Page 50 of Fire in Stone

It was hot. Too hot for early spring in Georgia. The AC unit rattled desperately in the window of our motel room, but it did nothing to relieve the heat that woke me up.

Sweat gathered around my neck, despite the cool shower I’d taken before going to bed last night. And my back… My back felt like it was pressed to a hot furnace.

“So, that’s how humans sleep,” a husky voice said behind me, then an arm roped with muscles went around me and a leg draped over my hip. At least he was wearing his pants.

“Elex,” I groaned. “You’re feeling better?”

I kicked off the covers within the limited range of movement that my gargoyle trap allowed me.

“I am,” he replied cheerfully.

I turned to face him. “What are you doing in my bed?”

He looked his usual handsome self, as if last night’s “space bending” hadn’t happened. His eyes sparkled, his skin shimmered. Hot like a stove, he didn’t have a single bead of sweat visible anywhere.

“It’s past sunrise,” he announced, removing his limbs from me.

The curtains were drawn closed, but the light of the new day already filtered through. Clearly, I overslept this morning. And clearly, someone didn’t miss the opportunity.

I rose on my elbow. “So you used the moment to examine the human way of sleeping?”

“Exactly.” He grinned with a flash of white teeth in the semi-darkness of the room. “I can see the appeal of spending the night just like this, in each other’s arms.”

“Not with you, though. Please.” I laughed. “If you stayed here the entire night, I’d be boiled alive by morning. Why are you so hot? I mean your body temperature, not the looks.” He was well aware of his handsomeness and sex appeal. There was no need to remind him of that.

“It’s the dragon fire,” he explained. “Is it too hot for you?”

“Way too hot.”

He looked puzzled. “But you liked it when we were flying.”

“Because the air was much colder up there.” He still looked a bit confused, so I added, “Humans generally feel comfortable only in a very specific, narrow range of temperatures. Everything outside of that range is either too cold or too hot. For example, if I was as hot to the touch as you are right now, I’d probably be dangerously ill and would need to cool off by any means necessary.”

“You would?” His brow furrowed with concern. “I’ll reduce the heat then.”

“Is it that easy to regulate for you?”

“It’s not hard.”

He didn’t look any different, nothing changed. But the sweltering heat dropped. When I touched his forearm, it felt instantly cooler.

“Wow. Thanks.”

I stretched, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

Realizing this was the day we’d say goodbye brought a shroud of sadness over me.

Maybe it’d hurt less if we parted quickly?

“We should get going,” I said. “We need to get ready, have breakfast, and make our way down to the creek by the time the portal opens.”

“Or… We could just stay in bed for a few more minutes. We have time.” He swept my hair away from my face, threading his fingers through my locks on the right, then stroked the shaved spot above my left ear. “Who did this to you?”

The tone of his voice implied I might have been maimed against my will, which made me smile.

“The undershave? It’s just a hairstyle. I like it.”

“So, youwantedyour hair to be uneven like this?” There was no dislike or judgment in his words, just a desire to understand, like he tried to learn as much as possible about me before he had to leave here.

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