Page 67 of Dragon’s Ending

God, I loved him. I’d known that for days—I just hadn’t put it in those words. But as he accepted a handful of suspiciously muddy-looking conkers Teddy had produced from the depths of his pockets, the words felt quietly, undeniably right. I’d said I love you before. At the time, I’d believed every word. But until Dominic, I’d never understood quite what love could be.

“Ben.” Teddy was now looking up at me, offering me three little conkers that looked the worse for wear.

“Thank you,” I said gravely, unsure exactly what was expected. “I’ll take very good care of them.”

Dominic grinned at me over Teddy’s head, looking absurdly pleased by my response.

And then Rae appeared from the dining room, muttered to Dominic, “It’s your own fault,” and collected Teddy to sweep him up the stairs in front of her.

I gestured helplessly with the hand that held the conkers. “What exactly am I supposed to do with these?”

Dominic turned and deposited his handful on the mantelpiece of the great fireplace.

“You take very good care of them,” he reminded me, as I followed suit.

“I feel there are probably rules I haven’t been told.”

“There are always rules at Dragon’s Ending. Most of them are nonsensical.”

I laughed at his lazy, subversive certainty, and Dominic’s eyes warmed still further. He stepped forward, caught hold of the front of my jumper, and backed me against the wall beside the fireplace.

“You know,” he murmured, close enough that his breath ghosted warm against my lips, “you’re taking all this surprisingly well.”

“What, the conkers?”

“Those too. But more the fact that I’m a terrible influence.”

I slid my hands up beneath his hoodie, warm skin beneath my palms. “I don’t know,” I said thoughtfully. “I’m beginning to think I may always have secretly wanted to become the sort of person who accepts muddy objects from small children and commits tax fraud.”

He laughed softly against my mouth before he kissed me. And God, he was so good at that. One of his hands slid into my hair while the other stayed firm at my waist, holding me against the wall as he kissed me deep and slow like he had absolutely nowhere else he needed to be. Sunlight from the windows spilled gold over us, and Dominic was everything.

His mouth curved slightly against mine when I made a helpless little sound into the kiss, clearly pleased with himself.

Then the front door crashed open, the sound cracking through the hall. Dominic jerked back, every muscle rigid.

I turned to find Rhodri standing in the doorway.

His dragon looked out through his eyes. Smoke drifted from his nostrils with each controlled breath, and the sheer force of his fury seemed to fill the house.

His gaze never left Dominic. “What,” he said very quietly, “the fuck is this?”

Beside me, Dominic had gone utterly still, muscles locked tight beneath the hand I still had pressed against his side.

Rhodri’s gaze cut from Dominic to me and back again, and I shivered at the threat in his eyes.

“Well?” he said.

Dominic straightened, regaining control over whatever instinctive panic Rhodri’s arrival had triggered. “It’s not what you think,” he said, a little too quickly.

“Oh, it’s exactly what I think.” Rhodri stepped fully into the hall, slamming the front door hard enough behind him that the sound echoed through the house. “I leave for one week and return to find you mauling the representative of yet another dragon family against my wall, like an adolescent incapable of basic self-restraint.”

Heat flooded instantly into my face.

The dining room door opened behind us. One of the younger dragons, who froze at the sight of Rhodri’s expression.

“Out,” Rhodri said without looking away from Dominic.

The door shut again immediately.