Then again, all of this was unbelievable—her…him…here—so it wasn’t worth questioning, really. When he was done washing her, he made her get out and get a robe as he washed himself, and she watched his hands trace over his perfect body through the fogged glass, and it did terrible things to her deep inside. It made her want him again, somehow, which was insane at this point. If they fucked anymore, he’d break her, and she realized she just liked seeing him. Even without the nudity. Just seeing him made her happy.
Goddammit.
She brought her hands to her face to remind herself what an absolutely terrible idea falling for someone who was an otherworldly creature, plus who’d never been in a relationship before, was when he called out to her. “There’re extra toothbrushes in a drawer, princess,” and she resolutely turned to attend to her dental hygiene and put her clothes back on.
Watching him brush his teeth was too couple-y, so she ditched the bathroom entirely as he got out of the shower and then found herself in his bedroom with the Mysterious Box. At least it didn’t smell like smoke anymore. But the black mirrors were still creepy, and she wasn’t prepared to watch a crystalline beating heart again if she could help it. Human organs were difficult enough. She had not volunteered to take care of any magic ones.
Damian followed her out of the bathroom not long after, with a low-slung towel around his hips and wetly spiked black hair. He smiled at seeing her, and then let loose a low wolf whistle—not at her, she realized, when the magic cat appeared, yowling.
“Yes, it’s important,” Damian said in response. The cat—which had just somehow poofed in out of nowhere—complained in Siamese, then looked at her and said something else. “No,” he answered. “But the box on my bed…I need you to move it to the room with the Forgetting Fire and erase the door.”
The cat grumbled, doing a feline imitation of a teenager being told to clean their room, before hopping up on the bed and spying the box in question, and springing backward three feet, levitation-style.
“That’s why I need you to erase the door,” Damian repeated. He hadn’t gotten any closer to his bed in the meantime, and Andi had a feeling he was staying away from the box on purpose.
The cat had some additional choice words about the situation and the box—Andi may not have spoken “cat,” but years at the hospital had made her very intuitive about inflection and fabulous at charades—then up-sized itself to a Siamese the size of a miniature horse, taking the box carefully into its mouth and walking out the door.
Andi watched the whole thing unfold, feeling like she was trapped in some kind of old fairy tale where absurd things happened one by one and no one stopped them. She turned to him. “I cannot believe I’m about to say this sentence, but what did your cat say about me?”
Damian inhaled deeply, calmer now that the box was gone. “He wanted to know if you had any cheese.”
“Why?”
He held his towel around his hips with one hand and went into his closet, leaving the door open behind himself. “I can’t say. He just really likes cheese is all. Don’t tell anyone, though; he’s very secretive about it.”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t your magic cat be?” Andi muttered to herself, sitting down in one of the leather chairs. “So, what was in the box?”
She heard Damian pause in pulling on clothing. “A dragon heart.”
“From, like, an actual dragon?” she quipped, rolling her eyes and snorting.
“Pretty much,” he said, emerging. He was wearing a dark T-shirt that fit him snugly across his chest and jeans that clung to his thighs. She was embarrassed by how much she noticed that sort of thing now. He made his way over to her and sat down on the ground in front of her, cross-legged. “I have a confession to make,” he said solemnly.
She braced. Here it comes. The moment she’d been waiting for. When everything between them got flushed down the drain. She stared down into his golden eyes and fought not to cross her arms. “Okay.”
“You may have noticed that I’m magical,” he said, looking up at her with a tight smile. “Even without the dragon thing, I probably would be—something like on the level of Mills, who you met the other night.” Andi nodded as he went on. “So…a long time ago, a great-great-great-grandfather of mine, who was also magical, needed help to stop an epically dangerous world-destroying beast. Something with too many heads, tails, mouths; the painters had a hard time capturing it back then, and everyone who wrote about it sounded like they’d lost their mind. Just know that it was bad, okay?”
“Okay,” Andi agreed, hesitantly.
Damian nodded. “So, to save his people, he met with a dragon—an actual dragon, who was never a person, and always his own creature—as equals, and they decided to combine their powers to defeat the creature.”
He took a deep inhale and rocked back before continuing. “Well, my distant relative was somewhat of an asshole—also, possibly, another family trait—and when he was working with the dragon to defeat the Beast that Eats Worlds, he learned how to overcome the dragon too. So, when they finished the great battle that ended things, my grandfather killed the dragon and took his heart.”
“Why?” she asked and bit her lips.
“Because he didn’t want to give the power he’d gained from the dragon back.”
Everything about him was serious: his tone, his stance, his expression. “So now you have a magic beating heart as a family heirloom. And here I thought photo albums were rough,” she teased, then realized he didn’t find it funny. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “Because of the magic involved, and because of the underhanded way my grandfather did things, the heart—and the power it grants my family—comes with a curse.”
“Which is?” she prompted after he went quiet.
“Eventually, you become your dragon. Permanently.”
“The dragon that you change into? Like, instead of being a prince-frog you become a frog-prince?”
“No. The dragon…it takes over. But it isn’t you, really. Not anymore.”
