I look up to find Nate in the doorway of our kitchen."Artie says that it does, but I'm not convinced.I don't think she likes the dried meat very much, but Mama told me off when I tried carrying around some meat scraps in my pocket."
He raises an eyebrow."I can't imagine you'd have liked that very much either."
I grimace."Not really, but I want to make sure I do everything right for Ember, so I did it anyway."
"Well, I've got some scraps waiting for her, so we can see if those will make her less squawky."He gestures to the kitchen.
"I don't think anything will do that.Why did no one tell me how difficult it is to raise a dragon?"
"Because the Shengdanese ambassador didn't expect you to actually be able to hatch the dragon egg that they gave you," he responds.
"Clearly they didn't take into account how welcoming your oven is."
The moment we're inside our kitchen, Ember stretches her wings, knocking against my head as she does.
"Ow."
She ignores me and leaps into the air, soaring over to the wood-fired oven and settling in the dragon bed there.She sticks up her neck, looking around until her gaze locks on Nate and she lets out what I think is a demanding chirp.
"Am I not allowed to say hello to Evie first?"he asks my dragon.
She lets out another chirp.
"I take that as a no."He picks up the bowl of scraps he has waiting and sets it down in front of my dragon."Enjoy your dinner."
"She seems to like you better," I say as he steps away.
"That's because I've been feeding her for weeks," he responds, stepping towards me."Good evening."
"Good evening," I echo back, looking at him and trying to work out what I'm supposed to do next.We've not been in this position before."So can we kiss again?"
I half expect him to laugh in response, but he doesn't.
"I was hoping you'd ask," he responds as he closes the gap between us.He brushes some of my hair out of my face and leans in.
I close my eyes, looking forward to the moment his lips touch mine.I've not been able to think about much else all day, but now that I'm here with him, I have to admit that the feeling is even better than I remembered.
I wrap my arms around his neck while he pulls me closer, and I lose myself in the sensation.This is real.I'm kissing Nate.I've never really cared about kissing anyone before, and yet now that we're doing it, I can't imagine stopping.Or I can.But only because we'll be able to kiss again.
We break apart, and I look into his warm brown eyes, seeing so many emotions there that I don't really know what to do with them.
"Are you sure it's all right for us to be kissing in the kitchen?"My voice cracks as I ask."Veronica said something about rumours."
He lets out a sigh."I think that depends on what you want.If you want us to keep this a complete secret..."
"No," I say firmly.
He raises an eyebrow.
"I don't want to start going to court with you, that feels like it's too far.But I can't imagine spending time with you here, or in my room, or anywhere else and not being able to kiss you."
"What have we unlocked?"
I frown."I don't know.I've never felt like this before," I admit.
"I was teasing you, Evie."He touches my cheek softly."I don't mind.Like I told you, I've thought about this a lot.I don't want to go back to pretending I don't feel anything for you, even if it's just for other people's benefit."
"But is that going to cause problems?"I ask."You said that your father isn't even happy that we're friends.He's going to like this even less."
