Page 15 of Flame it Up

“What areyoudoing out here?” she asked as if he hadn’t even spoken. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been completely butt-naked. Now he was dressed in an elegant dinner jacket and fitted slacks. She couldn’t decide which she liked better. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the gala?” she asked.

Pyrus shook his head. “No. I mean, yes. I mean, I was. But I came looking for you.”

Pyrus turned in a small circle, gesturing around them with sharp hand movements.

“Why are you out here by yourself? You were just attacked not that long ago. Shouldn’t you have guards or something?”

Mazie laughed softly. He was so cute. When his face twisted in consternation, his eyes darkened just a little. She loved the twist to his mouth and the confusion in his eyes.

“I’m fine, Pyrus. Ordinary people don’t have bodyguards just hanging around. Besides, I’m perfectly okay.”

“I don’t like this,” he said, still surveying the area as if he wanted to set up a perimeter. “What if something happened?”

Mazie shrugged. “I’m pretty far out, and I do this specifically for peace and quiet. I really don’t think any of the tourist caravans would come out this far. Most of those guys would be scared to wander around the camp at night. They’d be too scared of nocturnal animals … or dragons.”

He studied her, his warm gold eyes meeting her cool green ones. They both chuckled at the joke, and Mazie felt a pull between them that was so strong that she almost flung herself at him. The urge to wrap her arms around his neck and press her body against his was overwhelming.

“Word does seem to have gotten around about our dragon protector,” Mazie said, putting her book down and curling up in the chair again. “I think I’m pretty safe.”

“Pretty safe just isn’t good enough,” Pyrus said, scanning the darkness again. “But we are alone, so I think you picked a good spot.”

Mazie smiled up at him, waiting for him to take his eyes away from whatever threats he perceived in the darkness and look at her again. It only took a few seconds before his amber eyes came back to her face, and Mazie absorbed his attention like a flower drinking in the heat and light from the sun.

“Won’t you sit?” she said as she gestured to the empty chair.

He looked at it in surprise. “You want me to join you?”

“Please,” she answered, smiling. Pyrus sat across from her and folded one leg as he got comfortable. A couple of moths flitted by the lantern, their wings sending flickering patterns across Pyrus’s handsome face.

He’s sitting right in front of me, staring at me. What the fuck do I say?

Even though Mazie was confronted by how powerfully attractive he was, she didn’t feel nervous or tongue-tied, not exactly. There simply seemed to be nothing that needed to be said, as if she and Pyrus were already comfortable with each other.

It was obvious that he was content to just gaze at her as if recording every detail of her features into his deepest memory. Mazie couldn’t blame him one bit … she was doing the exact same.

The only anxiety she felt was because of her own attraction to him, a burning ache deep inside her that was quickly destroying her self-control. Pyrus did not make her nervous, but her reaction to him did.

“Do you like living like this?” he asked, gesturing to the tent.

She nodded. “I like being close to the land and the animals. If I’m far away from other people, I get to see some pretty amazing things. I’m at peace out here.”

“You don’t miss basic comforts? Luxuries?”

“Of course I do,” she said. “I just find it stifling if I live hemmed in by people and buildings for too long.”

“How long have you been in the corps?”

“Oh, pretty much my whole adult life,” she said, laughing. “We go where we’re needed. There’s always someone in trouble.”

“So, you’re like a superhero?”

Mazie winked. “If you like.”

Pyrus paused, watching the pair of moths darting around each other as they fought for their chance to immolate themselves in the flame. Mazie could almost feel him scanning the area again, making sure they weren’t in danger.

“Don’t you ever want to settle down?” he asked. “Don’t you want a place to call home?”

Mazie looked away, feeling an ache in her chest. An old emotional scar, but a deep one.

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