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“Yes.”
“How?”
“I brought them here.”
“You left? But you promised?—”
“I didn’t seek out a single Crimson Rose. I kept my promise.”
“You could have been captured,” I say.
“But I wasn’t.”
I want to argue, to unleash the mountain of fear at the idea of him being in the Earth realm alone. In my backyard, no less. But the magnitude of the gesture makes it hard to hold onto my anger.
“I know it’s not the same as being at home in your workshop, but hopefully it helps.”
I stare at him, not even sure he’s the same person as the smug as hell, self-centered dragon who first came to my backyard and demanded I tell him how desperate I was for him.
“Is it okay?” he asks when I don’t say anything.
I swallow hard against the lump in my throat. “Yes,” I somehow manage to say without crying. “It’s very much okay.”
He exhales, suddenly looking far less tense than before.
I offer him a small smile, my heart pounding even though he’s standing well out of reach. “This is the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”
His mouth quirks. “I see. Saving your life is insignificant compared to gifting you with a greenhouse full of potted poisons.”
“Funny. But yes. I guess that’s how I rank kindness.”
His dark gaze glitters. “And how do you reward such kindness?”
He hasn’t made a single move toward me, yet I feel him intensely as if he were standing in my personal space. The reality that this is as close as we can ever be is like a bucket of cold water.
I blink, hope draining away like the tide. “I guess we’ll never know.”
Chapter 27
Legion
In the small hours of the morning, I stalk through my quiet house like an angry shadow. Sleepless hours passed with me lying in bed, but when my erection became too painful with no satisfying release in sight, I got up and wandered. Thoughts of Tori have me on edge. The memory of her expression, when I showed her the greenhouse yesterday, is an image that will forever be etched into my mind.
Her emotional reaction drove my beast to near-madness. I left her alone under the guise of letting her work and spent the day hiding in my study. I’m caught between needing to flee her presence and refusing to leave her alone.
It’s nearly dawn now, and there is not a room in this house where I don’t feel her presence. Somewhere along the way, I stopped hating the bond. I stopped hating her.
What I feel… Even if I could put it into words, I don’t know how to tell her. Not without admitting this last secret I’ve kept. The one that would ruin her toward me forever. Giving her that greenhouse full of poisons was the only way I could think of to show her how much she means to me. But even that ended on a sour note.
I’ve never wanted a thing I couldn’t have before.
And I’ve never wanted anything more than I want her.
But having her is impossible.
Even if we found a way to break the curse, it would undoubtedly involve telling her where the thing came from in the first place. And I know Tori well enough by now to know that kind of betrayal would break us… irreparably.
Keeping her here with me—and keeping her cursed—is the most selfish thing I’ve ever done. But the guilt has never been so heavy as when she looked at me in that greenhouse and wanted me. In that moment, without the curse, she would have been mine.
