18. Paige
Paige
M y muscles protest the moment I try to move. When my eyes open, the light is soft—until I blink and realize there’s a leathery wing blocking the harsh overhead lighting from my sleepy eyes.
“Ugh,” I groan, blinking as the wing moves aside. I sit up, eyeing the dank basement around me with disdain.
Then, my eyes meet that of the dragon currently looking down at me, and my cheeks flush. I’m still naked. And very, very cuddly with a scaly beast.
“Your scales are softer than I imagined,” I say before I can stop myself.
Those giant crystal eyes blink owlishly back at me.
Tentatively, I reach out and press my palm to the side of his face. Hot breath rushes from its nostrils, and I jerk my hand back.
The dragon ducks its head.
Is he...sorry?
My life is so weird.
Then I remember what happened between me and said dragon-man last night and decide maybe weird is the wrong word.
Hot seems appropriate. Sexy works too. Mind-blowing.
Life-altering. I could go on, but my phone beeps, interrupting my reminiscing about what was absolutely the best sex of my life—thus far.
At the sound of my alarm going off, reality slams back into focus, and I groan again, getting reluctantly to my feet.
The dragon grunts unhappily as I leave the warmth of the cocoon he’s made for me with his wing.
“I need to get to work,” I say apologetically as I hurry to get dressed.
A walk of shame in yesterday’s clothes is not what I had in mind for this morning, but here we are. And I can’t afford to answer the questions that would come from being late again. Or worse, being seen exiting the basement.
I’m just finishing pulling my shirt down over my head when a throat clears behind me. I whirl to see Aries standing before me, back in his human form. He’s even managed to retrieve those sinfully sexy sweatpants and pull them on.
I watch as he approaches me, wishing like hell I’d thought to bring a toothbrush down here.
“Thank you for keeping me safe and warm last night,” I say.
Something like pain flashes in his eyes.
“I’ll be safe at work,” I start, but he snorts.
“You’re only safe if I’m near you.”
I shiver because, even though I’ve only known Aries for a short time, I can’t help but agree with him. I do feel safer when he’s near me.
“Listen, Hoc and the others will be up and about, so you’ll have to stay down here for a bit.
I can come back when the coast is clear and help you get back upstairs,” I say.
He starts to interrupt, but I hurry to add, “I think you should check out the passageway you found in my closet today. Everyone who works here will be focused on their duties, so wherever it leads, you should be able to get in and get out without being seen.”
He studies me, looking like he’s about to argue, but then finally, he nods. “All right, Paige.”
Before I can move past him to leave, he grabs me and yanks me toward him, covering my mouth with his. The kiss is passionate. Desperation laced in every delicious slide of his tongue over mine.
Desperate for what, I can’t be sure, but I have the sense that Aries is hurting. I want to ask, to find out what it is that could be affecting this man—this powerful dragon—but I keep it to myself. Likely because I’m afraid that the answer will be that he’s homesick.
And the idea of sending him home now breaks my heart.
So, I let Aries kiss me to the point of senseless, until nothing matters but his hands on me. His mouth on mine.
Then, he steps back to let me leave, and I have to force myself to put one foot in front of the other even as it takes me further away from what I really want.
Him.
Upstairs, I manage to slip out of the basement access door unseen. I’m just rounding the stacks toward the break room—coffee is all that matters now—when I run smack into a body.
Hoc grunts in surprise, and I jump back, heart thudding.
Trolls don’t have the same sense of smell as other supernaturals but still. I do not want him catching a whiff of what—or who—I did last night.
“Hoc!”
“Paige, are you in a hurry?” His brows lift in dry amusement.
“Coffee,” I explain sheepishly.
“Ah.”
I wait for him to ask why I didn’t bother getting any coffee in my own apartment. Or why I still haven’t done a grocery order. But he doesn’t. Instead, he glances past me to something over my shoulder.
He frowns. “Blossom, you’re supposed to be in section five already. Ted and Ned were due to be relieved twenty minutes ago.”
I glance back and find Blossom standing near the water creatures section with a to-go mug in her hand. “I live for nothing else, Hoc,” she says sarcastically.
“But?” Hoc asks knowingly.
“I need your darling daughter to accompany me. Girl stuff,” she adds hastily.
Hoc shakes his head. “Go,” he says to me. “We’ll catch up later.”
I hurry to join Blossom, sending longing looks to her coffee.
“And Paige?” Hoc calls out behind me.
“Yeah?”
