Page 22 of Monster's Melody

“By those standards, so does Jahrdran,” Kasi said with a grin.

Great.I was surrounded by horny comedians and the one man I could never have.

I glared at Vorzak, who had yet to notice me.It was absolutely infuriating how oblivious he could be.

Of course, it was also infuriating that hehadn’tbeen oblivious yesterday.Maybe that’s why I was so taken aback by his lack of awareness today.

Idiot gorgon.

As if Vorzak heard my thoughts, his head jerked around and his snakes started waving and dancing the moment they saw me.

This time, though, Vorzak didn’t ignore me.Instead, he started walking toward us.

“Why is he coming over here?”I hissed.“You two didn’t beckon him over, right?”

“No way,” Mikaela said at the same time Kasi shook her head and said, “Nope.”

“I just can’t figure out why he’s noticing me all of a sudden.”

Before they could respond, Vorzak reached us.“Hello, ladies.”He gave us that sexy, half-smile of his that practically made me melt into a puddle at his feet.

Luckily, I was made of sterner stuff than that.

“Hey, Vorzak,” Mikaela said as she darted to the other side of Kasi.She wasn’t even subtle about her attempts to get away from his snakes.“Didn’t know you were in this class.”She sent me a look that somehow communicated she blamed me for this unexpected development.

I sent her a look back that clearly denied any and all culpability, and furthermore, demanded she stay and act as a buffer.

Instead, she shook her head and edged further away.

Such a baby!

“I just joined the class,” Vorzak said.“Figured it’d be a good idea to work on getting my snakes used to dragons.”

“What?”I exclaimed.“But why?”

He shrugged.“Who knows?Might need to ride a dragon one of these days.”

“Give me a break.”I rolled my eyes.“You’re not fooling anyone.I know you were up to something in the stables last night and it didn’t have anything to do with learning how to ride a dragon.”

He grinned, but before he could answer, Professor Vesely clapped his hands and called out, “All right, everyone.Gather around.”

CHAPTER4

I absolutely lovedDragon Riding 101.

Beyond the fact that my two best friends were in the class with me (even if they didn’t enjoy it as much as I did), we got to ride dragons!

Even though it had taken most of the fall semester for Professor Vesely to trust us not to get burned to a crisp, it’d been well worth the wait.When we’d finally gotten to ride a dragon, it’d been even better than I’d expected.The freedom, the wildness of the dragons themselves, the feel of the wind whipping past as we took to the skies—I’d loved every minute of it.

And I’d been looking forward to this semester, where we’d get to practice our dragon-riding skills, fly higher than ever and hopefully even learn a few tricks along the way.

Now, though, I worried I wouldn’t be able to concentrate with the sexiest man I’d ever met, a man I was determined to now avoid, in class with us.Vorzak was currently standing right beside me, his adorable serpents nuzzling my ear and petting me, proving my point.

“First,” Professor Vesely said, “I want to congratulate everyone again on your successful dragon flights at the end of last semester.”

Everyone cheered.

“Well, except for Mr.Neves, of course.He is joining us for the first time today and will have to work extra hard in order to catch up with the rest of you.”He sent Vorzak a stern look, but Vorzak just stared back impassively, seemingly unbothered by the thought of extra work.