Page 28 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
I threw up an arm, blocking his way.
“What now?” he grumped darkly.
“You know you can talk to me, right?” I said with all seriousness.
Rhyse smiled, but it didn’t touch his eyes. “You don’t want anything to do with me, Emma. You made that clear yesterday. So, why would I bother burdening you with my feelings?”
He pushed past me slightly as I reached for his arm, noting the long, ugly scar along his left shoulder blade. What could leave such a mark like that?
All those thoughts were forgotten, however, the instant my fingers wrapped around his bicep. The skin on my arm and the back of my neck stood on end. Electricity surged into my stomach, immediately tying it into knots that could not possibly be explained by making simple contact with another person.
We both sort of stared at where I touched him. Neither acknowledging it but knowing full well the other had felt it, too. Such was the blessing and the curse of our bond.
“I might not want to stay,” I said once I could work my jaw again. “But it seems like I don’t have much of a choice now, do I?”
“What do you mean?” He was tense. Nervous, even.
“We’re stuck together,” I said, pulling the collar of my shirt down to expose the blue scale on my shoulder. “Because of this. Aren’t we?”
Rhyse froze.
Chapter Thirteen
Rhyse
“Iguess that answers that,” she muttered.
I had to give her credit. She was quicker on the uptake than I’d expected. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been prepared for her to come to that realization just yet. Mostly because I was still coping with it myself.
“You were already stuck here,” I muttered.
“What?”
“You volunteered to come here, Emma. As terms of the truce between our peoples. I know you can’t recall that, but you did.”
“According to you,” she pointed out.
“You can tell if I’m lying!” I shouted, thrusting my head forward and tapping on the side of it. “Remember? So, you know I’m telling the truth. Stop trying to accuse me of being the bad guy, okay?”
After shaking her arm off me at last, I stormed toward the house, trying not to wonder why I could still feel her fingers on my bicep. It was just a touch, nothing more.
I cursed myself for acting so rashly the day before. I hadn’t wanted Emma to stay in the first place. She wanted to go home, and I wanted to send her back. Having her around just messed up everything I’d spent so long building. I’d had a good life. Now it was all being thrown into the blender.
“Wow, how polite of you,” Emma called from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder.
She was leaning forward, tapping the side of her head, mocking my earlier action. “Yeah, I can feel all that. I’m glad you want me heresobadly.”
I rolled my eyes as she marched toward me and then went right past, heading for the door. I let her go. There wasn’t anywhere for her to go anyway.
“Because you trapped me here!” she shouted, spinning to point a finger at me. “You made it so I can’t leave.”
“Hellooo, I was doing this little thing that you may not be aware of. It’s calledsaving your life, you ungrateful …”
“Ungrateful what? Huh? What were you going to say? Bitch?” she hissed.
“It certainly doesn’t feel out of place, given how absolutely over the top you’ve been about it.”
