Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
“I see,” Hess cuts in at once.
“You’re the only one who should have access to that dosage, and I only authorize you to use it if my mate is in danger. Understand?”
“Perfectly.”
“I don’t even want anyone else to know of its existence.”
“I will need an approximate weight.”
A weight. Fuck. I need to find a semi-truck scale somewhere. “I will get it for you.”
“And points of vulnerability.”
Everything in my body rebels. A dragon does not reveal his weaknesses. Not to anyone.
How sure of Hess am I?
And yet, this is Tabitha’s safety we’re talking about.
It’s of utmost importance.
I lift my chin and point to the soft spot between throat and jaw. “Here.” I sense the dragon rebelling within me. A restless, angry stirring. A stream of steam flows from my nostrils. I lift my arm and point to the soft space there. “And here.”
I pin him with a look. “You tell another soul, and I’ll rip your limbs off and send them to your mother.”
“I owe you my life,” he says, a note of fierceness in his voice. I freed him from a shifter slaving operation I took down eight years ago. He hasn’t left my side since although I have paid him well enough to start a new life.
“Your loyalty will always be rewarded.”
He gives me a bow because his kung fu training ingrained that form of respect into him despite his years of torture in a cage.
When he leaves, I pull up the tracker app. Technology is so useful. Of all the dragons I know, I’ve been the most eager to embrace the power modernity affords me. But I’ve always been obsessed with power.
And now, I’m obsessed with Tabitha. My bride. The damn trackers did me no good yesterday when she was escaping because I’d been too agitated to remain in my human form.
Thank fate, my dragon somehow sensed she needed help.
They have some kind of connection.
How ironic.
The very part of me I’m trying to keep from her, to protect her from, is the only part she seems to like.
Well, perhaps not the only part. I smile remembering how she begged me last night.
Even though I know she’s safely locked in her chamber, I check her location on my tracker app.
Malediction!
The blinking light that signals her presence is on the other side of the castle. Down in the kitchen levels.
My claws elongate. My eyes are probably slitted like a snake’s. I thunder through the castle, slamming doors, making my presence known.
Soft smoky laughter drifts up the stairs from the servant’s quarters. I slow on the steps.
Tabitha is in the kitchen, sitting on a stool at the low, worn wood table. My chef and butler are feeding and entertaining her. She laughs again, and the musical sound soothes me to the depth of my soul.
She’s wearing my robe. She escaped from her room and found it somehow. Clever mate.
Her skin glows in the firelight and the red and gold of the robe. She was born to wear my colors.
Satisfaction curls through me, making me pause in the door. I could bask in her light forever.
But this behavior requires correction.
Tabitha
I sense Gabriel before I see him.
I don't know how long I’ve been here, sitting on the stool and listening to Giampi’s stories about his nonna. The short, curly-haired Italian chef is hilarious. Even Buttons–who I now know as James–has a dry wit that cracks me up.
My stomach is full, I’m warm and settled, but there’s a little flutter in my chest. Like a compass needle, always searching for its true north.
I swivel on my chair, and there he is, standing in the doorway, looking like he wants to punish me all over again. Or eat me out and feed me his cum.
Probably all three.
Chef Giampi and James greet him, but he has eyes for only me.
“Hello, dragon,” I say.
“Leave us,” he orders softly, and Chef Giampi and James exit the room right away.
Smoke streams from his nostrils. His hands glitter as if his skin is about to turn to scales. He moves forward, and a wave of heat hits my skin.
I duck my head close and inhale the rich incense of his scent. “You smell like him. The dragon.”
“Did you dream of him last night?”
“Oh yes. We hung out. At this point, I like him better than you.”
“That's definitely a first. Most people are terrified of him.”
“I'm not most people.”
“I’m beginning to understand this.” He’s still staring at me. My body’s about to internally combust.
I half turn and stick my finger in a dish. Turns out it's pate. It would be sexier if it was whipped cream, but oh well. I lick the earthy-tasting cream off my fingers as sexily as I can.
His eyes follow my every movement. “You disobeyed me. I told you to stay in your room.”
I shrug. “I wanted to get out of my room. So I got myself out.”