Andi felt her jaw drop like it belonged to another person. Here she was, finally on the verge of caring about someone, letting him in after everyone else in her life had seemingly ditched her, and he was cursed. Of course.
God forbid Andi Ngo should ever catch a break.
She put her face into her hands and seriously thought about putting her head between her knees.
“This is a lot, I know,” he said, sounding pained. “I tried to get away from it. It’s why I came to Earth, to stop it from happening as fast to me.”
“Then why is it here?” she asked from inside her hands.
“Near as I can tell, my sister brought it with her.”
Which was a whole other thing she’d forgotten to be pissed about. Andi flushed with remembered embarrassment, letting her hands drop. “You mean your sister-the-princess?” she asked. “Like the actual fucking princess and not whatever it is that you call me?”
“Andi,” Damian began like she was being unfair.
“No, Damian.” She cut him off and crossed her arms. “You didn’t tell me you were a freaking prince someplace else. When was that going to come up? I mean, I guess I get that’s not first date material, but it’s not like we’ve gone on many dates, have we? And like…and now, you’re telling me you’re cursed? Like an actual magic curse?” she said. She knew her voice was rising, but no matter how good the sex was, she’d been letting the insanity build for too long to hold back now. “What the fuck were you thinking trying to get involved with me?” She gave him a pause for an answer, and when he didn’t, she went on. “No wonder you haven’t been in any relationships before because…Jesus Christ!”
Her words rang out, and for a moment, everything was empty silence.
She watched his jaw grind before asking sharply, “Are you done?”
“No,” she said back, just as sharp.
He inhaled and exhaled deeply again, clearly gathering his contro
l. “No,” he said, turning the question back on her. “I mean, are you actually done? Because I’m not going to try to apologize to someone who is walking out the door.”
She let her head roll back. Just last night, she’d wanted him to promise that he wouldn’t try to leave her because she couldn’t handle being abandoned again. And here he was now, worried that she would leave him.
Would she have made him promise her a single thing if she’d known all of this ahead of time?
Andi stared at the ceiling. She didn’t want to look at him. This was too confusing, and it made her both mad and sad in turns. But when she was quiet, she remembered the way his hands had felt on her…and how warm just looking at him had made her feel. At peace. Despite everything. She sighed, returning her attention to him at last. “I’m not done yet, Damian,” she said more quietly. “But shit like this makes it really hard to stay here.”
“I know,” he said quietly.
“I already had to watch my mother die of cancer.” And if her feelings for him kept multiplying like spring clover, she didn’t know if she was strong enough to watch him die of a curse. “Surely, you get that it’s hard.”
“I do,” he granted, looking at her with infinite compassion. “I’m sorry there’s not an optimal path to follow, Andi.”
“An optimal path to find out that the person who wants to be in a relationship with you is secretly royalty and magic and also cursed,” she snarked. “Yeah. I can imagine that’d be a lot to try to work into a tinder profile.” Andi gave up and let herself sink down, resting her head on her fists on her knees.
He brought the crown of his head to gently rest against hers. “You do have a safeword you can use if you’d like me to stop talking. They can be multipurpose.”
She shook her head, still hunched over, feeling her head rock against his. From this close, she could breathe him in. No matter that they’d just showered, he had a faint manly scent that was intoxicating to her. It calmed her down and riled her up both at once, made her want to sleep in his arms and rip all his clothes off at the same time.
To be with him quietly forever and right the hell now.
“Fuck it,” she sighed. “Tell me about the dragon. Is he an alternate dimension you? Is he like your twin brother you absorbed in the womb?”
“What?” He pulled back, laughing, sounding confused. “No, of course not. Wherever would you get that idea?”
“Stephen King,” she said from the vicinity of her knees, without looking up. “And because getting taken over sounds kind of horrible.”
“It is.”
Which was why he’d gone almost catatonic not that long ago. Andi took several large breaths and pushed herself back up a little. “So, what changed between you seeing the box here earlier and now?”
“You did,” he said. They were on the same level now, and she wanted to crawl off the chair and into his arms again, and however it was he did that to her, it was not fair. “I realized you’re here. And now that the Heart is here, maybe we—my people and me—can figure out a way to stop it. I was just surprised was all. And deeply disappointed.”
She bit her lips. “So, the time that I saw your dragon—when it saved me from that monster-thing in your courtyard—that wasn’t you?”
“Not entirely, no. I’m there, but I’m like a rider. And while I guess you could say I hold the reins, I’m not always in control.”
“Is the reverse true, now? Can he make you—human you—do things?”
“In general, no. It frequently has suggestions, though,” he said with a soft snort.
“Like what?” she asked.
“I plead the fifth,” he said, shaking his head.
“No. You promised to tell me the truth, Damian. And you wanted to be in the deep end…well, here we are.”
He rocked back, putting his arms behind him to lean on. “It’s a dragon. What do you think it wants to do?”
“Dragon stuff,” Andi said sarcastically, then guessed, “Fly?”
“Yes, that,” he reluctantly agreed.
She thought back to every silly story she’d ever read or heard. “Burn things with fire?”
“Which I never give it the chance to,” he said dryly. “Except for sometimes when we’re fighting.”
