Dragon in the Rough (Elders Enterprises Book 1) by Jo Vanz Read Free Book Online

sat on the side against the wall. Katie wished she could sit there, she did not like having her back to the rest of the restaurant, but she sat down and gave Paul a slight smile.
                  The silence stretched on until after the waitress came to take their order. Katie was not thrilled at the way the waitress eyed Paul, undressing him with her eyes. God, did she have no self-respect? Wait…why did it matter to Katie? It shouldn’t. It wasn’t like she and Paul were a couple. Hell, they were the opposite. Katie picked up her glass of water and downed half of it.
                  “All right,” Katie said with a half-smile. “Why don’t we start with something easy?” She waited a moment to see if Paul was going to object. When he nodded his head in agreement, Katie continued. “What are you?”
                  Paul let out a small laugh. “I thought you said easy?” Katie just glared at him until he continued. “You really don’t know, do you? I thought they would have told you when they sent you after me.”
                  Katie released the breath she had not realized she had been holding, her voice full of annoyance. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking, now would I?” Her voice was a little harsher than she really meant, but it got the point across. She would not be sorry for that fact.
                  “Well, I guess that is true,” Paul replied. He looked down at his hands and started to play with a small piece of paper. To Katie, it seemed as though he was trying to avoid telling her the truth, and that pissed her off.
                  “Look,” Katie snapped. “You can either tell me now or I can pull out my handcuffs. I didn’t come here to play games so just answer the damn question. Can you do that?” Katie relaxed a little when Paul nodded his head in agreement.
     
                  He cleared his throat and shook his head. “I have never explained this to anyone before.” He let out a soft chuckle and looked back down at his hands. “Actually, we are not allowed to talk about it with anyone outside our race. But it seems I am just breaking all the rules now, so why not?” Paul glanced up at Katie quickly before averting his eyes again. “I’m a dragon shifter.” He said it so softly that Katie was not sure she heard him correctly.
                  Was he telling her the truth? Deep down, Katie knew he was but she was not ready to accept it. Sure, she already suspected that there were other races out in the world, so why not dragon shifters? “Well, for the sake of this conversation let’s say I believe you.” Paul glanced up at her for the first time since he told her. Katie wanted to do a happy dance when she saw the hope in his eyes. “Now tell me why the Elders are after you.” She gave Paul a slight grin. “Also, was that a dream last night, or something else?” She did her best not to blush as the memories of last night came rushing to the forefront of her mind.
                  Before Paul could respond, the waitress walked up with their food. Both Katie and Paul waited silently until she was finished setting down their dishes. Once done, they both said thank you and waited for her to turn and leave again before either one of them spoke.
                  “All right,” Paul started. “Before I can go into detail about what I did, I think I need to give you a back story.” He paused to take a bit of food. “It is said that our beginning is much like some Native American tales. When the earth was created, six dragons descended upon it, claiming it as their home. They brought with them a book. To most it does not look like much, but to the dragons it is something special. It is a book of prophecies.”
                  Paul looked up at Katie before taking another bite. “Okay, so how does this book fit into everything?” Katie asked. Why