Wracked by a harsh, barking cough, Lola pressed her forehead to the warm, dry sand and heaved until the water in her lungs drained past her lips. Her relieved whimpers turned to rough sobs as she realized how close she had come to dying. All she remembered was the wind snatching the scream from her throat as she plummeted to the ocean. The crash through the waves had jolted every inch of her, and it had hurt like hell.

One thing was certain. She wasn’t dreaming.

She weakly lifted her head to see where she was. Another glass dome under the sea. They were in an antechamber of some sort. A hidden control panel had flushed water from the small room, allowing for dry passage into a larger dome that was annexed. This was real. All of it.

“Are you alright?” Flev crouched next to her.

“I want to go home,” she wept.

Soleis wrapped her in a hug and brought her to her feet. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said. He buried his face in her hair, and she let his embrace soothe her until she realized this was his fault. She shoved him away.

“You could’ve gotten me killed!” she exclaimed.

“I am so sorry. Everything spiraled out of control. He thought you could breathe underwater.”

“How?! Nobody can breathe underwater! And, where the hell are we? You can magically take me everywhere but where I want to be.”

“Please, don’t be angry. I know this entire experience has been unsettling, to say the least, but I found this abandoned pod. The people of this realm don’t use it anymore. So, we’re safe here. You can get some rest before I take you home.”

“Thank you!” she said snidely.

Flev slipped through the glass door into the larger dome. He mumbled something and powerful lights illuminated everything. Lola could see a city of stone, and a staggering plethora of sea life beyond the dry enclosure. She was awestruck by its beauty, but she couldn’t focus on it.

“Hang on a second…” she trailed off. She remembered…a sleek blue creature beneath the waves, reaching for her with metallic teal claws. Wings pressed to his back that spread like a parachute when he surfaced and climbed into the sky. She gasped and stared intently at Soleis. “What are you?” she whispered.

“What do you mean? You’re looking at me. I’m very much like you,” he hedged.

“But, you’re not. You’re not…human. I saw you change into something else—Only, that can’t be right.” She rubbed her throbbing temples. “Something’s wrong with me. I’m beginning to believe all of this is possible. Maybe the accident damaged my brain or, or…No. I know what I saw. Tell me the truth. What’s happening? What does it have to do with this ring?”

“If you remove that ring, you go home. However, millions of people will die here,” he shrugged. Her eyes clouded with confusion. His hands slid down her arms, and he laced their fingers together. “You’re the only one with medical training to handle a pandemic. Without you, this world will end up looking just like this city, empty of life. Maybe the survivors will eventually rebuild, but the aftermath of the plague will last centuries.”

“But, this isn’t even my world,” she stammered for an excuse to leave.

He shrugged. “So, you don’t care. Fine. I made a vow to save these people, and that’s what I’ll do with or without you. You can take off the ring. I won’t stop you,” he said as he started walking off. “I won’t come after you. It’s not your destiny. It’s mine.”

“Oh, come on! It’s your destiny to stay here and get yourself killed? Right. Whatever you are, you’re ridiculous. You should just leave, too. This isn’t your problem, Soleis.” Lola stopped short when he pivoted and quirked a brow.

“If you don’t care, why does it matter if I stay?” he snapped.

“Because…” she faltered. He waited for a reply. She didn’t know why it mattered. People didn’t form deep emotional bonds in days. Yet, she trembled at the prospect of Soleis getting hurt. He heaved a sigh and strode into the undersea city, with her at the threshold to the pod.

So, she could take off the ring and leave this world behind. Assuming it was real, the memory would fade like a dream. She would never know what happened to him. She might never see him again. She squeezed the ring tighter before letting it go with a whiny groan. Hadn’t she asked for adventure and excitement? The universe delivered. She trekked into the city.

Flev leaned out a window of one of the empty buildings and shouted down to Soleis, “I take it we’re staying, despite the president’s obvious change of heart; and, the likelihood our faces are on Wanted posters throughout the realm; and, the fact the penalty for rebellion is, um…absorption.”

“Yep,” Soleis muttered.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he smiled wryly. “Good thing I found the pod control panel. I got into the security monitors; we’ll get alerts if any of the president’s men get too close to the pod. Sleep light. After that bungled getaway, they’re bound to be on our tails.”

“Any room up there for me?”

“Plenty of houses here, Little Brother. Find your own.”

“Fair enough.”

Soleis kept walking, and Lola called after him, “Wait up. I don’t want to be alone.”

He slowed his steps, letting her fall in beside him. They didn’t speak. They didn’t even look at one another. Lola revisited his statement. She did care. She had taken a vow, too. First, do no harm. But, from what she had seen of the president, he preferred keeping control to finding a cure. Belzaan would gladly watch the lower classes die if treating them meant affecting his bottom line. This world was like hers, with a divide between the haves and the have nots.

She studied the houses they passed. The buildings reminded her of pueblos, simple yet aesthetic. The sandy street was lined with streetlamps. She wasn’t sure how they were powered, but a soft glow emanated and lit their path.

