Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) by Genevieve Jack (best book club books .txt) 📕

She swooped down from her perch and pulled him into her arms, kissing him ardently. Her hands slid over his naked, slime-covered skin, not caring one bit that the filth was spreading all over her as well.

“Oh Sylas. Goddess, I was so worried.”

At first his kiss was as passionate as hers, but then she felt him pulling away. Even before his lips parted from hers, she could feel the mental difference, the subtle shifting of his body, until he grabbed her by the shoulders and forced distance between them. His breath came in ragged pants. He pointed one hand northwest.

“If I remember correctly, there’s a lake about a mile in that direction. I need to get cleaned up, as do you. And then we need to talk.” He dug through the worm’s remains and pulled his pack from a particularly globular mass of flesh. After giving it a good shake, he loaded it onto his back, then strode in the direction of the lake.

“Don’t you want to get dressed, brother?” Tobias asked. He was donning the clothes he must have stripped out of before shifting.

“Don’t want to get a fresh set dirty. Besides, I doubt that was the only hornworm.”

Tobias lifted his packs onto his back and then collected the still-sleeping Sabrina from the base of a nearby tree. Dianthe followed behind them, overwhelmed with warring emotions and wondering if the schism that had appeared between her and her mate had become too deep to mend or cross. For the second time in as many days, a passionate kiss had ended with one of them angry.

It would be easy to presume that all their problems had begun when they’d fled Everfield after the raid by the Obsidian Guard, but she knew their marriage had been on the rocks for far longer than that. He’d been gone a lot the previous year, traveling the five kingdoms leading the rebellion in Colin’s absence. And then he was imprisoned in the dungeons of Paragon. When he’d finally escaped and she’d come for him, that was when she’d found Aborella. She’d insisted on bringing the fairy home to heal her even though Sylas was against it. And then he’d refused to sleep in the same cottage as Aborella, and so they’d spent even more time apart. When she thought back to the past year, maybe longer, she saw more loneliness, more separation than togetherness.

Had she allowed this to happen? Was she complicit in their gradual drifting apart? For a dragon, a mating was forever. Sylas would never love anyone but her. And she undeniably loved him. But loving someone and being able to live with them were two different things. Maybe there were just too many hurts for either of them to endure.

They walked in silence until they reached a lake, which thankfully was in full sun. Tobias stopped at the edge of the shadows.

“I’ll stay here with Sabrina,” he said to her. “Go, talk to him.”

Sylas dove in, the blood from the hornworm creating a muddy cloud in the water around him. When he broke the surface, Dianthe’s breath caught in her throat. Her mate rose from the water, a tower of tightly corded muscle and golden skin. The water shone like diamonds on the two block-shaped mounds of his chest and carved tempting trails through the shadowy valleys of his deliciously tight abdomen. They disappeared below the surface to where she knew the rest of him was just as inviting.

She raised her eyes to his and was snared by his gray gaze, unable to move. He’d caught her ogling him. He knew she wanted him. A wickedly inviting grin twitched at the corners of his lips.

Dropping her pack next to his on the shore, she waded in and washed the worm stains from the front of her dress. The bottom of the lake was lined with large stones, and she felt off-balance as she leaned forward and splashed her face with the cool, pure water. When she wiped the excess from her eyes, he was there. Sylas was standing right in front of her, his smile gone, replaced by sternly pressed lips.

“We haven’t stopped fighting since we left Everfield, Dianthe. We need to work things out between us before it endangers our mission.”

She gulped at the intensity in his stare. He was right. This conversation was long overdue. “Thank you for what you did back there with the worm. I know you thought you were protecting me.”

“I was protecting you.”

She tipped her head. “I was out of its reach, almost through the canopy, Sylas. It never would have reached me.”

“You didn’t know how long it was.”

She frowned. “But I did know it couldn’t move through trees. I’d moved sideways. It was reaching straight up.” She saw a muscle in his jaw jump. “Listen, all I wanted to do was say thank you. I didn’t want this to turn into another fight.”

“I don’t want to fight either,” he said. “I just want you to stop taking unnecessary risks.”

She blinked twice. “What unnecessary risks have I taken?”

He put his hands on his hips and gave her an incredulous look. “Refusing my hand. Not walking close to me. Planning things with Colin without talking to me first.”

A gasp escaped her lips. “I don’t need your permission to do my job for the rebellion.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, and you know it.”

“I think you did mean it like that. I think you wish Raven had found a curse so that you’d have an excuse to keep me barefoot in the kitchen while you risked your life saving Ouros.”

He scoffed. “It worked out pretty well last year.”

Her hands balled into fists and she took a step back, shaking her head. So many thoughts rattled through her brain, she didn’t know where to begin. Finally she grasped at what she felt was the root of the issue. “The real problem is that you stopped believing in me the moment I told you about my vision of Aborella