It wasn’t until the next morning, after we had showered and made love again—and again—that I remembered our conversation in the car. He wanted to see the real me. Would he still?

“Yes,” he breathed, taking my hand. “If you want me to, I want to.” I wondered how much of it was the need to know that I wasn’t a monster.

“Believe me, it’s not that impressive.” So why did my heart hammer out of my chest the way it did? Why did I feel slightly nauseated as I sat him in the chair by the lamp? I wished he had never asked, but lying about who I was would only build a wall between us and I couldn’t have that.

“I hope you don’t end up regretting this,” I whispered, standing naked in front of him.

“This is a pretty good start,” he said, looking me up and down with lust in his eyes. How could he still have the energy after hours of hot, breathless, sweaty sex?

“Bear with me, please.” I turned my back to him and prayed to whoever might be listening that he would still love me afterward.

It had been so long since I had dropped the glamour that I almost forgot how to do it—in reality, it was like opening a door. As simple as turning the knob and pushing.

When I turned back to him, I was the slight, skinny little elf I’d been born as. Shorter than my human self, with a long braid of white-blonde hair which touched the floor. My slightly pointed ears, nose, and chin. My body didn’t have the same lush curves.

“This is who you fell in love with,” I whispered, holding my arms out to my sides. I was offering up more than just my actual form. I was offering all of me.

And he was smiling. I couldn’t believe it.

“You’re still beautiful,” he whispered, awed. “I mean, yes, it’s a change—but you’re beautiful. You glow. Did you know that?”

“No. Do I?”

“Yes! I fell in love with you, the real you—smart, passionate, loving. You don’t ever have to be anybody you don’t feel like being around me. I mean it.” He did, too. I could hear it in his voice, see it in his eyes. He couldn’t lie to me any more than I could lie to him. And a peace settled over me as I had never known before.

* * *

“You’re sure you’re ready for this?” he asked. One of his eyebrows arched, but he did his best not to laugh at my expression. I was sure I looked like I was rethinking every decision I had ever made up to that point, because that’s exactly what I was doing.

Even so, I nodded firmly. “Yes. I’m sure. If Jasmine can do it, so can I. Besides,” I added with an embarrassed little smile, “I’ve never seen this side of you. I know it’s there, but you’ve never let me see. And I did let you see me, so…” Even though I had chosen to put the glamour back up. I would let it drop in front of him, but only him. That was one thing that was ours alone.

“Right, right. But that’s not the same as going for a ride, and you know it. I can practically hear the way your heart’s racing.”

“No fair, listening in.” I chewed my lip, asking myself one more time if I was totally insane. Riding a dragon. Who rode dragons? My sister. I couldn’t let her be the only one, could I?

That decided me.

“All right. Let’s do this.” I shook my hands out, then my feet, hoping to shake out the nervousness. Smoke barely choked back a laugh as he stripped down. The site of his body was still new to me, and still enough to make my pulse pick up even more speed. I wondered if he heard that, too, and my cheeks flushed. At least his back was to me, so he couldn’t see.

But I could see him. I could watch the muscles of his broad back work as he bent at the waist, lowering his jeans to the cave floor. I swallowed hard to get rid of the saliva the flooded my mouth at the sight of his almost unbelievably firm, round butt.

He was beautiful, and mine. Another thing I hadn’t wrapped my head around yet. We belonged to each other. He would never treat me like a possession. He wouldn’t tell me what to do, when to do it. He loved me. He respected me. And he would always protect me—he already had, in fact, when he killed for me.

His smile was almost as bright as the sunlight shining through the mouth of the cave. “You’re ready?” he checked once more.

“One thing. Do you prefer Scott or Smoke?”

He smiled. “I didn’t know you knew.”

I nodded. Another story to share with him, sometime. “Which is it?”

“Smoke is fine.”

“Mmm-hmmm. Yes he is.”

He chuckled, kissed me on the lips. “I’ve been called Smoke so long, I might not answer to Scott.”

I smiled in return.

“Ready?”

“Just get out there and show me what you can do,” I grinned, even though my insides quaked. I would love him no matter what, but it was like choosing not to look beneath the glamours my clan members put up for the rest of the world to see. I couldn’t un-see it after the fact. I would never be able to think of Smoke the same way again.

Something deeper, stronger, battled with my apprehension. It was excitement. Arousal. For my dragon. The dragon who loved me. I kept that in mind as he backed away from me, leaving me alone just inside the cave mouth.

