For some reason, she felt she could trust Robbie instantly.
Five
Adrien let cool water run over his body, enjoying the tingling thrill of it, the way it made him feel more awake.
He needed to be awake, given that Robbie was now out there talking to Kelsey.
His greater than average hearing assured he could catch every word without even trying to.
He listened as Kelsey once again repeated the story of him coming to her rescue.
Even hearing it, he felt it had to be someone else they were talking about. Not that he was the kind of cad who could stand by while a woman was assaulted, but just that it was weird that he’d been paying enough attention to her to even know to come to her rescue.
It was definitely something to think about, and Adrien liked to think.
Most of the time, it was better than feeling.
He tilted his face back, letting water pour over his eyelids, cheeks, nose, lips, and jaw. It was a new day. Another day in this stupid time where he had no idea what his place was. Another day to think about everything he’d lost.
Another day to deal with stupid humans.
Kelsey wasn’t a stupid human, though. He had to admire her ingenuity at coming in here for warmth in the first place. And the way she’d walked in and claimed food, told them off as needed, that set fire to his loins.
He loved a feisty woman. That was probably why he got along with Robbie. That and he loved the way she got under Citrine’s skin.
Those two would probably end up mated, he thought, even if neither of them realized it.
They were a perfect pair.
He’d often wondered if there was a perfect pair out there for him. He’d had doubts about any of his crew matching with a human until he’d met Dante and his mate. They seemed wonderful together. That gave him hope for Sever. But as for himself, he’d never found a female he could get along with.
Perhaps if there was a dragon female, like the one Emerald had mated, then he could mate with her.
But he’d never heard of one.
And besides, it felt wrong to even think of it somehow, because when he did, Kelsey’s face came to mind as if rebuking him.
Was she his mate? That would be an interesting act of fate. He reached back and squeezed water out of his hair, then shook his head back and forth, spraying droplets around him as he turned off the showerhead.
She’d clearly showered this morning. Her hair was short, curly, and framed her face nicely.
He’d been surprised by the pure green of her irises, the curled, long lashes that lent her otherwise straightforward features a vulnerable look.
She had full lips and a pretty mouth, a jaw that was a little strong for his usual taste, but a chin that signaled strength.
Her body was still doing its best to hide in that baggy sweatshirt she’d been wearing, but he could make out solid hips and large breasts.
She had an overall solid look to her, the strength of a tree that had been made to stand against the wind.
He wanted badly to know what she’d been through to land her where she was.
He had a begrudging respect for surviving the way she had, compared to many of the privileged women who came into Date-A-Dragon, thinking their money entitled them to more than a date.
His eyes narrowed as he thought about the daily staff meeting and appointments that would follow.
He was tired of being trotted out like a prize horse. He was a dragon. He should be ruling things from a castle, taking tribute, going on midnight raids to defend his territory.
He should have power. Right now he had none. Less than none. Forced to act servile, to endure indignities.
The ring on his hand, which couldn’t be removed in any way by himself, brought another wave of bitterness through him.
He needed to be a dragon again. He needed access to his powers. His treasure. His wings.
The thought of flying with Kelsey went through his mind, and he took a step back in shock. No, she had nothing to do with his dragon form, did she?
With a human mate, how was that supposed to work? She would ride his back as if he were a common horse?
But thinking of it, carrying her through the clouds, wasn’t half as awful as he’d thought it should be.
He felt a headache coming on as he stepped out of the shower and wrapped his robe around him, trying to think of anything to get the image of their stupidly sappy flying fantasy out of his mind.
But even as he dried his hair with a hand towel and began to retie his bandage, he couldn’t shake a rushing feeling that he was falling down quickly with no way to slow his descent.
Kelsey, a woman who had nothing to her name and who didn’t seem to think much of him, a human, was probably his fated mate.
“What exactly am I watching?” Kelsey asked, leaning back in the comfy office chair she’d been given and looking up at the TV screens Robbie was studying with a clipboard in her hands.