Page 25 of Soar

Don’t answer that.

“I don’t blame them, mind you, I went in there too. How many times does a person come in close contact with a dragon? Except you.” Alexis waggled her eyebrows. “You get all up close and personal.”

“Alexis, stop. You’re truly disturbing when you do that.”

“I do it to disturb you.”

Of course she did. He was resigned at this point.

“Now, let’s recap, as I haven’t seen Gregori in human form at this point aside from the single picture you showed me. He is incredibly built as a dragon, not an inch of fat anywhere to be seen. Is this true in human form too?”

“If you think about it, it would take extreme upper body strength to fly, wouldn’t it? Not to mention, the ability to launch yourself into the air, so naturally your thighs and calves would also be very strong.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. So a handsome, very strong dragon is courting you, is smoking hot in bed, somehow finds your personality cute?—”

“That’s because it is cute.”

Salem buried his head in his hand. And now Gregori had joined them. Why, universe, why?

“You forgot lunch again this morning,” Gregori scolded. “I came to bring it, thought I’d play with the kids while I’m here.”

“I can feed myself—” Salem protested.

“But you don’t. You skip lunch unless it’s already in your office. It’s a bad habit.” Gregori fully opened the door and stepped inside. In one hand he held a multitiered lunchbox. One of those fancy lacquered ones like you saw in Asian dramas, even tied up in a cloth like one would be.

Where and when had Gregori even bought it? Because Salem sure as hell didn’t have one!

“I don’t know all your favorites yet,” Gregori said almost apologetically. “So I made a variety. Share whatever you don’t want to eat. Hello, who’s this?”

Alexis wasted no time introducing herself. “Alexis. This idiot’s best friend. Nice to meet you.”

“Charmed, Alexis. Please help him eat all this, I know I made too much.”

“I’d bedelighted,” she assured him brightly.

“Good, good. I’ll go back to playing with the kids, I promised them I’d only be gone five minutes.” Gregori set the lunchbox—could it really be called such a simple thing?—down on the only clear spot the desk had to offer.

Then he caught the arm of Salem’s chair and yanked him in close.

Startled, Salem instinctively braced with his hands up, which meant they landed on Gregori’s shoulders. He had no time to do more than open his mouth on a protest when Gregori put his mouth right next to Salem’s ear.

“So how many pictures did you take?” he breathed.

Heat shot to his face as the full impact of his sentence hit home. This rat bastard; he had noticed Salem! He just hadn’t let on so Salem could dig himself right into a grave!

Gregori chuckled softly, pulling back just enough to catch Salem’s mouth in a firm kiss. Tongue was definitely involved. Salem may have been sucked into the kiss before he realized what Gregori was doing, and could the dragon stop being so damn smooth?

Gregori broke the kiss, winked at him, and straightened. “I’ll see you later.”

Then he left. Like he hadn’t managed to upend Salem’s morning in a minute flat.

Dammit!

Alexis watched the door close behind Gregori, and she blew out a breath.

“Salem.”

“Don’t say it.” He groaned, this time dropping his head into both hands.

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