Chapter Seven

 

 

Luca

 

I followed Dmitri into a huge room with floor to ceiling bookshelves on two walls. On a third wall, there was a massive marble fireplace. As if all that wasn’t intimidating enough, a large, handsome blond man, who looked a lot like Dmitri, stood up from the leather wing chair he was sitting in and turned toward us. I’d been trying to hang back a little and hopefully hide behind Dmitri so as to become somewhat invisible, but no such luck. That damn bossy Golden had his hand on my back and kept pushing me forward.

Before the man, who looked to be in his early to mid-fifties, had a chance to say anything, a beautiful woman of about the same age and who had been sitting on the sofa facing him, looked up languidly and held out a hand to Dmitri. She said, “Darling, I’m so glad you’re home. I was worried about you.” She shook her head. “You see so much on the news about the crime over there in America. So much violence.”

I stiffened. I wanted to tell her that she was talking about my country and that I didn’t appreciate it at all, but Dmitri obviously caught my slight movement and headed me off at the pass. He put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze before walking over to the woman and taking her hand. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “As you can see, Mother, I’m perfectly fine. And please remember that Luca’s home is in the United States, and he would probably not appreciate any disparaging remarks about it.” He looked back at me then and smiled. Damn, he was handsome. And how could I resist that smile? I smiled back. And just like that, he had me in the palm of his hand. What a rock I was.

His mother gazed at me like I had just crawled out from under one. “Yes, well…the truth can be unpleasant, I suppose.’

Thankfully, I didn’t have time to continue the argument with Dmitri’s mom, because his dad interrupted my plans to annihilate her with my retort. He nodded his head toward me. “So,” he said, looking me up and down as if I was some sort of commodity. “This is the Wyvern?”

“Yes, Father, and he has a name. This is Luca.”

“Have you verified that he’s as valuable as Eldor hopes?”

“No. I was trying to get him to safety first. That seemed the most important thing at the time.”

“And if Eldor was wrong about him, what do you propose to do with him?”

Okay. By this time, I’d had enough. They were talking about me as if I was a thing, not a person and frankly, I was pretty damned tired of it, so I spoke up. “Um, excuse me, but since I’m a fairly intelligent adult, I think I might have something to say about what happens to me.”

Dmitri’s father gave me a look, as surprised as if Dmitri’s suitcase had made a cheeky observation. He arched a brow and looked down his nose at me. That’s actually at thing, apparently, just like in the books I’d read. He opened his mouth to say something, but once again Dmitri rode to the rescue. “He’s right, Father. Besides, we need to talk about this later. Luca and I have been traveling for what seems like a month and I, for one, would like to get some rest.”

He turned to his mother and said, “Luca is my guest and will be staying with me in my suite. I promise that we’ll be down for dinner, but right now, we really do need to get some rest. Jet lag and all that. You’ll have to excuse us.”

He turned and started pushing me toward the door leading to the entry hall, not giving either of them a chance to say anything else. I let his momentum carry me through the door as I tried to absorb his exchange with his parents. It certainly wasn’t what I was used to, I can tell you that. He’d made it clear that that he had no intention of discussing anything until we’d rested, but without all the yelling and drama that I was used to as a family dynamic. I really thought his mom and I could have given it a good shot, too.

We walked together up a wide staircase and when we reached the top, he gestured to the right. “My rooms are this way.”

I followed him a short distance down the hallway until we were standing in front of a heavy, ornately carved wooden door. He leaned around me and opened it, standing back to let me enter. When I walked in, I saw that it was a living room with a fireplace, not a bedroom like I had expected. I gave him a confused look.

“This is my apartment, Luca. Well, ours now, since you’ll be living here from now on.”

I jerked my head around to look at him. What did he just say? “Now wait a minute. What the hell are you talking about, from now on?”

I tried to keep the fear out of my voice, but when he’d said that, it came to me in a flash that I was stuck here in the middle of nowhere with no means of escape. And following closely on the heels of that realization was the awareness that I might not even want to leave Dmitri, which was in many ways, much more frightening. I was beginning to trust him, and I’d learned never to do that, so what was my problem?

