Chapter Seventeen
Tan
G arrick fell into a fitful sleep, and I wanted so badly to take away his pain.
My eyes watered even thinking about what happened to him, and to his son. Now that I thought about it, I did remember reading something about him having a son who passed away, but I hadn’t realized the timing fit with Garrick winding up stuck in the tower.
Fuck. My poor Gar-Bear.
I squeezed him tighter, brushed back his hair, and kissed the top of his head. The movements seemed to help calm him, thank fuck. Maybe I could just do this all night and scare away all the nightmares.
We didn’t even eat dinner, but I wasn’t sure I could after hearing that story.
I couldn’t even imagine ever being betrayed that fully.
My family were a bunch of assholes, but at least I’d known they were since the day I was born. I’d never expected anything from them, let alone love or safety. But to be betrayed by people you cared about… that was some soul-breaking horror story.
No wonder Garrick always had that sorrow lying in wait. No wonder he’d been grieving for so long.
His son was missing.
He’d been betrayed by his wife, someone he’d loved and been with for years, and she’d kidnapped his son.
His son had been raised by a psychopath.
That was a terror I couldn’t fully understand because I didn’t have any kids of my own.
My mind ran in circles as I held him tight, wishing I could take away his pain, until I finally joined him in sleep.
“Good morning,” I said as I walked into the office three days later.
We hadn’t really talked about what’d happened, but I somehow felt closer to him. His crying seemed to be sort of healing. He seemed a little lighter. Or maybe that was because he’d finally talked about what’d happened all those years ago. I knew that could be therapeutic, and I hoped it had been for him.
He’d shared his secrets with me, and all they’d done was make me want to spend even more time around him.
I wanted to help him heal… even if I didn’t know how to help.
Garrick was already sitting at his desk, but he looked up and gave me a nod. “Good morning, Tan. There’s coffee and a breakfast sandwich on your desk.”
I glanced over, and my eyebrows rose. The coffee was in a reusable cup that I knew belonged to Garrick, not in a to-go cup from a shop. And the breakfast sandwich was on a plate.
“Did you make me this?”
He didn’t look up from his laptop, and I couldn’t tell if he was completely engrossed in his work or purposefully avoiding eye contact because he was embarrassed. “Yes.”
Aw . That was so sweet. “Thank you, Gar-Bear.”
He did look up at that. “You’re welcome.”
I smiled at him, and he swallowed, making his Adam’s apple move. I had the sudden urge to go over and bite it and give it a good nibble. Mm . I bet he’d taste delicious.
Woah, where did that come from? Weird, stupid brain.
That obviously wasn’t going to help him.
Yeah, Gar, let me come over there and chew on you for a minute. See if that’ll help you heal. For fuck’s sake.
Roman stood from his spot on the couch, pulling my attention away from Gar. Roman said, “Sorry, I can’t stick around. Busy morning. See you after work.” He sent me a smile as he walked past me and exited the room.
As I settled at my desk, Garrick said, “I have a bunch of meetings this morning. Most of them are video chats, but I have two in-person meetings.”
“I remember. You told me yesterday, and Elvira and I have been sharing our schedules so we don’t have a lot of calls at the same time. If I have to, I’ll put a sound shield around one of us so we’re not interrupting one another. No big deal.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you could do that.”
I waved him off, then pulled some death magic into myself and pushed a sound shield out around my desk, encasing me. “See? Now you can’t hear me.”
“I can’t hear you. That’s great.” I could still hear him because I purposefully made it only soundproof one way. It was too dangerous to be cut off from his voice if he wasn’t shielded. What if I was so focused on my work that I didn’t notice him calling for help?
No, we wouldn’t be doing that. If I needed a sound shield, it would be going right over the top of Garrick. If that wouldn’t work, I’d just deal with his voice until he was finished.
I needed to be able to hear him unless he was safely inside one of my shields with Orangelica in the shield with him. She would be his backup if I had to put him in a silencing shield. She could easily get my attention through our bond if need be. And she could eat anyone who got too close to our dragon if someone managed to break through my shield—not that I would ever let that happen.
I dropped the shield and said, “Orangelica will need to stay with you inside your shield. She can grab my attention immediately if you need me, okay?”
He nodded. “That’s fine. You know she’s going to make her way over to me anyway.”
