Reese

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I managed to free my hands, and I quickly swiped one of them through the air toward the dragon. I saw the force of my power hit it, but it wasn’t strong enough to have any effect on it.

I tried my powers once again, but this beast was huge and my telekinesis was no match for it. I screamed again, hoping someone would come to my rescue. Even having Victor here would be better than facing this beast alone. At least when Victor was here—this dragon? Yes, dragon—went after him instead of me. Better the dragon eats him than me, considering the man had been trying to rape me. I’m sure he’d make delicious dragon food. And while the giant scaly beast was chomping away, I could make my escape.

“Victor!” I yelled. But that seemed to make the dragon angrier, and he roared, spewing more fire toward the sky. I shrieked as the thunderous sound pierced my ears. Hot tears stung my eyes and I squeezed them shut while my body shook almost uncontrollably.

This was the end. I was about to become fire-roasted dragon food. How would my obituary read after they found my body scorched by this beast? Would the authorities realize it was a dragon? Who got burned to death by a dragon anyway? Was this how I was to die? At the jaws of a fire-breathing dragon?

When nothing happened, I opened my eyes to see the dragon stomping around the sand, snorting, spewing out more fire toward the sky. It roared with a deafening sound. Surely someone would come to my rescue.

Then the dragon snorted again. Kneeling, it bowed its head toward me.

“Oh, God, please don’t hurt me. Shoo. Go away!” I coaxed, but he didn’t budge. The dragon lifted its head and roared before lowering its head again. Placing it slowly down in the sand, it nuzzled its snout against my leg. I scooted back, not wanting to let it touch me.

“Oh my God.”

It crept toward me, and I shimmied backwards again, but it only mimicked my movement. What was it doing?

“Stop it. Go away!”

He didn’t listen to me, of course. It groaned again instead.

He wasn’t trying to hurt me. He threw Victor away like a ragdoll, and all he was doing now was mimicking my movements. He was acting almost submissive, like a pet. Maybe I wouldn’t be this dragon’s dinner tonight after all.

If it was going to hurt me, it would have already tossed me aside like it had Victor.

With a shaking hand, I slowly reached my splayed fingers toward it. Hopefully, it wouldn’t snatch my arm off. My God, I couldn’t believe I was about to touch a dragon. And the massive animal was letting me do it.

It closed its eyes when I stroked my fingers down the side of its blue scaly face. It was soft. The scales weren’t rough like I thought they would be. I studied the length of its body, the hugeness of it was frightening, but the colors were gorgeous. And they were all different shades of blue. Like the sea. Some were dark like the deepest parts of the ocean, while other sections were turquoise like the shallow waters of this island. Still, others were all shades of blue in between.

The dragon lifted its head slightly until we were nose to nose. The movement made me lean backwards, away from him. I thought maybe it was getting ready to eat me. Its tongue slipped out through thick blue lips, long and sleek. The tip of that long, pink tongue dipped into the cleavage of my breasts and slowly, gently, slid up the length of my neck. The satiny texture sent frissons of quakes up my spine and my body trembled. But not from fear.

This wasn’t an ordinary dragon. Not that there were actually any ordinary dragons I could compare it to. This dragon was ...

“You’re a shifter,” I whispered.

The dragon groaned softly.

“Adrian?”

Brown eyes with vibrant golden rings around them snapped open and stared at me. Tiny flames inside the pupils danced. The dragon groaned and nuzzled against my cheek.

“Oh my God, Adrian!” I stood, placing both of my palms against his face again. “Is it really you?”

The dragon lifted its head and nodded, giving me a slight shove with its snout.

“You’re so ... beautiful.” Like the dragon tattoo on his chest. Identical, in fact.

The dragon stood, towering high above me. He was a frightening sight and so magnificent at the same time. He dipped his head under my arm and rubbed his long neck against me as he circled my body in an embrace, coming around to lick at my chin.

“You should have told me you shifted to a dragon. I wouldn’t have been so scared.”

Releasing me, he crouched low as though waiting for something. He nodded his head toward his back.

“You want me to climb on your back?”

He nodded.

“Oh.” I bit my lower lip. “You won’t drop me?”

He snorted. 

This was crazy. He put one of his legs out to give me a place to start my climb and I stepped up, grabbing onto his scales, pulling myself up onto his back. I sat and marveled at the way his neck fit between my thighs. There was something so satisfying and maybe somewhat sensual about the feel of him against me as I made myself comfortable. If he was going to take off with me, I needed to hold on. I wrapped my arms around his thick neck, not even getting halfway around, grasping for something to hold on to when I felt one of the scales on each side was firmer than the rest and I latched on to each one. “Now what?”

Adrian stood and took flight, grace and agility incarnate, leaping effortlessly into the air. I gasped and held on for dear life. I screamed as we soared higher into the sky and laughed at the delightful way the wind whipped through my hair as I glanced back down at the earth below. “This is amazing!” I yelled with a laugh I couldn’t control and Adrian roared as we flew through the air.

We circled around, flying over the sea, through some clouds, our bodies dripping from the condensation. I shifted in my seat, the wetness of his scales rubbed against my clit, and I closed my eyes briefly, enjoying the stimulation.

The sun had set about a half hour ago, and the sky still depicted hues of orange and red. I pressed my face to the back of his neck and clung tightly to him. There was something so right about this, the sensation of flying away together. Maybe forever.