He must have heard something in my voice, because he sighed heavily and gave me a sympathetic look. “Luca, we’ve talked about this. You’ll never truly be safe anywhere except here with me. At least not until we can get all this sorted out. I wish that you would try to accept that.” He put his hand on my cheek and looked deeply into my eyes. “Besides, what is there for you back in the States? Family? Friends?” His voice deepened a little and his eyes flashed. “A lover?”

“No.” I said, shaking my head. Well, that was depressing as hell, but it was true. Maybe Mr. Alvarez would wonder what happened to me, but he was an old man and once he was gone there would be nobody who would miss me all that much. A few of the customers might say, “What ever happened to that boy—old what’s-his-name? Luke or Duke or something, wasn’t it?” So yeah, not too many people would be lining up to say they missed me. Still, the States were my home. I felt a little lost.

Dmitri must have seen my crestfallen expression because he moved his hand to the back of my neck, pulling me to him. He leaned down and gave me a kiss which was sweet and hot at the same time. It was impossible not to respond, but just as I was getting into it, he lifted his head and looked down at me with a smile. “Ah, Luca, if you left me, I would miss you very much.”

“You-you would?” And just like that I was putty in his hands. God, he was good. Or else I was just stupid and pathetic. He knew exactly how to play me, and I even knew he was doing it, but it didn’t matter. One thing did nag at me, though. I pulled back and looked up at him. “But what if I’m not worth much like you and this Eldor seem to think? What happens then?”

“Luca, please try to believe me when I tell you this. I don’t care about the treasure when it comes to you.” My disbelief must have shown on my face, because he smiled at me and said, “Now, don’t get me wrong, it would certainly be a bonus, but I don’t really need more money. As you may have noticed, I’m already quite wealthy, as is my family. My personal hoard is quite large, and I protect it with my life. I’ll protect you with my life too. My most valuable treasure.” He reached out and took my hand. “Now, come with me and I’ll show you around.”

“Not sure I like being lumped in with the rest of your loot, but whatever.”

He simply smiled and shook his head. He thought I was joking. As I walked around with him, I was amazed at the size of this apartment, as he called it. Damn. I’d lived in houses half the size of this growing up. After showing me through the living room, he led me to a fully equipped kitchen with an eating area. It looked like it had never been used, actually, but then why would Dmitri cook when he had staff to do it for him?

There was a smaller room with a desk and some overstuffed chairs that he called his study, and we stopped at a large bedroom that I assumed must be his. But no. He turned to me and said, “This will be your room, Luca. As you can see, Viktor has arranged for your luggage to be put in here. It has its own private bath and a place to put your clothes, but I’m hoping that you will actually be sleeping with me in my room, which is right next door. I just thought that you might enjoy having your own space.”

I just nodded, because it was hard to take it all in. I’d never seen such luxury in my whole life. It was overwhelming, to say the least, but I figured if you had to be kidnapped and held prisoner somewhere by a gorgeous, sex god of a Dragon shifter, this was definitely the place to do it.

Dmitri took my hand again. “Come. Let me show you my room.” He walked over to a connecting door that opened into his room. “That door can be locked from either side, but I don’t anticipate that you and I will ever have a need to use the lock.” Again, I just nodded, having apparently lost the power of speech, but God, this room was even bigger than my new bedroom.

All I seemed to be able to focus on, however, was the king size bed and the thought of sleeping there with Dmitri every night. It beat the hell out of my old cot in the storeroom back in the States. Well, I might not have been totally thinking about sleeping since I could feel my cock making my jeans need an adjustment. Dmitri must have been having some of the same thoughts because I felt his hand slide down my back to cup an ass cheek and squeeze. I heard myself emit an involuntary groan, and then Dmitri turned me to face him, pulling me close.

He grinned down at me and whispered, “Do you have any idea what those little sounds of yours do to me?”

