Augustus twisted around and took her hand. Gods, he loved these delicate fingers. “I’m in no rush. If you’re ready, then I’ll take care of everything. If you’re not, that’s all right, too.”
Selene smiled, and her eyes lit up like a sky full of stars. “You promised to show me the world, Triarius.” She leaned in until their lips whispered against each other. “Show me everything.”
That sounded like an invitation if he ever heard one. “You know…” He crawled farther onto the bed and got her onto her back. “I can show you a few things right now… If you’re interested.”
“I’m suddenly very intrigued, Captain.”
He grinned, and she took his mouth with hers. Her lips parted, and their tongues brushed?—
A coarse tongueslurpedacross his shoulder. Wet.Loud.
Gross.
Augustus unsheathed a knife from its home under his pillow.
The creature, only millimeters from the pointy end, blinked its big, brown eyes. Despite nearly dying, it smiled, its tongue flopping around outside its scaled face. Its blue and brown iridescent, leathery wings fluttered against its side.
This fucking thing.
Pent-up air shot from Augustus’s lungs. “You are the bane of my entire existence, dragon.”
Selene scooped the cat-sized creature into her arms and nuzzled their noses. “Good morning to you, too.”
“That’s all you have to say?” Augustus asked. “We were about to…you know.” He couldn’t even say the words in front of it.
Nowhewas treating it like a child.
“Augustus.”
“Can you ask it to…I don’t know. Go drown itself or something?”
“Stop that.” Selene scooted to the edge of the bed and rose, cradling the dragon. “We have our entire lives to…you know,” she said in a mocking tone. “He’s hungry.”
She opened one of two wardrobes and searched through the many,manydresses hanging there.
The dragon climbed onto her shoulder and blinked at him, tail wagging.
“Don’t you find it strange,” Augustus began, reaching into his own wardrobe, “that it doesn’t hunt for itself? Dragons do that, you know.”
“One, he’s not a dragon. He’s a…cousin. Two, he doesn’t like hunting. Or killing. It’s cruel.”
“How can you know that for sure? It’s gone for hours at a time. Sometimes days. How does it eat when you’re not around?”
“He visits the kitchens. Cook gives him fresh bread, carrots, things like that. Cake on special occasions. He likes cake.” They nuzzled their noses again. “I can feel you scowling over there, and stop calling him ‘it.’ He’s a he.”
“If you insist on entertaining it,itneeds a name.”
“He hasn’t decided on one yet.” With a canary yellow dress draped over an arm, Selene spun toward their private bathing chamber, wearing a nightdress just gauzy enough to tease. “He’s open to suggestions, though.”
Augustus followed her with a change of clothes in hand. “When it first showed up, I thought it was cute how you spoke for it. Now, well, I’m beginning to question your sanity.”
“You should. I fell in love with you, didn’t I?” Her voice echoed inside the tiled chamber.
“Fortunately for me, neither of us had a choice in the matter.” Gods, reincarnation, fated, etcetera. He wasn’t complaining. Especially during moments like now, with her nightdress falling to the floor by the bathing pool.
Augustus knelt beside the dragon, who patiently sat on its hindquarters, short arms flattened down its scaled belly. “I’ll make you a deal, dragon.”
It looked up, unblinking and wide-eyed.
