Luke grunts and turns his attention to me, the sharp lines of his face drawn into an unfamiliar expression. It’s not any of the variations of grumpy face I’ve gotten good at interpreting. I don’t get any time to figure out where it fits on the scale, because he thrusts his arms forward with a crinkle of paper. I’ve been so focused on his face I didn’t notice he’s holding something.
“Oh!” I press a hand to trembling lips as he lifts his offering higher. It’s a massive bouquet of gorgeous pink roses wrapped in light-pink paper and dark-pink curly ribbon. He tips it into my arms, and it’s so big I have to hold it like a baby. Each flower looks unbelievably perfect, glowing with health. I feel a faint tingle of magic as I lift them to my faceto breathe in their divine scent. “These are magical roses! I’ve never felt so much magic from plants before, not even the walking tulips.”
“They were grown by Severin.” Luke tips his head toward the flowers. “Yet I don’t think it’s the roses you’re feeling.”
My nose scrunches. What does that mean?
“Look closer.”
I squint down at the bouquet, moving a couple of blooms aside to expose a stem topped with a book cover instead of a flower! It’s the next book in the paranormal romance series I’m reading for the Witch Bitch Spicy Book Club. I keep digging, finding more miniature romance book “flowers,” all of them from my TBR.
“Thank you! It’s lovely.” I smile up at him. “How did you know which books to pick?”
“I had Rune text Autumn. She knew of a website where you had all of your books listed.”
That’s so sweet!
“I want to see,” Princess Buttercup demands, her front paws propped on my thighs as she strains upward.
I lean over until she can take a good sniff, her little bunny nose wiggling. She jerks backward as if horrified. “Ugh. That’s not chicken.”
My lips twitch as I straighten. She does this all the time, demanding to smell everything I eat, then rearing away from fruit like it tried to attack her.
“Of course it’s not chicken.” Luke’s finger traces the edge of the wrapping paper. “It’s a book bouquet.”
I nod. It sure is, only it’s not like the ones you see on Instagram, which have real books one can read. I don’t knowwhat I’m supposed to do with the miniatures. Maybe I can arrange the book flowers into a decoration of some kind, like a wreath. He clearly put a lot of thought and effort into this, and as they say, it’s the thought that counts.
Especially when it means Luke’s been thinking ofme—and thinking of me a lot. He had to recognize what I like (romance books), discover a way to determine which ones I actually want (sleuthing my TBR list), then create the miniature books, attach them to stems, and mix them in with some of the most romantic flowers you can give a girl.
“No,” he grumbles, a note of impatience filling his voice. “It’s anactualbook bouquet.”
I bite my lip to keep from grinning. If this is supposed to be an apology, it sure is a grumpy one. But that’s okay, because it means it’s sincere.
“Pluck one of the books.” He taps a claw against the bouquet.
“Okay…” I reach for a book, the rose petals soft as they brush against my skin. My first tentative tug does nothing, so I pull a little harder, and the book releases from the stem with a faint pop, growing in my grip until I hold a regular-sized paperback. My thumb ruffles the edge, fanning the pages. “It’s a real book! How?” I look up at him in amazement.
“They all are. Normal book bouquets only hold a few books. That was inferior to my needs,” Luke growls. Then a note of superiority enters his voice. “I therefore created a new miniaturization spell. This bouquet contains a dozen books.”
I stand there gobsmacked, my mouth hanging open.Luke created an entire fudging spell just to give me a present? No one’s ever done anything like that for me before, and the thought that this grumpy, superior dragon made that much effort for me… I can barely stand it. My heart flutters, banging around the birdcage of my chest, bursting with joy. I feel jittery, like my skin’s too tight, like I need to move. But I remain frozen in confusion, remembering how clinical he was about having sex with me, remembering my promise to stop over-romanticizing everything.
“Why?” I lick my lips, my mouth dry, and whisper, “Why did you do all of this?”
“To apologize.” His voice sounds strained, as if he’s forcing the words out. That unfamiliar look pinches his face again, and I can finally interpret it: remorse. “Up until these past weeks with you, I haven’t interacted regularly with anyone for years.” His wings rustle. “Or more accurately, decades.”
“I don’t understand. I thought there were lots of dragons in Alarria.”
“There are.” His voice goes a little hollow. “As you may have noticed, I cannot shift into my full fae form. An event centuries ago damaged my magic. Other adult dragons sense that disfigurement and find me difficult to be around.”
My heart pinches. That must be so lonely.
“Yet my research skills make me useful. When people seek my company, it’s always been for my magical expertise. I was called in to help Naomi with her teleportation powers, to help May with her telepathy. Even when I moved here to Earth, most of my interactions have occurred when others want me to research something in my library, such as Severinasking about finding Hannah’s hidden powers or Rune asking how to break Autumn’s wish swap.” He raises a hand. “I know all of this sounds like an excuse, and I don’t mean for it to be. I simply want you to understand that I’ve gotten used to being valuable because of my knowledge.”
“Luke.” I reach for his hand, my heart breaking for him.
“I will not lie—I alsolikedoing research. It’s what I’m good at.” His tail snakes around to brush over my calves in a gentle caress. “Yet I made a mistake yesterday. I never meant to reduce our encounter to notes on parchment.”
My mouth opens and closes. I have no idea what to say. There’s alotto unpack here. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to live for centuries with no interactions but cold, clinical ones. How crushingly lonely. When he mentions his past, the only tiny sparks of warmth I’ve seen are when he talks about the dragon younglings.
