Page 21 of Here Be Dragons

I was limp and sated as Desmon cleaned me up and turned off the shower. He walked me over to a little alcove in the corner,and a warm breeze blew over us from vents at the top and sides, drying us off.

Ooh, that was nice. I was now mostly dry except for my hair, but he still wrapped a warm fuzzy towel around me before doing the same with my head. He even managed to keep the towel in place, something I always struggled with.

“Don’t move,” he said, sitting me on another rock carved in the shape of a seat.

He returned with a hair dryer, plugged it in, and started drying my hair. I hadn’t been coddled like this before, and I rather liked it. Not to mention, Desmon had a magical tongue, and I wanted more of it.

With my hair mostly dry, Desmon poured shimmering, gold-colored oil into his hand from a bottle that looked like it should hold rare, limited-edition whiskey instead of skincare products and started massaging it into my skin. It smelled absolutely divine, a heady mix of musk and florals that somehow remained masculine.

The gold flecks in it melted into my skin and made it shimmer. I closed my eyes and moaned blissfully as he smoothed the oil over my shoulders.

Desmon replied with a soft growl. “Later, My Treasure, I will give you a full body massage.”

My heart raced at the endearment, even as a little voice in my head started screaming about red flags and things being toogood to be true. I knew I should listen to it and heed the warning. But forget that. Right now, I really just wanted to enjoy myself.

Earlier, self-doubt had had me spouting all that negative self-talk about my body I’d promised myself I’d never say again. The thing is, at the end of the day, I liked my body. It wasn’t perfect, but it served me well. I just would have never thought someone like Desmon would too.

The way he’d shot that down so quick had me falling for him even more. And that was beyond terrifying!

But instead of freaking out, I tried to channel my inner calm. Back in New York, my coworkers had marveled at how chill I was and how I could stay calm and collected, even that time some guy decided to take a crap right in the museum foyer. I’d turned keeping my cool into an art.

I hadn’t always been like this. When I was younger I had a personality to match my blazing red hair and enough nervous energy to set a field on fire. I’d spent my entire childhood and teenage years trying to control things Icouldn’tcontrol, and managed to make myself sick in the process.

Then, in the last year of college, I’d had a meltdown from a group project gone wrong—incompetent idiots, the lot of them—before deciding none of it was worth messing up my health over, and I was killing myself with stress. When I graduated, I promised myself, things would change.

The fact that my old coworkers knew me as a calm, collected type meant I was doing a great job at fooling everyone else, even if on the inside, I was still an anxious, angry mess. My therapist friendDana, whom I’d met at a pottery class on campus, said it all came from being moved place to place as a kid, only ever staying just long enough to make friends before leaving again.

These days, I schedule time to freak out about things. Between 8 PM and 8:50 PM every night, when I was alone with no one but Q-Tip, I allow myself to complain all I want. During this fifty-minute bunny talk session, I go all out and call people all the mean names, and trust me, they get mean. But after today, I might need another one-on-one session with Dana. This was way above poor Q-Tip’s pay grade.

It wasn’t long before I found myself dressed in one of Desmon’s silky shirts and sitting in his library, telling a manticore, a wizard, and a dragon everything my two kidnappers had told me earlier today about the key and the mysterious dragon lady. By the way they reacted, they’d clearly dealt with this dragon before. They weren’t surprised one bit.

“I’m sorry I’ve put you in danger,” Desmon said.

“It’s okay. You didn’t know. Leonard had everyone fooled. He was so nice to me before. But I guess the danger is over now.”

Desmon shook his head. “Unfortunately, danger from the janitor isn’t what I meant. When I came to your aid, I inadvertently showed Gillisandra that you are worth something to me.”

My heart sped up. Not at the announcement that I was in danger from a freakingdragoness, but because he was admitting in front of Seth and Mateo that I was worth something to him, and therefore something was happening between us. For some reason, I still thought he would be hiding that part, keepingme his dirty little secret. But there was no embarrassment or apology in his words, just genuine concern for my safety.

“Dragons do not usually care much about the humans and monsters around them,” he continued. “A dragon’s normal reaction would be to leave anyone unimportant to their fate. And if it was possible that person could become a liability to their ongoing bets, the dragon wouldn’t hesitate to remove them from the equation. The fact that I came for you has now put a target on your back. I am sorry.”

Oh. I hadn’t looked at it that way, but I guess it made sense, if dragons were really as snooty as he said. Was he saying that he would have just let me die if I wasn’t anyone special? Did that, by extension, mean Iwasspecial, at least to him? My heart did that happy little flippy-floppy thing again, and I told it to calm down while I focused on a single word in his reply.

“What do you mean bybets?”

Desmon exchanged a look with Mateo and Seth. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later. Suffice to say, from now on you will have to stay here with me.”

Woah! My mind reeled; everything was moving so fast. Desmon was trying to move me into his home? This was too much.

“I can’t—“

“I’ve already arranged for some of your things to be brought over,” Desmon said.

“Well, your clothes, laptop, toothbrush and spare glasses, anyway,” Seth clarified. “Everything else was a huge mess, but I figured we got everything you and your bunny would need for the next few days.”

“It’s for the best,” Mateo said. “Your apartment is not very secure. I would need to keep a guard posted there for your safety. It is much more comfortable here.” When I didn’t immediately agree, he added, “Besides, there’s glass all over your carpet.”

“I will send someone to clean that up,” Desmon interjected.

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