Page 46 of Never Feed a Dragon

VI

Eli didn’t start another conversation as he turned his back while I got dressed. Or while I dried my hair as much as I could with my towel, before tying it up in a bun on top of my head.

He didn’t even say anything when I set a pillow and blanket down on the couch we both knew he wouldn’t fit on. Or claimed the single bed in the room.

I felt kind of bitchy for the couch thing, but he was the one who’d booked a room with a single bed. The bastard should’ve known better. The bed was a super-king, built for supernatural guys, but that didn’t buy him the right to sleep with me.

I still wasn’t interested in a relationship.

And that meant I had to maintain distance between us, despite feeling bitchy about it.

Eli didn’t complain, hesitate, or give me a dirty look when he plopped down on the couch across from my bed. Instead, he watched me.

I glanced down at my sleep clothes, and realized the points of my nipples were very visible through the fabric. I’d had the set for years, and still loved it. I wouldn’t throw it out until there were holes in it big enough for my breasts to fit through.

“You’re staring at my boobs,” I said.

“They’re so perfect, it’d be a sin not to.” Though his words were playful, his expression was still serious for the most part.

I wasn’t actually sure if he was joking.

And that made it difficult to decide how to respond.

“You should’ve gotten a room with two beds,” I finally said, tucking myself under the blankets to forcefully end the staring.

“They only have super-kings in single-bed rooms, so it would’ve been pointless. I fit on a couch about as well as I fit on a human mattress.” He leaned back, stretching his body across the entirety of the furniture. His legs draped over the edge, his head propped up almost vertically on a pillow, but he still managed to look comfortable somehow.

The bastard was so pretty, he’d probably look cozy on a volcano.

“We could’ve gotten our own rooms,” I pointed out.

“If you want me to kill someone, sure.”

I rolled my eyes. “You haven’t even gotten violent yet, E.”

“Yet is the key word in that sentence. Heat will get worse, especially if we deny it.”

I couldn’t imagine it getting worse than it had been the night before.

Didn’t even want to try.

I’d probably end up begging Eli to join me in the bed if that happened.

Which, on second thought, was probably the real reason he’d only gotten one room. I wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed by that, or to give him the grudging respect he deserved for planning ahead in that way.

“Well, goodnight,” I said, reaching over to turn off the lamp beside the gigantic bed. I’d never slept in a bed that big, and it felt kind of empty with just my average-sized human body in it.

“Goodnight, Spaghetti,” Eli said as the room went dark. I could still see fairly well, thanks to his magic I guessed. Which meant he could probably see just fine, if not great.

The nickname was growing on me annoyingly fast.

I didn’t know how to stop that any more than I knew how to stop heat.

“Tell me when you start hurting,” he said, his voice growing quieter with the lights off. “You don’t have to tell me why you’re pissed with me, but you don’t get to suffer in silence.”

“Sure I do,” I grumbled back.

“I’m not joking, Vi. If I feel a wave of pain again like I did when you were in the shower, I’m going to burn your clothes so you have no choice but to spend the rest of heat naked.”

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