Page 37 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
It was rare for my brother to try to order around those he cared for. I knew he didn’t enjoy it.
“Please,” Anna said in a soft voice for the first time, her dragon crouched next to his. “This is big. If Mirko is moving now, he’s more prepared than we expected. You two can handle being that close for the journey.”
“I won’t make her do it. I will make the flight on my own,” I said. It might take me longer, but I would do it.
“No, I’ll do it,” Ella said quietly, her eyes glittering with anger as she stared at Caz. “But because Anna asked me to.Notbecause you ordered me to.”
“I don’t care,” Caz said bluntly. “As long as you get Dirk back to the citadel. Tonight.”
Then he spread his wings and was gone.
Nineteen
Ella
We landed onthe roof of the tallest tower of a huge citadel inside the walls of the biggest city I’d ever seen.
“Everything’s so big,” I said, peeling myself off of Dirk’s scales as he touched down moments after Anna and Caz had cleared the area.
“I forget you’ve never been here.”
“Coming to Kylma as a Clippy isn’t high up on the list of smart things to do,” I admitted, tugging my shirt back into place as I scrambled down.
“From the lookout here, you can see everything.” Dirk shifted the instant my feet touched the stone. “When we’re not so busy, I’ll bring you back. During the day, the view is amazing.”
I could already tell, but any response was stifled as Dirk put his arm around me and hustled me toward the waiting stairway into the tower. The others were still descending behind us, and we didn’t want to hold them up.
The issue was, in his hurry, he was still naked from the shift. After hours of having every inch of skin I could manage pressed to his scales during our flight, the sudden contact with his verywarm, very bare body was a fresh reminder of the way things had left off in the mountains.
Me, sliding down on top of him, his hands caressing my face, our mouths joined. I swallowed hard. It had been good. Everything about it had been good.
We hurried down the stairs. I tried my hardest to only look at where I was placing my feet and not his … and not at Dirk’s body. I mostly succeeded.
The stairway emptied out into what had to be a private study. Rows of thick, black-spined books lined one entire wall while the middle of the room was occupied by an absolutely gargantuan desk. On top of it were piles of clothes.
Dirk’s arm slipped away from my shoulders as he went to get dressed. I resolutely didnotallow myself to miss the warmth and closeness we had shared for the past few hours. Even in dragon form, the eroticism of so much of my skin pressed against him had burned slowly somewhere deep within me. Now, to be fully apart from him, I was left with hollow emptiness and more longing than I was comfortable with.
I found myself staring at the desk itself, the floor, and anywhere but at Dirk as he pulled on sweatpants and a matching black shirt. This analysis of somethingotherthan his muscular limbs showed me the skid marks on the floor.
The desk was out of place. I walked over to it and ran a finger along its edge, noting where it should be and where it was. Something like eight inches askew.
Someone coughed.
I looked up to see Anna staring at me, her cheeks flushed. That was odd. What did she have to embarrassed by? The desk?
Caz’s desk.
I looked around the room once more. Caz’s desk. In Caz’s private study. My eyes found Anna. Her cheeks were even more red now.
Busted.
“Huh,” I said, casually sidling up to my best friend. “This is a really big desk.”
“Is it? I never noticed,” she muttered with false innocence, looking away.
“Probably weighs a lot.”
“Probably.” Anna glared at me.
