4. Paige
Paige
I brace myself, fully expecting a rukh or a harpy, or something equally vicious. That is my luck, after all. Instead, I see a man. My gaze travels over his angled face. That jaw could cut glass. His eyes, an impossible blue, shine brightly in the dim lights of the library.
Unashamed, I continue my perusal. He’s standing still, so I drink him in, part of me waiting for him to strike, the other wondering if this isn’t a figment of my imagination. Or maybe the audiobook has gotten into my head, made me finally snap from the sexual frustration.
Because, hot damn, this male is sex on a stick.
Brown hair falls to his broad shoulders in loose, damp waves that are just begging for me to run my fingers through them. Those shoulders lead to biceps that women can only dream about, which then connect to an expansive chest and rock-hard abs with more ripples than I can count.
Seriously, do this guy’s abs have abs?
It’s not until my eyes follow the perfect “V” of his hips and levels on a massive dick that I realize he’s completely and totally naked. I’m struck stupid by the sight of it.
I mean. I’ve never seen one in person, so I don’t have much to go off of, but I’m fairly certain this one would leave someone walking funny for weeks .
“Holy shit, you’re naked.” My face flushes because, screw manners, I cannot look away. Dude is hung like a horse. “You’re not a horse-shifter, are you?”
He looses a short growl, which is the only thing that snaps me out of it. I lift my eyes back to his face, which seems an awfully long way up—what, with me still flat on my ass. The sight of his glare steals my breath—along with anything I might have said to further embarrass myself.
Then again, suffocating would probably be embarrassing too.
I should breathe. Maybe even say something.
But what?
Through the single earbud, the audiobook continues; the male lets his fingers glide over her clit, and she shudders, arching into his touch.
The male in front of me cocks his head, and I realize belatedly he must be able to hear what’s coming out of the tiny pod in my ear.
Shit !
I yank on the pod, ripping it out. It falls onto the carpet, but that doesn’t help. The sound continues to leak out, and I realize I still haven’t paused it.
My phone!
Desperate, I yank my phone from my pocket and hit pause on the audio. The male reacts, flexing his arms and snarling viciously.
“Whoa, I’m just—”
I lean away, but apparently, he’s decided I’m a threat because, in the next blink, dark scales appear along his arms and shoulders. When he exhales angrily, smoke curls from his nostrils, and I realize exactly what it is I’ve freed.
Dear gods. This is not happening.
I’ve just unleashed a fucking dragon. And he. Is. Pissed.
“Stop!” I screech. “If you shift, you’re going to take the entire building down!”
To my complete surprise, the scales recede, and he remains in his human form. Though, given the massive dong between his legs and the amount of throbbing going on between mine, I’m not entirely sure that’s the better option.
“Where am I?” he growls, his voice a deep baritone that does absolutely nothing to ease my attraction. I could bathe in that voice all damned day.
Pushing to my feet, I face him again, though given our height difference, I barely make it to his expansive chest. A giant trying to climb into a clown car comes to mind, and I fight the urge to laugh. Maybe I am losing it.
“The Athenaeum,” I manage.
“That’s the name of this kingdom?”
“What? No, not a kingdom. It’s—”
“What world am I in?” he demands.
“Earth,” I say quickly. “You’re on Earth.”
“Humans?” His brows crinkle in confusion.
“You’ve been here?” I ask, surprised at the idea of a well-traveled naked dragon man.
“I’ve heard tales,” he says darkly, which makes me think those tales weren’t nice ones. “What magic brought me to this land?” he demands.
“Not land,” I reply, retrieving my phone. “Library. And you came out of your book.” Oh shit. It hits me again, lust dissipating. “Your book!” Turning, I grip it and hold it out to him, pages splayed open at random. “Go back inside. Now. You can’t be here.”
He eyes it warily. “That is a book.”
“Yes. Clearly. Thank you for pointing it out. Now get back inside!” Aside from killing him, I’m not entirely sure how to get him back to his world. At least, not without a keeper tattoo and magic.
