They walked out, as people streamed toward the parking lot. Lights were extinguished in the building behind them as they walked slowly, letting the crowd thin out.
“Joey is really nice,” Bird said, smiling at the memory of the friendly man. He wasn’t as . . . imposing as Mikhail, but she liked his smile. “He seems a good friend.”
“That he is. He’s another mythic shifter. I trust him to have my back. Same with him. If you ever were to need help when I wasn’t there, you can trust him. He knows everything there is to know about me.” He looked around. “No one in sight. Are you ready?”
“Yes!” Joy suffused her heart as he flashed in muted blue light to his beautiful dragon. She took her place behind his head, stroking her hands over his scales in a caress; as she did, she felt a curious, delightful sensation through her bones, a deep, almost subsonic hum.
He’s purring, she laughed to herself as they soared into the air.
The flight was swift, the landing as light as before. Once again they reached the garden behind her cottage, the scent of roses rising on the cool air.
He shimmered back to his human self, and smiled at her. “Shall we say goodnight?”
Her heart beat fast. “Would you . . . like to stay?”
He took her hands. “Bird, I would love that more than anything. But there is another aspect to my nature that we should talk about first.”
A tick of dread was back. She straightened her spine and said, “Let’s go inside. I want to see your face before we go any farther.”
Bird led him to the couch, and sat beside him. His warm presence comforted her jangling nerves.
“I remember everything you’ve said,” she began. “If it’s to tell me you have to travel a lot for your work, I completely understand.”
“Yes,” he said, then hesitated.
A sharper lance of pain struck then, straight to her heart. Her fault, her fault. Two days, and she was already assuming he would be here forever. Stupid! These thoughts sped through her mind in the time it took for her heart to clatter once against her ribs.
Then he said, “Bird, please forgive me. I am not adept at courtship. I am trying to learn, though I will only use this skill once, for you.”
Her breathing stilled. “Are you saying . . .”
“We shifters—when we find our mates, it is forever. You can still step back,” he added in haste. “It’s one aspect granted to humans. You and I, we have not yet mated. If we do that, and I very much want to, then it is for the rest of our lives. But you, being human . . . I want you to know that if you feel that—if you can’t—if you’re the slightest in doubt—”
Mikhail, the calm and suave, was fumbling like... like...
Like a teenager, she realized. It wasn’t only her who had gone back in time.
She took his hands, her emotions swinging between laughter and tears. “What would happen to you?”
His eyes darkened to gray before they slid aside. “I will accept whatever you decide.”
Overwhelming sadness washed over her, a sense of loneliness, but that was chased by awe. He, this powerful and special creature, had known loneliness. He was willing to accept it again, if she so chose. Her instinct was very certain, though he had said nothing of the kind.
She had been lonely enough to know the cost. Love welled up in her, almost too strong to bear. No, she couldn’t bear it alone.
It must be shared.
It had never been in her nature to act coy. “Oh, Mikhail, the rest of the world would probably laugh me right out of the house, but the truth is, I think I fell in love with you the moment you threw yourself on poor Jen—and then worked so hard not to hurt her.”
“I know,” he said, low and utterly sincere, “that is the moment I fell in love with you.”
She threw her arms around him and sought his mouth. His hands came up her sides as his passion met hers, then matched it. Once again, the sun met the fountain.
She had thought that earlier kiss had been the greatest kiss in the world, but this one was even better, with the heat of arousal rising in them both. His body, and through his, hers, hummed with sensitivity and power that was both familiar and utterly foreign.
>
“Come,” she said, a little shy, but eager.