“I’m not that cold,” she whispered to him, completely mystified. She should have beenfreezing.
“It’s your dragon blood,” Mikhail said before he pressed a lingering kiss to her lips. “You’ll run hotter from nowon.”
She realized Belishaw was eyeing her with a mix of awe and concern. “I cannot believe she’s a dragoness. There hasn’t been a transformation like that for our kind incenturies.”
Mikhail hugged her close. “She’s nothing short of amiracle.”
Belishaw nodded at the five dragons behind him. “They’ll take care of the body. My family will smooth over the situation with his disappearance. A tragic accident I think, perhaps on a fishing boat near Cornwall.” He shot a dark glance at the cold corpse. “He had dark designs for this country, and being a braggart he couldn’t help but boast aboutthem.”
“Who is he really?” Mikhail asked. “I’ve been this man’s bane for centuries, yet I don’t even know him. Just a vague sense of having seen him before in Elizabeth’sprison.”
“His name was Conrad Sinclair. He was a member of the House of Parliament, very influential. He planned to run for prime minister next. He’d have won, too. Both because of his dragon charms and the alliance he wished to strike up with what is left of the Drakorfamily.”
“Andthen?”
Belishaw huffed. “As Prime Minister he planned to treat this country as his personal plaything and ultimately destroy it. It is good he was dealt withnow.”
“Agreed.” Mikhail walked over to his car, his arm still around Piper’s shoulders. “Why don’t we meet at my house? Come as soon as you finishhere.”
“See you soon.” Belishaw waved at them before Piper climbed into the car and Mikhail began the drive back toCornwall.
Piper didn’t speak the entire way. When Mikhail parked the car outside his home and came over to her door, she was still staring off into space, her mind stuck on all that hadhappened.
She had turned into a dragon.Adragon.
“Piper, love, are you all right?” Mikhail reached into the car and helped herout.
“Yes. I’m just… It’s a lot to take in,” she said in a dreamlike state. She’d died in his arms, then came back to life as a dragon. And she’d killed someone. How did one process allthis?
Concern shadowed his eyes. “I know you didn’t ask for this. I know I bonded with you without asking permission, and that’s why you didn’t want to stay. I’ve royally screwed things up.” She saw pain deep in his lovely greeneyes.
“You’re wrong,” shesaid.
He raised his brows but remainedsilent.
“I didn’t know we’d bonded. I wanted to stay, so much that it hurt me to leave. But I didn’t want to shorten your life…to effectively kill you because I had a short human lifespan. I would have givenanythingto stay withyou.”
He was speechless, and before she could react, he lifted her up in the air, holding her tight as he spun heraround.
“Mikhail?” She laughed, unsure what he was doing. When he set her back down, she was biting her lip because it hurt too much to keepsmiling.
“You’ll stay? I won’t loseyou?”
“No. I’m yours,” shevowed.
She didn’t want to think about the details, where they would live, what they’d tell her parents, let alone her job or the police. Right now she had him in her arms, and that was the only thing thatmattered.
“Let’s get you inside,” Mikhail said, seeing her shiver. “You’ll freeze. You may be a dragon, but you can still get cold.” He tugged her back to the house and set her on the couch. She giggled as he removed the coat and kissed her naked body before wrapping her up in warmblankets.
“I’ll put some tea on, and then we can talk.” He vanished from view. She watched the snow begin to fall. Snow? She thought the weather forecast had called for rain. She was too busy staring at the landscape along the coast to notice the car coming until it was almost in thedriveway.
“Mikhail, there’s a car headed this way,” she calledout.
He reappeared with two mugs of hot tea. Mikhail frowned as he stared at thecar.
“That’s not Belishaw,” Mikhail said, setting the mugs on the table. “Why don’t you go upstairs and change into some clothes. I’m afraid our talk will have to come later, after we deal with thesevisitors.”
“Is it trouble?” sheasked.