“I cannot go inside a book,” the man replies, confusion marring his brow. The look in his eye suggests he’s starting to question my sanity.
“Yes. You can. You came from it, which means you can go back. Please. You have no idea how much trouble I’ll be in if you stay.”
“Trouble. Are you in distress?” He looks through the shelves to the other side as if seeking danger.
My alarm blares. Oh fucknugget. I’m out of time.
The two hours Mag promised me are done—he’ll be back any minute!
And if he finds out, he’ll have to report it.
It won’t matter that he left me here to cover his shift when I wasn’t ready.
He’ll still tell Hoc, and then my three strikes are up, and I’m out on my ass.
Alone.
With no one.
And not even my memories to keep me company.
Interns who’ve had their minds wiped usually end up in mental institutions because they cannot remember who they are. Depending on how long they’ve been in the Anthenaeum, some are wracked with anxiety over what they know has to be out there.
Given that I’ve been here my entire life, chances are good that I’ll suffer the same. Left alone, cold, and crazed in a world I can’t even begin to understand.
“Fine. Never mind. We’ll figure it out later. Come on.” I grab his arm and try to drag him down the aisle, but he doesn’t move. Instead, I’m jerked back against his hard body.
My blood heats.
Pulse races.
“You are clearly distressed,” he says as he drops his nose to my neck and inhales.
“I will be if you don’t come with me now.” Pulling away, I face him. “Please. If Mag finds you, he’s going to kill me.”
“This Mag is trying to harm you?” His biceps bulge as he balls his hands into fists. Literally, bulge. Perfect. So, not only did I release a dragon, but I’ve also set free a stereotypical alphahole. The very same possessive, aggressive, muscle-bound hottie known as a book boyfriend.
“No. Not really.” Not if we haul ass. “Will you please just come with me?”
He narrows his gaze then nods. “Very well.”
Together, we half-run toward the stairs. By the time I make it to the second floor, I decide I deserve a freaking medal for not glancing over my shoulder even a single time to see that delicious body in motion.
Sexually tense Paige, zero—logical Paige, one.
Finally, I open the door to my apartment and shove the man inside then toss him his book. “Stay. Here.”
“You said you are in danger,” he says, already surging forward to follow me out again. “You should not go out alone.”
I roll my eyes. “The only way I’m in danger is if you’re with me. Stay here, and I’ll be safe.”
“I cannot in good conscience leave you to defend yourself against a threat.”
“Fine, can you take an order from someone who’s higher up on the food chain in this particular world?”
He frowns like he’s never considered anyone being higher on the food chain. Which is fair. “Ugh. I will definitely get my ass kicked if anyone sees you right now. And that will ruin your chances of getting home. So, stay here, and I’ll be right back. I swear it. Deal?”
He nods uncertainly, and I’m out the door again before he can ask the next question forming on his delicious lips. Like maybe how a girl without any shifter abilities to speak of could possibly be higher on the food chain than him.
I rush back down the stairs and grab a roll of paper towels from the library’s kitchen before I bolt back toward my abandoned pumpkin spice. Mag is already standing in the aisle when I arrive. He stares down at the spill, his back to me.
Panic spears through me, but I shove it away and force myself to play it cool. “Hey,” I call out.
He whirls, eyes narrowing at the sight of me. “Where the hell were you?”
“Sorry! Had to get something to clean it up.”
He gestures to the books on the floor. Books that, thankfully, are still sealed. “Care to explain?”
“The wyvern acted up again, so I had to reseal the book. But I dropped my coffee and then went to get paper towels.” I hold them up as proof even as the lie of omission tastes sour on my tongue.
Mag narrows his brow. “You got them all sealed?”
“Do you see any open?”
“I suppose not,” he replies, though the suspicious gleam in his eye remains. “Thanks for covering.”
“Sure. Of course. No problem.” I’m rambling. “How did your brother do?”
“They lost,” he replies. “But still a good game.” Absently, he lifts the books and shelves them. “You’re sure nothing else happened? The energy here, it’s different.”
