"In a way. But I'm also a newcomer, and a human. That might work to my advantage with your cousin."
"Try if you want, but don't get your hopes up," Gaby muttered.
He did his best not to smile.
His dragonwoman motioned ahead of them. "There's the landing area."
The shielded section was probably about the size of two football fields, with low rock walls surrounding it. He noticed little cubby holes in the walls, which explained why it was there—to store their clothes and other belongings. After all, dragons didn't blink twice at nudity, according to Gaby, and they were always naked right before shifting.
Not that he wanted any male to see his woman naked.
Gaby stopped next to a cubby and took off her shoes. He growled. "Do you have to be naked for everyone to see?"
She unbuttoned her jeans. "If we try to shift with clothes on, they rip and get destroyed. And not only is that super wasteful, it would get really, really expensive." He grunted, and she paused to take his hand again. "Don't worry, you're the only one I give a private show to, Ryan. To everyone else here, it's the equivalent of wearing a different outfit. Well, mostly. The teenagers get curious at some point and start paying attention to older dragons for a short while. But from what I've heard, humans do that, too."
True, but he still didn't like it. Maybe he was more like a possessive dragon-shifter than he'd thought. "It'll just take some getting used to, is all. Although it does explain why you don't have any tan lines."
She smiled slowly. "Sometimes, during a break for my job, I shift back to a human and lay in the sun. Another bonus to being a dragon-shifter—we don't get cancer, not even skin cancer."
Thinking of his aunt during his childhood, who'd always plastered everyone with sunscreen to protect against the Texas sunshine, he sighed. "That would be nice."
"Ah, but do you burn or tan? You're not super pale, but pale enough."
"I tan. But between work and my home gym, I didn't spend much time outdoors, even when it wasn't a million degrees outside. Summers in Arizona aren't the best for walking, let alone hiking or running, any place that doesn't have air conditioning."
Leaning over, she kissed his neck and whispered, "Pale or not, you're still the sexiest male alive to me."
Her words, combined with the heat of her lips and her delicious scent of woman and vanilla, blood rushed south.
Thank fuck he didn't have to strip right now in front of everyone.
Gaby glanced down and snorted. "Yeah, that takes some training, too, for the males."
He lightly slapped her ass, and she giggled before shucking the rest of her clothes and stowing them into the cubby.
She walked toward the center, most definitely exaggerating the sway of her hips, and Ryan resisted adjusting himself.
Damn, what he wouldn't give to have their own, private room for a short while. Did dragon-shifters have hotels? He had no idea.
Gaby turned to face toward him and shouted, "Come over anytime after I've shifted, Ryan."
He nodded and waited. A few seconds later, Gaby's body glowed ever so faintly before her nose elongated into a snout, wings sprouted from her back, and her arms and legs morphed into fore and hind limbs. Within a matter of seconds, Gaby stood in her tall dragon form, the sun glinting off her golden scales.
Even though she was big in dragon form—at least to him—she wasn't scary but rather beautiful. The shimmering scales, her slitted pupils, and even the points of her ears were all like a work of art.
She tilted her head in question, and it snapped Ryan out of his trance. He rushed over and tried not to feel too insignificant standing next to her. "You're so beautiful."
She butted her snout against his middle, but obviously not at full force since he barely stepped back at the contact.
Because, after all, she was a freaking dragon who could probably send him crashing into a mountain if she wanted to.
Not that she ever would. He reached up to tentatively touch her snout, loving the smoothness under his fingers. The scales weren't cold to the touch, but not overly warm either. They felt a lot like hard leather. "I bet these get nice and toasty once you've lain in the sun for a while."
She huffed, probably the dragon equivalent of a laugh.
He decided to tease some more, never ceasing the wandering of his hands. "When it gets cold, you could set up a few heat lamps, get some dragons toasty, and then put them in a big room to warm everyone right up."
Gaby's dragon poked him in the back with her tail. "What? There are so many possibilities you haven't thought of. You could probably make a fortune with tourists, if you wanted. 'Feel the inner fire of a dragon today!' Or something like that."