It was true. The little booger had been hanging out with him more than me the past few days, and Garrick seemed to love having her on his lap while he worked.
Honestly, it was so cute there was no way I wanted to stop it. But I would still tease him—I mean, obviously.
“Is that smugness I hear in your voice? Rude.”
He snorted in amusement, and I smiled in victory. He’d been making those little chortling noises, snorting, and doing an almost-there smile a lot easier the more time I spent with him. Not many people got to see that side of him. I loved it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He pretended to do something on his desk as he fake-whispered, “Orangelica? You coming?”
She meowed in response, jumped off my shoulder, and trotted over to him.
I whispered, “Traitor.”
She meowed at me, also amused by us. As soon as she settled in Gar’s lap, he shot me a look of triumph, and all I could do was laugh and flip him off.
He chortled for a few seconds before he really started working, and I did the same.
Since I’d started working from his office, he’d only had one in-person meeting other than when he’d fired and arrested the LPs. Last week, a vampire had come in to talk about property lines or something. I wasn’t sure why he’d been allowed to come all the way to the king—instead of to a laureate or even a high scale or LP. I did a little research on the vamp and found out the man was over five hundred years old, so I could only assume he had a little pull with his age.
In the end, Garrick had told him to take it up with Anton Orsova. I’d jolted at the name because that was Anton. My Anton who owned a bookshop Anton.
And the reason he’d told him to take it up with Anton? Because Anton was the other vamp’s elder. His elder . How old was Anton if a five-hundred-year-old vampire called him an elder? Vamps didn’t do that if the other vampire was less than a few hundred years older than them.
At least I now knew he was older than that. When I’d guessed he was a thousand, I’d thought I was aiming high, but maybe I needed to go even higher next time. One of these days, Bel and I were going to figure out his age.
And now I was thinking of Bel—and Remi—so I decided to take a small break and text them in our group chat.
Me: Do you guys want to get together this weekend?
Remi only took a few minutes to reply.
Remi: Aren’t you on babysitting duty?
I rolled my eyes. Why was my best friend such an ass when it came to Garrick? He was normally so laid back and sweet, but his Ellwood had been showing lately.
Me: No. Roman’s staying with him this weekend. Why don’t you guys come over to my house, and we can do a cookout? Let’s invite Anton, Ker, and the girls, and whoever else you want. Just let me know how many people so I can buy enough food.
Remi: That sounds like a plan. Saturday or Sunday?
Me: Saturday so we don’t have to worry about work the next day.
Remi: Perfect.
I went back to work, and about an hour later, my phone buzzed again.
Bel: Sorry, I was busking. Cookout sounds great. Not sure if Anton and Ker will both come, but maybe we don’t tell them the other’s coming?
I snorted. I didn’t know why the two of them didn’t get along, but I knew Bel was dying to force them to become friends because he cared about them both. I did too, so I was all about this plan.
Me: Hell yeah. Get them both there and we’ll force them to talk.
Bel: I’ll make sure I tell the girls about it too so Ker can’t just get out of it if he realizes Anton’s coming.
Me: I love the way your evil mind works.
He sent a bunch of smiling-devil emojis, and I laughed out loud again.
“What’s so funny?”
The sound of Garrick’s voice made me jump, and I twisted in my seat to see him. “Sorry. I was just texting Remi and Bel.” I bit my lip, then sighed loudly.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Tan, I can tell something’s wrong. Tell me. You can talk to me. Were they mean to you?”
I waved him off. “No, no. Of course not.”
“You can talk to me,” he said again, and after he’d shared so much the other night, I figured I owed him my honesty.
With a frown firmly in place, I fully faced him. “I’m having a cookout on Saturday, and I really want you to come, but I know you can’t, so I’m… sad. I want you to meet my friends and hang out while we aren’t working again. But I know that’s not a possibility, so I wasn’t even going to tell you about it because I didn’t want to make you upset or hurt your feelings. But then I didn’t want to lie to you either, so here we are.”
He waited a beat, probably seeing if I was going to keep blabbing since my mouth was so good at it. “Thank you for thinking of me. And for understanding.” He stared for another beat. “I’m sorry I can’t come, Tan. I’d… really like to meet your friends too.”
I sagged in disappointment, staring at my fingers and picking at the nails. I supposed a part of me was hoping that he’d find a way to come over anyway. But that was beyond selfish. The last thing I wanted was for Garrick to put himself in danger.
