Chapter 13
“I’ve just realized, now that we’re in no danger from Markovic, I don’t have to stay here but can go back to my apartment,” Holly said slowly.
When Dylan made his vow to give Holly all the time she needed to decide whether she wanted to be his mate, he hadn’t realized it would be tested so soon. He hadn’t envisioned the two of them being apart while she made that decision.
Which was pretty stupid of him.
Holly did have that whole other life that didn’t include him. An apartment. A career. Friends and colleagues.
Nor did he have the right to expect her not to want to return to that life while she considered whether she wanted to be his mate. The fact he had envisioned the two of them spending tonight together in a totally different way was just too bad for him.
“I have to go to work tomorrow night anyway,” Holly continued lightly. “And my apartment is closer to the hospital.”
He nodded. “I’ll take you there if you want to go.”
Her eyes lit up. “As your dragon?”
He smiled ruefully at her obvious excitement. Inwardly, his dragon preened at Holly’s enthusiasm. “If that’s what you would like.”
What Holly would like?
She was desperate to see Dylan’s blue dragon, just knew that he was going to be even more impressive than Garrett’s dark gray one.
She had fallen in love with the man and now wanted to know if she could fall in love with his dragon too.
The possibility of seeing his dragon also helped to ease some of her disappointment in Dylan having agreed without argument to her suggestion she could go back to her own apartment tonight. She might have expected a little resistance on his part, at least. The fact that he hadn’t…
“I would like,” she accepted huskily.
“Will you be able to get in the building if we land on the roof?”
Holly nodded. “I have an extra key that gives me access to the roof.”
“You do realize there will be discomfort for both of us in being apart for any length of time,” he warned.
Holly knew exactly what sort of discomfort Dylan was referring to.
He had more than satiated her need for him earlier this evening, before Gayle interrupted them, but Holly was fully aware that desire had now reached fever pitch again. Her body ached for Dylan’s touch, and she believed him when he said that need was only going to get worse if they spent the night apart.
But if they were to become fated mates, there had to be more between them than physical desire and satisfaction.
Holly had grown up with the same hopes and dreams of most other women. Those of having a successful career, which she had, but also falling in love, having someone fall in love with her, the two of them marrying and having children of her own. Was it too much to hope, even in these circumstances, that she might have those same things? No doubt Dylan would agree to a human marriage if she were to ask for that. His brothers seemed to have all married their human mates. Was it wrong of Holly to want love too?
That was one of the things she needed time away from Dylan, from the temptation of him, to think about.
She nodded. “I’m okay with that if you are.”
His jaw tightened. “Your happiness is my priority.”
Which, Holly acknowledged ruefully, didn’t tell her anything of Dylan’s feelings.
She avoided meeting his gaze. “Can I take my overnight bag with me, or am I enough for you to carry?”
His mouth twisted. “Holly, my dragon could carry a hundred woman who look like you and as many bags. Despite what you might think to the contrary, you are not fat, you are a sexy and shapely woman. My woman,” he added possessively.
Dylan added?
Or his dragon did?
Whichever of them it was, even if it was both of them, it still wasn’t enough for Holly that they found her body desirable. She was much more than a body. She was also an intelligent and capable woman, and she needed to be sure Dylan wanted all of her before she made a decision about their mating.
Even if her refusal meant they would both die?
The thought of allowing anything to happen to Dylan was anathema to her.
The thought of accepting less than love in a relationship, no matter how unorthodox that relationship might be, was equally as repugnant to her.
Which was why Holly needed this time alone to think.
“Fine,” she said briskly. “I’ll just get my bag, and then we can leave.”
Dylan’s jaw tightened as he watched Holly go to the bedroom to collect her things, knowing he disliked even this brief separation, so God knows how he was going to spend a whole night without her. Painfully, he suspected.
But what else could he do but accept Holly’s decision to go back to her own apartment?
He had no doubt, as his senses were once again saturated with the scent of the honeysuckle and ripe peaches of her arousal, that he could seduce her into staying. But she wouldn’t thank him for manipulating her that way, nor would it solve any of the dilemma she currently found herself in.
