Endless rows of bookshelves unfolded before him. He found a ladder, but as he climbed, it continuously disappeared beneath him, leading him nowhere.
He ran endlessly through the halls of this mysterious library, aware that the thing he was seeking was somewhere near him yet totally out of reach.
But he couldn’t give up. He had to—
Cobalt sat upright, heart pounding, as he looked around him and realized it was just a dream. Relief surged through him as the helplessness of a moment ago faded away, leaving him in his comfortable bedroom at the comfortable mansion he called home.
He didn’t often dream, but when he did, it was vivid, leaving him soaked with sweat and reeling from tension even as he tried to go about his day.
At least this dream hadn’t gone that far.
If he were a different kind of person, he could have analyzed the dream, tried to pull some kind of meaning from the unconscious firings of his neurons.
But he knew logically it was just his brain venting stress, nothing more than that.
He ran a hand through his hair and wondered if their new house guest was up yet and if she was causing havoc with the other dragons.
Sylvie was impulsive, exciting, and in the short time he’d known her, he already had figured out she did exactly what she wanted when she wanted to.
Up to and including kissing him.
Would she try the same with another dragon?
A bolt of panic went through him, and he shot from the bed, grabbing a robe and pulling it on over the tee shirt and pajama pants he was wearing. He was already covered, but the robe kept him safe and warm in the morning.
Besides, with Sylvie in the house, it felt a little like armor.
As he shut the door to his room and took the stairs down toward the kitchen, he knew he was probably overreacting.
After all, the only other unmated dragon in the house was Chromium, and Sylvie didn’t strike him as the type who would go after another woman’s mate. He kind of hoped she was the type who wouldn’t kiss more than one dragon, but then again, did he really know her that well?
As he entered the kitchen, he let out a sigh of relief at the scene in front of him.
Several dragons were sitting at the table with their mates, and Chromium was at the stove, cooking as usual.
Smelled like oatmeal and some kind of apple dish this morning.
Sylvie, to Cobalt’s consternation, was standing next to Chromium, peppering him with questions.
Chromium seemed oddly calm about the situation, nodding in response to Sylvie while continuing to go about his cooking.
He turned when he heard Cobalt enter.
Morning, cousin. Cobalt usually communicated with Chromium using thought. Chromium was more comfortable that way.
You’re up late, Chromium replied, raising a light eyebrow. Not usual for you.
Just dreaming.
Chromium nodded, turning back to the meal, as Sylvie continued to ask him questions, too focused on the food to notice Cobalt had even come in yet. This new girl is really something, isn’t she?
Cobalt remained silent, not knowing what to say to that.
“Mm, this is awesome!” Sylvie called out, tasting the oatmeal with a spoon she’d pulled from a drawer.
Chromium looked over his shoulder at Cobalt with a smile. I like her a lot.
An odd stirring went through Cobalt, making his chest feel tight and painful. He had no idea what the emotion was, having never felt it before.
He did know one thing. He didn’t like feeling it toward Chromium.
Sylvie noticed him then and walked over with another spoon in her hand. She handed it to him and watched him take the bite of oatmeal it contained.
“Good, right? Chromium is an awesome cook.”
“He is,” Cobalt said, hoping the odd, tight emotion he was feeling didn’t come through in his voice.
“Good to see you this morning. I was wondering when you’d come down and spice things up.” She gave him a little wink and a nudge, and he jumped, not sure he understood the interaction.
Arsenic sidled over to look in the pot, then let out a sigh. “I suppose it doesn’t smell awful. I will take some.” Chromium smiled and handed him two bowls, which Arsenic took back to his mate wordlessly.
“Say thank you!” Sylvie said, jabbing a finger in Arsenic’s direction. “He worked hard on this.”
Arsenic looked up, shocked, and to Cobalt’s surprise, the dangerous assassin was actually blushing. “I apologize, Chromium. Thank you.”
Chromium dipped his head in a nod. “No need.” Then he spoke to Cobalt in his mind. See? That’s why I like her. Grateful.
Cobalt felt as though a spike had gone through his chest. “I, uh… I think I’m going to eat while working this morning,” he said, taking a bowl from Chromium, who just looked at him wordlessly.
Are you all right?
I’m fine.
And he was, as he took the bowl of steaming oatmeal and headed for his sanctuary, the library. As much as he wanted to stay by Sylvie, he didn’t like how he was feeling at the moment, and he needed time to think.
Chapter 5
After breakfast, Sylvie decided to explore the mansion. She was tired from the night before and full from an awesome meal, and she knew the only way to get energy would be to stay up and hunt for adventure.
In a mansion this big, she was bound to find it.
Cobalt had disappeared that morning, giving her merely a blush to enjoy before he left, but she could wait to pursue that further.
The thrill of the chase only made it that much more fun.
She passed the door to the library, knowing that was probably where he was, and headed down the hall to a door at the end.
Given the distance between this and the library, there was probably another large room tucked behind.
She would check inside and see what the room held and then go back to the library to bug Cobalt if she hadn’t found anything to do.
