Page 27 of The Dragon's Captured Heart
“Careful,” I admonished as I let go of her.
But it was too late. The contact had already been made. My arm tingled from the shock of touching her and the pressure, ever so brief as it was, of her body against mine.
The howling of my dragon as it demanded more nearly drowned out her response.
“Thank you,” she said, easing out from my grip, her voice taut.
Did she feel it, too?
Those strange spurts of static shock every time we touched, however purposeful or incidental the contact may have been, were impossible to ignore. For me. I had no way of knowing if Madison felt the same.
She must. Nothing else explains the thawing of her attitude.
The past three days had been entirely different. After showing her my dragon, Madison had run off into the palace. When she’d finally returned, she’d refused to say where she’d been or what she’d done.
But something must have happened because the snippy attitude had vanished entirely. It was gone, replaced by a cautious curiosity. About me and the world I lived in. Which had resulted in us coming to the city to gather things for her. Food, clothing, especially footwear that would be comfortable, and things to live with. A hairbrush was high on her list. Apparently, she didn’t want to share.
“You’re welcome,” I said, giving her a little smile. “Kids don’t know the difference between you and me yet. I don’t want them to break your arm by accident. You’ll get used to it in time, I’m sure, but for now, I’ll keep an extra eye out for you.”
Madison smiled back. We nearly locked eyes, but as if preplanned, we averted our gazes at the last second. Neither of us would acknowledge it, but we both knew.
As we continued wandering through the streets, I had to clamp down once more on my curiosity so as not to ruin a good thing. The only thing outweighing my desire to know what happened to her in the palace that day was the insistent nudging of my dragon to get closer to her, to stay in her bubble of space.
Or more. So much more. But the beast wasn’t in control. I was.
“I still can’t get over how relaxed everyone is,” Madison said for the third time as we resumed walking. “Nobody is rushing anywhere. There’s no sense of urgency. I’m surrounded by dragons, and even I’m not feeling stressed about it.”
“There’s no need for it,” I explained. “Especially because we can fly. So if we have to get somewhere faster, we can do so via the air.”
She nodded.
I opened my mouth to speak when I saw a familiar face. We locked eyes, and I nodded vaguely in his direction.
“Come on, let’s go down here,” I said, gesturing to the left at the nearest intersection as I took Madison by the arm to steer her that way, ignoring the prickling sensation I got every time I touched her. “We can get you some food.”
“Me? I think you’re trying to manifest your own desires in my head,” she said, laughing, also not reacting.
I chuckled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you telling me you aren’t hungry?”
“I never said that,” she was forced to admit as we turned.
Hoping we were in the clear, I risked a glance up the street. I was wrong. The man’s eyes widened as he saw my hand on Madison. I snatched it back, but it was too late.
“Fuck,” I half moaned in irritation as the barrel-chested dragon bulled his way through the crowd directly toward us. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Madison was instantly alert. “What? What’s going on?”
“Nothing good,” I grumbled, regrabbing her, this time by the shoulder, and steering her faster down the street and toward an alley. “Come on.”
“Callum, what is it?”
“My mate’s brother.”
“That’s a bad thing?” Madison asked, though she didn’t resist my efforts to get us out of sight before he could round the corner and spot us.
“Cleye has always blamed me for Noa’s death,” I explained. “He says I’m the reason his sister is dead. That if she’d never met me, she would still be alive. That if I’d been a better mate, better able to protect her, she would still be alive.”
I didn’t tell Madison I harbored the same internalized guilt over Noa’s death even though I now knew it had been a murder. The point stood. If I’d been more alert, I might have realized she had made an enemy, someone who would want to murder her.
