Page 50 of Dragon Unleashed
The weight of the day feels too heavy to hold up any longer. I sigh. “I need to sit.”
He rushes over and wraps an arm around my waist. “You’re in pain.” He guides me out into the living room, sets me on the couch, and helps me prop my feet up on the coffee table, then proceeds to hover like a worried mother. It’s adorable, though I don’t tell him that.
The relief at being off my feet—and hip—is enough to make me groan in appreciation.
“Not in pain anymore.” I offer a tight smile, but it only seems to make him more unhappy.
“Stay here.” He walks into the kitchen, and I listen as he rummages around. A moment later, he returns with a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and a glass.
“You’ve made yourself at home,” I joke as he goes to work uncorking the bottle.
He looks up, and understanding dawns. His glance slides guiltily to the stacked dishes and cups then back to me. “Apologies for the mess, I... my beast... cataloging treasures calms him.”
He goes back to work on the wine bottle, but I reach over and grab his wrist, halting him.
The way he says it, the embarrassment on his face, has guilt over my initial reaction settling on my shoulders. I’ve expected this man—this dragon—to settle into a lifestyle that is not his own, in a world where he doesn’t belong.
“Aries,” I say, “You don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Your dragon is welcome to do whatever he needs to feel comfortable here. I know he must hate being stuck like this.”
“Thank you for understanding.” Something flashes in his eyes, an emotion I don’t expect and can’t quite bring myself to name, and then he goes back to pouring the wine.
I let him, too exhausted from the day to try and decipher what just happened. Something tells me my acceptance of his weird dragon quirks has just earned me a new level of trust. I just have no idea what to do with it.
Chapter14
Paige
The spray of the shower is hotter than I typically care for, but after a day like today, mind-numbing heat is exactly what I need. Already, the scalding water is loosening the stiffness in my body and draining the tension from walking on eggshells all day.
Speaking of heat.I can make out Aries’ shadow in the gap between the floor and the bathroom door, lingering dutifully should my peeping tom show up again. My fingers tighten around the loofa as he shifts his weight, his back coming into view in the small opening I left.
He’s mere feet away, shirtless, while I’m naked.
The thought brings a wave of lust burning through my veins as I imagine him opening the door and coming inside. I can picture it clearly, him pulling back the shower curtain and capturing my lips with his.
His hands on my body. His tongue in my mouth. My arousal is near-instant, and I clamp my thighs together to ease the throbbing. All it does, though, is make it worse.
What would he look like hot and soapy?
Cut it out, Paige.
But even as I try to shut it down—try to remind myself what’s at stake if I don’t send him away—I recall the way he felt pressed against my back this morning. The hardness of his arousal straining against me.
Desire pummels the walls I erected between us until only rubble remains. “Dammit.” I shut the shower off and take a deep breath.
He’s a dragon.
Not just any dragon, either. The king of dragons. In a world far from my own.
And he has to go home.
Or both of us might be killed.
“Paige? Are you all right?” his voice wraps around me like a thick blanket.
“I...” I climb out and dry off.
“Paige?” Aries calls out when I don’t answer.