To mate with him and live.
Or to refuse him and they both died.
Whichever she decided, Dylan would accept that decision. He had meant it when he promised never to force or pressure her into being his mate.
“Ready?” Holly prompted expectantly.
Dylan roused himself to join her so they could go up onto the roof. He had to admit to feeling a certain amount of pride in showing her his dragon at last.
The sort of pride that went before a fall?
Dylan had never before had reason to doubt himself or the magnificence of his dragon. He’d been confident the midnight blue scales that gleamed and glistened in the sun and moonlight were enough to dazzle any woman.
But Holly wasn’t any woman. She was his fated mate.
What if she found Garrett’s dragon more alluring?
“Why so pensive?” Holly prompted after they’d stepped out onto the roof and Dylan remained at her side. “If you’re worried you might black out again, perhaps we should just go by car?”
Dylan hadn’t given those blackouts another thought since the second one after Holly’s arrival in Wales two days ago. He’d rationalized that the heightened amount of the mating aphrodisiac in his bloodstream that first time was due to his dragon having sensed and known his mate was nearby even flying thousands of feet above her. That belief had been confirmed when the same thing happened to him when Holly arrived in Wales. His blood showed the same increase in the mating aphrodisiac on both those occasions.
The only thing he needed to establish was whether the dragon mating was evolving or this reaction was specific to him. He’d hoped once they were mated, he and Holly could research the problem together.
They still might, he reminded himself firmly. Holly hadn’t said no yet.
“No, I’m not worried about that,” he dismissed.
Holly looked at him searchingly. “Then what are you worried about?”
Dylan gave a self-derisive snort as he realized his behavior was a dragon’s form of a human male’s penis envy. A doubt in himself as to whether his dragon would match up to Garrett’s in Holly’s eyes.
He stepped forward onto the middle of the roof. “Not a damned thing.” He was bigger and stronger than his little brother. “Try not to be frightened, okay? It’s still me, and my dragon would no more hurt you than I would.”
“I went way past being frightened and into the realm of mind-numbing fantasy the moment Garrett’s dragon appeared on this roof with us earlier tonight,” she assured.
His mouth tightened at the mention of his brother’s dragon, but he didn’t waste another moment on self-doubt as he shifted into his own dragon.
Holly gasped as the air shimmered and a blue dragon suddenly appeared in front of her.
No, a blue dragon was far too simple a description of Dylan’s dragon.
His scales were an incandescent and glittering midnight blue in the moonlight. His brow and face were narrower than Garret’s dragon’s had been, and he was several inches taller too. Powerful wings were folded back against his muscled body, and his four muscular limbs were tipped with those same lethal-looking black talons.
Not a trick at all, but real, curling black talons that could rip her human body apart within seconds.
The intelligence in those sapphire-blue eyes, Dylan’s eyes, assured her he would never harm her.
Because I’m the fated mate of a dragon shifter.
Instead of fear, Holly’s heart filled with pride, not only because Dylan’s dragon was magnificent beyond description, but also because he had chosen her as his mate.
Despite her earlier thoughts, Dylan had chosen her, she realized.
He’d explained he’d only left her that first time because he was concerned why he’d blacked out, that he’d always intended to come back for her. The fact that his family had recognized her name and known she was Dylan’s mate when she went to Wales was proof Dylan was telling the truth about that.
But the choice of whether to mate with her worked two ways. Dylan could just as easily have chosen not to do so and allowed his brothers to destroy him.
Until I kissed him and took that choice away from him, a little voice in her head reminded her.
No, Dylan could still have refused to accept her as his mate. Instead, he was leaving the choice to her as to whether they lived or died.
He’d been at her side, helping and supporting her decisions ever since she’d gone to him in Wales. Dylan had shown her time and again he respected her, personally and professionally.
He treated her as if she was the most precious thing in the world, as if she and her opinions mattered.
