“I had to see your reaction to be sure,” he said.
“Sure of what?” she demanded.
“The truth of the words.”
Definitely a butthead, and several other worse things she could think of as nicknames. “Now you are sure?”
“Yes.”
Hadyn took in the way he sat in his chair, almost casual with it, limbs loose, expression…eased somehow. He meant it.
“Are you going to help me?”
“Yes.”
Oh. She took a pause and let the situation sink in. Thank the gods. She wasn’t alone in this. Even if the man who her dragon father had sent her to was an intolerable ass. As long as he was a helpful ass, she could put up with him.
“What do we do?” she asked.
He grimaced. She was surprised he let her see it. “First…” he said. “We get ourselves out of here.”
Chapter Six
Rune stalked toward the dock that extended out into a shallow harbor, early enough that many of the boats remained moored. Only the fishing trawlers, for the most part, had already gone out.
“A boat?” Hadyn’s footsteps slowed as he stepped onto the wood planking, forcing Rune to pause and turn to face her.
“Problem?” he asked.
After eating last night, they’d slept until the first rays of sun turned the dark sky navy. While he preferred to travel at night, being a black dragon and all, that was also what those after them would expect. So he’d do the opposite. Not only that. They’d go where most dragons never went.
“But you’re a dra—”
He cleared his throat and shot a pointed glance at the few humans milling about the small marina. Not close enough to hear, but he didn’t take chances.
Her cheeks flushed rosy under tanned and freckled skin. In the early light, he could see now that she spent a lot of time in the sun. The rock-climbing skills a testament to that.
“Chaghan and Qara avoided large bodies of water,” she said.
For the first time since he’d met her, despite being only a day, trepidation creased the skin around her eyes, which turned a darker bottle green.
“You’re not afraid of the water? Are you?” he asked slowly.
Instead of reassuring him that she was fine, Hadyn crossed her arms, the gesture visibly defensive. “Everyone has their…thing.”
“Can you swim?”
Her gaze darted to the deep blue of the waters behind him. “I learned before living with Chaghan and Qara, but it’s been…a while.”
And dragon shifters kept their young far from water for the most part. “Not since you were ten.”
She scowled. “I don’t need any of your judgement. Thanks.”
He wasn’t entirely sure if fear or arrogance led to that stupid mistake. If he ever mated and had kids, he’d be sure they knew how.
Hadyn shifted on her feet, her expression focused on the ocean as though psyching herself up for this.
He didn’t have the nature to deal with this kind of emotional whatever it was. “You’ll be fine.”
He stomped off down the dock. Either she followed or she didn’t.
Not too long after, she poked her head around where he was working to ready their launch.
“You want to go out on the ocean in this?” she asked. “You’re braver than I thought.”
“It’s in better shape than it looks on the outside.”
She paused, her gaze traveling over the vessel. He’d needed a craft that wasn’t too big, so it didn’t stand out, but big enough to go long distances and maneuver easily in the big ocean—sturdy enough to get him where he needed to go. Also fast enough. Most boats like that were high-end boats owned by wealthy sport fishermen. Given that he left this docked in the marina most of the time, he didn’t need attention called to it. So he’d had a human deliberately make the outside look like the thing was a piece of crap, questionable that it would stay afloat, let alone get them anywhere.
It wasn’t.
“Camouflage,” she said to herself.
“Here.” He tossed a bright orange life vest in Hadyn’s general direction.
“Aren’t you going to wear one?”
“If I have to go in the ocean, I have other plans,” he said.
“Flying? But if we’re too far out and we end up ditching—”
“We won’t.”
She pressed her lips together but dropped it. “What can I do to help?”
“Nothing. Hang tight for a minute.”
Given the way she huffed when she sat her ass on the cushioned bench lining the back, she didn’t like that, but didn’t argue, either. She didn’t put on the vest, though, stubborn woman. What was she trying to prove?
She caught his stare and lifted a single eyebrow. “There’s that judgmental thing again. I can swim just fine…doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Her gaze slid to the ocean beyond, the massiveness of it that made even a dragon feel small, and Rune didn’t blame her for it. With a nod, he kept getting them ready to go.
In short order, he had them slowly easing through the marina, past the breaks and into the Pacific, leaving the land behind them gradually. He headed west to start with. When they were far enough from the coast, he’d turn north. They’d gotten lucky, the weather was relatively calm for winter, blue skies and light winds.
Hadyn, who’d stayed where she was, carefully scanning the skies over land as they moved farther away from it, finally climbed up with him in the raised cabin. Standing close. Too close.
His dragon rumbled inside his head, wanting to pull her in closer and curl around her, inhale her minty scent.
“You seem to be handling this well,” he said, the sudden, and entirely foreign, urge to break the silence between them spewing the words from his mouth.
“Don’t worry about me,” she waved a hand. “I’m resilient.”
“I get that, but I’m not exactly…”
“Easy?” She supplied with a rueful grin. “Patient? Cuddly?”
He snorted. Definitely not cuddly. Even if he was gripping the wheel harder to keep his hands to himself.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Your particular personality—let’s call you a hammer—is pretty much the same as Chaghan’s.”
“I’m a hammer?” Should he be offended?