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“You okay?” she mumbled.
I nodded.
She patted my arm. “Nice move with that boulder.”
My chest swelled just a little.
“Nice move with that landing. And finding your way here. And outtricking Harlon…”
I could have gone on for a while there. The woman was amazing.
I pressed close and looped an arm around her shoulders. We were soaked, and the chilly air cut deep. In no time, Erin was shivering.
We huddled as well as we could, sharing our body heat. Even then, it was freezing, especially with our hair plastered to our skulls and wet clothes clinging to our skin.
“I wish I had some matches.” Erin pointed a shaky finger at a fire pit against the back wall — a ring of stones left behind by campers. And, good news — they’d left a few sticks of firewood.
I stood, rearranged the wood, and crouched before it, blocking Erin’s view as best I could. Then I cleared my throat, inhaled, and coaxed up some fire.
More,my dragon insisted, greedy to show off.
I cut off the stream of flames as soon as the fire crackled to life, searing my lips in the process.
Erin’s teeth chattered when she spoke. “Wait. How did you do that?”
I gulped against the sulfury taste in my throat. Spitting fire was much easier in dragon form, dammit.
“Um…” I huddled behind her, partly to avoid her gaze and partly for the warmth. Then I did what every man did when confronted with an uncomfortable topic — I changed the subject.
“Why the hell didn’t you get out of the balloon when you could?”
“Because I had a chance to save the rig,” she said, still shivering.
I held her closer. “You have some crazy priorities, you know that?”
She interlaced her fingers with mine. “You’re the one who hung on to the basket when it took off. What if you fell?”
I’d asked myself the same question during that heart-stopping flight. I could have opened my wings, of course. But with that wind and at such low altitude, I would probably have crashed into the ground.
So, why had I done it?
I closed my eyes, breathing in Erin’s scent.
You know why,my dragon hummed.
Okay, maybe I did. But how would I go about explaining that to Erin? I couldn’t just come out and say,I’m a dragon shifter, not a wolf, and I suspect destiny thinks we’re mates.
My dragon huffed.Who cares what destiny thinks? Iknowwe’re mates.
An extra-strong gust of wind roared outside, and the fire flickered. Erin tensed. “This is Harlon’s doing, isn’t it?”
I nodded slowly. “That would be a safe guess.”
The storm was dissipating, though, or at least moving on. At least there was that — and the warmth of the fire slowly seeping into our bones.
“Sanity check,” Erin finally said. “Should I give Harlon the benefit of the doubt?”
I gave her a look, and she sighed.
