TheWaterDragon by Tianna Xander Page A

guest to the door?”
    “Since you’re up, I’ll help you with the dishes.” Summer moved to pick up the nearly empty tray that held the cookies and finger sandwiches.
    “You will not!” Emily shooed her toward the door. “No guest of mine will clear the dirty dishes from my table.”
    With a sigh, Summer let the old woman lead her to the door. “You’ll call if you need anything?”
    “Of course I will, dear. You have a lovely time at your party tonight.”
    On the porch, Summer glared at the three dragons that Drake had assigned as her escort. “It was too much to ask that you’d all be waiting in the car, wasn’t it?”
    She knew she was being unfair, but didn’t much give a darn about it. Like the rest of her unmated sisters, she was tired of being treated like a baby. She was in her late twenties, for crying out loud. You’d think they would at least pretend they weren’t escorting her everywhere she went.
    Generally, Summer was an easy going person. She had to be. When she got angry, she could be dangerous. Her parents and her brothers had taught her to control her anger long ago. Yet, when she left Drake’s house with her entourage today, she found herself constantly on alert for uncontrollable fits of temper.
    Clouds gathered over their heads as she walked to the car. Her mood lifted when the dragons all gave her worried glances. Nothing could make her smile as easily as male apprehension—especially when she was the cause of their nervousness.
    Summer didn’t know why their discomfort made her feel better. In fact, it made her feel foolish and a bit like a bitch. Yet she couldn’t change it and, for the sake of others who weren’t as strong and seemingly indestructible as dragons, she didn’t want to. When Summer got mad, she got mad and the resulting weather patterns she created were treacherous and completely involuntary.
    After Summer climbed into the limo and buckled her seatbelt, the limo jerked to a start. She stared out through the tinted glass at the gloomy sky and hoped that, one day, she would find her match. If not, she feared for the human population wherever she went.
    Unshed tears burned her eyes as she thought about her sisters’ happiness. All of them were happy. Those who had mates were happily wed and those who didn’t were happily single. Why did she have to be the one who wanted a mate who most likely didn’t exist?
    It wasn’t that Summer didn’t want to accept a human male. She would have if she didn’t have to worry about getting mad at the poor sod and hitting him with a lightning bolt. With a dragon, she wouldn’t have to agonize over such an unfortunate happenstance. With a dragon, there would be nothing to fret about. If she hit a dragon, with lightning, it would probably just tickle him.
    What she needed was a male that could handle her bad moods and she was afraid that male just didn’t exist. Even a dragon might have problems with her ability to create uncontrollable lightning storms that sometimes destroyed property.
    Sitting back with a small sigh, Summer closed her eyes and concentrated on controlling her emotions. She inhaled slowly, counting to four on each inhalation and repeating the count when she exhaled. She visualized a cool spring day with a stunning blue sky and giant, fluffy white clouds.
    What she needed was time away from everyone. Whenever she got this way before, she would pack up and hit the trails, reveling in solitude until someone called her home, or she had to make an appearance for the business their parents left her.
    When their parents died, the girls discovered that their parents had left them each with something. Whether it was a house or business, they each inherited something that seemed made just for them.
    With Summer, they left her a tiny cabin in the woods where she could get away and a large nursery on approximately two-hundred acres that sometimes needed her particular talents—namely her ability to produce rain.
    Summer