I shook my head and he began to undress me. Everywhere he touched me, I was on fire. As he removed my shirt, his fingers lightly grazed my nipples, turning them into hard pebbles and making me groan. By the time he pulled my jeans and underwear down, lightly caressing my ass before running his fingers teasingly up my rock-hard cock, I felt like I might come any moment. He pushed me back on the bed, removing my shoes so he could pull my pants off. Once he had me completely naked, he turned the comforter back and looked down at me with a smile. “Get into bed, Luca. I’ll join you as soon as I lock the door.”

I was still lying on my back, so I turned and crawled up toward the head of the bed. Suddenly, his black satin sheets were caressing every inch of my body. It felt so good I could barely be still, but I managed to focus on Dmitri walking across the room to lock the door. Truthfully, I don’t know if I could have looked away if my life depended on it, because he was removing his shirt as he went and revealing the muscles on his back and his abs. By the time he was prowling back toward the bed, he was pulling his pants and underwear down in one go. He straightened up completely naked and I could barely breathe. The man looked like a Greek god, with broad shoulders, strong arms and those muscular thighs.

And every inch of him was golden, from the light covering of hair on his chest to the treasure trail leading to the golden nest of curls at the base of his cock and the wiry curls covering his legs. God, I was practically salivating. I couldn’t figure out what it was that was so different about this man that could make me practically melt just looking at him. I mean, I’m not exactly a troll myself, so I’ve never had trouble hooking up with handsome men, and the sex was always good, if temporary. This man was different. I absolutely couldn’t get enough of him and from the way he talked, he actually wanted me to stay with him. No one had ever wanted to keep me before.

I held out my arms, and he gave me the smile that melted my heart and crawled into the bed, taking me in his arms. Whoa. Wait a minute. Who said anything about the heart being involved? This was good sex. Okay, maybe great sex, maybe the-best-I- ever-had sex, but that’s all it was. No heart involvement. That was the quickest way for me to get hurt.

He lay down on top of me and pulled me close, rubbing his cock against mine and trailing his fingers down my back to cup my ass, and I forgot about whatever it was that I was thinking. It didn’t seem to be important now, anyway. What was important was the feel of his groin against mine and his tongue sliding into my mouth as he kissed me. I heard one of us groan. Maybe him. Maybe me. I didn’t know. All I knew was that our bodies were touching from head to toe and it felt wonderful. He moved his mouth off mine and leaned down to take one of my nipples in his mouth, sucking and biting it until I thought that I’d lose my mind. He continued this sweet assault, but moved so that he could take both of our cocks in his big hand and he began to stroke as he sucked at me.

I heard myself groaning out, “God, Dmitri.”

He lifted his mouth off my nipple and growled, “Do you want me to stop?”

“Never. Are you crazy?”

He gave a little chuckle before latching onto the other nipple again and stroking our dicks harder and faster. I felt the orgasm teasing my spine and then spilling out all over both of us. He followed me almost immediately with a loud groan. After a long time of just breathing each other’s air, he leaned in and kissed me. “I’ll go get something to clean us up and then we’ll take a little nap.”

I remember nodding and then feeling a warm cloth on my chest and groin, but it was all very vague and seemed like part of a dream until Dmitri shook my shoulder. “Get up, sleepyhead. It’s time to get ready for dinner.”

I heard the whine in my voice as I said, “Oh God, do we have to go?”

He laughed and threw back the cover, giving my naked ass a little slap. “Yes, we do. Now, get up and stop whining.”

I opened my eyes and gave him a dirty look. “For your information, I do not whine.”

He quirked a brow at me. “Mm-hm. Well, get your non-whining ass out of that bed and into the shower. We don’t have that much time, and my mother loses her mind if anyone’s late for dinner.”

I crawled out of the bed and walked slowly toward the bathroom. I was so not looking forward to this dinner. Those people intimidated the hell out of me. Besides, they acted like I was a thing—a Wyvern and not a person.

