Page 29 of His Greatest Treasure

Alfie grinned at me and stripped his jumper off, and then his shirt. I hadn’t actually thought about what he’d need to do to expose that arm to me but, when I realised, I felt a rush of embarrassment (again) and an equal amount of desire. Alfie was simply the most beautiful being I’d ever seen in my life.

With his shirt off, I could see his pale skin, white like marble. He was lean and slender, and it was clear that he didn’t work out to build muscle but he had an athleticism to his body that I’d bet came from hours of running and building things like this den.

His chest was smooth and hairless and I could just see the start of a blonde happy trail below his belly button. I also couldn’t help but notice thathis stomach was flat and toned. I wanted to touch it to see if his skin was as soft and smooth as it looked.

Instead, I forced my eyes away from all that skin and focused on his arm.

There wasn’t even a mark on him. No wound, no scab, no new red skin, not even a scar. His medic really was good.

I gave a little prayer of thanks for his dragon healing, too.

When I looked up to meet Alfie’s eyes, they were fixed on my face and there was an intense expression in them that made me freeze in place.

“Were you really worried about me?”

“Yes.”

“I’m all better now.”

“Yes, I can see that. At least you weren’t relying on me to fix your arm. I’m not very good at that sort of thing.”

“I’m sure you’d have done it perfectly.”

He said it with such confidence that I felt myself blush again, only this time it wasn’t really embarrassment.

Clearing my throat, I said, “Is there anything you need? Can I doanything to help?”

He reached for my hand and took it in his own. I stared down at our joined fingers.

“Is this helping?” I asked.

“Oh, um, yes. Yes, it is. It’s… medicinal. It’s to… help my arm.”

I tried not to snigger at my friend. He wasn’t very subtle. And it made me almost sure that he was starting to feel as strongly about me as I was about him.

We moved further into the room and sat together on the wooden chairs, side by side. I was hungry but I wasn’t really willing to break our contact in order to eat. That must have been a first for me. To want something else more than sustenance.

I cleared my throat, trying to think of something to say.

“So you’re still not meant to be outside?”

“No, Mother says I’m not allowed out until they catch whoever did it.”

“Do you think they will?”

He shrugged and it pulled our joined hands up with the movement. I liked the feeling of it.

“I don’t know. It must be hard to catch someone outside our borders if we’re always inside them.But dragons need to stay inside to keep safe. That’s what Father told me.”

“Your mother isn’t convinced that you’re safe even inside? What if you promised to stay away from the edges?”

Alfie looked over at me and his silver eyes were crystal clear and open.

“Mother worries about me a lot. And Morgan. She worries about him, too, especially because he’s away. She didn’t want him to go but Father sent him anyway.”

Finally I gave in, and was pleased that here was a perfect opportunity to find out about Morgan without sounding jealous.

“Is Morgan your… cousin?”

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