Kim Knox - Emergence

He sounded nervous, unsure, and it twisted my insides. Someone had hurt Kaden, and I wanted to hold him, offer comfort, my head screaming that was so, so wrong…even as my heart demanded it. My insane heart won. “Completely our own.”

Kaden closed his eyes and let out a controlled breath. Then his molten gold gaze found mine and the desire there had my heart beating hard…just before he rolled me. I yelped, and it mixed with my laughter.

Kaden bit at my lip, his grin feral. “Then tonight you’re ours.”

Sunlight slanted across the bed from the wall of glass stretching the length of the bedroom. I groaned and turned away. The suite had cost me a small fortune, but the tint simply didn’t work. Every morning, fierce heat and light woke me as it struck my pillow.

Twisting in the wide bed, I grabbed another pillow and dropped it on my face. The cool darkness brought a sigh…and something else. A scent, warm, spiced, the lingering trace of the man who had shared my bed.

I jerked upright. The bedroom stood empty, silent, and my heart squeezed. Had he slunk off into the night? I fell back into the deep softness of the mattress and dropped the pillow back on my face. Under it, I scrubbed my hands over my face and tried to believe that his not being in my bed made leaving him so much easier.

I had my few hours of luxury before an envoy came for me…so I planned to soak in the decadent round bath until I wrinkled. My gut twisted. The heels of my palms pressed into my eye sockets, and I let out a string of quiet curses. Nothing, not even the thought of the envoy, dulled the memory of Kaden-I shivered with vivid memory-and his mythoi finding every single one of my body’s sweet spots.

I expelled a slow breath. At least the memories would keep me warm through the long days of scouring the land and seas for pockets of power the dragons harnessed with their seal. I threw the pillow to the floor and kicked the sheets back with more anger and frustration than I intended. Sunlight splashed across my warm, naked skin, and I stretched, finding little kinks and unexpected stitches…but it was time to put my stranger from my mind. Our night was over.

I rolled off the bed and planted my feet in the deep carpet. My toes curled, digging in. I had to face the new day, but all I wanted to do was curl up in the wide bed and imagine Kaden was wrapped around me, hot, strong and simply mine.

I pushed myself up and padded through the long dressing room to the bathroom. Soft light eased away the darkness, and the air brushed damp and warm against my skin. He’d showered. The hint of expensive cologne lingered. Even though it was a brand provided by the hotel, I knew, breathing it in, that Kaden wore it.

I gritted my teeth. Now I was being annoying. I’d had my fun-more than my fair share of it-and it was time to forget it and him. “ Bath. Optimum temperature.” The rush of hot water filled the room, and I found myself at one of the sinks, staring into the large, bright mirror.

I dragged at a tired-looking cheek. The time above the mirror said just after eight…which probably meant I’d had about three hours of solid sleep. A soft laugh escaped me. I reached for my toothbrush, leaned against the cool sink and used the brush to scour my teeth. I spat and rinsed. Time to lose an hour in hot water and bubbles.

I sank into the bath, sighing as the water lapped over my skin. Steam rose into the cooler air. I let my head fall back, my eyes closing. A sigh escaped me. I tried to let my thoughts float, to find nothingness, but they drifted to thoughts of the First Dragon. His envoy would find me and haul me before my new master, who would want to look over his latest acquisition. I snorted as I soaped my body. I was certain he’d be unimpressed. A gryphon had bred with a human. Diluting the gryphon breed was severely frowned upon, or so my father had told me. It was why he’d had charge of bringing me up, after all.

I sank beneath the water, running my fingers through the tangles of my hair. The action broke my thoughts. No, I could change nothing about my future anymore than I could escape the mythoi bound into every cell of my body.

I shampooed and dunked before I erupted from the hot water, gasping for air and wiping my eyes clear.

“Happy birthday, Jaime.”

I yelped, thrashing through the water to stare at the man standing in the open doorway. Kaden. My heart leapt, my pulse spiking with the raw excitement of seeing him. He hadn’t left-then what he said hit me. I frowned. I was positive I hadn’t shared that piece of information with him. “Happy birthday?”

Water sloshed as I turned to follow his progress into the room. The soft light played into the smooth darkness of his hair and over an expensive suit he hadn’t been wearing the day before. I blinked. And it really wasn’t fair. He looked…edible. I swallowed and tried not to see the glorious pulse of his shadow, the nebulous stretch of wings I knew were achingly soft and would brush against my skin with cool promise.

I ran a hand over my wet hair. “Did you charge that suit to my room?”

Kaden leaned back against the long mahogany shelf built around the two sinks. His eyes narrowed. “You don’t have any money.” His lips lifted, but it wasn’t a smile, and my chest hollowed. Something had shifted, and I didn’t know what. The first threads of panic ran through me. “Why would I drag you further into debt?”

I sank into the water, the rim of the bath hiding my nakedness from him. “I’m not in debt.”

“No. But all of your assets became the property of Lord Sinon.” He glanced around at the smooth, gleaming marble lining the walls of the bathroom. “Is there something you’re hiding from him?”

The threads of panic thickened and coiled in my gut. Had he played me? Was his name not on the register because it was a false one? Because the man and the mythoi shadow who had pleasured me so thoroughly was a dragon ? I wiped a shaking hand over my wet face. The old newspaper photographs had been blurred, grainy. Was he…? “You’re Lord Sinon.”

Kaden’s feature’s hardened, and he pushed himself away from the sink. His shadow sharpened, forming a vast arc of wings and talons that dimmed the room’s soft light. “What?”

Thoughts raced through my brain. How the hell was I supposed to address the First Dragon? My father had never been rigorous in instilling the precise etiquette of the more powerful mythoi. I fixed my gaze on the white enamel of the bath and willed my heart to ease. Barely minutes into my service to him and I’d already screwed it up. “I’m sorry, Lord. I didn’t mean to offend-”

His fingers gripped my chin, jerking my face up to his. Something flickered in his gaze. Anger and another emotion I couldn’t name. “Do I look like a dragon to you?”

Fury and resentment burned under his words, and I could only stare at him, reluctant to answer. But it seemed he expected me to say something. “I don’t know what you are, Lord.” Kaden’s mouth thinned, and I tried not to remember how he’d kissed my mouth, my neck, my throat… I sucked in a breath, and my eyes burned. “Lord, I-”

“I am not a lord.” His voice, low, restrained, did little to ease the fear tightening my belly. “If you address me as such I will have no choice but to give you to my master’s enforcers. They will beat the proper responses into you.”

What the hell had happened to him? He wore the same face as the man I’d slept with, the man who’d held me so fiercely I thought I’d break. “Kaden…”

“I’m the envoy, Jaime. Remember that.” He released my chin and stood back. He ran a hand over his hair, his eyes fixed on the floor. A muscle pulled hard in his cheek. “Now get out.”