He’d worn her down.
She couldn’t help but feel the way he watched her with a tenderness that made her stomach flutter—as if he didn’t see anything else. Just her.
His intense blue eyes made the feeling even sharper. Like he was peeling back her layers one by one to discover what was beneath.
Ryu wasn’t considered traditionally handsome—his features were a little too rugged for that. Today, his strong jawline was unshaven. The scruffiness suited him, making him all the more appealing.
Tall but with a lean, muscular frame, Ryu was the sort of man who drew other people to him with little effort. There was an irresistible charm in his expressions. Sometimes mysterious. Sometimes playful. It was the personality inside rather than individual features that made him so attractive.
He leaned against the window frame as his lips quirked. “I am.”
Tate studied him with a sharp look, somehow unsurprised by the two-word answer. Ryu wasn’t easy to pin down. He was a manipulative bastard who always had more than one reason for any action he took.
Someone once told her the empire would always be first in his heart. That was true for the most part, but he’d proven since that he could hold other people there as well. Somehow Tate had become one of them.
It was a priceless gift that she didn’t know if she could ever repay.
There was also the fact that she’d come to like the sneaky side of him. It made things interesting. If she ruined his carefully laid plans occasionally for the sheer fun of it—well, that was the price he paid for keeping them from her in the first place.
The dragon clinging to his shoulder screeched, taking flight in a graceful glide.
Tate caught him with a grunt. “Hello, Rath. It’s good to see you too.”
Rath was Ryu’s dragon in the same way Ilith was Tate’s. The only difference was Ryu had somehow learned to manifest him, something the rest of the dragon-ridden were still trying to figure out.
In this form, Rath was the size of a large house cat. His body was built for speed but held a surprising strength as he steadied himself in her arms, careful not to damage her outfit. Tiny horns curled back from his forehead. His colors were reminiscent of a night consumed by flames.
Dark eyes peered up at Tate as his mind brushed against hers.
She smiled, scratching along his brow ridges in the way she’d learned he liked. She didn’t know why she could communicate with him in the same way she did Ilith, but his voice was nearly as clear. If not as intrusive. She had a feeling she could block him from her mind if she wanted. An option that wasn’t available with Ilith.
Intruder!
Agitated, Ilith surged out of her resting spot. She made her way up the small of Tate’s back to her shoulders before waddling down the arm not currently occupied by the geometric tattoo of the relic Tate had picked up in an ancient ruin.
Get off,Ilith demanded.
Rath ignored her, rubbing his head against Tate’s cheek even more enthusiastically.
Tate ignored the brief feeling of Rath’s glee as he teased Ilith. It was good for Ilith to not get her way all the time.
Cradling the small dragon in her arms, Tate crossed to the bookcases and called down the stairs. “Point to Ryu.”
A chorus of frustrated voices responded.
Amid the snarling and growling, Dewdrop’s voice stood out. “Damn it, how did that bastard make it past us?”
Tate hid her grin against Rath’s body.
Her roommates and Ryu were involved in a months’-long game in which the entire house was the playing field and her room the victory line. Ryu had taken the role of offense with Dewdrop, Night and the rest acting as defense. All Ryu had to do was make it past the others without being stopped or spotted.
For a man who rarely allowed obstacles to get in his way, Ryu was being surprisingly patient about her friends putting up active blockades to their time together.
As far as she could tell, he was enjoying coming up with more and more creative ways of infiltrating their home.
Sometimes she’d walk in to find him sitting at the dining table studying a report or catch a glimpse of him in the garden seconds before the others would tear through only to find him gone.
For her part, Tate found the way Night and Dewdrop gave him a hard time amusing so she left them to it. There was a need for the members of her household to accept each other. If this was how they figured out Ryu’s place in the group, she wouldn’t stand in their way.
