Page 33 of Hoarded By the Dragon

“How do you feel?” she asks.

I analyze the sensations of my body. Nausea doesn’t rise up like it’s done for the past week.

“Wonderful.” The relief of that is strong. “I feel like I could cry.”

Maggie laughs. “That will be normal for pregnancy.”

“I could use some normalcy.”

12

KALOS

Maggie outdid herself for dinner,as always. Though I notice that she’s overloaded Katarina’s meat serving with one of the hot sauces she brews from scratch. Maggie knowing exactly what we need is the norm.

What isn’t the norm is her and Ben excusing themselves from the dining room to give Katarina and meprivacy.Do they expect something more to happen other than us discussing the logistics of how her life will change? Do they think I want to have a relationship with this woman? That I’m able?

They both should know better.

“How do you feel?” I ask, awkwardness I can’t shake clings to the question.

“Better,” she says, and her smile softens the tension of the situation.

She looks better. The dark circles under her eyes have already started to lighten, and her grin is reminiscent of the wry way she’d teased me that night. The night I’d taken her over and over again. The memory threatens to let loose the beast that wants to fawn over her, demand things from her.

Our tryst had been in the low light of the moon, and the accent lighting directed on the pieces of my hoard on display. I’d missed details about the woman carrying our young in the darkness.

Her face is pretty enough, her small mouth lush in a way that tempted the dragon that night nearly as much as her scent, which now satisfyingly carries a hint of my own. Her hair is an ordinary color somewhere between blonde and a soft brown, but her green eyes sparkle like my best emeralds. They are arresting. Dangerous.

There’s a brightness to her. A shine that I’ve rarely seen in my life except for centuries ago.

I wonder if that shine pulled in my dragon, though nothing else about her is similar to who we lost.

“For the pregnancy, you should live here,” I start, continuing before she finishes chewing. “Ben has already paid the rent on your apartment through the next year, so you don’t need to worry about going through the motions of moving until you want to.”

It had been his idea as a way to make her feel less trapped and reliant on me. It’s a good one.

“Oh, you didn’t need to—” she starts.

“I have many things at my disposal, including money. If having the apartment comforts you, allow me to do this.”

She blinks. “Okay. I’m not going to complain about that. It does make me feel better to keep the apartment. Thank you.”

I nod and continue. “It would be best, for the time being, if you were here as a standard and only left the estate with Ben’s help.”

“Ben said something about how you need time to figure out who you can trust in your organization.”

It’s good that Ben thought to warn her.

“To that end,” I continue. “You should move your work here if you can. I need Ben to assist me, and while I can get by without him, I can’t do so all the time.”

Katarina shrugs. “That’s reasonable.”

She’s being so flexible, letting me call the shots. Bending for me in a way that has the dragon wanting to make her do things to please it. I shake my head to dispel the urge.

“So, I’ve met Maggie and Ben, will there be more of your inner circle that’ll know about me?” she asks.

“Jensen, my driver, knows, but that will be all for the time being.”

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