Page 16 of Deep Sea Kiss
Instead, she lifted her hand and, ever so slowly, touched the scaly tip of the dragon’s nose.
He—for she was now sure it was a male—blew out a long breath, heating her skin.
“Oh, Eiric,” she whispered.
* * *
Half an hour later, they were sitting in his car, the heater blasting at full power even though it was still warm outside. Lottie couldn’t stop shaking. Eiric wrapped a blanket around her and started the engine, but didn’t turn on the lights or make any move to drive away.
“Are you okay?” he asked in his low voice.
Lottie clutched the blanket around herself and looked at him. He was human-shaped again. He’d changed earlier, shrinking back to his normal size, and dragged on his clothes while she’d sat on the shore, crying from pure confusion.
He’d returned her headlamp and didn’t try to support her as she’d clumsily made her way up the steep rocky incline to where they’d parked earlier. He’d followed close behind, silent the entire time, while Lottie tried to make sense of her new world.
“You’re a dragon?” Her voice came out as a croak, so she cleared her throat and added, “I mean, you change into a dragon?”
He cocked his head to the side. “A sea dragon, yeah. I’m a shapeshifter.” When she didn’t reply, he added, “We’re different from land dragons—we have webbed fingers and toes, and our wings are shorter. You didn’t notice the fins?”
Lottie glared at him. “I was too busy staring at your fucking horns.”
Eiric snorted, then quickly smothered it with a cough. “Right.”
“Okay, but what does thatmean?” Lottie lifted her hands, and the blanket fell from her shoulders.
Eiric leaned in and replaced it, tucking it around her. “It means there’s an entire world out there that humans aren’t aware of. Shifters, witches, trolls, you name it.”
Trolls?Lottie searched his face for any sign that he was screwing with her, but the man sitting across from her was dead serious. His still-damp, long hair hung to his shoulders, and his warm gaze connected with hers. Those incredible eyes were the first thing she’d noticed about him, and the characteristic by which she’d recognized him as a dragon.
She’d kissed him. She’d kissed a dragon. Lottie groaned and buried her face in the blanket. Then another thought occurred to her, and she lowered the fabric to stare at Eiric in horror.
“Mikkel.”
His mouth twisted in a grimace. “Yeah.”
“So he was…?”
“Yep.”
“Crap.”
Lottie looked past him into the night, made completely black by the yellow cocoon of the car’s interior lights. She chewed on that piece of information for a minute.
“For what it’s worth, his behavior was reprehensible. He never should have…” Eiric turned his head away from her and blew out a deep breath. The proud lines of his face were taut with anger. “It was irresponsible. I didn’t want to believe the worst of him, so I thought you got your dates, uh, confused.”
Lottie lifted her eyebrows. “I’m a nurse. And I know how to count days.”
He palmed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I know. And once I smelled Aksel and Elise, there was no doubt at all that they’re dragons.”
She sat very still. “What do you mean, they’re dragons?”
Eiric faced her fully. “Lottie. Mikkel was a sea dragon. That’s what I’ve been trying to explain tonight.”
“But maybe they’re not—maybe it’s a recessive gene?” She fought against the invisible noose that seemed to be squeezing her throat. “Maybe they won’t turn into…”
Into monsters. That was what she’d wanted to say.
And Eiric seemed to understand. His lips pressed into a thin line, and he averted his gaze.
