Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Dimitri didn’t even lift his eyes from his plate, simply responded in a lazy drawl, “Make me.”
Why weren’t they surprised? Neither Luka nor Vasily had batted an eye. Like they expected it.
Oh shit! They heard everything!
Samuel felt a blush heat his cheeks and he couldn’t glance up from his plate for a long second. He’d done his best to be quiet, but apparently that hadn’t worked. At all. How good was a dragon’s hearing? Had he a prayer of keeping this quiet to begin with?
“Now, now.” Luka was definitely smirking. “Let them be cute. Look at the way Samuel’s blushing. How could you resist teasing?”
Resist, dammit.
At least Gregori wasn’t anywhere around. If Samuel was lucky, the other dragon was still asleep in his tent and had missed the show he and Dimitri had put on. Sadly, he was fully expecting Vasily and Luka to fill Gregori in on all the lurid details.
Dimitri took the teasing in stride. “I’d like to remind you that I have overheard the two of you more times than I care to count.”
“Yeah, and gave us hell for it every time.” Vasily shook a finger at him. “You’re not getting a pass.”
“Hell no,” Luka agreed. “Besides, we tease you because we love you. Right, my love?”
“Absolutely. The more we tease, the more we love you.”
Samuel believed that about as far as he could throw these two. They were having far too much fun at his and Dimitri’s expense.
“Ooh, actually, we can even be helpful.” Luka pointed toward his tent. “I’ve got lube on me. Which do you want, the strawberry-flavored one or the dragon fruit?”
Helpful his left eyeball.
The teasing was in full force. Samuel deeply regretted his actions of this morning. Well, he didn’t regret the sex—no one in their right mind would. He just regretted doing it without four stout walls around him. Clearly, he needed the soundproofing.
Dimitri didn’t even blink. Probably because he was used to these two. “I don’t know, which do you like better, Sammy?”
Samuel shot him a glare hot enough to melt steel. “Call me by a nickname one more time and see what I do to you.”
Vasily perked right up, like a dog spying a treat. “Will there be spankings?”
“I bet they could role-play naughty student and teacher really well. Samuel’s got the right vibe for pulling off teacher.” Luka gave a nod, secure with his own reasoning. “Dimitri’s got lots of practice being the brat, too.”
The urge to put breakfast down and flee was strong, but there was nowhere to run to. Dammit all to hell. Growling curses to himself, Samuel focused on breakfast. He would focus only on breakfast. The other three could tease all they wanted, but he was out.
“Don’t piss him off,” Dimitri warned them. “I’m the one who pays for it.”
“Like you’re not looking forward to angry sex.”
Luka added with a snicker, “Or the make-up sex after.”
Dimitri abruptly switched to Russian and said something short. The other two rolled with laughter, so Samuel could only guess it was some kind of insult.
The Russian started flying then. Well, no, it wasn’t really Russian. Samuel couldn’t exactly speak Russian—he maybe knew twenty words altogether—but he’d been around the language enough to know how it sounded. This…wasn’t quite right. It had the same kind of tones at times, but it wasn’t modern Russian.
The obvious hit him like a ton of bricks. Of course it wouldn’t be. The clan had left Russia five hundred years ago and immigrated here to Brazil. They wouldn’t speak modern Russian, they’d speak the language of that country from the fifteenth century. If memory served, that was likely Old East Slavic. It’s what the Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian languages were based on.
The implications bloomed in the back of his head. This was living history. These three spoke a dead language and did so fluently. The dragons were probably the only ones who remembered how to speak Old East Slavic and do so well. Shit, he’d need to sit one of them down and have them record how to speak the language. He had a colleague at Harvard who would cry tears of joy to have recordings of it.
Vasily said something that had Dimitri chucking a fork at his head. The dragon dodged then laughed outright, eyes sparkling with amusement. Samuel might not understand what they were saying, but he could see the teasing was still in full force. These three reminded him of growing up with Salem. His brother was like this—teasing one minute, supportive the next. Whatever they were saying was riling up Dimitri in a way that Samuel didn’t want. He had to hike all day next to this man, after all.
He finished his coffee, put it down, and clapped his hands together to break up the chattering. “Alright, you’ve had your fun. Stop before we’re coated in ice. I want to get on the road in the next thirty minutes, and I’m guessing that Gregori is still asleep. Someone needs to wake him up. Also, since we’re likely going to be walking soon, I’d like a favor.”