Free The Dragon’s Appraiser: Part Three by Viola Rivard

perfectly well on my own,” he said, shying away from her touch.
    “Yeah, but this will help you heal faster.” Then, she grinned. “You aren’t afraid of needles, are you?”
    Sevrrn scowled. “I am not afraid of anything. But…it is unnatural, that thing piercing my body.”
    She smirked. “Now you know how I feel every night.”
    “There is nothing unnatural about what we do,” he said, appearing smug.
    In one motion, Sevrrn maneuvered his large body so that he was on top of her, pinning her to the bed silks. Madja tried to stammer out a protest, but he kissed her. Her eyes rolled back in her head as his hot lips moved over hers with practiced finesse. His sharp teeth grazed her bottom lip in a teasing gesture, while his rigid erection pressed against her inner thigh.
    It had been weeks since they’d been together, and Madja hated to push him away. Not just because he had needs, but also because she’d been denying her own needs for too long. Her body responded to his touch in a powerful way, need crashing into her in relentless waves.
    But as Sevrrn’s mouth moved to lavish her neck, she regained a small measure of composure. She couldn’t do this, not yet. Not when there was something they still needed to discuss.
    “Sevrrn…”
    “Hm?” A distracted purr.
    “I have to tell you something. Something I probably should have told you sooner.”
    He looked up at her, his garnet gaze flashing with equal parts annoyance and curiosity. Madja bit down on her lip. Her arousal began to ebb, replaced by anxiety.
    “I think I’m pregnant,” she blurted. Then, she shook her head. “No, I mean, I am pregnant. Definitely pregnant.”
    She wasn’t sure what she expected, but she definitely hadn’t expected him to look even more annoyed with her.
    “That has no bearing on this. We have been mating for months now.”
    She blinked at him. “What…” Then, it hit her. She sat up, scrambling to put some distance between them. “ You knew? ”
    “Knew what?” he asked, one side of his face twitching. He moved on all fours, trying to close the distance between them again, but Madja backed up farther.
    “Knew that I was pregnant,” she hissed.
    He gave a slight shrug. “Of course.”
    Madja raised a hand to her head and exhaled a long breath. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
    His annoyance turned to confusion. “What was there to say? Humans gestate for nearly a year. It is not something that needs to be addressed for several months.”
    “So you were just going to wait until I went into labor to bring it up?”
    “Bring what up?” Now he was annoyed again. He moved to sit with his legs crossed, apparently realizing he was not going to mate with her any time soon. “You are carrying a child. What else is there to be said?”
    Madja had been dealing with the overly logical dragon for months. She could usually understand him, because he always made perfect sense, even when he was totally wrong. But this time, she just didn’t get it. How could he be so…
    He doesn’t get it , she realized in a sudden epiphany. He just doesn’t get it, at all .
    Sevrrn understood from a logical standpoint that she was pregnant and that after a certain amount of time, there would be a child. But he hadn’t yet thought to consider the situation from an emotional standpoint.
    “You’re going to be a father,” she said, sitting to mirror his position. She no longer felt upset and her voice was almost tender as she spoke to him. “This summer, there’s going to be a new person in the world, a person that’s half of me and half of you. It’s not going to know anything and it won’t be able to do very much on its own for several years. It will probably be the most vulnerable thing you’ve ever met and it’s going to depend on us for everything. It’ll be our job to nurture it, raise it, and teach it about the world. It’s going to need you, even more than I need you, and you’ll have to be ready for