On the Accidental Wings of Dragons (Dragons of Eternity Book 1) (9 page)

Michael tugged at the belt holding the dark silk closed. Was she wearing anything under that thing? He hoped not. It would make dropping his towel and pulling her onto him so much simpler. He could already smell her arousal. She would be hot and ready for him. If he just tugged here…

A sharp, annoying noise cut into Michael’s train of thought. A cough? Tilly! He pulled back from Carissa’s lips as if he’d been stung, but he couldn’t make his body let her go. He took two deep breaths, trying to regain his control. Oh, she was so soft, and warm, and fit him in all the right places. He took another deep breath and shut his eyes. He pulled his hands away from her and stepped back.

“Bathroom.” Michael turned and beat a hasty retreat to Carissa’s en suite bathroom. He had to put something solid between himself and Carissa before he physically tossed Tilly out of Carissa’s room and took advantage of every flat surface he could find.

Ignoring everything else in the room, Michael made a beeline for the large, glass stall in the corner and turned the water on, full blast, as cold as he could get it. Maybe if he got it cold enough, that reptilian part of his mind screaming
Mine!
would shut up for a bit. Then again, probably not.

10

The floor rose up to meet Carissa’s butt as her knees buckled under her.
Wow!
was the only thought that flickered through her short-circuited brain. She had been kissed before, but it never tingled like that! It wouldn’t be surprising if she were leaving puddles on the floor. That would be fun to explain to the maid.

Carissa looked up to find Tilly standing in the doorway, fanning herself with her hand as she stared across the bedroom to the closed bathroom door. Michael had definitely made a lasting impression on her.

Slowly coming to her senses, Tilly turned back and reached her hand down to help Carissa to her feet.

Carissa wasn’t surprised when Tilly leaned in to retrieve her voice; her best friend would definitely have some choice words to say right about now.

“Ooh, Carissa Elise Markel, what have you done?” Tilly looked back at the bathroom. The sound of running water announced the shower Michael was enjoying.

Oh, just the thought of him naked and wet made Carissa’s knees weaken again. She had gotten a stellar view of him before he recalled his lack of clothing and snatched up something to hide under. She had a new favorite pillow now! Carissa shook that thought away and concentrated on Tilly. Her best friend was still looking at the bathroom door as if she wanted to break it down and join the man in the shower.

A pang of green shot through Carissa, startling her. Was she jealous of her best friend? She shook the thought away and reached out to touch Tilly, pulling her thoughts away from the bathroom. Now it was time to play swap the voice. This would be so much easier if she had thought to borrow Michael’s before he’d dashed off.

“I told you they were marvelous misadventures,” Carissa said as she took Tilly’s voice again and turned back to her clothing. At least one of them should be dressed by the time he came back out, and since Michael would be stuck wrapped in a towel… Carissa liked the idea of him traipsing around her room in just a towel, or less. She shook her head, getting back to her story, and told Tilly about their harrowing escape as she dressed.

“You turned him into a dragon?” Tilly gasped as soon as she could. She looked back at the shut door again.

Carissa had noticed Tilly kept doing that every time Michael was mentioned. Sure, he was nice, with those sculpted muscles and light dusting of fine hair. She tingled just thinking about the way he had pulled her against him. Okay, so he was more than just nice—he was panty-drenching hot! But that didn’t mean she wanted her friend thinking about him all wet and steamy in the shower…

Tilly’s voice cut into Carissa’s drool-worthy moment. “Do you understand what you’ve done?”

Seeing that Carissa had completely missed it, Tilly repeated her question.

Carissa just stared at her.

“You know the history of dragons.”

Sure
, Carissa nodded at her. Everyone knew the mythical beginnings of dragons.

“A king prayed to the gods to give him the power to protect his people,” Tilly recited. “They gave him the power to turn into a golden dragon.”

Carissa nodded. The old story was where she’d gotten the idea to make Michael a dragon.

Tilly ignored her and went on. “The king shared his power with four of his most loyal knights, creating four more colors: black, red, green, and blue.”

