Chapter Twenty-Five
Kylie
“I thought this was more of a temporary solution for you?” she said as the elevator opened and she walked out.
Behind her came Corde, loaded down with bags upon bags.
She’d carefully kept her shopping habits a secret from him until now.
“It was supposed to be. But Colonel Mara has just decided to have the military buy the entire building. They’re going to start renovating all the floors below us so that they’re similar to this.”
“That sounds like they’re planning on having a lot of dragons to fill it,” she said, pointing at the table in front of the couch on “her” floor of the penthouse suite.
“Yeah, I’m not sure what she, Kyen, and Lianna have planned, to be honest with you.”
“Who and who?”
“Oh right, I forgot you haven’t met them all yet. Kyen is a dragon like me. Bit of an oddball to be honest. He’s a pacifist. Won’t fight. To our knowledge he’s the only dragon that hasn’t slept all these years, so he’s kind of an old fart in the dragon world.”
Kylie rolled her eyes. Corde’s command of the English language continued to improve, but with it came the idioms. Oddly, she found herself liking him before he used them a lot. This new side of him tended to overuse them a bit, as if trying to prove he knew how. On the flip side, it was adorable when he sometimes screwed up.
“I see. And Lianna?”
“She’s the scientist behind waking us up. The real brains. She and Kyen did it together, but she’s the workhorse for sure. They work out at Fort Stark. It’s a ways from here. Maybe you’ll meet them someday. That would be nice.”
Corde filled the table with packages, and set the rest down on the thick gray rug that sat underneath and around it. “Did we get enough stuff?”
She shot him a fake glare. “You’re the one who asked me to move in. In case you forget though, my house burned down. All of it.”
The knowledge and reminder of that still hurt, but in the week since Corde had fought the Outsider they’d finally admitted their feelings for each other, and Kylie had caved to the fact that she didn’t want to be anywhere that he wasn’t. It still scared her a bit to think of how fast things were moving, but she couldn’t dismiss the fact that even thinking about a life without him just didn’t feel right on a level so basic and instinctual that she was forced to listen to it.
“Yes, I know. I just don’t think you need to spend all the insurance money on new clothing.”
Kylie’s glare turned a little more real. “You’ve never lived with a woman before, have you?”
“My mother?”
She groaned. “You know what I mean!”
He laughed, walked around the table, and leaned over the couch to kiss her, an action made more difficult by the fact they were both grinning from ear to ear.
“I love you,” he murmured between kisses.
“I love you too,” she said, her cheeks stretching ever wider.
“Best news I’ve heard all day.”
She kissed him again. “You’ve heard it like ten times already.”
“I know.” He kissed her cheek and pulled back. “But I’m still looking forward to the next ten.”
Kylie’s heart swelled as she looked up at the man she’d fallen in love with. True love had never been something she’d believed in, but that no longer seemed like such a big deal to her.
After all, she’d never believed in dragons either.
“Kylie,” Corde said, crouching down to be able to look at her eye level.
“Yes?”
“I know you just bought a lot of clothes, but I was wondering something.”
“Yes, I’d love to buy more!” she giggled. Something about the seriousness of his stare stopped her from commenting further though. “What is it, Corde?”
“I’ve been thinking.” He bit his lip and her heart fluttered a little. What was going on?
“Yes?” If he had something bad to say, just say it!
“Would you consider wearing something for me?”
Her eyes popped open. Was he about to propose?
“Umm, what are you saying, Corde?”
Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a square metal box, perhaps half an inch thick and three or four inches a side. Kylie frowned; it was unlike any ring box she’d ever seen.
“These were my mother’s, before she passed, given to her by my father.”
Kylie gasped. That meant they were hundreds of years old, whatever they were. And he wanted her to have them? She choked back emotional tears.
“Corde…I don’t know what to say.”
He opened the box, revealing three intricately carved metal bands linked together. They were mostly flat, half an inch wide, and the outside was filled with carvings of various scenes and imagery.
“It’s a bracelet,” he explained, sliding it onto her right wrist.
“It fits perfectly,” she said softly as the cool metal sat against her skin. “Oh Corde, it’s so beautiful.”
“It’s not done,” he said, holding his palm upward.
She pulled back slightly as flames burst into existence on his hand, but he had a solid grip of her wrist, and kept her close.
“It’s okay, it won’t hurt you.”
A tendril of flame licked up and across to the bracelet.
Kylie watched in amazement as it encircled her wrists, setting itself into the bracelets themselves. All the empty lines between carvings danced and wavered with firelight. She waited for the heat and the pain to settle in, wondering what Corde was doing, though she trusted him implicitly.
After a few seconds though, nothing happened. “I don’t feel anything. Just a warm pleasing sensation.”
“That’s all you’ll ever feel from it,” he explained. “Coldfire. It’s…well, fire is our thing, let’s just leave it at that.”
She giggled. “Okay. And you’re sure you want me to have it?”
“You are my mate, Kylie. I don’t know what the future of the world holds, but I do know I want to spend it with you. No matter what happens. Together. Partners.”
Kylie stared up at her man with unabashed glee and enthusiasm. The Outsiders were still out there, still threatening mankind, but she no longer worried.
For so long she’d hoped for someone to come through her program that she could save. To prove that she was doing her part.
In the end though, it had been Corde who had saved her.
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This concludes Dragon Seduction, Crimson Dragons Book 2.
I hope you enjoyed the adventure. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on the book, anywhere from characters, to plot, to even the formatting of the book itself. I appreciate all feedback, whether it be reviews, on Facebook or via my website!
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