“Ah, yes. Sort of. A new acquaintance.”
“Acquaintance?” she asks with a raised brow and I purse my lips at her.
“I have met him once, in The Underworld. A few hundred feet off the ground.”
She stares at me as she takes that in. She flaps her hands like wings and says loudly, “Another Dragon?”
“Hush,” I say to her. “I don’t want the others to know just yet. They will get all freaky and possessive and there is enough of that going around lately.”
She nods her agreement. “Yes, I see your point. Another Dragon sniffing around will most definitely send them all into a tizz.”
“Thank you. I will tell eventually, but until then, this stays between us.”
“Of course,” she says. “So, what does he look like?”
“As a person, I have no idea. As a Dragon, he is a Blue Dragon, bigger than me, and very pretty.”
“Blue Dragon. Where is that on the hierarchical scale?”
My turn to raise my brows and she shrugs.
“Hm, he is the next tier down from me.”
“Interesting.” She nods, taking that in. “Devon has asked that you look at and sign these.” She pushes some papers towards me.
“What are they?”
“This is my contract, and these are the signatory forms.”
“Oh, well these I can sign now,” which I do and hand them back to her. “The contract I want to look at.”
“Sure,” she says. “Oh, and also,” she adds excitedly now, “by the time we get to Paris next week, Château Cassis will be all yours.”
I grin at her and jump up and down as CK chuckles from the doorway. “Glad to see you are so excited. I can’t wait to see the old place myself,” he says.
“You are going with her to see it?” Cole asks from behind him.
He turns and says, “Of course. It was our first home together.” He has a wicked air about him tonight, and although he seems more relaxed, he is playful. I love playful CK, but why the sudden change?
“You said you didn’t think of it as your home,” Cole accuses him.
“Only when Aefre was there. She made it a home,” he answers as he sidles closer to me.
“Shall we go back to the others?” I ask brightly as I take Cole’s hand in mine and lead him out. We sit on the sofa and pick up my discarded drink. He pulls me onto his lap to make room for Devon and Jess and I cuddle him, putting my head on his shoulder. He leans his cheek against my forehead, and we are happy again.
The rest of the night goes by in a happy, relaxed bubble. There is no more tension between anybody, and we are all chilled and relaxed. That has to be a first, I think as I stifle a yawn.
“Tired, my love?” Cole whispers to me.
I nod. “I’m going to go to bed. You can stay up a bit longer if you like. It’s still early,” I say, it being only midnight.
“I will come up with you. Just give me ten minutes, you go on ahead.”
I wish everyone good night and Astral upstairs, not being bothered to walk up. I pull the dress over my head and put on a long satin navy nightgown for modesty’s sake and walk over to leave the door open. Lincoln may have had some Alpha time earlier, but he is still going to need to be close. I climb into bed and I am asleep before Cole comes up. I hear him sigh briefly before I drift back off.
Chapter 16
I awake around 4 AM to dead silence. Seems the whole house has crashed now, and I am wide awake. Sounds about right.