Page 40 of Claim the Dragon
This time his tone sounded lonely and she wondered if he felt trapped here the way she sometimes did at Safeside.A duty, a calling, a curse—the kind she could believe in.
He was an ass.A rude lying ass and he was so angry at himself that he wanted to punch something or someone.But he couldn’t.His communicator buzzed and Steele looked down to see the message.
Call if you need help.
His face hurt with how hard he frowned down at the words.Magnum was offering to help him, but Steele didn’t need or want his help.He wanted Ravyn to be safe.His beast wanted her to stay close.They were both ready to scorch every freakin’ mummy or any other being that came for the dagger he still hadn’t taken from her.
“What are we having for dinner?”Ravyn asked when they still stood at the door to his suite.
She always had questions, but this wasn’t the one he’d expected.Would she ask him about the dragon that brought her here?
Fuck, he hoped not.
“Not sure,” he said curtly.
With a shake of his head, he dropped his arm and cleared his throat, reaching up to the control panel that operated the lock.Because only the eight Drakon that lived here and Shola had access to get in, the locks on the door of each suite were designated to the individual that lived in that space and only a fingerprint was required to disengage the lock.Steele stood back while the door slid to the side, tucking into the wall while she walked inside.
Another panel along the wall a few steps to the left operated all the lights, heating and air conditioning in the space as the entrance door closed behind them.Steel turned on the lights and asked, “If you’re chilly I can turn on the heat?”Drakon were their own heating system, so the Office was kept colder than it was at the Towers.
“I’m fine,” she said, looking around as she moved farther into the space.
Awkwardness, a feeling he didn’t encounter often, eased through him as he followed her into the living area.A couch, two charcoal-gray tables with lamps that had a clear gray glass base, and one high-backed pale gray chair that faced the large flat-screened television embedded into the wall were all he’d ever needed.He’d presumed the monochromatic color scheme was done well enough.Now he wasn’t so sure.The more her gaze assessed the area, the faster a strange feeling of inadequateness creeped along his skin.
“You have a suite at your office,” she said as she came around the couch, her fingers moving lightly over the arm as she passed.“It’s a very comfortable-looking space.Do you live here too?”
“Yeah,” he replied because suddenly he wanted to answer all her questions with complete honesty.“There’s seven more, ah, employees from Legion Security that live here.”
She looked over her shoulder as she came closer to the chair.“That’s an odd setup.How did that come about?”
He couldn’t say that Theo had defected from the Far Realm two hundred years ago when his father, the then-emperor, became possessed by a demonic spirit and almost destroyed their home.Nor could he explain that he and Magnum also had some family difficulties after a clan war in Mobo that eventually brought them to the Human Realm one hundred years ago.
“Theo, he’s the one who created the security company, liked solitude.He also wanted to protect people, so he came up with the idea of two locations for the business, one that also included private living space.”He added a shrug after his words partly because he wasn’t sure how else to explain the evolution of this group of dragon shifters that had come all the way from another realm to settle in this place full of humans.
“A personal and business space.Hmm, I guess that means the eight of you that live here are pretty close friends.Like a family of sorts.”
“Like you and the others that live in your underground place.”It was uncomfortable talking about something he couldn’t really share with her.There was so much he had to leave out and so many foreign emotions stemming from that fact circling through him.And then there was the part where none of this should have concerned him because there was no keeping her.He’d expected and accepted the immediate punch of his beast with that thought, but it was true.Even if all his other emotional baggage were to miraculously disappear, there was no future with him and Ravyn.She was human, and as such lived in a different world than he did.How could he ask her to leave the people she was committed to helping, to come out here to live with him and seven other dragons in a mountain dwelling filled with magick?
She looked up at him then with a curious expression.“I guess you could say that.”
“Shola has an accent like yours, but Ziva doesn’t,” she said.
He nodded just as the buzzer sounded at the door.“Ah, yes, we’re from the same town in Yorubaland.”
Acknowledgement eased the crinkle in her forehead that he’d noticed just seconds before.“I’ve heard of that place.”
Steele went to open the door, sighing with a bit of relief as Bleu pushed a cart draped in white linen.On top of the cart were four metal covered dishes, two plates, silverware, glasses and a carafe.
“I thought you were going to bring this up while I was gone,” he whispered.
“Your message came suddenly.Besides, we were all under the impression that you would be handling this quickly,” Bleu replied as he moved past Steele.
“I hope you like roasted chicken, red potatoes and green beans,” Bleu continued once he was in the living area, moving the cart to position it in front of the couch.“We weren’t expecting company so a simple dinner was prepared for the evening.”
“That’s fine,” Ravyn replied.“I don’t require anything special.”
But she did, Steele thought abruptly.She should have been having a special dinner, with a special man in her life.There should be candlelight and soft music such as he’d seen in movies, that set a mood of romance.She deserved those things, even if he would never be able to provide them for her.
“Steele will take it from here, but I can be reached by hitting that blue button on any of the control panels.”Speaking in a smooth voice and dressed in a tailored black suit, white shirt and gray tie, Bleu gave her a slight nod.The older Drakon ran a tight race with Aiken, who they also called GQ, for best-dressed.
