13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Tan

A few days passed without much fuss, which I appreciated. Every night when I went home, I was nervous about leaving Garrick.

What if he was attacked again? What if something happened and I wasn't there to help?

I hated how far away my house was from his condo, but what was I supposed to do? Move into his spare room permanently? Or well, not permanently, but temporarily.

Would I want to do that? Could I do that?

Would Garrick want me to?

It was something that was on my mind a lot, especially when I was stuck at home with only Orangelica for company. I loved my Bonded, and I loved spending time with her. It just wasn't the same as being around other people.

It wasn't the same as being around a certain dragon shifter.

I was sort of dreading going home tonight, but the second I finished my work and closed my laptop, Orangelica jumped from my desk to my shoulder, then climbed on top of my head. She probably liked feeling powerful or like I was carrying around royalty or something.

What can I say? My Bonded is a weirdo… so she fits in with me nicely.

I glanced up, and Garrick didn't even blink at my cat hat. He asked, "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

My eyes widened a bit. "You want me to come to dinner?" I'd eaten with him when I'd stayed the night, obviously, but this was new.

He scowled, looking annoyed that I'd asked. "Yes."

That made me smile widely. "Sure. That'd be great."

"Oh." He paused and blinked, looking surprised. "Great."

"What?"

He opened his mouth, snapped it shut, then sighed and said, "I had a whole argument planned to try and get you to stay, but you agreed too quickly."

I laughed. "Are you angry I said yes?"

"No." He scowled. "It was simply unexpected."

"You're offering to feed me, and I already know you're a good cook. I'm not sure who'd be dumb enough to say no to that."

"Fair enough." Garrick typed something on his phone, and when I heard his phone buzz, I figured he was texting. After a couple more exchanges, he glanced up at me. "Roman's going to finish something up before he meets us upstairs, so it looks like it's just us for dinner. But he'll be back to relieve you for the night afterwards."

Just us?

I didn't know why those words made me feel nervous when I'd literally spent a whole weekend in his presence, just the two of us. But this was different because now I was having… emotions. Ugggghhhhh.

He eyed me for a moment. "You ready, little pretty?"

I gave him a nod, walked over to the door, opened it, and said, "See you tomorrow, Elvira." Orangelica was still on the top of my head.

"See you, Tan and Orangelica." It made me smile that she acknowledged my Bonded too. A little louder, she said, "Bye, Your Majesty."

"It's just Garrick, Elvira." When she didn't respond, he sighed. "See you tomorrow."

I shut that door and walked over to the bookcase door while he locked his office. He did his thing and opened the bookcase, then ushered me inside before closing it behind himself and locking that door too.

I let him go up the stairs first so he could unlock the door, and of course, I took the opportunity to stare at his butt again. It was a nice butt, I must say.

"This stairwell really only goes down to Roman's condo?" I asked him as he unlocked his door.

"Yep. And up to the roof, which you already know. The main staircase near the public elevators goes up to the roof as well—I know you saw that door up there already—but that stairwell bypasses my floor and Roman's. We both only have the one door on this side."

"Yeah, I saw that with the other stairwell, but I wasn't sure about this one."

He hummed and opened his door, walking inside. "The other condos' floors are connected to one of the private elevators and the other staircase."

My brow furrowed. "What other condos?"

"One floor below Rome's place is the community areas like a gym, meeting room, and indoor pool. And the twenty floors below that are all condos."

"Oh. Can anyone use the gym and pool and stuff?" We were supposed to do some training in the gym, but we'd yet to make that happen, so I hadn't seen it yet. Roman had been extra busy this week.

He hesitated. "I shouldn't have said community areas. It's more like… clan areas."

"Oh… right. So does that mean your clan lives in the condos?" This would've been good information to have. I didn't even know he had a clan—why wasn't this public information? Why hadn't anyone on the boards known this? What if one of these condo people had let the assassin in? What if that was how they'd gotten here in the first place?

"No, not anymore."

The way he said it, with force and an undertone of hurt, I knew the subject wasn't up for discussion, so I held my tongue and didn't ask the millions of questions that wanted to come. Although one was burning brighter than the others—who lived there before, and why were they gone?

It must've been people he cared about, right? Otherwise, he wouldn't have had such a strong reaction.

But Garrick's shoulders were tense as we walked into his kitchen, and I didn't want that. If I was spending so much time with the man, we needed to build more trust and camaraderie. Otherwise, the next few months were going to be horrible. It had been going well so far, minus the little argument blip, and I wanted it to continue in that direction.

