Page 6 of Iced Heat

“Is that a yes?” I double-checked.

“Go ahead.”

“Do you knot?” I asked, my face burning hot.

“I can if you like it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Most dragons don’t knot unless we have some sort of other heritage thrown in.”

“I can knot,” he nodded as if the full explanation might be beyond my understanding. That annoyed me for a long moment. Then I remembered he hadn’t told Teddy, Selt, or his teacher about his inner beast either.

We stayed like that for a long moment, with me leaning against him with my face buried and him smoking his cigarette down to a purple butt.

“You choose. Do you want to see my first or newest form?” Xav broke the silence a few minutes later.

“What do you mean? More than one?”

“Yeah,” he nodded dropping the butt onto the ground and stamping it out.

“Don’t be a litter bug,” I sighed and almost bent down to scoop it up.

“It’s biodegradable as soon as it gets wet,” he said, glancing up at the sky. “Looks like rain.”

I picked it up anyway because my mama didn’t raise a litter bug. I shoved it into my back pocket to test out what he said later. If it was true, I’d cut him some slack. If it wasn’t that was the first habit I’d have to break him of. Littering wasn’t sexy.

“So? What’s it gonna be?” he asked.

“Which one do you like more?” I asked him, eager to know everything about him.

“Bite him. Claim him. Problem solved,”my dragon said.“Then we’ll know it all. Then we’ll know what he shifts into as well.”

“The first feels more natural but the newest would probably feel like I was more present to you,” Xav shrugged.

“You’re not making any sense,” I laughed. “Though, that might be the true-mate response magic. Why are you making me pick anyway? Is this some test? Like testing to see if I can pick which restaurant to eat at because I can. Here it’s Sandy’s. Always Sandy’s.”

“Just curious about what you’d choose.”

“Hmmm…. So, it is a personality test?” I smirked.

“You’re not the only one who wants to know everything about the other one,” Xav said.

“Well, that’s a relief,” I rolled my eyes.

“I hope it is. There are two of us here. I know you have this whole you versus the world thing right now because of your sister but you should know I’m on your side.”

“You haven’t even heard my side yet. You’ve heard Teddy’s version of my side.”

“We could go somewhere and change that. Rent a hotel room somewhere or go out toward the lakes where they have all the caves and stuff if you wanted something more natural. Somewhere private where you could ramble all over it until you figured out what to do.”

“I’m doing what I’m going to do.”

“And that is?” Xav asked, reaching for his pocket again.

“Whatever I want. Two can play her game,” I shrugged. “My side isn’t that complicated. We lived together in my house until she made it inhospitable.”

“You needed your space and she wasn’t happy about it.”

“How can you make it sound so simple?” I asked him.

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