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  He said, “I didn’t. Max did that. I went to your world. I was hoping to get you pregnant today and come back when the child was ready to be born so I could raise it here.”

  Was he for real? How could any man, even a dragon man, be that damn clueless and…and gross?

  Christy screamed, “This is unacceptable!”

  Blake gave them both speculative looks. “I know. But since you’re here anyway…”

  Heather warned, “Don’t even think about it.” We’re here, at least until the portal opens back up. Think dammit. Now what?

  She was clueless. This wasn’t a situation she could have, ever, prepared herself for. She gave Christy a beseeching look. “What do we do now?”

  Christy asked, “Do dragons eat people?”

  Blake’s upper lip curled back off his lip. “No.”

  Heather felt relief at that. “Okay. That is something, I guess. So, what do you propose we do in the meantime? And do not say breed with you. If you do I’ll…I’ll do something you’re really going to regret.” What she could do to a dragon was something she didn’t know. But he looked human right then, and he apparently had reproductive abilities, which must mean he had balls—and she would kick him right in them too!

  Blake sighed. “I know you think I’m the worst—”

  Christy said, “That’s because you are.”

  He gave her a long look. “No, I’m not. I’m the last of my clan, and we have no females, so I’m liable to stay that way unless I find a female willing to give me a child.”

  Heather asked, “And no other…what? She-dragons? Want you? What a shocker.”

  Blake’s face took on a crestfallen look. “It’s against the pact. I’m not allowed to have children with the females of the other clans.”

  Christy snapped, “Oh, that’s too bad. I’m sure your kids would be charming.”

  The sarcasm was clearly lost on Blake because he said, “They would. I always wanted them. Now I have to have them.”

  Heather decided to point out an obvious truth. “But if you have them, they can’t…er…mate with the other dragons either, so…so what? You go full on to inbreeding?”

  Blake literally recoiled. “What? Where do they do that at? No! My kids would not be bound by that. It’s just me. My line up until me is the law. That’s the way it was worded, so if I had sons or daughters, they could.”

  Christy, clearly interested now, asked, “But your kids would be half-human. Is that not a little out of the ordinary?”

  “We were all human once.”

  The words took Heather aback. “What do you mean?”

  Blake said, “You don’t know? Dragons were knights cursed by a wizard to fly forever. Our ancestors were loyal to a king whose banner had the emblem of a dragon. Up until then, dragons didn’t really exist; they were a myth. After? Here we are, and banished to this world forever, unless we choose to leave and never return.”

  Heather looked around herself, trying to make sense of their surroundings. The mountains rose up high all around them. The grass was thick and high and the sky so blue it almost hurt to look at. She looked at the tall castle, its black spires rising high against the sky. “What is that?”

  Blake said, “That’s Reganal. Max’s home, and mine too. Come on, I’m hungry, and it’s a long way.”

  Heather spat out, “I am not going to some creepy Gothic castle! Have you lost your mind!”

  Blake’s eyebrow rose. “Then stay here. But you should know that those are Orcs coming up the mountain now.”

  Orcs? Orcs? Heather looked in the direction that Blake’s finger was pointing and a loud scream ripped from her lips. The things toiling up the side of the cliff were hideous and squat. They were also waving clubs and other weapons, and they didn’t look like they wanted to have a friendly chat.

  Christy cried out, “What do they want?”

  “You. Human women are highly prized, and Orcs can’t cross the portal.” Blake changed then. His body lifted slightly off the ground. His voice issued from his dragon-mouth. “Either get on and go with me or stay here. Your choice.”

  That was no choice at all! Heather and Christy raced to the dragon, and he flattened himself onto the ground so they could climb aboard. Then he took off. Heather, shrieking, tried to find something to hold onto. Christy was also screaming, and her hands were grabbing at any and everything. Blake shouted, “Use your legs, dammit; use your legs to hold on before you put my eyes out!”

  The earth dropped away from under them; Heather had to fight back an urge to vomit. She hated to fly in airplanes, and they were definitely safer than this! She’d already had one terrifying trip through an open sky thanks to Max, and now she was soaring upward, the wind blasting back at her from the mighty lift and beat of Blake’s wings as he turned toward the castle.

  Below them, the Orcs scampered and screamed and threw weapons into the air in an attempt to stop Blake, and them. Heather’s eyes squeezed shut. This was the worst thing that had ever happened to her in her entire life, and she was pretty sure it would just get worse.

  Chapter Six

  Max swore a few more times as Blake herded the humans into the chamber. The others gathered there watched with disapproving eyes as the women, clearly windblown and scared, came staggering along behind Blake, their hands clutching at each other and their faces showing that they were terrified.

  Aura, Queen of the Windrow clan, stood. Her silver hair hung to her waist. Her silver eyes held fury. “What is the meaning of this?”

  The others shifted and Jalen, King of the Murdock clan, also stood. “You dare bring humans in here?”

  “I do.” Blake’s chin lifted. “How dare you demand I don’t? This is still my father’s house, as well as the house of Max’s father. We may not like it, having to share this place or our kingdom, but we do. That means I share the responsibility for the rule and the right to rule as I see fit.”

