Page 34 of Marked By Moonlight
She rolled her eyes and stomped off, huffing.Dragons!
My inner beast practically swooned. The woman was at her best when riled up, all bold, confident, and no-nonsense.
I dragged my gaze away to check the stairs she’d taken. No one followed her, but I kept my guard up. Mina walked three-quarters of the way down the platform, whirled, and stalked back, shooting me an impatient look.
Happy?
I grimaced. No, because the entire situation was fucked. But at least it didn’t look like she’d been followed.
I pointed down, then held up my hand in a stop sign.
She held up her validated ticket and mouthed an obscenity at me.
Typical Mina. Not one to waste a cent, even though she owned a château.
My dragon snorted.A crumbling château.
I repeated my hand signals and waited for her to — finally — obey. Then I checked the platforms one more time and descended on my side.
I found her by the ticket machines on ground level, her arms crossed, her foot tapping impatiently.
“Is this really nec—”
“Yes.” I grabbed her by the elbow and hustled her out to the street.
And,zing!Just that little amount of contact sent electricity through my veins.
I checked our surroundings and hurried her over a bridge to the far side of the Canal Saint-Martin.
“Nice to see you too,” she muttered.
“Nice to see you,” I echoed, and it really was, though that wasn’t the point of this meeting.
A point that grew harder and harder to remember the more I inhaled her rose-and-lilac scent.
“Oh, no one will notice us like this,” she grumbled, likeshewas the expert in covert operations.
“Like what?”
“We’re racing along like we don’t want to be followed. It’s obvious.”
Well, yes, because we were out in the open, and dragons didn’t slink through the shadows the way lowly felines did. (Roux came to mind, as did Bene. Two totally random examples, of course.) But Mina was a potential target, and it was only prudent to avoid being caught out.
“Got a better idea?” I grumbled.
“Yes.” She settled into a leisurely stroll, wrapping her elbow around mine. “Like this. Much less obvious.”
“Much slower,” I grumbled, but she had a point.
Nice,my dragon sighed dreamily as she pressed into my side.
“Slower but less obvious,” she whispered. “We’re just two happy lovers out for an evening stroll.”
I wished we were, but—
No buts!My dragon roared so fiercely, I stumbled over my next step.
“Enjoying our time together, looking at the stars…” Mina went on in that singsong voice that was guaranteed to calm my soul, every fucking time.
