“Not really, no.”
“But it wasn’t even midnight when I fetched Mrs. P back from her assignation with the unwilling Edvard.”
“He had nice thighs,” Mrs. P piped up from the front seat. “Horseman’s thighs. Like your man’s. Too bad you interrupted us before Edvard had time to demonstrate his riding abilities.”
“Mrs. P!” I said, scandalized at her innuendo.
She cackled to herself and edged closer to Akbar.
“I’m going to be so glad to hand her over to whoever is here to pick her up,” I told Rowan sotto voce. “And speaking of that, I know we had a heck of an evening, but the rest of last night was pretty quiet.”
“Yes. But I didn’t know it was going to be so uneventful, or I would have gone back to my room and gotten some sleep.”
I twisted around to look him full in the face, noticing the darkness under his eyes and the little lines of strain around his mouth. He also had a light stubble that made my fingers itch to touch it. “What do you mean? You didn’t sleep at all?”
“No.” He leaned back and closed his eyes again. “I watched your room all night in case others came to disturb you.”
Something inside me warmed at his words. “That… I had no idea… oh, Rowan, I wish you’d told me. I would have sat up with you.”
The corner of his mouth that I liked so much quirked upward for a few seconds. “That would have been counterproductive. My goal was to ensure you two rested uninterrupted, and if you had been with me… well, I doubt if you’d have gotten rest.”
I cleared my throat in a meaningful manner and slid a look toward May and Gabriel. They were conversing softly and didn’t appear to be listening, but you never knew. With a neutral voice, I said, “At the cost of your own sleep. Well, at least you’ll be able to sleep well tonight. Mrs. P is due to get on a river cruise this evening, so you can relax and not worry about her being pestered by those guys again.”
“Mmmhmm.” His face softened and I had the worst urge to snuggle into him and keep watch while he took some much-needed rest.
But before he drifted off completely, I leaned into him and whispered very softly, “What’s a wyvern?”
“Dragon leader,” he mumbled, and wiggled his shoulders to get more comfortable against the seat, his head turning toward the window.
I fought the urge to brush back a strand of hair that had fallen down over his eyebrow and told myself that despite our assignation the night before, he was not my man to fuss over. We had just gotten together to scratch a couple of mutual itches. Despite my propensity for falling for men without waiting to know them well, I couldn’t count on him feeling the same way about me as I felt about him. Men just didn’t dive into emotions like that.
Besides, there was the Jian factor to be thought of. What if I was cursed? What if Rowan risked his life to be with me? Four days was all it had taken before Jian and I marched down the steps of city hall, and already I’d known Rowan for two days. What if he left tomorrow to go back to his Amazonian rain forest, leaving me to return to L.A. alone?
A familiar sense of loneliness swept over me, one that had beset me ever since Jian was killed.
To stop myself from dwelling on the many ways my life was messed up, I turned to Gabriel and May, and with a quick check of Akbar (now telling Mrs. P about how he was happy to escort her through a Cairo museum to better understand the exhibits), I asked quietly, “So you’re both dragons?”
An odd look crossed May’s face. “Gabriel is, of course, although to be strictly accurate, I wasn’t born a dragon. First I was his mate, and then due to an interaction with the First Dragon, I became… more.”
“The who now?” I asked.
“The First Dragon is the progenitor of all dragonkin,” Gabriel answered. “All dragons who ever were and ever will be are descended from him.”
“And he made you one, too?” I asked May, feeling a whole lot less special, which was stupid because I was a dragon’s mate, too. I was almost a mythical being, and how many people could say that?
“I guess he did,” she said after a few seconds of significant looks exchanged with Gabriel. “Although I never thought about it in that light. It’s not like he just bopped me on the head and made me that way, though. I’m not sure he can do that, to be honest.”
“He can do anything he desires,” Gabriel said drily.
“Including damning innocent men for acts beyond their control,” Rowan said, his voice muffled since his chin was wedged into his shoulder.
Gabriel was silent for the count of five. “I don’t know about that, but I do know that we owe our existence to the First Dragon. And he was good to May, which I will be thankful for to the end of my time.”