He said, “Well, you can actually blame Max for that one.”
Her head tilted to one side. “Oh. Is that how you are doing it now?”
He said, “If it will convince you that I’m not a terrible person, hell yes.”
That laughter came back, matched by his own. There was something starting between them; he could feel it. She was a woman who knew her own mind very well, and he wanted to know what was in it. It was so unlike him, wanting to get to know a woman, not just on the physical level but to know what went on in that head of hers; it took him aback. He stopped laughing and said, “Just hang on really tight, and you’ll be fine. Although I’ll go slow and I won’t go too high.”
She said, “Oh, that’s too bad. I’m something of an adrenaline junkie.”
He said, “I don’t know what that means.”
She leaned in. Her eyes sparkled. Her grin got wider. “It means I like doing things that scare most other people. They scare me too, but that’s why I like them.”
He had the immediate urge to tell her that most women were afraid to have sex with the Dragon. He squelched that before it could make it off the tip of his tongue. He said, “Then I’ll fly and if you feel that the ride is not exciting enough, you let me know.”
She stood there staring at him, and he could tell that she was trying to make up her mind either to take that ride or to stay where she stood. He knew there was no way that he could sway her decision. She was a woman who was used to making up her mind and acting without any input from anyone else. She was a stubborn, independent, modern woman. Something he had zero experience with. But God, how he wanted to learn.
He changed. He knelt on the ground and said, “Your chariot, so to speak, awaits, milady.”
She was uncertain. “What if I hurt you?”
He said, “You won’t.”
Her hands ran across his scales, and a little shiver of pure lust worked its way through his body. He took a deep breath and said, “Just step up.”
She did. Her hands went to the smooth flesh between his shoulders and neck, an instinctive thing that told him that she was going to be very good to carry. Some people were born to ride, and so far, she seemed to be one of them. The feel of her very toned legs around his body threatened to topple his self-restraint. He wanted nothing more than to change back into his human guise and bed her right then and there.
He lifted up and away, off the roof. He said a slow pace, not flying very high, staying just above the height of the castle walls. She cried out, but that cry was one of sheer pleasure. Then she said, “Go higher! Go higher!”
A smile lifted his mouth. He obliged, banking upward steeply, and she shrieked, but like her earlier cry, that cry held nothing but excitement. He found himself wondering, because he couldn’t stop himself from doing it, what her voice would sound like when she was in the throes of ecstasy.
He took her toward the forest. The trees grew tall there, and the daylight was not yet fading from its corners. The wind blew harder and she leaned forward, lying almost flat against his body. Her laughter rolled behind them as he spotted a break in the trees and then began to descend.
By the time he had landed, her laughter had become contagious, and he was laughing too. She scrambled off his back and cried out, “That was incredible! I’ll admit it, after the way that Max snatched us up and flew us over here, I wasn’t sure I should do it, but I’m so glad I did!”
He changed into his human form and stood there smiling at her. There was color in both her cheeks and her body was fidgeting restlessly. He knew that was the aftermath of flight. Many humans did that. Yet he couldn’t help but feel like he had given her something special. He said, “Come on, I want to show you something.”
She followed him eagerly across the forest floor. Their bodies brushed together as they walked and every time their hips or hands or legs touched, he felt another streak of desire arc through his body.
The door stood ahead, and she stopped, staring at it with real confusion. She said, “What the hell? It’s a door!”
He nodded. “It is.” She went to it. She reached a hand out and swung it open, but the door opened to reveal nothing but the forest behind it. She scratched her head and walked around the door then peaked at him from the backside of it. “I don’t get it.”
He said, “This was the door that the first dragons to risk going back into your world built as a means of bypassing the portal.”
She leaned against it, “But it doesn’t work anymore?”
He said, “Oh, it does. But only if there’s somebody on the other side who really truly wants to enter this world.”
Her face cleared. “This is where they come into your world, right? The humans who come here!”
He smiled. “Yes. This is where they land. It’s not that far from the castle, maybe a mile.”
She looked around the trees. “I can’t even see the castle from here.”
He said, jokingly, “You can’t see the castle for the trees.”
She chuckled. “I guess not.”
