She tipped back her head, gazing up at me. “Shouldn’t you be making plans for the attack instead of wasting all your time training me?”
“Training you is not a waste of my time,” I murmured, gazing down at her. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve done anything that has felt so worthwhile.”
“Yuto,” she whispered.
“Yes?”
“I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.”
Need pulsed within me. Sighing, I curled a finger against her chin and stared deeply into her cerulean eyes. I’d never seen that color in anyone before. It felt as though I were gazing into the deepest part of the sea.
“It would be good for you to get some rest,” I said. “You need to be strong for this.”
She flushed. “I just don’t want to be alone. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that.”
My lips twitched up at the corners. How could I say no to her? I didn’t want to sleep in my bed without her anyway. Now that we’d shared a night together, I didn’t want it any other way.
“Well, if you insist...” I drawled. “My quarters are yours for the night.”
And for many nights more, if I had my way.
Together, we left the dungeons behind and climbed the stairwell to the top of the tower. I ushered her inside and found the hearth lit once more. Callista normally did that for me but one of the others must have filled in. At the thought of my old friend, a dark storm cloud rolled across my thoughts.
Panos would pay for this.
“Are you all right?” Aradia slipped her small hand into my steel glove and stepped in front of me.
“I’m worried about Callista,” I admitted. “Panos plays by his own rules. He’s given us time, but did he even mean it? And will he suspect what we have planned?”
“He might.” Aradia nibbled on her bottom lip. “Are you sure you don’t want to make the trade? Honestly, Yuto, I—”
“Hush.” I pressed a finger against her lips. “I will not hear it. You will not sacrifice your own life.”
She fell silent, but her crystalline eyes swam with the thoughts I did not want to hear her voice aloud. My heart lurched in my chest. If I asked it of her, she would give herself up in the trade without hesitation. For someone she barely knew.
“Who are you, Aradia Galatas?” I asked quietly. “How could someone like you even exist in this cruel world?”
She smiled and stepped closer. “I could ask the same of you.”
“Me?” I chuckled. “I’m a monster. I thought you realized that, but clearly I was wrong. Otherwise, you would not be here, pressing your perfect breasts against me.”
“Maybe I like danger,” she said in a teasing voice.
I arched a brow. “Is that so?”
“Mm hmm.” She sashayed a little closer. “Maybe it even excites me.”
My hand shot out, and I trapped her wrist between my steel fingers. She gasped, though nothing about her little sound had anything to do with fear. “I thought you said you just wanted to sleep.”
“I do want to sleep,” she said. “But I find it impossible to be alone with you without wanting something else.”
“Hmm.” I smiled. Truth was, the feeling was mutual. There was something about little Aradia Galatas that I could not shake. Thoughts of her followed me around everywhere I went, and memories of her moans haunted my dreams.
I backed her up against the bed, her little feet shuffling on the floor. She gazed up at me with so much need and awe shining in her eyes. If only she knew the terrible truth of me, she might not be so eager to climb into my bed.
Mortals were always afraid of dragons.
And if they weren’t, they ended up dead.
