“I don’t need bedrest,” he growled, tail thrashing against the sheets. “And I don’t like this room. I need to get out and?—”
“Contact your people. Yes, Iknow.”Alashiya jammed a thumb over her shoulder. “That’s why you are going to stay here andIam going to walk into town to see if I can find some way for you to reach them that isn’t the Thompsons’ phone or the library’s computers.”
Alarm flasheddown his spine. Nearly rising from the bed, Taevas slashed his claws through the air in one clean sweep. “Absolutely not. You aren’t going anywhere alone.”
Alashiya looked distinctly unimpressed with him when she replied, “All right, so let me get this straight: You need to make a call. That has to happen as soon as possible, but it has to be on a special phone. I need to find you that special phone and you need to come with me, except you don’t want anyone seeing you or knowing you’re here. Please, mighty dragon, explain to me how this is supposed to work.”
Taevas eyed her with a combination of annoyance and secret delight. “I really don’t appreciate your sarcasm.”
“And I don’t appreciate you being bossy,” she quipped.
Exasperated, he declared, “Iamthe boss.”
Alashiya didn’t miss a beat. “This ismyland, dragon. Whoever you might be out there,Iam the queen of this grove. No one is the boss of me.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but for the life of him, he had no idea what to say to that. It was true. He wasn’t in charge of her. If anything, he was in her debt and ought to be on his best behavior.
But he was Isand, and moreover he was a dragon in the clutches of instinct that thrilled at the challenge she represented. Dragons appreciated strength and bravery above all things, so when Alashiya stood so regally before him, shoulders back and expression serene, while telling him to shove his orders up his ass, Taevas was forced to drag a blanket into his lap.
Half-dead and she can still make me harder than fucking steel.It hardly seemed fair.
Interpreting his silence as having won the argument, Alashiya flashed a satisfied smile that would’ve left him weak at the knees if he’d been strong enough to stand. “I’m going to town,” she reiterated. “And you can’t stop me. I think I have an idea of how to get you a secure phone. And besides, I need to visit the shop if I’m going to be cooking for two.”
Alashiya turned to leave the room, but was stopped by his tail looping around her wrist. She gave it, then him, an exasperated look. “What?”
“Shiya,” he rumbled, “I’m serious. This isn’t an exaggeration or a joke or a lie. I’m telling you that the people who’re looking for me are dangerous, connected men. They kidnapped and held the most powerful dragon in the UTA for weeks. If anyone finds out I’m here, it won’t just be bad for me. They’ll hurt you, too, and they won’t think anything of it.”
Gently prying his tail from her wrist, she replied, “Mostpowerful dragon in the UTA, huh? All the more reason for no one to notice me, then.”
“What do you mean?”
Alashiya gave him an odd look. “Important people don’t come to Birchdale, dragon, and they certainly don’t know nymphs like me.”
Chapter Sixteen
Alashiya wasfifty percent sure Taevas was a criminal on the run. The other fifty percent was actually foolish enough to believe his story.
She couldn’t put her finger on exactlywhyeven half of her believed his grandiose declarations, but she suspected it had something to do with his bearing. If he were lying, wouldn’t he let down his guard occasionally, allowing the mask of superiority to slip? But no, Taevas held himself like a king even when it looked like he was on the brink of puking.
And hewasreally sick, at the very least. Even the best liar couldn’t fake a fever, cold sweat, or the way his eyes wouldn’t dilate the way they should’ve.
He could just be a spectacularly arrogant, ill criminal,she thought as she picked a familiar path through the dense woodland that bordered her land. She could’ve used the dirt road, of course, but it was more likely she’d encounter recreationists that way, so she normally chose the safer route through the trees.
The dragon would’ve hated it. The walk was long, hot, and involved navigating dense undergrowth that found it amusing to disorient wayward travelers. Alashiya had long since come to an agreement with the birch forest, which allowed her to passthrough it relatively unchallenged, but a clumsy oaf like the dragon wouldn’t stand a chance.
Alashiya cast a glance over her shoulder, though her land was too far in the distance to see. She wondered what he was doing without her there. A nervous twinge made her shuffle her feet. It wasn’t like there was much to steal, but if he touched Adon’s things… Just the thought was nearly enough to send her walking back the way she came.
No one was allowed near her work. It was a sacred thing to her for many reasons — not least of which was the rich fantasy of her imaginary relationship with Adon. The robe, like all his commissions, was the only tangible link she had to him and to the dream that sustained her. It made her skin crawl to think of an outsider getting their grubby hands all over that vital tether.
Swallowing back her impulse to return to the house, she adjusted her bag over her shoulder and doubled her speed. The quicker she got her errand done, the better they’d both be. Taevas would leave and she could return to her work.
A twinge of guilt pinched her. Taevas wasn’t so bad, really. Hadn’t they shared a nice cup of tea? If she could get over her discomfort of having a strange man around, then she thought she might even be able to enjoy his company. Maybe. If she could keep her head on straight whenever he so much as looked at her, which she didn’t have high hopes for.
Is ‘enjoy’ the right word?
Alashiya slipped between the fronds of an old fern. The leaves caressed her calves in a gentle greeting, but she barely registered it. Her mind was consumed, for reasons beyond her, by the image of the dragon’s face.Taevas’sface. And other things.
It was hard not to be, with the height of his horns, the proud jut of his nose, the hard jaw, thoseeyes.Add his impossibly wide shoulders, his fascinating wings, and the eyeful she’d unwittingly gotten of his cock… She supposed she could understand how one might grow an over-inflated ego. It didn’t make his bossiness more tolerable, but it did mean she snuck looks at him when he wasn’t paying attention.