She opened the door and gasped when she saw the most perfect home gym she’d ever seen in her life. Though it was only one room, it was large enough to compete with some gyms that she’d paid a membership to access.
There were machines and a weight rack and a Smith machine and exercise balls and pulleys… and…
A dragon.
She took a step back as she realized the dark-haired guy with hawkish eyes was already working out in there. Lead.
She almost hadn’t seen him in the far corner, where he was bench pressing dumbbells on a reclined weight bench.
Damn, all the guys here were huge. They made the MMA guys she’d trained with look like pipsqueaks, and those had all been men who fought for a living.
Men who were her friends.
She didn’t want to think about that now. She was sure they all assumed she was just like many MMA trainees, passing through, all excited about something with no follow through. Especially if they stopped by her place and found out she defaulted on rent.
No one would know she was kidnapped.
She wrapped her arms around herself, not wanting to think about that. This was her new start, and she could figure out what was after that later.
Lead finally became aware of her presence and sat up with a start. The tee shirt and shorts he was wearing were damp with sweat, and his hair was held back by a headband.
“I can leave if you would like to use the gym.”
“It’s fine. I don’t see any reason we can’t both use it, if that’s okay with you.”
He cocked his head as if that were kind of a foreign concept. “I suppose so.”
He had a lady. That made him just another bro as far as Sylvie was concerned. And she didn’t think they’d be using the same machines.
Luckily, she’d put on the comfiest thing she could find in the closet, which just happened to be a sports bra, tee shirt and yoga pants. Perfect for working out.
She stretched and looked in the mirrors mounted on the wall
ahead of her. In the weeks she’d been held, it didn’t look as though she’d lost much muscle tone.
Good.
She walked to the stair stepper and started to warm up on a low setting, hoping to just get her blood moving again.
“It’s nice to have someone else in the gym,” Lead said from his corner, dabbing his forehead with a towel. “My mate likes to sleep in, and the other dragons aren’t interested, so it’s usually just me.”
“Such a nice gym, and no one uses it? I can’t believe that.” She shook her head as she stepped off the machine and grabbed a folded towel from a clean pile that was neatly stacked next to water bottles.
“I agree,” Lead said with a smile, turning back to his routine.
He was a nice guy. If he hadn’t been taken, he might have been her type in a different world.
But not now that she was completely fascinated by Cobalt. There was just something about him. The way his blue eyes widened slightly whenever she caught him off guard. The way he always seemed off-kilter with things like touch.
It was also kind of hot that a nerdy guy who seemed to know something about literally everything was also tall, hot, and ripped.
She walked over to the weight rack, trying to decide what her numbers would be now.
“If they don’t use the gym, how is everyone so ripped?”
“Simple,” a cool voice answered from the doorway, sending a shiver of anticipation up her spine.
“Oh?” She turned to face Cobalt, who was leaning on the doorframe, still in that blasted robe he’d been wearing upstairs that hid all of his beautiful body.
“Technically, no amount of working out will increase or decrease our size. It’s genetic, inherent in our breeding.”
Lead stretched, then sat on his bench, looking over at Cobalt eagerly. “You can’t tell me that working up a good sweat doesn’t do our bodies good, brother. You should join us.”
Sylvie was immediately inundated by the thought of Cobalt working out. Big muscles flexing, glasses slipping down a perfect nose, thick, bluish-gray hair tousled by sweat and exertion… “Yeah,” she said, trying not to drool. “You should join us.”
Lead let out a snort as he put his towel over his shoulder. “It’s unanimous.”
Cobalt just stood there, muscles at the side of his eye twitching, body rigid and on guard. “I just don’t see how it will change anything.”
“You don’t know until you try,” Sylvie said, practically salivating at the thought of seeing him without that robe on.
“Fine, I will join,” he said, walking in and untying the belt of his robe as he shut the door behind him.
When he shed the robe, she was disappointed to see him in pajama pants and a tee shirt, much of his body still hidden.
Lead gave him a frown. “You can’t work out like that, brother. You will overheat.”
Cobalt shrugged one shoulder. “What do you suggest?”
“You should take your shirt off.” Sylvie urged a little too eagerly. It was now her turn to flush as both dragons looked in her direction. “Uh, I mean, ‘cause he can’t take his pants off, you know? Gotta vent heat some way.”
Both dragons relaxed slightly, and Lead gave Cobalt a nod.
“I suppose it makes sense.” Cobalt reached for the hem of his tee.
Sylvie’s lips went dry as she stared, waiting for the moment when all those beautiful muscles would be bared.
“But then again, it can wait until after my warmup.”
Sylvie hoped her deep disappointment wasn’t palpable as he dropped his hands. Well, if Cobalt wasn’t going to give up the shirt until he was sweating, she would just have to make him sweat.
“Do you want any instruction?” Lead asked.
“No. I’ll be fine on my own.” Cobalt walked to the weight bench and looked at Sylvie. “What weight do you suggest?”
“Well, I do these.” She picked up fairly large dumbbells. “But you might need to start smaller if you never work out.”