He promised her a lifetime of fidelity, something no human male had or possibly could ever give her. Maybe Dylan didn’t love her yet, but perhaps that would also come with time.
The question was, could Holly mate with him anyway, put her own dreams on hold, while she waited for that possibility to become a reality?
A dragon’s treasure wasn’t that legendary hoard of gold, Holly realized. It was its heart. That big, honorable, and valiant heart beating inside its very large and muscular chest.
It was something to be strived for, to win, and never, ever to be taken for granted or denied.
“I doubt it took Arawn, ruler of Annwn, as long to form and make the Welsh Underworld as it’s taking you to decide whether or not you like my dragon.” Dylan’s dragon voice resonated.
Holly jolted back to the present. To recognizing the look of uncertainty in Dylan’s expressive blue eyes. “Like you is far too mediocre a description,” she assured him as she stepped forward to place her hand on that powerfully muscled chest, instantly aware of the strong heart beating beneath. “You’re beyond description, Dylan. Majestic. Imposing. Awe-inspiring.”
Dylan and his dragon preened at Holly’s unconditional praise.
It was a start. Not yet the love he craved and wanted, but awe and praise for his dragon at least.
He lowered his brow. “Are you going to be warm enough on our flight?”
“I’m sure I will be,” she assured him distractedly, obviously eager to be off.
“Then climb up,” he invited as he held out his front legs. “Light as a feather,” he teased once she and her bag were securely nestled in the safety of his “arms.” “Ready?” He arched a dragon brow.
She gave a breathless laugh. “Could anyone ever be ready for this?”
Dylan gave a rumbling chuckle at the involuntary scream Holly gave, her fingers in a death grip about his front legs as the sweeping silence of his wings took them up into the air.
Flying as dragon had been as natural to Dylan as breathing once he reached the age of thirty-five and left Annwn to become part of Arthur’s dragon army.
Nevertheless, his chest swelled as he felt and saw Holly’s pleasure in the flight. He might even have swooped and dipped unnecessarily around a couple of buildings just to add to that look of wonder on her face.
Mine, his dragon stated smugly.
Dylan bristled at his dragon’s claim on his mate, and then realized how ridiculous it was to feel jealous of his own dragon.
But Holly was his, damn it. All his. Every voluptuous and desirable inch of her.
Holly had never experienced anything so exhilarating in her life as being held in Dylan’s strong arms as he flew them both through the night sky. It was as close to flying herself as she was ever likely to get.
It was magnificent.
The wind rushing by her. The air cold on her face. The bird’s-eye view of the completely open London skyline. The being able to look into those buildings and see people living out their lives without the least idea a dragon, that mythical beast of legend, had just flown past their window.
It was over far too soon for Holly as Dylan’s dragon slowed and then righted before alighting gently onto the roof of her apartment building.
Her legs felt slightly shaky once Dylan had placed her back on her feet, but her smile was so big, it made her cheeks ache. “That was wonderful. Thank you.”
He nodded that majestic head. “I’ll wait for you to go inside before I leave.”
Holly’s smile faded at the thought of Dylan leaving. “I— Wouldn’t you like to come inside for a few minutes? For coffee, maybe?”
The dragon gave a chuff of self-derisive laughter. “It isn’t coffee I want.”
Now or never, Holly, she told herself. She either let Dylan go, and tomorrow the two of them started from square one again, or— “It isn’t coffee I’m offering.” She kept her chin raised as she met that sapphire gaze unwaveringly.
The dragon continued to stare at her unblinkingly for several long seconds, then there was that shimmer in the air, and it was a fully clothed Dylan once again standing in front of her.
If anything, Holly felt more nervous with the man than she had his dragon. Because Dylan would see that blush in her cheeks and the fever in her eyes and believe it was only the mating desire that motivated her.
It wasn’t.
Time to man—or rather, woman—up, Holls.
The two of them could carry on this mating dance for another two weeks while Dylan gave her the time to decide what she wanted, or she could tell him the truth. She already knew what she wanted.
Him.
Dylan the man.
Dylan the dragon.
Dylan her fated mate.