Page 38 of Micah

“We needed to consider the matter carefully. We know very little about the dragons and what their needs would be. It has already been a steep learning curve—and an expensive one—to have non-demon species in the village. Causing harm or offense to dragons because we weren’t able to make them comfortable would be a catastrophe.”

It sounds good on the surface, but kind of weak when I actually think about it. Looking around the table, nobody else seems convinced either.

“Well,” Asher says, clearly not willing to call her a liar, “have you made a decision?”

“After consultation with Gideon, and Garrett’s cousin, yes. A party of dragons will be arriving in a week. They will stay for a few days, and then most will leave and one will remain for the duration of the project.”

Excitement thrills through me. “Dragons,” I breathe.

Garrett grins at me. “Alistair said they’re looking forward to meeting you. Apparently one of them loves mechanical puzzles, and Al gave him one of yours.”

I freeze. “What?” A dragon has one of my puzzles and wants to meet me? “How?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know the details. Alistair was babbling on like he usually does, and I had other stuff to do, so I didn’t ask. But you could call him.”

I nod three times fast. I’m definitely going to call him.

Micah meets my gaze, and I smile so wide, my cheeks hurt. “Dragons,” I tell him.

“They’re going to be so impressed by you,” he promises. “Just wait and see.”

When he says it, I almost believe it might be true.

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

Micah

I love watching Cam work.He doesn’t need my help so much now that he’s all set up, so it gives me more time to focus on my own work… and watch him.

Right now, he has this look of utter concentration on his face as he manipulates a component. His hair flops over his forehead, and he swipes it away, leaving a small streak of grease in its place. The wall has been preserved incredibly well, but he discovered within the first few days that there was a definite need for some parts to be oiled. He was a little worried that it might need some kind of specific dragon oil, but I managed to convince him to try the regular kind first, since it’s unlikely the dragons brought any special kind of oil with them when they fled their homeworld. Fortunately, the stuff he uses on his other puzzles worked just fine.

The component must click into place, because he steps back and grins. It still makes me nervous when he does that, even though we’ve been at this for nearly two weeks. Initially, he asked for a ladder so he could reach the higher elements. That lasted exactly four minutes before he hooked one leg over a rung and leaned so far to the side that the ladder toppled. If I didn’t have the ability to teleport, he’d have fallen eight feet to the rocky floor. As it was, I barely caught him in time, and we both ended up with some bruises.

I suggested scaffolding and was already reaching for my phone to call a contact, but he nixed that idea. It’s too hard to move, and he needs to be able to stand back and see the whole wall sometimes. So we compromised with a cherry picker. Coordinating the teleport to get it up here was a nightmare, but the bucket is big enough to give him a few feet of workspace, plus room for extra components and tools, and I don’t have to exist in a constant state of fear that he’s going to injure himself. Though he has bashed his leg and hip against the side of the bucket a few times when he forgets it’s there.

Speaking of things that get forgotten… “Lunchtime, Cam.” It’s a little early still, but between components is a good time to get his attention.

He looks around as though he’d forgotten I’m here. I’d be offended, but the way his face lights up when his gaze lands on me makes up for it. I thought things might be weird between us after my grandmother very obviously decided that if she can’t matchmake him with Zac, I’ll do, but he doesn’t care.

Though he did ask me yesterday where we’re going this weekend. So obviously he still wants a tour of Europe. We’re going to France on Saturday, but we’re not starting in Paris like everyone expects. Instead, I’m taking him to Les Machines de L’ile, the steampunk museum in Nantes. If I know Cam as well as I think I do, he’s going to enjoy seeing those machines more than the Louvre. And when he’s done there, Nantes is a nice city, has a castle, and is in a pretty part of France. It’s a win all around.

“Lunch?” he asks, as though it’s a new concept and not something I’ve been making him eat every day. “But we’ve only been here…” He looks at the screen of his phone and sighs. “…nearly four hours. Where does the time go?”

“You’re making incredible progress,” I assure him, walking over to operate the controls to bring him down. There’s a panel up in the bucket, but he took one look at it and informed me there wasn’t enough room in his brain to concentrate on the puzzleandsafe machine operation. I still made sure he knows what everything is and how to use it, and there’s a cheat sheet in there in case, for whatever reason, he needs to come down and I’m not able to do it, but he prefers for me to man the controls.

I don’t mind. It’s nice to feel useful. And I never get to play with these kinds of toys anymore, anyway.

Once he’s safely on the ground, he braces his hands on my shoulders and leaps into my arms, wrapping his legs around my waist and nearly sending us both toppling to the ground. “Whoa!” I struggle to regain my balance, wrapping my arms around him protectively.

“Sorry.” He pulls a meek face. “I just missed you.”

I laugh. I never laughed so much before I met Cam. “You forgot I was here.” But I steal a kiss anyway. I’m not ready to put him down yet, and not just because having him pressed against me makes the cave seem a bit warmer.

He gasps indignantly. “I never forget you’re here. I just… zone out. Blowjob?”

In a remarkably Pavlovian response, my cock gets hard just hearing the word. Hopefully there are enough layers of down parka between us that he doesn’t feel it, because I want him to eat first. He’s too good at distracting me.

“After lunch.”

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