Page 67 of Royal Dragon Bind

A soft smile lifted Layla’s lips. She set that card down, picking up another card with a silver iridescent cover, shimmering with a holographic fractal as she opened it.

Layla, hearts soften and all things change with time. Do not let one stone in the road part you from your destiny. Keep your love open and good things will come. Yours in bliss, Sylvania

Layla’s heart did soften as she read Sylvania’s words, and she set that one down with a loving stroke across the cover. Looking at the cards and flowers, Layla saw a little gold box nestled in the middle with a crimson bow. With a blink and a slightly bigger smile, Layla picked it up, flipping over the gold tag.

Girl, this is what we do when assholes get us down. Cheer up and come find me when you’re ready to eat these. Dibs on the ginger cremes. – Rikyava

A laugh escaped Layla. Her smile was tender as she set the box back on her table, making a mental note to go find Rikyava as soon as she was settled in. She was about to go to her wardrobe and put her black beaded clutch away, when someone knocked upon her open door. Turning, Layla thought it might be Dusk who had followed her up, but it was Adrian standing in the doorway. Tall and handsome as ever, he was clad in his charcoal pants and crisp white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, the same outfit he’d worn to Seattle to come find her.

Lingering at the door, Adrian gave her an uncertain look. She hadn’t spoken to him on the flight back. She had taken his bedroom in the rear of the Learjet and curled up in his duvet, closing the partition and leaving both Dusk and Adrian out in the cabin. She’d heard them talking as they’d sat in the cabin; as she’d snuggled down into Adrian’s bed with her eyes dry and a numb fatigue calming her. She’d not heard what they said and hadn’t asked once the jet had entered Parisian airspace and Dusk had knocked politely at the partition. She’d kept her silence as the three of them had taken a car back to the Hotel, Dusk and Adrian both eyeing her occasionally as she stared out the window, watching Paris pass by.

Clearing his throat from the doorway now, Adrian’s aqua eyes were piercing but calm as he regarded her, and at last he spoke. “Dusk’s received word from some of our contacts in Seattle. Luke came through surgery just fine at UW Hospital. He’s going to make a full recovery. Your housemates are with him now, and his parents, and a few other friends from his program.”

“Thanks.” Layla closed her eyes, an enormous weight lifting from her shoulders. Tension she didn’t even know she’d been carrying eased and she took a deep breath. But sorrow still gripped her, her Dragon quiet within now at the weight of her guilt. Even though Luke was going to be alright, it was her magic that had put him in the hospital.

Her magic that had almost killed him.

“Is this how it’s going to be, Adrian?” Layla murmured, meeting his beautiful gaze at last. “Will I always be a danger to those I love?”

“Until you get your magics under control, yes.” Without invitation, Adrian stepped into the room, shutting the door gently behind him. Moving closer to the table where she stood, he watched her carefully, his hands in his pockets as if he didn’t trust himself to reach out and touch her. “Dragons and humans don’t play well together, Layla.” He murmured softly. “Not until you know how to control what you are. Control your beast – so it’s not controlling you.”

Layla nodded. Somehow, she had known that already. “So I stay here, working at the Hotel with this thing around my wrist until I can control my power?”

“So you stay here and learn from us,” Adrian moved closer, his warm desert-wind presence standing beside her at the table now. “Learn from Dusk and Rikyava and I how to be what you truly are. And live with us; your true family.”

Layla took a deep breath, smelling Adrian’s scent sweet upon the air with his cinnamon-jasmine musk. She knew his words were sage but some part of her still roiled, wanting to punch him in the face for everything he’d done to her, and everything he’d withheld.

“Would I have ever awakened to my magics if you hadn’t clapped this thing on my wrist?”

“Would you have wanted to awaken to your magics without it?”

That thought stilled her. Layla could still feel the searing passion that had wrenched through her in Seattle, flooding up her throat into her kiss and barreling down into Luke’s body like a spear of wrath. It had been terrible, and entirely innate. Her beast had acted on instinct – without her conscious thought there to harness it.

And without the hamsa cuff.

“No.” Layla breathed at last. “No, I wouldn’t have wanted to be awake to my power without the cuff.”

Like slow heat, Adrian stepped in behind her. Winding her in his arms, he cradled her close. Something in Layla relaxed then, to feel him so warm and strong at her back. Supporting her; knowing her. For all his goods and terribles, Adrian Rhakvir knew what she was. He knew in a way no one else could, the searing passions that moved through her.

Because he was the same.

Layla felt her Dragon’s power breathe out from her body. Twining through Adrian’s magic like they touched coil to coil, darkness to light, Layla felt a desert wind stir the air, caressing her skin as he held her. Leaning back in Adrian’s arms, she surrendered to it; feeling it, understanding it at last. And as his cinnamon-jasmine scent breathed around her with her own orange-peel bourbon scent twining through his, Layla knew they were one; the Royal Dragon and his Bind.

They would always be together – no matter how she hated it, or loved it, or rebelled.

Adrian’s hand slid up, his fingers caressing her neck as his warm, strong hand cradled her. Massaging her ribs as he touched her neck, a slow heat rocked their bodies as they breathed together in perfect timing. Layla felt Adrian’s breath release in a hard sigh by her ear; a sigh of passion and deep pleasure. As much as she hated it, hers sighed out at the same time, a deep roil of contentment flowing through her body.

Contentment, that her mate had come. And that he had bound her – and bound their magics together as one.

“I hate you,” Layla breathed, surrendering to Adrian’s touch and cinnamon-spice scent.

“I know,” Adrian breathed back.

And then he kissed her neck with his soft lips, and Layla forgot she could breathe at all.