“Then your reaction was completely understandable,” she said. “I appreciate you letting me know. It was just that between the way you treated Daisy when I first got to the restaurant and the way you reacted with the waitress, I assumed you were…well, a rich, condescending jerk. Not my type.”
He nodded. “I can see where I gave that impression. I really did think that Daisy was your employee. You haven’t been around dragon clans, so our ways are going to take some getting used to. The Dominus and his family are dragon royalty, and there is a certain formality maintained between us and our servants. It’s not meant to be rude, it’s simply tradition.”
“I understand. Not that it matters, I guess, because of the whole fire and ice thing. Damn it.”
“I know,” he sighed. “This is probably a very girlish thing for me to say, but I was already picking out names for our dragonlings.”
“Whoa.” She held up her hands. “You’re not at all afraid of commitment, are you?”
He flashed her a rueful smile. “After having spent approximately a hundred years waiting for the right woman…no, I am not.”
She glanced at the crispy dead guy and sighed.
“You know, you probably shouldn’t have fried him like that.”
He let out a snort of contempt. “What, you mean I should have just said naughty, naughty as he was shooting at me, and then let him go with a good scolding? After he kidnapped you?”
“Good God, no. I just meant we have no chance to interrogate him now. I’d like to know who went to so much trouble to abduct me.”
Orion’s lip curled in an approving smile.
She had a warrior’s spirit. He really, really liked her.
Wasn’t it possible that fire and ice could meet – and mate?
“So, who was your father, anyway?” he asked.
She made a face. “Geoffrey Chatham.”
Of course. That was just how his night was going. “Geoffrey Chatham. Well, that is even more awkward, if possible.”
“Why?”
“A hundred years ago, he killed my father.”
Her jaw dropped. “Oh. Could this get any worse?”
He considered. “Nope. Probably not. I don’t see how.”
“I don’t know much about what happened back then. Maude told me a little bit about it, although I haven’t caught up on my dragon clan history yet.”
“I certainly don’t hold it against you personally,” Orion said. “There was a contested silver mine whose ownership wasn’t clear. Half a dozen dragons, including my uncle and my father and dragons from other clans, chose to battle over it. My father was very strong, but after battling several other dragons, he was weakened.”
She fixed him with a narrow-eyed scowl. “Wait a minute. Maude did tell me about you, she just didn’t mention your clan by name. You’re the ones who are responsible for our family being nicknamed the Cheat-hams?”
He scowled. “Deservedly. Your father didn’t dare take on my father until my father was already weak.”
She put her hands on her hips. “You know, that’s an awfully convenient—”
“Quiet!” he snapped at her.
“Excuse you?” she said indignantly. Feisty. Strong. Unafraid of anything, even him.
Unfortunately, he’d snapped at her for a reason. Far off in the distance, he saw a massive form, pale against the deepening night-blue of the sky, flapping its wings and heading their way. Ice dragon. Coming for her.
“Incoming,” he said. “I need to get you out of here.”
“You still want to help me?” Cadence asked, surprised.
It surprised him too. He could just let this dragon take her. She was an ice dragon, and a Chatham; what was she to him?
Everything, his treacherous dragon whispered. She is everything. She is ours.
Of course, if he took her back to his castle, it would be a major insult to the Chathams. Like extending the big middle claw at them and shoving it in their face.
“Help keep you from the ice dragons?” He grinned fiercely. “Why not? I don’t hold a grudge against you, but the same doesn’t go for your clan. This will be like spitting fire in their faces. Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “I’m going to shift, you’re going to climb on my back, and you’re going to throw your arms around my neck and hold on for dear life. Unless you can fly?”
She snorted. “I can’t even get scaly. I fail at dragon.”
He called to his beast and let its power flow through him, overtaking him. His wings sprang from his back and his skin melted away, giving way to scales. His claws curved, biting holes in the asphalt. He flattened out on the ground so she could climb on top of him.