"I fucking hate you, Max Holbrook."
He snorted. "As if that's news to me. You have since the beginning."
Her expression wavered a second before it turned hard again. But it was long enough for him to wonder at the change.
Not that he was going to ask her about it. "Regardless, there's enough slack in the chains to reach the attached toilet, and you'll be given food and drink. I'll stay in this cottage until the day before the solstice, and then an acquaintance will look after you." He turned, put his hand on the doorknob, and added, "Once I have what I want, you can go free. By then, I'll have the attention of every dragon-related archaeologist on the planet and be the darling of the DDA, so I'll be protected. They won't risk the PR nightmare, even if they find out the truth." He glanced over his shoulder. Lavinia's eyes were full of disgust. Even if he didn't need to say it, he did anyway. "This isn't personal, Lavinia, just professional. I hope you recognize that eventually."
And then he exited the room, locked the door for good measure, and tried to stifle the small voice in his head that said this might be going too far.
But then he remembered what his brother had told him years ago, when he'd first trained Max to work as a sort of secret agent for the British government:
Emotions are a bloody nuisance.As long as you don't permanently harm an innocent during a job, then don't worry about them. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.
It'd beena lot easier to follow that advice when he'd been working against people he didn't really know. Or, if he did, Antony had told him of the darker deeds they'd done in their pasts.
Lavinia, on the other hand, was only a scholar. One who was just as determined as he to validate her research.
Then a compromise came to him, one that might assuage his guilt a fraction—he'd let her have the entirety of Alviva's cave complex he'd found at Wookey Hole to dig, analyze, and write about. It'd still help her career but keep her away from Dragon's Court.
His conscience somewhat mollified, Max headed toward his makeshift office to study the key he'd found and look for any hidden meanings or text. The window with the solstice, and the light hitting just right, would be short.
Preparation was everything.
The bloody bastardhad put Lavinia in chains and locked her in a room like a goddamned criminal.
And he smugly thought he'd get away with it too. But she'd rather rot in hell before she allowed that.
Her dragon spoke up.We may not know him as well as we thought, but he also doesn't know us that well either.
Right, he made a big mistake in not searching us.
Waiting a few minutes to ensure Max wouldn't walk in, she reached inside her bra and took out her little felt pouch of tools she always carried with her.
It was part of why she'd driven to this place instead of flying—she hadn't been about to walk into the lion's den unprepared. As much as she hated bras, they came in handy for storing stuff with no one the wiser.
Finding the small tool she needed, Lavinia quickly picked the lock on her cuffs and cast them aside. After putting her tools away, she studied the small room.
If the cuffs were reinforced, she wondered if the room was as well. A certain fabrication process with a special mixture of metals could make them resistant to a dragon-shifter's strength. And if she shifted, it could break bones that, even with a dragon's ability to heal quickly, would put her out of commission for a while.
No, her best bet was to be patient, pretend to be restrained until Max either left or went to bed, and then form a new plan.
Her dragon spoke up.I hope he goes to bed, and then we can chain him up. It might be interesting to see if his cock gets hard again. Then I can scratch my itch and let you focus.
I'm not about to rape him.
It wouldn't come to that. You might be oblivious to all his heated glances, but I'm not. He might even beg for it.
Lavinia had noticed a few scorching looks over the months, but the bastard back in Australia who'd chipped away at her self-confidence was still living rent-free in her head.I just want Max out of the way so I can find the key. I'll do whatever it takes to get it.
Her dragon stretched her wings inside her mind.Then let the games begin.
Hours passed, and with nothing to do but go through her own thoughts, Lavinia focused on her theories about whatDragon's Court would look like. Would any treasures remain? Artwork? Written history that added to what little was known about the dragon-shifters after the Romans left Britain?
She finally heard another door down the hall click closed. That wasn't the front door, so it had to mean Max had gone to bed.
Good.Lavinia had hoped for this option. Max had bested her three times now, and it was time for him to know what it fucking felt like.
She carefully gathered the manacles and wrapped them in the pillowcase she'd pilfered from the bed. She couldn't afford to make any noise until the last second.