Page 35 of Never Flirt with a Dragon

“No, it…” he shook his head, struggling to get the words out. “My mother would’ve wanted us to live there. She loved it tremendously. If she was here, she would tell you to redecorate and make it yours. It can be hard to be the only woman in the mountain. That was her sanctuary—it should be yours too.”

“Just for the month,” I said, reminding him that we weren’t permanent.

He jerked his head in a nod.

It wasn’t entirely convincing, but I knew I was the one who’d have to fight heat for the most part anyway.

“We’ll walk around it after we eat, and you can decide what you want to do with it. I’ll send my dragons into Scale Ridge for whatever you want.”

“Alright. Thank you.” I took another bite.

His foot remained against mine as we ate in silence. Though it was still a little awkward, I actually kind of enjoyed it.

After we were done eating, Jasper changed. Then, he tucked me against his chest and led me back through the hallway.

Now that I could see in the dark, I could actually make out the lines and curves of the halls. They were nice and wide, though there were absolutely no decorations of any kind. It made the whole place feel dark and gloomy.

We climbed a few sets of stairs before we made it to the living area he’d mentioned.

“This is the top of Mate Mountain,” he said, as he opened an unlocked door and gestured me inside.

I stepped into the room and looked around.

Unlike the rest of the hallways and the single room I’d seen, the space had life. There were rugs and decorations. A few fake plants, too. And the walls had landscape paintings on them. None of it was my style, and everything was old-fashioned, but it was infinitely better than anything else I’d seen in the mountain.

I looked back at Jasper, and found him looking at everything with a distant expression.

The space had to be full of memories for him, if he’d grown up there.

“We really don’t have to stay here if it’s going to be difficult for you,” I said.

His gaze lowered to mine. “It’s not difficult. The memories it brings back are good. It’s just… strange. Redecorating would help. If you don’t want to handle it, I’ll send Brynn a few pictures and have her figure it out.”

Brynn was the one who had decorated August and Elodie’s house, which was gorgeous.

And he was offering…

“If you give me her number, I can send her a few pictures and we can do it together.”

Jasper nodded. “She’d like that.”

“Perfect.”

We walked around, and I took pictures of all of the rooms. Because Brynn wasn’t a dragon, she wasn’t allowed in Mate Mountain any more than any other human. She’d actually become a demon when she mated with one, which really barred her from the dragons’ sanctuary.

“Why did you guys name this place Mate Mountain to begin with?” I asked, as we walked around. The space was the size of a large house, at least three thousand square feet, maybe four. There was a lot to see, and it was all spacious and cozy.

It was almost too much space.

But too much was better than not enough, considering I was going to be trapped there for an entire month.

“We didn’t. Its actual name is Main Mountain. The living space is inside the top half, and the prison is in the bottom half. When humans heard about it and started saying we lived in Mate Mountain, we didn’t correct them, and started using the name ourselves. It sounds separate from the prison, which is ideal. We don’t want word spreading that we live on top of our convicts.”

“When you put it like that, it’s a little creepy.”

“The first of the prisoners are about a mile beneath us, and the entire mountain is woven through with ancient dragon magic. It’s a maze down there. Even if they managed to escape, they wouldn’t be able to find their way out. Anyone without a dragon’s magic would find themselves suddenly lost if they were to try to leave.”

My eyes widened. “So I could get trapped in there?”

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