Cam pushed that aside, determined to have fun tonight. Well, and maybe figure out why she was keeping her distance from him. He’d gone through everything he’d said and done that day with the students, and didn’t think he’d offended her.
Offering a hand to Emily, he said, “Come. Let’s enter together, and I’ll tell you what our weekly gatherings are like.”
Kaya waved. “I’ll find you again later, Emily.”
She was gone before either of them could say a word.
Emily finally placed her hand in his, and some of his built-up irritation faded. Holding tight, he tugged, and they walked. “What was your mini-breakthrough today?”
“Are you sure you want to hear me go on about it?”
He met her gaze. “Of course. If I don’t understand something, I’ll ask you to explain. But your work is important to you, which makes it important to me.”
Her cheeks turned pink, and she whispered, “You don’t have to go overboard.”
“I’m genuinely interested, lass.”
After searching his eyes, she looked straight ahead as she said, “It has to do with proportions. A dragon doctor on Stonefire and I devised a base serum that only needs minor adjustments with new ingredients. And so I have to make minute changes and then see if they react with poisoned dragon-shifter’s blood under a microscope.”
“So you had a positive result today?”
“Yes. It didn’t completely counteract the poison, but it nearly did, meaning a dragon-shifter would barely feel the effects and could carry on as normal. It’s still not enough, though. I want a truly protective serum, and if I can’t get it from the samples we collected on land, then I might have to go diving with Dr. Keith to get the marine plants I need to run some more tests.”
“You dive?”
“I learned whilst earning my PhD. I briefly went to the Caribbean—Jamaica and Barbados, mostly—to see how their native plants and shellfish interacted with dragon-shifter blood. Some of the plants and animals were deep in the ocean, at least deeper than regular snorkeling could reach, and so I became certified. It’s like a whole new world down there, and I fell in love. I haven’t done it much in recent years, so it’ll be nice to dive again.”
“Have you ever dived alongside a dragon-shifter in their dragon form?”
She shook her head. “No. Dr. Keith wants to be in his human form since it’s easier to collect samples that way.”
“Then I can help monitor you in my dragon form when you go. Just let me know when.”
Her gaze shot to his as she stopped walking. “You want to dive with me?”
“Aye, to both protect you and to help in any way I can.”
For a few beats, she said nothing. Then she finally murmured, “Only if you really want to. You don’t have to.”
Since they were just outside the entrance to the covered area, he tugged her off to the side, behind the wee building with a kitchen used for event prep.
No one was around, thankfully, and he kept her hand in his as he asked, “Why do you keep thinking that I don’t want to help you?”
She also kept her voice low, so no one else would hear. She gestured between them. “This is a ruse, Cam. You know that.”
He slowly lifted his hand and traced her cheek. As she sucked in a breath, he debated how much to share.
Because he wanted her. If it wouldn’t maybe set off a mate-claim frenzy, he’d kiss her.
But even kissing her cheek or neck or behind her ear might scare her.
So he asked, “Is that the only reason? Or did another male hurt you?”
Over the past three days,Emily had successfully stayed away from Cam to focus on her research. Sometimes she smiled at his text messages and itched to throw her plan out the window to go see him.
But the closer she got to her latest serum being effective, the more she truly became lost in her work.
She’d tried her best to brush off Kaya and not attend the weekly gathering. But the dragonwoman’s point about it being the first one since Emily’s arrival had eventually won her over. After all, if Emily didn’t go, the clan might see it as a snub or take offense, and she didn’t want that.
