Page 15 of Jhon

That gave Jhon an unexpected pang of gladness. He cleared his throat to cover it and took another swig of ale.

“Would you like me to hold him so you can eat?” Ella asked, holding her arms out.

“You’re finished?” he asked, not wanting the baby to be between her and the food if her relentless hunger resurfaced.

“I’m completely full,” she said, her voice soft and her eyes wide. “And it’s a shame. Just look at this feast.”

Jhon looked around the table as the others did the same.

Sure, the table had a good amount of food, but it was all simple, rustic fare - the soup, some imported fruit, a roast, several platters of vegetables, and a coil of bread rolls.

He turned his eyes back to her, trying to figure her out.

But she was holding her arms out for her son.

Jhon handed him over, begrudgingly approving of the way she instantly pulled the boy close and wrapped her arms around him.

Bo often fussed if things were changed when he was resting. But it was as if she had him hypnotized with her soft whispers and warm embraces.

The little whelp nuzzled into the place where her shoulder met her neck and she closed her eyes, as if she were soaking him in.

The sight of the two of them together like that made him feel like his heart had been twisted in an unseen fist.

Ours, the dragon whispered to him.

And for the first time, he realized it didn’t just mean the girl.

While Jhon looked at the two of them and saw responsibility, the dragon looked at them and saw family.

* * *

An hour later, they were headed back to their room. The Bergalian had turned out to be good company. While she and Jhon traded battle stories, Ella had cuddled the boy. And when the butler droid offered her a fruit juice, she took it, but sipped politely instead of wolfing it down.

“So, when the manager said rooms…?” Ella asked.

“He meant that our suite has a bedroom and a refresher,” Jhon told her, figuring she already knew. “I can sleep out in the sleigh if you don’t feel comfortable sharing a room.”

Her brilliant blue eyes met his, and for a moment he wondered if she was going to say it - that she felt something between them, something wild and chaotic and delicious.

His heart pounded, and he wasn’t sure if he was desperate for her to acknowledge it, or desperate for her to hold it in.

But she merely pinned him in her gaze for a moment, then nodded slowly.

“You’re fine,” she said, looking away. “We can share the bed.”

The dragon moaned with need, the sound of it reverberating in his chest.

But Jhon merely nodded and kept his eyes on the corridor in front of them.

Too soon, Bo was tucked into his floating cradle and Ella was slipping out of the refresher, wearing an even smaller, thinner shift than the one she had worn to dinner.

Dragging his eyes from her slender form, he headed into the refresher himself, taking a chem shower and staring himself down in the mirror.

You are here on a mission, he told himself. Focus.

But the dragon was alive inside him, boiling with need.

He closed his eyes, calling on the meditation techniques the leaders had taught him when he was still an adolescent dragonet, learning to control his shift. Slowly, his heart rate steadied, and the tension in his muscled form relaxed slightly.

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