Dragon Down Under(6)

He shoved his hand into his pockets as they walked. It didn’t make him any less than huge and intimidating. Even with his size, buzz-cut short hair, and forehead scrunched in a scowl, she was sure he could make ice cubes in hell, but it was odd; in no way did she feel unsafe or intimidated.

Heck, he already proved his worth by saving her from dick-weed Wayne. Mind you, she placed much of the blame on herself for letting it go as far as it did. Maybe, she was a little insecure, to try and make something out of a relationship which was fated for failure.

If not for her persistence, and pushing through the negativity of Wayne’s constant putdowns and his always trying to turn her into someone other than herself, she would have never published the first two of her books.

She escaped into fantasy through her writing and it helped her cope with the reality of her life, but now, she felt she had finally woken up from a bad nightmare and was taking control of her life. It felt good. Damn good.

“You’re a storyteller. I admire the abilities of storytellers.”

“Yes.” She glanced sideways with a grin. “I, uh, write romantic fiction.”

In reality, she wrote hot, saucy stories with larger than life, alpha men, but admitting it out loud to a big hunky guy? Nuh-huh.

From experience, she found people either looked down their nose at her, or disregarded her type of writing as unliterary or simply porn, as Wayne did. However, he changed his tune once he saw the colour of the money from her royalty payments. He actually encouraged her to write, proposed marriage, and demanded they go on a winter holiday, up to always sunny Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. They booked several outback tours to see the arid country.

Porn. She grit her teeth. Cripes, how much she hated the term in reference to what she did. Erotic romance is totally different to erotica. Mind you, most of her sex scenes were drawn from her own concept of how it should be, and hiding away, watching online porn to get the mechanics right.

Sneaking another glance at her new companion, she couldn’t help wonder if everything was in proportion to his size. What would it feel like to have his large hands running over her body? Being a rounded size sixteen, she was not considered small, but compared to this big guy, she was tiny.

Research? She felt guilty wanting to use him like this. She didn’t want to lie to him and at the same time she needed to keep a firm grip on reality, which included any rejection, if he decided not to be her research project.

“Romantic Fiction. It is not something I am familiar with. Is it common in your world?”

Your world? What does that mean? Oh, he was foreign. It explained the sexy accent and the roll of his tongue when he used an ‘r’ in a word.

“It's the most popular form of book on the market. Up to eighty-nine percent of sales today are romantic fiction. So, I’m in a good business to make money.”

Yes, it was a business, but in all truth she loved to get lost in her little worlds.

“It's how I paid for the holiday with…well, I guess Wayne’s got his money’s worth from me.” She shook her head wanting to think of better things than the loser she dumped. “So, uh, Brimstone, what brings you to Darwin?”

“I was persuaded to come along by a friend.”

“Persuaded? You don’t like holidays?” She raised a questioning eyebrow at him with a sideward glance.

“I’ve never had a holiday. I’d rather be killing something,” Brimstone muttered.

Amber blinked and a little tremble of fear shimmered down her body. She wasn’t sure how to process his last comment.

He must have sensed her unease. He reached out, taking possession of her hand in his. His was huge and utterly engulfed her smaller hand.

“I have never and would never harm a woman. You have to forgive an old solider who has seen too much fighting.”

Warm tingles raced up her arm from the hand he held, and her fear melted, his words making more sense.

They reached a set of stairs which led to the Promenade and started to climb. Amber pointed down the street, a little breathless after he helped her up three flights. “My hotel is the one at the end of the Promenade.” He was reluctant to let her go, and she liked the almost possessive way he gripped her hand while they walked.

“So, uh, where’s your persuasive friend?”

Brimstone shrugged his massive shoulders. “I left him to his seducing of human females.”

“Seriously?” She felt her jaw drop again. “Human females? You talk as if you’re not human yourself.”

His shoulder shrugged with a non-committal answer. “Some days, I don’t feel human.”

Amber laughed and again relaxed. This man was a complex ride of contradictions. She could only guess he wasn’t used to interacting much with non-military people.