Page 28 of Training my Human

My brow arched. He had gotten bigger if he could reach. Smart, too, using his body weight to activate the lever.

A plaid-wearing Maddox—who looked delicious in his snug jeans—stood outside holding flowers in one hand and a giant watermelon in the other.

To my surprise, Abaddon bowed his head and said, “I would like to express my regret for my behavior the previous evening. It was unbecoming of someone of my stature.”

My jaw dropped.

“Already forgiven, bud.”

“Excellent.”

Maddox turned his attention from the dragon to me and smiled. “Hey.”

“Hey. What are you doing here?” I sounded terse, mostly because I wasn’t sure how to act. Maddox didn’t seem angry.

“I thought I’d check in on you and Abaddon, and I wanted to apologize for how things ended last night. I should have known better than to leave Princess alone with Abaddon. She’s not good with other animals.”

“Ha. Told you she taunted me,” my dragon huffed.

“And you fell for it,” I chided in reminder.

“Next time, we’ll make sure to keep them in separate rooms,” Maddox stated.

“Next time?” I blurted without thinking.

“That is, unless my cooking sucked and you’d rather I never attempt it again.” Before I could reply he thrust the flowers at me. “These are for you. And this”—he crouched and held out the watermelon—“is for our dragon friend.”

“Ooh.” Abaddon dug his claws in the melon and to my surprise had the strength to hold it up, if awkwardly, given its size.

“Um, you can’t eat that in here.” I could just imagine the mess. But then I remembered my morning visitors. “Fuck, he can’t go outside either.”

“Why not?” Maddox asked.

“The RCMP were by this morning with some dudes in head-to-toe protective gear.”

“What for?”

“Collecting lava rocks. Oh, and I was told to keep an eye out for an escaped pet lizard.”

Both our gazes went to Abaddon who sniffed and licked the outer watermelon rind.

“Do they know about him?” Maddox murmured.

“You tell me. I couldn’t find any reason why they’d be after the volcano’s rocks, and the lizard story seemed just a little too pat. Then again, it’s not as if they’d come out and admit they were looking for a dragon. I take it they didn’t swing by your shop?”

Maddox shook his head. “No.”

“Odd,” I muttered. “You’d think they’d have questioned the one shop that sells reptile supplies.”

Abaddon began gnawing on the green shell and I had a nightmarish vision of my future mopping watermelon juice from my floor.

“Guess I should have brought him a different treat.” Maddox pursed his lips.

“Not your fault. I’m just a little leery of letting him outside now.” It then hit me where he could eat it with minimal damage. “Abaddon, mind eating that thing in the shower where I can sluice away the mess after?”

The dragon paused his lovemaking of the melon for a second to eye me. “As if I’d leave anything behind.”

“Watermelons can be messy, so please, if you don’t mind.”

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