Page 88 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“No.Neither did you, although your mom gave it her best shot.Did you think she got me?”
“You are strong,” he said, shaking his head slightly.“I knew you would not succumb, either to Kashi or Tenite.”
I leaned forward to kiss his mostly healed lips.“I am not Amice.I am your mate, the woman who loves you more than you can possibly imagine, and I will never leave you.There are far too many cat videos left to watch, after all, not to mention an orange kitten to pick up from that expensive cattery you found once we left the Duat.”
He almost smiled, winced, and instead squeezed my hand.“Gabriel gave me a drug to sleep, saying it was best for repairing the damage.You will sleep, too?”
“Right here next to you,” I said, slowly curling up next to him, careful not to touch his still-healing skin.“Rest, and when you wake up, I’ll tell you how handsome you are, and how much I like your chest and thighs, and if you are very good, I’ll let you do the same to me.”
He did smile that time, his hand resting on my leg as he let the drugs whisk him off to sleep.
I lay next to him, my heart so full of love and joy, I was able to push away the worries that lurked at the edge of my awareness.
The situation with the blood moon, Tenite, and Asfet would have to be addressed at some point, but for now, I was content.The dragons were saved from Xavier, Yrian had redeemed what I knew he thought of as his past failure by protecting his family, and most of all, he’d bested his evil brother.
I fell asleep planning a trip to the local pet store to stock up on supplies for Yrian’s kitten.
EPILOGUE ONE
BECKET
“It’s a shame the mencan’t have their fun ‘beat the ever-living tar out of each other’ time, because Archer is always so much calmer after he recovers, but I gather a decision was made to forgo it so that Yrian wouldn’t be tempted to join in.”Thaisa popped a chocolate-covered strawberry into her mouth after speaking, bliss spreading across her face.
“It’s hard to say no to a demigod, even one as nice as Yrian,” Aisling said, nodding as she perused the offerings.“OK, pairing tortellini with salami, cheese, and roasted peppers on a skewer is sheer brilliance.It’s like an antipasto plate on a stick!”
“Yum,” Jim said, its nose in the air as Aisling selected a few bits of cheese crostini for its plate.“Love me some salami!”
“Salami is on your naughty list,” Ysolde said as she helped herself to some of the fruit skewers, including one of the melon and prosciutto offerings I had just consumed with very unladylike haste.“Aisling, the esquites are fine for Jim to eat, since they’re just corn fritters, but that lime dip has garlic, so be warned.”
“Esquites!”Jim said, doing an excited dance as Aisling added watermelon and corn fritters to its plate.“I’ve said it before—Soldy does the best noms.”
“Most of this is from Pavel, who just started the fancy cooking course we gave him last Christmas, so he’s very inventive with appetizers right now,” Ysolde pointed out as the other women, now with loaded plates, murmured agreement with Jim.
I settled down with a big serving of street-corn nachos, and managed to wrest my mind from the food to say to Aisling, “It may be hard for you to say no to Yrian, but I assure you, I don’t have any such problem, and I told him yesterday that there was no way in hell—”
“Abaddon,” Jim interrupted somewhat indistinctly around a bit of cheese.
