She was beautiful. All silver scales, with rows of ruby spikes down her spine and a cluster of them at the end of her tail. Sharp talons sliced through the air as she bobbed and weaved through the clouds. Gilbert watched her as she flew, his own fires burning hot to see the clear joy she had as she danced through the sky. Eventually, he saw her chest heaving, and he glided in slow circles to the top of a mountain. He wasn’t even certain how far they had flown, lost in the joy of first flight.
Polly lit on the ground next to him and shifted back to her human form. She stumbled, laughing, into him. Her eyes were bright and her hair windblown around her face, like the halo of an angel. He couldn’t stop himself from bringing her in for a kiss. Their bodies pressed together, naked from their flight. The air around them seemed to grow warmer as the heat of passion grew. Gilbert felt himself hardening as Polly dug her fingers into his hair and thrust her tongue into his mouth.
After a moment of frenzied kissing, both of them backed away. Their hands remained on each other’s bodies as they stared into each other’s eyes. Polly chewed her lower lip even as she smiled at him. He smiled back, his hands gently tracing the flare of her hips.
“So… Five years living side-by-side and this is what it comes to, huh?” he murmured.
“Five years,” she agreed. “Amazing how time goes by… And finally, here we are…” She moved forward again, the length of her curvy body pressed against him. “I love you Gilbert West.”
“And I love you, Polly Shields. I swear that I will always serve and protect you, as part of the king’s guard—”
“No.” Her hands pressed against his chest, then moved around to embrace him and pull him tight. “As my mate. And as your mate, I promise I will always serve and protect you.”
Gilbert’s heart felt lighter than air, but he still laughed. “How are we meant to serve and protect each other, huh? Aren’t the two mutually exclusive?”
“No.” Polly’s voice was firm. “They most certainly are not.”
She didn’t allow him to argue the point further. Her mouth caught his, hungry and demanding, and he was more than happy to give her all he was. Their hands moved frantically across each other’s bodies. Gilbert took her thigh and hoisted it up over his hip, and used one hand to steady her while the other slipped between their bodies. Polly moaned as she leaned on him, breaking the kiss to bury her face in his neck. Her tongue flicked over his collarbone while his fingers worked.
With a gasp, her knee buckled. Gilbert caught her and gently lowered her to the ground. The bed of leaves and moss below them was so soft, but not as soft as her round body. Her hands found him, stroking lightly as he continued to pleasure her. Gilbert gasped out her name and kissed her again. They both rocked their hips into the other’s touch, bodies on fire as they moved together. He wasn’t sure if the heat was coming from his roaring fires or from her body.
Her breasts seemed to swell as she took deep breaths, and he couldn’t stop himself from tasting them. First one, sucking the nipple into his mouth, then the other. They became pearls under his tongue and Polly gasped again. A shudder ran through her body as one of her hands left him to tangle into his hair.
“Gilbert,” she sighed, her voice piquing with sheer rapture. “Gilbert, never let me go.”
He returned to her mouth. “Never.”
He sealed the promise with a kiss, sliding two of his fingers inside of her at the same time. She accepted him greedily, slick and ready. He moaned at the thought of being inside of her. So near. Every inch of his body burned with need as he adjusted his position to be kneeling between her legs.
Needing to look into her eyes, he broke the kiss. Polly panted, her lips parted slightly, her beautiful brown eyes alight with desire and excitement. Gilbert couldn’t stop himself from smiling at her.
“God, you’re so beautiful.”
“You are, too.” Her hands trailed down his chest, leaving fire in their wake. “All sculpted muscle and toned skin. I always thought it was cliché when the romance heroines talked about their lovers as Greek Gods. But you’re like… you’re like Eros. Pure passion, pure beauty. Your lips. Your eyes. I wish I could write a song about them.”
He hummed as he brushed his mouth to hers, then held himself against her entrance. “Let’s write that song together.”
Polly burst into giggles, but it turned into a sharp gasp and moan as he inched into her. He panted, fighting the urge to enter fully right away. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” She had a hand pressed to his chest, but the other wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer. “It feels so good.”
And it did. Gilbert inched himself inside of her, forcing himself to go slowly to give her time to adjust. She clenched around him, making his fires burn ever hotter, and he let out a throaty moan. When he kissed her, he tasted her smoke and his intermingled. Both of her hands clenched around his hips now, fingers digging in, loosening, and digging in again. She put her feet on the ground and thrust her hips up, and he found his full entrance. Both panted, kissing and clinging to each other, for several long seconds before he started to move.
