Page 37

“And this?” She points to the section at the top of the dome.

“Observation deck.” I’m talking way too fast and don’t care. “Retractable roof…”

“You’re a whole encyclopedia about this stuff,” she teases when I finally stop for breath.

“Of course I am.” I prop my hip against the table. “I’m the son of Tyrion. A Stormscale.” My dragon puffs up when I say it.

She straightens beside me. “Is that why? Because of your father?”

“Stormscale dragons have always been lovers of the stars,” I tell her. “Did you know that? It’s in our blood. We can command storms, yes, but we also navigate by the constellations. We chart our courses through the heavens. My ancestors used to fly so high they could touch the edge of space itself.”

She blinks. “I didn’t know that.”

Through the window, the sky has turned orange and pink. The stars will be out soon. I want her under them. “Come with me.” I grab her hand and tow her out of the office. On the way to the front door, I snag a blanket off the back of the sofa and throw it over my shoulder. She follows me down the porch steps and across the grass.

I turn to face her in the yard. “Watch the stars with me.”

She nods with her scent gone warm and reaches for the blanket, but I swing it away and extend my wings instead.

She eyes them. “Well, looks like we fixed that problem quickly.”

I haul her into my arms. “I mean it, Aya. You do that again and you’ll jump-start everything. I’m tired of fighting my dragon to be respectful.”

She bats her lashes. “It got the job done, didn’t it?”

“I’m serious.” I tighten my grip on her waist.

She wiggles her hips against me. “I’m still not wearing any panties.”

I lean down to put my mouth at her ear. “Oh, I know. I’ve been smelling your pussy through dinner. I was just being a gentleman.” She shivers when I nip at her earlobe. “Plus, I really enjoyed it.”

She swats at me, but her scent spikes with arousal. My dragon votes to forget the stars and carry her back inside.

I lift us off the grass with a hard push of my wings. She digs her nails into my arms on the way up. I’d circle the cabin all night to keep her clinging to me like this. Instead, I set us down on the roof. I steady her before I sit and wrap the blanket around her shoulders.

“I’m not cold,” she says.

I tuck it in snug. “So what? Let me cater to you.”

She giggles and tips her face up. The shingles are still warm from the sun under my hands. Over the trees, the sky goes dark blue while the stars come out.

“There.” I point. “That’s Polaris. The North Star. Sailors have used it to navigate for thousands of years because it never moves. Everything else in the sky rotates around it.”

She follows my finger and squints until she nods. I raise my arm higher. “And there’s Ursa Major. The Great Bear.” I trace the outline of the constellation in the air. “See the seven bright stars that form the dipper? That’s the bear’s back and tail.”

“I see it.” She scoots in and presses her thigh to mine.

“We might see the northern lights soon if we’re lucky. Wintermoon gets some of the best views in the country.” I point toward another cluster of stars. “That’s Lyra. My father always said it reminded him of my mother because it’s beautiful and impossible to ignore.”

She laughs at that, and I’m already digging through every story I grew up on for another one that’ll make her do it again.

“The Pleiades cluster is there.” I swing my arm lower. “Seven Sisters, bound together by gravity and myth. The Greeks believed they were daughters of Atlas, transformed into stars to escape Orion’s pursuit.”

Aya slides her hand out from under the blanket and laces her fingers through mine. I don’t move a muscle in case she changes her mind.

“When I’m not working,” she says, “I’d like to help you with the build.”

I twist around to face her. There’s no tease anywhere in her scent. “Really?”