Page 25 of The Dragon Recruit
Chapter Nine
Antony returned to his gadget room and watched as Iris inspected the various weapons and protective gear. She kept reaching for something, her eyes wide with wonder, before retreating again.
Some women wanted candy and flowers. But it seemed Iris Mahajan preferred night scopes, tranquilizer guns, and signal jammers.
Not that it was a negative. He was the same. Although he wondered how she’d react to flowers and him cooking for her.
She must’ve noticed his return because she swirled around, holding a prototype stun gun that could shoot a beam of electricity, like right out of a sci-fi show, and asked, “Are you always so creepy?”
“If you mean do I always sneak up on people and hide in the shadows, then the answer is mostly yes.” She opened her mouth to ask questions he didn’t really want to answer, so he strode toward her and said, “You’ll need these, when in your human form. They’re special contacts that will hide your flashing dragon eyes. Not even an eye scanner can detect you wearing them.”
“Let me guess—you have a secret army of dragon-shifters living in London, Manchester, and loads of other big cities, ready in case of attack.”
His lips twitched as he handed her the contact case. “Something like that.”
“You’re always annoyingly vague, aye?”
“Well, do you spill secrets every chance you get?”
“You don’t have to spill secrets to give a little bit of detail. Because if we’re in a life-or-death situation and you’re still vague, it could kill us both. And I’d prefer not to die for stupid reasons, aye?”
“I would never willingly put you in danger. Ever.”
The fierceness of his tone made her blink. “Okay.”
Her gaze searched his, and Antony wondered how much she could see of the real him. Part of him wanted to drop the act and merely tease her, woo her, challenge her for fun in a sparring match, only for him to pin her down and maybe kiss her.
He nearly frowned. Why was he so bloody drawn to this dragonwoman? Especially since she always seemed so skeptical of him.
Not wanting to think of the why, he took out a small device and held it up. “Before we leave, I need to chip you. And before you get upset, we all have them. They can even survive a dragon shifting.”
She eyed the small gun-like device. “Wouldn’t your enemy be able to find the chips and disable them?”
“Ah, but you see, our technology is better and decades more advanced than anything the public has access to. Almost nothing can deactivate it, and it’s nearly as hard to tell it’s even there.” He gestured around the room. “Most of this could start a war, if other countries knew about it. Only those I trust have access.”
She searched his gaze. “And why do you trust me so much? All we ever do is fight or argue.”
“You helped save my brother more than once, when he got distracted on a dig. Max trusts you, which means I do, too.”
His younger brother loved archaeology and history above all else. And while he’d worked with Antony for a short while on some secret assignments, Max became too easily distracted. So, after being sworn to secrecy, Antony had released his brother from his team.
However, Max used his training under Antony all the time, and had given his report of Iris long before Antony had ever revealed himself to her.
She cleared her throat. “Aye, well, there’s still so much I don’t know about you, so I can’t say I trust you as much.”
He should make light of her comment, tease her, and distract her with everything in the room.
And yet, his years of training faded as he blurted, “I like to paint.”
Fuck, why had he shared that?
Iris’s brows drew together. “What kind of painting? Because if you say nudes and ask me to pose, I’m going to roll my eyes and walk away.”
“No, no nudes. Just forget I said anything.”
She walked closer and placed a hand on his arm. Heat flared at her touch, sending electricity throughout his body.
But Iris looked unaffected and merely asked, “What kind of paintings?”
