Page 59 of Rogue's Paradise (Covenant of Thorns 3)

“Dragons are not taxis, Rogue. And how do you know it’s a her?”

“She clearly is and, look, she’s standing up.”

I twisted enough to take a look and, sure enough, the dragon opened her wings, amber eyes gleaming, and held up a taloned foot as if we might climb aboard. Still, I hesitated. “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem right.”

“If we go back through the castle, people will expect us to rejoin the party.”

“Dragon ride it is.”

Rogue laughed and swooped me up to carry me over to the dragon.

“I can walk,” I protested.

“Hush. I’m rescuing you from the tower. Don’t ruin it.”

“Is there even a way to get in the dome from the outside?”

“There is now.” With his usual agile grace, Rogue stepped into the dragon’s palm and sat. The talons closed around us in a glittering cage, making me fervently hope we’d read her intentions correctly. But she leaped off the tower and easily surged across the torchlit complex to the tallest tower, topped by the glowing globe that was ours. A rigid net of flat rungs bisected the tower, a few levels below our room, connected by an encircling ring, for all the world like the kind on hummingbird feeders.

The dragon landed on the ring on her hind feet as if she’d done it a thousand times, the substrate flexing under her weight, but it held. She laid her forefoot on the rung in front of us and opened the talons, allowing us to walk free toward a new doorway that opened onto a landing in the stairway.

Neat work for that fast.

I didn’t mind that Rogue carried me on the flat but narrow rung so I didn’t have to look down. Looking at the dragon over his shoulder, I sent a mental thank-you, surprised when she bobbed her head. She took off and Rogue set me down just inside the doorway. I watched her wing away while he looked up at the illuminated curve of the globe above.

“This should be far enough down that they won’t be able to sit here and peek in,” he commented.

“They?”

“Where there is one dragon, there will be more.” He laced his fingers with mine. “And this one seems inclined to stay.”

I had expected her to keep going, but she landed on the other platform again, dangling her clawed feet over the edge, perfectly content to all appearances.

Letting out a long breath composed of wonder and more than a bit of feeling overwhelmed bit it all, I squeezed Rogue’s hand. “Guess I’d better order some apples.”

*

We never gotto the champagne, as Rogue bent his considerable focus and nimble fingers to getting me out of the dress he liked so much, and then into bed. I gave myself over to his relentless seduction—easier and oh so rewarding. He made love to me with all the starvation of the first time and I drank it up. In the morning, I would think about the progression of this relationship and the worrisome things Fafnir had said.

The sex, too, provided the exact catharsis I needed to purge the fear and tension from my blood. After the final, wrenching climax Rogue wrung from me, I fell deeply and peacefully asleep.

I awoke once, to a jewel-hued song that echoed through the crystal globe, making it hum in harmony. In bed alone, I sat up to see the sun’s rays pinking the horizon. Rogue moved through the shadows to sit beside me, smoothing my sleep-tousled hair. “Your dragon, greeting the dawn. Go back to sleep.”

“Just what we need,” I grumbled, “a dinosaur-sized rooster.”

Going back to sleep wasn’t a question, however. I crashed again as if drugged and awoke hours later to the sun high and bright in the sky. As happened more often than not, Rogue was nowhere about. He had been nearby when the dragon woke me at dawn, though he hadn’t been asleep in bed. Maybe he didn’t sleep and that was why he was rarely there in the mornings. Couldn’t be all that compelling, hanging out while someone slept.

Blinking up at the poetically clear expanse of perfect blue above, I took a few moments to scroll back over recent events. Having this vividly intense sexual relationship had proved to be as distracting as I’d anticipated. Made it difficult to keep one’s thoughts on track.

My mental to-do list had become overwhelming:

1.Feed dragon.

2.Find out about this cabal.

3.Deal with pregnancy.

4.Deal with possibility probability that Rogue remains under Titania’s influence.

---