Page 50 of Kidnapped By The Messy Dragon

Then I watch it stack up in her piece by piece: Delilah, the sneezes, me sick for a week straight. The worry in her scent goes hot at the edges. My mate is angry on my behalf. No one has ever been angry for me before.

“Let me take care of you, and I’ll explain the rest,” I say.

Then I make a choice Soren would frown at from all seven feet up. The males of this valley keep the fight away from their women. But my woman walked into Stillwater every day for a year and walked out with the folder that started all of this. She was in this fight before I was.

“In fact, I know how to put a stop to all of it. To her.” I hold her eyes. “But I’m gonna need your help to do it.”

Her fingers trail down my front. Then she looks lower, right at my dick, and it stiffens under her attention immediately.

I spread my arms. “We can go again if you want. I’m always down for it.”

She looks up at me. “No. We’ll never get out of bed.”

“That’s fine. When it’s all done, we won’t get out of bed for a long time then.” I wink at her.

Her scent has gone warm and thick under the water, and I know exactly what that means now. Last night is playing through me on a loop I have no plans to cancel. Getting kidnapped is the least of this woman’s worries. My dragon is ready to burn whole zip codes over her.

Then, under all that warm, a thin thread of mischief curls into her scent, and she looks at me sideways with half a smile she thinks I can’t read. I can. Yesterday I told her I’d always bend when it comes to her, and she promised she’d think of a wayto test it. Whatever she’s got cooking behind that smile, I can hardly wait.

We finish up slow. I wash her hair myself, working the shampoo in with both hands, and she tilts her head all the way back into my hands and closes her eyes. No one has ever taken proper care of this woman. That ends on my watch.

I keep quiet while I work, but my dragon is pacing again. She claimed us first. He wants to answer it, wants his teeth in the curve of her shoulder so the world runs in both directions. It’s me holding him back. When I mark my mate, I want the moment to be worthy of her, and I’m willing to wait for it.

I condition and rinse her hair. I wash her from her head all the way down to her feet, and then I scrub myself down quick while she finishes. I shut the water off and pull her out, and I wrap her in a towel straight off the rack.

We brush our teeth side by side and lotion up, and there’s nothing worth reporting about any of it.

Then I walk her out and sit her down on the edge of my bed. I go digging in her drawers for fresh underwear and clothes, and I dress my mate with my own hands, one careful piece at a time. She watches my face the whole time, quiet, and her scent stays soft.

I pull on boxers, a shirt, and sweatpants.

Then I sit behind her with the leave-in and her comb. I work it through her curls section by section and comb them smooth. Then I gather everything up into a bun. It’s not sisters-level work, but it holds, and she pats it and approves.

I take her hand and lead her downstairs.

Halfway down, she slows. “Wait. Do you think they heard us last night?”

I laugh. They definitely heard us. Every wall in this mountain is honest. She doesn’t need that confirmed while she’s still holding the rail.

Then I hit the last turn of the stairs and groan out loud.

The whole family is waiting at the bottom, and all four of them are smirking.

Dorian’s grin goes first. He looks at me, then at Zuri, and he frowns while he searches the sides of her neck.

“All that noise,” he says. “Where is her mark?”

Zuri slaps both hands over her face and groans into them. Her mortification rolls off her so thick I could bottle it.

20

ZURI

Istand at the bottom of the stairs with my hands over my face. The whole family is looking at me. No one says anything, and that’s worse.

“Y’all are being weird,” Jalen says over my head to the whole room. “Quit it.”

Then he looks his oldest brother over. “And look at you. That tea’s working.”