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It was a small victory, but it was a victory nevertheless. Perry bowed his head in acknowledgment, grinned to himself, and spun on his heel to fetch Sebastian.
* * *
Sebastian was lounging, naked, on the hoard bed when Perry entered. Their sheets, rarely pristine but typically tidy, were crumpled about him, and the blanket was in a heap at the foot of the bed where Sebastian had kicked it when they’d made love half an hour ago. Coins and other precious things were scattered about the mattress and tucked into their bedding, some of which were spread across Sebastian’s chest, down his stomach, and onto his groin. From amongst them, he’d selected a fat, round-cut ruby and held it aloft, passing the time by twisting it this way and that.
It was a short distance to the bed, but not one Perry was able to make with any kind of stealth. The clink! his anklets made as he moved prevented him from moving silently. Upon hearing his approach, Sebastian lifted his head. A moment later, a different, more southern part of his body did the same.
“Perry,” Sebastian growled in the dark, seductive way that Perry favored. “Come. Be with me. I lust for you.”
“And I lust for you, too, darling, but there is a dragon in our lair who wouldn’t much appreciate it were we to ignore him for each other.”
Sebastian sat up in a rush of arms and legs. “Who?”
“Your brother.”
“Which one?”
“Bertram.”
Sebastian swore and hurried out of bed. Gold coins tumbled to the floor, knocked from his body. He brushed a few off from the backs of his thighs and stomped through the treasure littering the area to grab yesterday’s pants.
“Why is he here, Sebastian?” Perry asked while Sebastian dressed. “He won’t say, but I know him—he wouldn’t visit for hospitality’s sake.”
“It’s no concern of yours, sweet.” Sebastian tugged on the zipper of his fly, sending it clacking up its track. “Bertram is here to help fortify our lair.”
“Fortify?”
“Yes.”
“From what? We already restructured our security system following the Topaz attack all those years ago. Surely the measures we took to keep out hostile dragons should be enough to keep us safe?”
Sebastian shook his head.
“I love you with all my heart, Sebastian,” Perry told him flatly, “but there are times I do so wish to strangle you.”
“Tonight, after Bertram’s left.” Sebastian thumbed the button of his pants into place and lumbered, shirtless, toward the door. “I’ve heard it said one of my brothers enjoys such treatment. If that’s the case, it can’t be all that bad.”
Perry blinked after him. “I beg your pardon?”
“Forget it.” Sebastian paused in front of the door. “Try not to worry yourself, Perry. Nothing is wrong.”
“Then why won’t you tell me what’s going on? I know that it’s related to…” Perry’s lower lip trembled, but he strengthened himself. Now more than ever he had to be strong. Sebastian and Bertram would not share their secrets with a man one wrong word away from breaking down. “To my pregnancy, but I can’t figure out how. Thicker windows won’t help keep the babe inside me. You know that.”
A fearsome sound like old bones snapping came from Sebastian’s direction. Scales the color of eggplant by midnight plunged down his spine and tumbled over his shoulders. There was a look to him that wasn’t quite right—an unusual bulge in his muscle here and a troubling elongation of bone there—that made it seem like he’d been sketched by an artist from another planet who’d only ever heard a man described, but had never actually seen one.
Perry had seen Sebastian like this before, usually when he was moments away from slashing through something with his claws. That wasn’t the case this time, but it spooked goose bumps out of him regardless.
It was, at times, easy to forget that Sebastian was dangerous.
Perry would not forget it again.
“True,” Sebastian allowed after a time, his voice made raspy by the emergence of his dragon. “Windows won’t help us keep the babe, but staying cool and collected might. Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, Perry. I am simply trying to protect you.”
“I am a dragon, Sebastian. Harrison—”
“I don’t care what Harrison has to say,” Sebastian snarled. “Until you have teeth and claws with which to defend yourself, I will not have you involved with ongoing events. All it would do is make you worry. Let me protect you like I always have. It’s my duty as your lover and as your mate.”
Sebastian’s partial transformation began to recede, but while he could hide his dragon, there was no hiding the truth. Perry had seen him act this way before, and he knew by experience that Sebastian hadn’t lashed out because he was angry—he’d done it because he was afraid.
