Page 14 of Marked By His Alpha Dragon's Desire

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

The doorbell rang, and Theo launched himself out of my room and was down the hall faster than I could stop him.

I eyed the mess that was my bed and closet and decided I’d have to deal with that later. The last thing I wanted to do was leave Theo alone with Raphael.

“Well, hello there,” Theo said when he opened the door.

“Hi,” came Raphael’s confused voice.

“Luca will just be a few minutes.”

“I’m ready right now,” I said, coming to Theo’s side.

Theo rolled his eyes. “You’re supposed to make them wait to prove that they can be patient. They have to work for it.”

Raphael chuckled. “I feel as if I have already waited an eternity for this. I will not mind another few minutes if you need it.”

From behind his back, he pulled a bouquet of flowers. As I reached out to grab them, he grasped my hand and kissed the back of it. A shiver ran down my spine.

“Thanks,” I said. My voice came out breathless.

Theo fanned his face. “Oh, boy. Details later. Youhaveto give them.” He pushed his way past Raphael. “Have fun, you two! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

Raphael raised a brow as he looked at me. “I have a feeling that really doesn’t limit any of our options.”

“It really doesn’t.”

He chuckled and lifted an arm. “Shall we?”

“Yeah. Where do we plan on going?”

“Outside of town. I thought it might be nice to check out that Italian place over in Alma.”

I let out a long breath. “Thank goodness. If we went to dinner here, everybody would be watching. Don’t get me wrong—I love the food here, but we’d be under a microscope.”

“That was what I suspected. And as much as I love this town, I would like time with just you.”

I smiled. “I’d like that.” I continued to hold on to him, and I couldn’t resist leaning into him. The scent of him wrapped around me like a warm hug. I had the oddest urge to bury my face against his chest.

Raphael wore a long-sleeve shirt. He tugged his sleeves down his arms.

“Oh, goodness, I didn’t even think about your burns! Are you—how are your hands so healed?” I grabbed his hand and inspected it, careful not to touch him too harshly. But it was amazing, as if no burn had ever occurred. The skin was smooth and unblemished, not a blister of burn anywhere.

“I’m a quick healer,” he said.

“Quick? Raphael, this is insanity. This—this defies logic.” I turned his hand over as if that was going to give me answers.

“I don’t think the burns were as bad as they looked. Once they got cleaned up, it was mostly just blisters.”

I was about to argue—after all, his reasoning was insane. Blisters took weeks to heal, no matter how bad they were. Anyone who’d had an irritation blister on their heel knew that. Plus, I was there, I saw him and tended to his burns right after they happened.

Still, when he laced his fingers into mine and his eyes on me, I melted. I couldn’t put any more effort toward it.

“Shall we?” he said.

“Let’s.” My voice came out breathless and heady. Thank goodness I wasn’t playing hard to get, because I would fail.

The conversation flowed easily on the drive to the restaurant. Raphael told me about his brothers, about growing up with the two of them. Meanwhile, I filled him in on some of the quirkier things I’d seen in town—including the reported sightings of many large animals, mostly bears and wolves.

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