Chapter Fourteen
The sun was burning the early morning mists off the grass the next day as Kelly and Gabriel enjoyed breakfast in the rose garden behind the castle. Kelly hid a yawn and gulped another cup of coffee. Lying in her bed alone the night before, she’d drifted in and out of sleep, tormented by highly erotic dreams of Gabriel – and the knowledge that he was lying in bed only a thousand feet away.
Gabriel poured some more coffee from a carafe into her cup.
Damn stupid considerate dragon, she thought to herself, stirring in cream.I hate how thoughtful and attentive he is.
“So, my father checked with his friends in town, and the ice dragons who attacked the Maplethorpes all claim that they have no memory of doing so,” Gabriel said.
“That is weird.” She frowned. “Have they been arrested for assault or anything like that?”
“No, they’re being examined by dragon medics to see if they’d been drugged or bewitched. There’s an attorney representing them. They’ve got a good case to make, in that none of them had criminal records, and they’d never even met the Maplethorpes before. And the fact that they all started attacking the Maplethorpes at the same time seems to indicate that there was some outside influence acting on them.”
“In their defense, if I was capable of freezing the Maplethorpes into jerksicles, I’d be extremely tempted myself,” Kelly said.
She drained her cup of coffee and set it down. Time to get back to work.
Well, here goes nothing, she thought.
She glanced up at the castle. “I’d like to see some more of the castle today. Can we go up top on the walkway between the towers?” Kelly asked. “I want to check out the view.”
Gabriel nodded. “Of course,” he said.
As servants cleared the remains of their breakfast, he and Kelly went back inside and took an elevator to the top.
Gabriel led her outside to the walkway, and they strolled slowly. Kelly took a minute to admire the magnificent view, with the rolling green hills and the colorful patches of flower gardens like a patchwork quilt behind the castle. Several young dragonlings flapped awkwardly through the air near the apple orchard, with mother dragons flying underneath them in case they fell.
How wonderful it would be if my children could fly,she thought wistfully.
Then she opened her mind and began concentrating. She casually wandered along until they were closer to the south tower. Gabriel paused, so she had to stop too. She needed to get closer to the tower if she had any hope of feeling for the ruby.
Gabriel pointed out the fields behind the castle. “See that hill? That was where I learned to fly when I was a dragonling,” he said. “Our dragonlings will fly there.”
“I’m human – I wouldn’t be able to have dragonlings,” she said without thinking. Then she looked at him. “I mean, not that you and I are really getting married and having children.”
“You could have a dragonling through artificial insemination. The dragonlings would be raised in a hatchery,” he said. “That’s how Evangeline was conceived. Her father was human. The only way he and her mother could have children was at a fertility clinic that specializes in dragon births.”
“Where are her parents? I’ve never seen them.”
His expression went dark, and he looked away. “Her father left, and her mother is on life support.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. That does kind of explain her attitude.”
“To an extent,” he conceded. “We make some allowances because of it. Maybe more than we should. We don’t want to let her grow up to be an out-of-control, tantrum-throwing brat. Her mother wouldn’t have wanted that.”
She nodded, staring out at the green fields that stretched away far into the distance.
“You’re good with Evangeline. Believe it or not, she likes you,” he said.
A cold wind whipped through the air, and he stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body, and pulled her close to him.
“Sometimes you’re not too terrible,” she admitted, settling up against him.
He bent down and kissed her. The touch of his mouth was firm and sweet and welcoming. Her lips parted beneath his, and he cupped the back of her head and hooked his arm around her waist so he could pull her closer against him. She could feel the steady thump-thump of his heart, and she nestled against him, twining her fingers in the front of her shirt and clinging to him.
But then she pulled away and put her hand against his broad chest, holding him at arm’s length. “What if you do get married to someone and father their hatchlings, and then you steal a jewel and get caught and go to jail for the rest of your life?”
“I’d enjoy your conjugal visits?” he suggested with a wicked flash in his eyes, but she wasn’t having any of it.
