“She’s pretty. I like her necklace.”
“She never goes anywhere without it,” Declan commented. His mother was quite particular about her jewelry. That necklace was something she’d had since before Declan was born. He wasn’t sure she’d ever actually taken it off.
“It looks enchanted,” Zoa commented. “Like the kind of magical necklace that you’d read about in a fairytale.”
She shrugged and moved away from the picture. She walked around the room a few times before settling down. Once she seemed to be feeling a little more comfortable in her surroundings, Declan took charge.
“You need to shower. You can get changed after and you can take a nap. You’ll stay here for now.” He didn’t ask her or invite her. He’d never done anything like this before. He hadn’t rescued someone. He wasn’t particularly sure how he was supposed to go about doing it. In some ways, he worried that Zoa would see him as a kidnapper the way she saw Kellen, but he needn’t have worried.
“That sounds really nice,” she told him. She smiled. “Thank you, Declan. Thanks for saving me and helping to keep me safe.”
She trusted him, he realized. That was the difference between what he was doing and what Kellen had done. He’d made himself trustworthy, while Kellen had made himself a monster. Declan had no interest in hurting the human. He just wanted her to feel like everything was going to be okay.
“It was nothing.”
“That’s not true. You could lose your job,” she pointed out. “If your boss finds out you upset a client...” Zoa shivered, obviously unable to accept the idea.
“Don’t worry,” Dylan said wryly, “I’m sure my boss will understand.”
“You have a nice boss? The two of you get along?”
“I own my own company with my brothers,” he admitted. It wasn’t something he often talked about. Declan didn’t bring a lot of girls home, but when he did, he didn’t like talking about his company. He was always a little bit worried that someone would try to use his business against him, so he found that it was best to just focus on other things.
“That’s impressive,” Zoa said. “It sounds like the three of you really get along
.”
“We do.”
Christopher and Brian had always been there for Declan. No matter what he faced, he didn’t have to deal with it alone. They had his back 100%. Now he was relieved about that. He was facing a new situation today, and he was lucky that he knew his brothers would be there to help him with it.
No matter what happened next with Kellen, Christopher and Brian would be there to keep Declan safe. They wouldn’t ask too many questions, and they wouldn’t try to talk him out of killing Kellen. They’d just accompany him. They’d probably help him bury the body if he needed assistance there, too.
“Okay, time for you to go shower.” Declan pointed to a ladder that led to the second floor. “Go on upstairs. There are clean towels in the bathroom, and I’ll set some clothes out on the bed for you.”
“Thank you again,” Zoa smiled at Declan, and when she did, he felt something swelling deep inside of him. She was sweet, he thought, and cute. When she’d wanted to see his cock, it was just about the biggest self-confidence boost he could have imagined. Now he was about to send her upstairs to take a shower and then probably a nap.
The most beautiful girl he’d ever met was in his home, and she was looking at him like he was her hero.
Yeah, a dragon could get used to this.
Chapter 4
After a long, hot shower where Zoa cried more than she ever had before in her life, she reluctantly headed back into the bedroom. As promised, there was a set of clothing laid out on the bed. She wasn’t really sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn’t unicorn-printed PJs.
Zoa picked up the fabric and looked it over. It was soft. How the hell had this guy gotten pajamas in her size so quickly? Had he run to the store? Or had he already had these available? She wondered if he brought a lot of women back to his little treehouse hideaway.
Maybe these were just the pajamas he gave out to everyone. Perhaps they were a sort of souvenir. If you had sex with the dragon, you got unicorn pajamas. If you did a really, really good job, you got a postcard, too.
She chuckled to herself as she slipped on the pajamas, but as soon as the fabric touched her skin, she stopped laughing. Oh, they felt so good against her body. She hadn’t realized just how sore and tender she really was until her pain had melted away in the shower. Declan had saved her, but he’d healed her, too.
She walked around his bedroom looking at the design. She’d only had a quick glance at the first floor before she’d come upstairs, but what she’d seen was pleasant enough. The first floor of the treehouse was a big, single room that doubled as a living room and kitchen. There were a couple of closed doors, and she guessed that they probably led to a pantry and a bathroom. This floor was similar in nature.
Zoa was standing on the second floor of the treehouse, and she thought it was basically just a big bedroom. There was a big, ornate-looking bed in the center of the room. There was a bathroom, which was its own little room, but the main area of the second floor was just one large, open space. There wasn’t a closet. Zoa kind of liked the aesthetic.
The bed in the center of the room had drawers beneath it. The entire thing looked like it had been hand-crafted out of oak wood. Had Declan made this himself? She rather thought he had. After all, he’d said that he’d made the treehouse. Why not the bed, too? It was interesting, really. It almost looked like it was a part of the treehouse itself.
There was also a large dresser made out of the same type of wood. It must have had nearly 20 drawers. There was a big mirror on top of it, and Zoa stood in front of the dresser and stared at the mirror. Once she stopped looking at the furniture, she started looking at herself. The revelation wasn’t good. She looked different now.