Page 152 of The Dragon's Mate

“I will take Bones with me,” Cadmus said.

“Cadmus, let me speak to my father first,”Bren said. “Once I’ve talked to him, I’ll have a better idea of what his angleis for this meeting.”

“He wishes to discuss peace,” Cadmus said.“To refuse the meeting with him would be telling him I do not wish to havepeace. I must do this, Bren. For the safety of the humans in this city.”

“I know. But if peace really was what myfather wanted, he would have the press there. Believe me,” Bren said. “Let mespeak with him first before you set up a meeting. All right? I’ll call himtonight.”

He reached under the table and took Kaida’shand. She squeezed it tightly as everyone stared at Cadmus. After a moment, theold dragon nodded. “I will consider the merits of meeting with your father a littlelonger before making my decision.”

* * *

“This,” Sika scooped out Kaida’s phone thatwas sitting in a large bowl of dry rice, “is not the way to start a weekend.”

“Tell me about it,” Kaida said.

“Did you drop it in the toilet?”

“No!” Kaida took the steaks out of thefridge and seasoned them. “I dropped it in the sink this morning when it was fullof water.”

“Shitty,” Sika said. “Think it stillworks?”

Kaida returned the steaks to the fridge andsank into the chair next to Sika. “No. I tried turning it on half an hour agoand nothing.”

“Super shitty.” Sika kissed Kova’s head.The hatchling was strapped to her chest with some kind of harness and was sleepingsoundly. “What are your plans for this glorious Friday evening?”

“Not sure yet,” Kaida said.

“Where’s your human?”

“He’s with his brother. He’ll be home inan hour or so… I think.” She glared at her phone. “I can’t call or text him.”

Sika fished her phone out of her pocket. “Youcan call him on my phone.”

“I don’t actually know his number,” Kaidasaid.

Sika laughed. “Ah, modern technology – isn’tit marvelous?”

“Yeah.” Kaida lapsed into silence and Sikapoked her in the shoulder.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

Well, except for the fact that you’re inlove with Bren but too afraid to tell him because you know the senator willmake it his mission to destroy you and your clan if you claim his son as yourmate. Oh, and also – you had unprotected sex with Bren… on purpose. You wantto be pregnant with his hatchling.

She hadn’t done it on purpose. She’d justbeen caught up in the moment, that’s all. With her dragon egging her on tokeep fucking Bren and how good it felt to have him inside of her, it wasn’tsurprising that she hadn’t wanted to stop.

Besides, Bren agreed to it.

That was a real shitty and manipulative thingyou did to him. It wasn’t fair and you know it. You need to apologize. There’sa reason he’s been acting distant the last couple of days.

Her dragon whined unhappily. Bren had beenacting weird and a little distant. He’d spent most of Thursday with her, butthey hadn’t really spoken much. They’d spent most of their time in bed.

Her face flushed. Bren had been verycareful to use a condom each time they were together. She should haveapologized yesterday, but she couldn’t seem to form the words. She couldn’tshake the feeling that their time together was ending, and that by this timenext week, Bren would be gone, and she’d be alone.

That nagging certainty had her reaching forBren, had her nearly frantic to touch him, to take her pleasure from him asoften as possible. Spending yesterday with Bren in her bed was what she’dneeded. But it wasn’t solving any of the growing tension between them and soshe had vowed to talk to him tonight over dinner.

“Hey, you still in there?” Sika gave heranother poke in the shoulder.

---