When I came out of the shower into my room, the connecting door to Dmitri’s room was open and I could hear him moving around in there, getting dressed. I had just noticed the dinner jacket and pants he’d bought me in Moscow lying on the bed when he stepped into my room. He was wearing only some dress pants and no shirt, and I felt my cock give a little twitch. What the hell? All the man had to do was walk into the room partially dressed and my dick perked up and was ready to go.

I must have been staring at his muscular chest pretty hard, because I didn’t understand what he was saying to me at first. Apparently, when I looked up at him, he could tell that I didn’t know what he’d just said. Shit. He gave me a knowing smirk as and started over. “I said, Luca, that my mother insists that we dress for dinner, so I had your new suit pressed while you napped.”

“Okay. Thank you. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.” He walked back into his room and I began to dress as fast as I could, but with a feeling of dread. Dressing for dinner? As opposed to what? Eating naked? I didn’t want to ask, and knew it probably had something to do with the fancy dinner jackets. Certainly not anything I had ever been used to. Hell, I was lucky if I even had dinner most nights.

I was fully dressed except for my tie and my jacket, when Dmitri walked back into my room. I was struggling with the tie, and it must have been painfully obvious that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I was embarrassed, but when the fuck had I ever needed to wear a fucking bow tie anywhere? Or a regular tie for that matter. Without saying a word, Dmitri stepped up behind me, putting his arms around me and began the process slowly so I could watch what he was doing. Feeling his arms around me, and smelling his expensive cologne was enough to make me want to push my ass back into his groin. Honest to God, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. It was like I was in heat or something.

To my knowledge, Dragons didn’t have fated mates or anything like that and I sure as hell didn’t believe that I could be in love this quickly. Or at all, for that matter. Besides, there was no way Dmitri could be in love with me either. My father had made it abundantly clear that I was unlovable, and I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. I was just stating a fact. I learned early on to accept that shit and move on. Things like love and family were highly overrated, right?

It was like all those times as a kid that the Catholic nuns at my school used to tell me God loved me. Pray to Him, they said, and if I prayed hard enough and did my best to be good, He would answer me. So I tried that, and guess what? It didn’t make a damn bit of difference. Once I finally got it in my thick skull that God didn’t give a shit about me or about those little kids who died from leukemia or the ones I saw on TV from bombed out places like Africa and Syria, then I actually felt a little better. It wasn’t that He judged me and found me lacking. It was simply that He didn’t care in the first place. I was on my own in this life and I better toughen up and get used to it. Once I accepted that fact and stopped waiting around to be rescued by God or anybody else, I got along a little better.

Dmitri finished with the tie and held my jacket for me. I must have had dread written all over my face because he gave my shoulder a squeeze and whispered in my ear, “Come on. It’s going to be okay.”

I looked up at him. “I doubt it, but let’s get it over with.”

He smiled down at me. “Well, just so you know, you look gorgeous.”

I glanced at myself in the mirror over the dresser and had to admit that I did look good. To be honest, I didn’t look like the same person Dmitri met when he first walked into the grocery store. That old saying about clothes making the man must be kinda true.

 

****

 

Dmitri

 

I could feel the tension in Luca’s body as we walked out of my apartment. I knew that he was definitely not looking forward to this family dinner and I made up my mind to protect him from my parents’ interrogation as much as possible. Truth be told, I was not looking forward to it myself. My parents could be like a dog with a bone once they sank their teeth into something. Then, there was the problem of Luca and his temper. He had a short fuse. Very short. And diplomacy was definitely not a word in his vocabulary.

By the time we reached the dining room, my parents were already seated, but, thankfully, I could see that we were not the last to arrive. Sebastien wasn’t here yet, but I heard him running down the steps, his heels on the wood floors sounding like a horse’s hooves clopping and echoing throughout the entry hall. When he entered the dining room, looked around and saw that he was the last to arrive. He looked sheepish and muttered a quiet, “Sorry,” before taking his seat. My mother simply quirked a brow at him, but it was enough to register her displeasure. God, the woman was a formidable presence, and now she was in a mood, thanks to Bash. I frowned across at him, and he gave me a slight shrug and a guilty grin.

