He offered a small salute, then stepped off my porch. I shut the door, locked it, and shared a small smile with Jacy. “Hook, line, and sinker.”
“It’s a good thing we were here and apparently had been here all night,” she replied, her cheeks flushed with excitement. “You’d make an awful good crook.”
Hours passed before Declan climbed down from his high in order to sleep. Midnight had come and gone by the time I tucked him into his bed, his kittens, purring, curled up next to him. I kissed his brow before he rolled onto his side and tucked the nearest kitten to the curve of his stomach. After shutting off his light, I left his door open and returned downstairs.
Sipping wine, Jacy, too, came down from her own high since we’d returned to the house. Her cheeks no longer flushed, she’d tucked her legs under her as she sat on the couch, sipping thoughtfully as she stared into the hearth fire I’d built. Coming up behind her, I kissed her throat, and listened as she all but purred like the damn kittens.
“I feel I understand you better,” she murmured as I sat beside her and picked up my own glass.
I, too, gazed into the flickering flames, the room lit by the fire and a single small lamp. Romantic indeed, yet I had other thoughts than romance on my mind just then.
“We have a huge responsibility, Jacy,” I said softly. “We can’t let humans know what we are. Some do, yes. It can’t be helped. We’ve shared this earth with humans for millennia. We protect them, when we can. We don’t want to rule them, either. We could. But it’s against our laws.”
She turned toward me. “You once said you were running, too. What are you running from?”
“My past.”
Jacy waited patiently for me to continue. I did, but only after a large gulp from my glass.
“Elsa, Declan’s mom, wasn’t a dragon,” I said slowly. “She found out the hard way.”
“How?”
I gulped again, draining my wine. “An intruder busted in. He was armed, high on some drug or other. Maybe PCP.Anyway, he attacked us. He’d have killed us all if I hadn’t gone dragon.”
“You killed him?”
“To save my wife and son, yes. In my human form, I tackled him, shoved him out the door.” I chuckled dryly. “If I hadn’t, I’d have brought the roof down. Yeah. I shifted and burned him alive. Now the dragon council wants to put me on trial. Maybe banish me.”
“For defending your family?”
I adored Jacy in her outrage. “Yeah. And for letting Elsa see me as I am. We aren’t encouraged to seek human mates. It complicates things. Elsa left us, too scared to have dragons in the family. I took Declan and ran. Came here. I’m not really Avery Armstrong, you know.”
“So what’s your name?”
I grimaced. “Avery Smith.”
Jacy tilted her head back and laughed. “Keep Armstrong. It suits you so much better.”
“Now the council knows where I am.” I sighed heavily and took the wine bottle from the table. “I vowed to never run again. You came into my life in time to care for Declan.”
Jacy scowled. “What do you mean?”
“If I’m found guilty, I’m banished for life. I can’t take him, or you, with me into exile. It’s an inhospitable island off the coast of Iceland.”
Growling low in her in her throat, Jacy snapped. “No way. That’s self-defense. They can’t condemn you for that.”
“In defending my family,” I went on with a shrug, “I showed a human who I really am. Elsa.”
“That’s so bullshit,” Jacy snapped. “If they’re that worried, then why don’t they outlaw marrying a human?”
“They can’t.” I smiled faintly. “We live among humans. It’s only natural we mate with them.”
“I won’t let them take you,” she said fiercely. “They won’t banish you. I’ll make damn sure of that.”
Lifting her hand, I kissed her knuckles. “My savage warrior,” I murmured. “This is why I can fall headlong in love with you.”
Her fury calmed within moments. “Maybe my being a dragon is why I’m falling in love with you.”
