Page 109 of Gemini Kings
They were fucking throwing stones at my dragon’s head.
My inner Godzilla snarls and paces with murder in her scaly heart.
I growl under my breath and probe the damage with care, which Maxim tolerates with his whole stoic tough guy persona. Ronin leans in to look, while Vasili watches in sphinxlike silence the whole time from across the room.
“Lord, that looks awful,” Neo says from the kitchen door. Dez and Racetrack crowd in behind him. “Want me to get the first aid kit?”
“Yeah, baby, bring me a numbing potion,” I tell him. “And a piece of sirloin from the freezer.”
Because that old-fashioned shit works better than witchcraft to bring down the swelling.
Dez and Racetrack watch from the door while Neo fetches the first aid kit and rummages around in the freezer. Our freezer’s packed with red meat, because Lucius’ wolf craves it and he can’t always get out to hunt.
In an impressive display of multitasking, Vasili seizes another terrified oyster and starts butchering, while simultaneously dividing his attention between the dragon tucked up in my personal space and the mouthwatering vision of Neo’s muscled ass molded in his chinos as our bookworm bends over and scrounges around in the meat drawer.
Completely innocent of Vasili’s carnal desires and the general distraction he’s causing, Neo emerges from the icebox with his glasses frosted and a frozen steak wrapped in cellophane in hand. He’s coming up behind Maxim with the steak, the meds, and a look of concern written all over his earnest face when Maxim stiffens right up.
“Don’t go behind him, love,” Ronin says softly to Neo. “Just bring the booty to me.”
Figures a telepath like Ronin would sense what it took me too long to figure out on my own last night, which is that Maxim’s afraid of letting anyone near his poor scarred back.
Neo circles around and gives Ronin the goods, no questions asked.
Because my fated mate’s good like that.
I’m ready to put that steak to use, but it’s Ronin who gets the frozen meat—still in its cellophane wrapper—situated over Maxim’s swollen eye. The dragon endures this patiently, groping to hold the filet in place, while Neo hovers and Ronin sifts through the first aid kit and I start feeling Maxim down for other damage.
The dragon’s not too comfy with all this attention, but Ronin distracts him by sliding a feather-light finger around the studded rim of Max’s pierced ear, which makes the big guy shiver.
Ronin leans close to whisper, lips brushing the dragon’s ear, “These are nice, Max.”
Maxim swallows hard and his uncovered eye gets all lidded and heavy.
That’s Ronin being sweet to him for me.
“Maybe I’ll show you mine sometime,” Ronin murmurs, with a wicked look and a sexy sideways smirk at me. “Though I’ve only got the one. Think you’d like that?”
That right there’s a visual to make my toes curl.
While Max is (understandably) distracted and stammering, I’m unknotting his tie and unbuttoning his shirt. Underneath, the sinewy heat of dragon builds a slow fire in my cunt. Ronin’s got his traffic-stopping ass wedged against my inner thigh, my skirt’s riding up till my panties are almost showing, and Maxim looks way more interested in all that exposed skin I’m flashing between my red plaid skirt and my thigh-high black stockings (and, quite possibly, Ronin’s thickening dick pressed against his hip) than he is in those sore spots I’m discovering all over Maxim’s ribs.
“Dammit, I swear I’m gonna take the roof off that fucking Villa Tiberius,” I mutter, dabbing plenty of numbing potion on his bruises. “No one fucking touches you—anyof you—Purgatory or no—”
“It is nothing,” the dragon says gruffly, though I can tell the potion and the steak are helping. “They knocked me down with that stone to the head, then they got in a few kicks before I could rise. They were lucky. That is all. Next time, they will be less lucky.”
“Why didn’t you shift into your dragon and flambé them?” Neo asks, sounding genuinely curious.
I’m glad he asked, since I’m mulling the same question.
“Because I do not wish to be sent away.” Maxim lowers the steak and his golden eyes lift to mine. “When my dragon is loose, he can be… willful. And this I cannot allow. My place is here with you, my sovereign.”
My inner dragon purrs for him, and I barely manage to swallow another of those weird vocalizations. The last thing we need right now is for me to start making bird sounds. Honestly, my lightning’s enough to handle, and I was just starting to get a grip on it with all those skills I’ve been learning from Lucius when this whole dragon thing came along.
“You’re allowed to defend yourself, big guy,” I state firmly. My hands are still resting on his bare waist, and I’m not in any big rush to let him go. “I’m not saying go allGame of Throneson this Academy, like in the series finale or anything. But if you’re in over your head, you know, let ’em see your inner Mothra.”
A hint of that sexy Rasputin grin slips past his guard. “I will show mine when you show yours.”
Now he’s talking about my goddamn mating flight.