He gave her a smirk. “I don’t think so, human.” He reached for the largest set on the rack, save for the ones Lead was using, and picked them up like they weighed nothing. “These will do.”
She watched in awe as he took the weights to a bench next to Lead and looked over to mimic what he was doing.
She took her weights back to a bench on the other side of the gym where she could hopefully watch without being obvious.
At first, he was awkward as he followed along with Lead, looking like a sixteen-year-old boy at his first gym session.
But he quickly got into the swing of things, and, as if answering her dozens of silent pleas to do so, finally sat up and removed his shirt before going back to his exercises.
She was glad he was pretty involved in his workout, because there was no way her staring wouldn’t be obvious now.
His skin was so pretty and smooth, his muscles like something from an anatomy textbook as they flexed gracefully with his movements. He was bulky yet toned, and his huge pecs accentuated his strong, bulging arms and a row of perfect abdominals that one would think came from years of difficult training.
And this was somehow natural for his kind?
She felt blood pumping through her, making her knees weak, and it had nothing to do with her time on the leg press machine.
She ached for him.
He looked over at her in surprise, as if he hadn’t realized she’d be watching him. She returned his look boldly, unashamed of her actions.
She’d be insane to not take advantage of a chance to look at a beautiful man like this when he was half naked and moving weight. She slowly licked her bottom lip in anticipation and smiled when it led to a blush on his handsome face.
He sat up abruptly, putting down his weights. As she’d imagined, he was sheened with sweat and his hair was messy. He’d put his glasses to the side before starting, and he looked different without them on.
His startlingly blue eyes were that much more vivid without anything shielding them, and his face looked… even more beautiful, if possible.
Oh damn, she wanted this man bad.
Lead finished his set and turned to Cobalt, oblivious to the tension in the room, probably because of all the endorphins that came with a good workout.
A workout Sylvie had been too distracted by Cobalt to have.
“So what do you think?” Lead asked Cobalt.
Cobalt wiped at his sweat with the back of his hand, letting out a sigh. “You were right. It is…” His eyes met Sylvie’s. “Invigorating.”
Lead totally missed the context and stood, clapping his hand on Cobalt’s shoulder cheerfully. “See, brother? You never know what you can do when you’re willing to try out new things.” He walked to the door, rolling his shoulders and then cracking his neck before giving them both a sly smile. “Now I’m off to attend to my mate.”
Before either could reply, he’d left and closed the door behind him, leaving them alone with the sexual tension that had built to an almost unbearable level.
At least for Sylvie. It was always hard to tell what was going on in that damn intellectual’s head. Was he even capable of living in the moment?
Cobalt shifted uncomfortably on his bench, crossing one muscular leg over the other. “So what did you think?”
“Of what?”
“My performance. You presumed that I was weak, but I assume I have proved you wrong by now.”
She snorted. “Oh, that. I was just trying to get your shirt off.”
His cheeks went an even deeper red. “Oh. Well, I…” He looked to the side. “Anyway, I can’t deny the experience of working out was… interesting. I never knew such exertion could be so beneficial, both mentally and physically.”
It felt like he was babbling now, and all Sylvie could think about was a certain kind of way she’d like to exert this dragon, mentally and physically.
She knew she should consider things more carefully, not just jump into whatever she felt she wanted at that mom
ent.
But all she could think about was how much she wanted to get a piece of sweaty Cobalt pie and how to get it.
She caught a glimpse of a door on the other side of the room labelled ‘Bathroom,’ and a light bulb went off. As Cobalt looked at her nervously, Sylvie began to make plans.
Chapter 6
Perhaps Cobalt should have listened to Lead sooner about the benefits of physical exertion. He had found a certain release of stress as he lost himself in the exercise, and at first, it had relaxed him somewhat.
Even if now, staring at Sylvie, he was anything but relaxed.
Even if he’d never needed to work out his body the way humans did, he could appreciate just how much strength and diligence it took to be as good at it as Sylvie was.
And then there was the way she was looking at him. As if they were in a desert and he was an oasis from which she would very much like to drink.
He didn’t know what he would do if she came on to him. His dragon was more than ready to allow this human to meld their sweaty bodies together as a way to research human sexual mores.
But he knew better. It was more complicated than that. Even if Sylvie’s beautiful curves and sparkling brown eyes made him wish it wasn’t.
To his surprise, she simply pointed at the door behind him, dabbing at her neck with a towel. “Is that the bathroom?”
He nodded.
“Is there a shower in there?”
“I believe so.” He tried not to think of the image of her naked body lathered in soap and water.
She gave him a small smile. “Then I think I’ll go wash off, if you know what I mean.”
He thought he did. Wasn’t it pretty obvious? “Yes, washing is customary following exertion, due to increased glandular production.”
She wrinkled her nose at him, then giggled. “Ew, gross.”
“I would think you were aware of such things, given how knowledgeable you are about working out.”
She nodded. “I suppose. I just hadn’t heard it put that way before.” She smiled and cocked her head. “That’s why I like you, Cobalt. You’re so different from anyone else.”
Cobalt Dragon (Dragon Guard of Drakkaris Book 5) Page 4