Page 7 of Dragon Thief of New York
“Yeah.” There’s something dark and almost angry in the single jaded word. I recognize the emotion well.
“Tonight is the last night of Goddess Week,” he continues. “So once Otto saw you, he only had a few hours to convince you to transform and bond with him.”
“So he decided it wasn’t worth the effort and stole the choice from me instead.”
Damian’s muscles tense, but he doesn’t respond to my outrage. Otto’s head hangs low as if he heard me. Good.
“So, what do we do to reverse it?”
Otto twists his neck, looking back, flames burning in his eyes.
“As far as I know, there’s no way to reverse the transformation.” Damian shifts his weight, and once again I’m very aware of what the man is packing. As distracting as that is, I need to stay focused on what’s important here.
“So I’m a dragon for good, and I’ve got to marry this kid I don’t know.”
A growling rumble from Damian shakes my chest. “You don’t need to marry anyone. He’s forced enough on you.” Otto puffs smoke, but Damian is unwavering. “You’re mates, so you’ll probably feel a strong attraction to him, and it’ll be very difficult for him to be away from you—painful even—but that doesn’t mean you need to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“How do I know he understands that?” I keep my voice loud enough for Otto to hear and try to mask the fear in my gut with indignation. “He’s already forced one decision on me.”
Otto’s head falls even lower, and he loses altitude.
“He understands.” Damian reaches around me to rub Otto’s scales. “Don’t you?”
The massive dragon nods slowly. We’re quiet for a while after that as we leave the harbor behind and fly over the city.
“She’s in Greenwich Village,” Damian says.
“Wait, what? No.” I try to twist to look at him. “I used to live there, but now I’m in Brooklyn, Parkslope. But how did you know that?”
“I told you, we knew each other.”
“How? When? I think I’d remember you.” It would be awfully hard to forget the gorgeous man behind me. I’m sure he would have featured heavily in my fantasies if I’d met him before.
“It doesn’t matter now,” he says softly.
“What do you mean, it doesn’t matter?” I spot my building and yell out, “There.”
Otto swoops down, and we land on the roof. Good thing they keep the stairwell up here unlocked.
Otto lowers himself as close to the ground as he can to let us off, but Damian doesn’t let go of me right away, and I make no move to climb down. I’m not done with this conversation, and for some reason, I don’t want to leave him.
A few feet away, a pigeon lands on the ledge of the building. Far below us, a car honks, and someone whistles for a taxi down on the street. A cloud passes over the sun, casting a long shadow over us as I wait for Damian to tell me more.
“I was…” Damian sucks in a breath, but then lets go of me. “It really doesn’t matter. We met once. Briefly. That’s all.”
He slides off Otto in one fluid motion before turning to offer his hand to help me down.
I still think I would have remembered him, but it’s not like I have the greatest memory. It wouldn’t be the first time I forgot someone I should have remembered.
Chapter 5
Otto
Idon’tknowDamianaswell as I’d like, but something in his tone is off. I don’t think he’s telling the whole story. But I won’t press for more because I have some serious groveling to do, and I intend to start immediately.
The moment Kat slides off my back, I shift into my human form and sink to my knees in front of her.
“I’m sorry I took away your choice, beauty, but if I hadn’t, we wouldn’t even have the chance to get to know each other. There will never be anyone else for me, and the thought of losing you before even getting to know you was like an icicle stabbed through my heart.”
