“That was definitely my intent.” He shifted his weight and folded his arms across his chest, that mirth slipping away all tooquickly. “Speaking of intent, Keuric being here is concerning. As was his conversation with you.”
“You heard all that?” He didn’t have supernatural hearing.
“Christalyn did.”
“She was also the one who blasted him into Combat Conclave, right?”
“Yes. I asked her to. Not that she really needed me to after she heard what he was saying to you—and threatening you with.”
“I appreciate it. When I see her again, I’ll thank her.”
“Evira, you know that’s not what I’m getting at.”
“I do know. But it’s okay. I’ll see to that bastard. Don’t worry.”
He worked his jaw, clearly not reassured enough.
But then he gave a nod. “Understood.”
I shifted my weight. “It’s nice seeing you again, Winter. I was on my way to say hello when that fool stepped into my path.”
“It’s nice seeing you, too.”
We stared at one another for a moment.
“Are we… good?” I asked.
“Would I have intervened back there if we weren’t?”
I gave him a look. “Um, yes. You definitely would have. Because that’s what you do, who you are. You care about everyone and if you see something wrong, you sort it.”
“Yep. That’s my overinflated sense of justice interfering in everyone’s lives.”
“No. It’s not like that. You’re… perfect.”
Our gazes collided.
I heard his heart rate pick up.
He unfolded his arms and shoved them into the pockets of his hoodie, clearly using the movement to try to hide it, knowing my dragon senses would have felt it.
His gaze raked over me, lingering on my long white-silver hair, his lips lifting at the streaks of frost-blue running throughit. I remembered how he’d commented on it before, finding it striking and“full of bubbly personality”.His gaze dipped to my fitted black corset encasing my large breasts, before bouncing right off almost immediately.
He smiled at my fur-lined leather boots with the chunky heels that my charcoal pants were tucked into, before he settled on my long, deep gray coat with the cozy fur collar that brushed the backs of my calves as I walked. The right sleeve of my coat was pushed up a little from the kerfuffle earlier with all the swirling shadows and I saw his eyes glinting at the sight of my ice dragon markings—snowy white swirling and shimmering designs that I remembered him being very taken with that night.
He blinked, then focused very intently on just my duffel bags that I still had slung over either shoulder. “Best you get settled in. I’ll take you through my room, so you don’t have to worry about going through the crowded ground floor again.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
I turned as he did and headed for the sleek frosted glass door that obviously led into his room.
He opened it then went to pass through, but I did the same thing, and we collided in the doorway.
My bags dropped from my shoulders at the impact—aggravating seeing as though I’d managed to keep them on me during the shadow funnel thing.
I bent down to reach for them, only for my hand to smack into Winter’s when he tried the same thing.
His cool-to-the-touch skin fused with the same in mine.