  Aura shut her mouth. Max, who was amused by the situation despite his irritation, stood. His hand came up. “We didn’t make the law. It is what it is, as it has always been.” How he hated that cheesy phrase. It irritated him further that he had to use it too. His eyes went to the humans. The one with the broken boot was gorgeous, and she was also staring right at him. She was probably plotting his demise while she was at it. The other was too, most likely. Humans were fickle and dangerous. Human women were doubly so. He should know. He’d had a love affair with one that had nearly caused him to shed his right as half-king, and leave his lands forever, but that had been centuries ago, and he had never forgotten the hurt and misery she’d left in her wake.

  Or that he’d almost lost everything for her and that she had not deserved that, or him. She’d wanted his heart all right, but only so she could use it in a potion that would make her an immortal human, one with magical powers that would ensure she had all the wealth and power she could ever hope for right at her fingertips.

  Blake said, “They didn’t have any choice. Max brought them into this world, and now that they’re here they have no choice but to stay until the portal opens again.”

  A gasp ran around the room. Max sent Blake a dirty look. “It was not intentional on my part.”

  Blake said, “I’m sure Heather would say differently.”

  Heather stumbled forward. “You grabbed us and brought us here! I was just having coffee, and you snatched us, and here we are!”

  Max’s teeth clenched. Okay, she was right. But he had had no choice. Aura glared at him. “You did this?”

  “I did. I had no choice. He would not let her go,” he pointed at Christy, “And she would not let her go. It was sort of an all or nothing proposition, to be honest.”

  Aura sniffed, “Perhaps you should have left him over in that world and closed the portal instead.”

  How he wished that he could have. But no matter what, Blake had to choose that life, and he had not. “That would be against the law. He did not choose to stay. I know some go, forget time is dif
ferent, and stay because they adapt to that life and like it. That was not the case.” And no matter what, Blake was his cousin, his blood. Their fathers had fought a war together, and Blake’s father had been wounded terribly to protect the life of Max’s father. He had been banished and changed into a dragon for Max’s father too, because he had refused to leave him or let the wizard who had cursed them send Max’s father into the world they now inhabited alone.

  The others there had all done the same. The blood debt ran deep, and the pact that stood between Blake and the end of his line had been the fault of Max’s father. He had had to broker peace in that fledgling new world, and he had, but that pact that had made the other dragons equal for the greatest part had left Blake’s line faltering and falling. Now they would fade out unless Blake found a woman to bear his children, and it seemed that that was just what he had been trying to do.

  Max eyed the two women standing there. Maybe Blake should have gone a different route than those two though. Neither of them seemed a bit interested in having a dragon’s child or being in that world at all.

  Aura said, “We have a problem then. That action is against the law. A human must seek the way themselves.”

  Jalen rumbled out, “It is, and it always has been.”

  “It was an indirect action that caused them to be here.” Max’s voice was firm and as much as he hated to do it, he added a lie to that, “They obviously chose to come along. I mean, they didn’t try to get away.”

  Heather’s mouth fell open. Her eyes narrowed. Her lips parted, and she let out an indignant shriek. “You liar! I tried to hit you with a stick! If that’s not trying to get away, I don’t know what is!”

  Christy added, “I tried to hit you with a fruit cocktail can. So yeah, consent must look way different over here if you thought that meant we wanted to go with you.”

  Oh, would they ever just shut up! Max glared at the two, and they both subsided. He said, “We must return them.”

  “Damn right,” Heather muttered, making his teeth clench.

  He cleared his throat. “We can’t, not now, but as soon as the portal opens again, they will be sent back through to their world.”

  Aura pointed out, “They will tell someone.”

  Heather snorted. “People will think we are crazy and nobody would believe us. How soon can we go? I have a big case coming up, and I can’t be here. I didn’t really even have time for coffee.”

  Max groaned inwardly. These two women were going to be a problem, and it was obvious, but what was the most problematic at the moment was that he could not seem to stop looking at Heather. Her face, lovely even though it was wan and drawn, kept making him want to stare at her.

  He made himself look away. “The humans have a point. Someone take them to a room and see to it that they are comfortable.” And get that one out of my sight before this erection grows so much that everyone sees it.

  That last was a real issue. His member was growing with every breath, and every time he looked at her it stiffened yet another inch or two. That would not do at all.

  She was turning him, pushing all his buttons. Of course, she was; he was a sucker for a damsel in distress and look at what that had done for him.

  As she turned to walk away, he caught a tantalizing glimpse of her ass, outlined by the tight denim that covered her lower body. The fact that she was walking up on her tiptoes, trying to compensate for the broken heel, didn’t take anything away from the sexy way that denim sculpted the firm and pert slopes of her ass.

  His member gave off another hard little pulse, rattling Max. He looked over at Blake. Blake was not looking at the woman, but he was not looking away in a studied way either. He just looked bored and disinterested in the whole affair, which just managed to infuriate Max even more.

  He waited until the women were gone and the chamber cleared to approach Blake, “I know you know how much trouble you have brought on us.”

