Page 9 of Claimed By the Dragon

She rubbed her hands against her hips before replying, “If you make a list of things to be done around the house, I can work on doing some of them.”

He stopped mopping and briefly met her gaze. “There’s no need. I’ll take care of it.”

Something flickered in her eyes that he couldn’t read. Crossing her arms over her chest, she said, “Let me do something, anything, to help because I don’t like owing favors.”

He frowned. “Favors? What favors?”

She gestured around herself. “The home, food, clothing, and all the things you buy me. It’s all a debt, and I don’t like being indebted to anyone.”

Studying her gaze, Trahern sensed she was upset. Not that he understood why. “I’m your mate. It’s my duty. There are no debts to be repaid.”

“But I’m not your mate in truth, am I?” She reached out a hand. “Give me the mop.”

He moved it away from her. “No. This is my fault. I’ll clean it up.”

She moved closer. “Trahern, give it here. I made this mess, not you.”

As she reached for the mop handle again, she slipped on the soapy water. Trahern moved to catch her, with Grace’s front pressing against his. For a moment, she clung to him as her heat and scent filled his nose. She was warm and soft, with a hint of something…like flowers. Leaning his nose to where her neck met her shoulder, he inhaled deeply.

A sense of peace mixed with desire rushed through him.

His dragon spoke up.She is ours.

Warning bells rang inside his head, and Trahern focused on moving Grace to the nearest chair. He quickly released her and took several steps back.

She blinked at him, her lovely dark brown eyes making him want to stare into them forever. Normally, he couldn’t hold eye contact for long before his skin itched and prickled.

But Grace’s gaze made him feel the opposite.

Time stood still as they stared at one another. Then a baby cried, followed by a second, and it snapped Trahern back to reality, and he remembered Blake’s list.

“I’ll check on them.”

With that, he rushed out of the kitchen and focused on checking the twins to see if he could get them to stop crying.

Grace watched Trahern all but run out of the kitchen, and she did her best to catch her breath and slow her racing heart.

One minute she’d been irritated that Trahern wouldn’t let her help and earn her keep, and the next she’d been slipping and falling into his arms.

His deceptively strong arms.

For a few seconds, with his arms wrapped around her, she’d felt safer than she had in a long while.

And yet, she wasn’t that naïve idiot any longer, the one who trusted a dragon-shifter she barely knew. One who’d ended up getting her pregnant to make some money.

And yes, rationally she knew Trahern wasn’t going to woo her with false promises and pretty words to get her into bed. The man was a self-proclaimed virgin, despite him probably being at least thirty years old.

However, she refused to lower her guard. Her sons were her top priority, and she needed to learn everything she could to help them. Anything else was just a distraction.

Grace stood, took a deep breath, and worked on mopping up the worst of the water. When finished, Trahern still hadn’t returned, so she went to check on her babies.

She found him sitting in the rocking chair in the corner of her bedroom with Eli in his arms as he recited words that sounded like…the periodic table of elements?

Trahern finally quieted and stared at Eli, who stared back at him. Eddie made a few grunts, and she scooped up her other son. Once she had him cradled in her arms, she looked up to find Trahern staring at her.

His pupils flashed to slits and back. Only once, but she still frowned since she’d never seen his eyes do that. Other dragon-shifters seemed to constantly talk with their inner dragons, but not Trahern.

Before she could think better of it, she blurted, “Do you not like your dragon half?”