Page 53 of Never Flirt with a Dragon

The question snapped me out of whatever trance the dragon had held me in. “Maybe. Is that part of heat?”

“No. The demons in the prison below you are starving, and their magic seems to ignite your lust automatically in your dreams when they’re hungry. It only affects unmated humans.”

“I thought we’re mated right now.”

“Nope. Not until you do the deed and seal it for good.”

“Don’t say that like it’s inevitable,” I warned.

“Sorry. I’m explaining this because you need to know, you’re not going to be able to sleep there without having the dreams. They’ll turn you on, and wake you up constantly. I only made it a few days there as a human before August dragged me back to Scale Ridge because I couldn’t sleep. Seeing you not getting rest will make Jasper’s instincts harder to fight, too.”

Well, that sounded like a whole problem of its own.

She paused, and I heard a man’s low voice on the other end of the line. August was talking to her. “I’m supposed to talk to you about how to best survive heat without giving in, now.”

“Tell me you’re not trying to sell what Jasper just said, Elodie.”

She laughed softly. “I’m not sporting Girl Scout Cookies, Randa.”

“Girl Scout Cookies would be preferable in this situation.”

“A box of cookies doesn’t last long, but a mate bond can be forever,” she countered.

I sighed.

“Sorry, sorry. You know I’m biased in favor of the dragons at this point. Anyway, the dragons have been trying to fight heat when it begins for centuries. Since the beginning of time, from what I know. Though August is now telling me that the truly ancient dragons have an entirely different culture—but that doesn’t matter. They fight heat with everything they have, right?”

“Sure.”

“Well, fighting it tooth-and-nail doesn’t work. They’ve proved it time and time again. Gritting your teeth and deciding not to give in isn’t a solution. Heat is too strong. You’ll be literally begging Jas to take your pain away in two or three weeks, no matter how strong you decide to be now.”

“How did you fight it, then?” My voice grew softer.

Less sure.

The whole situation threw me off-balance, made me feel uneasy.

“We sort of teamed up. Jasper probably told you that.”

“He did.”

“Well, you could do it without teaming up, theoretically. At the most basic level, all we really did was give heat everything it wanted for as long as we could. It was only really difficult during the final stretch, when the pain was bad. And even then, August only resisted giving me what I wanted because he knew I could be killed in the supernatural prison, which was where he was going after heat ended.”

My head spun. “He was going to prison?”

“It’s a long story, but yeah. Anyway, I don’t know if it’s even possible for a woman to make it through the last part of heat without giving in. She would have to be a hell of a lot more stubborn than I am, with a much higher pain tolerance, because painkillers don’t do anything for us during heat.”

And Elodie was much more stubborn than me.

Which didn’t exactly bode well for my future independence. Or Jasper’s.

So if I was going to survive it, I’d have to figure that part out on my own, and find a way to get much more stubborn.

“But you made it through the first part with minimal pain?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s pretty easy to do, too. At first, the bond just wants you touching at all times. If you’re physically touching Jasper, there should be minimal pain and heat. That will slowly increase until heat pushes him to bite you to ease the pain.”

She didn’t mention that he’d already bitten me.

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