Was that a trick question?
She said, “A little. Unless, of course, you’re offering sex, in which case the answer is a complete no.”
He managed to look both wounded and amused. “I meant are you hungry, as in, have you had anything to eat?”
Why was she being so prickly? He was obviously trying to be nice, and he had just said that he missed her, something that had made her heart sing just a little bit. She had gone there to find out if there was anything between them and it seemed as if he wanted there to be, and she just kept pushing him away, which defeated the entire purpose of her having gone through everything she had to get there in the first place. She was self-sabotaging, and she knew it; she just didn’t know how to stop.
“No. I haven’t.”
He said, “Come with me.”
She let him lead her out of the hall. To her surprise, instead of heading towards the kitchens, he led her toward the door.
She asked, “Have they opened a restaurant here since I was here last?”
He gave her a surprised look. “What do you mean?”
She said, “You offered me something to eat but the kitchens are that way.” She jerked the thumb over her shoulder in the direction that they were moving away from.
Blake grinned at her. “There are other places than the castle to find food.”
They entered the courtyard, and he changed. He dipped his back low and said, “Come on, climb aboard.”
She gave him a wary glance. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking you out to dinner.”
Her eyelids blinked up and down rapidly. “But where?”
He said, very softly, “Would you just trust me for five minutes? Or just five seconds? Just long enough to get on my back?”
Could she trust him that was the biggest question of all? Blake was charming and smooth, so handsome that it almost hurt to look at him. But he did have that agenda, and he had never made a secret of it. If he was out to seduce her, it would probably only be to further that agenda of his. Could she trust him even though she knew exactly what it was that he wanted from her?
She took a deep breath and held her hand out and placed it on his wing and then scrambled onto his back. The feel of him below her, slightly rough and oh so powerful, her thighs clenching around him, thrilled her to no end. Wetness formed within her inner walls and she felt desire stroking along her veins and skin.
Blake lifted off the ground, and she caught her breath as she always did. There was something so powerful about flight, so intensely sexy about it that she could scarcely breathe. Her hands rested around his shoulders, feeling the strength of them, as he carried them upward into the air, but not so high that she could not make out the distinctive features of the ground and the things below. They winged over the village and then beyond it. The wind from his magnificent wings blew her hair back from her face and sent her clothes rippling around her body. Her nipples stiffened, and that wetness began to trickle from within her core, running down to dampen her panties.
For a moment, all that existed was the two of them. That flight, that sensation of him between her legs moving in a way that recalled with vivid clarity the night they had spent together, and the ecstasy he had given her within it.
Soon, too soon, he was gently lowering them toward the earth. She looked at the place with avid curiosity. It was a small, rather plain stone house with a simple red door and a very old wooden fence. She climbed off his back, and he changed. They stood there, side-by-side, staring at the house.
Christy asked, “What is this place?”
Blake said, “It belonged to my parents. At one time, before the Orcs grew in number and strength, the castle was just a place where we would meet at certain times of the year. It was a symbol more than anything else. None of us really lived in it. When the Orcs started warring upon us, everyone moved into it, to the castle I mean, because we needed a fortress. My parents always meant to come back here, to live.”
That touched her heart for some reason. She knew they had never managed to do it. His mother had died fighting the Orcs, and his father had died because he had taken on a dragon who had turned on his kind. In doing so, his father had sealed his own fate. She looked away, unable to meet his eyes. The woods crowded in close, but the mountain stood above them. A clear flowing stream ran across one side of the property, and a sensation filled her: a feeling of peace and calm such as she had never known.
She asked, “Did you grow up here?”
He said, “I spent the best part of my childhood here, yes, but I grew up in the castle.”
She asked, “Who takes care of it now?”
He said, “I do. It’s all I have left of them, so I sort of cherish it.”
There was no sort of to it. It was clear that he did. The house, despite being empty, was very well kept. The roof had recently been repaired from the looks of things and the grass that made up the front yard was neatly trimmed. Pretty flowers grew in pots below the porch, and the paint on the door was fairly fresh.
She said, “It’s beautiful.”
