Page 24 of Soar

It would be far too easy to fall for him.

And that was very much a problem.

Salem gave his cheek a light slap and muttered, “Focus, you. Focus. Do not fall for his charm. You know you don’t do relationships.”

Sadly, his dating history made Sam’s look like textbook perfection. At least before Dimitri, Sam had managed several long-term relationships. Dimitri, of course, being the finisher, ashe would let Sam go over Dimitri’s own rotting corpse. Salem’s longest relationship had lasted three months. And half of the time had been spent in blistering screaming matches. Salem wasnoteasy to love—he knew this about himself—and he would avoid dragging someone into a toxic relationship like he would avoid poison. It was far better to be a serial dater. One date, two, everyone got off and they could part ways amicably. No heartbreak.

The whole pep talk to himself only succeeded in depressing Salem. He dragged more than walked into work, irritated the workday was only beginning. He had several post-op check-ins, one surgery for a routine tonsil removal, plus probably something else he was forgetting off the top of his head.

He used his ID card to open the back door, headed up via elevator, and stepped off at the children’s wing, all purely on autopilot. He walked along, messenger bag over his shoulder, thoughts only on getting to his office and checking the schedule.

Then he heard it.

No, surely not, he was just hearing things?—

A bright, deep laugh echoed through the hallway.

Salem turned his head, much like the scary mannequin head in a haunted house, absolutely aghast to hearthatlaugh inhisworkplace.

What the hell was Gregori doing here?!

Salem abruptly spun on his toes and jogged along the hallway. He had a suspicion of where the laugh came from. There weren’t many places people off the street could go unless patient or staff, so for Gregori to have weaseled his way in, he was likely—bingo.

The children’s wing had an absolutely huge outdoor deck that took up most of the courtyard space. It was fully encased in glass to protect against the winter elements, with large sliding glass doors that could be opened in good weather—a protectedway to get all the kids some Sunny D and somewhere to go other than their depressing hospital rooms.

Salem had passed by this place thousands of times. On a few rare occasions he’d stepped in to speak with a patient or family, but never had he just stopped and watched. He’d also never realized howbigthis courtyard was because he’d never expected it to be able to hold a fully transformed dragon.

Salem had seen some of the dragons transformed and flying about, of course, during his visit to Brazil. Even then his heart had kind of leapt into this throat in absolute, childlike awe unlike anything he’d even felt as a child.

Somehow, seeing Gregori left the prior memory of awe right in the dust.

God above, but he wasstunning. The weak morning light still filtered through the glass, and it bathed the long length of Gregori’s spine and the tops of his wings, painting the pearl white scales with a touch of wild honey. The dense muscles of his body cast a strong shadow—underneath, the scales almost looked blue. Truly, a painting come to life. Salem found himself pulling his phone out of his pocket and taking a picture. Then another. How could youconsider yourself a human being andnotcatch this moment?

Especially when the kids who had any kind of mobility at all were climbing on Gregori as if he were some jungle gym. He had several kids on his spine, his wings, his tail, and he’d gathered together with his arms the ones in beds or wheelchairs so he could nudge them with his nose.

This wasunfairlycute. It was like attacking Salem with a whole litter of puppies without warning, and dammit, who let Gregori in here?!

Because he couldn’t help himself, he took a full minute video of cuteness, then forced himself to stop and skedaddle before someone—Gregori—could catch him watching. It would beabsolutely mortifying because there was no way in hell Gregori would ever let him live it down.

Only when he gained the safety of his office did he dare breathe easy. All right. Let’s check the schedule. Let’s see, there was a post-op for?—

His office door slammed open. “Salem!”

Salem straightened in his chair, then slumped backward. This morning was doomed, wasn’t it? “Alexis. I’m checking my schedule.”

“That’s him, isn’t it? The ice dragon who followed you home.”

Fifteen minutes. They were only fifteen fucking minutes into the workday. And somehow, in those minutes, Gregori had beaten him to work—he’d likely flown, which was cheating—and volunteered with the kids. Alexis had heard of this, and now she was confronting Salem.

Giving up, he confirmed on a weary sigh, “Yes, the dragon is Gregori.”

“I about swallowed my tongue when I saw him. Nurses at the station told me he’d come in before you, asked if he could play with the kids, and apparently had already done all the paperwork for it. Even the kids who’ve been struggling with depression got out of their rooms as fast as they could. He’s been coming for two weeks, supposedly. How am I just learning about this?”

He knew which kids she meant and just about bowled over in relief. “Tyler and Jessica?”

“ThemandHillary.”

Wow. Gregori had more charm than Salem had realized. Hillary was sixteen, had been struggling with heart issues her whole life, and it took something serious to get her out of a funk. She’d seen all the usual tricks doctors and staff had up their sleeves to get a child’s attention. Although Alexis was right,it was anyone’s guess how he’d not known about this for two weeks. He wasn’t that locked into the surgical room, was he?

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