Page 10 of Visions of You

The thought, the truth of it, made it hard for Jaron to breathe.

It was funny in a way. Jaron had never thought of himself as very 'dragonly.' He scoffed at the way his peers pranced around half-naked all the time, showing off their abs, spewing fire at the slightest provocation, and generally being obnoxious.

And now this vampire's presence forced him to admit that he was still a dragon deep down because suddenly there werethoughts in his head aboutclaimingKeegan the way a primitive creature might claim its treasure.

The way a dragon might claim his mate.

It was a little overwhelming.

Keegan turned to him when he finally noticed that he was being stared at. "What?"

"Nothing," Jaron lied. What else could he say?

He looked up at the sky, pretending to watch as the finale started and a magical display of fireworks painted shapes in the air, forming ice blue and fire red dragons, dancing with each other the way Jaron wanted to dance with Keegan.

He risked another glance at the vampire and his heart beat faster.

Could he have found his mate?

CHAPTER 4

When Jaron returned home that night, the old witch he lived with greeted him with a smile. "Did dinner with your family go well?" she asked. "You seem to be in a good mood."

Jaron returned the smile. "Nah, it went horribly." There was no reason for him to mince his words. The witch, Malkira, had taken him in when he'd decided he could no longer live under one roof with his parents, so she knew exactly how bad his relationship with them was.

"Anything you want to talk about?" she asked, but he waved her off.

"I'm just going to head to bed. Really, it wasn't a bad night." But he had a lot of things he needed to process.

"All right," she said. "Have a good night."

He headed up the stairs to his room. It wasn't a large room, but there was enough space for his desk, his bed, his clothes, and his collection of yarn. His hoard.

Back at his parents' place, he'd had a dedicated treasure room for his hoard, but he didn't mind sharing a room with his collection. There was a certain sense of comfort in having it nearby.

He took two balls of woolen yarn, one red, one blue and lay in his bed with them. The red yarn was the color of Keegan's hair, the blue yarn the color of his eyes.

Yes, Jaron did feel a little silly to be pining over a man he'd only just met, but he couldn't help it.

They'd talked a little more after the fireworks, but not for long, and Jaron hadn't been able to convince Keegan to get to know each other more intimately.

There was still a chance, though, that he could get what he wanted if he kept trying.

Jaron ran his fingers over the blue yarn, feeling the softness of it, thinking of the string he'd left with Keegan. A piece of his hoard out of his reach.

He closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

What might Keegan be doing now? Was he thinking of Jaron too?

Jaron smiled to himself as he imagined undressing his vampire, pushing him on a bed and climbing on top of him, all that pale naked skin his for the claiming. He imagined Keegan's blue eyes fixing on him, filling with pleasure.

Gods, how he wanted that.

He wanted to fuck Keegan until they both felt complete. The dragon in him stirred at the thought, roaring his approval.

Jaron reached for himself, remembering the way Keegan's gaze had cut into him, how badly it had made Jaron want to offer himself to the vampire.

He pictured himself doing just that.