“I’ll count to ten,” he said. “Then I’ll start running.”
“But-”
“Ten. Nine. Eight.”
She started moving before he got to “seven,” and she didn’t look back. She just ran, letting her feet slide a little in the sand as she moved as quickly as she possible could, scurrying to the ocean. She wanted to reach that water, wanted to dip her toes in it.
She wanted to throw her entire body in the water and just be.
There were some perks to this entire “private beach” thing. Nobody was around. There were no joggers, no swimmers, and no dog-walkers. There was nobody here to catch them running naked toward the water.
Winter had almost reached the waves when something big flew by her, and she turned, falling on her ass in the sand when she saw that it was.
“A dragon.”
It was.
He was a big, silver-and-purple dragon with huge wings that seemed to stretch out forever. Dragon turned to her and bared his teeth. She thought that must be the shifter equivalent of a smile.
“Wow.”
He looked at her for a moment before flying to the water and diving down beneath the waves.
“Oh, that’s cheating,” she murmured, but she got up, brushed herself off, and kept running.
Winter had an entire afternoon to spend swimming with this gorgeous dragon man, and she didn’t plan on wasting a second of it.
“Ready or not,” she laughed, and she raced into the water.
Chapter 9
She was intoxicating.
Perfect.
Wonderful.
And he’d shown her his dragon side.
Brian still couldn’t quite believe that he’d done it. He didn’t know what had come over him. They’d been running down to the water to go swimming, and he’d just...shifted.
It had just happened.
She hadn’t freaked out, either.
They’d spent hours just splashing in the water together. He’d shifted back to his human form to fuck her in the waves, and then he’d changed back to a dragon and he’d taken her on a ride. She’d laughed, and he’d laughed, and they’d both had the best time.
When they’d finally returned to his house, they’d ordered pizza, eaten it in the tub, and then passed out watching a movie he’d seen a million times before.
Now Brian was on the couch with her head in his lap, and he was looking at her like she was the most perfect thing in all of creation.
She couldn’t be his mate, could she?
He wanted to believe that she was. For the first time in a very long time, Brian was feeling hopeful. Passionate. Happy.
He slipped off of the couch and repositioned her with pillows and blankets. He made sure she was comfortable, and considering the fact that she didn’t move, he thought she was probably doing okay.
Then he grabbed his cell phone and headed outside to sit down on the deck. The ocean was so close. He could hear it, and he could smell it, and even in the darkness, he could see the waves crashing on top of each other.