Chapter 11 #2
I stumbled, dropping my towel. It always annoyed me how everyone made attraction all about the physical—there was so much more to it.
But Alaric was gorgeous. Muscular in all the right places, bulkier than most guys I’d seen.
I knew some of that came from being a dragon shifter, but I had the feeling he worked out a lot, too.
I realized I was staring without blinking when Elandor started chuckling in my head. My cheeks flared hot when I met Alaric’s amused expression. His eyes were glowing with his dragon.
“It’s good to know you like what you see, mate.”
My cheeks continued to burn as I hurried to pick up my towel, set it on a bench to the side, and quickly got in. I wasn’t used to attraction—I’d been too sick the last few years to even really notice it. But this? It hit with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and I was embarrassed by my reaction.
I wondered if the jets and bubbles would hide my rosy cheeks if I dunked them under the hot water. Feeling like it wouldn’t hurt to try, I immediately dunked under the water and breathed out slowly, trying to calm my racing heart. I fingered my wet hair back away from my face, and came up for air.
Okay, I could do this.
It was good that I was attracted to him—thank you hormones, but I wasn’t yet sure if we were compatible in other areas. Only time would tell. Meanwhile, hand holding? Kissing? Those felt like they were on the table, but I didn’t want to lead him on, and then not be able to commit.
Speaking for myself, Elandor interrupted my thoughts, I would be delighted with whatever you are willing to give.
I winced. What if, after everything, my answer is no?
Then we would have gotten time and closeness with you that we otherwise would not have. We would never say no to that.
I sighed as I sluiced the water off my face. Okay.
He chuckled. I do love the way your brain works.
I blushed. Thank you.
In an effort to think of something else, I started studying the hot tub.
It was very high tech, and wasn’t one of the typical in-ground hot tubs that I’d seen before.
It looked more like it was engineered for above ground, but they’d lowered it into a raised platform, or had built a base around it until it was completely enmeshed.
Earlier, I’d had my eye on the hydrotherapy seat. It was a reclined seat in the tub that had jets along your feet, calves, thighs, hips, back, and neck. Thankfully, Alaric wasn’t taking that spot, and was on the opposite side, so I moved into position and leaned back with a deep sigh.
I closed my eyes. The heat was just right for me, even slightly too hot, but it probably felt completely normal to Alaric and Elandor. The bubbles fizzed against my skin and the sound of the jets was so soothing that I nearly fell asleep.
I was still exhausted. More so because I was in what I called my Everly body, which felt my illnesses more heavily.
“Do you mind if I rub your feet for you?” Alaric murmured, and I jumped. He’d kind of snuck up on me. I hadn’t heard him move at all, I’d been so zoned out and in my own head.
He laughed at my expression. “I think we’re going to need a few of these for our homes.
Especially the ones with the hydrotherapy chair.
You looked at that thing like my aunt used to look at chocolate cake, and she was a chocoholic.
” He chuckled quietly when I blushed, and when he got my nod of okay, he tenderly took my right foot into his huge hands and slowly started working out the muscles.
I instantly slid down like Everly goo against the seat, feeling the muscles and tendons in my foot go completely lax.
He worked out the strain and pain in my foot, then moved to the other one.
After those were loose and pain free, he worked on my ankle area, then my calves, then he did my arms and hands, eventually moving up to my shoulders and neck.
By the time he was finished, my muscles didn’t ache or hurt anymore, and my headache was mostly gone.
Seriously, I might marry him just for his hands.
I blushed when I realized how that had sounded, then sighed in relief as I leaned back in the chair again, closing my eyes.
“Might I... hold your hand?”
I slowly turned my head to look at him. I was so relaxed, I didn’t think I could move quickly at the moment even if there was a fire in the villa. Alaric looked so uncertain and hesitant that it made my heart hurt, because he also looked like he was prepared for me to shoot him down.
But I didn’t want to shoot him down.
I was actually coming to care for my human/shifter duo. As I reached my hand out to take his, the water swirling around our hands, bubbles popping along the surface, I remembered what Elandor told me about me holding Alaric’s hand.
As our fingers entwined, I nearly teared up again.
I knew I was being ridiculous. But... I had been alone for so long.
The simple tactile experience of having his hand laced with mine was something so powerful that I got choked up, and I could see my feelings reflected in Alaric’s eyes as well.
His eyes were glowing, showing Elandor was near.
I smiled and we sat close to each other, holding hands until we were ready to get out.
Later that evening, we had dinner sent to our wing and talked late into the night. He told me some things about his childhood; I told him about Gran and a little of my growing up years.
Our lives had been so different. He hadn’t gone to high school, or had a high school crush.
When he’d wanted to go to college he’d gotten his GED.
His college years were much later for him in life, and he’d earned several degrees, because, like me, he also liked to learn new things.
He’d built several businesses from the ground up.
Among his favorites were a landscape design business in the modern era, and being a blacksmith in the medieval era.
He’d earned his pilot license almost the same year that pilot licenses became a thing—which, for my own curiosity, I googled.
The first French pilot had been issued a license in 1909, and the first American pilot had been issued a license in 1929, twenty years later. He said he’d gotten one first in France, then later in the U.S.
He knew ten different languages, and could converse a little in several more.
Deranged Dragon Adventures was his twenty-third business venture.
He said by now it was easy to know what would work and what wouldn’t.
He’d built a multi-billion dollar empire.
A huge empire! And not just on outdoor equipment, but through the other enterprises that he still had going that large management firms were overseeing for him.
“You don’t rest very much, do you?” I asked, cuddling a pillow on the couch, facing him as the low light from the moon from the open window covered our patch of space in gleaming gold and silver.
He smiled gently, lightly smoothing his thumb again and again over my hand as he held it. He’d asked as soon as we’d sat down on the couch, and I realized that I was quickly becoming addicted to the feel of my hand laced with his.
“Dragons don’t need much. I tend to sleep about four to five hours a night, less if I’m busy. I can get by easily with three hours a night for months.”
Hmm. Yeah, I needed about nine hours of sleep, and if I got less I was super grumpy, and all of my symptoms flared and got worse. Needless to say, it was a nightmare if I couldn’t sleep, which was unfortunate because insomnia came regularly with the conditions I had.
Someone knocked on the door that led out to the villa hallway, and I jumped. I shook it off when Alaric got up to answer it, not sure why I was so jumpy.
“Everly? It’s for you.”
Me?
I got up to see who it was, and found the King of the Vampires with his loyal gargoyle bodyguard standing in the hallway, both looking varying degrees of worried.
“I’m so sorry to disturb the both of you,” King Draven said, looking uneasy, “but could I trouble you, Everly, to look in on my wife? She hasn’t left the bedroom all day, and she’s locked the door against everyone.”