Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
End every adventure with laughter. And a souvenir.
-Humaning for Beginners: A Dragon’s Tale of Human Management
DAY ONE
Isquared off with Taron.
As reluctant seven-day roommates who absolutely would not, under any circumstances, become romantic, we’d come upon our first battlefield challenge: dinner.
A long, dark wood table stretched before us, burdened by a feast fit for a royal celebration—or a final meal before execution.
Roast pheasant glazed in honey and thyme beside buttered root vegetables, blackened trout with lemon slices, wild rice wrapped in grape leaves, crusty bread still warm from the oven, and a decanter of spiced plum wine that glowed like liquid garnets in the candlelight.
Fall for him while he remained unfazed by his attraction to me? Hardly. Let the games begin. “I’m ravenous,” I purred at him. “So hungry I could eat a human.”
“Someone is playing with fire,” he said, gripping the back of his chair with both hands. His glimmering gaze swept over me, leaving a slow burn in their wake. “That dress should be illegal.”
I’d decided to make things interesting. My gown was silk and dreams, a deep rose gold beauty that clung to every curve and shimmered with a faint metallic sheen.
It dipped low in the back and barely contained me in the front, with a high slit running up one thigh.
And don’t even get me started on my jewelry, each piece selected for maximum luring.
Dangerous attire, considering our objective––resisting the attraction blazing between us.
But then again, he had issued a challenge, and I did accept.
“You are illegal,” I told him, loving and hating how annoyingly gorgeous he looked.
More so surrounded by the opulence of the dining room.
A vaulted ceiling soared overhead, etched with faded frescoes of dragons and newborn stars.
Gilded candelabras glowed romantically, their flames swaying in rhythm with an unseen breeze.
The walls were clad in rosestone veined with gold, and a massive hearth blazed at one end, casting flickering light over every powerful inch of him.
“But hot enough to be worth the jail time,” I added, blowing him a kiss.
He grinned and caught the kiss mid-air…then pressed it against his lips.
Flutters erupted inside me. We’d both showered.
Separately. (Obviously.) Taron wore the armorless garb of a dragon warrior.
Black leathers that molded to his legs, a white tunic laced at the collarbone, and a mantle of scaled fabric draped over one shoulder.
His damp hair curled slightly at the ends, and the light caught the glint of an old scar along his cheekbone.
Oh yeah, he was annoyingly gorgeous. Seeing him in the traditional clothing of my people made something warm bloom in my chest.
End the flirting. End it now. “Aren’t you going to pull out my chair?” I asked, batting my lashes at him, decidedly not ending the flirting.
“No,” he replied, a teasing smirk ghosting his lips. “It wouldn’t be fair to you. You’d fall for my gentlemanly charm and be unable to help yourself.”
“So, being ungentlemanly is actually being gentlemanly.” I tsked, doing my best not to enjoy our banter. “Seems you’ve created a quandary for yourself, professor.”
“Good point. Allow me to remedy this.” He strode around the table and performed the gentlemanly act of seating his companion.
“Sucker,” I muttered, sinking onto the cushion as unhurried as a flame burning over silk.
He chuckled, a rasp of sound as he pushed the chair forward, leaning closer. His chest brushed my shoulder. The heat of his nearness…his delicious scent… With my heart doing a ridiculous little flutter, I squared my shoulders just enough to let the deep V of my gown do its job.
He went still and quiet, then made a strangled sound in the back of his throat. Pupils blown wide, he returned to his spot and eased into his chair. “Baby, I’m giving this round to you,” he said, yanking a napkin into his lap with more force than necessary. “That last move was killer.”
“Thank you.” I preened, both the endearment and compliment intoxicating. “But look who’s talking. I’m still buzzing from the brush of your body against mine.”
He chuckled again, the sound of this one lower, washing over me in heating waves that would have melted my knees if I’d still been standing.
Two servants appeared, their tunics trimmed in rose-gold thread. With practiced grace, they filled our plates from the platters on the table, delicate bone china with dragons in an endless chase around the rim, before rushing off and vanishing through a hidden door.
“Remind me,” Taron said as he collected his silverware. “What is tonight’s goal again?”
I let my smile develop a wanton edge. “Survive.”
“And the rest of the week?”
“Resist all temptation, no matter how delicious.” My gaze dropped to his lips, and I licked my own. “Say goodbye forever.”
“Seven days. No touching. No kissing. No pretending this wasn’t a terrible idea…and you decided to wear that dress?” He grumbled deep from his chest. “I call foul.”
