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  LOVING DRAGON

  T LEE GARLAND

  Loving Dragon

  Copyright © 2015

  Published by Dark Hollows Press

  About the eBook You Have Purchased

  All rights reserved. Without reserving the rights under copyright, reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or any other means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, is forbidden. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law.

  Sweet Hearts

  Copyright © 2015 T Lee Garland

  ISBN 10: 1942176597

  ISBN 13: 978-1-942176-59-6

  Author: T Lee Garland

  Editor: Ashley Kain

  Original Publication Date: February 2015

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2015 by Dark Hollows Press

  Cover Design by 3 Rusted Spoons

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  Because everyone needs a hero sometimes

  I dedicate this story to mine

  Daddy, Carl and Aunt C

  Gone but never forgotten

  Chapter One

  “You can’t really expect to get away with this!” Catherine screamed as her stepfather, Howard, pushed her into her bedroom.

  “Your mother and I feel it’s for the best, just until you come to your senses and agree to marry Douglas. I just don’t understand you, Catherine. Your mother and I have always treated you like our little princess, we have given you everything you have ever wanted and needed, and all we ask in return is for you to make wise choices in life.”

  Catherine snorted. “All you’re asking in return is for me to give up my life and marry some old crony that you have personally handpicked for me!”

  Howard sighed. “Douglas Washburn is one of the wealthiest and most respected men in this state. He comes from a very influential family. Is it too much to ask that our only child marry well? We only want the best for you, princess. We just want you to live the rest of your life in the custom that your mother and I have always maintained for you. Catherine, you’re a very beautiful girl. Marrying Douglas, who by the way is crazy about you, will ensure your place in society.”

  “You mean it will ensure your place in society. I care nothing about all that. I’m young! I just want to have some fun. Marrying someone who is almost thirty years older than me is not going to happen! Besides, he’s creepy. I don’t like the way he looks at me.” Catherine shuddered.

  Howard frowned. “Then you leave me no options. You will stay locked in your bedroom until you come to your senses and agree to the wedding.”

  “I will never agree to this sham of a wedding! If I were to wed anyone, it would be someone young and handsome and not someone old enough to be my father!” Catherine screamed. She was starting to panic, suspecting she wasn’t going to be able to talk him out of this harebrained scheme of his. And it hurt more than she would ever admit that her mother didn’t care enough to sober up and fight for her only daughter’s happiness.

  Howard’s face reddened. “Then you will stay locked inside of your gilded tower until you agree or until that handsome prince you are waiting for swoops in to save you!” With that he gathered up her laptop and phone and slammed and locked her bedroom door. Catherine launched herself at the closed door and beat on it until her hands were bruised. Her screams echoed around the cavernous bedroom. She whirled, storming across the room to fling open the double doors that led to the Juliette balcony overlooking the paved driveway. It would be dangerous, but damned if she wasn’t desperate enough to try to scale it. This was going to take some planning. She would wait a couple of hours, and give them time to settle for the night. Then she could make her move. Catherine stretched out across the bed. She just needed to be patient. Within minutes she had fallen into an exhausted sleep.

  Catherine’s green eyes opened and scanned her bedroom. The large room was in shadows now, illuminated only by the small Tiffany lamp on her bedside table. The room had been decorated in teal and snowy white. Her four-poster bed was built up on a pedestal and draped with billowing silk. It was a bed built for a princess thought Catherine. “What a joke,” she said out loud as she sat up in the middle of the bed. Her nearby desk sat empty of both her phone and her laptop courtesy of Howard.

  “Damn him,” she muttered as she began yanking the bedcovers off and tying them together. She was getting out of here even if it killed her. There was no way in hell she was marrying creepy Douglas Washburn, with his watery blue eyes, fake smile, and wandering hands.

  “Pssst.”

  Catherine tilted her head toward the door. Had she heard something? Or was it just wishful thinking on her part?

  “Pssst,” the sound came again, and this time it was followed by a scratching at her bedroom door. Catherine walked across the room and pressed her cheek to the smooth wood surface.

  “Who’s there?” she whispered.

  “Princess, it’s Mary. I’m trying to help you get out.” Mary, her old nanny who now worked as a maid for the family, picked diligently at the lock with a bobby pin.

  “Oh, thank God, Mary, please hurry…please,” pleaded Catherine. It seemed to take forever, but finally the lock gave way and the door was opened. Catherine flew into Mary’s arms hugging her former nanny tightly. “Thank you, Mary, thank you so much.”

  “It’s okay, child, it’s going to be all okay. It’s a shame what they’re trying to do to my baby girl, and I’ll not stand by and let it happen. I’m helping you out of here right now. Gather up a bag with some clothes in it. My daughter Mia is waiting outside in her car to take you to Maxville County where she lives. She has a job for you if you want it. They won’t be able to find you so easily there, but you can’t take much with you. Now come on and hurry up!”

