Water Touched - A Dragon Tribe Origin

Chapter Nine - Tai

The next time Tai woke up, it was sometime the next day. Sun streamed in through a gap in the thick navy curtains along the wall. She was still in Darien's apartment, more sign none of what happened was some kind of a bizarre dream. A nice dream, but still bizarre. The realization of what they'd done together hit her next. Again, there was a brief moment of doubt, and only because he wasn't there next to her.

She could hear him mumbling to himself, though. Her eyes scanned the room and found him standing in front of the bed, arms folded across his bare chest, totally engrossed with a soccer game on the TV. The large, expensive, TV that seemed to take up half the wall. "Woah, you're loaded."

"Hmm?" He faced her. A smile formed on his lips. "You're awake."

"So are you," she observed. Come on, you can do better than that.

Darien chuckled. "I've been up for an hour, or so. Thought I'd check on the score, and breakfast. Are you hungry?"

"Not quite yet. Ask me again later."

He nodded, glanced back at the TV and pumped his fist at a play made in the game. When he noticed she was still watching him, he lowered his gaze to his hands. "Sorry, I should be paying more attention to you."

"No, this is your home. I'm the one who's invading."

"It's yours too, now."

Tai didn't know how to respond to such a declaration, so she nodded, because he was right: this place was her home for the time being. She was lucky he was so willing to share it with her.

And she was lucky in other ways too. Even with a full rest and all of the drama past, she still thought he was attractive, quite possibly the most handsome man she had ever seen. He even made bed head sexy with the way his short dark hair splayed in every possible direction, and that somehow made his blue eyes wider giving her a better view into his soul—which was still pure goodness. Nothing about him from the night before had changed. Definitely lucky.

He even claimed to love her. She hadn't imagined that, she was positive. He thought he was in love with her, and she actually believed he felt that way. Why, she wasn't sure. They'd just met. He knew next to nothing about her, and she even less about him. That was the part that didn't make sense—and also concerned her. A significant piece of the puzzle was missing, and it all went back to the dragon—she was sure of it.

Never before in her life had she thought something like this would happen to her. One minute she was waiting to be eaten by an enormous beast, and the next she's waking up next to a sweet and gentle man who wanted nothing more than to protect her and love her. Alex was the only guy who'd expressed interest in her before. With him, she still didn't know how genuine his feelings were. Not like it mattered anymore. So why Darien? How did he come about noticing her? Oceina City was a long way from her home island.

There was also something of an old soul resonating off of him. Funny, since he couldn't have been much older than her. For the first time upon meeting him, she finally got a good look at his leanly muscled body. Tall and thin, yet strong. How could a guy so perfect exist? What was the catch?

"Who are you?" she asked, at last.

"Darien," he said. "Darien Oceina."

Tai shook her head. "No, I mean, who are you? I know you're name I..." She shook her head and tried again. "Are you a slayer or something? Is that how you got your last name? Because last I checked only important people got to have the Oceina name attached to them." It didn't make sense to slay the dragons since they were the protectors of the nation, but there were those who did it anyway for whatever reason. It was selfish of her, but she was happy to be alive instead of digested. If he was a slayer, she'd find a way to make penance later.