Page 30 of Dragon Kissed

“It was slightly funny.”

Her eyes narrowed, and then she disappeared, and the balcony doors slammed. Demetri stood alone in the fog, and the smile stayed. Until the Chain cracked again.

Pain drove him to one knee. The dragon surged against his skin, claws tearing through his fingertips, and Demetri pressed one bleeding hand to the stone. The kiss still burned on his mouth, the taste of her still on his tongue, and even kneeling in the cold with his own blood on the terrace he could not make himself regret it.

Worth it, the dragon said.

Demetri looked up at the warm light in Nica’s windows. “Yes,” he whispered.

The damaged silver at his wrist darkened, and one of the bound links split neatly in two.

Caelen found him several minutes later, still kneeling. The elf took one look at the broken link and went pale.

“How long?” Demetri asked.

Caelen crouched and examined the Chain without touching it, and his silence stretched too long. “Caelen.”

“Three weeks,” the elf said.

Demetri looked toward Nica’s windows. “And if the damage continues at this rate?”

Caelen’s pale green eyes met his. “Days.”

By nine the next morning,Nica had learned three things. One, Demetri considered breakfast a formal campaign. Two, he owned a sweater in a shade of charcoal that turned his eyes almost silver. Three, kissing him had been a catastrophic mistake — not because she regretted it. She could regret a bad haircut, a missed deadline, the tattoo she’d nearly gotten at sixteen because Tasha dared her and they’d both been drunk on gas-station wine. She could not regret the memory of Demetri’s body pinning hers to the wall while his mouth erased every rational thought she owned. She could only want it again, which was significantly worse, and she’d lain awake most of the night wanting it, staring at the ceiling of a stranger’s beautiful house with her whole body still humming.

He sat across from her at a table overlooking the Pacific, calmly cutting into an omelet as though he hadn’t kissed her until her knees buckled six hours earlier. Beyond the glass thesea threw back a hard silver morning light, and gulls hung on the wind off the cliff, and the whole open Pacific glittered as if the previous night had been something she’d invented. Lirien had set out berries, dark bread, honey, smoked fish, eggs, and enough coffee to carry a small office through tax season. Demetri watched Nica eat until she wanted to throw a strawberry at him.

“You can stop monitoring me.”

“I am not monitoring you.”

“You looked at my plate four times.”

“You have eaten half an egg.”

“It’s a large egg.”

His gaze moved to the untouched toast. Nica picked it up and took a deliberately aggressive bite, and satisfaction flickered in his eyes.Infuriating man.She’d examined the silver Chain at his wrist while pretending not to. One link was black. Another looked newly split. He caught her staring.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

“No.”

“Liar.”

His knife stopped. “I am accustomed to it.”

“That is not the same answer.”

“No.” He set the knife down. “We should discuss today.”

“Should we discuss why you jumped off my balcony first?”

“I climbed down.”

“You vanished into fog after deliberately making me think you’d thrown yourself off a cliff.”

His mouth shifted, and she pointed her toast at him. “Don’t smile. You’re still in trouble.”