I didn’t think I had ever seen anybody go from blushing to pale to completely flustered so fast. Cute.
‘Flying. I am offering to fly together, nothing else,’ Ava clarified, making me snicker.
Tearing my eyes away from her reddened cheeks was an impossible feat. Would she blush so much when… No, I had to stop this. I couldn’t allow it to ever happen. ‘How could I say no to such propositions?’
‘Anya's already waiting in the courtyard,’ she explained, clearly hoping that changing the subject to her dragon would steer the conversation elsewhere. I'd noticed she'd done the same with my niece too. A clever tactic, even if it was futile against my instincts.
It shifted my focus, but only because I needed to stop myself from making a mistake. There would be no going back after claiming her.
‘Any specific place in mind, or just not the volcanoes?’ I asked.
‘I usually just let Anya soar until we reach the spot I like enough to land and explore…’
It made sense; I was happy anyway. ‘As long as she will allow me to fly with you, I don’t care where we go either.’
Avari
‘Absolutely not… Have you lost your mind?’ The beast roared in disapproval.
I knew convincing her wouldn’t be easy. ‘Please?’
A smidgen of flame escaped her mouth. ‘No. I am not a transportation service for your friends.’
‘Pretty please?’ I whined, knowing my bonded would eventually give in. There wasn’t much the brooding winged terror wouldn’t do to appease me.
‘Why would I ever agree to that?’ Challenge laced Anya’s tone as she argued.
The second she asked for my reasoning, it was a done deal. ‘Because I like this kingdom and would like to form good relations with its people?’
She stomped closer, the tiles beneath our feet vibrating with her anger. ‘And it has to be him?’
Interesting. So she still held a grudge. ‘So is it him you don’t want on your back, or anyone apart from me?’
‘Does it make a difference? Do you have another man hiding inside that wants to climb on my back too?’
Pleading, I appealed to her sense of compassion. ‘I would like to share the experience with him. He showed me a lot and helps me; it’s the one thing I can give him.’
‘It’s the one thing I can give him. Fates must be testing me…’ Anya roared in surrender, fumes escaping her nose in a warning directed at the king.
‘Thank you so much!’
River stood straight, looking between us as we remained in a silent exchange. ‘Judging by the seriousness, I’m guessing it’s a no?’
I shot him a devious glance, one he was so fond of giving others, and mocked him, ‘You better hold on tight. What an embarrassment it would be for the King of Fogoya to fall off a dragon… I bet they would write songs about that.’
‘Now it makes sense,’ he teased, playfully poking a finger near my collarbone. ‘Are you planning to push me off, little witch?’
Mustering every ounce of trickery and wickedness, I put significant effort into shooting him a glare full of darkness. ‘It crossed my mind. Though I am smart enough to know you would try topull me with you.’
‘Of course I would. At least we would keep those legs of yours in the air like you asked. Though, as I will have to land for us, since you would likely break most of your bones, it might be best to wrap them around me. Tightly,’ words dipped in mischief, his lips twitched with satisfaction, daring me to respond.
And knowing that he wouldn’t let it go anytime soon, in a foreign push of confidence, I cocked my brow and teased him back, ‘Are you sure you could handle me?’
Tone blurring the lines between a jest and an invitation, he offered in a tone so sultry it made me gasp, ‘Honey, I could teach your little Ortensian self things you haven’t dreamed of.’
‘You know what they say about those who teach, right?’ I answered immediately, casting the immoral imagery aside and grinning like his phrasing was a gift from the Gods.
Head tilted, he licked his lips. My eyes wouldn’t stray from him as he breathed, ‘What?’