How far could this great dragon go? Where had he been? I wanted to know everything. His extraordinary body dipped and then rose again then all too soon he headed back to the beach. He landed with the same grace and agility he’d exhibited when he’d taken off. He bent down on his knees and I pressed my face to the back of his neck and kissed him there before climbing down.

He stood and turned his gigantic head, glancing back at me before taking flight, soaring high above the sea before plummeting back down out into the ocean.

I glanced over to the spot where Victor’s body had landed. Was he still there? We weren’t gone very long. Not nearly long enough. Was he dead? I couldn’t see his body for the brush was too high and thick. If he was still unconscious, that was fine. If he was dead, well, I didn’t know how I felt about that. He’d struck me, causing me to lose consciousness and then dragged me into the brush to ... to ... oh God. I placed my face in my hands and I shivered. He deserved to be punished. Death would be too easy of a sentence.

I dropped onto the wet sand, pulling my knees up to my chest, hugging my arms around them and crying as the reality of what just happened sank in and my entire body shook.

Several minutes later I looked up, scouring the ocean before me, searching for ... what? A dolphin? A dragon? Adrian? My God, Adrian had saved me from that horrible man.

Then something caught my eye. A figure stood in the water. Adrian. His beautiful naked body headed toward me. I stood up and ran toward him with my arms outstretched. He caught me and cradled me against him, and the flood of tears poured from my eyes.

“Shhhh. I’ve got you. You’re safe now.” Then his hands were on each side of my face, cupping my cheeks while he gazed into my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Reese.” His thumb lightly touched the cut on the corner of my lip and he gently pressed his lips to mine. So tender, so soft.

He stared at my eyes, my mouth. Then his gaze traveled down my body, my legs. “You’re okay?”

I nodded because it was all I could do.

“I’m sorry for scaring you. I should have told you.”

“You should have.”

“There was never a good time. It’s not something you just blurt out to someone. Especially in the beginning stages of a relationship.”

“I’m glad you came by. I thought you went out of town.”

“No. I’m sorry. I came to apologize for lying to you about leaving town. I just needed some time to think. I was upset about something Victor told me. I was shaken up after he informed me that he had a date with you.”

I blinked. “Victor lied. I didn’t have a date with him.”

He nodded. “That’s good. But I didn’t know that then, and I needed to leave because of my dragon ... I didn’t trust it. My excuse to leave town was a knee-jerk reaction to get away, to be alone. I didn’t think it through, because then I realized I needed to be with you and I came tonight to convince you that you should be with me instead of Victor.”

I pulled him against me, and he lifted me up, cradling me in his arms as he walked the rest of the way out of the breaking waves. He placed me down in the sand and I nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck and then he lifted my chin with his finger and gently pressed his lips to mine again, careful not to put too much pressure on the cut that Victor had caused. My hands slipped up his smooth back. Waves broke against our legs, and I lost my balance, but Adrian held me steady.

He broke the kiss and looked into my eyes. “Do you forgive me?”

“Yes. You should have told me about the dragon though, but I understand why you didn’t.”

“How did you finally realize it was me?”

“I’m sure a normal person wouldn’t have. But since I know about shifters ... well, also I didn’t think a dragon would toss one person ten feet away and cozy up to the other. Plus, you have this tattoo right here. And it looks an awful lot like your dragon.” I placed my hand over the beautiful etching and it swelled as my fingers skimmed over it. My eyes grew wide with the movement and all I could do was stare at it. When I removed my hand, the swelled etching flattened again, going back to normal.

“God, am I glad you’re so intuitive and smart. He likes you. In fact, he likes you a lot.” He grinned.

“Good thing. Because I’m not going anywhere.”

“Why were you with Victor tonight if you didn’t have a date with him?”

“I wasn’t with him. Not in the sense you mean. He’d asked me last week to go to a musical before you and I ... well, I wasn’t sure where you and I were headed then, and at the time, he seemed like a nice guy, so when he asked me, I said maybe. I guess maybe to him means something different than it means to me. And quite honestly, I forgot all about it until he showed up at my door. When he knocked, I thought it was you and that you had cancelled your trip. I opened the door wide, excited to see you.”

“Only it was Victor because I’d waited too long.”

I let that go. “I told him I didn’t want to go out with him, but he insisted. He came in and ordered me to get ready to go.”

“Fucker. He doesn’t take rejection very well.”

“That’s an understatement.”

“He hit you.”

I nodded. “I’ll be okay.”

“I’m sorry. Victor is a snake, but I never thought he’d ever do something like that.” He glanced at the cut on my bottom lip. “Does it hurt much?”

“No. Not now that your lips have touched it.”

He shook his head then rested his forehead against mine. “I wanted to kill him. I still do.”

“Maybe you did. But for both our sakes, I hope you didn’t.”

“As much as I wanted to kill him for what he’d done to you, I tossed him into some brush. If anything, he probably has a few minor cuts and bruises. I’m sure he’s going to be fine, but we should probably check on him. If I didn’t kill him, can you erase his memory of my dragon?”

I nodded with relief. Adrian surprised me. He had this powerful dragon, yet he was able to keep it under control and didn’t harm a person who clearly deserved to be punished. My respect for Adrian was growing by leaps and bounds. “Gladly. I might add in some thoughts of my own while I’m at it.”

“You can do that?”

I nodded with a proud grin, and he grabbed my hand.

“I need some pants.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I sort of like the natural look on you.”

A low moan came from the direction where Victor lay.

“Come on. I tossed my pants over there somewhere.”