We made it halfway through the meal with only casual conversation about the weather before the interrogation phase began. My father gave Luca a long, studying look, and I felt myself tense up as he said, “Luca, do you remember anything about your mother?”

“No. I’ve heard stories,” he looked at me and back at my father before continuing, “But that’s about it.”

My father nodded and turned to me then. “So, Dmitri, how do we know that what Eldor believes, that this boy is the last Wyvern, is even true? Have you seen any proof of him even being a Wyvern?”

“No, I haven’t seen proof, Father, and by the way, he’s a man, not a boy. I can only assume that Eldor was certain of his facts and that Luca was in grave danger. I witnessed an attack on him, in fact. I felt that the only way to protect him and verify that he is, indeed, a Wyvern was to bring him here.”

“And how do you plan on this verification?”

“I’ll have him shift into his Wyvern, which I plan on doing first thing tomorrow.” I felt Luca stiffen beside me, so I put my hand on his thigh and squeezed, hoping to calm him down some.

“I’d like to go with you,” my father said.

I shook my head. “I’d prefer that you didn’t. Luca says that he’s never shifted before, and I think it might be easier for him not to have an audience.”

“Never shifted before?” My father bellowed out. He turned his attention to Luca. “Is this true?”

Luca sat up straighter and looked my father in the eye. “Yes, it’s true. Why would I lie about that?” He turned his gaze on me and I could see the storm brewing in his eyes.

“What on earth, Dmitri? Neither of you know that he’s even Wyvern then!” He cast a contemptuous look at me. “He looks like Spawn to me.”

I scooted back my chair without another word and stood up. We hadn’t finished but this seemingly interminable dinner was over as far as I was concerned. I looked at my mother and said, “Mother, the dinner was excellent, but Luca and I need to go to my apartment. I certainly don’t intend to sit here and listen to Father run Luca down. Luca and I will both be shifting tomorrow, like I said. And we don’t need spectators.”

I stood quickly and indicated to Luca that he should do the same, which he did, flushing with embarrassment. The look in his eyes was hard to miss, and I was dreading the confrontation that I was going to face as soon as we got back upstairs. I was furious with my father for pushing the issue. I had planned to discuss our plans later on in the evening. Like when I had him splayed out beneath me, too tired and too fucked out to argue.

As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait to get back to the apartment for the coming storm. As we climbed the stairs, he said between clenched teeth, “Just when did you plan on telling me what you had planned for tomorrow? You know I’ve never shifted. I don’t even know if I can, and furthermore, I have no intention of trying.”

“Can we discuss this when we get back upstairs, please?”

“There’s nothing to discuss. I’m telling you it’s not happening.”

“Luca…” I said warningly.

“Dmitri…” he said right back in a mocking tone.

“We’ll discuss it tomorrow.”

“No, we won’t. I’m not doing it. If you don’t like that, tough shit. I’m going to bed.”

He stormed up the stairs and went to my apartment, slamming the door before I could come inside. When I opened the door, I saw that he had gone through the adjoining door and into his room, closing the door behind him. And as I suspected, the door between our adjoining rooms was locked too. I just knew he was waiting for me to bang on it, so I didn’t. Instead I pulled out my cell phone and called my cousin, Alexei, who lived in another wing and who had made it clear from the moment he moved in that he wouldn’t be subjected to my mother’s dinners. When he answered, I spoke in a low tone, because I wanted Luca to think I was deliberately lowering my voice. He was so nosy, I knew that would pique his interest.

“Alexei, how are you? I’ve just returned—thanks. I was wondering if you’d like to go flying with me tomorrow? I haven’t been in a while.” I waited for Alexei to answer and stepped a little closer to the door between our rooms. “Yes, my previous plans have fallen through. I’ll get the cook to pack us a lunch and we’ll take a bottle of wine. Yes, just the two of us. I’m looking forward to it. See you tomorrow.”

