I blinked rapidly as every thought I ever had dissolved and left my brain empty.

Did he just say that?

Was I imagining what I wanted to hear? That had to be it. No way he loved me. I was tired and foggy-headed and confused.

But the way he looked at me…

Like he meant it.

“What did you just say? The last part. Can you repeat it, please?”

The ghost of a smile touched his handsome face. “I said I love you,” he replied.

Hearing it again didn’t make it any more believable. I wondered why it was so hard for me to believe he meant it. There was no reason to lie. Telling me he wanted me to go with him for the sake of my safety was enough. I knew that once I had the time to think it over, leaving would make sense. I didn’t have any desire to meet up with anyone strong enough to take down an entire clan of dragon shifters.

Are you really entertaining the possibility that any of this is true? My rational mind still refused to acknowledge the existence of such a thing. I wanted more than anything to tell him I felt the same way he did.

I loved him. My heart was so full of love, I was sure it would crack open. My hands ached to touch him. My body ached to feel him all over me. There was just that one thing still standing between us. The ability to believe that what he said was possible.

Instead of telling him I loved him, too, I asked, “Can you do something for me?”

* * *

“You’re sure you won’t get into any trouble for doing this?” I looked around, suddenly worried. The woods were thick, and we hadn’t come across anything even remotely resembling a campfire or tents or anything that would warn us of the presence of outsiders.

“I’m sure. Once I take to the air, no one will be able to see me, anyway.” He peeled off his jacket, folding it before placing it on the ground.

“How’s that possible?”

“An enchantment granted us; we’re invisible to human eyes while in flight.”

I could only shake my head in wonder. If he was making it up, he was doing a good job of it. He hadn’t so much as hesitated to answer a single question I’d thrown his way.

He crossed his arms over his abdomen and took the hem of his sweater in his hands, then lifted. I forgot how to breathe as he revealed himself to me—eight-pack abs, chiseled pecs, biceps that looked more like bowling balls than muscles. I swallowed hard when saliva flooded my mouth.

“You okay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Define okay.”

He only chuckled knowingly as he kicked off his shoes and lowered his pants. I was halfway through licking my lips before I noticed I was doing it. It was better for me to look away and let him get on with it before somebody found us.

“You’re ready for this?” he asked.

I glanced up briefly, just enough to see that he was completely, gloriously naked, and nodded. My heart raced almost sickeningly fast. I was about to see something that shouldn’t be possible. Something I wouldn’t have believed only a few days earlier.

The shift happened quickly. One second, he was Fence, with an almost obscenely perfect body, perfect enough to stir deep, dark longing in my core. The next, he threw back his head and threw his arms out to the sides before falling forward, on all fours. His body lengthened, wings unfolded themselves from his shoulder blades, his skin turned to shining, amber scales.

Before me stood a full-grown, magnificent dragon with eyes the color of black coffee. Just like Fence’s.

“It’s all real,” I whispered, not sure if I should laugh or cry or both. He was real. Everything he’d told me was real. I wrung my hands, wanting to touch him but almost afraid to. Was he in there? Did he think as himself when he was the dragon?

When he lowered his head until his chin nearly touched the ground, exposing his long, graceful neck, I knew he was inviting me to touch him.

I heard the heavy, deep breath coming from nostrils nearly as large as I was tall and reminded myself that I was still dealing with a beast—a very large, very powerful beast—but it was a beast with Fence’s heart. And he’d sworn he would never hurt me.

His scales reminded me of the pet lizard my fifth-grade class had kept as a pet. Funny, the things you remember when you’re faced with something outside your comprehension.

I ran a hand over his neck, then stood on tiptoe to examine the horns which trailed down his neck, getting larger as they ran down his back, and ending in spikes at his tail.

He was beautiful.

“Are you sure you want me to try this? You know how I am. I wouldn’t want you to feel bad if I fall off.”

He only snorted, his head moving back and forth like he was telling me I was crazy. I didn’t think it was so crazy. What would happen to me if I lost my grip?

I decided to try, anyway, and placed my left foot on what would’ve been his shoulder if he’d been human, before swinging my right leg over his back. I looked around for something to hold onto and settled on linking my hands around one of his horns and letting my thighs do the rest. I would’ve felt a lot better if there was a seatbelt.

It all happened so fast. His wings stretched out, and wind rushed through my ears when he flapped them. We were airborne before I knew it, rising higher and higher with every movement of those incredible wings. They looked so delicate but were as strong as steel, able to lift us into the air and keep us there.

“I can’t believe this!” I screamed, holding on for all I was worth.

We sailed over the treetops, then even higher, until I was sure we would touch the clouds. The beauty beneath us was enough to make me want to weep—so green, so blue, so pure. I would never see it again. I wouldn’t have a choice.

But I would get to fly.

I laughed wildly as we swooped down, then sailed back up and in a wide circle. I had never felt so free, so incredibly alive. And he was under me, keeping us airborne. We couldn’t have been closer if we tried. The power between my thighs was enough to make me feel a little faint. All that power…

We were back on the ground before I was ready to land, but there was something I needed to tell him, anyway.

I slid off and waited for him to shift back, my heart in my throat. When he was human again, I threw my arms around his neck before he had the chance to put so much as a stitch of clothing on.

“I love you,” I gasped before covering his mouth with mine and kissing him as hard as I could.

I wanted him to believe it.