She thought harder and remembered the time when the dragon had saved her from the teleporting-demon thing right outside his castle. “And…kill stuff?”
“It enjoys that the most, yes. Although I am there inside it, so I suppose you could argue we both do.” She watched his arm muscles bunch and relax as he talked. “We’re good at it.”
“Uh-huh.” She was trying not to ask the next logical question but also unable to help herself. “Is he around when we…” she began, and then let the words drift because in a conversation full of awkward questions there were still some things she couldn’t bring herself to say out loud.
Damian closed his eyes guiltily. “He pays attention. Yes.”
“And…just what does he think of that?”
“Andi,” Damian groaned. “I should’ve given you a safeword when I had the chance.”
She snorted, remembering that that was just this morning. How had a day with Damian already felt like a week? “It wasn’t my fault,” she teased. “I tried to help you—”
“And I enjoyed it,” he confessed suddenly, cutting her off. She watched a wash of color sweep over his pale complexion. “We both enjoyed it.” His gaze trapped hers, daring her to consider what that meant. “All right?”
“Oh,” Andi said, biting her lips shut again. “Well…then.”
“Yeah.” He blew air through pursed lips and looked pained before he raised a hand to push hair out of his face. “I want you to know I’ve never talked like this—about these things—with anyone before.”
“I can’t imagine why,” she quipped. “This is all quality first date material, Damian. No reason why you couldn’t have ordered the lobster and then jumped in. But don’t worry, I’ll help you set up your dating profile for the next girl after me: ‘Hi, my name is Damian, I like to run marathons, drink craft beers, and burn things.’”
One of his dark eyebrows arched. “I only drink whiskey,” he corrected her, as his eyes narrowed. “And I am seriously considering spanking you.”
“Like I’d let you.”
“Like I’d let you stop me,” he challenged her, giving her a wicked smile that made parts of her throb with ache. “Safeword aside, of course,” he allowed after they both knew slightly too much time had passed.
The way he was looking at her now was decidedly unsafe, and, God, she liked it so much it almost felt shameful. Heat rose inside her unbidden, as the chemical-electrical thing it seemed they shared between them sparked, like a battery being charged. But Andi knew better than to let lust drag her off track. They needed to talk. And there were things that she needed to know if she was somehow going to really let herself do this, to knowingly run toward the spinning knives for this man.
As he leaned forward with intent, she scooted the chair away. “Have you always had it inside you?”
She could almost watch him downshift to idle like he was in a car. “No. It came out for the first time when I was ten.”
“Why?” she asked, imagining Damian losing a game to his sister and going dragon to protest it in the way of little boys.
“Because someone tried to kill me,” he said simply with a shrug.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Things like that happened where I’m from. It’s not very nice there.”
Andi tried to remember what she was like at ten. What it would’ve been like to discover that she had a monster inside of her. And here she’d thought puberty was bad…. “What was it like?”
“Horrible? Frightening? Awesome? In the literal, not colloquial, sense.” His arms and shoulders bunched up again like he was remembering.
“Does it hurt to change?”
“Yes.” He nodded slightly. “Always.”
She bit her lips again. “Does it hurt the dragon?”
Damian’s brow furrowed and his eyes glazed over as though he were communing with something inside himself, and Andi knew he was. “All the time,” he said quietly. “It feels…chained.”
Andi pushed the chair behind herself back and got on her knees on the floor so that her face was even with his. His gaze was on her again, and she looked deep into his golden eyes, trying to see the beast and wondering if it, too, was looking out at her. “Can I talk to it?”
“No, princess. It cannot speak. We’ve tried.” His gaze softened. “I can tell you what it’s thinking, though if it tells me.”
“Does he like me?”
She didn’t like the way her voice sounded when she asked, all little-girl and hesitant. But she needed to know. If Damian’s dragon hated her or was indifferent, then there was no way the plan coalescing in her mind could work.
She watched Damian think inside himself, and at the same time, saw everything that was “together” about him fall away, as though he were dropping pieces of unseen armor right in front of her until he finally gave her the completely open look he’d had so often after sex.
“Oh, yes, princess,” he said softly. “Very much.”
Chapter 6
Damian watched Andi gulp for air after his confession.
“Even though I’m human?” she pressed.
“I don’t know what to tell you. My mother was human, too. It happens.”
But “it” didn’t happen. Mates happened. He wished so badly he could tell her without scaring her, but if she couldn’t even acknowledge she wanted to be in a relationship with him—despite the way that her scent changed whenever he came around, the way he watched the heat that flushed her core—there was no way for him to safely push her forward.
And as it was right now, he needed to be ready to pull his dragon back. It’d never paid so much attention to a human conversation before. Damian could feel it lying right underneath his skin, watching, waiting, listening so closely that it was a wonder that Andi couldn’t see it. The carnivore in him calculated the myriad of changes flowing over her as they spoke. The way her pupils dilated, how often she licked her lips, the rise and fall of her pulse at her throat. He wasn’t sure if his dragon wanted to eat her or fuck her or if there was all that much difference between the two in the end.
Dragon Fated: A Billionaire Dragon Shifter Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds) Page 11