I hung up, knowing Luca had eavesdropped on that last bit, and I smiled to myself as I undressed for bed. If the mountain wouldn’t come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must come to the mountain. I looked forward to breakfast in the morning, when I’d put my plan into effect.

 

****

 

Luca

 

Oh, I heard him making plans with some asshole named Alexei for tomorrow. And if he thought that would make me jealous he had another think coming. I admit I might have lain awake for a long time, tossing and turning—because I was so angry with him and his highhanded ways. But once I went to sleep, I slept like a baby. The next morning, he still hadn’t knocked on my door, so I got up and went down to breakfast on my own. I didn’t need Dmitri to lead me around like a damned puppy.

And there he was at the table, laughing it up with some blond guy, who was, okay, gorgeous. But once you’ve seen one blond sex god, really, you’ve seen them all. I walked in and sat down across from Dmitri. He never even glanced up at me. The asshole. It was so obvious what he was doing that it was funny.

Sebastien was there too, sipping coffee. He asked me if I slept well, and I said I did. And that was the end of that conversation. I sat there for a moment, wondering if I was supposed to get my own food, and Sebastien nodded toward the buffet table against the wall.

“Do try some of the eggs benedict, Luca. They’re good this morning.”

I nodded, like I would know eggs benedict from a hole in the wall and got up to go get a plate. I found a few things that looked okay and helped myself to them, winding up with some fruit, some little roll thing shaped in a crescent and some red jelly. Lots of red jelly, which looked delicious. I added a few sweet roll things and sat back down. I saw Dmitri glance over at my plate.

“Surely you’re going to have something besides sweets.”

“Did you get what you wanted?”

“Yes,” he said, frowning at me.

“Then why are you bothering me?”

“Oh for God’s sake.” He jumped to his feet, jerked my plate away and went over to the buffet and loaded the plate down with ham and sausages and some kind of egg on a bun with a grilled tomato and another slice of ham under it and the whole thing covered with sauce. He slammed the plate down in front of me. “Now eat.”

I poked at the egg while Dmitri turned his back on me and started talking to his pretty blond again. The blond was looking over his shoulder at me and smiling. Not laughing at me, just smiling in an interested way, like he’d never met anyone like me before.

I just ignored them both and poked at the egg stuff. “I don’t want this. I don’t even know what it is. And who eats tomatoes for breakfast?”

“Just eat it, damn it,” Dmitri growled at me and a little puff of smoke came out his nose. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me by this time, so I folded my arms and sat back in my chair. “I don’t want it. And I don’t like ham, either.”

“It’s not ham, it’s bacon.”

“This stuff isn’t bacon. I like bacon—but this stuff is ham.”

“It’s bacon,” he said, rounding on me.

“No it isn’t,” I said, and pushed my plate away.

“Yes, it is!” he said and pulled it back. “Either eat that or leave the table.”

“Okay,” I said and stood up.

“Sit back down!” he roared at me.

“You just told me…”

“I know what I told you, but now I’m telling you! Sit down!”

I glanced over at Sebastien and he was watching us with a big grin. So was the blond. I don’t like to be a source of amusement to anybody, so I started to walk away. That’s when Dmitri grabbed me around the waist and pulled me down in his lap. He was furious. He grabbed a fork in his hand and started trying to force me to eat the eggs, so naturally I retaliated by grabbing the butter knife and trying to stab him with it.

I wouldn’t really have stabbed him, of course. But in my experience, I’d had to take up for myself over people who were stronger than I was all my life. Threatening him with the knife just seemed natural to me. But that’s when his father and mother walked into the room. His mom screamed and his dad jumped over to grab my arm and tear the knife away from me—keep in mind this was only a blunt-ended butter knife—and almost broke my fingers in the process. Dmitri’s dad pulled back his arm to strike me, and Dmitri roared at him and covered me with his body so that he took the hit.

After that, things got a little crazy. The next thing I knew I was being carried upstairs over Dmitri’s shoulder, and his mom and dad were yelling after him to come back. Sebastien was trying to calm everybody down, but not doing too well. All in all, there was an awful lot of upset people.

