Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“You’re a dragon.” It was stupid but it was the first thing that came to mind. “You’re a dragon.”
Yep, still not any smarter.
I did better when I imagined hearing an echo of Kenzie’s giggles in my head, though.
Yep, those eyes were definitely smiling at me, but since he hadn’t mentioned anything about being telepathic, I just took a deep breath and moved down one step on the stairs to get closer. “You’re a beautiful dragon, Kenzie.”
Mostly blue like the sky, his coloring seemed to subtly shift in the light as he moved, and I could almost imagine him in the air, blending in as he swept through the clouds. His wings seemed to get darker at the tips, but I wasn’t sure if it was still blue or closer to a green color. It was hard to tell without getting closer but going up to him just to figure out his coloring sounded rude on some level.
If I wouldn’t do it to a person, I probably shouldn’t do it to Kenzie the dragon seemed like good logic, but I knew I’d have to come back to that when I was thinking more clearly. “You’re right. I think you’re very pretty, cutie.”
His whole body wiggled, such a Kenzie move I had to laugh. “You’re being very good too.”
That got more excited shimmies from the small dragon and I found myself shaking my head. “Silly dragon.”
That had him rolling over on the ground and I could’ve sworn there was more laughter floating around at the edges of my mind.
He looked like a silly puppy, adorable and slightly off-balance as he rolled and bounced. “Look at you.”
Kenzie finally seemed to accept that I wasn’t going to panic and spread his wings to show off before slowly inching closer. As he approached the bottom of the stairs, he stopped and cocked his head, clearly trying to make something obvious.
“Do I want you to come closer?” He nodded, an exaggerated motion so there was no doubt about what he meant. “No, you stay there and let me come down.”
One step at a time, I slowly made my way toward my adorable and surprisingly patient dragon. “You know, I’m really glad we’re doing this on our own. I can just imagine your friends giggling and grumbling. This is much easier.”
Kenzie puffed up, doing another cute wiggle like he was excited or glad we’d made the right call, so I responded like he’d agreed with me. “This is much more relaxing and I don’t have to worry about them helpfully sharing all over town how I reacted.”
His entire body shook and I knew he was laughing at me again. “Yeah, this town has nothing to do but gossip most of the time, and the story would’ve been too good to keep to themselves. I have no doubt that we’re already the talk of the diner this morning.”
More wiggles said he knew I was right and found it hilarious.
“But you’re going to get to tell them your Daddy was brave and confident and didn’t even spill his coffee because you’re the cutest dragon ever.” Well, he was the only one I’d ever seen, but I wasn’t going to point that out.
I was too busy reminding myself how confident I was as I finally got within inches of Kenzie.
He was wonderfully smart and went very still again, thoughtful eyes staring up at me and looking so much like Kenzie, I reached out to touch his head without thinking. “You’re soft.”
There was no ignoring the more dragon texture of his skin but it wasn’t as rough as I’d expected. The more I moved my fingers over the ridges on his head, the more I realized it was like worn leather. “Yes, you’re going to be wonderful to cuddle, my little dragon.”
I was fucking badass and didn’t even jump when the dragon under my hand bounced in excitement.
Fucking hell.
“Soft and sweet, yes, I’m going to love cuddling my boy in all his forms.” The human-sized and smaller ones, at least.
But we still had one to go…the bigger one.
I really needed to ask more fucking questions.
“You ready to show me how big you get?” He’d seemed proud of that or maybe just excited, so I made sure to put some energy in the question. “I can’t wait to see it.”
Yep, had to know if that was the point where I’d faint.
His head bobbed and he nudged my hand one more time before hopping backward toward the middle of the yard again.
“Yes, bigger. Good idea.” Moving back up the stairs by my cup, I smiled and took a sip before setting it back down.
My goal had been to look confident, and I knew I’d hit the right note when he wiggled and the flash happened again.
Big seemed like it was an understatement since I was pretty sure my head would barely reach the top of his chest, but after a moment, I realized that he wasn’t as overwhelmingly large as he’d first seemed…especially as I focused on the more familiar aspects of the creature in front of me.