Bas finally sat up. “Okay. I’m going to put some lasagna on for dinner. You coming?”
“Not yet. I need a shower and some alone time with this picture. For science.”
Bas screwed up his face. “Gross, bro. You know you could just ask him out.”
“No, I can’t. The dragon doesn’t understand dating, and Lachie won’t understand why we can’tjustdate. He doesn’t have the same impulse, and I won’t do that to him,” Apollo said, looking at the picture again. It was possibly one of the most selfless things his impulsive brother had ever done. His heart was in the right place, even if he was acting like a total dumbass.
“You won’t know how he feels unless you talk to him, Apollo.”
“Hush. Away with you. I must get ready to meet your lovely Bridget and you have food you must cook for me. I haven’t eaten all day, and I’m wasting away to nothing,” Apollo said, finally getting out of bed. “I want gelato for dessert too.”
“Yes, princess,” Bas replied and headed for the door. He had food to cook, a dragon to wrangle, a monster to kill, and a woman to seduce, and not necessarily in that order.
14
Bridget had expected her rooms to be as fancy as the rest of the house, but reality outstripped her imagination.
It was like she had walked into the set of a Peter Pan movie and was given Wendy Darling’s room to sleep in, complete with window couches, a fireplace, and a four-poster bed with velvet and sheer curtains. There were books on the shelves and a fancy claw foot tub with lavender bath salts.
It was the kind of place Bridget’s mother would have died over. There was money, and then there wasoldmoney. The first was loud and showy. The second was so inbuilt that it was almost natural to the insider because it permeated every inch of their lives. Every picture and piece of furniture had a history, a lineage, and a legacy. Their namemeantsomething. It wasn’t some name that had been made up one day because you had no family that wanted you.
Bas didn’t seem the type to care about that kind of thing. He hadn’t pushed her about her history when others would have. He didn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest that she had a dark past. She wondered if he would be so ambivalent if he found out that she had killed her stepfather and not the fae.
A knock at the door halted her spiraling thoughts. She opened it with a smile, her heart skipping a beat. She was expecting Bas, but instead she got the blond from the bar.
“Oh. Hello,” she said.
“Good evening, Bridget the Hawk Girl. I’m Apollo, and I’ve been sent to bring you down for dinner,” he replied with a beaming smile. It didn’t hide his rapid perusal from her scuffed motorcycle boots to her Doctor Strange T-shirt.
“Thanks,” she murmured and then paused. “Should I change? I mean, I only have jeans and T-shirts if I do.”
Apollo’s head tilted to one side. “Why would you need to change, love? The only reason I’m not wearing a bathrobe right now is because Bas is afraid I’ll flash my dick around you by accident.”
Bridget giggled. “Okay, fair enough. This just seems the kind of house where people would dress for dinner. Like Downton Abbey or some shit.”
“Dear gods, no. The house is just old. We are all too busy and, quite frankly, too crazy, to stand on too much ceremony. It’s been a long time since a woman has stayed with us that wasn’t an Ironwood, so we are all on our best behavior.” Apollo offered her his arm, and Bridget found herself taking it.
“You guys don’t seem crazy to me,” she admitted. “Eccentric, maybe, but not crazy.”
“As I said, we are on our best behavior because our dear Basset Bear is quite a vindictive little dick when crossed, and he doesn’t want you to be scared away.”
“Bas? Vindictive? Surely not,” Bridget said, still smiling. She was going to get on well with Apollo, but after seeing him at the bar, he seemed to get along well with everyone.
“The man can go into your mind and rearrange it as he pleases. He can give you nightmares if you decide to piss himoff. He once made me believe a spider had laid eggs in my arm,” Apollo said and shuddered.
“And why would he do that?” Bridget asked because it didn’t sound like the sweet guy she knew.
“I may have tested out a new laughing potion on him and made him laugh so hard, he pissed himself.”
Bridget snorted and then coughed to cover it up. “Sounds to me like you had it coming.”
Apollo grinned. “Of course I did. We were fifteen and thirteen at the time, so were complete assholes.”
“I thought it was weird that you guys were all living at home as grown men, but after seeing the guest room and the library, I understand why,” Bridget replied.
“We are Greatdrakes. We don’t wish to be anywhere but our towers, and with the amount of explosive things I create, what normal house could stand up to the challenge?” Apollo replied with a shrug. “Reeve, the youngest, splits his time here and at the Ironwood mansion and sometimes the castle in England if he and Charlotte are learning magic from the fae. We all kind of live with each other in that way. Family, you know?”
Bridget shook her head. “No, I don’t know. It’s nice for you, though. I have no idea what that would even be like.”
