“We know with your increased healing ability, you’ll be fine. But to a human, it would look a bit weird if your bleeding head wound just disappeared.”
“Oh, yes,” Adrien said. “Once again, I have to inconvenience myself for a human.”
“Yes, why did you do that?” Sever said. “You are supposed to hate them.”
“Says who?” Adrien snapped.
“Says you,” Citrine retorted.
Adrien sat back on the couch, resting against the cushions and willing away the ache in his head. “Well… even I have a conscience. A sense of right and wrong. In our time, none of us allowed harm to come to the village wenches.”
“Right,” Sever said. “But as you continuously point out, this isn’t our time.”
Adrien slammed his fist down on the couch in frustration. “Dammit, Sever, what do you want me to say? That I shouldn’t have saved the wench? That I’m truly a villain who could stand by while something like that happened?”
“You could have asked us for help,” Sever said. “We were just doors away.”
“Right,” Citrine said, resting his chin on his knuckles. “It’s almost like he was… panicked.”
“Was not,” Adrien said. “I just didn’t have time to spare to wake you two lazy asses and get you out of bed. Besides, I can handle a handful of humans.”
Sever cocked his head. “Not apparently. Wait until I tell Dante.”
Adrien let out a snarl. “You wouldn’t dare. Besides, we both know it’s because of the ring. If I had my powers—”
“Right, but you won’t have them until you find a mate here and learn to get along with humans.”
Sever grinned. “Maybe he found one already. Last night.”
Adrien’s glare deepened as he caught Sever’s meaning. “You can’t be serious.” He shook his head gingerly, but despite his quick rebuttal, part of him wasn’t so sure.
What had made him watch her leave so carefully? What had made him risk his own life, even restrained? He hadn’t even considered not intervening.
“Where is she?” he asked, trying to look nonchalant about it to avoid more teasing.
“As we said, in the next room,” Citrine said. “We didn’t know the whole story, and we couldn’t just let her go without your say so.”
“Why?” Adrien asked.
“She’s a human that the silver dragon fought to save. That’s just far too interesting to let out of our hands,” Sever said. “Citrine and I both agreed.”
“So what, you kidnapped her?”
“She needed shelter,” Citrine said. “We gave her an excuse to accept our help.”
That was true. It was what Adrien should have done, if he hadn’t immediately jumped to suspicions of thieving and spying upon seeing her.
He should have noticed her clothes, realized she was homeless and needed help, and offered a bed.
It was something that wouldn’t have occurred to him before, but now was clear as daylight.
“What are you thinking?” Sever said. “You know we’ve been trying not to read thoughts as a habit.”
“I know,” Adrien said. “I appreciate it.” He thought for a moment. His mind was whirling. The idea that she was just next door was oddly reassuring.
But why should he care what happened to a human? Wasn’t she just a burden? Not his problem? He’d already saved her, doing more than he ever intended to do for a woman in this world.
He bit his lower lip and worried it back and forth slowly. “So… what happens next? Do we talk to her?”
“What do you want to happen next?” Citrine asked, looking at Adrien with twinkling eyes that he didn’t like one bit.
“We can send her off, I suppose,” Adrien said. “After all, we don’t need to hear her side of the story. I can assure you she is innocent of anything but being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And seeking shelter, I suppose.” That last part stuck in his throat like a badly wedged bone.
“Should we?” Citrine asked Sever. “Just tell her to go?”
Something about that irritated Adrien. He didn’t like it at all. If she left, if she were to go back out in the world, she would probably just run into trouble again, needing him to save her.
Which he wasn’t sure why he cared, but he did, and until he figured it out, he couldn’t really let her leave.
“As far as she knows, it’s her fault I’m injured.” He pointed to his head. “Until this heals, I feel she should probably help me with whatever I need.”
Sever folded his arms and stood, leaning on the door. “So that’s gonna be your excuse for keeping her around?”
Adrien nodded, then shook his head. “No. It’s not an excuse. She owes me. And if I say she should stay, then she should. Besides, it’s not like she has anywhere else to be.”
There was a knock on the door behind Sever.
“If you’re going to keep me around, perhaps you could consider feeding me,” a feminine voice said from behind the door.
Adrien’s heart skipped a beat, and he hated himself for it. He was nervous to see her, dammit. And why should he be? She was only a human.
“Come in, then,” he said sharply, folding his arms.
Four
Kelsey was nervous to see the men from the previous night, but she was also feeling better than she had in a long time, thanks to the good night’s sleep she’d had and the warm shower.
She’d changed into her last clean set of clothes, a worn pair of jeans with a tee shirt, a zip-up sweatshirt over the top, and gone in search of food.
She’d heard the men next door talking loudly and decided if they were going to talk about her future, they might as well provide food so she didn’t pass out first.
When one of them called for her to come in, she put a hand on the doorknob and slowly opened the door, stepping inside the apartment.
It was beautiful, at least three times the size of hers, and she wondered if they all shared it together.
That was a little odd.
They were all just as good-looking as she remembered, and she quickly scanned them, reacquainting herself with their faces.