They traveled deeper into the abandoned city until they were far from where Flev had set up camp. Soleis came to a three-story house surrounded by a short stone fence. He strode through the open door and looked around. It was pleasant and dry. It was still furnished. Lola was surprised to see woven chairs, stone tables. Soleis glanced over his shoulder at her, as if she was imposing, but she ignored the hint.

She followed him up the stairs where there were three bedrooms. “Pick one,” he said gruffly. She darted through the nearest door, and he took the room across the hall from hers. Sitting at the foot of the bed, she watched him. He pulled off his shirt and slipped off his boots but left his trousers in place. He sat at the foot of his bed and watched her, too.

“I’m sorry for how I reacted,” she broke the silence. “Yeah, you could’ve gotten me killed, but you saved my life. Thanks for that…A few days ago, I made a birthday wish that seems to have come true, but this is so much more than I bargained for.” She laughed dryly.

“How old?” he asked.

“Twenty-five,” she smiled.

He grunted in tired amusement. “I’m not even sure how old I am. Close to a hundred? I’ve traveled so much to such different worlds where time flows in odd ways. I’m a dragon shifter, Lola. Dragons live hundreds, sometimes thousands of years.”

“How is any of this real?”

He scratched the tattoo at the side of his neck and shrugged. “You’re from the Blue Sky Realm, which is your version of reality. I come from a race of dragon shifters in the Fire Realm, my version of reality. Normally, our realities don’t intersect because people don’t usually cross from one realm to another.

“There’s a space called the Between that links us. It takes special magic to find it, and I don’t know how you came across a passkey. I wasn’t aware any existed. But, it brought you here…I think it brought you here for me.”

She released an airy laugh and stared at the ring on her finger. “This is unbelievable. A passkey? Wow…Every time I think of taking this thing off, something holds me back.” She met his gaze. “I think it’s you.”

They were separated by the darkened hallway. Someone—either one of them—could cross the gulf. Her heart pounded loud and slow in her chest. Soleis licked his lips and rested on his elbows, looking at her as if he wanted to ask for something he knew he shouldn’t.

“Why do you think it’s me keeping you here?” he finally mumbled.

His hooded eyes drew her from the bedroom. She found herself ambling to his bed, sitting down beside him. His mouth was a lure. Her eyes dipped to his bare chest and the trail of blond hair that traversed his stomach and disappeared in his trousers. She clenched a fist and brought her eyes back to his.

“Because you somehow called me here, and if you don’t leave, then I can’t. It’s a challenge. I’ve never been able to turn down a challenge,” she replied.

“I see,” he said carefully. “Well, I can’t leave because it’s not in my nature to leave things undone.”

A frisson of desire shot through her at his words. Then, do me, she thought.

His voice wrapped around her like silk. I want to, whispered in her mind.

Lola suppressed a moan and laid a hand at her throat, swallowing thickly. Maybe it was her imagination. However, the look on his face said he craved the same thing she craved. She squirmed, and he gripped her thigh tightly, stilling her.

“I’m not sure how I called you here,” he whispered, “but I don’t want to see you go. Everything about you lights my senses afire. I smell you. I can almost taste…” He cut himself short and looked away with a quiet sigh. “But, I’m not like other guys you know, Lola. If you’re planning on bailing, you better leave before I do something to you.”

“Will you hurt me?” she asked, genuinely curious.

His lips curved in a wicked grin as he met her unflinching gaze. “I don’t know. I might…but I get the impression you can handle anything.”

* * *

He gripped the back of the orange dress and dragged it from her body. Her wide eyes met his over her shoulder. Her bare breasts prickled with anticipation. She felt his pelvis against her derriere. You can handle anything, repeated in her head. Soleis rocked forward, hard. Lola whimpered with arousal as he did it again. The thick bulge at the front of his trousers sparked wonder.

“You should tell me to stop,” he murmured.

“Why, when I asked for it? If I’m going home, I want to know what I’m leaving behind.”

“You won’t be going anywhere after this,” he bragged.

His nails raked down her spine, and her soft giggle morphed into a moan. He hooked his fingers into the waistband of her panties, tugging them down. Lola yelped in surprise as his powerful arms flipped her onto her back. An electric blue ring glimmered around his irises. He stared at her nakedness. She could tell he was holding himself in check.

She palmed her breasts in offering. His hot mouth descended hungrily, and she gasped. Her breasts were heavy and engorged, and his mouth was magic. With every pull of his lips and tongue, liquid fire flowed through her.

She moaned again low in her throat. Her head lolled back, elongating her neck. His kisses swept up the curve of her jawline. He tenderly bussed her lips, but, as his mouth swept over hers again and again, the kiss intensified. She felt his shoulders bunch beneath her fingers and nodded encouragement.

Take me, she begged.

“Lola, I don’t want what I am to scare you.”

“You said I can handle it,” she whispered, kissing him harder.

He grinned seductively. “I also said I’m not like other guys.”

“Show me.”

She fumbled with his pants, and it was his turn to be surprised. He whispered something that made the lights go dark. There were no stars or moon beyond the open window. Only the blue-black of the sea, and the shadows of otherworldly creatures swimming in the deep. Only the stirring in her loins, that blazed brighter than the sun.

