Alex smiled as he saw Terra’s back stiffen with aggravation as the woman argued on. Stepping up behind her, Alex wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back into him. God, she felt good. Not quite as good as when he hadn’t been wearing clothing, but good nonetheless.
Terra let out a squeak of surprise and turned her head so she could see who’d caught her. “You scared the daylights out of me!” she complained as he hunched over and rested his chin on her shoulder.
“Sorry,” he apologized. “I just wanted to come make sure you were okay. Things are a little weird for me at the moment, and, well—”
“I understand.” She wrapped her arms up over his and relaxed a little. “You’ve had a really hard day.” She patted his arm reassuringly. “We’ll get you through this.”
Alex let out a sigh and resisted the urge to kiss her. Even if it was just a thank you kiss on the shoulder. Standing up to his full height, he looked around the shop. Other than a picture of the large head of the shop’s mascot, there wasn’t anything that could hold his attention away from the woman in his arms. He turned back to her and drew in a deep breath. The smell of cooking pizza masked her scent, but he could just pick up a floral hint from her shampoo. Even that made his toes curl in delight.
Finally, the old woman at the counter had placed her order and stepped away, grumbling about the young clerk cheating her out of her coupons.
Alex let Terra go as she stepped forwards, pulling free of his arms.
She turned to look at him with a question in her eyes.
“I’ll be right back.” He winked at her and turned towards the bathroom. Now that he was up and moving, he had this undeniable pressure reminding him that he’d slept most of the day.
Shaking her head, Terra turned back to the poor, abused clerk and gave him her order. Three large pizzas. One deluxe, one meat lover’s, and one cheese. If nothing else, they could have pizza for breakfast in the morning. After tucking her wallet back into her purse, she turned away from the counter and looked around the small shop. The old woman had settled herself on one of the benches, so Terra took a seat on the other.
“Your boyfriend really should be wearing shoes,” the woman called to Terra.
Terra turned to look at the complaining woman. “What?” she asked, shocked.
“Your boyfriend.” The woman nodded to the bathroom. “He really should be wearing shoes. There’s no telling what’s on the floor in there.”
Terra gaped at the woman. Yes. The woman had just called the dragon man her boyfriend. “He’s not my boyfriend.” The protest slipped out before Terra thought about it.
The woman huffed. “Well then, he shouldn’t be hanging all over you like that.” She pulled her large bag into her lap more and grumbled on. “Back in my day, men respected women in public. And only a child would run around without shoes on.”
Terra bit her lip before something scathing came out of her mouth. How dare this woman complain about my dragon’s bare feet? She doesn’t know what we’ve been through today.
“You will have to pardon my lack of proper attire,” the dragon man answered as he came out of the bathroom, wiping his hands on the back of his pants. “As it is, I don’t currently own a pair of shoes.” He dropped himself onto the bench next to Terra.
The old woman glared at him. “You mean to tell me that you don’t have any shoes at all?”
Lacing his fingers across his stomach, the man leaned back in the chair. He stuck his bare feet out in front of him and crossed his ankles. “Nope,” he said as if he was proud of that fact. “In fact, if it wasn’t for the insistence of this kind lady, I’d be running around naked, too.” To emphasize his point, he reached out and pulled the size sticker off the leg of his jeans.
Terra bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing out loud.
The old woman looked scandalized at them. “Well, I never!” She got up and stormed out of the shop.
A loud laugh slipped out of Terra as the door swung shut. It had been a real pleasure to see him put the woman in her place. “I can’t believe you just did that!” she said as soon as she could get her breath back.
“I’m sure I missed something, but I didn’t like how she was talking to you.” The dragon man toyed with the sticker from his pants as he spoke.
Terra smiled at him. He was defending her honor. How sweet! She slipped over on the bench until her shoulder bumped into his. “It’s okay. She’s old and grumpy.”
He chuckled and leaned against her. “True, but just because someone’s lived a long life doesn’t mean they should be telling others how to live.”
Curiosity burned at Terra’s mind. So many of the dragons that had gone missing were ancient; could her dragon man be just as old as they were?
“How old are you?” The question came out before she could stop it.
The movement of the sticker stopped as he thought about the question. Slowly, he crumpled the plastic up before turning to look at her. “I don’t remember.” He let out a soft sigh as his eyes drifted back to his curled fingers. Closing his eyes, he drew in several even breaths as he thought. “I have to be as old as she is,” he finally said as he looked up at Terra, “if not older.”
Sitting up away from him, Terra considered him for a moment. The woman had to have been sixty or seventy years old, but her dragon man didn’t look a day over thirty. His eyes held a hint of fear as if he expected her to be appalled by his answer. She shifted back to lean against him again. “As long as you don’t get grouchy.” It really doesn’t matter how old he is.
The man chuckled as he slipped his arm around her shoulder and held her closer to him. “I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. It may go against my character.”
That gave Terra a moment’s pause. They still had to find out who he was. There was no telling what would happen when they had that information. He would probably go back to his old life and forget about her. That struck a sad note in Terra’s heart, but she pushed it away. She would worry about that later. For now, they just had to get their pizza and find a place to rest. Tomorrow, they would worry about finding the past and what that meant for the future.
6
“What do you mean, you’re out of rooms?” Terra asked again. This was the fourth hotel they’d tried, and no one had anything available.
The look the clerk gave her was apologetic. “There’s a comic book convention in town, and everything is booked solid through Monday.”
The dragon man placed his hand in the small of Terra’s back, calming her down. “Could you check one more time, please?”
The clerk let out an audible sigh and turned his attention to the computer.
Terra glanced up at her dragon man. Why did his touch have such a soothing effect? She pondered this as he waited patiently for the clerk to check his records.
A curious noise came out of the clerk as he tapped away on his console. “Well,” he said, “it looks like you’re in luck. Someone just canceled an online reservation. It looks like we do have one opening.”
“Fantastic!” The dragon man smiled at the clerk. “We’ll take it.”
Terra laughed softly to herself. Her dragon hadn’t even bothered to get any of the important information about where they would stay. Pulling out her wallet, she handed her driver’s license to the clerk so he could get them registered. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too much. She had a decent amount put back, but her mystery man was really hitting her pocketbook hard today.