Page 15 of Dragon Heir
After a few minutes of watching Vynessa sitting there looking so small and alone, I can’t help myself. I approach the bar. Before I reach it, a bearded guy takes the seat Paxton vacated beside her. I can’t catch his scent among all the others in here, but my immediate guess is elven. I pause, fighting the urge to step in. Vynessa doesn’t look scared. She looks happy, her cheeks flushed with excitement as he speaks to her.
My hands ball into fists at my sides, but I force myself to take a step back, remembering her annoyance when I touched her hip without her permission.
A mug of ale appears before her, and she accepts it with a tap against the man’s mug. After a few minutes, the man sets his hand on her thigh. My fingers twitch, then ball into fists again as she pushes his hand off. He leans closer, as if to say something into her ear.
In seconds, my hand clamps around the back of his neck and yanks him off the chair.
“The fuck?” he roars like the hormone-fueled idiot he is.
“She’s not interested,” I growl.
As soon as I set the guy down, his fist winds back for a punch, and I know I have a choice—risk revealing myself by tearing the man’s arm off or take the punch.
He doesn’t even swing, though. The elf either smells what I am or sees the warning in my eyes because he drops his fist, shoots me a withering look, and skulks off, muttering, “Ogre’s asshole.”
Paxton has stepped up on Vynessa’s other side, abandoning his flirtations.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say, sliding a hand under Vynessa’s elbow and helping her stand.
“Yeah. Okay.” She picks up her ale and downs it in a few gulps, leaving a faint line of foam above her upper lip.
I swallow, my eyes riveted on her mouth. Grabbing a clean cloth from the bar, I dab the foam away.
“Professor True?”
The voice comes from the table of girls Pax recently was so entranced by. Some of them are likely in my classes. Four girls look between Vynessa and me, their eyes brimming with interest.
Warning bells go off in my head.
I’m calling too much attention to Vynessa. I give the women a quick nod and lead Vynessa toward the door. Before we can leave, though, I hear a snatch of conversation.
“Damn, she gets all the hottest professors.”
“I wonder what her secret is.”
They would never guess her secret. Even she doesn’t.
As we walk along the street through the layer of steam hovering above the ground, I let myself enjoy the sensation of her soft fingers gripping my arm. She’s relying on me, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Chapter Seven
Vynessa
I regret chugging my drink by the time we’re halfway home. I’m floating on a pleasant buzz, but I’m afraid I’ll get too careless with words and let something slip that will make our living situation just a tad awkward. Like how it might be cool if they could let me sleep in their room tonight, maybe right between them.
Heat coils in my limbs as I walk beside Pax, holding his arm. Now that I think of it, he’s hot too. Burning hot, and not just in the gorgeous way. I swear, he must be putting off as much heat as a dragon flame. “Are you okay?” I ask, pressing my free hand against his arm. “You’re burning up. I think you have a fever.”
“He’s fine,” True says, stepping closer to my other side and taking my free hand. Unlike Pax, his skin is blessedly cool to the touch.
“Look at me, being chaperoned by two handsome escorts,” I say. “I feel like the queen.”
Pax leans close to murmur in my ear. “You don’t look like her—thank fuck.”
“How do you know? Have you ever met the queen?” I tease. Everyone knows the dragon queen never leaves her hidden palace, so of course that would be impossible. No one but those at court have seen her in nearly a century, and most humans live as if she doesn’t exist. She’s never affected our lives, I know that much.
True squeezes my hand gently to his side, tugging my attention from Pax for a moment. “We’ve all seen pictures of her,” he says. “She’s in decline, that’s all. Still beautiful, but in a regal, ancient way.”
“So I’m beautiful?” I ask, grinning slyly at him.
