Page 24 of Her Dragon Defender

And have to lock eyes with the maid who'd seen them having sex on the desk? Oh, gods, no.

"My dress will be fine," Eden said, lifting up the pile of lavender cloth that had been lying on the floor all night, only to find the skirt had been torn into strips all across the back so everyone would see her knickers. Knickers which were little more than a few shredded scraps of lace. He really had used his claws on them. And her bra? Yep, his claws had shredded the back of that, too.

"I'm sorry about your dress. It must have caught on my scales while we were flying," Blaze said. "You looked so beautiful in it. I'll buy you another one to replace it, I promise. As many gowns as you want."

Eden swallowed. "It wasn't mine. It was Diana's." The dress slipped to the floor through her nerveless fingers. She'd been so busy banging Diana's brother she'd forgotten about her missing best friend.

"I'll find her. I promise I'll find her. Let's get you back to Mirror Academy, where you'll be safe, so I can start searching. Someone must know something."

Panic iced Eden's veins. "You can't leave me."

"I don't want to. In fact, I want nothing more than to tumble you back into that bed and not let you leave this room for the next week while we enjoy our mating frenzy, but I have to find my sister, and I can't go unless I know you're safe. You're my mate. Nothing's more important to me than you."

"So take me with you."

"If I'm with you, I won't be able to think about anything but you, and what I want to do to you."

Eden grinned. "Well, your brain might be in your dick, oh mighty dragon, but mine's definitely between my ears, and while I won't complain about all day and all night, hot dragon sex, I can still think. What I think is that Diana's my best friend, and I want to find her as much as you do. More, maybe, because my future depends on us starting an animal sanctuary together. So you can use your dragonly brawn to protect me, while I use my human brain to help you find her. Deal?"

He hesitated. "Well, there's just one problem with that. When we marked each other and sealed the bond, exchanging blood, it changed things. You're...not exactly human any more."

Eden laughed. "What, so I'm a dragon now? I can sprout wings, breathe fire, and fly?"

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but...yes."

Eden's mind went blank. Yesterday, she hadn't believed in dragons. Now, not only was she mated to one, but she'd also become one? She blinked.

"I'm sorry, I should have told you before you claimed me, but I didn't expect you to bite me, and by then, it was too late. If you're angry at me, I totally understand. I never thought there'd be a fated mate for me, as I've met all the unmated full-blooded female dragons, and none of them ever sparked my interest. Like I said, I should take you back to Mirror Academy, where I'm sure one of the teachers who has experience with this sort of thing can counsel you on your new...abilities..."

Eden's mind cleared. "No. I'm not going back to Mirror Academy. Not without Diana. I'm going with you. Who better to teach me about being a dragon than an actual dragon? I won't let you go without me. Especially not if I can fly, and follow you anyway."

"You're not angry at me?" He looked stunned.

It wasn't like he'd done this to her on purpose. She was the one who'd bitten him. "No. I'm glad things turned out the way they did. I want to be with you, Blaze. Being a dragon myself won't change that." She took a deep breath. "Now we can go find Diana together. If you're my mate, and she's your sister, that makes her family. More than ever, I need to find her. And it won't matter that you destroyed her dress. Dragons don't wear clothes, right?"

"No," he admitted. "They get shredded on our scales. It makes it easier to have sex, though. Some dragon pairings spend their entire mating frenzy in dragon form. Humans think they know about the mile high club, but there's nothing as thrilling as sharing an orgasm with your mate when you're flying above the clouds. So I've heard, anyway. I haven't done it yet."

"Are you saying it's possible for dragons to have sex while flying?" Eden marvelled.

Blaze coughed. "You know that ritual I mentioned last night? The mating flight is sort of a traditional dragon marriage ceremony."

"You're asking me to marry you now? We've barely known each other for...not even two days!" Yet even as she said the words, they didn't feel wrong. With Blaze, forever felt so, so right. Was that the mate bond talking?

"Fated mates are forever. Marriage is more of a formality. We can take it slow. Like I said, we don't have to do any rituals you aren't ready for." Blaze looked nervous. "Say the word, and I'll take you back to the Academy."

Eden grinned. "And what if the word is crazy airborne dragon sex? Is it better than knotting? I need to know."

Blaze coughed. "How much do you know about dragon anatomy?"

"I saw you on the roof in the dark, so not much," Blaze admitted.

"Well, dragons are...unusually gifted in the genital department..."

"Really? Like, ridges? Knots? Tentacles? C'mon, Blaze, I need to know!"

He opened the door to the motel room. "Come join me in the sky and I'll show you. No one will see us flying in the dark."

"And how am I supposed to see this gifted dragon peen of yours in the dark, genius?"

---