“Thank you for coming to stargaze with me,” he said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and see some falling stars to wish on.”
“I don’t need them,” I said, smiling up at him. “I have everything I could wish for right here.”
His lips twisted up at my sappy remark, but I got another kiss out of it anyway, so it was worth it. Afterward, he pulled me around to settle me between his legs and I leaned back against him. The sky really was beautiful, and I don’t think I’d ever seen so many stars, so I feasted my eyes on the show the sky was putting on just for us.
Dominic let his hands roam freely over me and I can’t say I complained. But after a while I could sense he was growing restless, and I thought he wanted to go inside. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
“Fly with me,” he murmured against my mouth, and I pulled away, startled.
I leaned up and turned to face him. “I beg your pardon? What? Fly with you?”
“Yes. While the moon and the stars are watching us. This area’s very private. No one will see us.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I-I can’t.”
“No one will see, love. I promise you.”
“It’s not that. It’s just that I…I never… I don’t know if I can. No one ever took me flying before. My father made me change to my Dragon just to make sure I could do it, but I hated it. And he didn’t make me fly.”
“You’re not frightened, are you,mon coeur? You know I’d never let you come to any harm.” A sweet smile curved his lips. “And it’s an excellent night for flying. Don’t worry, love. I’ll show you how.”
“Well…what would I have to do? I’ve forgotten what my father told me.” I leaned against him and sighed. “I guess I could try. What do I do first?”
“Get undressed. Let me see that beautiful body of yours.”
I shrugged off the robe, dropping it on the chair and shivered as the night air touched my skin.
“Now close your eyes and visualize your dragon in your mind. You remember what he looks like, don’t you?”
I nodded, and he smiled. “Then picture him in your mind and ask him to come out.”
Another deep sigh—I was beginning to sound like a leaky tire, damn it.
“Think about your strong body and your wings sprouting from your back, just there where your shoulders blades are.”
After a long moment of feeling stupid and nothing else, I opened one eye and looked up at him. “I don’t think it’s working. I really hated every second of this when I was younger.”
“I’m sorry, Jax. That must have been traumatic for you if you weren’t ready. But wouldn’t you still like to try? You don’t know until you do,” he said, dropping another kiss on my face—this time closer to my lips. I chased his mouth for a moment until he pulled back, laughing at me.
“Oh no, you don’t. You’re trying to distract me.”
“Is it working?”
“No.”
“But I’m scared of heights.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Are you really, or are you just trying to get out of this?”
“Okay, I’m not so much scared of the heights. It’s plunging to my deathfromthe heights that bothers me.”
“I’ll save you if you fall, love.”
I closed my eyes again and really concentrated and this time I felt a small stirring in the pit of my stomach. But then after a few more seconds, nothing else.
“I really don’t think this is working right now. Maybe I’m defective.”
He shook his head. “There’s nothing at all defective about you. You’re perfect. But if you really don’t want to shift just now, I won’t try to make you. There’s no hurry.”