Chapter Eleven

I didn”t see the Dragon King for four days. When I was in the garden, I often glanced up at his terrace, but he was never there. And despite the support I was getting from the human staff, I had taken to eating dinner in my guest room. I didn”t want to have to race down to the dining hall to make sure I had a table to sit at only to sit at it alone. And I thought maybe King Shaleros would appreciate my absence. Maybe it would bring him to me, force him to seek me out.

Nope.

After day four, I focused on my work. I”d always been good at focusing on plants when my life was disappointing me. Plants never failed me. There was something so satisfying in watching them grow under my care. Of course, I wasn”t to that point yet. I was still cleaning the mess. But that alone was helping the plants that belonged there, those that had been choked out by others, to come back to life. They were feeling the sun for the first time in—

“Over a century,” I whispered as I stroked the delicate leaves of a rare irinae flower.

It was in a raised bed that had been covered in kudzu, and there had been no trace of it when I had first begun my work. Its bed had been clear for only four days, and it had already sent pale green shoots through the soil. I had hoped it would be equally easy to encourage the Dragon King to bloom.

“But it”s not.” I looked up again. The terrace was empty. “Oh, well. At least I”m making a difference here.”

I stood up and looked across the garden. Halfway done with the larger invasive plants. At that rate, I should be finished with the clean-up in a little over a week. Not too bad for the size of the garden. Had to be at least sixty by sixty feet. A perfect square.

I looked over my shoulder at the day”s haul. Every day, I would pile up the hacked-up pieces of plants, and every evening, someone would come to haul it all away. Oh, and that lotion he”d given me to protect my skin? It may not have been magical, but it certainly worked as if it were. No more heading for the shade or pulling on my tunic when my skin started to sting.

“Now for you,” I said to a tree.

Yeah, a tree. It was a shame to hack down a tree, but this one was common, and it had over a hundred years to grow. The roots of a tree go down as far as its branches go up, and judging by the display above me, it was going to take me the rest of the day, the next day, and maybe the day after that to get this fucker cut down and dug up enough for me to work around it. I couldn”t leave a stump, not there. That meant a lot of digging. But first, I had to chop down the tree.

With the garden in the state it was in, I wasn”t worried about where the tree fell. So I just started hacking at the base of the trunk with an ax. When I got a nice chunk out, I went to the opposite side and did it again. A good kick and the tree fell with a thunderous crash.

Luckily, this was a slender variety of birch, and I was able to make quick work of it once it was down. I piled the wood on the colonnade and fetched the shovel. The tool was part of an array of gardening items I had requested. I”d brought my specialty tools with me, but I wasn”t about to lug around shovels and axes.

Pulling my gloves on, I went to the stump. I had already cleared the surrounding area which, thanks to the tree, hadn”t grown much. But I would have rather dug up blackberry bushes than unearth a fucking tree. Even a small tree.

“All right then. Time to earn that gold,” I muttered and stepped on the edge of the shovel, sending it into the earth.

I was still at it the next afternoon. Yes, the next day. By then, I was out of my happy place with plants. But I finally dug out enough of the roots that I was able to wrap the trunk in rope and try to pull it free. I was hoping I could wrap the other end of the rope around a marble column and use the leverage to yank the fucker out of the ground.

“Come on!” I shoved a foot against the column and pulled again. “Motherfucker!”

Suddenly, the tension eased, and the trunk came free of the earth in an eruption of soil and debris. I fell backward with the release and slammed into something behind me. Something solid.

With an “Oof!” I caught myself, hands shooting back to grab whatever I had hit. Then I realized that it was someone”s thighs. And my back was pressed against a chest. I looked up and over my shoulder.

The Dragon King stared down at me. He had the end of the rope in his hand. “You looked as if you could use some help.”

“Holy fuck!” I shoved off him, spun, and bowed. “Thank you, Your Majesty. I would have been at that all day.”

“You”re welcome.” His stare went out to the garden. “Are there others?”

“Others?”

“Other trees you need to uproot?”

“Uh.” I looked at the garden. “Yeah. A couple of them.”

King Shaleros nodded as he undid his sash.

I froze, my stare on his hands.

The sash he used as a belt was tossed away, then those elegant hands bunched in his tunic and lifted. Very rapidly, a chest of sublime beauty was revealed to me. Muscles that looked as if an artist had cut them from stone. And polished them. Lovingly. A bellybutton that dipped in. A pair of luscious pink nipples that stood out starkly against his fair skin.

My mouth watered. I started to sway forward.

“Sebastian?”

I blinked out of my daze and focused. Or tried to. “Huh?”

A hand waved before my face. “Sebastian?”

I looked up into the King”s face. “Sorry. Did you say something?”

The Dragon King lifted a brow.

“Did I say something?” I frowned, utterly baffled. “Someone said something, right?”

King Shaleros chuckled. “I was merely trying to get your attention. You looked as if you were going to faint.”

“Oh. Yeah, I feel a little woozy.”

His expression instantly went concerned. “Sit down.” He took me by the arm and led me to the steps. Then he sat down with me. “Humans are so fragile. You”ve overdone it with that tree.” He shook his head. “I”m not expecting you to finish this quickly. I know your limitations.”

“My limitations,” I muttered. “Yeah.” I looked away from him, not because I wanted to survey the garden but because seeing him there and talking to him after those days of nothing, was bittersweet. He was acting as if everything was fine between us, which was great, but he, like that tree, would take a lot of work to unearth unless he helped me dig.

“I don”t think less of you because you”re mortal and have no magic,” the Dragon King said softly.

“Gee, thanks.” I grimaced.

