Chapter Fourteen
FOURTEEN
BECKET
“So, you’re on a cruise?” Billie’s voice was full of mingled disbelief and amusement. “With Yrian?”
“Yes, but it’s not like that. The demon who kidnapped me dumped me on a ship that makes its way through the Egyptian underworld.
You can’t leave until you pass muster with a goddess named Maat, who basically checks to make sure you’re a good person.
If you are, you can go wherever you like, including back to the regular world.
If not, you’re stuck here.” I paused in my explanation and eyed Yrian, who lay spread-eagle on the bed, sound asleep.
Even asleep, he made my heart race and my libido kick into high gear.
“At least you won’t have to worry about being trapped there. You’re one of the nicest people I know,” Billie said, giggling a little. “And your boyfriend is so thirsty.”
I puzzled over that for a few seconds, then realized what she’d been trying to say. “I certainly am thirsty for him. Did Skye divide up the winnings?”
“Yes, and she put yours in your account. She also said that since we don’t have any gigs for six weeks, that we should use that time to write a few more songs. When will you be back from your cruise that isn’t a cruise?”
“Yrian says it takes four days to get through to the end with Maat, so I imagine that we’ll hang around for a few days trying to find—and deal with—his evil brother. I’ll text or call when we’re back, all right?”
Billie agreed to pass on my plans to the others, and after another fifteen minutes of excited chat about what the others were going to do with their winnings, the few weeks off, the next event, and even how she had gone out on a couple of dates with one of the women from the Revolution band that won the contest, we hung up and I stared down at my hands, lost in thought.
“You frown. You are not happy? Has your bandmate said something to upset you? Would you like to see a pug-dancing video?”
I turned my head to find Yrian watching me, still spread out on the bed, his delectable self calling to me.
I was up and moving over to him before I realized it, curling up next to him.
“Did I wake you? I’m sorry if I did so, but you said I wouldn’t disturb you if I stayed in the cabin.
And thank you for the offer of dancing pugs, but I don’t think I need one right now. ”
“You did not wake me.” He didn’t embrace me as I expected him to, and for a few seconds I wondered if he was pissed that I had (despite him refuting the fact) woken him up, but that thought melted almost immediately under the molten look of his eyes. “Do you regret offering to assist with Kashi?”
“Who, me? No, of course not.” I stopped cuddling into his side and sat up, my leg pressed against his because I could not stop touching him when he was close. “It’s part of the deal. I help you, you help me, and everyone is happy, right?”
He just looked at me with those glorious eyes, and it struck me at that moment how comfortable I was with him.
I’d known him for a few days, and yet, I was seriously considering the idea of being his mate, of committing my life to his.
It was both a frightening thought that I could be dependent on someone, and a joy that filled me with so much happiness I wanted to sing all the time.
“I will always help you, Becket,” he said slowly, something on the edge of his voice that had little butterflies of excitement fluttering in my stomach.
“There is no barter, no deal. You are my mate, and I can do no other but protect and cherish you until the end of my days. If you fear I will not protect you, and will retreat to my griefscape again—”
“No,” I interrupted, seeing a flash of pain in his eyes.
I put my hand on his chest and leaned down to feather kisses along his delectable lips.
“I have zero doubts you will protect me from Candy and Andy—I guess it’s just Candy now—and the issue of me being responsible for my own safety aside, I am not worried in the least that you will abandon me.
Yrian, stop looking like that. I know you carry a lot of guilt about what happened to Amice, and your daughters, and all your family, but truly, it wasn’t your fault. Your brother killed them. Not you.”
He rolled onto his back, and I felt his withdrawal. “If I hadn’t gone to aid my sister, Kashi would not have had the opportunity to corrupt Amice and destroy the sept.”
“Did you ever ask yourself why your sister needed such urgent help right at that time?” I asked, lying down next to him, my arm on his belly as I snuggled into his side. “You said she was under attack by some demonic beings, right?”
“Yes, but if you think it was Kashi’s doing, he was not yet a demon lord.
That didn’t happen until later, when the First Dragon stripped him of kinhood in response for killing my sept and Iceni.
” Pain twisted his lips for a few seconds until I placed a finger on them, following with another flurry of kisses.
