Page 14 of Connor and the Dragons

He grinned. “I feel squirmy and happy and, I don’t know. Vyranthos lets me be in charge. Honestly, you can try anything you like with that growly commanding bossy thing. It all gives me that good feeling.”

“Ah,” I said. “I’ll consider it.”

“Thank you!”

“Now go to bed.” I tried to drop my voice the way I had. “And don’t you fucking dare turn into a dragon, be a good boy.” I raised an eyebrow. “How was that?”

“So nice,” he said with a happy sigh.

It had been a long time since I’d met someone who was that reactive to just a stern voice, and that happy sigh replayed in my head as I finished my scone and stretched out on my cot.

I watched from under my lashes as he helped himself to the last of the snacks, then slipped the robe off and crawled into the cot, thickly muscled ass flexing as he settled down for the night.

I probably should have told him not to sleep naked.

CHAPTER 7: KESSRIN

“The forced proximity trope has not yet worked,” I said to Pip, who was bouncing up the stairs beside me, uninvited and entirely untroubled by it. He also wasn’t helping me carry the breakfast tray, a task Delsynarea had given to me after she’d decided that she’d rather not have any of her guards set on fire.

I’d tried my best to relay to her that just because I was an ice dragon didn’t mean I was fireproof, but she was unconvinced.

“I’m so proud of you for using it in a sentence. And correctly this time!” He stole a grape off the tray. “But these things take time. You’ve given it what, two days?”

“Three.”

“Connor thinks he’s straight, but I know he’s not.”

I didn’t exactly know what straight meant, but I was afraid to ask, so instead I went with, “How?”

“He used to check out my ass. He quite likes femme men, so Oallian has a bit of a struggle there as he’s quite masc. You, on the other hand, are exactly Connor’s type. And Oallian’s. Hmm. Could you be the bridge between them?”

He didn’t mean a literal bridge, did he? My mind brought up a filthy image of me on my hands and knees with one of them stuffed in each hole, and I shut that down before my body could react. “No. I am not a bridge.”

He shrugged, eternally optimistic. “Well, Oallian’s hot as fuck, so I have faith. Be patient.”

“I am always patient.”

“You’re rushing breakfast up three flights so you can check if two guys had sex.”

I did not answer that, because the tray required my concentration.

“Oh, before I forget,” Pip said. “I talked to Leo. He followed Connor through a few minutes later, and the time differential meant it took hours for him to land. He doesn’t think anyone else saw him. Our boss, Wade, had already headed up to his office to close out the books for the night. Leo’s in Thyren’s charge until we sort things out, unless you think you could use him somehow?”

“I do not need any more humans to manage,” I muttered.

From two floors below climbed Aeldryc’s voice, pitched to carry: “Pip. You’d better not be on those stairs. I told you no more going near the dragon. He is volatile.”

“Oops! Caught red-handed! Good luck with your trope!” He waved and sprinted off down the stairs, yelling something about Oallian being a sweetheart, which spoke more to Pip’s poor judgment than anything.

I stood a moment on the landing with the tray, alone, wondering why Delsynarea hadn’t told me about Leo. Perhaps she was angry that I had not yet completed my seduction mission. Or maybe I had. I unlocked the outer door, then locked it behind me, placing the keys in a slot in the wall designed for that purpose, then icing it over before unlocking the inner door. That key I stored in my puzzle box, tucked into my satchel.

The lengths one had to go to for security just because Oallian had accidentally set one guard on fire on his second day here. He hadn’t even harmed the poor man, if you ignored the whole no-eyebrow situation. And eyebrows grew back.

I set the tray on the table and turned back to Oallian and Connor, who were lounging on separate cots. Connor looked bored, Oallian looked mildly flammable.

Forced proximity clearly didn’t work when the men were on separate cots, on opposite walls, with the width of the entire room between them.

“Breakfast,” I said.