I felt laughter rumbling in his chest as he kissed me back, wrapping his arms around my waist, crushing me against his unyielding body.

He lowered us both to the ground, and I slid my arms from my coat and left it under me as he stretched out on top of me. I didn’t even care that we were out in the open—it wasn’t really open, anyway, not with the trees all around us.

The branches crisscrossed above our heads and blocked out the sky, making it almost as dark as night.

But I could still see him—more important, I could feel him. I could touch him while he touched me, running his hands over my body as he kissed me again and again, until I couldn’t breathe but held him closer anyway, needing more. My head spun, but I clung to him like a life raft as he explored me.

“Ciera…” His voice was a growl in my ear before his tongue traced the curve of the lobe, then moved down the side of my throat.

I sighed and ran my hands through his hair, over his shoulders and arms, lost in him. It was bliss like I had never known, bliss I wished would never end. Just the feeling of his hot lips burning my skin with the sweetest fire.

One of his hands slid under my sweater and cupped my breast, kneading and stroking until his fingers met at the nipple and rolled it gently between thumb and forefinger.

I cried out my approval, pressing myself against him, giving him more. He raised the sweater, and the cold air sent goosebumps over my skin before his mouth warmed me, pulling the nipple between his teeth.

“Oh, God,” I moaned as I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him in, until the thick, hard length of his dick skewered my hip.

He growled, which only made the heat in my core burn hotter than ever. The beast was just beneath the surface, breathing heavy, grunting and growling as his need met mine and combined, creating something bigger than the both of us, something that could sweep us both up in its wake.

Fence’s hands stroked my waist before working at the button on my jeans. I helped him work them off along with my panties, kicking them aside, running my legs over his. Grateful for every inch of skin touching any inch of his.

He stroked my thighs, the curve of my butt, his fingers hooking into something like claws as they ran over my skin. I hissed, lost between pleasure and pain, welcoming the sensation, wanting more. I did the same to him, marking his back and shoulders, smiling in triumph when he moaned louder than ever.

“I love you.” He raised himself up on his forearms and looked down at me. “I love you, Ciera.”

“I love you,” I managed to gasp as one of his hands cupped my tingling, swollen mound and stroked my slick lips.

His fingers slid inside, finding my clit, and my body arched as exquisite pleasure exploded from that one spot, radiating through me until my toes curled.

“So good…” I moaned.

“I can do better,” he panted in reply, spreading my thighs and positioning himself between them. I locked my legs around his waist and grunted when the thick head of his dick parted my sensitive flesh and worked its way inside. I didn’t know anything could feel so good, be so good, filling me completely the way he did. My muscles clenched around him when he slid home, gripping him tight before pulsing rhythmically as I came again.

It was unreal, like something from a dream. Wrapped up in him, nothing but him, his scent and his strength, the taste of his skin, the delicious friction which built steadily with each deep, sure thrust. He took what he wanted. What he wanted was me, all of me, nothing less than everything. And I wanted to give it all to him. My soul, if he’d let me.

“Mine.” One word. A grunt. A command. A fact, something as elemental and necessary as the air in my lungs. He drove himself deep inside, deeper all the time, grinding his hips as he did. “Mine.”

“Yours!” I moaned between each pleasure-filled cry. Our eyes locked and I thought I saw the dragon in him, just under the surface, taking what it wanted, too. Both sides of him, taking what was theirs. What I so willingly offered.

His head dipped down to my shoulder, and I cried out more in surprise than anything else when he bit down. It didn’t hurt—instead, waves of fresh, tingling heat raced from that spot all through my writhing body until it joined with what I was already relishing and pushed me over the edge into a deeper, more all-consuming passion than ever before. I cried out one more time, clutching him to me, as my body seemed to dissolve into a pure wave of bliss.

Our bodies slapped together as he finished, thrusting wildly, grunting louder each time we met until he nearly roared, throwing his head back, face tilted up toward the thick canopy of branches.

I shook with exhaustion, surprise, satisfaction. Satisfaction more than anything else. With him, with me, with us. With the turn my life had taken, there in the woods, under the trees. In the arms of the man I loved as he held me against his chest, both of us breathing heavy.

“It should’ve been someplace nicer,” he murmured. “Forgive me.”

“Nicer?”

“You know. Satin sheets, candles, the whole thing.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle softly at his vision. “Don’t worry about that. This is just as perfect a place as I could imagine.”

“Really?” He pulled back just enough to see my face.

I nodded firmly. “All that matters is you. Wherever you are is the perfect place.” I paused. “Well, maybe not in the middle of a crowded street. That could get us in trouble.”

“Point taken. I’ll make sure to control my thirst for you whenever we’re in the middle of a crowd. I suppose this means you won’t be interested in taking a trip to the lavatory with me, during our flight home.”

In the middle of everything else he’d said, one word stood out—home. It would be my home for the rest of my life, since he’d already explained that his family never left. If he lived there, I’d live there, too. We had a lot of talking to do. There were still so many things I wanted to understand.

One thing I already understood was the way I loved him. That was all I needed—everything else would be built upon that single, indisputable fact.

I loved him, plain and simple. I had from the beginning. He was right. It was Fate which had brought us together. There was no denying it.

Still, there were some divides even love couldn’t bridge.

“You wondered if making love out in the woods was good enough for me, but you’re suggesting we do it in an airplane lavatory?”

His laughter rang out. “I guess you have a point.”