There was a rustle of fabric as he unfastened his trousers. Then, his lower body was bare, and their naked thighs brushed. Invisible flames leapt between them. She hitched in a breath when he buried his face in her neck and said things in a language she couldn’t understand. Whatever it was made her sweat for more.

His teeth nipped the delicate skin of her shoulder. She eagerly slid a hand between them and found his turgid manhood. Soleis growled, surging into her palm. She gripped him and stroked. She didn’t dare tell him she had never done this before. But, even if she had, nothing could compare to what was happening.

She masturbated him seductively as he stared into her sultry eyes.

“Don’t tease me,” he huffed.

She moved with greater finesse. Soleis clutched her throat, and the air thinned. Her breasts quivered from the struggle to breathe. Yet, she didn’t stop. His other hand flattened over her mons, and the firm hill of his palm rubbed slow circles around her hidden pearl that made her forget she needed oxygen. Her heels dug into the soft mattress as her pelvis strained toward him, but he was just out of reach.

“Satisfy us both,” she panted.

“Mmph!”

He kissed her fiercely as he plunged into her hot, wet sheath. There was no gentleness. The raw passion seared her from head to toe. Lola cried out as fireworks lit the darkness behind her eyelids. Her womanhood clenched around him reflexively. His girth was impressive. She had never felt so full in her life. And, he realized it.

Soleis froze. “Oh, fuck.”

“Don’t stop!” she gasped.

“Why didn’t you tell—? Ah!” He couldn’t hold back.

Her nails dug into his shoulders as he pumped into her. His strokes were loaded with tension. He sheared against her like he would never leave her embrace. The explosion of pain from losing her virginity blossomed into something else. Ecstasy.

Soleis clasped her chin and forced her to look at him. Her wetness doused them both as he rocked harder and faster. “This was something sacred,” he ground out. She agreed. What he was doing to her was sacred. Her eyes drifted shut. She flew higher, engulfed in bliss.

His mouth found her breasts, and he sucked in tandem to what he was doing between her legs. He probed erogenous zones she never knew existed. His feverish tongue swept over her pebbled nipple, and she quaked compulsively. A line of pleasure tightened from her breasts to her core.

He growled her name in a way that told her he was just as awestruck. Her sex made him wild. She felt teeth and claws. With her eyes closed, she imagined they lifted from the bed. When her lids fluttered open, she realized they had. His wings batted the air. They winked out of existence as he caught himself.

“I’m sorry—I can’t—Uhn!”

“You don’t have to hide it,” she whispered, throbbing at his sounds of excitement. “I want to see all of you.”

With a primal grunt, he gripped a fistful of her hair. He jerked her mouth to his. He pounded into her and let her have a taste of him unfiltered. Blueish white sparks shot from his eyes, and his tan skin glistened with a hint of blue scales that matched the ocean. Wings exploded from his back. They were smaller but just as powerful and beautiful as in dragon-shape.

She marveled at each revelation. A distant part of her consciousness wondered what manner of man he was, but her pleasure overrode the questions. He was briefly hers, and this brief moment could sustain several lifetimes of fantasy.

Her body rose from the bed again, and she locked her heels behind his muscular thighs, meeting his wild thrusts. Every movement elicited spasms of exhilaration. Lola stared at where their bodies connected. His shaft glistened, drenched in liquid silk. His grunts turned to soft sobs as he hammered away.

She didn’t want it to end, but her body told her she was close to their destination. Where ever or whatever it was, she needed to arrive. The crescendoing rush of excitement flew her higher. She whined his name in shock and clung to him as she realized they were near the ceiling.

“Let go,” he murmured.

“I’ll fall,” she whimpered. “I’m not like you.”

“Trust me.”

She stared into his fiery eyes, trusting him. She loosened her fingers from his neck and embraced the feeling of weightlessness. He languidly rolled onto his back, and gravity brought her down upon his pulsating manhood. She was impaled by glorious sensations.

Lola pressed her palms to his chest, moaning, as she rode him. His command echoed in her ears. Let go. She held her breath. Let go. Something was happening. It started in her soul and radiated outward. Tiny tremors were expanding into something much bigger.

“Soleis…”

“Yes.”

Her voice broke in a sob of ecstasy. “I’m almost there.”

“I know, baby,” he whispered. “Me, too.”

Almost there. Lola felt the head of his erection mushroom within her. She was suddenly more saturated than she had ever been. She threw her head back, and progressively louder cries of exaltation flowed from her lips as wave after wave of orgasm crashed over her.

She lost her senses. All she knew was his arms around her. Their bodies gently falling to the bed. His guttural shout of release as her apex curved around him, and he buried himself as deeply as she could physically allow. His manhood quivered within her soaking wet grasp, and his climax poured into the flood.

He clutched her face with both hands and kissed her as they tried to recover. His sweat dripped and rolled over her cheeks like tears. Or, maybe he cried. Or, maybe she did. It had been epic. She would never be the same for another man. There was no going back. There was no taking off the ring. She couldn’t leave if she wanted to, and she didn’t. She fell asleep in his arms where she belonged.