So I absently reached up to pet Orangelica—still posing as a hat—and changed the subject by asking, "Can I assume your favorite color is gold?" Nice, Tan. Super smooth transition there. For fuck's sake .

He froze and looked over his shoulder at me. "I suppose so, yeah. Why? Do you not like gold?" For some reason, he sounded offended already, even though I hadn't answered yet.

"I love gold." I shot him a smile and shrugged. "But, I mean, obviously silver is better." For emphasis, I let my silver magic out, and a small swirl of it floated around me before I tucked it back in.

Garrick's eyes flared, and his golden orbs seemed to glitter for a moment before he took a deep breath. "I like silver too." Then he turned around and walked into the kitchen. "I have tofu for tonight, by the way." That meant he'd planned this, right?

I followed him into the kitchen. "Thank you, Gar-Bear. Do you want me to help cook?"

He shook his head but pointed to the stool at the kitchen island. "Nope. I'll cook. All you have to do is be my eye candy and sit there, looking pretty." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he froze. "Sorry, I didn't me—"

"It's fine, Gar." I dramatically fluttered my eyelashes. "I don't mind being called pretty."

His lips twitched in that almost-smile way, so I called it a win for making something that could've turned awkward very quickly into something fun. I was still determined to make the man smile. He would… eventually.

After a few seconds, he asked, "Are you okay with stir fry?"

"Love it. Let me help cut some veggies."

He shook his head. "No. You're my guest, and you're helping me out—"

"You're paying me. It's not that big of a deal."

He froze, his eyes going wide as they met mine. "Tanyl Helegolor, it's a huge deal. I've never… I've never asked anyone else for help, not really. No one but Roman in over two decades, and I honestly don't think I asked anyone else but him before that." He leaned over the island so he was closer to me. "And in case you didn't know, I'm a very old dragon."

"How old?" I whispered before I could stop myself.

His eyes lit up with something like amusement, although his lips still didn't curve up in a smile or anything—dammit. "At least a millennium and a half, perhaps two, but I lost track somewhere along the way."

Fifteen hundred to two thousand years old? That was a huge difference. How could he be so blase about it?

He leaned back and stepped over to the cutting board, acting like it wasn't a big deal that he'd just dropped that bombshell. I'd guessed that he was old—and so had a lot of people on the gossip boards—but no one had thought he was that old.

Holy shit, how the hell could he be that old? How long did dragons live? Was he old for a dragon? Surely not because he still only looked like he was in his mid-thirties. But did dragons even get old? Or were they like vampires, stuck in a certain state for the rest of eternity?

"You… you're not, like, going to die anytime soon, right?"

A huff of what sort of sounded like laughter came out of him, and he turned around to face me again. His lips were twitching. "No, Tan, I'm not. At least not as long as you continue protecting me." To my surprise, he winked at me before he went back to his chopping.

I stared in shock for a moment, and as he moved around the kitchen with ease, I realized that I was seeing the other side of Garrick again, the one that only showed up when he was in his own home. The calm, comfortable side. The side that felt at home in the kitchen. The side that liked to… joke around.

I watched him for a few more minutes, and all I could do was sigh in pleasure because he really was that gorgeous. Maybe not in a classical way, but in his own, hard way. He was probably the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

It made me want to walk over and wrap my arms around him, hold him tight, and stuff my face in his chest so I could soak up his warmth and inhale his musk. Of course I wasn't going to do that, but that didn't stop me from fantasizing about it.

"I don't think your cat likes me," he said after a few minutes passed by where all I did was stare at him.

I jolted in surprise from the sound of his voice, then started petting Orangelica, who'd finally slid off my head, down my body, and into my lap. "What? Why?"

He shrugged. His back was to me, but I was sure he had his normal grump face on. "She was glaring at me earlier."

I glanced down at the cat, and she stared up at me, making her face look all cute and innocent even though I knew she wasn't. "Were you mean to the dragon?"

She meowed in response, and I knew she was trying to convince me that she hadn't been.

But I knew better. "You better be nice to him, Orangelica." Through our bond, I added, "I don't think he has many friends, and he needs us."

She completely ignored me and started bathing herself in my lap.

I sighed. "I'm sorry. She doesn't like anyone at first, so don't take it personally. I'm sure that you'll be her favoritest person by the end of the week." It was the truth. She took a while to warm up to people, but once she did, they had a friend for life.

He glanced over his shoulder. "Any hints on how I can make that happen? I don't want her to hate me."

"She doesn't hate you, trust me. If she did, you'd know it. She would've shifted and tried to eat you already."

His eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. She's fierce when it comes to protecting me." I sent her a fond smile, then met Garrick's gaze again. "So she doesn't dislike you. She's just being cautious. And if you start sneaking her food, she'll love you forever."

"Thanks for the pro tip."

I snorted. "Cats are meat eaters too, so if you give her a piece of whatever you're eating meat-wise, you'll be golden."

"I'll definitely do that then." He cleared his throat. "So I heard that half of your crew went back to Brinnswick last year, and only you and Remington stayed."

That wasn't exactly a question, but I figured he was trying to keep the conversation going, so I said, "It's Remi. He hates when people use his whole name as much as I do." I shot him a grin even though he wasn't looking at me. "And yeah, my friends Savelle and Isa went back to Brinnswick after they helped Remi and me start the business up here. They're currently running all of our Brinnswick offices. Well, Rem and I still do things remotely from here, but they're our feet on the ground, so to speak."

"Makes sense. What made you want to stay? I understand that Remi wanted to stay with his partner, but what about you?"

I shrugged. "Remi's my best friend. I couldn't imagine going back without him, and I… I don't know, there's something about this place, this city, that calls to me. I like it here. Even with all the societal issues, I still love it. And I like that Remi and I can help people feel safe."

He was quiet for a minute before he glanced at me and quietly asked, "What societal issues do you mean?"

Oh shit. I'd totally forgotten for a minute there that I was talking to the mother-effing king of the place. I basically just dissed his city right in front of him—no, right to him. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit.

When I didn't respond right away, he laid the chopping knife down and turned to face me. "You can speak freely in front of me, Tan. I promise I won't react badly or harm you or whatever it is you're worried about."

I stared at him for a long moment, taking in his sincerity, before I finally blew out a breath and spoke. "I suppose I just meant the way the fae are treated."

His brow furrowed. "The way they're treated? What do you mean by that?"

Did he… seriously not understand? Was he seriously that out of touch? That insensitive and unaffected by another race's troubles?

"I mean the way they're treated like second-class citizens, obviously."

His brow furrowed further. "Everyone in my territory is equal. Why would the fae be treated unkindly?"

My eyebrows rose so high they were practically in my hairline. "Unkindly? Are you kidding me? Most of them can't even get a job because places are allowed to deny them employment simply for being fae. They get denied service all the time, denied places to live. Hell, almost all of the people living on the streets are fae. Mother of All, Garrick, even Bel, Remi's freaking viramore, was living on the streets, unable to find a job, before we came here. Unkindly? They're treated like dirt."

He jerked back as if I'd slapped him across the face. "Wh-wh-what are you… Is any of that true?"

"What? Of course it's fucking true—all of it. You have rules and laws that protect everyone but the fae. You have laws that allow other species to deny the fae anything and everything they want. How the hell do I have to explain this to you? Aren't you the one who makes the laws?"

His eyes were as wide as saucers. "You're being serious."

"Of course I'm being freaking serious. The fae are treated horribly here. It's one of the reasons my friend, Isa, left. She's fae, and she couldn't take the daily treatment whenever she left our office—one of the only businesses in the city that not only hires fae but treats them like equals."

He sucked in a sharp breath, staring at me for a long moment.

"Garrick, how can you not know how bad it is out there for the fae?"

He shook his head, and his hand slowly raised to his mouth, his gaze staring off into the distance, seeing something there that I couldn't see. After a few seconds, he whispered, "I didn't… I… I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry." He closed his eyes and dropped his head in defeat. "I… I haven't been down to the government floors in years." He sucked in a breath. "I'll remedy that tomorrow and look into everything you said."

I was so confused. Why would he have to look into it? Didn't he make the laws? Weren't people supposed to follow his lead? What the hell was going on?

"I don't understand."

He shook his head. "I don't either, but as soon as I figure it out, I'll let you know. Thank you for being honest with me, Tan. I apparently have a lot of people keeping things from me these days." He clicked his tongue and stared off into the distance for a long time, looking utterly defeated.

And I just stared at him, completely baffled by this entire conversation. What in the hell was he talking about?

He clicked his tongue again, inhaled deeply, and focused on me, looking sad. "Are you still okay to eat with me?"

I shook my head, trying to shake away the confusion. "I… yeah, that's fine."

He gave me a single nod. "Good. I'm going to cook this up. It shouldn't be too long before it's done."

"Sure."

He turned away from me, and I continued staring at him. He stood frozen for a few long moments, and I somehow knew he was trying to process our conversation, just like I was. I was still confused, but I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt for now and see what he said about it after he had time to think.

Because Remi had been right. I was in a position where I could do some good, or at the very least, I could try. If that meant calling Garrick out on the terrible shit laws in place, then, well, I guess that was what I'd do.

