Page 35 of Dragon in Denial
“Can’t,” he said after a few seconds.
She glanced over her shoulder. He’d gotten the polo partially over his head, with one arm stuck at an odd angle while the other waved around without actually doing anything productive. With a sigh, she turned around and commanded him to stop moving, and then she tugged the shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor.
Sharp plains and valleys, hard muscle covered by smooth, dark skin greeted her eyes. Oh great, the lust was back.
“Thanks,” he said. “Can you get these, too?” He motioned at his crotch.
Antoinette shook her head. “Do you have any idea how frustrating this is?” She reached for the snap on his jeans.
“Yep.” His nod was succinct. “Crazy frustrating.”
He stood still while she worked his jeans down his legs. Well, most of him was still, anyway. That cock her dragon was so impressed by was swelling at an alarming rate.
Finally, finally, his pants were pooled on the floor at his feet. She pointed at the shower stall. “Get in.”
He was far more obedient high than she imagined he’d ever be sober.
When he stood inside the tile and glass enclosure, she flipped on the spray, He squealed when the cold water hit him. “Calm down,” she said. “It’ll warm up in a minute.”
She’d been studiously avoiding looking at him, but when he didn’t respond, she finally let her gaze stray toward Ketu. His eyes were closed, his head bowed, one hand pressed against the tiles while the other was on the glass, and he stood under the spray, unmoving, other than his chest rising and falling in a steady motion.
Gods, he’s beautiful.
Once she was satisfied with the temperature, she closed the glass door. “Okay, I think you can take it from here.”
“Don’t leave.”
Was he deliberately torturing her?
“I just…don’t want to be alone right now.” He paused again, and then added, “She’s in my head.”
“Who?”
“Eulalie.”
“Oh.” Shit. Antoinette was fully aware of how miserable those experiences were, even though hers had never been under the influence of drugs. But she’d had plenty of nightmares in which Eulalie played the starring role. It probably wasn’t any easier to deal with when you were awake and your mind was fucked by drugs.
Antoinette sat on the toilet.
“I’m sorry,” Ketu said. She wasn’t facing him, but she could hear sounds that she assumed meant he was washing himself.
“Why’d you do it?” she asked.
“Didn’t.”
She snorted. “Ketu, you’re higher than a damn kite. You obviously took dragon’s blood.”
“No,” he insisted. “I mean, yes. But no.”
Yeah, that made a hell of a lot of sense.
“It’s starting to wear off,” he said.
“Good. Although you’re going to feel like hell for the next day or so.”
“How do you know?”
He believed that she was selling the drug, but not that she took it herself? “Eulalie.”
