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"Camille? Wake up. We're here."
At first, I didn't recognize the voice. It wasn't Trillian. Nor was it Morio. That much I knew. Wondering why I felt so stiff—I usually slept deep and well—I forced myself to open my eyes. The glint of late afternoon sunlight blinded me, but there was no heat behind it, and as I pushed myself up, I shaded my eyes with my hand. Where the hell was I?
The ground felt springy beneath me, and I looked down. I was on an air mattress, a blue one partially covered with a crisp white sheet. Huh? And then I remembered.
"Smoky? Smoky? Where are you?" When I swung my head to the left, a wave of dizziness rushed over me and, moaning, I fell back on the mattress. The world was spinning like I was tied to one gigantic wheel of fortune.
"I'm right here." His voice was soft and coming from behind me. I leaned my head back and saw that he was squatting, frozen in place, watching me. "You'll be okay. You'll feel much better in about ten minutes, as soon as you sit up and drink this." He held out a mug filled with something that was bubbling. A cloud of steam drifted up from it, and the fragrance smelled like spring meadows and wildflowers.
"What happened? What's that? Why am I lying on an air mattress in the middle of…" I slowly—very slowly—glanced around. Forest. Woodland. My guess was that we were near Smoky's barrow. "In the middle of the woods?"
He set the mug down and scooted in behind me, slowly helping to prop me up so that I was leaning back against his chest. Despite my dizziness, I decided this wasn't half-bad. I sank against his tightly muscled shoulders and felt his hardened body shoring me up. Change that. Not bad at all.
Smoky reached for the tea with his left hand, while he kept his right arm cinched snugly around my waist. He brought the tea to my lips, and I reached up to steady the cup. "First, drink. Then questions."
I tasted the brew. Honey, that much I could tell. And lemon. Rose hips and peppermint, and something else I couldn't identify.
"Good," I whispered, taking the mug and cupping it in my hands. I hadn't noticed at first, but now I realized I felt frozen to the core, as if I'd walked into an ice cave and fallen asleep for a long, long time.
As I drank, strength began to seep back into my muscles, and the dizziness started to subside. A few minutes later, I drained the mug and handed it back to him. Smoky tossed it to one side but kept me tight against him, nuzzling my ear.
"Tell me, now that I don't feel ready to keel over," I said.
"When humans and Fae traverse the Ionyc Sea, even though they may be encased inside of a barrier, they still can't fight the tides of energy. It sucks the warmth from your body and drains energy, then cycles around. If we rode long enough, you would have woken up while we were still in the sea, full of vigor and strength. And the pattern would have continued: drain, then recharge. But we had only a short distance to travel, so you didn't get the chance for the seas to refresh you."
He planted a delicate kiss on my earlobe, then another on my neck. I shivered, and this time, it wasn't from the chill. Here was a creature as ancient as almost anyone or anything I'd met. And yet, he wanted me. The thought was overwhelming, but I'd had too many bizarre things happen over the past year to brush it aside as whimsy.
Whether it was something in the tea or something left over from my ride through the Ionyc Sea, I felt a stirring within me, a quiver of desire that quickly became a flame, shooting from my breast to belly as it unfurled like tendrils on a maidenhair fern. I caught my breath, and he felt it.
"You want me, don't you? You want me as much as I want you. From the first time I saw you, I knew that I had to have you. That I would have you." His voice was deeper now, more demanding. "I'm flush with wanting you. I'm coming into rutting season, and you are my chosen mate."
The time had come. I knew it in my heart. There was no turning back, and now that we were down to the count, my fear slid away like water on duck down. Smoky and I had an appointment to keep, made that first moment I gazed into the dragon's liquid crystal eyes when he stood before me, majestic, wings spread, ready to take me down if I made the slightest mistake.
I twisted around, pushing deeper into his embrace, and leaned into the kiss. "I want you," I heard myself say. "Take me into your world, and teach me what it means to love a dragon."
Chapter Fourteen
Smoky gathered me up in his arms and rose as if he might be holding a kitten. I pressed against him, wondering what would happen next. I'd been with a lot of men and yet never one so alien. Morio was a fox demon, and it had taken me awhile to get used to his shape-shifting during sex, but he was more human than Smoky, even when he didn't look it. And in some ways, Morio was more human than Trillian.>"Mountain Aspen Retreat, how may I direct your call?"
I thought fast. "I'm a relative of one of your clients, and I want to come visit him. Who do I talk to about scheduling a visit?"
"One moment," she said, putting me on hold.
Delilah narrowed her eyes. "Give me his name, and I'll run him through Chase's computer before Morio and I head out to check out that shop.
I motioned for her to hand me a steno pad and scribbled Ben's name on it, and the name of the Mountain Aspen Retreat. As I handed it back to her, a different receptionist came back on the line.
"Front desk. Ms. Marshall speaking. May I help you?"
"Yes, I'd like to make an appointment to come see my… cousin. He's a patient at Mountain Aspen." Cousin was good; I could hide my glamour if I tried. Buy a simple dress for the occasion. Yeah, right, I thought. If nothing else, I could charm the receptionist to let me through.
"His name, please?"
"Ben. Benjamin Welter." I though for a moment, then added, "I know he's not very responsive, but I thought I'd like to just come sit with him for awhile."
A brief pause. "I see here that it's been seven weeks since his last visitor. Are your aunt and uncle still on their world cruise?" A hint of disapproval in her voice. Ms. Marshall probably cared more about the patients than their own families. I decided to capitalize on it.
"I have no idea. I've been away at school, and this is the first time I've been home in over two years. I had no idea that my cousin was having problems until now. My name's Camille, by the way."
