She couldn’t wait for Lucian to return.
Oh, God, she had it bad for him.
What she really needed was to clear her head and sort this out, which was how she found herself wandering the hallways of the House of Smoke. The keep was like a small city on top of the mountain. Lucian had given her a cell phone with his number programmed in, plus a built-in GPS so she could find her way back to his lair, and then said she would be safe anywhere she chose to explore. He’d given some kind of command to everyone in the keep to watch out for her… although no one had shown their face so far.
The keep had common areas, like an amazing swim room that was a sparkling lake built into the side of the mountain, complete with waterfall. And a domed observatory that grew out of the top and gave a 360-degree view of the gorgeous mountain scenery at dusk. The keep itself was sprawling and huge, a series of gorgeous, luxury apartments all connected by a common walkway. She was slowly mapping out the maze with the GPS app on her phone and her leisurely wandering.
She didn’t know how many dragons were in the keep, but they seemed to be staying in their lairs. Or perhaps they had left the keep entirely. What did dragons do all day beside lounge in their opulent apartments? Lucian had given her the coordinates and phone number for Leonidas in case she needed something. What she could possibly need that wasn’t provided in Lucian’s well-stocked lair or the entertainment of the miniature surround-sound theater or any number of other pastimes within the glass castle in the sky, she couldn’t imagine.
Except she did—she needed someone to talk to about all this.
Rachel wouldn’t be much help—she knew as much about dragons as she knew about men—but Leonidas was Lucian’s brother. A prince and a dragon as well. Maybe he could help her understand what all this was really about. Because she was falling in love with a dragon prince who was looking for a mate, and the idea of that just turned her head inside out.
When she arrived at the coordinates for Leonidas’s apartment, the entrance was unmarked, except for the extravagant, carved brass dragon in bold relief that draped down the edges. She knocked but nothing happened, and there wasn’t a doorbell. Lucian’s apartment was enormous—maybe Leonidas just couldn’t hear her? She was about to dial his number, when suddenly, and without a whisper of sound, the door slid open.
Leonidas stood in pajama pants, bare-chested with bare feet and tousled hair that looked like he’d just gotten out of bed. His brilliant blue eyes glittered with a metallic shine, and a smile slowly crept on his face.
“Arabella,” he said, and it was like he was tasting her name. Or, more likely, her. Which gave her a shiver she tried to cover up.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt—” But she stopped when a drop-dead gorgeous girl appeared behind Leonidas, peeking and biting her lip. Her long, black hair was likewise mussed, and it was obvious that Arabella had interrupted something. “Oh. I’ll, um… I’ll come back later.” She was already backing away from the door.
Leonidas scowled, then glanced back and tilted his head.
The girl slipped out of sight.
He whipped his attention back to her. “If you leave,” he said, a faux look of distress on his face, “my brother will have my hide for a lampshade.” He stepped back and swept his hand toward the interior. “Please come in.”
Arabella hesitated, but the girl had vanished completely, probably hiding out in Leonidas’s bedroom. Arabella had already interrupted them—she would just make this quick and then get out fast. She shuffled inside, heat crawling across her cheeks as Leonidas ran his gaze over her, checking her out. The short entryway opened into an expansive great room, not unlike the two-story affair in Lucian’s lair, only this one was even warmer in color, with rich bronze trim and copper vases interspersed with white furniture and thick white carpet. It was spotless and neat.
Arabella saw the back of the girl disappear into a room down the hall to the side. The door closed. She stopped and turned to face Leonidas, who was following her with curious eyes.
“What can I help you with?” he asked. The front door slid silently closed behind him.
She folded her arms tight over her chest, wishing she had just left. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to keep you from your… human.” Lucian had told her that some dragons “kept” humans, and now that Arabella had experienced dragon libido for herself, she understood why Leonidas’s “kept woman” wore a smile on her face. She was far from a prisoner. Some people would consider this a kind of heaven.
It just wasn’t for her.