Tracing a fingertip along my dragon-fired golden necklace, I purred, “You expect the queen of dragons to behave? That’s adorable. Besides, you in leather is more lethal to a woman’s good sense than a blade. Seriously, Taron. You should come with protective eyewear.”
Were we flirting hard still? We were flirting hard still, weren’t we? I couldn’t think anymore.
The air between us crackled with tension as we dined in near silence, eating, sipping, stealing glances like thieves. Every fork scrape, every gentle brush of his fingers against his wineglass, felt deliberate. As dangerous as my dress.
Only after we reached the decadent finale—a sinfully rich chocolate mousse drizzled with dark cherry glaze—did conversation dare return to the table.
“So let’s say your hatred doesn’t resume once the bond breaks,” I said, licking chocolate from my fork with zero shame. “What’ll you do when you get home, if not imagine all the ways to murder me?”
Taron sipped his wine. “Oh, we’re joking about that now?”
I shrugged, all innocence. “What can I say? I’m complicated.”
“You’re captivating,” he stated smoothly, mirroring my shrug as if he hadn’t just sucker-punched me with a word.
I blinked and recovered. Barely. “Sure,” I drawled. “Let’s go with that. I’m captivating. Now answer my question. Please.”
As casually as a man commenting on the after-dinner mints, he said, “I’ll teach again. Maybe date. Check in on my 401k. You know, normal human things.”
I ignored the cry of “Mine!” in my head, but I couldn’t disregard the ember of jealousy burning low in my belly. Date. Be “normal.” Something impossible for a dragon queen.
“Anyone special in mind?” I asked, wanting the best for him, but also feeling slightly murderous.
I hated that he would someday find happiness with someone who wasn’t me, yet I longed for him to have a life filled with joy, anyway.
A paradox I’d have to figure out another day, when I collected my wits.
Leaning back in his chair, he observed me intensely for a long while, smoldering in a way that razed and rebuilt entire villages in my head. “Tell me about Leopold,” he said at last.
Ah, so we were deflecting. Not that I blamed him. It was probably difficult to discuss other women with the one who’d moments ago undressed you with her eyes.
“Leopold was honorable. Brave,” I said, letting a memory wash over me.
“He worked as a blacksmith. We met when dragons still lived in the mortal world. My father ruled our kind and wished us to rule over all berserker kind, not solely the dragons. He constantly struck at the other kings through the humans they protected, launching raids. Leopold was the only warrior in his village willing to fight us. He laid traps. Clever ones. Clever enough to cage and chain me.”
The first use of the Chains of O. Though, they hadn’t obtained their true power until my crying soaked the metal, and something unexpected and unexplainable happened. The alchemists later blamed trace minerals in my tears and dragon heat. They called it the Tearforge Reaction. I called it annoying.
“He was shocked to learn I wasn’t just a dragon but a woman, too.” I laughed softly at the memory. “Gradually, we fell in love. At first, he merely hid my imprisonment from villagers. Then, he set me free.”
Taron’s expression never changed, but something in him shifted. “He calmed your rages?”
Defenses engaged. “Well. Nein. But he didn’t need to. I never broke into a berserkerage around him.” Which should have been proof enough.
My companion blinked rapidly, as if attempting to fit puzzle pieces together in his mind, that refused to click.
“Leopold knew I was the only one who could end my father’s reign of terror,” I continued.
“Which meant I had to leave the human realm. And I couldn’t bring a mortal to Ashmorra.
Family legend promised I could make him immortal in my fire.
The fabled phoenix. He wished to try. Honestly, so did I.
Desperate, hopeful, I set him aflame.” My voice dropped, and the humor fled. “You know the rest.”
Silence slithered between us again, stealing air. Then, softly, too softly, Taron said, “I’m attracted to strength. And curvy redheads, though I’ve never let myself date one. For the longest time, I didn’t want to admit the monster from my nightmares was becoming the star of my fantasies.”
The confession landed like a meteor, sudden and shattering. We stared, breathless. His chest rose and fell in sync with mine.
Inside me, the dragon roared. BURN HIM.
The command hit hard. A furious lash of whip. I gripped the edge of the table to ground myself, to keep from leaping across the space and—
Kissing him? Killing him?
Ja.
“Dinner is over,” I rasped, rising too quickly, my chair scraping back. “You win this round. Only six more days. I can do this.”
I had to.
DAY TWO