A Boy and His Dragon by R. Cooper Page A

at all.
    Bertie’s head went back.
    “What kind of Being would that make me if I had?” he demanded with his eyebrows raised.
    “I’m sorry.” Arthur stepped forward again but stopped when Bertie’s gaze met his. “I didn’t mean it like… like that. I just thought you saw how much I needed it and you were… curious.
    That’s what I meant by interested. I didn’t think you were…
    interested .” Arthur wet his mouth. “In me.” Bertie’s head went up even higher, then lowered. He took a second while he thought that out, and he must not have found A Boy and His Dragon
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    Arthur’s reasoning too offensive, because he finally smiled and spoke.
    “Did I give the impression I wasn’t?”
    Arthur forgot about the apple completely. He stared so hard his eyes burned, and then he remembered himself enough to blink and look away. When he looked back, Bertie’s shoulders had dropped, but he was waving around at his cabinets.
    “But if you’d rather organize my spices, Arthur, I would not say you nay.”
    “What?” Arthur’s pulse was suddenly racing. He couldn’t manage anything else, and he finally moved, inching forward in a kind of blind heat. Bertie took a long, sharp breath.
    “I’ve never had an assistant, so I might get things wrong, but I am flexible. If it makes sense, I doubt I’d object to anything you might suggest.”
    Arthur was imagining the innuendo in everything. Even
    “organize my spices” sounded dirty to him at the moment.
    “If you think of anything, just add it here.” Bertie tapped a notepad on the fridge. Arthur recognized the paper as one that more than one note had been scribbled on before being stuffed into a book.
    “I was the best?” Arthur heard himself echo the earlier words and flushed as he stood up straight. He might as well ask if he really interested Bertie and completely admit how high school his crush was. “But I fell asleep.”
    “Arthur.” Bertie frowned and took another second, this time apparently to gather his thoughts. “You don’t have to solely focus on work here. I thought I told you that.” Arthur started to shake his head and was cut off.
    “I dislike focusing solely on work. You love to. Neither way on its own is correct. We’ve proven that already since I am behind with a looming deadline and you were so exhausted that you fell asleep. But it’s all right. I think we’ll balance each other out nicely once we figure this all out.”
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    “But I fell asleep .” Arthur couldn’t keep the distress from his voice, and Bertie tutted again before tossing him a smile.
    “Darling, you’re only human,” Bertie scolded him with too much amusement in his expression and then went back to putting away vegetables. “Now eat your apple so you can battle books and dust bunnies with your full strength.” It was a nicely phrased order, but Arthur didn’t move until Bertie had only the wine left to deal with. Then he saluted.
    “Yes, my lord,” he replied with a straight face in answer to Bertie’s earlier teasing tone and turned on his heel just as Bertie raised his head to look at him with a startled, soft look on his face.
    He kept the apple in his hand, and the sound of Bertie’s slow, approving laugh followed him out.

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Chapter 5
    IF BERTIE thought Arthur was the best, then Arthur was going to try his hardest to be the best, and for the next few days he worked harder than ever, only stopping when Bertie insisted he stop or when he had to eat.
    He was exhausted, but for the first time in years he felt good about it. Not that he was going to fall asleep on the job again if he could help it, but he felt accomplished when he got home every night and excited when he came in to work in the morning.
    He knew Bertie was pleased with what he was doing, and that was what mattered right now. The other things Bertie said, or hinted at, Arthur was too busy to think about anyway.
    Dreaming about it didn’t count,