“Good to see you this morning,” Citrine said cheerfully, standing up with a wave. “I’ll see what we have in the fridge.” He opened the door and began rummaging inside, leaving her face to face with Sever and Adrien.
She’d reminded herself of their names this morning, just so she didn’t look like a fool by not remembering.
“Good morning,” she said quietly to them both, and Sever nodded. Adrien, on the other hand, pinned her with a dark glare, silver eyes flashing as always, dark hair going in every direction around a large, white bandage that wrapped his head.
“I assume you’re feeling better?”
“No,” he said sharply. “I’m not, thanks to you. And I assume that given your odd habit of eavesdropping, you also heard I expect you to stay around long enough to make it up to me.”
She bit her lip, stifling a grin. After last night, after he’d fought for her, and after a good night’s sleep, she wasn’t afraid of him. “No one can tell me what to do.”
He sat up a little straighter, ready to argue. He sounded older than his boyish face looked. Maybe in his mid-twenties. But his body was all man. She took another look at him.
The other men were beautiful, but this one drew her in the most. For what reason, she didn’t know.
It’d been a long time since she had the luxury of looking at a man and simply thinking him beautiful.
“What are you looking at?” he snapped, and she looked up to see he was blushing slightly on his pale cheeks. Gosh, his cheekbones were high. “Don’t you know it’s rude to stare?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry.” She walked to the counter, where Citrine was setting out little pastries on plates. “Is this for me?”
Citrine nodded.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this,” she said, picking up one and taking a bite. Raspberry. She grinned as she chewed it. Sh
e should probably wonder about all this, about how lucky she was, but she simply hadn’t experienced kindness in so long that she didn’t have the energy to question it.
Besides, they were right. They ran a business here, and they could afford a breakfast for her. They couldn’t afford bad publicity. She still had a phone and could call the police in an emergency.
But she also trusted her gut, and for now, she felt safe here.
She felt eyes on her and looked over her shoulder to see Adrien watching her curiously. She held her plate up. “Want some?”
He looked away sharply, ignoring her.
She went back to eating. She needed to make plans. Get to the agency, figure out a temp job. Maybe the guys here would rent her the apartment for a few days, under the guise of making it up to Adrien. She didn’t know. But she’d had a bed and a lock, and she didn’t want to lose it.
And none of them had made any untoward advances or seemed interested at all, which was a first.
After all, she wasn’t the type of woman who would tempt men like them. She wasn’t skinny. No matter how much manual labor she did at work, she seemed to have the same chunky build. Like she was just made that way. Her face was squarish and normal with a wide jaw. She supposed she had a nice mouth and nose. She liked her lips, which were full, and her small, upturned nose. She thought her green eyes weren’t bad as well.
Her curls were nice, too.
But overall, she was plain and her clothing wasn’t nice and she wasn’t tall, and so she knew she would probably be safe here. Men like this didn’t have to take advantage of women like her.
“So how did you end up in this position?” Citrine asked.
She froze, embarrassed, a pastry halfway to her mouth. She set it down. “You mean homeless?”
He nodded.
“I don’t really feel I owe you my life story at the moment,” she said, popping the pastry in and chewing slowly, savoring every moment of its sweetness.
She was ravenous and wanted to take everything and just shove it in her mouth, but food like this was too good to simply scarf down. She’d never been able to eat anything this delicious in her life.
She expected a retort from Adrien but looked over to see him thinking to himself quietly, watching her with careful appraisal. “So what is it you guys do here?” She licked her fingers. “In this fancy building.”
Citrine watched her with amusement. “I guess we are a kind of dating club.”
She blinked, pointing at each of them in turn, brows screwing up in confusion. “Wait. So… you’re escorts?”
She let out a laugh. That all made sense. The fanciness, the beauty of the men. The way they seemed engineered to make women fall at their feet.
Not her, though. She had more practical things to worry about.
“Not escorts,” Adrien snapped. “And don’t look at us like we’re whores.”
She shrugged and went back to her pastries. It wasn’t her business what other people did for their jobs. Anything that earned a living was fine by her.
“What do you do, then?” she asked, more to Citrine than Adrien, who seemed to be very defensive.
“We rent out for dates, events. Things where women might like to have a date, but don’t want the complication of finding one in the usual ways,” Citrine said.
She dropped the pastry in her hand. “So women have money to just pay you to go out with them?” She brushed off her hands, getting rid of crumbs. “How rich are these women?”
“We don’t work with people only based on money,” Sever said, straightening uncomfortably. “We work things out on a case-by-case basis.”
“I’m sure I could never afford you,” Kelsey joked. “Then again, I wouldn’t have any fancy events where I’d need you.”
“Have you told Robbie about this?” Sever asked Citrine. “If our… guest is staying, she should probably know.”
“Who is Robbie?” Kelsey asked, perking up.
“Our manager,” Sever asked.
Kelsey grinned at that, wanting to meet the woman whose job it was to keep these men in line.
“Yes, I should tell Robbie and have her meet… What is your name? I just realized we never asked you.”
