Dragon Soul (Dragon Falls, #3)(31)

Dignity would be my watchword, I decided, covertly sliding my hand up Rowan’s thigh. Dignity and circumspection.

“I understand you had a visit from our friends at the tea shop,” Gabriel said as Akbar pulled into traffic and immediately slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a car that cut him off. He muttered under his breath, shot a look to the side where Mrs. P sat, and we started forward again.

“Yes, we did. They were more obnoxious than ever, but we took care of the matter,” Rowan answered in a distracted tone.

I stopped wondering how I could cop a quick grope of Rowan without the other two (unwanted) occupants seeing and leaned forward to say in a low tone, “I will ask Akbar to pull over if you continue such shenanigans, Mrs. P.”

She shot me an injured look that melted into a high-pitched cackle. “Your man wouldn’t like that at all.”

“This isn’t about Rowan. It’s about you behaving yourself when we are in a moving vehicle capable of killing us or others. No shenanigans, please.”

“Shenanigans,” she repeated, rolling the word around in her mouth. “I like that. Would you care to engage in some shenanigans later, young man?”

Akbar, luckily, was too focused on the hellish nightmare that was traffic streaming from the airport into Cairo proper and didn’t answer.

“Hands to yourself,” I reminded her and sat back in my seat, smooshing myself against Rowan. I tried to tell myself it was silly to get so worked up over a little innocent contact, but the girly part of my mind was squealing softly to itself, and wondering if it was too soon to ask him to spend the night in my hotel room.

“There were three others who arrived in the small hours of the morning, but we handled them, as well,” Gabriel said, pulling my attention from the pleasant (if smutty) thoughts about Rowan.

“Three other who?” I asked, throwing grammar to the wind. “Or should I say what?”

Gabriel glanced toward the driver, but as Akbar was now providing a running commentary to Mrs. P on the various buildings we were passing, Gabriel evidently felt it was safe to speak. “Our friends from Bael are more what than who, but as they were once our kin, I shall refrain from saying more.”

Rowan’s hand brushed my leg again, causing heat to pool low inside of me. Just how long was this cab ride going to take? I began to speculate how much time it would take to get Mrs. P settled before I could pounce on Rowan.

“We should be safe enough for a few hours,” Gabriel continued.

That pulled my attention from my plan to seduce Rowan. “Really? Rowan said that the… uh… guys who attacked us weren’t really… you know… but that they just had to re-form, so to speak.”

“He’s correct,” Gabriel said with a little nod.

Rowan felt nice and solid next to me. He turned his head to face Gabriel, which meant his breath teased my hair when he spoke. I might have leaned a bit into him.

“I’ve heard that the re-forming takes time,” he said, “unless the being in question is summoned to a new form. Is that true?”

“Absolutely,” May answered. “Which should give us just enough time to transact our business once we get to the hotel before the baddies get themselves back here.”

“Business?” I asked somewhat suspiciously. I was getting a bit tired of being so paranoid as to suspect everyone I met, but given the experiences that Mrs. P and I had had during the last twenty-four hours, I figured it was allowed. “What sort of business?”

Gabriel’s silver gaze flickered toward the driver, but he said nothing. Apropos of nothing, I decided that I liked Rowan’s eyes better. Rather than just one color, there was depth to the greenish gray of Rowan’s. One moment they were downright verdant, and the next they looked like clear water over a mossy rock. Mind you, I liked the dream version best of all, but that was just a fantasy, and I was more than happy to settle for reality.

“Wait a minute.” A thought intruded on my contemplation of Rowan’s eyes. “Our kin? You’re talking about…” I made claw hands and said softly, “Rawr?”

Gabriel looked startled for a moment.

“Gabriel is the wyvern of the silver sept,” May said, giving him a look that beamed with pride.

“Are you indeed. How nice.” I wondered what the hell a wyvern was, not to mention a silver sept, and made a mental note to Google both once we were at the Cairo hotel.

“Yes. Although he doesn’t get very… rawry… often.”

“Only when there is room for a proper chase,” he said with a solemnity that was ruined by a glint in his eyes that had May leaning in to whisper something in his ear.

I glanced at Rowan to see how he was taking this banter and whether he might like to do a little whispering of his own, but he was leaning back in the seat with his eyes closed. I “accidentally” jostled him with my arm, causing him to jerk and open his eyes.

“Hmm?” he said.

“Didn’t you get any sleep?” I asked, concerned for his welfare, and not just because I had plans for him that night.

“Not really, no.”

“But it wasn’t even midnight when I fetched Mrs. P back from her assignation with the unwilling Edvard.”

“He had nice thighs,” Mrs. P piped up from the front seat. “Horseman’s thighs. Like your man’s. Too bad you interrupted us before Edvard had time to demonstrate his riding abilities.”