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“And why should I return with you when all you’ll do is lock me in my room again? Or worse, in the dungeon this time.”
“And why shouldn’t I? You’ve no’ only put yourself in danger, you’ve put me in danger, too.”
“How exactly have I put you in danger?”
“For one, that lema could do a great deal of damage to you and to me, even in my dragon form.”
She glanced over at the beast’s hovel in astonishment.
“Second, I’ve caught the scent of magic. A witch is near.” He wasn’t sure which threat was more pressing, a lema near Jessie or a witch within striking distance. “So come down. I promise to go easy on you if you do.” As in only a few whacks to her backside for his trouble.
She glared at him. “You promise? Just as youpromisedto take me back to Earth?”
Shit. Queen Juniper must have told her. He rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. “Look, about that—”
“Save it. June told me the forest was safe, yet now you’d have me believe it’s dangerous. Who should I believe? Clearly not you, since you lied to me already.”
He gritted his teeth. “I dinna know a lema had made its burrow so close, or that you would try to cuddle one.” He glanced around, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rise. “Aside from that, we must worry about witches.” Were they watching them even now? Baiting a trap?
“Apparently, I’m stuck here. I’ll never go home again. Right?”
He sighed. “Aye.” Her eyes glistened, and a second unfamiliar pain squeezed his chest.
In the next moment, she blinked away her tears and met his gaze as though pure steel ran in her veins. “So what sort of life should I expect if I choose to go back with you?”
“If you choose?” he scoffed.
She glanced around. “Out here I’m free.”
“And what would you do for shelter? For food?”
“I hear a river in the distance. I bet there are fish there. I saw some berries earlier that looked ripe. I’ll manage.”
“You’ll manage?” he repeated, disbelieving. “You’ll reject the king’s hospitality for an uncertain future here in the forest?”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to explain, but I feel more like myself out here. Honestly, it doesn’t look that different from Earth.”
“But it’s no’. You doona know which berries to eat and which to avoid.”
“I suppose it will be rough for a while.”
He forced a laugh as anxiety prickled the back of his neck. “Cease this idiocy. A storm is coming. We offer you protection. A roof over your head.”
“I was suffocating under your protection,” she snapped. “I won’t return just to be locked away again. I can’t stand it anymore. Even if the cage is incredible.”
The lema poked its head back out. Simply being in their territory could elicit an attack. And still Jessie refused to heed his orders. Wiping sweat from his temple, he barked, “You’ll do as I tell you, or so help me…”
She turned and began scaling the cliff. The uniform she’d stolen wasn’t exactly fitted for her figure; however, the material stretched over her generous curves, and for a moment he was transfixed by her flaring backside.
Because she is climbing away from me. “Stop this foolishness, lass.”
A flurry of lightning arched over the sky. Both he and Jessie glanced up as fat drops of rain began to splatter all around. Still, she climbed. To him, the nearly flat cliff face seemed impossible to ascend, but she made it look easy. He gauged the height of the cliff and determined it to be twenty stories high at least. If she fell from that height, could she survive? Probably not. And the rain would work against her, making the rocks slick.
When her right foot slipped from its perch, his heart nearly seized. “Woman, be careful.”
Finding purchase again, she called down to him. “Go back to your palace, Goliath.”
The nerve of her!
