“Hmm, so perhaps you should just stay out of the kitchen. And the living room – I just got a new TV last year. And we can’t drive anywhere, since you can’t get in the car.”
Calvin gave her a small, slightly crooked smile – that might also have been just the tiniest bit mischievous.
“Wow, this is really cutting down the number of rooms of the house I’m allowed into,” he said. “And the number of things we can do.”
“Hmmmm.” Diana quirked her eyebrow at him. Her heart raced in her chest as she wondered whether she dared to say something a little more suggestive.
Oh, what the hell. You only live once! And heismy fated mate – if I can’t get flirty with him, whocanI get flirty with?
“I guess I could let you into the bedroom,” she said, giving him a sly smile. “But don’t touch my hair straightener!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Calvin said, his arms moving to wrap around her waist, drawing her close to him. “I’ll definitely keep my hands to myself.”
“Hmm. Well. Notthatmuch to yourself, I hope,” Diana breathed, tilting her head up. “That would spoil a lot of what I have in mind.”
“Oh, I see. Well, perhaps I’ll only put my hands where you tell me to put them.”
Calvin’s words were hot puffs of breath against her lips – until, finally, she could stand it no more, and she raised herself up on her tip-toes to crush their mouths together. Calvin’s arms tightened around her waist, lifting her up to deepen the kiss. Diana’s head swam, and she felt utterly breathless.
This is what movie kisses must feel like,she thought dizzily, as, acting on instinct, she hitched herself up, letting Calvin carry her as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
He didn’t even stagger as he moved them both back into the house, kicking the door closed behind them. Carrying her was clearly utterly effortless for him – natural.
My mate,she thought.My Calvin.
And then he carried her to the bedroom, and all thoughts of the outside world left her mind entirely.
Chapter 14
Icould become a morning person,Diana thought dreamily,if every morning was like this.
Though really,she wondered with a wicked smile,does it count as getting up in the morning if you barely slept?
The night with Calvin had been the most amazing night of her life, and part of her was wishing that she was still lying tangled in the sheets with him right now. But, if shehadto be up and about… well, there were certainly worse things she could be doing than riding a wyvern through the star-speckled sky!
They flew almost silently over the forests surrounding Girdwood Springs as they made their way down the mountain, only thewhoompingof Calvin’s enormous wings giving away any sign of their presence.Like a giant bat,she thought giddily.
Diana was pretty sure that he was taking an indirect route, given that she knew the place he’d parked his car and it wasn’t all that far away… but she wasn’t about to complain. Each second flying through the still pre-dawn air with Calvin was a second that she would treasure for the rest of her life.
As the first hints of sunrise shifted from a faint glow to a brilliant glimmer, the wyvern looped around, its reluctance toland almost palpable. Still, they were near a major road, and it would be really annoying if they couldn’t get Calvin’s curse fixed because someone reported him to the sheriff and he ended up in wyvern jail.
Or… wherever they put wayward wyverns. Maybe I should ask him.
The wyvern touched down lightly in a small glade surrounded by aspen trees. Diana slid down from its back reluctantly, cradling the precious tribute carefully in her hands. The sprite had demanded it, after all, and Diana didn’t think the sprite would be best pleased if she dropped it.
Shimmering in the twilight, the wyvern shrank back down until it was Calvin once more.
“All good?” he murmured, and Diana nodded.
“Yeah. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of that. Flying, I mean.”
“I know what you mean,” he said. “I’m not sick of it yet, and I’ve been doing it for most of my life. The wyvern is certainly happy to be getting these opportunities – this is the most flying it’s done in ages.”
Diana couldn’t help but smile at the idea of there being more flying in her future. She’d never been fond of the idea of flying in general, and had been on a grand total of one round trip on an airplane, which she had thoroughly disliked… but suddenly she was finding that flying was one of her favorite things in the whole world.
Just as long as it’s with Calvin, I’ll fly anywhere.
“Should we head off?” she asked. They’d decided before they left her home that they wouldn’t land directly in the clearing where he’d originally encountered the sprite – if she’d been annoyed enough to curse him for putting his feet into her water, who knew what she would do if a wyvern landed in her home unannounced?
