Page 38 of Dragon’s Rogue

She needed to get this over with fast. Because Zane Greystone was the kind of trouble she didn’t need. Ripped, yummy, wrong-side-of-the-law trouble with unknown powers and an unknown agenda.

So she really wasn’t sure how she ended up sitting with him at the granite breakfast bar in her kitchen, the flowers in a vase on the counter top, sharing a pizza and wrangling over who got the pepperoni.

“If you didn’t want to eat veggies, you should have gotten all pepperoni and damn the consequences,” she told him, snagging another meat-covered slice out from under his hand.

“I was trying to be thoughtful,” he said. “Impressing you with my attentiveness to your potential needs and desires.”

Blaze almost choked on a pepperoni. She took a sip of water, swallowing hard. This crazy-beautiful man—crazy-beautiful thief, she reminded herself—was trying to impress her?

For the Dragonfly of Morocco, of course. Not because he really cared about her. And even if he did, that was the last thing she needed right now. Someone else to protect and keep out of the line of fire.

Or someone else to betray her. No thank you.

“You’re only going to be here long enough to look over the Dragonfly of Morocco,” she said. “How much impressing did you think you’d need to do?”

He took a slice of veggie pizza, poking dubiously at a piece of roasted zucchini. “You don’t seem very impressed so far, so probably a lot.” His lips quirked, and a slight dimple flashed in his left cheek. Blaze barely resisted the urge to reach out and touch it.

“But why bother?” She didn’t say we’re never going to see each other again, but he answered as if he’d heard it anyway.

“I promised to help you fight Silas and the coven,” he said.

She’d never thought he meant it. “It’s not your battle.”

“I’m making it my battle.” He put the pizza down. “You need someone to protect you.” Before she could tell him she didn’t need protecting, he added softly, “You could use someone on your side.”

An unexpected wave of loneliness washed over Blaze, disarming her completely. It was so long since she’d had anyone on her side. She’d lived alone, keeping people at arm’s length, not wanting to expose them to the danger and uncertainty of her life.

Figuring, if the coven came after her, she’d die alone, too.

She couldn’t afford to let herself believe he really meant what he was saying. She’d been able to handle the loneliness when she thought there was no other choice, but if she let herself believe there was one…

She pushed the pizza box away, and her feelings along with it. “We might as well do this,” she said. “I’ll take you to the artifact room.”

Chapter 20

Zane followed Blaze down the huge curved staircase. She was quiet now; it seemed like his offer to help her with that Silas guy had just widened the chasm between them.

Why was she denying their connection? He’d felt it the first time right here on these stairs, when he kissed her. Strong and unmistakable, like a sudden punch in the gut. She must have felt it too. He stopped on the landing, looking up at the arched window that he’d smashed through on his last visit.

It looked like it had never been broken. There was even a little cobweb in the corner of one of the upper panes, looking as if it had been there for weeks.

Zane shivered. How much power did she have, if she could afford to spend so much of it on a huge restoration spell that was so perfect it even restored the dust and cobwebs?

He said, “I was going to offer to pay to fix that, but I guess you don’t need me to.”

She glanced back over her shoulder. “I didn’t want awkward questions about how it got broken, so I fixed it myself.”

Just like that, like it was no big deal. Maybe she didn’t need his help after all.

She’s our mate, his dragon said stubbornly. Mates need each other.

Yeah. Until one of us dies from our respective impossible quests.

Maybe if you do your impossible quests together, we all won’t have to die, his dragon said.

Good point. Zane just wasn’t sure Blaze would be on board with that.

She’d gone silent again, leading him down the hall to her artifact room. He was looking forward to seeing it again. The other night, he’d been so distracted by the other thief in the vault he’d barely looked at the rest of the room. Dragons knew that the things people collected and treasured told you who they were, and he wanted to know who Blaze was.