Yes, this was well-known lore. Carissa glared at Tilly, hoping she would get to the point soon.

Tilly came to her point. “Carissa, there are no white dragons. How can Michael be white, if there are no white dragons?”

Carissa wanted to point out that his scales weren’t exactly white. They were iridescent like all dragon scales, but they lacked pigment, making them translucent. They only looked white from a distance. But, that didn’t matter. There were no translucent dragons, either. Carissa just shrugged instead.

“And, not to beat the subject to death, but you
made
him a
dragon!
” Tilly punctuated her words by tapping her nail on the arm of the loveseat they had settled on. “People have been trying to change others into dragons for centuries with no success, and you just thought, ‘Oh, I need a dragon,’ and
bam
, he’s a dragon? And white! Was his hair always white?” Tilly looked back over to the closed door. Michael had been in there a long time.

“No.” Carissa borrowed Tilly’s voice again. “That’s new.” She had been rather shocked to see the change in his hair when he’d regained his human form. The lovely, chocolate-brown hair was so white it was nearly silver. A stolen glance south of his navel had proven that it wasn’t just the hair on his head that had changed. That was going to be a shocker for him. Carissa glanced over to the bathroom door. Maybe she should check on him to make sure he hadn’t passed out or something.

Tilly waved to get Carissa’s attention again.

“I don’t know how I turned him into a dragon,” Carissa finally admitted with a sigh, answering Tilly’s unasked question. “I just knew that we needed to get out of there, and he wasn’t going to be of any help.”

Tilly made kissing noises and shook her head.

“I know. I should never have gotten my mouth near his, but hindsight’s twenty-twenty. We’ve all made stupid mistakes. This one just happens to take the cake.” Carissa hung her head and sighed again. “We just have to get through it.” She closed her eyes and asked herself,
But, how?

***

The marble countertop was the only thing keeping Michael from falling over as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. Silvery hair and crystal-blue eyes stared back at him. He reached up to stretch out a lock so his eyes could see it directly. Yup, so white it was almost silver. Even his grandmother didn’t have hair quite that color. Dropping his towel away, he checked out the rest of him to see if there were any other changes. All of his hair had gone silvery white.
Great…
At least he didn’t have scales or a tail anymore. That reptilian part of his brain piped up that it liked its tail and scales.

“No you don’t,” Michael said sternly to his reflection. That was just going to win him awards for sanity, arguing with a bit of his brain that wanted to think for itself. That bit had given him all sorts of splendid ideas as he froze himself in the shower. Most of them consisted of parts of his anatomy and ways he could use them on Carissa. Even the frigid water hadn’t done much for his state of arousal.

The shock of white hair had caught his attention in the mirror, but it was the crystal-blue eyes that drew him in. He had always had rich, chocolate-brown eyes. He liked his eyes. How could they have changed? Hell, how had he shifted into a dragon?

That little bit of brain snickered at him.
Mine!
did it.

“And how do you know that?” he growled at his reflection. Yup, definitely going for a psych eval as soon as he cleared his name.

That reptilian part uncurled a little, and memories flooded his mind. The feel of Carissa’s mouth feeding him water in the dungeon. The heat boiling in him as she pressed him into the wall.

Oh God, she
had
done something to him. The question was—could it be undone?

Michael grabbed up his towel and twisted it around his waist again. He needed answers. She’d gotten hers, now it was high time Carissa gave
him
a few.

Storming through the door, Michael looked around the room. Carissa and Tilly were perched on a loveseat in the little sitting area. Dropping himself into one of the overstuffed armchairs next to them, he studied the two women. They had fallen silent when he’d come out. Taking a deep breath, Michael turned his attention to Carissa. God, she looked lovely in that fitted T-shirt and jeans.
Mine!
He shook the thought away and focused. “I just have one question.” Michael pinned Carissa with his eyes. “How did I turn into a dragon?” Then, a better question hit him. “No, better yet, can you fix whatever you did?” He could tell the answer by the sorrow that crept into her eyes.