Garrick was quiet for a while after that, and I let him sit on things while I watched him finish our food. When he plated it and we sat at the table, I sent him a tentative smile. I didn't know why I wanted to make him happy again. I only knew that I felt the need to.

Which wasn't really fair, considering the terrible things the fae went through in his territory. He was responsible for the people who lived here, no matter what he said, so he should feel bad about it. I mean, there were people barely surviving out there, and here he was living in luxury.

But still, there was something about the man that made me want to protect him from cruelty and sadness.

Which was laughable. Why would a big, giant man who could shift into a fire-breathing dragon need protection from a witch of smaller stature like me? It was ridiculous.

And yet, I felt like there might be a part of him I could protect that maybe no one else ever thought of—his heart. He was far more sensitive than I'd thought going into this.

And sure, he and Roman wanted me to shield him, but I knew deep down that they didn't really need me. All Garrick had to do was shift, and he could simply eat all his enemies in one bite. Honestly, I still wasn't sure why they wanted me, of all people, guarding him. I could understand having me add to his wards because, like I'd told them, mixing different types of magic was the best way to strengthen a ward, but other than that, I wasn't truly needed.

Would I throw a shield over the top of the dragon and keep him safe? Yes, absolutely. But I had no doubt that Mr. Dragonface could easily smite his enemies without me.

But right now, I figured I could give him something that not many people did. Kindness, with a big ol' dash of friendship.

So I changed the subject back to the easier talk we'd been having before all the heavy political stuff. "Do you have any tattoos?"

His eyebrows rose. "Excuse me?"

"Tattoos? Do you have any?"

"I'm not sure that's any of your business." He looked so affronted. Like I'd tried to pry his deepest, darkest secret out of him. Maybe he had an embarrassing tattoo or something… but didn't everybody have one of those?

I rolled my eyes. "Geez, from the look on your face, you would've thought I'd asked you to drop your pants and show me how big your di—" I cut myself off, and my eyes widened as I realized exactly what I was about to say.

Holy shit, I almost made a dick joke to the mother-effing king!

He stared for a beat, then a bark of laughter came out of him, and his eyes lit up, just like I knew they would. His smiling face was beautiful, and it brought my own smile out immediately. Mother of All, he was cute. So fucking cute.

No, not just cute. He was stunning when he laughed. It was like his entire face brightened. Like the sun coming out on a cloudy day.

He rubbed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. And then he looked up and met my gaze, and low and behold, his lips were quirked up on the ends in a sweet, tiny smile. "You are somethin' else, that's for sure."

I offered a huge smile back. "I'll take that as a compliment."

He snorted. "Sounds about right."

"Hey, that's rude."

He shook his head in obvious amusement. "You should take it as a compliment. Not many people act like themselves around me or even treat me like another regular person. You are a breath of fresh air."

"Oh." I blinked. "Wow. That was… nice."

"You sound surprised by that." He was still clearly amused, so at least I hadn't pissed him off yet with my stupid mouth.

"I mean, I guess I am? You don't really seem like the compliment type, but I guess I'm wrong because you've said other nice things to me, so just because you've got a permanent grump on your face doesn't mean you're not nice, and holy shit, I can't believe I just said that out loud and I'm somehow still talking. Holy crap, say something to shut me up before I embarrass myself further."

"Something."

"Smart ass."

He made a chortling sound, and after watching him for a moment, I realized it was a kind of chuckle or something. A sound of amusement. Damn, I was on the ball tonight.

Since I didn't want my mouth to say more stupid shit, I shoveled a bite of food into it and moaned when the flavor burst on my tongue. After I finished chewing and swallowing the bite, I said, "I have no idea what you did to these veggies, but they're the best thing I've ever put in my mouth."

His eyes widened before that chortling sound came out again. "I can't decide if that's sad or if I'm happy to know that something of mine is the best thing you've ever put in your mouth."

"Holy shit," I whispered, staring at him with wide eyes for a moment before I broke out into laughter. I had no idea how that had been so cringey, sexy, dorky, and hilarious at the same time, but boy did he pull it off.

He chortled again, and I decided that I really liked the sound of a laughing dragon. It was adorable.

Now, if only I could get him to do a true full-belly laugh.

Once we calmed our laughter, we both went back to eating, and it took everything in me not to moan at how good it tasted. Like, it was so good that Garrick could become a chef tomorrow, and he'd be famous by next week.

"So…" he asked a little while later. "Do you have any tattoos?"

I almost spit out my food but managed to swallow it down before I spoke. "I asked you first."

