More than one person turned our way at the question, some heads even poking out from cells to put us squarely in the spotlight.
I glanced at Caz. He started to shake his head but stopped when I glared at him. This wasn’t my home. It was his. He still didn’t look thrilled at the attention being thrust on him, but I didn’t know how to answer the question.
“Over the next few days, those who wish will be flown out to the wilds and given supplies to help you survive. Those who don’t can stay here as long as you’d like.” He worked his jaw. “I can’t say how long it will be after that before any other options are presented to you, but it could be a while. I’m sorry I can’t do more for you, but my hands are tied.”
Then he turned and stalked away.
After apologizing to Aubrie, I went after him, catching up with him back the way we’d come.
“What the hell was that?” I snapped, reaching way up to grab his shoulder and turn him around.
He didn’t fight it as he spun to face me. “They can’t know who I am,” he said, surprising me at the lack of anger. “I didn’t want them to know I was in charge. Eventually, someone will recognize my face or put Caz to my full name. It’s just a matter of time, and then the rumors will start.”
“Can’t bear to let other people know you don’t treat clippys like shit. Is that it? Have a reputation to protect?”
“I’m sorry your friends weren’t there,” he said, ignoring my jab. “Truly. I wish I had … I wish it had gone differently, so you could be with them now. But I am not the bad guy you seem to think I am, Anna.”
“You said you’d find my friends, and—”
“And I will,” he said, a fierce light entering his eyes and turning them a darker, stormy color. “I gave you my word.”
“What does that mean to me?”
He deflated. “I had hoped it would meansomething, Anna. Does the fact that you’re here not count? All those people are here and free. Is that also just not real to you?”
“Nothing about this is real to me,” I said. “You aren’t real. In my world, you’re nothing but an illusion, an imaginary figure who sits way upabove the real world that we actually live in.”
Caz growled angrily, stepping forward in a flash to snatch up a hand and press my palm to his chest. “Is that heartbeat imaginary, Anna?”
I stiffened at the sudden contact between us.
When he spoke next, his voice had dropped another octave. “Is the jump in your heartbeat not real either? Did it just jump because of some imaginary person?”
I couldn’t answer, my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth as he invaded my space, taking control so fast I hadn’t realized it was happening. Smoky citrus set siege to my senses, breaking down the barriers and flooding my system with its thick musk. Close. I was too close.
My dragon howled in delight, thrusting forward against my tenuous control over it, eager for more of his touch. It longed to lean forward and run my tongue along his neck. Taste him and see if it was as good as it smelled.
Caz brought his other hand up and tucked back some wayward strands of hair behind my ear. His touch was light, but the graze of his fingertips against my cheek had my knees on the verge of collapsing. I had never wanted the touch of a man, ofanyone, this badly.
“I know you’re upset your friends aren’t here,” he said. “And that I can’t see everything the way you do. But that’s going to change if you stop being so mad at me all the time and help meinstead.”
I shuddered. “It’s my fault. All these years, we kept together. Escaped situations just like that one. And then my dragon awakens and I screw us all over. It’s my fault.”
“No, it’s not.” Caz chuckled, the sound like running water splashing against stones as it raced on past. “It’s mine.”
“Why do you get to blame yourself, but I don’t?” I asked, the heat in my chest starting to spread to other places the longer he stood in front of me, alpha-dragoning it up.
My dragon liked that about him. Liked how he took control, took the burden off us. Or was trying to.
“Perks of being the ice tyrant,” he teased, one lip curling up in a smile that nearly flattened my dragon with the blatant desire behind it.
I tried to ignore the sauna forming between my legs as heated blood flooded my pussy until it was swollen and aching with need.
“Not fair.”I will not pout. I will not pout. I will not pout.My lower lip popped itself out without asking. Fuck.
A growl stirred deep in his chest.
“That’s the thing you have to remember, Anna. I understand your dejection, but you aren’t operating from that position. It’s not you searching for your friends this time. It’s me. The ice tyrant. I have resources you could onlyimagine.”
