Thea Harrison: Dragos Takes A Holiday

Absorbed in looking at the photos, she said, “What I want to know is, why don’t we have a private island?”

She had meant to be facetious, but Dragos’s expression turned thoughtful. “Good question. I’ll have to look into that.”

Her head snapped up, and she stared at him with wide eyes. He gave her a completely serious look in return. Wordless, she faced forward.

Hugh’s shoulders shook, and Eva snickered into her hand.

Dragos gently eased his phone out of her lax hands. She watched him sidelong as he turned it off.

The flight was short, just over two hours long. Eva and Hugh sat at the front of the cabin, talking and playing chess. Dragos and Pia settled with Liam on one of the two couches toward the back of the plane.

Toward the end of the flight, Pia watched out a window. Her excitement surged again as land came into view in the limitless expanse of blue water. Liam woke up as the plane started to descend. The change in altitude didn’t seem to affect him at all. The baby dragon joined her in staring out the window.

Pia divided her attention between the scenery outside and studying her son’s triangular head with the slender, graceful snout. He was perfectly formed, with every detail that Dragos’s dragon form had, only in miniature.

She might have given birth to him, but he was such a mystery to her. His midnight-dark, violet, jewel-like eyes had gone wide with fascination. As a raptor, he probably already had the capacity to see minute details a mile or two away, but she wondered what he really comprehended of the scenery spread out below them. Right now the lines of his body were delicate rather than powerful, but if Dragos was right and Liam did reach his father’s size, he would be a juggernaut.

The magic in him burned fiercely. While Liam’s Wyr form was a dragon, her blood ran in his veins as much as his father’s did. Liam’s Power felt cooler to her than the molten corona of Power that boiled out of Dragos. How would that combination manifest in Liam’s talents and abilities? All they knew at this point was that he had some of her ability to heal, for he had saved her life before he had ever been born.

She pressed her lips to the top of his head and whispered telepathically, I love you.

He closed his eyes and leaned against her cheek with a sigh.

“Come here, little man.” Dragos held his hands out to Liam.

Liam’s body tightened in protest around Pia’s neck. She patted his leg while she bit back a smile. As much as he loved his father, at this stage in his young life he was definitely a mama’s boy.

When Dragos spoke again, his dark, rich voice was soothing. “I will give you back to your mother soon enough. For now you must come to me.”

While he talked to his son in a low murmur, Liam’s body relaxed and his sharp, slender talons slipped out of her T-shirt. He offered no protest when Dragos gathered him up in gentle hands.

Pia stuck fingers in the new holes in her shirt. She muttered, “If this keeps up, I’m going to need a new wardrobe.”

She watched Dragos cradle Liam against his chest. As the small, white dragon looked up, Dragos bent his dark head and whispered in Liam’s ear for several minutes. Liam rested his head on Dragos’s chest as he listened. She couldn’t make out specific words, but she felt the effect of Dragos’s words in snatches. Reassurance, praise and encouragement radiated from him.

The sight of father and son together never failed to affect her. Dragos was the most lethal and efficient fighter she had ever seen. He had a killing speed along with his immense size, and he had once pulled the crumpled metal of a wrecked car away from her body.

As Dragos held Liam, his hands seemed even more massive on the baby’s small body. He had positioned his long, powerful fingers with utmost care at the base of the lacy wings.

The small dragon’s body shimmered and changed, and the baby Dragos cradled against his chest had turned human again.

Pia’s sigh of relief mingled with a sense of awe. Her father had been human, and she had only learned how to shapeshift into her Wyr form the previous year. Even then she had needed Dragos’s help. It had taken Liam less than four months.

Dragos patted Liam’s round, diapered bottom. “Well done. Now that you’ve learned how to shapeshift, you can change back again whenever you need to.” He lifted his head and handed the baby back to her.

As she took Liam, she whispered to Dragos, “You win all the good Daddy points.”

His eyes glinted with wicked sensuality, and his eyelids lowered to conceal it. Ever the opportunist, he murmured, “And what will that get me?”

“If you play your cards right, it might get you lucky later.”

He traced the line of her jaw with his forefinger. “How about if I throw in dinner by the ocean?”

It was a good thing they were both sitting, because that slight caress made her go weak at the knees.

As their gazes connected, all the light banter fell away, leaving something pure and naked, a shock of connection that reverberated through both mind and body. As she stared into his intent gold eyes, the rest of the world fell away. She was caught in a beguilement that would never end, and she would go anywhere with him, do anything for him. She loved him so much, she couldn’t breathe.

She fumbled for a good reply. After all, she didn’t want him to get too cocky. “Dinner by the ocean might increase your chances a bit.”

The sexy, cruel line of his mouth tilted up. He slid one hand to the back of her neck, his fingers pressing lightly. The rasp of calluses against her sensitive skin caused a ripple of sensation to cascade down her body. She licked her lower lip and watched as his gaze fell to track the movement.

Her unsteady lips shaped his name, as she said without sound or air, “Dragos.”

Heat flashed out of his tense body, invisible and volcanic. Slowly his fingers curled around the hair at her nape and clenched into a fist. He held her trapped in a possessive, barbaric hold, but everything he did was possessive and barbaric, and she wouldn’t change him for the world.

On her lap, Liam burbled companionably and tugged at her shirt. It broke the molten spell burning the air between her and Dragos. She blinked down at the baby. For a moment she couldn’t remember why they were on the plane, or where they were going.

Dragos hadn’t loosened his hold on the hair at her nape. He growled very softly, “Tonight.”

She managed a shaken nod. She was going to get so lucky tonight.

No, she meant he was.

Sooo lucky.

The plane’s angle of descent grew steeper, and nearby land magic began to tickle at her senses. Dragos gently disengaged his fingers from her hair as she turned her attention to the peanut. Liam remained sublimely unaffected by the change in air pressure in the cabin, so she nursed him and changed his diaper while Dragos walked toward the front of the plane to talk with Eva and Hugh.

The last few minutes of their flight raced by, and they touched down at the L. F. Wade International Airport. The airport was small and the runways short, so the plane braked hard and taxied briefly until it rolled to a stop. Within moments the ground crew had the mobile stairway wheeled into place, and they disembarked into hot, bright sunshine.

A Mercedes SUV rental waited for them in the parking lot. They brought their car seat and fitted it to one of the bucket seats. Once Liam had been securely strapped in, Eva drove while Hugh rode shotgun, and Dragos, Liam and Pia rode in the back.

The airport was located on St. David’s Island, at the northeast tip of Bermuda. Their house was located on the northwestern tip of the main island, so they drove across the causeway and along S Road. Even though they were on the opposite side of the island, Bermuda was not a large place, and the trip went quickly.