Page 30 of Claimed By the Sinful Dragon
Amusement rattled in my chest, and like a predator sensing weakness, I pressed harder.
“Romances?” I arched a brow.
She nodded. “Romances,” she whispered.
“What kind of romances?”
“I— Ones with… You know.”
“With…” I wanted to hear her say it. Ineededto hear her say it.
“With…certain scenes.”
I closed the gap between us, and my voice slipped out as a low rumble.
“You like to read about people fucking.”
She squeaked, her eyes widening, and then her chin tried to dip in a nod, but my finger beneath it wouldn’t let her.
“Yes,” she whispered. And then she shook her head, breaking contact with my hand. “I mean, no. It’s not just— There’s moreto it than… But yes, they…” She swallowed and her lips turned down at the corners. “Yes.”
She glanced down, but not before I saw some dark memory or other clouding her eyes. Something in me tightened.
“Look at me,Dhoca.”
I waited patiently until she did.
“Never letanyonemake you ashamed of what you enjoy reading.”
“I…what?”
“No-one has the right to judge you. This world is ugly, brutal, and fucking cruel. Take your pleasure wherever you can find it, and don’t let anyone demean you for it.”
“O…kay?”
I thought for a moment, my brow furrowing as I hunted through my mental catalog. “Try the left wall, third or fourth rack from the back. You might find a couple of them there.”
We don’t have enough,my dragon griped, his agitation curling through my stomach.
We have enough to loan out a single copy. Stop being such a dragon.
No, I meant we don’t have enough to please her.
I blinked, processing his words.You’re not worried about lending out our books, you’re worried about not being able to lend outenough?
Yes. Obviously.
I must have been hit by an asteroid while we were flying back here, because nothing about that seemed obvious to me. At all.
Bemused, I watched as the shifter scanned the rows of books, canting her head adorably as she read the titles on the spines, and reached out to delicately touch some of them. Throughout it all, my dragon practicallypurredwith satisfaction. He was in a remarkably good mood. Maybe it was that deer we’d eaten on the way back from the summit. Or maybe it was seeing the scorch marks in the pack’s clearing as we passed overhead.
That’s your obsession, not mine.
It’s not an obsession. Just…proving our dominance. In case Uther’s scouts come looking.
Yes, that’s exactly what it felt like.
Sarcastic beast.