He smiled under them, his hands coming up around me, caressing my butt with one, while the other tangled in my hair.
“I think I’m falling in love with you,” I said after a few breathless minutes when I let him take charge of the kiss. I froze the second the words left my mouth, having intended on keeping that thought to myself, but my inner narrator had other ideas.
He looked smugly satisfied.
I nipped his lower lip. “And this is the point where you tell me how you feel about me, so I’m not lying here in abject embarrassment that I like you more than you like me, and yes, I do realize how juvenile that sounds, but all of a sudden, I get the feeling that all this mate talk had nothing to do with your emotions and was just a chemical thing between us.
Oh goddess, it is, isn’t it? You’re not saying anything! Shit! Shit, shit, shit!”
He laughed, he actually laughed at me. I thought hard about punching him on the arm, but given the muscles therein, I went for a nipple instead, pinching it gently.
“Oh, you think it’s funny, do you, Mr. Dragon Demigod? Well, let’s just see how fancy-schmancy you are when you’re mono-nippled!” I said, glaring at the man who had so quickly filled my heart and soul.
He looked down at where I was still clutching his nipple, and carefully unclenched my fingers.
“What I find funny is the idea of you believing we are here, now, because of chemicals. I don’t even know what chemicals you are talking about, although I did learn much about the periodic table during one of my imprisonments in the mortal jails.
When we have taken care of Kashi and Xavier, I would like to set up a chemical laboratory in our home. Do you enjoy such things?”
I allowed him to kiss my fingers before answering, “As it happens, I have a great love of learning. It doesn’t matter what—I just like to learn, so, yes, I’d enjoy a lab to play in. Where is your home?”
“What home?” he asked, looking genuinely confused.
“The one where you want to put a lab.”
“Ah.” He gave me a long look. “That is up to you to decide. We could live in the mortal world, but I believe that a residence in the Beyond would provide more safety for you, much like Charity. The First Dragon said the mortal world was harassing her, too, and he brought her to his home.”
“He lives in the Beyond?” I asked, startled by that for some reason. I knew a lot of denizens of the Otherworld hung out there, but never heard of demigods residing in it.
“No, he lives in a plane of his own making, but it touches the Beyond. I could ask him for help in creating something similar for us—”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” I said, noting the reluctance in his voice. “I don’t need a whole Yrianscape. The Beyond would be nice, but I also like seeing the mortal world. I like traveling, and singing with the band, and I have a few friends who I’d miss if we stayed out of the mortal plane.”
“Then we will have homes in both worlds,” he said easily, just as if that settled the matter.
“And we will have a chemical laboratory where we can experiment, and you will have pugs to make you laugh, and we will purchase them little dance outfits, and will film them so we may share the joy with others. When you wish, or when the kin needs us, we will return to the mortal plane.”
“If I get pugs, then you get to have cats,” I told him, warmed to the tips of my toes by the fact that he wanted me happy. “And you can be our muscle when the band performs.”
“Muscle?” he asked, pinching my butt. I sat up again, suddenly feeling warm. I thought of having my way with him, but the memory of the pool on the upper deck called to me.
“Bodyguard,” I answered, heading for the door.
“Come on, let’s go to the ship’s shop and buy swimsuits.
I want to frolic in the pool, and watch water drip down your magnificent chest.” He hesitated, and I paused at the door.
“What? You don’t want to let me ogle you?
Is it Candy? You said you searched the whole ship and it wasn’t here. ”
“Yes, and that is something I can’t explain, but I do not sense a demonic presence nearby, so I assume it has had assistance in leaving the ship.”
“Then why aren’t you allowing me to fit you into the skimpiest of swimsuits?” I asked as he slowly got to his feet.
He grimaced. “Water is the green dragon element.”
“OK,” I said, about to ask more when a possible explanation rolled through my brain. “Do you know how to swim?”
“No,” he admitted, his lips thinned.
“That’s OK, it’s nothing to be stressed about,” I told him, taking his hand and pulling his reluctant self out of the cabin. “I spent two years at the local YMCA teaching kids under the age of ten how to swim, so I should be able to handle one badass dragon demigod.”
His protests fell on deaf ears, although I was mindful of not forcing him to try swimming if he was really opposed to it.