“We should do family dinner,” he says. “It’s been a while, and I’ve been so busy—we need to catch up.”
Shit. “It’s okay,” I start. “I understand, you’ve got a lot on your plate—”
“How about tonight?” he asks.
“Tonight?”
“I’ll be up around seven. I’ll bring some of that wildebeest casserole you liked so much the last time.”
“Actually, tonight is—”
He’s gone before I can argue.
I turn back to Blossom, who grins knowingly.
“I think Daddy-dearest can smell your boyfriend on you.”
“Ugh. Is it that obvious?”
Blossom laughs. “I think people in the next portal can smell it, sweetie.”
“Ugh. Just Extricate me now.”
“No way, this is too much fun.” She links her arm through mine and leads me into the stacks.
“Here.” She holds out her coffee.
“Seriously?” I ask, my eyes wide.
“You need it way more than me, honey. Come on.”
I take the coffee and sip generously, giving myself a moment to adjust as the caffeine slides through me. Just when I’m beginning to believe I can handle Hoc in my apartment—or knowing about my “boyfriend” as Blossom calls him—she ruins it.
“That weirdo is back again today,” she tells me.
I lower the coffee long enough to side-eye her. “What weirdo is that?”
“The creeper. Mr. Morris or whatever.” She arches a brow at me as my stomach sinks.
“So what? Make Ned babysit him for once.”
“He’s asking for you.”
“I have to practice for my keeper test,” I say.
“Look, no offense, but if you don’t know it by now, it’s not happening.”
“Gee, thanks for the support.”
“I mean it, Paige.” She pulls me to a stop, facing me.
“You’ve lived your entire life in the Athenaeum.
If anyone knows what it takes to be a keeper, it’s you.
And if the powers that be can’t see that, well, they’re even bigger asshats than I thought.
And that’s pretty big because I think they’re fucking—”
“Okay, I get it.” I glance around, more paranoid than usual.
“I’m just saying. You’re going to rock that test.”
“Thank you.”
“And I was thinking,” she says, pulling me along again. “I like your idea.”
“Which idea was that?”
“My birthday drinks idea.”
“Oh.” I nearly trip as I whip my head toward her. “You want to go out with Mag?”
“What? Fuck no. I meant you and me... and your boy toy.” She winks. “We should make a night of it. Go to that bar you talked about.”
The answering adrenaline rush is like a punch to my gut. “Really?”
I try my best to play it cool, but this is it. This is how I get Aries home.
“Really,” she says. “Besides, you’re not a full keeper yet, so there’s no rule about not being in the same public place together anyway. Oh shit, there he is.”
I look up and find Morris directly above us in the alchemy section. He’s seated at one of the research tables, bent over a book.
I hesitate.
Impossibly, he chooses that moment to look away from his book—and directly down at me. A shiver goes up my spine. There’s something about him. Something that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
Blossom pulls her arm free and steps back. “A keeper test is nothing compared to that guy,” she mutters. “See you later.”
She slips away, and I sigh, climbing the steps to babysit for another day.
Morris isn’t at the table anymore by the time I make my way upstairs. Fred, the gnome who was watching him, however, waves at me then rides Kitty over the stacks and out of view.
Freaking gnomes.
Chuckling, I move further into the section, but still cannot find Morris. Confused, I head into the stacks, searching aisle by aisle for where he’s gone.
The first few rows are empty, so I make my way toward the back.
The lighting is dimmer here, deliberately done to protect the ancient tomes stored along the back wall.
The glass surrounding these books is impenetrable by anything other than the library’s magic.
But at the very end of the row, the normally locked cabinet is hanging wide open.
My senses sharpen. I slow my steps, a sense of discomfort creeping in.
“...Apertum, Aperi, Retego, son of a bitch.”
The exclamation at the end jolts me into sudden action. Or maybe it’s the familiar alchemical commands coming from someone who has no right to utter them. I round the corner and stop short at the sight of Morris standing in the middle of the aisle with a locked book in his hands.
“How did you get that?” I demand.
“Paige.” His shoulders relax as if he’s relieved to see me here instead of startled at being caught with a forbidden object.
I stalk toward him and snatch the book out of his hands, noting the symbol on the spine representing which collection it's from. “Where did you get this?” I repeat.
“I found it. There.”
“How did you get the lock to open?”
“It was open when I got here.”
I don’t believe that for a second, though I can’t figure out how in the world he managed to do it. My wariness goes from shocked to guarded.
“This is one from the Vetus collection. It’s not available to anyone but the head librarian.”