Dmitri was furious with me and wound up throwing me down on the bed in my room and calling on the phone by the bed for someone to bring me a tray. He left a few minutes later, shooting me a disgusted look, and I spent the rest of the day in my room, exploring the books on the shelves and playing around on the internet. And wondering what Dmitri was doing with the gorgeous blond. I’d never cared about anyone enough to be jealous of them before, but I was now, and it was killing me.

Maybe two hours after Dmitri left, I noticed something flying past outside my floor to ceiling window, a flash of color that captured my attention. I got up and went over to the window to look out and saw an incredible sight. Two pure-blood Dragons were gliding past my window, not close, but their golden bodies were still in plain view. And not by accident, I was sure of that. I watched them soar up and disappear into the low-lying clouds that crouched over the mountain behind the mansion. They began playing in the clouds, some kind of crazy game of tag. Their huge bodies swooped in and out of the puffy white clouds with a swish of their tails and a flash of wing as they chased each other. Their golden scales gleamed and sparkled in the sun. Their wings were very large, both in span and depth, and they swooped and dived and glided on the strong air currents over the mountain ridges like immense, strong, and beautiful birds.

Just watching them I felt an itch between my shoulder blades, and I wanted badly to be the one to follow Dmitri as he soared up into the clouds. I watched them flying for at least a half hour until they dove down out of sight behind the mountain and were lost to view. Then I twitched the curtains closed with a bad-tempered grunt and threw myself back down on the bed. I must have fallen asleep shortly after that because I was startled awake by the sound of a slamming door.

“How long have you been in this room?”

“What? You mean today? I’ve been here since you put me in here.”

Dmitri glared at me. “You’re not a prisoner, Luca. The door wasn’t locked. You could have gone for a walk, explored the grounds.”

I shrugged. “Too cold.”

He frowned. “You could have used the gym downstairs or visited the library.”

“I had plenty of books right here and I didn’t feel like using the gym—even if I wanted to, which I didn’t, and if I knew where it was, which I don’t.”

“You could have asked one of the servants. I know Viktor would have been glad to show you.”

I rolled my eyes and made a little scoffing noise in my throat. “Yeah, Viktor is such a fan.”

That made him frown at me. “You can be so damned irritating,” he snapped at me.

“Then take me home.”

“This is your home now, Luca, and you may as well get used to it.”

“Or what?”

He looked blank. “What do you mean, or what?”

“You said I’d better get used to it—a threat was implied in there somewhere.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake. Is fighting all you ever want to do?”

“It’s what I’ve had to do all my life.”

“And you never let anyone forget it either.”

We glared at each other for a few minutes and then Dmitri’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t want to fight with you, Luca.”

I made the scoffing sound again. “You could have fooled me. Isn’t that why you and your friend flew past my window?”

He looked startled. “I didn’t fly past…” he turned and looked toward the window where the curtains were still pulled to. “Your curtains are closed.”

“Now they are. Earlier they were wide open and I saw the two of you.” I sat up and scowled at him. “What’s between you, Dmitri? Just be honest and tell me. Is he your boyfriend?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Alexei is my cousin. He’s like a brother to me.”

I stared at him a little longer and then sighed. “You looked good with him. Better than you ever would with me.”

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” he snapped. “You know you’re beautiful. You’re just a stubborn, disagreeable ass.” He came closer to the bed and looked down at me. “I wanted to take you flying this morning. I still do.”

“I can’t fly, Dmitri. I can’t even shift into my Dragon form.”

“Wyvern. Wyverns are not Dragons, but a relative.”

“Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“You don’t know you can’t shift until you try,” he said, his voice softening.

“I’m scared of heights.”

He raised one eyebrow. “I didn’t mention flying. Is that what you want to do?”

“No. I just said I’m scared of heights. Okay, not so much the heights. It’s plunging to my death from the heights that bothers me.”

“You know I would never let any harm come to you, Luca.”

