When Time Stops: Dragon Shifter Surprise Pregnancy Romance by Anya Nowlan Page A

here they were now. Well, one of them, anyway.
    “Where the hell is she?” she wondered out loud, finding it nigh impossible to get comfortable on the chair, even with the gorgeous surroundings and the cloudless skies above her.
    She needed to talk to someone. Fix that, she needed to tell someone! About the smoking hot guy and the maddening night and the way he made her feel like a billion dollars and then some. A sly smile quirked across her lips at the thought of that. Though she’d always thought that she wasn’t the kind of woman who needed any man to feel good about herself, she would have been lying had she said that getting run out on at the altar hadn’t affected the way she saw herself, at least a little.
    Getting a confirmation that she was desirable and attractive despite that was sort of… nice.
    Okay. Relaxing, she reminded herself, biting down on her lower lip lightly and closing her eyes.
    It felt like her whole body was thrumming with adrenaline and no matter what she did, she couldn’t really stay still. So she kept wiggling around on the chair, tossing and turning, never finding a comfortable position while she fought a long, losing battle to get Aeon out of her head. That didn’t really work either.
    When she caught herself staring at the surface of the water again for the umpteenth time, remembering how their bodies had looked in the reflection of the glass last night, Isobel threw up her hands and sat up.
    This is ridiculous.
    But as she was about to stand up, something caught her eye. It was like a large shadow had fallen over the pool and poolside. There was a dark shape expanding rapidly in the water and it took a moment for Isobel to realize that what she was staring at was only the reflection on the water. When she looked up, she let out a bloodcurdling scream.
    Her whole thing about life being ridiculous lately was about to get a whole lot more true.
    The shape she’d seen coming down from the sky towards her expanded and grew and a second later, before she could scramble up and off the chair, massive talons had grappled around her and lifted her up.
    “Let go of me!” she screamed, waiting for the moment when this obvious nightmare would cease.
    There was no way in the world that she was getting scooped up from a sun chair in a French villa by a dragon. A real, honest to god, scary-ass dragon. There just wasn’t any way.
    Her palms were flat against the perfectly smooth obsidian of the talons and when she looked up, she could see the lighter underbelly of the large beast. He was covered completely in scales, thick and raspy to the touch, which shimmered in a million colors in the sunlight. The dragon was a dark, burgundy red, with a grey underside and the thinner leather on his wings, which sometimes almost shone through in the sunlight, was grey as well.
    Shh, Isobel. Don’t fight this. You are where you are supposed to be.
    A gruff, masculine voice spoke in her head. For a moment, that shut her up, making her swallow hard. She squeezed her eyes shut and then pinched the top of her hand, hoping that the pain would make her wake up from this damn nightmare.
    It didn’t.
    When she opened her eyes, she was still being carried off over the picturesque French countryside with its rolling fields, sloping valleys and green patches of trees by a mythical beast that defied all logic and reason. Her legs still dangled freely who knows how high in the sky and the wind whipped her hair and pimpled her skin with goosebumps. She was still being abducted by a dragon.
    “Who are you? Why are you doing this?” Isobel demanded, choking down tears.
    In a way, it didn’t even surprise her. Of course this is something that would happen to her. Of course she’d get carried away to lord knows where for who knows what reason by something that should only be possible in dreams.
    All will be revealed in due time. Now quiet.
    He didn’t sound particularly friendly. Or in any way interested in telling