She shrugged. “Kelsey. I’m not offended, though. When you’re in my situation, people don’t care about your name. They don’t want to humanize you.”
Citrine frowned. “I’m sorry about that.”
She shrugged again. It was her way of pushing pain away, letting it fall off her shoulders, keeping it from hurting her. She’d never been entitled to a lot of the things other people took for granted, like family or a constant roof over her head or even consideration. She survived by convincing herself she was fine anyway.
“No, I’m really sorry,” Citrine said, scooting a bit closer on his stool. She looked up into his eyes and was grateful for the warmth there. And a bit stunned by it, as usual.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Well then, Kelsey,” Citrine said. “I’m off to call Robbie and ask her to come in and meet you. If you’re going to be hanging around, ‘helping’ Adrien, we should probably figure out exactly what you’ll be doing and set some ground rules.”
“And I can stay in that apartment?” she asked. She really loved that apartment. It would be the perfect place to land and get back on her feet, if only they would let her keep it for now.
Citrine nodded with a warm smile. “Of course. As long as you need it.”
She blinked and went back to her pastries, fighting back unbidden emotion. Who were these people, and why were they being so kind to her?
Why did she feel so safe all of a sudden?
She picked up a pastry and put it to her lips and was surprised to see a tear drop onto the plate in front of her. She kept her head low, hoping neither of the two men left in the room noticed, but she heard Adrien stir behind her.
“For heaven sake, what’s wrong?” he asked irritably, sounding mildly panicked. The thought brought a smile through her tears. “Stop that crying at once.”
She didn’t, though, just kept eating the pastries, trying to ignore the extra salt. She couldn’t explain exactly why she was crying. Maybe it was just relief. Maybe it was the sad realization that being treated this well should have happened to her at some point earlier in her life, rather than now, for the first time.
Yeah. Maybe that.
“I said cease your crying,” Adrien said, louder now. He stood and came over to the counter, placing a hand on it and glaring down at her. “I demand it.”
She gave him a wary glance, then returned to eating. “I don’t very much care what you demand. Your friend Citrine is nice, and I think I’ll go with what he says.”
“But I saved you,” Adrien snapped. Despite his harsh tone, there was real concern in his eyes. This was a man who was better than his actions implied.
She looked into his silvery, light eyes and sighed. “That doesn’t give you the right to tell me what to do.” She brushed off her hands again, this time on her jeans. “But I do feel grateful, and I’ll try to stay around and help.”
“You just want the apartment.”
She shrugged. It was true, but she also did feel indebted to this man, and a little concerned for him. With that bandage on, he looked just a bit… helpless.
Despite his size and muscles.
“I’m going to take a shower,” he said, walking to the back.
“Be careful with your bandages,” she yelled. “You need help with that?”
She heard him curse in response and guessed that meant no. Pity. She hadn’t meant anything bad by it, but she was perfectly willing to help an injured person. Particularly one who was injured for her.
It had nothing to do with seeing him naked in the shower.
She looked over at the remaining man, who was staring at her as if he didn’t know what to make of her.
“What are you looking at, Viking?”
“You seem much bolder now,” he said q
uietly, crossing his arms over his massive chest. “What has changed?”
“Food in my stomach,” she said. “A warm bed. I’m a fighter. That’s how I’ve survived this long. But everyone can feel a bit beaten down when they’re at their lowest.”
“And this is your lowest?”
“I’d say last night was, though it’s a close tie with a few other moments.”
“What exactly happened last night?” Sever asked. His eyes were a dark gray, much different than Adrien’s. But they still had that otherworldly air to them.
“Do I have to go over it again?” she asked, feeling slightly ill just thinking of it. “I snuck in here to catch some sleep, Adrien chased me out, and then he came to save me when some guys got bad ideas about me.”
“I see,” Sever said. “He chased you out?”
“Well, just the way he looked at me when he came across me, I knew I’d better get out of there.”
“How did he look at you?” Sever asked, a smile curving his face.
She thought back to last night, to looking up at him for the first time. “Like I was garbage.” She waved a hand. “Not like I’m not used to that, but it was different. Like he hated me down to his soul.”
Sever crossed one leg over the other and leaned back. “Interesting.”
There was a knock on the door, and Sever looked up. “Come in,” he said, and Kelsey felt slight trepidation at who it might be.
She turned to face it as it opened. A black woman with beautiful, sparkling eyes, a bright smile, and fashionable clothes came in, looking like she owned the place.
Her curls were caught up in a trendy style at the back of her head, and she wore simple, perfect makeup.
She wore a tailored suit over a curvy body and pretty high heels that Kelsey immediately coveted.
She crossed to Kelsey and stuck out a hand. “I’m Robbie,” she said brightly, shaking Kelsey’s hand a little too excitedly. “And I’m so glad to have another woman around this place.”
Kelsey had to laugh at that and sat back as the other woman released her.
Robbie paced for a second with folded arms, a grin on her face. Then she turned to Kelsey again. “So tell me again what happened with Adrien?”
Silver (Date-A-Dragon Book 2) Page 3