“That’s good,” I say lamely, even as my eyes well.
Maggie squeezes my shoulder in comfort. “You’ve had a busy week. I’ll prepare you a snack so you can settle that growling stomach of yours and take a minute. It won’t be a big snack since dinner is almost ready.”
I open my mouth to say I can make it myself, but she beats me to it.
“Please, let me. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to take care of someone. Kalos and Ben are so self-sufficient. If they didn’t need me to cook for them, they’d be unstoppable.”
I huff a laugh. “If you insist.”
Maggie’s movements are efficient as she prepares the food, and soon I have a platter of salami and cheese in front of me with some grapes on the side.
I furrow my brow.
Maggie answers my unspoken question. “Kalos said that you’ve been nauseous with colder foods, but that with the heat needs of the child being satisfied, that shouldn’t be a concern. I’d like for you to test that if you don’t mind? I want to make sure there isn’t anything he missed.”
My stomach growls again, making my cheeks burn. “I’m hungry enough to try anything. It would be nice to know I can eat ice cream without ending up vomiting.”
I start slowly with nibbling the cured meat before my nerves settle, and I eat it.
Maggie keeps an eye on me as she continues cooking dinner.
“How do you feel?” she asks.
I analyze the sensations of my body. Nausea doesn’t rise up like it’s done for the past week.
“Wonderful.” The relief of that is strong. “I feel like I could cry.”
Maggie laughs. “That will be normal for pregnancy.”
“I could use some normalcy.”
12
KALOS
MAGGIE OUTDID HERSELF FOR DINNER, as always. Though I notice that she’s overloaded Katarina’s meat serving with one of the hot sauces she brews from scratch. Maggie knowing exactly what we need is the norm.
What isn’t the norm is her and Ben excusing themselves from the dining room to give Katarina and me privacy. Do they expect something more to happen other than us discussing the logistics of how her life will change? Do they think I want to have a relationship with this woman? That I’m able?
They both should know better.
“How do you feel?” I ask, awkwardness I can’t shake clings to the question.
“Better,” she says, and her smile softens the tension of the situation.
She looks better. The dark circles under her eyes have already started to lighten, and her grin is reminiscent of the wry way she’d teased me that night. The night I’d taken her over and over again. The memory threatens to let loose the beast that wants to fawn over her, demand things from her.
Our tryst had been in the low light of the moon, and the accent lighting directed on the pieces of my hoard on display. I’d missed details about the woman carrying our young in the darkness.
Her face is pretty enough, her small mouth lush in a way that tempted the dragon that night nearly as much as her scent, which now satisfyingly carries a hint of my own. Her hair is an ordinary color somewhere between blonde and a soft brown, but her green eyes sparkle like my best emeralds. They are arresting. Dangerous.
There’s a brightness to her. A shine that I’ve rarely seen in my life except for centuries ago.
I wonder if that shine pulled in my dragon, though nothing else about her is similar to who we lost.
“For the pregnancy, you should live here,” I start, continuing before she finishes chewing. “Ben has already paid the rent on your apartment through the next year, so you don’t need to worry about going through the motions of moving until you want to.”
It had been his idea as a way to make her feel less trapped and reliant on me. It’s a good one.
“Oh, you didn’t need to—” she starts.
“I have many things at my disposal, including money. If having the apartment comforts you, allow me to do this.”
She blinks. “Okay. I’m not going to complain about that. It does make me feel better to keep the apartment. Thank you.”
I nod and continue. “It would be best, for the time being, if you were here as a standard and only left the estate with Ben’s help.”
“Ben said something about how you need time to figure out who you can trust in your organization.”
It’s good that Ben thought to warn her.
“To that end,” I continue. “You should move your work here if you can. I need Ben to assist me, and while I can get by without him, I can’t do so all the time.”
Katarina shrugs. “That’s reasonable.”
She’s being so flexible, letting me call the shots. Bending for me in a way that has the dragon wanting to make her do things to please it. I shake my head to dispel the urge.
“So, I’ve met Maggie and Ben, will there be more of your inner circle that’ll know about me?” she asks.
“Jensen, my driver, knows, but that will be all for the time being.”
She raises her brows. “That’s a pretty small inner circle.”
I twitch my lips. “It’s better for your safety. And when you live as long as I have, it’s advantageous to keep connections few and far between.”
“That sounds like it would be lonely.”
“There are worse things to be than lonely.” My voice goes soft when I don’t mean for it to.
Katarina tilts her head in thought, and an uncomfortable silence falls between us. I get the sense that I’ve shown her more than I’ve meant to. I’m about to talk about something else, anything else, when she breaks it. Blessedly changing the topic.
“If I need to be here for the majority of the time, I need to have my friend be able to visit me,” she says.
I want to agree because that’s reasonable, but I hold back. “Is this friend involved in anything dangerous?” I ask.
“Oh, no! Not at all. I met her after leaving that life.”
I nod. “Then of course.” I think on it. “And have Ben be the one that transports her in too.”
She agrees and takes a bite of her food.
I mentally check off all the items as a way to keep my mind from wandering to the urge to have her on my lap and feed her. It’s an instinctual response, nothing more.
“After the child is born—” I clench my jaw on the words that they should live elsewhere. My dragon is causing more trouble than I know how to deal with. I’m tapping my talons, trying to think of what he’ll accept, trying to set expectations.
Katarina places her hand on mine, scales and all. “We don’t need to decide now. We can wait until we know each other better.”
I nod. Knowing each other better shouldn’t make any difference, but I accept the opportunity to stall this fight with my beast.
I move on to something that can’t be stalled. “I need you to tell me about who employed you to steal the figurine.”
She releases my hand and starts to look nervous. “Uh, I can’t tell you that.”
“Rina,” I say softly, and some tension leaves her at the shortening of her name. My dragon puffs in pride. “This is something important to your safety. What led you to take the job to break into my hoard?”