  “Then you should not have to tell me. But you are going to anyway.” Blake groaned and then ran his hands over his face. “This was stupid. I will give you that, but dammit, Max, how am I supposed to keep my name and my clan alive like this?”

  Max’s spirits flagged. “I don’t know, and again, I don’t blame you for what you did in principle. It’s the practical that’s messed up. What were you going to do? Seduce her and hope she’d follow you here?”

  Blake said, “No. I was going to offer her money to have my child and go back and take it when it came.”

  Max’s mouth fell open. “Did you advertise for such a thing? I mean, did you come out and say that on that…that…” His knowledge of the other world and its magic that they called tech always escaped him, “Appetizer?”

  “App,” Blake corrected, and then he grimaced. “No. Maybe I should have. I definitely should have skipped that coffee though. I think the belch gave me away.”

  Max struggled to keep his face straight and found he couldn’t. He burst into guffaws, and Blake gave him a wounded look. “That’s not funny.”

  Max sobered, “No, it isn’t. Look, they have to go. I would suggest if you really want one of them to have your child or children that you do anything besides offer them money.”

  He turned to walk away. Blake called out, “Aw come on! How was I supposed to know humans were so touchy?”

  Max kept walking. He couldn’t outwalk the vivid fantasy playing out in his mind though. Heather pinned beneath him, her nude body spread out across the black sheets on his vast bed. Her hair spread across the pillows and her face flushed with desire and the need to come.

  His staff stiffened yet again, and he muttered a few swear words, his hands yanking at the tightening material of his trousers. Goddammit, what was he supposed to do with that woman around?

  He got to his room and closed the door then leaned against it. His hand drifted downward to the chubby outline of his rod. It pressed against the fabric, plump and long and he hissed out a breath as his fingers stroked along it and it responded with a thick pulse.

  He closed his eyes. Was this really happening? Was he really about to jack off to the image of a human? One who’d tried to smack him in the head with a board even?

  It seemed he was. His fingers freed his large and trembling organ from the trousers. He fisted it, his fingers stroking along the heavy veins that wrapped his flesh. His lips compressed as pleasure coursed through his body.

  His legs shook a bit as his fist went tight, wrapping around the full girth of that dick of his and then moving upward to squeeze the blood-engorged and dusky head. Fluid dribbled out of the slit at the top, and his thumb spread that thick oil along his shaft as he pumped downward, gripping more furiously now. His hand moved faster as he recalled the way those pants she wore cupped her cheeks.

  His eyes closed and his breath shuddered in and out as he thought of her heart-shaped lips and wondered what they would feel like wrapped around his member, tugging hard as she sucked him off.

  Heavy spurts shot from the head, and he groaned softly, his hand moving faster now as he wrung every ounce from his rod.

  He slumped against the door, bracing himself against it as he looked down at his shrinking dick. “I have to figure out how to get that woman out of here and back to her world as soon as possible, and now would be the best time to do that.”

  It would. The last thing he needed was a human woman who could incite such lust in him running amok on his world.

  Chapter Seven

  “Well, this is nice.” Heather surveyed the room they found themselves shoved into with wide eyes. Room didn’t really encompass it. The room was as big as her apartment, and several more of the same size. Everywhere she looked were magnificent cloths in beautiful colors, precious jewels embedded into gilded furniture, and the most extravagant chandelier she had ever seen outside of a magazine.

  Christy burst into laughter. “Girl, I must be dreaming or dead. Dragons, castles, and a room that looks like something out of a Goth-mansion. No way is thi
s real.”

  “I know right? Only it is real and…” Tears blurred her vision. “What do we do now?”

  Christy’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know, really. I mean, what can we do?”

  Heather was at a loss. Her mind kept going back to Max. God, he was hot. Not just because he was a fire-breathing dragon either. He was just….yum. Everything about him turned her on even though she didn’t want it to.

  She sighed and said, “Okay, so they said something about a portal. I suggest we try to find out when, exactly, it is going to open and if there’s another way to open it. And if there is another way to use it.”

  Christy surveyed the chair she stood next to. “Maybe we should also try to figure out how to do it as soon as possible, but we’re not going to get any answers at all in this room.”

  True. Heather went to the door. She reached for the doorknob, holding her breath a little as she tried it. She had half expected it to be locked but it opened easily under her fingers, and she peered out at a long and winding hallway. “I don’t see anyone around.”

  Christy came up behind her and peered over her shoulder. “Me either. Should we run for it?”

  “Where would we go?”

  Heather stepped out into the hallway despite those words. Her nerves went on high alert, and her senses did too. She asked, as Christy stepped up beside her, “So what do we do? Just explore and hope we run into a sympathetic dragon willing to tell us how to get back to our world?”

  “I guess that’s the plan.” Christy looked down and added, “We need to do something about that boot.”

  “I know. It’s killing my foot and hip to try to walk on that broken heel.” Heather looked down with a grimace twisting her face. “I just don’t know what to do about it. I can’t just go barefoot, after all. There’s no telling what’s on these floors.”

  “Can I help you?”

  Heather jumped half a foot off the ground and stared at the older woman standing nearby. She looked human, but they all did. “Um, hi. We’re new here. We just…”