It was nice. More than nice.
Sol tastes the air with his tongue. “What are you thinking of, Briar?”
Heat surges beneath my skin, and I suspect I’ve just turned as red as my hair. “Nothing.”
“Liar.”
I tense, but he says it almost fondly. I don’t understand how Sol can use the same words Ethan did but for it to feel so different. I swallow hard. “I’m hungry.”
He snorts and turns at the bottom of the staircase, heading deeper into the keep. I relax into his arms and enjoy the ride, but something occurs to me as Sol shoulders through a door and into a massive kitchen. A massive empty kitchen. “Why isn’t there anyone else around? Surely you don’t live here only with the brown dragon. There were more than a few dragons when I got here, but they’re all gone now.”
Sol sets me on a high stool and moves what appears to be a form of chest freezer. “My cousin, Aldis is around here somewhere. You met her the first day, and she’s no doubt creating paperwork as we speak. There’s also a small staff keeping us fed and ensuring the place doesn’t fall down around us.”
I frown. “It seems rather lonely.”
Sol hesitates and then sets a series of strange-looking vegetation on the table. “The keep is usually more populated. I tend to make myself available to any of my people who need my attention, but they’re forbidden from coming here for a time.”
I worry my bottom lip, tempted to leave it at that, but Sol seems fine with my curiosity, so I gather up my courage and ask, “Why?”
His tail twitches, but his crest remains lowered. I’m not sure what that means, but it’s not anger. He does seem to have a hard time meeting my gaze, though. “We dragons are territorial in the extreme, especially when newly wed. It’s better for everyone if others make themselves scarce until the most intense time passes.”
I blink. Blink again. “But what about the staff you just mentioned?”
“They’re all old enough to have gone through this sort of thing several times, most recently with my parents.” He shakes his head. “And Aldis is my cousin. Which doesn’t make her exempt, but she’s not interested in sex or marriage or anything of that nature, so we took a calculated risk having her here.”
I don’t know what to think about that. It almost sounds like a jealous rage, but Sol obviously took meticulous steps to ensure very few people were potentially endangered by it. “So if I were to talk to another dragon…”
His crest flares, a deep hiss rattling in his chest. “I suggest you don’t. Not for the next few weeks.” He takes a deep breath, and then another, visibly bringing himself under control again. “It will pass. It always does. But the initial time can be challenging, and I would appreciate it greatly if you worked with me on it. I realize humans don’t have the same tendencies.”
Don’t we?
Maybe it’s not as explicitly stated the way the dragons do, but humans can be wildly jealous, and it doesn’t always wear off once they’re secure in a relationship. I comb my fingers through my hair as Sol starts preparing the food. I’m not a jealous person. I couldn’t afford to be, not with Ethan controlling every aspect of my life.
If Sol were with another person…
My stomach twists and my chest clenches. “I meant what I said last night. I don’t want you with anyone else,” I blurt. Maybe I should be playing cool or pretending like I don’t care, but I can’t seem to keep my cards close to my chest when it comes to Sol.
He walks to me, setting a plate of food in front of me. Too much food, honestly. Sol leans against the counter and waits until I pick up a piece of fruit that I recognize from yesterday’s breakfast and take a bite. Only then does he speak. “There will be no one else, Briar. Even if I didn’t hold marriage to be particularly sacred…” He shakes his head slowly. “No one else will do. It’s you and no other.”
Even as I try to tell myself he’s only saying that because I’m his bride and I’m human and he needs to convince me to breed with him, part of me can’t help melting at the sincerity in his words. To distract myself I take another bite and speak the thing that’s been bothering me since last night. “I don’t understand you.”
“How so?”
“You are so courteous and kind when we talk like this.” I motion between us. “But when it comes to sex, you’re…different.”
He shifts closer, and I jump a little when his tail spirals around my leg. He leans down until our faces are even. “Did you like what we did last night?”