“I didn’t say that. Just —”
“You don’t trust me not to hurt you.” She could deny it all she wanted, but he saw the truth in her hazel gaze. With a heavy sigh, he headed back to his bedroom. “Either join me or not, it’s up to you. I really don’t care one way or the other.” He’d written her and their relationship off centuries ago.
Tired, aching, and honestly pissed off over all of it, he headed for his small pile of furs he sometimes used as a pillow. He’d have already turned into a dragon had it not been for the horror her eyes betrayed every time she saw his true body. But then, he was used to people reacting badly to it.
He was a dragon, after all. They only threw parties for his kind when the dragons were fake ones or had been slaughtered and they were celebrating their deaths.
So he was stunned when she followed after him and lay down by his side.
“Show me.”
He opened his arms in invitation.
Seraphina hesitated, unsure of what he would do to her. With no choice, she curled up and allowed him to hold her. Cupping her head, he rested his chin on her hair and cradled her against his body. She could hear his deep, fierce heartbeat under her ear.
“Close your eyes and let me guide you.”
She obeyed and was stunned as images… no, memories began to play through her mind. Only they weren’t her memories, they were his.
Max had gone to bathe and fetch fresh water in expectation of her arrival. For over a fortnight, he’d been forced to endure the excruciating misery of living among the Amazons without her. Because of his promise, he was locked in her village where they wouldn’t allow him the most modicum of hospitality.
While she’d known some of it, she hadn’t realized that he’d been banned from their meals, too. That whenever she returned home to find food waiting for her, it was something he’d hunted and prepared for her because they wouldn’t allow him to take her portions unless she was there and she got it for them.
He wasn’t even allowed to draw water from their well lest he contaminate it. Rather, he had to hike to the stream to gather his own and carry it back to their tent.
As he returned to fill their stores, he found Nala in their tent, waiting.
“Where were you?”
Worried by her unexpected presence, he’d set his water down and frowned at her question. “Has Sera been hurt?” It was a natural assumption since that was the only time the queen came to visit someone’s mate.
Laughing, she’d circled him. “No. I sent word to them. They won’t be back for a few more days.”
His stomach had shrunk at the prospect of going even longer without her. “Oh.”
“So tell me, dragon, what do you do here while she’s gone?”
Shrugging nonchalantly, he refilled their water stores. “I wait.”
She’d arched a brow at that. “And?”
Unsure of why she asked that, he’d set the jug aside. It was what his kind did. They weren’t a creative bunch. Rather, they checked their perimeter, marked their territory, and guarded whatever fell under their protection. Hobbies served no purpose except to distract them from their duties.
“And what?”
“Don’t you get bored waiting?”
“Not really.”
She tsked at him. “You know, I could help you with your doldrums.”
“How so?”
Nala had stopped in front of him then. Her eyes hungry, she’d reached out and traced a line down the center of his chest that had headed straight for a part of his anatomy that wasn’t meant for her.
Max caught her hand just as she went south of his belly button. “I’m mated.”
Instead of being daunted, she’d hooked her finger in the waistband of his breeches. “Do you know what I keep thinking about?”