“Stop,” she ground out. “Step away.”
“I’m trying,” he said hoarsely. “But ye are not making it easy.” He inhaled again. “What is that scent?”
She could feel the slam of his heart against her back. His breath grew hot against her ear. Down her neck.
“That is the scent of an aroused female dragon,” came Ulrik’s voice. “And ‘tis nearly as powerful for a male dragon as that which she puts off when she’s in heat.” His voice dropped an octave in warning. “Until she gives you permission to do more, friend, I suggest you step away before your dragon does something you both regret.”
“God save me.” Constance made the sign of the cross over her chest and kept still. She knew how to protect herself if she had to. She’d traveled into dangerous areas to help people back home, so she had taken self-defense classes. Would she be strong enough to fight off a warrior like Aodh, though? Likely not, but she’d give it her best shot and said so.
“Is that right?” There was no missing the amusement mixed in with his growl when he murmured in her ear. When he invoked an even deeper ache between her thighs. “’Twould be interesting to see if for no other reason than it might give me an idea of how ye mean to end me at King’s Fall.”
Almost as if Aodh saying the words dragged her eyes in that direction, her gaze locked on a waterfall in the distance. One so cushioned by woodland, some might miss it. She very well might have had something inside him not led something inside her that way. Wanted her to see it.
Remember.
“I know that place,” she whispered, unable to catch her breath now. Not just because of the way he made her feel but because the waterfall was far too familiar. Hauntingly familiar.
“’Twould seem so considering ‘tis where ye think to take my life.”
“Oryoutook my life.” Sudden unexplainable rage filled her, and she turned. Saw red. Narrowed her eyes at him despite how close and large he was. How horrifying it was to look into cat-like eyes that had terrified her for far too long.
Because there they were, staring right back at her.
Drawing her in.
But not so much that she couldn’t think straight. “After you imprisoned me, that is.”
“I did no such thing, lass,” Aodh said between clenched teeth. “’Twas ye who plagued my nightmares. Ye who taunted my dragon.” He shook his head. “That gave me no peace.”
He went to grip her arm or something that felt like too much, and she blocked him, surprised by her speed, let alone strength. Ulrik sighed from what seemed a great distance away before he chanted, and her vision cleared at the same moment Aodh’s eyes returned to normal.
“My apologies,” Ulrik said. “Your dragons will surface again soon enough, but this will give you time to speak and act without your inner beasts getting the better of you.”
“How did you do that?” Aodh seemed more in awe than angry at the interruption. “When even I cannot suppress my dragon so easily?”
“It does not matter.” Ulrik looked between them. “What matters is you two need to work together to figure out what happened not just in your last life but this one. How beyond the obvious it ties in with Siobhán.”
“How convenient,” Aodh replied dryly, his jealousy no doubt flaring again. “You eliminated how our dragons just responded to each other. Eliminated any chance of—”
“I’d watch what you say next.” Ulrik looked back and forth between them. “I only gave your humans a chance to know one another before your dragons step in and make it hard to do much of anything but rut.”
Constance’s jaw dropped, but it didn’t matter to Ulrik because he was already heading back downstairs.
“Rest assured,” she managed, turning away from Aodh, who seemed equally uncomfortable, “my dragon, or whatever I’m infected with, doesn’t want to dothatwith your dragon....” She swallowed hard. “Or you.”
This was insane. Every last bit of it.
Because she feared Ulrik was right.
Whatever she was diseased with wanted to do something she’d studiously avoided in life, and she didn’t care who knew it. Well, maybe she cared a little about what Aodh thought because she couldn’t seem to spit out that she was still a virgin when he stood beside her, braced his hands on the railing, and stared at King’s Fall.
“’Tis not in my nature to say such, but this week seems ripe for it,” he finally muttered. “So ye’ve my apologies for any forward behavior that my dragon or I might have—”
“It’s fine.” Because she suspected her dragon hadn’t helped matters any. “Let’s just try to focus on disliking each other a little less for now and figure out what’s going on, okay?”
“Ta.” She was surprised at the tentative amusement in his voice when he echoed what she had just thought. “Though ‘tis safe to say ‘tis more our human halves in discord than our dragons, however intensely they make their feelings known.”
She bit back a small smile and offered no response, but she had a feeling he knew she agreed. That whatever lived inside them had minds of their own.
