Chapter 44 - Afterwards

“When we were…did you speak to me in Italian?” she asked him drowsily from where she lay exhausted against his chest after they had recovered and had stopped panting long enough to say a sentence without pausing in between to take a breath.

He smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I’m half Italian, and I had lived in Italy for the first thirty years of my life. Italian was my first language. Of course, I had seventy odd years to perfect my English, but Italian would always be my mother tongue.” He paused, blushing slightly. “When I was...when we were...I started to lose control over myself, and the Italian just kind of...took over.”

“And so did changing into a dragon.”

“Yes,” he agreed, kissing the top of her head. “At first, I was scared,” he admitted. “I was scared that I had killed you or really hurt you because only True Loves can Join in their natural form.”

She lifted her head and kissed him. “I guess that tells us something.”

“Mm.” He tightened his arms around her.

“Have you hurt anyone before? Like, have you ever changed into dragon form and hurt anyone?”

“Um, once.”

“What happened?”

“It was my uh…first time. Needless to say, I’d never experienced such…pleasure before.”

“Ah. I see.”

Suddenly, someone knocked on their door. Kerri drew the sheets up to her shoulders just in time before the door was thrown open.

“Drake!” Arik said indignantly. “When the door is closed. You knock, wait for an answer, then you come in.”

“Sorry,” Drake said, not looking sorry at all. “I just had to tell you guys something.”

“What?”

“It was…it was you guys a few minutes ago, right?”

Kerri blushed. “Uh, yeah.”

Drake nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, you’ve got to keep it down, guys. I could hear you all the way down the corridor. I had to put on some kind of loud music. It wasn’t very pleasant.”

Kerri grew bright red. “Right. Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s okay. Just wanted you to know that if I could hear it from my end of the corridor, then…well, basically, everyone else can hear it.”

Arik grinned despite himself. Beside him, Kerri batted him on the shoulder.

“Why are you laughing?” she asked, looking mortified. “It’s not funny. At all.”

Arik burst into laughter. “Sorry, Drake,” he said, still chuckling. “Thanks for the tip. You can uh, leave now.”

Drake nodded to them and left. A second later the door opened again. “Kerri, you’re going to have to tell me everything. And I mean everything.” He waggled his eyebrows at Arik, shooting a meaningful look at them.

Kerri threw her shoe at him, but he closed the door just in time. Then she turned to look at her. “It isn’t funny,” she said.

“No,” Arik said, putting on a straight face. “It isn’t. Not at all.” He reached down to kiss a trail down her neck.

Kerri groaned and pushed him away. “Not again.”

“What do you mean, ‘not again’?”

“If we do that again, I have a feeling that I might implode from the…excitement.”

“Well, we’ll have to see, won’t we?” he smirked.

She shrieked. “No!” She rolled away from him.

And off the bed.

“Ow.”

Arik burst into laughter again. Then he got hit on the head by a shoe.

“Your aim’s getting better.”

“Shut up. I’m going to go shower.”

“Can I come?”

She looked at him warily.

“I’ll be good. I promise.”

“Well,” she said grudgingly. “If you promise…”

“I promise, I promise.” He swung off the bed, swept her up into his arms and headed for the bathroom, grinning but otherwise ignoring her shrieks of protest.

***

Arik looked down at Kerri, who was sleeping peacefully next to him. He tried not to think about Woodland coming tomorrow night—well, tonight, since it was like three in the morning—but he couldn’t help it. What if he came and took her? What if he lost to him again? Once was excruciating, but twice, well, it would be the ten times the excruciation and also humiliation. It would just about kill him.

What if they didn’t win and the boss found out? Well, he kind of knew already, didn’t he? But what if everybody else found out? He tightened his arm around her. It wouldn’t matter what other people think. Before, if Woodland came and took any of his other girlfriends, he’d suffer from the humiliation of his loss against his archrival. But if Woodland came and took Kerri, humiliation would be the last thing that was on his mind. He’d kill to get her back. He’d die to get her back. They were True Loves, that one thing he knew for sure. But--

Arik, for God’s sake. Go to sleep.

Arik looked down at her to find that she was staring right back up at him. I thought you were asleep.

I was. Then some idiot mumbling some crap about humiliation and loss woke me up.

He felt the heat creeping up to his cheeks. Sorry.

She reached up to kiss his cheek. It’s going to be okay. Now sleep.

He tried to smile, and then hugged her tighter to him and rolled over so that he was lying on top of her.

She raised an eyebrow and was probably about to make a snarky comment when suddenly she frowned. Ow. She reached up to move something that was pressing onto her collarbone. What’s that? She held up a thin piece of silver.

Arik looked down at the piece of silver. Oh, it’s my…necklace. See? He held up the silver chain that was around his neck. All immortals have one.

Why don’t I have one?

Because…it is something your parents give to you. If your parents aren’t immortals or they don’t know anything about being one, then you won’t have one. It is also said that, only the owner and his or her True Love can wear it.

Well, have you ever tested the theory?

He bit his lip. I don’t like to part with it.

Suddenly, drowsiness overcame him in waves, sweeping him closer and closer to sleep.

What the hell? He mumbled incoherently, shaking his head.

Sorry. But you really need the sleep, and getting you distracted was the only way I could get into your head without you noticing.

He felt her kiss him lightly on the lips before he drifted off completely.

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