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The feeling of Cade landing on the ground jostled Vivian awake and she sat up, nearly losing her balance and sliding from his back as she briefly forgot where she was. A pastel sunrise was coming over the horizon, pouring light over the dew-tipped grass around them. Vivian swept one leg over his back to join the other and jumped down with as much grace as she could muster, staring around them at the still, empty country club lawn.
"Why are we here?" she asked.
She turned back to him and was startled to see Cade had shifted. He stood close enough that she could see the streaks of color across the honeyed background of his eyes and her breath caught slightly in her throat.
"You were sleeping and couldn't tell me anywhere else to go. This is the only place I know outside of Killington."
"You never leave?" she asked, her voice softer than she had expected it to be.
Cade shook his head slowly.
"I was born there. Most of us stay there our entire lives. We aren't exactly…trusting of humans."
"Why? You seem to be the ones that would be more dangerous."
A slight, sarcastic smile curved his full lips.
"We might have claws and fire, but at least we dragons don't offer up our young as peace offerings."
Vivian gave him a quizzical look.
"Isn't that exactly why Arach and Aurora are together? She told me that their fathers promised them to each other before she was even born."
"She was born to be his. You saw them. Did they look like they were oppressed and forced to be together?"
Vivian remembered the look on Aurora's face as she led Arach out of the room, and shook her head.
"No."
"No, they didn’t. They looked like they couldn't wait to get each other's clothes off." Cade stepped up slightly closer to her and Vivian felt a tremble through her belly. "They are exactly as they should be; insatiable when it comes to each other."
"Are there women who are like you?" Vivian asked, her voice sounding faintly shaky as she said the words.
"You mean dragons?" Cade asked, stepping back and relieving the tension that Vivian could feel building in the space between them. "Yes. There aren't many that have actually stayed with the clan. Dragon births are rare enough, and female births are rarer still. Of the girls that are born into the clan, most of them stop shifting when they are teenagers and come to live in your world."
The statement startled Vivian and she felt her mouth fall open.
"They just live out here? With us?"
Cade laughed.
"Yeah, not even in captivity."
"I'm sorry. That's not what I meant. It's just shocking to think about interacting with people and not knowing something like that about them."
"Do you think you know everything about everyone that you talk to every day?"
"No, but –"
"How do you think Aurora's father knew about the dragons?"
"I don't know."
"Humans and dragons have been trying to build cooperative relations for generations. With as few dragons born as there are, there clan has been at risk of completely dying out. Part of the goals of the operative was to encourage marriages between humans and dragons so that the clan could continue. Not everyone is the biggest proponent of that, particularly the female dragons of the clan. I can almost guarantee you that you have encountered more than one of them in your life."
Images of people she knew flashed through her mind as if Vivian was trying to sort out the ones who could be dragons.
"How would I know?" she asked.
Cade adjusted the leather satchel over his shoulder and shrugged at her.
"Would you know looking at me?"
"Your eyes," she answered immediately, and then felt the burn of embarrassment across her cheeks.
A strange expression flittered across those very eyes and Vivian glanced away.
"We probably shouldn't stay here too much longer. I'm sure there are people who wouldn't be thrilled to find us walking across the grass at dawn."
His voice had changed, but Vivian couldn't place exactly what was different about it. She nodded and started toward the main building where she knew she could call for a car to bring them to her house.
They didn’t speak as they waited for the car or when they climbed into the backseat. She sat as close to the door as she could get and stared out the window, fighting the sudden urge to look at him. Her mind wandered to the feeling of him beneath her and the sound of his wings pressing through the air. She could still feel his powerful muscles shifting between her thighs and the smooth, strong feeling of his skin against her palms.
When they finally got to her house, Vivian led him inside and showed him to the guest room at the end of the hall opposite her bedroom.
"We should get a few hours of sleep," she said, watching him lower his satchel to the floor.
Vivian watched Cade gaze around the room as if evaluating every surface from the polished wood bureau in one corner to the antique vanity on the front wall, and finally to the white bed in the center.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"I'm just used to stone and tapestries. It's very different."
Vivian offered a teasing smile.
"I guess we humans aren't all bad, are we? At least we know how to make our bedrooms welcoming."
Cade's eyes slid over to her as Vivian realized what she had just said. Without saying anything else, she closed the door and rushed down the hall to her room. Flinging herself down on her bed, she tucked her head under one of the pillows and let out a loud sound of exasperation and embarrassment.
Flipping over onto her back, she stared up at the ceiling. Twenty-four hours ago, she was told her best friend was dead. Now she not only knew she was not dead, but that she was marrying a dragon and had entrusted her into the care of another dragon who wanted nothing to do with the arrangement but was sexy enough that all Vivian could think about was how much more welcoming she would have liked to make her guest bedroom. Finally, she let her eyes close and tried to will herself to sleep. These were not the Maid of Honor duties she had originally signed up for.