Page 82 of Mama Si's Paradise

A miracle I didn’t scream.

“Going somewhere?”

For the second time, I stepped back inside the room, slammed the door shut and pressed my back to it without ever breathing.

Fuck, he was there. He had probably come from around the corner, and I hadn’t heard a single thing!

“Shit, shit, shit!”

A dragon-riding man outside the window. Another with a dragon on his fucking shoulder outside the door—did I even want to know what waited for me down the fucking stairs?!

A knock on the door.

My heart tripped all over itself and my eyes closed, pressing my back to the door as if I really had any hopes of keeping it closed against that man.

The silence that stretched into the room suffocated me. I looked at the windows again—was it too late to try and climb out right now? Maybe the dragon rider was gone.

And so what if I slipped and fell and died? I was as good as dead anyway.

Another knock—soft, not urgent.Knock-knock-knock.Gently.

“May I come in?” His muffled voice sent ice-cold chills down my back.

If that guy wanted to come in here, there was nothing I could do to stop him. But if I opened this door, maybe I could convince him to leave?

Unfortunately for me, that was my best shot.

Taking in a deep breath, I didn’t let myself overthink. I justopened the door, praying once more that my legs didn’t let go of me.

Valentine was leaning against the frame just like he’d been doing with the wall, and he was smiling. Black jacket, black hair, a bit on the longish side, those eyes that could be a reflection of the sky over us right now, and those red lips perfectly outlined, the Cupid’s Bow aVso sharp it could cut me.

He inhaled deeply. “Are you drooling, human?”

My jaw about hit the floor.

Didn’t he knowwhathe was? Did he think I’d forgotten his fangs?

He was a vampire! A fucking vampire—and he thought I would be drooling?

“You’redisgusting.” And maybe I was drooling a little bit, buton the inside,which he couldn’t see.

His smile slipped a little. “Aren’t you a little ray of sunshine.” Suddenly, he stepped inside the room without waiting for an invitation. “Exactly what we needed in this dark, dark place.”

I moved to the side, all my instincts on high alert. “What the hell do you want from me?”

“I want you to answer a question,” he said, hands behind his back as he looked down at me. So curious. So fuckingfascinatedby the horrified look on my face.

“What question?”

“You’ve slept the whole day and night. Have you rested well enough?”

I blinked and blinked and blinked, but he didn’t burst out laughing, just waited for me to answer.

“Yes?” I did feel well rested.

In fact, now that I thought about it, my muscles weren’t even aching anymore. After all that swimming, and then the fall in the woods, all that running…

Shit, was that why nothing hurt as it should have?

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