She lay there in a semi-reclining pose and sulked, and watched as he did battle with the “knight”. The knight jabbed at him with his lance. Gabriel let out a few tiny fireballs as the crowd urged him on.
Finally Gabriel reared his head back and let out a stream of fire, and the knight’s carefully designed fake armor melted off, and then he fell over and pretended to be dead. In truth, Gabriel had aimed his flame carefully to the side of the “knight”, and it had been supplemented by fire piped up from under the stage. Dragon shifters were immune to regular flame, but dragon flame could burn them, especially when they were in human form.
And now, with the crowd watching expectantly, Kelly had no choice but to finish this whole farce.
Cursing under her breath, she leapt to her feet and shouted, “Oh, my hero! My darling! I knew you’d save me!” Then she ripped the tiny microphone off her costume and tossed it onto the stage, and threw her arms around his big scaly neck. “Asshole,” she muttered just loudly enough for him to hear, and climbed up onto his back.
He flapped his wings, and she clung tightly as the Earth fell away. She felt the muscles in his back bunch and relax as his wings beat the air. The crowd of people beneath them shrank to tiny dots of color. As they rose higher and higher, the air cooled, but he felt warm underneath her.
His family’s castle, like that of most wealthy dragons, was on top of a mountain. Dragons had a thing for heights. And castles.
There was also a long, winding road that led up to his residence, but she suspected that the dragons usually got there by flying. The castle overlooked North Lyndvale, where the ice dragons lived, and South Lyndvale, where the fire dragons lived.
Gabriel circled lazily over his family home, taking his time.
The castle was big enough to house a small village. There were square towers with stone crenellations, and a courtyard in the middle. Surrounding the castle were flower gardens and a hedge maze and apple orchards. It was achingly beautiful seen from above, and she suspected it would be even more gorgeous when they landed.
There was some kind of celebration going on there, she saw. A crowd had gathered in the field behind the castle.
Dragons were flying in and landing, and shifting into human form. It looked as if about a hundred people were assembled there. There were dozens of banquet tables stretched out across the field, and a big banner with lettering on it strung up between two poles.
They landed with a thud in the field, a few hundred feet from the crowd, and she slid off Gabriel’s back. Then she ripped off her wig and threw it down on the grass. There was no point in pretending anymore.
“Damn this day. Stupid day. Stupid dragons. Stupid me.” She stomped on the wig. “Stupid everything!”
She needed a ride back down to the valley, she needed to bail out her sister, and then she needed to slink home in shame and probably update her resume.
She pulled off the wig cap and shook her head, running her fingers through her sweat-dampened hair.
She watched the air around Gabriel ripple and shimmer as he flowed back into human form, wings shrinking and vanishing, scales melting into smooth human skin. He strode over to her – stark naked, since he’d just shifted. A sheen of sweat coated his magnificent body.
Oddly, he didn’t look surprised to see that it was her instead of Pandora. He looked amused.
“Why, Kelly, I had no idea you felt this way about me.” He grinned. “Actually, that’s not true. I always suspected, what with the way you chased me around the world, but I didn’t know you’d go to these lengths.”
Holy hell, he was hot. So, so very hot.
Focus. You hate him. He’s going to bankrupt your firm and bankrupt your family.
“You arrogant bastard. I was chasing you because you’re a thief!” she snapped. “Where is that ruby?”
He snorted. “That again? I think you’ve got other things you might want to worry about right now. Time to meet the family.”
He glanced up at the banner that was strung between the two poles, and she saw the script. “Congratulations, Pandora and Gabriel!”
“What the hell?” she said, suddenly feeling faint.
His eyes gleamed with wicked amusement. His sensual lips curved into a smile as he stalked over to her and stared down into her eyes. She took a sharp breath, drawing in the scent of his musky aroma. “You do know that tradition says the Fair Queen and the Dragon marry, right?”
