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What a wonderful dream.I couldn’t get over howrealit had been. I mean, me, in the throes of passion with a handsome man with wings and horns? That couldn’t have been real.
Or could it?
I stirred from my most wonderful sleep and fluffed up the pillow beneath my head. A familiar musky scent filled the air around me.Hismusky scent.
My eyes flew open and I shot up in bed. That definitely wasn’t my bed, nor did I find myself in my dingy apartment. I was inhisbedroom, underhissheets.
I was also naked.
I yelped and wrapped the sheets close about my person. Fortunately, the spot next to me was empty, as was the rest of the room. The gloom outside the windows told me the night of this strange world was in its last throes.
Then I heard the voices. They came from downstairs. Curiosity got the better of me and I slipped out of bed. My clothes were strewn about the floor. I picked up my shirt and my face drooped. The cloth was in tatters, courtesy of the eager clawed fingers of the over-exuberant lord. I would have toimprovise or go out there naked. Option number one presented itself when my eyes fell on the bundled sheets.
I quickly wrapped one of the thinner bed sheets about my person, making sure that nothing was especially revealed before I tiptoed over to the door. The voices had grown louder and I peeked my head out. The sounds came from the entrance hall, but the dividing wall stood in my way.
I had no choice. I crept into the hall and over to the doorway that led to the balcony. A peek around the corner gave me enough view to see the floor of the entrance hall and the front door. That was opened to the pale darkness of the aging night, and the trio of human hunters stood just a few feet in the hall. They knelt on one knee before the standing lord, and their heads were all bowed save for Enna.
“We sincerely apologize for the rough treatment, My Lord,” Enna assured him.
The lord lifted his chin slightly and glared down at her. “Hollow words that will fade long before the bruise. Why should I not dock your pay for disobeying my orders?”
Enna flinched beneath his reprimand and threat. “I’m very sorry, My Lord, but that woman was special. We knew only a woman with such bold spirit could have been your bride so we knew we needed to bring her here at all costs. She was. . .less than willing.”
“I have little need of your lies,” the lord snapped, and the group before him winced. “Now return the women to their homes and return the chosen stone to me before midmorning. Should you fail you will not leave my domain alive.”
The leader bobbed her head up and down as she and the others backed up toward the door. “O-of course, My Lord! We will return promptly!”
They reached the entrance and scurried out like rats escaping a sinking ship. The lord folded his arms over his chest and bowed his head.
I finally remembered to breathe, and I stepped backward to escape to the bedroom. My traitorous foot stepped on a squeaky board and the noise rang out like a church bell. I froze, but the lord didn’t even raise his head.
That didn’t stop him from speaking, however. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” he apologized as a great sigh escaped him. “But under the circumstances, I had to be firm, otherwise your companions might not make it back to your world.”
I eased over to the banister and grasped the top in one hand while I held the folds of the blanket in the other. “You’re sure they’ll make it home?”
He turned to me and a crooked grin appeared on his face. “I swear it. That group of mercenaries knows the punishment for betraying my trust.”
I tightened my grip on the sheets and bit my lower lip. “That. . .that stone you talked about. That’s how they got to my world?”
A slight touch of fear slipped into his eyes, but the emotion was brief. “Yes. It’s a rare jewel passed down through those of my kind.”
My eyes flickered up to his horns. “You really aren’t human, are you?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m what the humans of this world call a dragon shifter. That is, a dragon who takes on the form of a man in order to dwell among you.”
I blinked at him. “You. . .you’re telling me you’re a dragon?”
“In my true form, yes.”
“Like a big green lizard and everything?”
A smile appeared on his lips. “My scales are more gray than green, but I have been compared to a lizard before. My human persona, however, has been called most fetching.”
I pointed at his horns. “Except you forgot something.”
The dragon man reached up and brushed his hand against one of his horns. “Ah, yes. My one flawed trait. I’m afraid even my magic can’t make these vanish, and I have had enough years to try.”
I cocked my head to one side. “How many yearshaveyou had?”
