Page 14 of January Bell

“I am sorry that I was driving you crazy and not in a fun way.” I frown. I don’t like what she’s saying. I don’t like that I have been a problem for her.

I do not want to be a problem.

I want to be the solution to all her problems, not cause them.

My hand reaches across the table for hers, dying to touch her skin, to feel the softness of it. To see the contrast between the harsh purple of my calloused hands with the soft, warm, nutty peach and pink of hers.

“I am sorry if I am unfamiliar with the human ways of mating,” I tell her sincerely, the words falling out of me before I can catch them and push them back inside. “It is not the way of the Draegon to be subtle in our mating, and I’ve wanted you since you selected me, before we were put onto this god-forsaken planet.”

“Satellite,” she corrects. “No, that’s not what they said it was… space station,” she corrects herself, then gives me a goofy grin that’s not at all like the normal Lily I know. “Whatever it is, your mating thing, it was too much,” she says, shaking her head. “Men back on Earth, when they pursue you like that, they only want one thing.”

“Mating. For life.”

“Definitely the first part and definitely not the second,” she says, looking frustrated at herself for speaking again. She scrunches up her nose. “Why is it that I feel like all I want to do is talk to you right now? I really feel like there was something in that chicken. Or maybe we’re both just tired. Do you feel weird?”

“We could admit that it’s time for us to have these hard conversations,” I say gently. “We have to get off of this space station, and we have to do it together. And I can make it easier for you by easing your heat.”

“I am not ready to be mated for the rest of my life,” Lily says. “I don’t know you, and what you’ve shown me so far, I’m not sure I even like.”

“What have I shown you so far that is so bad?” I ask, incredulous. “I am a strong, capable, handsome male, feared by all of my enemies.”

My voice grows louder, and the chicken who appeared to have been asleep in the sand under the tree opens one beady eye and bawks at us quietly before re-nestling her head under her wing.

When I look back at Lily, she’s no longer sitting. Standing, her eyes are clear, lips pursed with that thoughtful expression she gets when she’s considering doing something that she thinks she’ll regret later. I noted it during our first task when she made a risky decision that paid off in the end. And I’ve seen it several times since, including when she told me to leave her alone and go away.

She slowly walks around the table to where I sit, still as a statue, afraid to move for spooking her.

“What if I told you I did want you to ease my heat?” she says. “Because I do, I really do. I have never been so horny in my entire life. I am so wet that it’s embarrassing, like truly embarrassing, and it’s becoming more and more painful and unbearable. And as much as you drive me crazy, you’re the only thing that I want. Just you.”

“Lily.” So many thoughts come and go from my mind that it’s impossible to pin them down. The only thought that remains is how much I need her and how much it hurts me that she doesn’t like me.

“If we do this,” she says, holding a finger up, “you have to promise me that you will not try and manipulate me into being your mate when this is over, or into doing this again during the course of this show. Do you understand me?”

She gives me a very serious look, her finger still aloft. I wonder what it is she wants to do with that finger. If it’s meant to be intimidating, it is very much not. Her finger is about half the size of mine.

I wave her finger away gently because I don’t want her to poke my eyes with it out of spite to get this agreement, especially when she need not try so hard to get it.

“Lily, if you would let me ease your heat right now, I would give you anything in the world that you ask for.”

“Thank fuck.” Her slim, muscled leg slides over my lap, and she’s in my arms.