  Catherine grabbed her large Louis Vuitton duffle bag, and quickly began shoving some clothes and toiletries in it. She pulled her hidden cash from a book at the back of her closet and quickly counted it out. A total of six hundred and ninety-four dollars wouldn’t go far, but it would have to do for now. She wouldn’t be able to use her credit cards because they might be traced, so she pitched them on the bed and looped her purse across her body. “I’m ready,” she announced, and Mary nodded her approval.

  “Good girl. Now your mama had too much to drink as usual and went to bed hours ago, but your stepdad has only been in bed an hour or two, he was on the phone talking to that Douglas man, I heard him assure him that you would come around eventually. Make sure you’re quiet. If you wake him it will be trouble for both of us.”

  Catherine frowned. “I’m worried for you, Mary. What if they find out you helped me?”

  “They ain’t going to know, child.” Mary walked across the room, picked up the rope Catherine had fashioned from her bed linens, and tied it to the balcony. “It’s a two-story drop to the ground, but they won’t know you weren’t desperate enough to try it anyway. I’ll lock the door from the outside, just like I found it. Now don’t worry about me. You just go.”

  Catherine felt the tears gather in her eyes. “Thank you, Mary, for everything. I love you.”

  “I know that, child. Now you go and be quiet,” Mary said, brushing away her own tears.

  Catherine tiptoed down the hug
e spiral staircase that led to the two-story foyer. She had lived in this house for the past ten years when her single mom had lucked out and caught herself a wealthy, but lonely Howard Stanley. He was a man with political ambitions and enough money to gloss over the fact that his new beautiful wife was a single mother, working as a hair stylist when he had met her. Her mother, Virginia White-Stanley, had sold out in order to marry into money and become a politician’s wife. She now drank herself to sleep most nights. Catherine loved her mother, but she was weak and would always follow Howard’s lead. Therefore they would not be able to help each other. Catherine knew she had to save herself.

  Catherine winced when she stepped on the ninth step. Past experience from sneaking in and out had taught her it had a squeak. When the squeak came it seemed to echo around the house and Catherine held her breath waiting for the sound of her stepfather’s bedroom door to open. When it didn’t, she raced the rest of the way down the stairs and out the door. A small dark car sat idling with its lights off in the curved, paved drive. Catherine opened the door, pitched her bag in the back and jumped in. The girl driving floored it, keeping her headlights off until she reached the main road.

  Catherine breathed a sigh of relief. She had done it. She had escaped from the castle.

  A smile touched her lips. Could her prince charming be very far behind?

  Chapter Two

  Catherine glanced sideways at Mia. Of course she had known that her nanny had a daughter just a little older than herself, but she had never met her before tonight. She took a moment to let her gaze slide over Mia. She was beautiful, bi-racial with large, dark almond-shaped eyes and creamy colored skin. Her dark hair fell in curls to her shoulders. Catherine thought she was twenty-three, which would make her three years older than herself.

  “Are you done eyeballing me, princess?” Mia asked suddenly, causing Catherine to jump at the unexpected sound of her husky voice.

  “You’re very beautiful.”

  Mia smiled. “Thank you.”

  “I’m Catherine. Thank you for helping me, Mia. Your mom has told me so much about you through the years, and she is so proud of how you’ve been working so hard to put yourself through college.”

  “I know who you are. Mom always came home from work talking about her ‘little golden-haired princess.’ For the past ten years, that’s all I’ve heard. I feel like I know you—all about you and your so-called troubles, the troubles of a poor little rich girl.”

  Catherine winced. “I’m not rich. My stepfather is. I don’t care how much money you have or don’t have, Mia. Being forced to marry someone you don’t love is wrong. That Douglas Washburn is evil. I can feel it. I won’t marry him. I don’t care if I have to live in a ditch. Am I so wrong for not wanting to marry someone I don’t love? Or for wanting my own life and not one that’s chosen for me?”

  Mia shook her head, sending her curls bouncing around her stunning face. “No, you’re not wrong. I’m sorry. I just finished my shift and I’m tired. Mom would never make me marry someone I didn’t love. That’s probably why she called tonight and asked for me to come and get you. No one is going to be sleeping in a ditch, by the way. I just rented a two-bedroom apartment and I could use some help with the rent, roommate.”

  “I don’t have much money. I’ll need to find a job. Your mom said you may have one for me? I’m afraid I don’t know how to do much. My parents were so insistent I marry Douglas that they wouldn’t even allow me to attend college this fall. They said I wouldn’t need college or to work once I was Mrs. Washburn. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never worked before.”

  “It’s okay. I work at Bubba’s as a bartender-slash-server. There’s a job there as a server, and if you like, I could get you in. You’re pretty, so with some work you should make a lot in tips.” Mia shot a quick glance across to Catherine.

  “Really? That would be so awesome! I could serve…tables, right? Is Bubba’s a restaurant?”

  Mia smiled. “Not exactly a restaurant, more like a bar that occasionally serves up a burger on the grill. It’s a biker bar, actually, so it can get a little rough and rowdy at times, but Bubba runs a tight ship. He has a couple of hunky bouncers that keep the peace.” Mia shrugged. “You smile and play nice to the customers, you could do real well. I hope you have better clothes in that expensive bag of yours.”