“No.” Carissa shook her head. “It can’t be undone.”

The finality of her words made that reptilian part of his brain wiggle about happily. “Great. So I’m stuck with this peanut gallery in my head,” Michael huffed, shaking his head to silence his wayward bit.

“Peanut gallery?” Carissa asked, sounding worried.

“I’ve got this
voice
,” Michael tapped an area just behind his right ear, “tucked away in the back of my head that keeps giving me running commentary on everything.”

Carissa exchanged worried looks with Tilly.

Great, now they thought he was crazy. Could this day get any better?

Having come to some silent agreement, Carissa turned back to him. “If I had to venture a guess, I would say it was your brain’s way of dealing with the instincts you’ve gained.”

Tilly nodded her agreement with Carissa’s words.

“Either that, or I’ve gone schizophrenic,” Michael snarked.

“Maybe a little.” Carissa chuckled at his jest. “But, I would listen when that voice spoke.”

“If I’d listened to that voice, I wouldn’t have had to run out all of your cold water.” Michael glared at her. “And we wouldn’t be sitting here talking. Moaning, maybe, but definitely not talking.” His blood pooled below his towel just thinking about some of the suggestions his brain had given him.

Color rushed up Carissa’s face as she caught on to his less-than-proper meaning.

“Sorry,” he grumbled, looking away from her.
Damn it!
He fidgeted in his chair, trying to get his mind away from the feel of her skin against his. He wasn’t some dumb teenager with his first dirty magazine.

“It’s all right.” Carissa sighed. “You’re brooding.”

This shocked Michael into looking at her. “
What?
” he snapped.

“You’re brooding,” she answered calmly.

“No. No.
No
. Kids brood. Teenagers brood. Adults do not
brood
,” Michael denied.

Tilly actually laughed at him, earning her a glare.

“Adults
do
brood,” Carissa explained. “Usually, males only brood when around females during their fertile periods, but your hormone levels are all over the place.”

“Great.” Michael threw up his hands and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. “Why don’t you just call the king and have him lock me up now?” It would be safer that way. A dragon wacked out on hormones could be a danger to himself and every female in a hundred miles. He had seen the kinds of damage an out-of-control dragon could cause.

“I don’t see a need for that,” Carissa soothed him. “You’re system is probably just overproducing due to stress. Give it a few days, and it should settle out.”

“I don’t have a few days,” Michael pointed out. “The longer I take to come forwards, the harder it’s going to be to prove my innocence.”

“Then we had best get started.” Carissa changed the subject. “How do you plan on proving your innocence?”

Now this was a topic Michael felt he could handle. He sat up straighter in his chair as he spoke. “Something about the information I’d been collecting didn’t sit well with me, so I mailed out a copy to go over with a friend later. I figured a fresh set of eyes on the problem might solve it easier.” Michael was now glad he had thought of that.

“So, all we have to do is get out of here, find this file, and take it to Daniel.” Carissa nodded as she thought about the plan.

“There is no ‘we’ here,” Michael pointed out. “I need to get the file and take it to Daniel. There’s no reason for you to get more involved.” He finally agreed with that reptilian part of his brain. He was not going to put her in possible danger again.

“Let me remind you of your situation.” Carissa pinned him with a stern look, crossing her arms just under her chest. “You’re a full-grown dragon who doesn’t know the first thing about being a dragon, in the middle of a brooding.”

She might have a point there.

“Think wild mood swings, uncontrollable urges, and top it off with not knowing how to switch between forms.”

Okay, that one hit it on the head.

“You need help.”

Michael stared at her, wanting to deny this fact. He had worked hard to earn his place in Eternity, and it hurt his pride to admit that he needed help—especially from someone with such perfect breasts. Did she have to push them up like that? It made it hard for him to think. “All right,” Michael caved. “You have a valid point.” He had also learned to admit to his limits before they got him killed. “Any ideas?”

Carissa grinned at him. “Maybe.”

Oh, crap. What had he just started?