Chapter 17
Damen and Reyna lay tangled in each other’s arms. They kissed and caressed each other for hours until Reyna said, “We should get back. They’ll start to wonder where we are.”
His eyes popped open. “I thought you wanted to stay out here.”
“We can’t stay out here forever. Besides, I want to talk to Rose.”
“About what?”
“I want to tell her I’m staying on the planet.”
He stared at her. “When did you decide that?”
“Just now.”
“Just now, while we were lying here, or just now, while we were doing it?”
“Actually, I decided this morning when we first woke up. Actually, I’m not sure when I decided it.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
“I’m sure now.”
“What will you say to her?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll decide when I see her. It won’t be real to me until I tell her.”
“We better go then.” He didn’t move.
They kissed some more. “We should go.”
“Do you want to walk there?”
“What’s the other option?”
“I fly you there. Are you ready for that?”
She gazed into his eyes. Could this really be happening? Was her dream really about to come true? “Yes, I’m ready.”
“Are you sure?”
“Don’t keep asking me that. I wouldn’t say I was ready if I wasn’t.”
“Are you ready to watch me change back? You won’t freak out again, will you?”
“I won’t freak out again. You don’t have to worry about me anymore.”
He kissed her. “I know. I just don’t want to go yet.”
“Aren’t you hungry? Neither of us has eaten since yesterday.”
“I’m hungry, but I’m hungrier for you. I don’t want to let you go.”
“You’re taking me back to keep me. Once I tell Rose I’m staying, there won’t be anything stopping us from being together. We’ll be…”
He waited. “We’ll be what?”
“I was about to say we’ll be married, but we won’t be that until the team leaves.”
“Think of it any way you want. You’ll be mine, and there’s nothing you can do to change that.”
“I don’t want to change it. Now come on and pull up your pants. You don’t want to show up in the hall looking like that.” She gave his cock a tweak and made him yelp.
He grabbed at her tits and twisted her nipple. “You demon! I’ll teach you.”
She screeched and darted away from him. She snatched up her shirt and dove into her clothes. He pulled up his pants and stood a few paces away with a low chuckle dying on his lips. “Be careful how you play with me, baby. You could wind up with more than you bargained for.”
She started to make a wise crack in return, but before she could form the words, he changed before her eyes. He doubled in size, and the mighty purple dragon rose up to tower over her. His head whipped around and he let out an ear-splitting shriek that echoed through the forest.
Reyna stood back and watched until he completed his transformation. He blocked out the sun, and his head slipped back and forth before her eyes on its swaying neck. He turned to place his shoulder in front of her, and he lowered his head to just below her knees.
She came forward and put her foot on his head. With no effort at all, he lifted her off the ground. She sailed into the sky and swung her leg over his shoulders.
When he raised his head, she slotted down into a perfect seat between his neck and shoulders. His wings unfolded from his back, and a strong wind washed off them to thrash the tree branches.
In an instant, he took to the air. He beat his wings with surges of muscle between her legs. She clamped her knees around his neck, but she was never in any danger of falling off.
The breeze blew her hair out of her face, and the clouds slipped past faster. Mountains dropped away to nothing. She couldn’t see streams or individual trees anymore. The dark forest lay carpeted below her. The sun dipped below the clouds, and the planet curved across the far horizon.
He flew higher into that clear lavender sky. Harkniss Keep appeared to the right, but Damen didn’t turn toward it. He banked and cut along a different valley, heading east. He flew between cliffs and zoomed over waterfalls and back up into the sky again.
Reyna raised her arms above her head. A song of joy burst from her throat, but no one could hear it over the wind rushing in her ears. She shouted and sang and laughed to the heavens. She was alive for the first time. She was whole and free and alive.
Damen soared around in wide arcs and sharp turns. He dove toward the ground with lightning speed. Just before he crashed into the ground, he turned with a twitch of his wings to rocket straight up. He zigzagged right and left and cut spiral corkscrews in the air.
All too soon, he headed back to Harkniss Keep. Reyna sighed. She would have stayed out all day and never gotten tired of it, but she had unfinished business to attend to first.
Damen swooped into the mountainside and alighted at the eastern entrance. Reyna slid down and patted his scaly side. Never again would she shrink from his dragon form. She loved every inch of him with her whole heart. She would never give him up.
She kept her hand on him while he changed. The next thing she knew, her hand rested on his shoulder—a man’s shoulder. He bent down and kissed her. “Good luck in there.”
“Where will I find you afterwards?”
“Come to my room. You can tell me how it went.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“Will she be fine, too?”
“I don’t know. It’s asking an awful lot, us splitting up after so many years together.”
“Maybe she’ll stay on the planet, too.”
“I doubt it. She’s a different kettle of fish.”
“You were a different kettle of fish, too, and look at you now.”
“I know. I just don’t want to build my hopes on something that will probably never happen.”
“Well, come to my room afterwards. If you’re upset, I can comfort you.”
“Thanks. I’ll come back there either way.”
He kissed her again. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“You’re already doing it.”
THE END