I looked up at him and saw the truth of that shining in his beautiful eyes. “Okay. I’ll try—but if it doesn’t work, then we table this discussion. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” he said, smiling at me. He held out a hand. “Let’s go up to the roof.”

“What? Right now?”

“Of course, now. It’s still early and the sun is still shining—not an everyday occurrence at this time of year. Let’s not waste it.”

Reluctantly, I got up off the bed and took the jacket Dmitri handed me from the closet. He also took down a coil of rope and I looked at him with one raised eyebrow. “You’ll see what this is for soon enough. Now put on that coat. You can take it off soon, but until you get warmed up, you might find it a bit chilly.”

Chilly, my ass. It was about twenty degrees Fahrenheit up on that roof after I followed Dmitri upstairs, and that’s pretty damn cold to a boy from the southern U.S. of A. He walked right over to the edge of the roof and looked down, motioning to me. I came over to stand beside him and looked down too, immediately getting dizzy. I backed away a few steps and sighed.

“This won’t work.”

He was unbuttoning his shirt and toeing off his shoes as he glanced at me. “Of course it will. You’ll have to get undressed, Luca. You can’t shift wearing clothes.”

“So you’re sayin’ you and old Alexei got naked together.”

“You didn’t want to.”

He had me there, so I shut up and quit stalling. I took off my jacket and shirt and pants and stood shivering in front of Dmitri, but he gestured toward my underwear too. He’d already gotten naked, his skin all golden tan and gorgeous in the sun and his muscles rippling everywhere. There was even a covered bin to put our clothes in. I guess they did this a lot.

I was skinny and white and pathetic looking compared to him, but I saw his eyes lighting up appreciatively as he looked at me. “Now,” he said, “Close your eyes and visualize your Wyvern. See him in your mind’s eye and invite him to come forward.”

Dutifully, I closed my eyes and tried to picture a Dragon, but all I could see was Dmitri in his golden form, gliding and swooping through the sky. And predictably, nothing happened.

I opened my eyes again. “I told you this wouldn’t work. Can I put my clothes back on?”

“Come on, Luca. Give it a real try. Close your eyes. Now think about wings sprouting from your back, just there where your shoulders are. Imagine lovely scales covering your body. Feel your body changing.”

I was concentrating pretty hard as he spoke, and I did feel my skin itching and tingling, especially in the area of my shoulders, but nothing happened. I tried for a good ten minutes and by that time I was freezing my ass off and that was pretty much all I could think about. I blew a long breath out of my nose and opened my eyes.

“This isn’t working. I’m going inside.”

I moved to snatch up my clothes, but Dmitri grabbed me and hoisted me up in his arms. “Maybe you need a little more incentive.”

He strode over to the edge of the roof and smiled down at me. I grabbed him around the neck and squealed. Okay, I’m not proud of it, but what kind of sound does a person make when they’re being held over the edge of a rooftop, four stories up?

With seemingly little effort, Dmitri peeled my hands off his neck and then he dropped me. Fucking dropped me over the edge! I saw the ground coming up to meet me and screamed in horror, flailing my arms, which were tingling. I wanted to close my eyes but I could only watch in complete terror as I plummeted to certain death. Then a flash of gold swooped in front of me and strong arms wrapped around me. I looked up to see a Golden, his eyes a brilliant emerald color and his nose flaring and puffing out little clouds of white smoke. He held me to his chest and touched down on the ground so gently I barely knew we’d landed. I was still up pretty high, because the Golden was probably a good twenty feet tall, at least, but he bent over and deposited me back on my feet, then straightened back up.

I was shaking so hard I almost fell back down, but managed to stay on my feet as the Dragon in front of me shimmered and disappeared, leaving Dmitri in its place. I couldn’t speak for a moment and then I screamed at him.

“How could you? Oh my God, Dmitri, you scared me to death! Why? Why did you do that to me?”

He tilted his head and smiled. “Because of those,” he said and I followed his gaze down to my arms. Or where my arms used to be. Now there were wings—huge, gorgeous blood red wings attached to my all too human body.