Page 42 of Dragon in Denial
Oh hell, he was about to admit he planned to go back to Detroit soon. She wasn’t ready for this conversation. She was still basking in the afterglow of amazing sex.
“My reeve sent me here to shut down the dragon’s blood trade.”
She stared at him. “That’s it?”
His brow furrowed. “What do you mean, that’s it? I’m talking about destroying your livelihood, Antoinette.”
“Oh, for the love of the gods.” She threw up her hands and climbed off the bed, paced partway to the window and then turned around. Thrusting out a hip, she crossed her arms and snapped, “I’m not a dealer, Ketu. And by the way, I can’t believe you’d believe that for even a single second.”
He shot into a seated position, pressing his hands against the wrinkled sheets. “What?”
“Yeah. Let’s talk about this, shall we? Did you seriously have sex with me this morning and still assume I was a dealer?”
His face flushed while he averted his gaze. Oh yeah, he sure did.
“I can’t believe you.”
“I figured once we were mated, I could force you to quit.”
Well, there it was. One of them had finally spoken it out loud. “You think you can force me to do any damn thing? Ever?”
She snorted and rolled her eyes. Not exactly the way she imagined discovering her fated mate would go. She hadn’t expected rainbows and unicorns, but certainly something more romantic thanthis.
He shook his head. “No. I just…shit, Antoinette, what the hell was I supposed to think? You had half a dozen dragon’s blood vials in your pocket. So if you aren’t a dealer, what the hell were you doing with so much dragon’s blood? Or, frankly, any at all?”
Uh-oh. Her turn to flush and avert her gaze. Did she admit her deepest, darkest secret to him? Could she trust him?
He is your mate, her dragon whispered.
She sighed. The damn beast was right. If they were going to make a go at this mates business, she needed to be honest and forthcoming.
Before she could open her mouth, Ketu shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is so fucked up. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I doubted you.”
She cleared her throat and looked around at the walls, wishing the proper response would be written there so she could simply recite it and be done with this awkward moment.
“I went to the reeve’s house yesterday,” Ketu said, relieving her of the responsibility of figuring out where to take the conversation from here. She wanted to kiss him for that, but she was distracted by his words.
“Why?”
“Because you mentioned that there’d been a colony meeting without the reeve. That makes no sense. That’s not how dragon colonies work. You never have a meeting without the reeve. Not unless he’s dead or excommunicated and the Elders are announcing a new one. And even then, the new one would step up and run the meeting.”
She nodded. “I may not have been to a meeting since, but I’ve heard Darius has been running them. Your parents say they haven’t seen the reeve in years.”
“Hell, at this point I’m wondering if he’s even still alive.” Ketu paused and canted his head, staring at the blank television screen perched on the dresser across from the bed. “What if Darius killed his father and didn’t tell anyone?”
“Why bother?” Antoinette said. She returned to the bed and sat down next to him. “He’s the heir. Why lie about his father’s death, even if he was the cause?”
“Because if he’s the cause, the Elders would likely determine he’s not fit to take over as reeve, and name someone else.”
“Everyone’s scared of him. No one will cross him.”
“They will if it’s the Elders making the decision.”
“Why haven’t they stepped in already?” Antoinette mused.
Ketu shrugged. “Maybe Darius is doing a good enough job of convincing them everything is fine.”
When she was younger, the Elders had been a bunch of older Rojo dragons who seemed to care more about fishing and playing dominoes than actually paying attention to colony politics. Their complacency had certainly set the stage for Darius to get away with running his drug trade uninhibited.
