She eased closer to him, such an intense urge to touch him coming over her that all rational thoughts fell out of her mind. As she reached for him, Jildarin turned. Wariness rather than desire flashed in his brilliant emerald eyes.
He caught her wrists before she could grip his shoulders, and he turned her hands over, as if suspecting she might have a dagger hidden under her palm. No, she didn’t want to slay him. She wanted tohavehim. His strong hands wrapped around her wrists should have been alarming, but the heat of his flesh against hers was arousing instead.
“Jildarin,” Rylana whispered. “I didn’t realize… you are so…”
He looked past her shoulder toward the table. “You had more than one sample of soup.”
“Yes, I couldn’t stop myself from wanting…” Her wrists still grasped in his hands, Rylana leaned forward and kissed him. She had to. She was drawn by his power, his allure, and thespices.
Even though she remembered consuming the soups and understood they were responsible for her lust, she couldn’t stop the kiss. She needed this. She neededhim.
For a few heartbeats, Jildarin stood still, letting her lips press against his and allowing her to squirm closer. He seemed surprised and flummoxed about what to do, but he of all people had to understand what was happening. He stepped back and pushed her out to arm’s length.
“It was a mistake to serve any of it,” Jildarin stated. “But I believed… My spices are like a secret weapon, yes? That is what humans would call it. Their magic makes them potent and appealing to your kind. Toallkinds. Even dragons cannotconsume too much or the power causes us to act… irrationally as well.”
“Jildarin…” Rylana couldn’t take her gaze from his mouth as he spoke, his lips hypnotic, the rich timbre of his voice drawing her. Why was he keeping her away from him?
Jildarin rotated her toward the door. “This mistake was mine. You will go to the storeroom and sleep until the spices wear off.”
“I don’t want tosleep.” Rylana tried to turn back toward him, but he was too strong. He kept his grip gentle, but he pushed her inexorably out of the kitchen. “I wantyou,” she said over her shoulder.
“I am aware. By morning, the effects will have worn off and you will return to desiring me dead.”
“Idon’tdesire that. I never did. You were just a target among the enemy forces, and those forces were trying to kill us.”
“Go to the storeroom and sleep,” Jildarin said firmly. “In the morning, you will be yourself again.”
There was power in his voice, dragon magic that all the tranquility ribbons in the city couldn’t diminish, and Rylana’s legs moved to obey of their own accord. She walked toward the dark storeroom, butsleepwas the last thing she wanted. How could she rest now when she was in this state? She needed a release.
She passed through the room and out the back door. If Jildarin would not satisfy her, perhaps another could.
13
Outside,the night air was chilly with the promise of more rain. It helped Rylana to clear her head, and she gulped it in.
“A walk,” she decided, starting to recognize that she needed to cool off her heated body. “Maybe a bath in the fountain,” she added, only half-joking.
At the least, splashing water on her face might help. She headed to the nearest intersection with a fountain but paused when she drew close. Two cloaked and hooded figures stepped out of the cross street on their way toward the waterfront. They glanced at her, and one slowed down for a longer look. The light from the streetlamp cast illumination for her to see a lock of blond-green hair and a face that she’d come across earlier in the day. It was one of the elves.
The urge to turn and sprint back to the diner swept into Rylana, but they would view that behavior as suspicious. And she didn’t want them to have a reason to scrutinize her too closely. Even though she didn’t think she’d ever met these particular elves, they might somehow know that she’d been in the war, that she’d been an enemy.
Rylana continued to the fountain, pretending not to notice or care that they’d paused on the other side to confer with each other in soft tones. Feeling constrained by their presence, she only dabbed water on her face instead of splashing it all over her head. Her body was still flushed, and she struggled to get rid of thoughts of running back to Jildarin and dragging him to her blanket. A dragon was too strong to bedraggedanywhere.
“Human female,” one of the elves said, the one who’d looked at her. He pushed back the hood of his cloak, deliberately brushing his hair back to reveal his pointed ears, and stepped close to her.
“Male elf.” Rylana faced him, snarky words coming to mind, but she paused, noticing for the first time his striking beauty. Perhaps, if Jildarin wasn’t interested in a romantic encounter, another male might be…
The spices, came a warning from the back of her mind. The spices were responsible for these feelings.
“We spotted you earlier in the company of an elf,” he said.
“Yes, I was trying to sell her a gnomish commercial oven.” Rylana smiled at them to hide her concern for Sylin. “I don’t suppose either ofyoumight be interested in one? You don’t look like the chef types, but I have several available and might even cut a deal for a bulk purchase.”
The elves looked at each other.
“No? Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’m needed back at the diner. It was recently reviewed in theChronicles, so we’re quite busy.” Rylana stepped in that direction, but both elves moved to cut her off.
Instinctively, she dropped into a crouch, her hand going to the spot where sheusuallywore a sword, but she’d left her weapons in the storeroom. There was little point in carrying them around when they couldn’t be used.
