Page 17 of Dragon Heir

“What’s the opposite of nightmares?” he asks before what I’m pretty sure is understanding passes his features. “That’s normal. Right? For someone your age…”

“I don’t know,” I mumble through my mortification. My face is so hot I swear the cool air inside the house is sizzling off it.

True’s body next to mine feels like cool as an ocean breeze. Maybe his chill is what’s sizzling off me, not the air around us. Meanwhile, that irrepressible fire is again igniting inside me. Between being so close to True, inhaling his fresh masculine scent, and the fact that our conversation is edging on intimate, I’m getting turned on all over again.

“I’m actually really inexperienced with all of this,” I mutter, leaving out the words, You could fix that, True.

“That’s a good thing,” he says before rising and heading back to the kitchen, where I hear him knocking plates around as he starts to clean up.

What the demon lord is going on?

“Time for bed,” he calls.

I repress a groan of frustration and heave myself up. “Okay. Goodnight,” I call back, determined to sound as cool as him, even though I’m being eaten up by burning desire.

I flop down on my bed, seething with pent-up arousal. Once more, I reach under the covers, rubbing myself over and over, until I’m raw and swollen but satisfied enough to finally fall asleep.

Chapter Eight

A continuous tapping sound rouses me from sleep. I sit up, squinting against the light slanting through my window. The tapping continues as I drag my ass out of bed and stumble out of my room, down the hall, to the front door.

“I’m coming,” I snarl, yanking the door open.

I reel back in shock, then dive forward, capturing the familiar figure in my arms. “Sadie,” I scream, crushing her in an embrace and spinning her around and around. It’s only been a month now, but I’ve ached for my sister like a hole in the heart. “How are you here?”

Footsteps pound down the hall, sending tremors through our shabby house. True and Pax burst into the room, their nostrils flared and eyes wide.

“What in the name of the queen is going on?” True shouts.

“Sadie,” Pax says, leaping forward to throw his arms around us both. He’s laughing, and Sadie is squealing like a pig, and I’m… Damn if I’m not crying a little. I didn’t realize how much I missed the big twerp until I saw her.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, laughing and wiping my eyes when Pax releases us. I try not to think about how absolutely right it feels to be in his arms. I’ve been doing good these past couple of weeks not constantly fantasizing about my roommates and professor and focusing on my schooling. I really don’t need to regress.

“Mother and Father said I could go,” Sadie says with a wide grin. “To surprise you for Queen’s Day.”

“Are you staying here until then?” I ask. “That’s a month away.”

“I have to go back to school next week,” Sadie says. “I just came for a couple days. As an early Queen’s Day surprise.”

“You came by yourself?” True asks, frowning.

What’s his problem? He doesn’t even know my sister.

“What he means is, it’s brave of you to travel all the way here alone.”

Sadie shrugs. “Our parents got me a ride most of the way with some friends, and then I hitched a ride on a transport for the last leg of the trip. It wasn’t that hard. I’m not some silly yokel, you know.”

“Yokel or not, I’m glad you made it and didn’t end up captured by Wild Hunters,” I tease, ruffling her hair.

She pulls away and wrinkles her nose at me. “I’m a badass, I’ll have you know.”

“Come on, I’ll show you around campus, little badass,” I say.

“You should probably get dressed first,” she says, looking me up and down. “No offense.”

“Well, I wasn’t planning to go out in my pajamas,” I say, heading for my room. She skips down the hall after me. When we’re alone, I turn to Sadie. “Are you insane? Are Mother and Father going to kill me for harboring a fugitive?”

She waves the question away, wandering around and looking at my room. “I didn’t run away. I told them I had a ride the whole way to Ricoterra.”