Page 12 of Draco

“I don’t need your help to be safe.” I snorted at his whole idea of protecting me. I was a badass bitch that didn’t need him or anyone else to keep me safe. I’d been doing a fine job on my own, thank you very much.

He glanced at my ankle, then at me, arching a single, infuriating eyebrow as his lips twisted into a bit of a smirk. “From where I’m standing, you look like you need help.”

“Oh, you’re funny. And you’re not standing right now.” I rolled my eyes. The nerve of this guy. I was only hurt because he’d turned into a freaking dragon and chased me! Of course, I hadn’t been watching where I was going. I’d been too busy worrying if I was about to be eaten by a dragon. “Besides, this is all your fault for chasing me like that.” I picked up my sock and pulled it back on, anger making my motions more aggressive than usual. I yanked the sock up, refusing to wince at the bolt of pain that raced up my leg. I picked up my shoe.

For the first time, he seemed upset. “I’m sorry.” He took the shoe from me. “I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”

“You better be sorry. I’m going to complain to my father about you.” I hated myself for saying it. I hated threatening him, but what else could I say? I was powerless in this situation. All my carefully laid plans to escape, to live out my life my way were gone. Gone. Poof. Just… impossible.

He was going to take me home, and I would have one final act to prove to my father that he didn’t own me. That I might be his daughter, but I wasn’t his possession. He couldn’t order me around and force me to fall in line like everyone else in his life.

The guy handed me back my shoe. “I was going to help you put it on, but I bet you know how to do it without hurting yourself better than I would.”

His choice of words and the way his eyes locked on mine shook me to the core. Did he know my plans?

Totally still, I studied his incredible eyes. Maybe I was going crazy, but I was pretty sure he was offering me an olive branch. I took my shoe slowly and continued staring at him. His eyes darted back and forth between mine, and I imagined him leaning in and kissing me. My whole body hummed with arousal.

I swallowed hard.

He blinked, then backed off a bit and stood up, scanning the woods around us. I pulled on my shoe and tied it gently. With my teeth gritted, I stood up, using the tree to help me to my feet. But the second I put pressure on that foot, pain screamed up to my thigh and I almost fell.

Without a second of hesitation, he leaped at me and caught me in his arms. There, stuck in his embrace, my whole body lit up with excitement, and my heart began to thunder in my chest.

“You sprained it.” He murmured the words, and my eyes dropped to his full lips.

The guy was a freaking dragon. And sexier than anyone I’d ever met. I wondered what he’d fuck like. Would he know exactly how to touch me? Would he listen to me when I told him what I liked and didn’t like? Would he be a generous lover or a cruel, demanding one?

As the thoughts swirled round and round my mind, my whole body begged him to touch me, even as I resisted the urge. I was attracted to him, sure, because I couldn’t have him, no doubt. He was the man holding me captive, keeping me prisoner. He was the bad guy in my life at the moment.

His eyes narrowed as if he read something in my expression, and he let me go, making sure to balance me and help keep me on my feet. “I don’t think you’ll be able to walk back on your own,” he said in short, clipped words.

“So what do we do now?” I asked, still a bit stunned at his sudden about-face. What had he seen in my eyes or face that made him suddenly frost over like this? It was almost like he’d read my mind and knew what made me tick for a second. I’d been told I have expressive eyes—whatever the heckthatmeant—so I believed that I’d given myself away somehow.

Without another word, he shifted.

I leaned back against the tree, cowering in terror as his head whipped around, and he focused on me.

Yep, I was about to die.

He was going to kill me.

All this time he’d just been playing with his food, and I was about to be lunch.

8

Draco

Ireached a taloned claw out to her, but I could taste her panic on my tongue. The acrid flavor of it slowed my reach, and I stopped for a second.

“Don’t.” Her turned her head away from me, her chest rising and falling too quickly as she stood there, frozen solid to the tree at her back.

I couldn’t speak, but I could listen. So I pulled my claw back, letting her have her breathing space, and she visibly relaxed a little bit before peering up at me.

“I don’t trust you enough.” She motioned at my hand. “Those claws look like they could rip right through me.” Her fear stung my nose and eyes like I’d been chopping onions for far too long.

I stood there, motionless and confused. The same woman that considered stepping in front of a bus was worried I’d rip her apart with my claws? And it all clicked. Of course, that was the last resort. That was the final way she’d get back at her father if she was forced to go back to him and she’d do it on her own terms.

On her own terms.

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