Page 43 of Dragon Unleashed
The shower creeper. Suddenly, going into the bathroom doesn’t seem like such an escape after all.
“Um. Can you stand out here? Just in case?”
He dips his head in a nod. “Of course.”
“Great.” I move into the bathroom, shut the door, then exhale heavily as I try to figure out how I’m going to let go of the man in the next room when I’ve only just found him.
* * *
“You stay up here.Understand? Atallcosts. Do not come downstairs unless the place is burning around you.” I glare at Aries, hoping I’m coming through loud and clear, given that we’ve been arguing for the last thirty minutes about him coming with me to work.
He smirks. “I’m a dragon. Fire will not harm me even in my human form.”
I roll my eyes. “Fine. Great. Then stay here even if the place burns to the ground.”
His amusement vanishes as he asks, “How do you know you’ll be safe?”
“As I told you, the library is open today. It will be crawling with people. Nothing is going to be able to get me while the keepers are on high alert and monitoring everyone.”
“The stranger managed to get in last night when the evening guards should have been on high alert. And someone got into your room last night without either of us knowing.”
“Not a someone, a something,” I correct.
“What?”
I sigh. “The thing I saw didn’t have a corporeal form.”
“You think it was a spirit of some kind?”
Shrugging, I consider. “I don’t know what to think. The damn thing looked like Peter Pan’s lost shadow to me.”
“Peter who?”
“Ugh. Never mind.” Pinching the bridge of my nose, I try to remember that it’s my fault he’s here, so dealing with his over-bearing book-boyfriend ass is on me. “I will be on the look for shadows looming around me, and I will be overly cautious of not being alone today. Deal?”
Aries narrows his gaze but nods.
“You be careful too. He was in this apartment,” I remind him.
Aries grins though it’s more of a show of teeth than amusement. “I hope this spirit shows up. Then I can deal with it myself, and you’ll be safe.”
“Do not tear up my apartment. TV and food. That’s all,” I say as I get a mental image of Aries wrestling with some unknown assailant. Honestly, the way his eyes glitter with the promise of pain leaves no doubt he can handle himself in a fight. But my heart apparently isn’t convinced as it squeezes in sudden fear at something happening to him. “Deal?”
“Baseball and ale, all day,” he assures me.
I shake my head. “Great. See you later.” I step out of my apartment then shut the door and lock it. Then, I turn around and nearly run right into Hoc. “Shit! You scared me." I press a hand to my heart then remember the massive dragon standing on the other side of my door, and my panic only increases. “Good morning, Hoc.”
“Good morning, Paige. I was just coming to see if we could have some coffee?” He gestures toward my apartment.
“Actually, I’m all out. Was headed downstairs to the break room for some.” I link my arm through his and guide him away from my place—and the sexy as fuck fugitive it harbors. Walking without a limp proves harder than I’d hoped but Hoc’s arm is the support I need to pull it off.
“I’m surprised you let yourself run out,” he jokes. “You usually can’t live without your morning coffee.”
“With everything going on, I forgot to give the gnomes my grocery order this week.”
Hoc and I make our way toward the elevator, and once inside, I release him.
“Yes, I heard of the issue last night,” he says. “You saw no one?”