The shift took seconds. The length of a breath. One moment, he was Smoke. The next, he was taller. Longer. Wider. His skin had turned to scales, a beautiful shade of green which turned almost yellow when the sun hit them just right. They seemed to glow. His eyes were green, too, and they seemed to look straight into my soul as he watched me taking stock of him.

His talons were dangerously long and probably razor-sharp, attached to feet bigger than my body. He dwarfed me, like a cat looming over a mouse. But he would never hurt me. I knew that before he shifted and knew it wouldn’t change after he did. His tail was long, thick, barbed. I stayed away from those, too. Just in case.

Hot breath rushed from his nostrils, almost like an unspoken question. What did I think? “You’re beautiful,” I said with a smile. “I never imagined you would be this beautiful.” He dipped his head in acknowledgment, unfolding his wings to show me their impressive span. So strong, yet tissue-thin to the point where I could almost see through them. How could something like that support something as large as him?

He lowered his head even further, and I knew what he meant. It was time to mount him. I felt awkward, shaky, as I pushed myself up and threw a leg over his neck before working myself over the thick, strong ridges which ran down the length of his back. Jasmine had given me tips before going out, since she knew how nervous I was. One of the ridges was at my back, while another was in front of me. I wrapped my arms around it. “I think I’m ready,” I called out, wishing I could feel more confident. I could handle it. I was sure I could.

Then, he took off, and everything I thought I knew was wiped away by the sheer exhilaration of taking flight. I let out a shriek of joy as we climbed higher and higher, like we were going to sail straight into the sun.

We leveled out before we could get that far, of course, and sailed in a circle around the mountain’s peak. I looked out to my right and saw how his wings extended, keeping us in the air.

I tightened the grip of my thighs to tell him how I loved it, but I had the feeling that I didn’t need to tell him. He would already know how life-changing this was. He understood me well enough to know how I would react—I was glad he knew me better than I knew myself in that respect, because I would’ve chickened out if he hadn’t dared me to do it. I understood what it was like to feel free, powerful, graceful. Even if it was an illusion, even if I was on the dragon’s back instead of flying on my own.

I understood how Jasmine became addicted to flying, too, because I was an addict before we even touched ground again.

After circling several times, Smoke took a nosedive. I screeched and held on for dear life as the wind blew back my hair and made my eyes water. I was about to scream his name and beg him not to kill us when he pulled up with the ease of someone who’d pulled that exact move thousands of times before. When his feet touched the ground, I was shaking and laughing and wiping the tears from my cheeks.

“Wow!” I gasped as I slid off and hoped my legs would support me. They did, but barely. “That was insane! You’re incredible!” I rested my cheek against his neck and could just feel the steady rhythm of his heart under my ear. “You’re beautiful. Thank you for doing that for me.”

He nodded slowly, and the strong beat of his heart was music.

* * *

The door to the control center was open when we got back. I was still riding high, almost blissful, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Smoke was happy, too. I had never seen him look so carefree and relaxed. I hoped it was a trend.

“What’s going on in here?” Smoke asked, pulling up short when he saw the rest of the guys in there.

Only Pierce was missing, since he was on guard duty. Jasmine hung around outside the door, frowning.

“We’ve been talking—I wanted to wait until you got back.” Cash ran a hand over his short, dark beard with a heavy sigh. “I have an idea, but the guys aren’t fans.”

“Because it’s crazy,” Miles muttered.

“I don’t think it’s crazy at all. It’s been a long time since we were there, but it’s not like we can’t take care of ourselves no matter what we find.”

Smoke stepped inside the room, then glanced my way. “Maybe you should wait someplace else,” he suggested.

Cash shook his head. “No, this has to do with her, too. A little. Hey, Jasmine? We know you’re out there, by the way, so you might as well come in.” She joined me in the doorway, looking embarrassed and irritated at once. I raised my eyebrows, but she didn’t give me a clue what I was about to hear.

“So? What’s up?” Smoke asked, sitting on a wheeled stool in front of a bank of monitors.

Cash looked around at the others before speaking. “I think we need to go to Scotland and find out what happened to the heartbeat. We still can’t find it, and Mary hasn’t been able to come up with anything from her sources or connections or whoever they are. We can’t wait forever.”

My heart sank. To Scotland?

When Smoke and I had just found each other?