Page 27 of Foundling

Leita groaned in disgust and stood. “If you’re going to be tedious—”

“Wait, wait.” He stopped her from moving away by grabbing her hand. The contact zinged up Leita’s arm, its own kind of force. She watched his slitted pupils dilate to nearly full circles. He grinned again, but this time was…different. Almost pleasant. Little lines fanned out from his eyes, and a dimple appeared in his right cheek.

“Forgive me?” he asked. “I only tease.”

“Yes, you only tease.” Leita pulled her hand from his with a sniff.

He had the decency to look sheepish. “It’s how I am, I’m afraid. It’s the only way to deal with my siblings.”

“I see. And how many of those do you have?”

Those sharp eyes glittered, no doubt sensing her probing intent. “Too many,” was his glib answer. “Although, perhaps less so now.”

“Oh? And why is that?”

“Many of the stories about dragons are true. We’re a…hot-blooded lot.” He snickered at his own wordplay, but Leita remained unmoved.

Fists on her hips, Leita informed him, “I’m not sure you appreciate the seriousness of your situation, lizard. You’re a trespasser here, and you’ve yet to convince me you have any good intent.”

Rising smoothly to his feet, Attalus smiled as he took her chin between thumb and finger, lifting her gaze to his. That was all the better, as now that he was free of his fever and in his two-legged form, it was hard to ignore his nakedness.

Leita had seen plenty of naked men before. She wasn’t modest or prudish, had had a human husband before as well as relations with him. But that’d been centuries ago—and she’d never seen a naked male dragon; certainly not one the universe mistakenly thought was her azai.

Like the rest of his people, his front—the face, neck, and chest—was all tanned, smooth skin. Along the sides and flanks and down the legs, though, red scales covered him, gleaming like rubies in the meager sunlight. His long dark hair, when clean and brushed, would be a lustrous raven black, tucked behind his double set of arching horns and long pointed ears. All his horns and even his ears were capped in gold, his lobes pierced with gold hoops.

And that wasn’t the…only place he was pierced. Leita’s gaze hadn’t lingered, of course, but she’d appraised herself of his red cock, if only because the sight of it was hard to ignore. Thick even as it lay against his thigh, the flared head had been pierced, a gold bar with balls on either end, along the underside. Accompanied by three circular ridges below the head, the sight had made her involuntarily clench her thighs.

“I appreciate it very much, doe,” he crooned. “Everything about it.”

“Then you’re either stupid or desperate. Which is it?”

“Why can’t I be grateful and fortunate?”

Leita’s lips thinned. “You can’t seriously be pleased to be here.”

“Why not? I’m here with you. Had I not found my way here, I wouldn’t have found you.”

Unfortunately, his explanation made a sort of sense, if one conceded to some level of divine or providential machinations. Which Leita didn’t.

She really didn’t want to ask, but she felt a bit better about it after lifting her chin from his grip. “And you think you feel this…connection, too? You believe it?”

Another one of those genuine smiles, the one that showed off his eye wrinkles and dimple, made her right knee spasm strangely.

“Of course I do. Savrakae have a fated true mate, just as you fae do. Even shifted and feverish, I recognized what you were to me and I to you.”

“Did you come looking for me here?” She didn’t know how he might have learned of her and their potential bond, but this situation was already strange.

“I flew north to survive,” he said, his gaze shuttering. “I didn’t mean to cross your border, but I’m not disappointed the winds led me here. The wildfire…it’s like you were calling me home.”

Leita’s stomach twisted nervously to hear him say so. She really didn’t like the celestial implications of all this.

Ravenna and the Twins, those bitches.

“And why were you flying north? What do you flee from?”

He stepped closer, crowding into her space. His warmth washed over her, like stepping closer to a crackling bonfire. It emanated from his chest in a way that spoke to the fires that lived there, between his two beating hearts.

“That’s a long story, doe. Might we go somewhere more comfortable, where we both can rest properly?”