“Likely from my stress,” I joke. If the alarms didn’t go off, it means the gnomes were far too busy to raise them.
Happy birthday, Ned. So as long as I can get the dragon back into the book and Hoc was not in the library when it happened—which, if he were, he’d undoubtably be down here beside Mag—I should be fine.
Keyword being should.
“Sure. Well, thanks. I owe you one.”
I kneel and sop up the spilled pumpkin spice. “Keep my spill a secret, and we’ll call it even.”
Mag grunts an agreement and then disappears into the stacks.
After throwing out the paper towels and now empty cup, I head back up to my apartment. Upstairs, I pause just outside the door and take a deep breath, heart pounding.
I will fix this.
All will be well.
Mood lifted by my confidence boost, I pull open the door and am met with an eyeful of the best ass I have ever seen. In fact—same as with his massive peen—I’ve never actually seen a man's ass in person, but it’s so damned perfect I feel educated enough to deem it the best ass.
World Class Ass. That’s what it should be called.
He turns to face me, and I snap my gaze up to his face before I can get caught checking him out. Our eyes meet, and I still, his piercing blue eyes captivating me. “You are alive.”
“Yes.” I step inside and push the door closed then flip the lock.
His stare is more of a perusal like he’s looking for something. It leaves me uneasy and strangely tingly in places I haven’t ever tingled before.
“What?” I demand.
“You are unharmed,” he adds, finally dragging his gaze back to mine.
I shiver. “Yeah.” My mouth is suddenly parched, but I can’t seem to make my feet move from this spot. “Are you okay?” I ask.
“This is a strange place,” he says, eyeing the small living room and ignoring my question. “What is this?” He points to my fish tank.
“Bruno,” I reply. “He’s my fish.”
“You cannot seriously get enough food from such a small creature.”
I gape at him. “He’s my pet! I’m not going to eat him!”
“A pet fish,” he comments. “Interesting. You said I am in a library.”
“Yes.”
“Clearly, I am in another world. While I have heard fascinating stories of other places, I do not have time to explore. I need to return to my own. At once.”
“I agree.” Rushing over to his discarded book, I retrieve it from the couch and crack open the cover. Nothing happens. No stir of magic, no pulsating power.
Nothing.
The man watches me expectantly. “How do you return me?”
“I don’t have the power to do that,” I admit. “Only Hoc, Mag, or Blossom can—”
“Then let us go get this Mag,” he snarls, rushing for the door.
“No!” I block him, throwing up both hands to stop him from going through me.
Instead, he runs smack into my hands. His flesh is warm beneath my touch, his heart racing against my palm. My mouth goes dry, the air around us shifting dangerously toward ‘I want him to rip my panties off and fuck me dirty.’ Which, of course, is asinine.
He is a supernatural creature from a book I’m supposed to protect the world from.
A dragon.
And I am an intern who will likely not even remember this once Hoc discovers what I’ve done and wipes my memory.
“What is your name?” I ask, meeting his gaze and dropping my hands before I do something stupid and stroke him.
“Aries Nemos of Astronia,” he replies. “Yours?”
“Paige Murphy, uh, of the Athenaeum.”
“Paige Murphy,” he repeats, my name magic on his tongue.
“Aries,” I start. “I promise to get you home. I just need a little time to figure out how.”
“Very well,” he nods, stepping back. “I shall give you your time.”
“Thanks.” Breathing a sigh of relief, I clap my hands. “Now, let’s get you dressed.” I rush over to the small sewing table in the corner. Since I cannot actually leave the library until my internship ends and couldn’t stand the thought of making Hoc shop for me anymore, I taught myself to sew.
Dresses, shirts, pants—I can make damn near anything.
Though, as I sit here and study his frame, my mind goes blank at the idea of covering up such a magnificent creature even though I know I have to. “Damn.” My cheeks flush at the dirty thoughts I’m having. “Uh, I mean, I think I might need more fabric.”