Page 10 of Heartflame

“Quill! You actually came!”

I turned to find Lysander appearing beside me with a grin that I found immediately annoying. He was already flushed from drinking, his blonde hair slightly disheveled. Behind him trailed the werewolf from earlier, looking equally pleased with himself.

“Yeah, well,” I said, taking another sip of my beer. “I reconsidered.”

“Good choice, buddy,” the werewolf said, clapping me on the shoulder hard enough to make me stumble forward slightly. “This is the best party of the year so far. Wait until you see what happens later.”

I didn’t ask what that meant. I was too busy watching Aeron across the room, waiting for an opening. He was laughing now, his head tilted back, completely at ease. The sight of it made my skin prickle with irritation.

“Come dance with us,” Lysander suggested, already pulling at my sleeve. “You’re too tense. You need to loosen up.”

“In a minute,” I said, shaking him off gently. “I want to grab another drink first.”

It was a lie, but Lysander didn’t seem to care. He just shrugged and disappeared back into the crowd with his werewolf companion, leaving me alone with my thoughts and my growing frustration.

I watched as Aeron finally extricated himself from his group of followers. He was heading toward the kitchen. Toward me. Perfect. This was my chance.

I straightened up, making sure I looked casual but not too casual. I didn’t want him to think I’d been waiting for him. I took another sip of my beer and pretended to be deeply interested in the label on the bottle, even though there was no label. My heart was hammering in my chest, but I forced my breathing to stay even.

The moment he walked into the kitchen, the temperature seemed to shift. It wasn’t anything supernatural, I was just hyper-aware of his presence, the way his scaled form took up more space than should have been possible in the cramped room. A few people who’d been standing near the cooler quickly moved out of his way, giving him a wide berth.

“Red,” he said without looking up, and I felt my jaw clench at the casual way he said it, like we weren’t complete strangers who’d had exactly one hostile interaction. “Didn’t expect to see you here. You seem too stuck up for this sort of thing.”

I turned to face him slowly, making sure my expression was carefully neutral. Up close, he was even more infuriating than I remembered. His red scales caught the light filtering through from the living room, and there was that same smug smile on his face that had been haunting me all week.

“Turns out I’m allowed to have a life outside of being a good student,” I said, keeping my tone level. “Shocking, I know.”

“Is that what you’re calling this?” He gestured vaguely at my beer. “A life?”

The casual dismissal in his voice lit a fuse inside me. “At least I don’t spend my entire existence trying to convince people I’m important.”

Something flickered across his expression. Good. Maybe I’d gotten under his skin. For a moment, his smug expression faltered, and I felt a small surge of satisfaction.

“No, I suppose you don’t,” he said calmly. “But at least I’m honest. You, on the other hand, have been staring at me since you got here, trying to catch my eye.” He took a step closer, his massive horns casting a shadow over me. “If you want attention, Red, all you have to do is ask. I know you want it.”

I laughed out loud in his face without a second thought. “Attention? From you?! You’ve got to be kidding.” His grin faltered slightly. “The last person I want attention from is some overstuffed, pompous piece of shit like you. The only thing you have going for you is your grandfather’s connections. Without him, you’re nobody.”

His expression darkened, and I watched as his claws curled into fists at his sides. For a moment, I thought he might actually lose his temper, and the prospect sent a thrill through me that I wasn’t entirely prepared for. But then he did something worse. He laughed. A low, rumbling sound that came from deep in his chest and made several people in the nearby living room glance over nervously.

“Nobody?” he said, his voice dripping with amusement. “That’s rich, Red. Especially when you’re so desperate to get a reaction out of me that you came to a party you clearly didn’t want to attend, just hoping you’d run into me.” He leaned against the counter, his massive frame somehow making the gesture look predatory. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

I felt heat crawl up the back of my neck, but I refused to look away. “I came because my roommate wouldn’t shut up about it. Not because of you.”

“Sure you did,” he said, and there was something in his tone that made me want to punch him. “You know what I think, Red? I think you’ve been thinking about me all week. I think that little collision after class has been eating at you, and now you’re here because you can’t stop thinking about me.” He leaned closer, the heat of him enveloping me. “I think you want to know what it feels like to get fucked by a dragon just like everyone else, don’t you?”

“Fuck you,” I spat, turning away from him. Heat rushed to my cheeks as the embarrassment settled in. But I also felt the heat gather in my groin. That was not a reaction I expected.

“That’s my plan,” he called after me as I pushed back toward the living room. “I can’t wait to see those pretty lips of yours in action, Red.”

I wanted to turn around and punch him right in his stupid fucking face. But I knew if I went back, I’d only prove his point and probably injure my hand. So instead, I forced myself to keep walking, to disappear back into the crowd of dancing bodies and pulsing music.

My hands were shaking. Whether from anger or something else, I couldn’t quite tell. I grabbed another beer from a passing tray, even though I hadn’t finished the first one, and tried to lose myself in the crowd. But I could feel him watching me from the kitchen, could sense his presence like a weight pressing against my back.

Lysander found me somewhere in the middle of the dance floor, pulling me into a loose circle with him and his muscular werewolf friend. I let myself be absorbed into the rhythm of the music, let my body move without thinking too hard about it. It was easier that way, easier to pretend I was just here to have fun like everyone else, and easier to forget about the way Aeron’s words had landed far closer to home than I would’ve liked.

It was easier to ignore the fact that some traitorous part of me had responded to his crude proposition. That I was… curious.

“See?” Lysander shouted over the music, his breath smelling of cheap whiskey. “Isn’t this fun?”