And far more pleasurable. I was inundated with emotions ranging from desire to satisfaction at caring for my mate.
Valor was beside himself, trying to get me to sniff her.
I had to tell him to stand down. He was being creepy.
“Hey,” I whispered urgently and jostled Kara in my arms. “Keys.”
She woke up enough to dig her house keys out of her pocket. I managed to keep her upright and unlock the door at the same time, pushing it shut behind me with my foot.
Her home smelled like cinnamon, just like her. It made my nose tingle in a good way. I propped her up on the couch, then tried to rifle through her kitchen drawers as minimally as I could to get a cup for water and a straw. I found ibuprofen on top of her refrigerator.
“Come here, you.” I sat beside her and propped her up, which consisted of her nearly in my lap with my arm around her shoulder. “Take this,” I said in a loud voice.
It was enough to get her eyes open. “What are you doing here?” she said groggily.
“Trying to help minimize your hangover. Take this.” I shoved two pills in her mouth before she could argue, then the straw.
Kara furrowed her brow, but she pulled on the straw and washed the pills down. “Okay,” she whispered. Her head dropped to my shoulder.
I peeked in the cup to find she hadn’t drunk much. “No, drink the whole glass. It’ll help rehydrate you while you sleep.”
Whining was one of my least favorite sounds, especially when women did it. But my experience with women whining had been limited to those that thought it was cute. It was absolutely not cute.
Yet when Kara whined about having to drink the water, it was. I smiled and pressed the straw to her lips again. “Drink,” I urged.
She grunted in protest, but she wrapped her plump, kissable lips around the straw and drank.
Damn. I had to look away. Now was absolutely not the time for that.
It took several minutes, but by the time she finished the water, she was more awake and staring at me.
After a tiny burp that reeked to high heaven, she sighed. “You’re really attractive. If I was brave enough, I’d tell you.”
I was already trying to hold back laughter after the burp. Her words put me over the edge, and I guffawed. “You’re beautiful. If I was brave enough, I’d tell you.”
As she laughed, she stood, but immediately plopped back down, her legs too wobbly to get her to her bedroom.
“Can I carry you to your bed?” I asked.
She mumbled something I didn’t catch, even with my super-dragon-hearing. “What was that?” I asked.
“That way,” she yelled and pointed her unsteady arm toward a door on the other side of the living room.
“Aye, aye, Captain.” I scooped her into my arms again, to Valor’s delight. He purred deep in my chest.
Kara heard it and rolled her tongue in imitation, but I highly doubted she’d remember it in the morning.
I fumbled for the light switch, trying not to bang Kara’s head on the wall at the same time. When light flooded the room, I was stunned to see how feminine it was. Every surface was pink and white. Roses covered the wallpaper and her bedspread was mostly pink and white with some purple.
Not to mention the million pillows all over the bed. For Pete’s sake. I set Kara down as gently as I could on top of all the pillows, then started pulling them out from under her and throwing them on an armchair—also white and pink—in the corner.
By the time I got all the pillows moved and the blanket tugged out from under her, Kara’s eyes were drooping again. She kicked off her shoes and fumbled with her belt.
I really, really wanted to help her with it, but if I started that I wasn’t likely to stop. She managed to get it unbuckled. I looked away as she shimmied out of her jeans.
Claim her.
Yeah, right. Like I could do that right now while she was passed out drunk. That would’ve gone over great.
As soon as I heard her jeans hit the floor, I yanked the blankets over her before I had a chance to see anything tempting.
Kara let out a light snore as I tucked the blanket up under her chin.
The bedroom had two doors off of it. I peeked behind each, finding a bathroom behind the second door—and a garbage can. After putting it beside the bed, my gaze caught on Kara’s beautiful, peaceful face. She didn’t have a bunch of makeup on, but her skin was so perfect it looked like it. Or I just couldn’t tell one way or another. Whatever, she was gorgeous.
Her skin was kissable. I longed to brush my lips against it and feel the velvety softness but standing here watching her sleep was creepy enough. Stealing a kiss would’ve been a violation.
Mine.
He’d been repeating that word and growling for a few minutes.
I didn’t mind. I got it. The urge to stay and protect the small woman was astronomical.
With all the willpower I had in my body, I made myself stand up and leave.
Barely.
11
Kara
“You need protein!” Melody yelled at the top of her lungs. Or maybe that was the hangover talking.
I groaned and pulled my blankets further over my head as it throbbed painfully. My sister had turned up at the ass-freaking crack of dawn with stuff to make for breakfast. She’d tried to drag me out of bed, but my headache kept me from following her into the kitchen. The smell of food wafting through the door was making my stomach turn.
“Get up!” Melody’s voice grated on me, all perky and cheery like we hadn’t both drank half the bar’s contents last night.
“Shut your trap!” I yelled back. I curled up tighter under the blankets.
“Come on, I made you my hangover cure.” Melody stared at me from the bedroom door. “You know it always works.”
Reluctantly rolling out
