Page 17 of The Last Bachelor Dragon

“Uncle Max, they’re about to take the pig out of the pit,” the boy said, looking up at him, his face full of excitement. “My dad says you don’t want to miss it. He sent me to get you.”

“Well, I’m sure glad you found me,” he said, grinning down at the child. “Your dad is right, I don’t want to miss that. I’ll be right behind you.”

He looked up, disappointed to see that Nora was drifting toward the pig with everyone else, and let Theo take his hand to lead him through the crowd. Muttering his apologies, they pushed their way to the front where Blake and Wren were standing, watching as a team of men slowly removed the hot sand from the pit. A few minutes later, Nora appeared a few feet away from him, her face animated as she talked to Stella and Juliet, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her.

She must have sensed him watching her and looked over at him. The smile on her face froze and he saw desire blossoming in her eyes, and then an answering wave swept through him. In that instant, he realized that he was done fighting. He wanted her in his arms where she belonged, he wanted to kiss her until they were both breathless with anticipation, and he wasn’t going to wait a second longer to have what he wanted.

Before he could move, a cheer went up in the crowd, and he turned to see the roasted pig being pulled out of the pit. The entire beach was filled with the most delicious aroma. There was a collective sigh, and people began shifting out of the way as the pig was carried over to the big table set up down the beach, where the rest of the food and drinks were. For a second, he lost sight of Nora in the crowd, then spottedher blonde head and started after her, suddenly desperate to get to her.

He was only a few feet away from her when the crowd parted, leaving Nora standing alone, and he was sure his chance had come. “Nora…Nora Price, is that you?” a woman asked, stepping between them. “I just knew it. What a small world, I can’t believe I ran into you here.”

A panicked look spread across Nora’s face, and then she started shaking her head. “I’m sorry, you’ve got me mixed up with someone else,” she said. “My last name isn’t Price.”

“Of course it is, I saw you just last winter at your engagement party. I’d recognize you anywhere. Just wait until I tell your father that I ran into you,” the woman gushed. “He didn’t mention anything about you being here when I saw him last week, how strange.”

“I’m sorry, but you’ve got me mixed up with someone else,” Nora insisted, trying to back away but the woman grabbed her arm and held her there. “Please, I need to go.”

The woman started talking again, a firm grip on Nora’s arm. She looked around desperately for a way to escape, then saw him looking at her. Fear and desperation blossomed in her eyes, and she pulled her arm away from the woman, then began shaking her head and backing away. He stood rooted to the spot, the word engagement ringing loudly in his head as Nora disappeared into the crowd.

He felt Stella slide up to him on one side, and then Juliet appeared on the other. “I guess you know who she is now,” she said, then looked over at him. “Does it change anything?”

“She’s engaged. She didn’t tell me that,” he said, anger beginning to surge to the surface. “What kind of game is she playing with me?”

“I don’t think she’s playing a game,” Juliet said. “I think she’s trying to avoid being forced to marry a man she doesn’t love.”

He looked over at Juliet. “Did she tell you that?” he asked. “You could have told me a long time ago.”

“No, she didn’t tell me,” Juliet said. “But I pay attention to the papers. Nora’s engaged to a man thirty years older than her. It was the big story last winter, a merger of two of the biggest banking families in the world.”

“I don’t blame her for running away, that’s horrible,” Stella said. “I can’t believe some men still think that women are just possessions they can trade around like stocks and bonds.”

It was all slowly beginning to make sense. “She thought I would turn her over to her father,” he said. “Our families are close. I’m sure she assumed I’d tell them where she is.”

“You would never do that,” Juliet said, then paused. “But she doesn’t know that.”

A feeling of panic welled up inside him. “I have to go after her,” he said. “I have this terrible feeling that she’s going to do something crazy.”

***Nora***

Nora backed away from the awful woman, the shock and anger in Max’s eyes telling her everything she needed to know, then turned and fled down the beach. She turned to look over her shoulder a couple of times, not sure if she was relieved or disappointed that he wasn’t following her, then realized how stupid she was being. It would only take one phone call and she’d be back where she started, engaged to that horrible man and locked away in her father’s house. She’d been lucky to escape the first time; he’d never let her get away again.

The memory of Stanley pawing at her every time he got her alone made her feel sick to her stomach; the things he’d whispered in her ear came rushing back, and she had to stopfor a second to hold back the panic. She had to get away, had to find a way to leave the island. She’d rather die than let that man touch her again. When the marina came into sight, she paused, then realized it was her only option and headed for the boats, praying that at least one had the keys in it.

Running down the dock, she checked every boat, beginning to lose hope until she came to the last one. She almost laughed out loud when she saw the keys gleaming in the lights from the marina. Looking around, afraid that someone might see her, she quickly untied the lines and jumped into the boat, too panicked to think through what she was doing. She did hesitate for just a second before she turned the key and fired up the engine, but her need for escape overruled any caution she might have had under normal circumstances.

Telling herself that driving a boat couldn’t be that hard, she took a deep breath, grabbed the throttle and gently eased it back, letting out a little cry of surprise when the boat began to back out of the slip. It wasn’t pretty, but she managed to get the boat out into the harbor, and began to congratulate herself even though she was drenched in sweat and her fingers hurt where she gripped the wheel. Taking a deep breath and then letting it out slowly, she pushed the throttle forward a little more, making the boat surge forward toward the open ocean.

It hit her then that she had no idea where she was going once she got away from the island. Trying not to freak out, she looked down at the instruments in front of her. Switching them all on, she saw that one of them was a map, punched Bermuda into the search box, and then let out a cry of relief when it popped up on the screen with her route all mapped out. Feeling completely in control, she guided the boat out of the harbor and into the open ocean, already thinking about what she would do once she got to Bermuda.

Sure that she’d successfully made her escape, she began to relax, but the farther she got from the island, the harder the wind began to blow. Fighting to keep the boat on course, she looked up at the star-filled sky, wondering where the wind had come from and cursing the cold spays of water that came up over the bow every time she slammed into a wave. Beginning to get worried, she fought the wind and water, gripping the wheel until her knuckles turned white and her back began to ache, but nothing helped. She was being thrown off course and out to sea.

Deciding that she had no choice but to go back to the island, she started to turn the boat around just as a huge wave hit the boat, sending a stream of water rushing over her, soaking everything in the cockpit. With a hiss and a sizzle, all the electronics went dark. She reached out to turn them back on, but another wave crashed over her, knocking her off her feet.

The boat lurched wildly in the wind, knocking her off balance every time she tried to climb to her feet, the last time so violently that she slammed her head on the steering wheel. Stars glittering in her eyes, and not the ones from the sky, she sat on the floor of the boat, dazed and bruised, not sure she had the strength to get up again. Thinking about just curling up in a ball and giving up, she looked up into the sky, blinking a couple of times when she saw a dark shape streaking through the air toward her.

The wind began to blow harder, throwing the boat around even more violently, the waves crashing against the sides, but she barely noticed as the shape slowly revealed itself. Already paralyzed with fear from the storm, she just sat staring as a dragon slowly materialized out of the mist and landed on the boat's deck, making it dip dangerously in the water. A second later, the air around her began to crackle with energy, and the dragon disappeared, leaving Maxstanding where it had been, the waves battering him as they crashed against the boat.

Almost instantly the wind died down, the waves stilled, and they were left with a deep silence broken only by the sound of her breathing as she tried to suck in deep breaths of air. Her brain fought to process what she’d just seen, and she wondered if it had been a hallucination, if the bump on her head had her seeing things, until Max jumped down from the bow and crouched down in front of her. She knew then that it had been real.

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