Free Dragon Me to Your Lair: A dragon shifter story (Dragons of Emberside Book 1) by Thalia Frost Page A

grinned playfully. “Talk around the village is that you're a famous writer come here from the States?” He raised an eyebrow, and for the first time, she noticed a strange, light brown birthmark on the left side of his forehead. It looked like...a dragon. But a birthmark couldn't look like that. Could it? It had to be a trick of the light or of the neurology. A frisson of unease went through her. She wanted to look at her own similarly shaped birthmark on her left inner thigh. One boyfriend had nicknamed her fire breather due to it. He was the only one who had ever gotten close enough to see it that well.
    Strange coincidence. Damn it. Who cares? I need to get him out of here and focus on writing.
    “Yes, I am, and I'm very busy. I'm on a three month deadline before final edits are due, that started--” Skye glanced at her watch. “Yesterday.”
    “I apologize. I'll be checking in with you, and the number to reach me is on your counter just over there.” He pointed, grinning widely.
    He's enjoying this.
    “And your name? Otherwise, I'll just call you Mr. Caretaker.” She tapped her foot, anxious to get started with work and have the half naked stud out of her house so she could concentrate on her hero and heroine instead.
    “Niall. Niall Gregor.” He tipped his head at her.
    “Good to meet you, Niall. Thanks for the help unloading.” She gave him a grudging smile.
    “I'll just be going, then. If you need anything, just holler by way of the phone. There's still a land line here, and my number is on the wall beside it.” He smiled and left, his footsteps as silent as a serpent's crawl.
     
    * * * *
    “Could the timing be any worse?” Niall groaned and shook his head as he ran through the woods. He'd been fighting his attraction to Skye McLeod since her leg had made an appearance from the car door—a very shapely leg in a summery, spaghetti strap dress, he might add.
    When he got terribly aroused, he shifted, and when he found a woman like Skye, well, there was more to it than that.
    As soon as he had seen her, he had wanted to peel her clothing off and look at her inner thighs—to see if she had the mark.
    But that wouldn't be polite in regular society, now would it?
    He laughed at the thought, his breath coming in puffs as he neared the cave.
    Her hair, like a wood on fire, had alerted him to the possibility, as had her last name. She was Scottish. Her personality made him certain he was correct—fiery and no nonsense, yet aloof.
    She's a dragon shifter, too, but she might not know it yet.
    “How would that even be possible? A virgin that looks like her, in her early twenties?” He ducked to enter his world, the dark and dank cave.
    But Niall knew it was more than possible. It was probable. The strong reaction female dragon shifters had when they were aroused often scared them and pushed them away from sex. For good reason. Many had already shifted by age three, but some didn't learn of their gift until much later. Those who shifted first in adulthood, rather than in childhood, often made the papers as murderesses. They hadn't meant to kill, but their first change had driven them mad, not to mention scared the hell out of the man they were with. Often, those men died of heart attacks, he had heard.
    Whatever she knows, she is destined to be mine. I have much to teach her...and she will teach me, too.
    He shook his head again at the terrible timing of finding his mate.
     
    * * * *
    “Okay, Skye. One word goes after another.” She blew a deep breath out and lay her head on the kitchen table.
    All she could think about was Niall Gregor.
    This is not a good time for ridiculous puppy love. I have to work.
    She had spent her short life tamping down her libido at every turn. Though she had made out with a few men who wanted more, Skye was still a virgin. She threw all of her passion into writing. She didn't have any left for men, and frankly, her sex drive scared her. Skye had chosen just to deny it, and that