Page 27 of Kidnapped By The Messy Dragon

I smile at her. “But now we aren’t doing it alone.”

“After our visit to the medical center, I’d like to take you around the town,” I tell her. “If you don’t mind.”

She smiles at me. “I’d love that.”

I quit playing it cool and stare at her. She’s beautiful. She’s so damn beautiful I could write the whole front page about her face.

Then another sneeze hits, and I whip my face into the crook of my arm. Smoke curls up off my lips, and a low, miserable sound rolls out of my chest with it. I growl into my elbow, “You have got to be kidding me.”

She giggles at me again. Then she reaches over and strokes my cheek. I hold real still so she won’t stop.

“I feel this strange pull to you,” she says, “and I don’t understand it.”

I lean into her hand. “I’ve felt it since the first time I caught your scent. I’m just glad it’s finally catching up to you.”

She starts to pull her hand back, but I catch it and press a kiss to the back of it. She doesn’t pull away. I turn her loose and settle back against my pillow.

“You got any family you’d like to contact?” I ask.

“My mom.” She waves that away. “I’m not too worried about it. I’ve been a loner most of my life. I am gonna call Renee tomorrow, though. Let her know I’m okay.”

I smile up at my ceiling. Then I get to work. “You like flowers?”

She giggles at the question. “Yes. Peonies, if you’re taking notes.”

“Every word,” I tell her. “Favorite color?”

“Yellow,” she says. “Next question.”

I ask what she cooks when it rains and what she sings in her car. She answers every one. Other dragons hoard gold and land. I lie there in the low light and add peonies, yellow, and rainy-day gumbo to my hoard, right next to the sound of her laugh.

Somewhere between her favorite season and the name of her first pet, she yawns big enough to crack her jaw.

I tuck the quilt up over her shoulder. “Sleep. My questions will keep.”

She doesn’t argue. She closes her eyes, and her scent slows down soon after. Her breathing goes deep and even. She’s out.

I watch her sleep. My dragon finally goes quiet, heat banked low for the night. That cold ache I carried home from her street is nowhere in me now. She’s right here in my bed, under my mountain. There’s someone else breathing in my room tonight.

I’d already quit hoping for a mate of my own. I was too busy, I said, whenever anyone asked. Then I caught burnt caramelin Millbrook, and everything I’d ever stacked up re-appraised down to dust.

Whatever it takes to keep her, I’ll do it.

I close my eyes. For once I’m not listening for anything. I fall asleep warm.

12

ZURI

Iwake up slow and comfortable, with a weight across my waist that I can’t file right away. I roll from one side to the other, and the weight comes with me. It’s an arm. There’s a very large, very warm arm draped over me, and the whole bed smells like smoke and honey.

I open my eyes. Jalen is still asleep, his face close enough that I could count his lashes. He looks peaceful. His breathing is deep and easy. When I move, his hand curls into my nightgown and pulls me in tighter.

I stare up at him. I want to slap his chest, as if he’s late.Where have you been? Do you have any idea how lonely my life has been without you?

I don’t move. My feet don’t ache for once. My back isn’t braced. Nothing in me is waiting for a phone to ring or for Whitney’s next memo.

I reach out and brush my fingers over his cheek. His skin is warm and soft. He’s beautiful this close.