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I did.

I stepped backward eventually, breaking the contact and taking the telepathic connection with it. The abrupt silence was startling enough that I almost moved forward again, but Ash was still laughing and I had what little dignity remained to salvage.

Returning to human form was quicker because I wasn't fighting nerves this time, although the change still sent heat rushing through me as wings and scales disappeared and the world contracted back into something built for human senses.

When it was over, I straightened to find Ash staring at me.

I was naked again, which wasn't remotely important compared to the fact that he'd just watched me turn into a dragon and spoken to me inside his own head, except Ash's gaze dropped and remained there long enough to suggest he'd momentarily rearranged his priorities.

“Not a word,” I warned.

His attention reluctantly returned to my face. “You purred.” I'd intended to reach for my clothes immediately, but something about Ash's expression stopped me. The amusement remained, but the shock was gone, and what had replaced it sent heat through me that had nothing to do with shifting.

His gaze moved from my face down the length of my body before slowly returning to my eyes, and there was no mistaking that look.

I knew what usually happened after Ash looked at me that way.

Except nothing about this was usual.

“Ash.”

He crossed the distance between us before I could decide what else I needed to say, his hand settling against my chest over skin that had been covered in scales less than a minute earlier. For one absurd second, I wondered whether he was checking that I was real.

Then his fingers curled.

“You're still you.”

It wasn't a question.

“Yes.”

His gaze searched mine. “I knew it was you.”

Something in my chest threatened to break open.

“When I looked at your eyes,” he continued, quieter now, “I knew.”

I covered his hand with mine, unable to find an answer that wouldn't reveal far more than I was ready to say.

Ash glanced toward the clearing before looking back at me. “And I could hear you.”

“Yes.”

“Is that a dragon thing?”

There it was.

The opening to tell him exactly what it meant, and for one second, I almost did, but that wasn't a conversation I wanted to begin while I was naked in a field and Ash was still trying to absorb the fact that dragons existed.

“It can be,” I said carefully. “There's more to explain.”

Ash studied me, and guilt tightened immediately because I could hear how inadequate the answer sounded.

“More dragon stuff?”

“Yes.”

“How much more?”