"I have a couple, yes, but not a ton. What about you?" I was surprised he'd actually answered me.

"A few, yes."

That was putting it mildly. My entire body was covered in tattooed runes, most of which Ailin had put on my skin and infused with magic. A lot of the reason I could do powerful spells was thanks to him, not that I planned on sharing that tidbit of information. That wasn't something I was comfortable sharing with Garrick. At least not yet. Maybe one day, if we became better friends.

"How many's a few?"

I shot him a grin and a wink. "Too many to count."

His eyes widened a fraction. "Really? You don't know how many you have?"

"I lost count at least ten tattoos ago, so no, I really don't."

"Huh."

"Huh? What's huh mean?"

He lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug, then brought a wine glass up to his lips. He'd offered me some, but I'd declined since I had to drive home tonight. He finally answered, "Only that I'm surprised. I didn't picture you having so many."

I quirked a brow. "So you've imagined what I look like naked?"

With wide eyes, he opened his mouth but snapped it shut after a second. "That's not what I meant."

I couldn't help but smile at that. "Oh? That wasn't a denial, so I'm taking it as a yes, you totally have." Holy shit, what was I even saying? Was I flirting? Did this count as flirting?

Did I want it to count?

I eyed the dragon for a moment, and holy crap on a cracker, yes, I really wanted it to count.

But only if he was flirting back, right?

Was he? I couldn't tell.

He went to reply, but there was a knock on the door a moment before a key went into the lock and the doorknob twisted. Instinctually, I covered Garrick, Orangelica, and myself in a shield, just in case. I highly doubted an assassin would knock before coming in, but you could never be too safe in situations like this. Better to be overly cautious now than not cautious enough and regret it later.

As expected, Roman walked into the place and smiled at us before he shut and locked the door. "Hey, guys. How's everything going up here?"

Well, so much for trying this flirting thing. I certainly wasn't about to do it in front of Roman. That would be way too embarrassing, even for me.

"Good," I said immediately. "No sign of trouble."

He nodded and headed over to the table.

"There's plenty left on the stove. Help yourself." Garrick gestured with his fork. "It's covered, so it should still be warm. If not, turn the burner on for a few minutes."

"Thanks, Gar." Roman bypassed the table to walk into the kitchen.

Gar-Bear and I continued eating, and Roman joined us a few minutes later. He looked at me and asked, "How was your day? Everything go alright?"

I nodded. "Yep, everything went fine."

"Are you still able to get some work done while you're here? We don't want to make it even harder on you."

"Yep, I've been getting everything done that I need to. Thanks for asking, though."

He smiled. "No problem."

The rest of the meal went by quickly and with pleasant conversation, although the laughter and goofiness that Garrick and I had shared before were no longer there. I missed it because I loved bringing that lightness into Gar's life, but it was still a really nice meal.

After I put my plate in the sink, I headed out of the kitchen, saying, "I guess I'll head home. So I suppose I'll see you guys tomorrow?" I didn't actually want to go home—I wanted to stay and just… hang out with Gar-Bear—but I also felt awkward and like maybe they wanted me to go home since it wasn't my night to guard Gar.

Garrick frowned at me, that grumpy expression back on his face. "Alright. We'll see you tomorrow."

I nodded, gathered up my belongings, let Orangelica climb up my body to my shoulder, and headed for the door even though the absolute last thing I wanted to do was go home to an empty house. I could maybe go over to Remi and Bel's for a couple of hours before bed, but I didn't want to bother them, especially when what I really wanted was standing right in front of me.

"Tan?" Garrick said before I walked out the door.

I stopped and glanced over my shoulder. "Yeah?"

He swallowed hard enough I could see and hear it. He stared for a beat, then two, and then a long thirty seconds passed with him staring into my eyes. "Thank you for having dinner with me." I didn't know why, but I had a feeling that wasn't what he'd been about to say.

I nodded. "No problem, Gar-Bear. It was delicious. Thank you for having me." My voice came out quiet and sort of husky.

"Anytime. Please be careful out there. I… I don't want you getting hurt."

That made me smile. "I'll be fine, but thanks for your concern. I'll see you tomorrow, big guy." I stepped closer and patted his shoulder, and his body heat flooded me so much that when I pulled away, I was too flustered to do anything but walk out of the condo.

I descended the stairs to his office floor and made sure to shut and lock the bookcase door thing and did the same with Garrick's outside office door. Then I walked to the elevator, took it down to the garage floor, and headed for my car.

The whole way, it seemed like every step toward home made my chest ache a little more until I was squirming and rubbing at it all night long.