A male voice spoke from the door. “And you never will.”
We both looked up to see Dirk standing there staring at Ella. I doubted he was even aware I was there.
“I made some more food for you,” he said. Then he blinked and glanced at me. “For all of us. If you’re hungry.”
“Famished,” Ella said, sliding awkwardly off the bed in her blanket-shirt. “Thank you.”
If she noticed the way Dirk was looking at her, she didn’t act like it. Maybe I was imagining it, but I made a mental note to talk to Caz and see if he saw it too.
First, food. Then, everything else.
Thirty-One
Anna
The scentof food brought everyone inside to gather around the massive brellwood island that was the centerpiece of the kitchen.
Dirk, with help from Florian, was doling out steaming heaps of fresh-cooked meat sliced thinly enough to go perfectly on the warmed buns. A selection of cheeses and even what looked like a couple of tomatoes were there as well.
Leave it to the ice tyrant to have a faerie-magicked garden capable of growing surface food at his hidden chalet. Not that I was going to complain. The boys had added a large bowl of mixed greens and an entire tray of sliced fruit to the menu as well.
Ella and I dug in with gusto, and the men swarmed what we left behind.
“This is delicious,” Ella said around a mouthful of sandwich.
Caz echoed the sentiment from his post at my side as he devoured his food. Every few bites, he would pause and look at me, ensuring I was eating, or his hip would press gently against me.He never wanted to be far away.
“We need to talk,” I said to him as conversation devolved into smaller groups around the island.
“We do?”
I tore off a hunk of bread and chewed on it for a moment. “What happens now? With Ella, I mean. And me, for that matter. I’m not taking her into the citadel. Not until we know she’s okay, and that it will be safe. She doesn’t have a you around to protect her.”
Caz grunted to himself. “They’d have to get through Dirk first.”
“You noticed that, did you?”
He frowned. “Of course. He’s been acting strange since I removed her collar.”
“Ella doesn’t seem to notice.”
“I’m not sure Dirk does either.” Caz thought about that and then dismissed it. “You’re right. I don’t want to take you back. I want you safe, but I also don’t want you out of my sight.”
Everyone else would have simply heard his frustration. But I heard his fear, that he wasn’t sure he could protect me in his own home.
“You have to leave us here, then,” I told him, resting my head on his biceps and feeling the hard press of his cable-like muscles through his shirt.
“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t do that. You’re mine. My dragon won’t like knowing you’re herewith another man.”
“So leave Dirk,” I suggested. “He’s … preoccupied.”
“No. I don’t know what’s up with him, and he won’t talk to me about it. But until he does, I’m not leaving him with you.”
“Florian could handle it.” I shrugged. “How long do you have to be away?”
“I don’t know. I need to find new leads.”
“Leads on what?” Ella asked, leaning over and leaving a frowning Dirk across the island from her.
