“Yes, you can! Quit following me around and mind your own damn business!” Teresa screamed.
Winthrop went pale, and said in a stiff, formal tone, “Yes, ma’am.” Then he turned and hurried away, his back ramrod straight. It was the first time he’d let Teresa out of his sight since Gabriel had ordered him to guard her.
“Okay, that did it. Get out,” Kelly said. “Get out of this castle, and get away from me. Go get one of the servants to call you a cab to take you into town. Leave right now, or I swear to God I will slap the taste out of your mouth.”
Teresa’s jaw dropped in surprise. “Chad threw me out of our house; I can’t go home,” she spluttered. “Oh, and by the way, mother is talking aboutfiringme. It’s not like I could move back in with her. Where exactly am I supposed to go?”
“Bitchlandia. You’ll fit right in. In fact they’ll probably make you mayor.” Kelly turned and stormed off, with Gabriel following her.
Kelly’s phone rang. Her mother. Well, that was just the capper to a perfect afternoon.
She answered it. “No,” she said.
“I beg your pardon?” her mother said, in a huffy, offended voice. In other words, her normal voice. “No what?”
“No I’m not in the mood to be screamed at. Yell at me, and I quit.”
“Your sister was going to marry someone respectable and you’ve ruined it!” her mother screamed into the phone.
“Well, I wasn’t bluffing when I said I’d quit, so thanks for that. I’ll send a formal resignation by email. Yes, I am still on the Dragonsblood case, and as soon as that’s over, I’m done,” she said, and hung up. Then she turned her phone off.
“You look like you could use a break from work today,” Gabriel said.
She had quit. She had really done it. She felt sick and exhilarated at the same time. “I could use a break from my entire life,” she said.
“Care to go flying? I know a little place that you might like.”
She looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then she threw up her hands. “What the hell. Why not.”
He gave her a dazzling smile that caused a swooping sensation in her lower belly, as if they were flying already. “In that case,” he said, “might I suggest sleeping with the enemy?”
“Don’t push your luck,” she grumbled, ignoring the fact that her body responded enthusiastically to his suggestion as she remembered his sure, possessive touch on her naked body. “I’m in just the mood to show you where to shove your witty come-ons.”
“Kinky. I look forward to it.” She swatted at him, and he held up his hands to fend her off. “I’m sorry. Seriously, let’s go flying. I promise to be good.”
She followed him outside, into a paved courtyard. It was in the center of the four towers but open to the sky, giving the dragons a private space to shift without leaving the castle itself. Gabriel stalked into the center of the space and, completely unselfconscious, stripped off his clothes.
He really was a magnificent specimen. His muscled chest narrowed to a trim waist, and as her eyes drifted over his flat belly and lower still, she saw that his cock was standing proudly erect, jutting from the nest of coal-black curls between his thighs. She swallowed and forced her gaze up to his. There was laughter in his eyes, but it was fond, not mean-spirited. She couldn’t help smiling back.
Even in human form, power radiated from him, and the hair prickled on her arms and at the back of her neck as the magic rose and swelled. It was a little like the sensation she’d felt when she’d sensed the Dragonsblood Ruby, but there was none of the hard, angry energy she’d felt from the gem. Gabriel’s power was all confident, vibrant strength.
Crimson scales rippled over the skin of his arms, flowing over his biceps and across his broad shoulders. His eyes flashed scarlet and talons curved his from the tips of fingers, wickedly sharp. He snarled joyously, revealing sharp canines. Massive, leathery black wings burst from his back, and as they sliced through the air in anticipation of flight, they made a sound like tearing silk.
Kelly watched in awe, eyes wide, as Gabriel fully shifted into his enormous dragon form. From the ruby-like glitter and shimmer of his blood-red scales to the sinuous curve of his long neck, he was breathtaking. He snorted a little self-satisfied spurt of flame, aware of the way she was looking at him.
When he lowered his big, diamond-shaped head, she eagerly scrambled astride his neck, wrapping her arms around it and holding on tight as he flexed his enormous wings and they lifted into the air.
The castle dwindled below them until it looked like a toy, a puppet theater for little wooden knights and dragons. From up here, all her problems seemed so small and inconsequential, and she allowed herself to shove them aside and concentrate on the fresh mountain air whipping past her face and the contrasting heat of Gabriel’s scales underneath her. The joy of flying blossomed inside her, and when Gabriel banked sharply and swooped into a descending spiral, she crowed with joy. There was a deep answering rumble of satisfaction from Gabriel’s enormous chest. He flapped his wings, the supple membranes holding them effortlessly aloft, and took them higher and higher into the sky before tucking his wings back against his body and going into a controlled dive that had her shrieking with exhilaration.
Only a hundred feet from the ground, he pulled up smoothly so they were skimming over the treetops, then he turned again and headed for the mountainside, setting them down at the side of a lake, on the other side of which stood a cluster of chalets.
The lake was mirror-still and placid, and the wooden buildings looked as if they belonged on the lid of a chocolate box. It was charming and very peaceful, and Kelly realized it was exactly where she needed to be to calm her mind and forget about all the drama and intrigue of Pandora’s obnoxious family and the hunt for the Dragonsblood Ruby, not to mention the control-freak histrionics of her own mother and sister. She took a deep breath of the mountain air. It felt crisp and cool.
When she turned to Gabriel, she saw that he’d shifted back into human form.
“It’s beautiful up here,” she said.
“I think so,” he agreed. “My family keeps a cabin on permanent reservation, though it’s deserted at this time of year anyway. I fly up here when I want some alone time.” Unabashed by his nakedness, he started gathering wood for a fire.
