Page 37 of Chase Me

The other man spoke first. “Hello, brother. How are the winds treating you this fine night?”

Ciara looked between the two men standing off. Neither seemed angry, more like territorial. Where Jakob made her heart go pitter-patter-what’s-the-matter with his dark hair, that yummy stubble on his chin, and bright green eyes, his brother was a blond god with golden eyes. They looked nothing alike. Brothers from another mother, maybe. “This is your brother?”

Jakob didn’t move, because he’d lose the staring contest then. “Not exactly. He’s another Wyvern. Leader of the Gold Dragons.”

“Oh.” Huh. She’d just assumed dragons were all green since that’s what Jakob was. What was she saying? All dragons? Up until yesterday the only dragon she knew of was Puff. There was one more question on her list for when she and Jakob had that talk.

Ciara moved around her incredible hulk of a dragon and stretched out her hand, careful to keep the blanket covering the tatters of her dress. No need for more than one dragon to see her half-naked tonight. “Nice to meet you. I’m Ciara Mosley-Willingham.”

He straightened up and took her hand, his fingertips dancing over her pulse point. “The pleasure is entirely mine, beauty. You can call me Cage.”

A low rumbling growl came from behind her and this time it wasn’t anyone’s stomach.

Cage raised his hands in the air and stepped back, but with a flirty grin on his face.

“My apologies, greenie. I didn’t know you were—” he paused, tilted his head, and inhaled through his nose. “That’s very interesting.”

Jakob stuck his arms out, soccer mom style, blocking her from Cage. She stuck her head out from under his arm anyway. “What is?”

Cage sniffed the air again and narrowed his eyes. “Your scents. They’re?—”

Jakob pushed Ciara back behind him, blocking both her view and Cage’s words. “What are you doing here, Cage?”

“I came to see what the fuss with my golds over the Atlantic Ocean was the other night. I hear you took a flight.”

“I did.”

Cage looked between Jakob and Ciara, trying to work something out. Was it completely obvious they’d slept together, like a half an hour ago?

Crap. He could smell it, couldn’t he? She was investing in Febreeze.

“Must have been pretty important if you couldn’t talk to me about the flight over. That’s a long trip for a green.”

“It was, and it was.” Jakob was being incredibly tight-lipped about whatever these two were talking about.

“I see that.” Cage waggled his eyes at Ciara while he looked her up and down in a way that made her giggle. What a charmer.

Jakob had some macho protective mojo going on, but nothing but curiosity and friendliness came from Cage.

Yep. She could tell that. It wasn’t a guess, she wasn’t paying attention to his body language to come to that conclusion. She knew it.

Cage might be a looker, but Jakob was the one she’d gotten down and dirty with. The one she’d like to get even dirtier with.

Ugh. No, she was leaving. She’d decided. Regardless, she didn’t want to see some kind of man war between these two because Jakob was going all feral on her.

She put her hand on Jakob’s arm, thinking her touch might calm him. It worked with brides and grooms and fathers of the brides, and mothers of the grooms. She literally felt the muscles in his arms relax under her hand.

He finally looked at her, quirked an eyebrow up for a second, and they took a deep breath together.

“Dude. Who is this sexy chick?” Cage’s voice had an aura of awe in it.

Jakob didn’t respond but searched her eyes. She sensed another emotion from him now. Regret? No, that wasn’t quite right. There was something he was holding back, something he wasn’t telling her.

His pendant turned on, like an old TV warming up, very faint at first, like its light was only meant for her to see.

“She’s my…guest.”

“A guest who makes your soul shard glow? She’s more than a guest, Zeleny. What the fuck is going on here?”

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