The Dragon’s E-Mail Order Menage

 But makeup could fix that and now that she was actually up and moving around, she was feeling incredibly invigorated. It was probably the challenge of the situation. She had wanted to experience a different sort of life, and that was what she‘d gotten. Now she had to figure out how to navigate that life, and wasn’t that at least half of the fun? The figuring out of a thing?

She stepped into the largest, most lavish shower she had ever seen, letting the copious amounts of rich, sweet smelling steam roll over her body for what felt like hours before reluctantly stepping out and grabbing her makeup bag. It didn’t take a lot, just enough to cover the lingering evidence of her previous night’s restlessness and to give her a little color.

Feeling like a very stereotypical girl and not really caring all that much, she spent some time agonizing over the right thing to wear; she wanted an outfit that made her look confident, playful and yes, sexy, without looking like she was trying too hard. Finally she settled on a flimsy green summer dress that played nicely off her eye color and hair before she piled that hair up on top of her head in a messy bun and headed out of the bedroom door.

She paused for a moment to determine which direction she needed to go (she found it almost comical that a person could actually get turned around, lost inside of a residential house, but this was no ordinary house; it was a massive adobe triumph of architecture) and then headed resolutely toward the kitchen.

She had gotten it into her head that she would deliver both men, starting with Levi because he was the actual legal owner of the place, their coffee in bed as a gesture of thanks for having her in their home. She had studied them enough to know exactly how each man took it and to be certain that they were far too inclined to stay up into the wee hours of the morning for them to be up and around yet.

“Wait a minute, Maggie; what are you doing?”

It wasn’t until she was standing outside of a bedroom door large enough to be the front door of a castle that she paused to question whether or not this was actually a good idea. She had never even been inside of Levi’s room before. Between him and Hudson, he was the one she had spent far less time with, and had much less figured out. Half of the time she found him to be beyond charming and the other half she wasn’t even sure that she liked him.

He had the easy confidence (arrogance?) of a man who had always had everything and fully expected to go on having everything for the foreseeable future. That alone would have been enough for her to turn away from him in disgust, but she was quickly learning that there was more to him than that.

At least it seemed so to her. He was witty and unexpectedly compassionate, a lover of the outdoors as well as books. So yes, she thought, , she wanted to make a good impression on this man and for her, that included showing her appreciation for his hospitality. Besides, watching her mother had taught Maggie that there was nothing wrong with doing things for the man (or in her case, men) in her life. Even trivial domestic tasks like bringing a cup of coffee when it wasn’t asked for. It was a simple way to show that she cared.

“Knock knock.” She rapped on the door while whispering gently, “It’s Maggie. You awake in there?”

For a moment there was no response and Maggie started to take a couple of steps backwards, figuring that waking him up probably wouldn’t be the best way to get on his good side, when she heard him call in a muffled voice that yes, he was awake, and why didn’t she come in?

She took one steadying breath, surprised and annoyed to find that she was actually nervous to go inside of this man’s room, and then rolled her shoulders to psych herself up. This was what she had come here for, right? A little flirtation? She opened the door, marveling at its weight, and stepped inside. It was like stepping into another world. This had to be the largest room she had ever stepped foot inside of. She knew it couldn’t possibly be true but it felt like it was bigger than her parents’ whole house!

It was all rich, dark woods and adobe, a large kiva fireplace situated right in front of an enormous sleigh bed. And speaking of the bed, he was still in it. She gasped involuntarily and almost spilled the cup of coffee all down the front of her dress which, being silk, would have ruined it. He was sitting up, the covers still over the bottom half of his body, arms folded casually behind his head. He was looking at her with a decidedly devious smile playing across the corners of his mouth.

 Maggie could feel the hot blush begin to spread across the bridge of her nose and both cheeks as well. Stupid pale skin. She so hated how transparent it made her, both literally and figuratively. It had made a situation that already felt more embarrassing than it probably should have even more uncomfortable and at this point, she deeply wished that she had never had this stupid idea to begin with.

“Well good morning, Miss Maggie,” he said in his deep, melodic voice that made her legs tremble ever so slightly to hear. “Looks like you’ve gotten a little sun.”

He was alluding to her blush. They both knew she was blushing and he was calling her out on it. She would have thought what a jerk he was being if she hadn’t been so distracted by the sight of his bare chest. It wasn’t like she hadn’t ever seen a man’s chest before. She had been with Damon forever.

Definitely long enough to have gotten naked. But Levi, he looked like he belonged in one of those black and white Calvin Klein ads! He might as well have been carved out of marble, his chest and ab muscles were so chiseled and his skin was a perfect sunny, golden tan. There was no denying it, he was an exceptionally good-looking man, and whether she had expected him to be here at the beginning of this whole thing or not, she was now standing in his bedroom, living under his roof. She had to admit, she was a pretty lucky girl. She had most definitely found herself an adventure.

“Yeah, the sun’s pretty hard to avoid here I guess. Not a lot of trees.” It felt ridiculous to play into the whole game that she was sunburned, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say. When his smile only widened and his eyes began to twinkle, she mentally kicked herself for acknowledging the comment at all. She should have just ignored it completely. She was so, so not smooth.

“Look, I’m really sorry if I bothered you. I didn’t realize you were still in bed. I guess I’m kind of an early riser. Comes from years of living on a farm.”

“Who’s bothered? You aren’t bothering me at all. Can’t think of a nicer sight to greet me in the morning.”

She knew it was only a line, but that didn’t stop her from blushing all over again. Jesus, this guy was good. He must have had a hell of a lot of practice talking to women. She bet he got pretty much whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it. He would be pretty hard to resist. She was actually pretty surprised that he needed to use a mail order service at all. Maybe it was because of the whole three people thing? Maybe that was a harder sell?

“Is that coffee for me?”

“What? Oh! Yes, it is. Black, the way you like it, right?”

“Right. How thoughtful of you.”

Then, before she could say anything else, he got up out of bed and started walking toward her. She almost fainted. Turned out, he didn’t have anything on under the covers, either. He was walking toward her one hundred percent naked, watching her face the whole time to see what she would do. What she did was nothing, nothing but stare. If he had looked good before, now he looked positively inhuman. But then of course he wasn’t human. He was a dragon shifter, and an alpha at that. Inside, she could feel her own dragon practically purring with approval.