He wouldn’t have been startled if lightning had struck through the sky, or if the heavens were ripped away to reveal stars singing and dancing. Pleasure blurred his vision as he continued to thrust, his efforts to be gentle sabotaged by the way Polly pushed her hips upwards, meeting him with an increasing rhythm that he struggled to keep up with.
“Gil,” she grunted, then made a mewling noise that startled him so much that his rhythm faltered. She clutched at him and mewled again. “Don’t stop.”
That command was almost too hard to obey. He clenched his jaw, staring down at her as he continued to move, feeling a heady rush of heat creeping up his spine. Everything threatened to explode, so he reached between their bodies and gave her clit a flick with his thumb. Twice more and she arched, letting out a cry that made everything inside of him loosen. Black waves of pleasure rushed through him, and he couldn’t feel his own body. He was a cloud in the sky, floating in pure bliss.
When he finally returned to himself, he twisted off her. Sweat coated their bodies, but their internal fires kept them from growing chilled in the mountain air. Gilbert turned to look at her to see her beaming at him. There was such tenderness, so much love in her gaze, that it took his breath away. If he hadn’t still felt half-out of his body, he’d have rolled over her and taken her again right then and there.
“That was amazing.” Her voice had a deeper, husky quality that was unusual.
“Yeah,” he agreed. His hand found hers and their fingers twined together. “I hadn’t realized that it could feel that good.”
Polly shook her head. “Me, neither. But I guess we know now.”
Gilbert nodded, lost in merely looking at her.
“This whole experience is so exhilarating. I never realized that I felt like something was missing until I could be in my second skin, flying through the air. And that wasn’t what I expected, either.” She rolled to her side and laid her free hand on his chest, fingers splayed over his pecs. “I thought that it would take some learning. But no. It was like I’d been flying my whole life.”
“It’s instinct for dragons.”
She bit her lip and glanced down, then back up at him. There was a sparkle in her eyes, but also a little bit of embarrassment, too. “Am I… pretty?”
“Beautiful.”
“I mean as a dragon.”
“I know.” He grinned at her. “You are the most beautiful dragon I’ve ever seen. You’ve got this delicate snowflake pattern on your wings. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Your scales look like silver. Beautiful.”
Her smile widened, then disappeared. A look of shock crossed her face and she shot bolt upright. “My dad!”
Gilbert had to admit that he had forgotten all about the king in his excitement to see Polly whole—healed. He sat and pulled her into his arms. “If you have had the curse lifted from you, we can only hope it rings true for your father as well. And if it hasn’t, we know how to cure him now.”
The worry in her face melted away, replaced by sheer determination. Her shoulders straightened, and she scrambled to her feet. She winced as she did so, and Gilbert hurried to stand. He had meant to help her, but his legs were a bit wobbly and she ended up supporting him.
“I want to go to him. Now.”
Gilbert nodded. He took her hand, kissed it, and pointed them in the right direction. “We’ll have to stop back to return the rental and get our passports, but we’ll be on our way soon enough. It’ll be dark soon… I suppose that’s good. We don’t know if Claire’s clan is still after you.”
Polly scowled. Smoke curled from her nostrils and she bent at the knees, a growl rumbling in her chest. “They better not be! Or I’ll show them what’s it like to deal with Dragon Polly. She’s not nice like Human Polly.”
Gilbert laughed. “I don’t think you’ve ever been one to back down from a fight.”
“Maybe not. Let’s go, we don’t have any time to lose.”
He nodded. The two of them shifted and sprang into the sky. He had been worried that it would be harder to fly after all their exertion, but they had a tailwind and were able to make good time back to the car. They dropped down and shifted back to their human form. As they were dressing, though, there was a sudden burst of fire in the sky. Two huge, blood-red dragons dropped down over them.
Gilbert shouted and sprang up to shift, but before he could a tail whipped him hard in the stomach. It flung him into a tree, which cracked on impact. The air was driven from his lungs. He heard Polly’s scream turn into a roar, and her beautiful silver form burst into view.
He jumped to his feet and ran to help her. His fires roared to life as his dragon burst out of his human form; with a roar echoing Polly’s, he charged at the nearest dragon. He leapt on its back and tore at its wings, slicing the thin membrane open in a clean split. The dragon howled in pain and threw him off. Another came at him. This one locked its jaws around his throat. He raked his claws over its belly, sending scales flying every which way.
Polly roared in pain. His heart jumped to his throat. He tore away from the dragon attacking him and dove to protect her, but he was too late. Her roar turned to a scream and he saw her silver form melt back into her human form. One dragon held her by the neck and growled at him.
The warning was clear. Gilbert shifted back to human form, knelt, and put his hands on his head.
“No,” Polly whimpered.
Then something hard whacked the back of his head and everything went black.