Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,46
the hell is that supposed to mean? Where are you taking me, and why are you acting so weird all of a sudden?”
Rann ducked low under a branch, his eyes and senses guiding his bare feet to the spots clear of undergrowth. He moved with casual silence while Gayle stomped along next to him, sounding like a parade compared to his lack of sound.
“Is this a path?” Gayle asked a minute later as they walked deeper into the bush. “It kinda looks a bit cleared.”
“Unavoidable, unfortunately,” he said. “Hauling so much stuff in created a bit of a marker. It’s growing up nicely around it though. Another few years, and it should be all but invisible, I think. I had to move it recently.”
“You had to move it? Move what?”
He came to the top of a small rise in the ground and gestured. “That.”
Gayle came to a stop next to him. “I don’t get it,” she said bluntly. “It looks like some rocks. Also, you’re still naked.”
“Yeah, I need to get some clothes. They’re inside,” he explained without explaining.
“Are you enjoying all this cryptic talk?” she asked, not bothering to try and guess what he meant by inside. “Or is it natural for dragons to be so infuriating once they’ve revealed what they really are?”
“That has nothing to do with being a dragon,” he said.
“Really,” Gayle said, sarcasm dripping from the single word reply. “Because ever since you were basically forced to show me what you are, you’ve been acting different. Are you scared about it for some reason?”
“I’m not scared,” he said stiffly. “Why would I be scared of what I’ve been my entire life?”
Even as he denied it though, Rann’s brain started down a different path. Of course he wasn’t scared of himself. That was silly and nonsensical. But perhaps Gayle was on to something. He’d gotten really defensive at her comment.
What could I be scared about though? I’m a fire dragon. I fear nothing. Not even death.
Yet he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that Gayle was right. He was scared.
“It’s in there,” he said, pointing down to the rocky outcropping that jutted up from the ground, half covered in leaves and other undergrowth. “Come on.”
“It’s just rocks,” Gayle said with a sigh, but she started down the small hill after him.
“Okay, here, come on.” He extended his arms toward her.
“W-what?” she asked nervously, looking around.
Rann sighed. “I need to lift you up there. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Oh.”
Gritting his teeth, hating how his own actions were coming between them and yet not knowing how to fix it, Rann scooped her up into his arms. Even as he relished the closeness between their bodies, he somehow managed to feel the divide between them even more.
And it was all his fault.
Bending his legs, he leapt to the top of a large boulder with Gayle still pressed to his bare torso. He set her down and then hopped down into an opening that was only visible when standing atop the rocks. It swallowed him to his entire height.
“Rann?”
“I’m fine,” he said, reaching out to the blank rock wall in front of him and pushing.
His arms flexed, and with a heavy sigh, the lower half of the wall rolled backward, revealing a tunnel entrance under the rock. The wall was, in fact, a boulder that had been cut by himself to appear to fit seamlessly into the rest of the formation, looking like nothing more than the wall.
“Okay, come on down,” he said, reaching up to help Gayle down.
“What is this place?” she asked as they ducked down and went inside.
“This is my lair,” he said. “My private place.”
He lifted a hand and a tiny spark of fire shot out. It zipped around the perimeter of the room, lighting the fifteen torches that hung on the walls for just that purpose. Light blossomed, and he looked around, basking in the comforting feeling of the place.
“I don’t believe this,” Gayle said, covering up a laugh. “A dragon has a lair. Of course he has a lair. With gold!”
Rann’s lips twitched as she spied his hoard of gold and gems, all painstakingly mined and formed from the mountains nearby over the years. Much of his wealth was in the banks, of course but, like any good dragon, Rann had an emergency hoard. Not to mention it was pleasing to the eye to watch the firelight flicker against the shiny surfaces.
“Well, what did you expect? I like shiny things,” he rumbled defensively, walking