Page 87 of Guardian's Dilemma

Chapter 29: Glimmer

In the morning, I woke with my head on my mate’s chest, his arms around me. I was wrapped around him and I was comfortable. Really, I should have stayed where I was.

However, my dragon was awake too. It stirred as I blinked in the early-morning sunlight coming in through the gap in the curtains and began to nudge me. Go. Check the boundaries. Protect our treasure.

I knew better than to ignore my dragon, so I began to disentangle myself from Kingsley slowly, carefully. I didn’t want to wake him. He deserved his rest after last night, when he’d pounded into me like a pile driver and made me come so hard I’d passed out.

He looked peaceful as he slept. And handsome. Definitely handsome. I was so lucky to have got myself such a good-looking mate.

As I stood beside the bed and looked down at him, admiring his form, his broad shoulders and defined chest, the abs and the thick thighs, I saw his body tense. When he was sleeping was about the only time Kingsley wasn’t in full command of his body. When he wasn’t held tight and ready.

My mate was always alert. It was hot.

He opened his eyes, blinking at me.

“You going out?”

“Yes.”

He rolled over and sat up. “I’ll come with you.”

“Go back to sleep. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

In fact, I didn’t know how I’d woken him up. I’d moved carefully and not made any noise.

He smiled at me. “I’m coming with you.”

I was okay with that.

I flew us over to the Somerville territory and landed, parading round in my dragon form for a minute so Kingsley could get a good look at me in the morning sunlight. When I shifted back, he handed me my clothes and studied the long stretch of boundary that we could see. I’d taken us to an open space, so he could see more of it, but I’d chosen an area we rarely used. Nobody would come out here, except Conley, if he was doing his duty and circling the territory. He hadn’t been out here yet, I could tell; there were no new protections down.

As though he were reading my mind, Kingsley asked, “How careful do we need to be not to be seen?”

“None of them will leave the territory,” I assured him. “They’ll double down. Stay inside. Try to protect the castle.”

“Alright, so we’ll be careful.”

Only Kingsley would take that as a warning. I loved that he was as wary as I was, as determined to stay safe and protect my treasure. It was the first time I’d been able to share that duty. By the time I’d been made Guardian, I couldn’t even share it with Seren. I hadn’t realised how good it would feel to talk about it and to know that there was someone else beside me I could rely on.

For the first time, I didn’t feel as though I was always just a little too late, stretched a little too thin.

Kingsley said, “I want to see what the defences look like.”

“You could ask me.”

“I could but the point of having two of us laying protections is that we’ll make it doubly secure. My magic is different from yours.”

I grinned hard. Damn, he was such a good Guardian. BecauseIwouldn’t trust anyone else to tell me about the boundary I was meant to be protecting, either. I’d want to see it for myself.

“Do you want me to circle round it?”

“Yes, that’s a start. I’ll tell you if I want to stop and look at something.”

I stripped and shifted again, and my mate settled onto my shoulders. Even without either of us talking, we were communicating. He used his body to guide me, leaning forward and pressing with his legs. When we flew past the woods, he pushed his hands between my shoulders, asking me to fly down.

I landed and he slid off me, stroking one hand along my neck as he did. I doubt he even realised he was doing it.

He walked along the edge of the territory, studying it. Then he turned to me and asked, “Why is yours the only magic here?”

---