Woodenly, I turned and surveyed my room, feeling strangely as if my life had just somehow been changed.
Why, I couldn’t say. I just knew I felt different.
With nothing else to do, I went to bed, my thoughts consumed with the suit-wearing man and his dragon.
Mostly, though, I was thinking about the way that single brush of his fingers against my bare legs felt. How hot his touch was, and how the feeling had gone straight to my core.
A feeling that was still wracking my body.
I’d give just about anything to have his hands where I really wanted…
I squelched the thoughts in their tracks. I was not going there with that man. No ifs, ands or buts about it. He was bad news with a capital NO WAY!
He’d eat me up and spit me out.
Though, just because I couldn’t have him didn’t mean I couldn’t think about him.
In my dreams we were made for each other. Reality could eat shit and die.
***
I woke up to my lower half on fire.
At first, I thought it was just an aftereffect of my dreams, but when I finally peeled my eyes open, I could smell smoke.
When I opened my lids and looked down, it was to literally find my panties on fire.
I screamed and rolled; rolling so far in the bed that I hit the floor and kept going.
By the time the fire was finally out, my panties were burned to ash. However, my skin was perfectly fine. In fact, the hairs that I’d planned on having waxed later in the week were gone.
It’d given me a fire waxing…minus the wax.
“What the fuck?” I yelled, staring down at my now hair-free mound.
Blasphemy.
My eyes widened and I looked around. Was someone in the room with me?
I started reaching for the lamp but couldn’t find it. There was a pile of things beside the bed that I’d knocked over in my haste to get up. I could only assume that the lamp was one of those things.
“Light, light, light,” I chanted, shifting through the things on the floor.
My candles that I had interspersed around the room all lit at once, and I screamed.
“What the hell is going on?” I shrieked.
Macy started hammering on the wall, or her boyfriend. Whatever. Fuck her.
I narrowed my eyes at the wall.
That stupid heifer! I’m allowed to scream if I want to. She fucks day and night, and she’s going to bang on my wall to get me to quiet down?
Master Farrow has always had excellent stamina with the ladies.
I froze, turning around and scanning the room.
“Who’s there?” I asked nervously.
A deep, rumbly laugh filled my head and my eyes widened.
“Holy mother of God, get out of my head!” I yelled.
The voice in my head continued to chuckle. Oh, this is almost as good as when Prince Keifer came into his powers. He didn’t shriek like you do, though.
I couldn’t explain it, but I knew whatever was in my head wasn’t human. He didn’t sound human.
Or if you could say ‘sound’ at all. Was hearing something in your head ‘hearing’?
My panic started to make my heart beat faster, and the worse the panic got, the more afraid I became.
Then things started…floating.
My brush on the dresser was the first thing that started to lift off the wooden surface. Then my jewelry. Then…everything.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God!” I whispered.
Calm down and it’ll stop. You freaking out about it isn’t helping. Go take a shower. Cool your tits, the voice said.
Cool my tits? For real?
“What are you?” I whispered, taking his advice and walking into the bathroom.
Jesus, I was taking the voice in my head’s advice.
I was going crazy. There was no other alternative.
I am a dragon. What else would I be?
What else would he be? Right, a dragon.
“Umm,” I flipped on the hot water. “How is this possible? I thought I read that women couldn’t communicate with dragons…Couldn’t command them.”
Women can’t, he agreed instantly.
“I’m a woman…just sayin’,” I informed the voice in my head.
Pulling the tie out of my hair and ripping the shirt off my shoulders, I jumped into the shower, squealing when the ice cold water hit my skin.
Macy must’ve used all of the hot water again. Fucking perfect.
I closed my eyes and thought about warm things, letting the water roll over my shoulders and head.
For once, the meditation worked, and the water actually felt warm and luxurious.
I opened my eyes as I reached out for the shampoo when I saw the steam rising from the shower floor, coating the glass shower doors and covering the mirror over the sink.
The steam was everywhere, including wafting through the air and curling up over the top of the glass shower door.
It’d never been that hot before.
“Oh, my God. I’m in heaven,” I whispered.Chapter 3
All I want for Christmas is your soul.