her feel like he was seeing things on a different level than she was. It was like he wasn’t distracted for a second at the fact that he could see her nipples right now or that she was in her underwear. That never seemed to bother him for a second. She really loved that. In front of him, she was an actual person. It felt nice to have that kind of power given to her from just his eyes. She could understand why someone like Will could easily win over a woman’s heart, but the fact that he could never keep it worried her.

“Well, we flipped for it,” Will said with a mild shrug.

It spoke volumes to her about his bitterness toward the whole event and that made her very aware of who had won that particular coin toss. She looked at him and smiled. It must have sucked to be the one who lost. She would have hated it, that much she knew for certain.

“Mike’s going to take you out tomorrow night and I’ll take you out the following night. Maybe we could alternate days after that until you can come up with who it is that you preferred going out with. Does that sound fair?”

“That sounds fair to me,” she said with a smile.

“Good, I don’t want things to look like one of us is getting preferential treatment,” Will said with a kindness in his voice she was certain that Mike wasn’t going to share with him. She thought it was extremely odd for a man like Will to be so interested in the equality of all of this. She thought about seeing just how much he cared, but she wasn’t interested in playing games with Will. There was something genuine about him that told her she didn’t need to put pressure on him like she had put pressure on Mike.

Will was the real deal, for better or for worse.

She stood up from the stool and walked around the island to where Will was standing, holding her bowl that he’d given her the amazing pasta and sauce in. She handed it to him, standing closer to him than he was ever comfortable with. She could feel the tension in his body, his muscles tightening, his ligaments freezing, and his joints locking as his breath grew shallow and sharp. She smiled at the physical reaction he had to her. She liked being around a man who couldn’t hide what it was that he was feeling. She couldn’t hide what she was feeling either. It made her feel like an equal. It made her feel powerful and strong. As she stood next to him, handing him the bowl, she could smell the herbs and spices wafting off of him and felt as thought she might almost feel the tremor of his pounding heart.