Page 32 of Never Feed a Dragon

“Tell me what you’re feeling,” he said.

It sounded like an order, and I didn’t do orders. Not even a little.

“I’m great,” I lied, finally stepping over his gorgeous, tense body. That tension had the muscles on his bare abdomen popping out for me, which made me drool a little.

Or would’ve made me drool a little, if I hadn’t already sweat out every drop of liquid in my body.

But I had.

So, no drool.

Yay.

“You’re dripping,” he said, voice edging on a growl. “And I heard you counting down the minutes in your head.”

“I love being a sauna, remember?” I called back.

He made a noise that said he didn’t buy it, but I finally made it into the bathroom and shut the door behind me.

Whew.

That had been close.

I turned the water on cold and wasted no time stripping my drenched sleep clothes off and stepping beneath it.

The groan that escaped me was one of relief.

“If I find out you’re in pain and aren’t telling me, I’m going to pin you to your bed with my body for the next two weeks, Spaghetti,” Eli growled into my mind.

A shudder tore through me at the intimacy of the mental conversation. No way in hell was I replying that way.

“We couldn’t stay in bed for two entire weeks. We’d need to pee, and eat,” I yelled back.

“That’s what water bottles and takeout food are for.”

I wrinkled my nose. “That’s disgusting. And get out of my head!”

“Stop hiding from me, and I will,” he shot back, very much still in my mind.

I shivered again.

My knees knocked together as a new wave of pain rolled through my abdomen, and I swore viciously. Bracing myself against the shower’s wall, I bent in half, clutching my middle.

Eli knocked on the door loudly, and called out, “I feel that through the bond. Let me in. Now.”

“Screw off,” I groaned.

He snarled into my mind, and a moment later, the door opened with a splintering sound. It would’ve made me wince, if I hadn’t already been hunched over in pain.

He was across the room in a heartbeat, pushing the translucent shower curtain to the side and stepping into the tub/shower combo.

His chest was still bare, so when his arms went around me, his skin pressed against my naked side.

I moaned in relief as the pain immediately eased. It didn’t vanish entirely, but faded to a dull ache that was much more manageable. The feeling of overheating disappeared almost completely.

“You don’t get to be stubborn about this.” Eli pulled me away from the wall and turned me so my back was to his chest. His arms went around my torso, one wrapping around my hips, and the other just below my breasts. The weight of them rested on his forearm, and it felt ridiculously good.

“I can be stubborn about whatever I want,” I whispered back, my legs still shaking.

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