He chuckled again. Then he made an amazed sound. “Within minutes of being around you, I”m smiling again.”

“So why avoid me?” I finally looked back at him, but I kept my attention on his face. That chest would make me weep if I looked at it too long.

The King pressed his lips together but didn”t drop his stare. He just looked at me. Finally, he said, “I don”t know if I”m ready to be happy.”

“It”s been over a century. Longer than I”ll live. I think you”ve punished yourself enough.”

His expression went slack. “Punished myself?”

“You don”t see it?” I stood up so he could deal with his shit without me so near. After I stepped down into the garden, I said over my shoulder, “I don”t think you”re the kind of man to give a fuck about what other people think of you, so you must be doing this for her, not to uphold your image. You survived when you shouldn”t have. So you had to prove that even though you lived, it doesn”t mean you loved her less than she loved you.”

I turned back around before he could react. I couldn”t watch him process that shit. It would cut me and maybe even leave a scar. So, I picked up the ax and headed for the next tree. I was three swings in when he joined me.

“For a man who spends most of his time with plants, you have an incredible understanding of people,” the King said. “I didn”t realize I was doing that, but I think you”re right.”

I stopped, leaned my ax on the ground, and looked at the King. “I think you knew it, deep down. If you didn”t, you wouldn”t have said you weren”t ready to be happy.”

King Shaleros nodded. “Perhaps.”

“A hundred years is a long time.” I waved at the tree. “Long enough for this to grow where it shouldn”t be.”

“It”s not the only thing growing where it shouldn”t be,” he muttered.

“What was that, Your Majesty?”

“Stand back, Sebastian.” He waved me away from the tree. “I didn”t remove my tunic just for you to gawk at me.”

“I, uh, I wasn”t gawking,” I stammered. “I pushed myself too hard, remember?”

“Uh-huh.” The King went to the tree—one larger than the last, grabbed the trunk with both hands, and plucked it from the ground as if it were a flower.

“What the fuck?” I gaped at him.

It was quite the display. The tree was larger than the King. This meant he had to keep adjusting his grip, going lower and lower to pull it free of the soil. Roots emerged, spraying dirt and then raining it and leaves when he shook the tree. At last, he laid it down over the path and broke branches off the trunk to toss them onto the colonnade like a kid pulling petals off a dandelion.

“Holy shit,” I whispered and watched him.

His muscles moved like music, not bunching like those on a bulkier man. No, he didn”t bunch. He flowed. He glided. The Dragon King of Latur was the most graceful Dragon I”d ever seen, and that grace infused every part of him. He had fucking unearthed a tree like a gods damned dancer. His body didn”t bend so much as undulate. His belly rippled in the best ways. And, damn it, there wasn”t a drop of sweat on him. I craved his sweat. Prayed for it. That chest could only be improved with water. Droplets clinging to him as they slid down his skin.

“Oh, fuck.”

“Sebastian?”

And his voice. When had it become so velvety? As if I could hold it in my hands and rub it over my naked body. I didn”t even have to rub it. It slid over me unbidden, then headed down my pants.

“Sebastian?”

“Yeah, I”m listening,” I murmured.

“You”re gawking again.”

“Hey!” I jerked out of my daze and pointed at him. “You can”t unveil all that,”—I waved wildly at his chest like a madman—“pull up a tree like it”s a daisy, pluck branches from it like petals, and expect me not to drown in drool! As everyone loves to mention, I”m only human!” I stuck my hands on my hips. “For fuck”s sake. I mean look at you! Just look at you. That”s not a chest, it”s an ode to masculinity. It”s a muse to every sculptor on the planet. It”s a gods damn orgasm made flesh. And you expect me to look away? Are you insane?”

The Dragon King made a startled sound, then a choking one, then he burst out laughing.

“I”m not even teasing you.” I kept pointing at him. “You”re a scoundrel, you know that? A libertine! A fucking scourge on my libido. How dare you come down here and show off that epic chest under the guise of helping me? How dare you!”

He paused, eyes widening, then laughed harder.

I grimaced. Then my lips twitched. At last, I joined him. Chuckling, I went to stand beside him, let my arms hang at my sides, and stared balefully at the tree. “I feel so inadequate.”

“Are you commenting on how phallic this tree looks? Because if you are, that”s a bit of a stretch.”

It took me a second to process that. I frowned at the tree, then at the King. Then it struck me. “Holy fucking shit! Did you just make a joke?”

“I dearly hope we will soon reach the point where you don”t have to ask,” the King drawled.

I snorted. “You”re a funny guy, King Shaleros.”

“Am I?” He cocked his head. “I think I was once.”

“You don”t lose humor. Life can knock it down in you for a while, but it will eventually resurface.” I went to the flowerbed where the irinae flower was growing and waved at it. “Like this flower, nothing can keep it buried forever.”

“That”s a flower?” The King stepped up beside me, then crouched to peer at it.

“It will be an irinae.”

“An irinae,” he whispered.

“Shit, was that her favorite?”

He didn”t ask who I meant. We were way past that. “She loved them all.” He looked at me. “How odd.”

“What”s that? And don”t you dare say my face.”

The King grinned. “It”s odd that it”s the man who is bringing her garden back to life, a fellow plant lover, who has brought laughter back into my life.”

“Would that make her happy?” I whispered.

“You know, I think it might.” He stared at me long enough to make it awkward, then cleared his throat, and stood up. “Where”s the next tree you need cleared?”

I stared up at him a second before I got to my feet. “This way, Your Majesty.”

We were making headway again, but I didn”t trust it. You don”t overcome a century of guilt and loneliness in a week. The King would falter again. But hopefully, the next time he wavered, I”d be around to steady him.