  Catherine glanced down at the slim black slacks and pale pink sweater she wore. What exactly had she stuffed into her bag? “I have a couple of pairs of jeans and some tops. I think a dress and a couple of sweaters.”

  Mia laughed, shaking her head. “Got any money?”

  Catherine hesitated before answering, not trusting Mia enough yet to admit to the amount. “A little, but not much.”

  Mia smiled. “We’ll go shopping tomorrow before our shift. You won’t need much money. The less you wear, the more tips you’ll make.”

  Chapter Three

  “Who’s the new girl?” asked Dane “The Dragon” Maldonado as he arrived for his shift at Bubba’s and leveled his intense brown eyes on the pretty blonde in the black leather mini-skirt.

  The owner, Bubba Nicks, followed his gaze and shrugged. “She came in with Mia. Said her name is Catherine, but to call her Cat. She’s young and green, but with those looks she should bring in some good money.”

  “Cat, huh? Well, here pussy, pussy, pussy,” purred Rick “Cutman” Jackson, Dane’s best friend, fellow bouncer and former “cutman” in his corner when he was a MMA fighter.

  “Really, Cutman? I thought you were more of a dog lover,” said Dragon, straight-faced.

  “What makes you think that?” asked Cutman, who was still eyeing Catherine with interest.

  “I saw your last girlfriend…woof,” Dragon said.

  Cutman smirked. “They all look alike in the dark, bro. Besides, that girl sure could lick some balls.”

  All three men laughed before Bubba said, “Shit, ya fuckers, get to work. I ain’t paying you for yacking about Cutman’s love life or lack of it.” And he wandered off to join Mia behind the bar. The place was starting to get busy as people got off of work and stopped in for a burger and a drink.

  “You interested?” asked Dragon, his voice suddenly serious as he inclined his head toward Cat and crossed his arms over his wide chest.

  “Naw, man, I’m just messing with you. You know I’ve had my eyes on Mia for weeks now. One of these days, I’m going to convince her I’m the love of her life,” said Cutman as he watched Mia laugh at something Bubba said.

  Dragon grinned. “Well, I will give you this. Your taste in women has definitely improved. Mia is a knock-out.”

  “You keep your eyes on the hot little blonde and off my future wife,” Cutman stated. “Are you seriously considering the blonde? I’ve never known you to mix business and pleasure before.” At Dragon’s nod, Cutman continued. “Good luck with that one. She looks like a handful for sure. I’m going to work the front door.” Cutman made his way through the growing crowd to stand at the entrance. Dragon dropped some coins in the jukebox and hit “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Across the room, Cutman flipped him the bird and Dragon threw his head back and laughed. It had been a long time since he had felt this much excitement about a woman. He honestly couldn’t wait to meet Cat.

  Dragon’s gaze fell back on to Cat. She was smiling at a table of men as she took their order, and they looked entranced by her. He couldn’t blame them. He too was having trouble taking his eyes off her. She had beautiful legs, and she was smart enough to show them off in a tiny black leather mini-skirt. She had pulled her long, straight blonde hair up in a high ponytail, and it swayed and moved with her actions. Dragon found it as spellbinding as a swinging pocket watch welded by a hypnotist.

  She must have felt his eyes on her because she raised her head and looked at him. They were the greenest eyes he had ever seen. They reminded him of the spring grass in his home state of Tennessee. Cat sent him a dazzling smile before turning her attention back to the table. Dragon g
rinned. “Here pussy, pussy, pussy.”

  Chapter Four

  Catherine maneuvered her way between the tables. The place had filled up pretty quickly, mostly with rough-looking men who for the most part were behaving. Her feet were killing her in the little half-boots that Mia insisted she buy, but she smiled through the pain. The music was lively, the men were friendly, the food was good, and the beer was cold. Catherine had to admit it she had never felt so alive, so totally free. This was the kind of place her parents would never think to look for her at. They themselves would never frequent such a place, the country club being more their style. Catherine felt like she belonged here, and these were her kind of people. Real, honest and down-to-earth, and so ready to have some fun! And if that hot bouncer kept giving her the eye, she was almost positive she was going to like working at Bubba’s.

  Earlier that morning, they had finally arrived at Mia’s apartment in the early light. The apartment was small, but functional after all, it was just the two of them. After they had slept a few hours, Mia had taken her to the local Goodwill store, where she helped her make some clothing purchases, including two pairs of well-worn jeans that Mia had promptly taken a pair of scissors to, making her two new pairs of daisy-dukes. The fake leather skirt had been a total score and they both had done a little happy dance right there in the aisle when Catherine had spotted it. Later that afternoon, a trip to the mall produced a pair of jeans that fit the curve of her ass like they were made for just her. They added a couple of boob-hugging tank tops and a pretty, flirty halter dress. Her new wardrobe was complete.

  “How you holding up, hun?” asked Roxie, one of the other servers. Cat had taken an instant liking to her. She was a little older than herself, with bright red hair and a friendly smile.