Page 25 of His Greatest Treasure

Blaze was always afraid of being caught, afraid of being hurt. There was a lingering worry in the corner of his mind, and I could never soothe it away. I desperately wanted to.

Everything inside me wanted to soothe and protect Blaze, to make him feel safe and warm and loved. I wanted to curl around him and hold him tightly, keep him close to me forever.

He glanced behind us again, over to the boundary.

I tightened my grip on his hand, making sure he could feel me there. “Don’t worry, whoever it was can’t get in.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!” I answered instinctively and didn’t actually stop to think about it. I just wanted to reassure my friend that he was safe.

“Igot in,” he said.

“Theywon’t though. They were outside the boundary.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I caught a glimpse of them. Oh, hang on, do you think I should go back and see if I can spot them? I need to be able to identify them if I’m going to tell Glimmer what to look out for.”

Blaze’s hand tightened around mine and my stomach glowed suddenly like I’d eaten a load of embers.

“No, I don’t think you should go back. They’ll be long gone by now.”

“I don’t even know what they were. I should have stopped to look.”

“No, you shouldn’t!”

Blaze sounded so emphatic about that and it made me smile.

We were at the door of the den by that point and I pushed it open and waited for Blaze to go inside. He stopped in the doorway and looked up at me with those gold-flecked amber eyes.

“I think they were a dragon. I could sense their fire. You’re not going back there, are you?”

“No.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

It would be more sensible for me to tell Glimmer, anyway, rather than go rummagingaround there myself. For a start, he knew the magic around the borders, which I didn’t. I felt bad about that all over again. I’d felt ashamed about it for the first time ever when I’d had to confess to Blaze that I couldn’t do any magic. Couldn’t even shift.

I’d suddenly felt so young and useless, except I wasn’t even really that young. Just useless.

I pushed that feeling aside and led Blaze over to the armchair I’d brought down for him. Then I draped the blanket over him and said, “You sit there and keep warm. You’ve had a nasty shock.”

“You’re the one who was shot!”

“Yes, but—”

I stopped. I couldn’t actually think of a reason that I wanted to take care of Blaze other than I wanted to do it. I wanted to make sure he was okay and not unhappy and that he’d be safe and warm out here. I really hated leaving him alone while I was in the castle. Knowing he was out here without me was like having a constant itch that I couldn’t scratch.

He looked up at me again, but this time it was from underneath his lashes. That look seemed to burn through my whole body in a slow, sensual wave. He was so stunning.His eyes were amber, glittering with flecks of gold. I could stare into those eyes forever. My body grew hot as I looked and I hurriedly turned my back on him to rummage through the basket of food.

I was hiding my sudden erection. I hadn’t meant to get one, not right in front of my friend, but my body never seemed to be properly under my control when I was around Blaze. I’d done the research and knew that men my age practically sprung boners at the drop of a hat but I’d never experienced it until Blaze had showed up. Now I was constantly trying to hide my body from him but too desperate to be near him to actually leave.

Instead, I had to quickly sit down on one of the wooden chairs and hand Blaze a bar of chocolate.

“You should eat this. It’s good for shock.”

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