It was just… I wanted him there. It didn’t feel right to have all my friends over and not have him there with me. Him and even Roman too.
“Tan?”
“Yeah?” I didn’t look up.
“I’m sorry.”
I sighed. “I know. I’m sorry too. I’m not trying to make you feel bad.” I finally glanced up at him. “I just… really want you there.”
He sucked in a sharp breath, then stood, gently placing Orangelica on his desk. He walked over, turned my chair away from my desk, and squatted down in front of me so we were about the same height. He put a hand on each of my armrests, effectively caging me in.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry, Gar-Bear. It’s not your fault.”
He stared at me for a long moment before blowing out a slow breath. “What if… what if you moved your party to the roof here? I could buy a grill and a large party tent thing so there’s some shade, plus more tables and chairs. We have some up there, but I could get new ones, and…” He trailed off with a shrug.
My eyes were wide as I stared at him. “You would really do that?”
He hesitated for a moment before admitting, “I want to spend time with you too. I used to love hosting parties and going to them. It’s been a long time, but I’d love to get to know your family.”
I smiled. “I want that too.”
He reached up and gently brushed the backs of his fingers along my cheek. The touch sent butterflies dancing in my stomach, making my skin prickle and my breath hitch. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch, and then he cupped my cheek with the palm of his hand and whispered, “Tan.”
I hummed, feeling like a strange, calm buzz was moving through my skin and making me want to move toward the dragon. “Garrick.”
“You’re so beautiful, my little pretty.”
My eyes shot open, and I found him even closer to me than he was before. He stared into my eyes and leaned forward, and I wished he would just kiss me. The warmth I could feel from him, not just physically but emotionally too, drew me in like a moth to a flame. I was helpless but to move even closer. Mother of All, I really wanted him to press his lips to mine.
Holy shit, he’s about to kiss me.
Garrick, the mother-effing dragon king, is going to kiss me.
But then his office phone buzzed loudly—a call coming from Elvira.
We both sighed, and I deflated, the moment ruined. Not even realizing my own intentions, I leaned forward to rest my forehead against his as I held onto his wrist so he wouldn’t move away too soon. The phone would have to wait one damn minute.
He let out a shaky breath, and I was relieved I hadn’t freaked him out with the forehead touch. It probably should’ve felt like a strange move, but it only felt natural. Like touching him was a completely normal thing for me to do.
“Scales, Tan,” he whispered, then groaned because the phone buzzed again. If he didn’t answer it in the next thirty seconds, Elvira was going to start knocking on the door and yelling through it—probably only partially from worry.
I reached up with my free hand and cupped his cheek, then brushed my fingers through his hair, pushing it behind his ear. And then, with more willpower than I knew I had, I pulled away, pressed my lips to his forehead, and sat all the way back, forcing us both to drop our hands.
“You better get that before Elvira loses her mind on you.”
He snorted, nodded, and stood. Garrick started to turn away, but he paused and met my gaze. “Ask your friends if they’d be comfortable here on the roof. They’d have to use the bathrooms on this floor if they need them.”
I knew what he wasn’t saying—that he didn’t want anyone in his condo. And honestly, I didn’t either. Not that I didn’t trust them. Of course I did. It was just, if I started messing with the wards to let that many people come in and out of them, someone who knew what they were doing, and these blood witches really did, could possibly sneak their way inside. Or at least, they’d have a better chance of it anyway.
The condo was the most protected thing in the tower. Yes, I’d extended the wards to cover the roof as well, but Gar’s own dragon magic was much stronger in his home, so the wards were already stronger there to begin with.
If I messed with them too much, one of the blood witches could possibly get in and hide until Garrick was alone in his bedroom and—
Nope. I wasn’t about to go there, not even in my own head.
“No one will come into your condo. That’s only for us and Roman.”
He inhaled loudly and gave me a nod. “Thank you.”
“I’ll text Roman to invite him too.”
“Sounds like a plan, little pretty.”
Even though I’d hated that nickname at first, the way he said it now with so much tenderness… it was kind of growing on me.
When he walked back to his desk, I smiled at him, then pulled my phone back out and started texting. Remi was probably going to be a pain in the ass about it, but he’d just have to deal.
If this was how my dragon could meet my friends, then this was how we were gonna do it.