"Yes."
She smiled even wider. "One who can never stray?"
"Never."
She forced him to lie back on the ground as she straddled his waist and leaned forward on her arms so that her face was just a few inches above his. She felt his hard erection through his pants, pressing against her core. How she wanted him. But first she wanted to make sure she understood all the consequences.
"You know," she said, "it's real hard to say no to this. What downside could there possibly be?"
He shifted his hips under hers, making her burn for him as he tucked a stray piece of her hair back behind her ear. Still, he didn't touch her, and she knew he was leaving it all up to her now.
"The Katagaria who want me dead," he said seriously. "They will never cease coming for us, and because I am banished, it will only be the two of us to fight them off. Our children will be Arcadian and not human, and they, too, will have to battle the Katagaria. But most important, you will have to remain here in the Middle Ages."
"Why?"
"Because of the electricity in your time period. Arcadians who are natural animals such as hawks, panthers, wolves, bears, and such can live in your world. If they are accidentally changed, their animal forms are small or normal enough to hide from humans."
"But if you become a dragon, then we have a Godzilla movie."
"Exactly. And in your time period, there are plenty of tasers and electrical devices that can completely incapacitate me. No offense, but I don't relish being someone's science experiment. Been there, done that, and sold the T-shirt for profit."
She sat up straight, still straddling him, as she digested all of this.
The man offered her the deal of a lifetime.
Sebastian watched her carefully. It was taking all his restraint to keep his hands off her when all he wanted to do was make love to her. He'd told her everything. Now it was up to her, and he trembled with the fear that she would leave him.
She took his hands in hers and held them to her waist. "Our babies will be normal, right?"
"Perfectly normal. They will age like human children
with the only exception being that they won't be teenagers until their twenties."
"And that's a drawback?"
He laughed.
"Oh, by the way, you're no longer banished."
Sebastian scowled. "What?"
"While they were torturing Damos, the Katagaria admitted that they had tricked you so they could get the tapestry from Antiphone. But she refused to let them have it."
"Why? What was so important about it?"
"Unfortunately nothing, but they believed that it contained the secret for immortality. It seems Katagaria legend had it that the granddaughter of their creator had placed his secrets into the work she'd created to honor him. They captured Damos, thinking he had it, and when they found out you alone knew where it was, they arranged the bargain with you."
"My sister died for no reason?"
"Sh," she said, placing her hand over his lips. "Just be glad the truth is out and the tapestry is safe. Damos wants to make the past up to you."
Sebastian couldn't believe it. After all this time, his banishment was lifted?
That meant a real home for Channon where she would be safe. A home where their children would be safe.
Channon laid her body down over his and breathed him in. "Which means you're no longer alone, Sebastian. You don't really need me."
"That's not true. I need you more than I've ever needed anything else. My heart was dead until I looked into your eyes."
He cupped her face in his hands. "I want you to Claim me, Channon," he said fiercely. "I want to spend the rest of my life waking up with you in my arms and feeling your hair in my palm."
She choked as he used her words. He'd heard her. "I want you, too."
Laughing, he rolled over with her, pinning her to the ground and letting her feel every hard, wonderful inch of his body.
They kissed each other in a frenzied hurry as they helped one another out of their clothes.
Channon pulled back as their naked bodies slid against each other. "Does it count if we do this in a dream?"
"This isn't really a dream. It's an alternate place."
"You know, you scare me when you talk like that."
He smiled at her. "I have much to teach you about my world."
"And I am willing to learn it all." Channon kissed those delectable lips as she wrapped her bare legs around his. She felt his erection against her hip, and it made her burn with need.
"Axe you sure about this?" he asked, nibbling his way along her jaw. "You'll be giving up all your future Buffy episodes."
She drew her breath in sharply between her teeth as she thought it over. "I have to tell you, it's a hard decision to make. Watching Spike prance around and be all Spikey, versus a couple hundred years of making love to a Greek god." She clucked her tongue. "What is a woman to do?"
She moaned as he ran his tongue around her ear and whispered, "What can I do to sway your verdict?"
"That's a real good start right there." She sighed as her body erupted into chills and he dipped his head to torment her breast with his hot mouth. "I guess I'll just have to find another pastime to television watching."
"I think I can help you with that." He rolled over again to place her on top of him.
The intensity of his stare scalded her.
'Tradition demands you be in charge of this, my lady. The whole idea behind the Claiming is that the woman places her life and her trust into the hands of her mate.
Once you accept me, the animal inside me will do whatever it takes to keep you safe."
"Like when you turned into a dragon in front of all those people?"
He nodded.
She smiled. "You know it's a pity I didn't know you in third grade. There was this bully—"
He cut her words off with a kiss.
"Mmm," she breathed. "I like that. Now, where were we?"
She nibbled her way down his chin to his chest.
Sebastian growled as she found his nipple and teased it with her tongue and lips. He felt his powers surging again, felt the air around them charging with the force of it.
Channon felt it, too. She moaned as the energy moved around her body, caressing her.
Sebastian held his left hand up. The mark in his palm glowed and shimmered. Looking into his eyes, Channon covered his mark with hers and laced her fingers with his.
Heat engulfed her entire body as she felt something hot and demanding rush through her. She saw the beast in his eyes and the man as he breathed raggedly.
It was the sexiest thing she'd ever beheld.
Arching her back, she lifted her hips and took him deep into her body.
They moaned in unison.
She watched Sebastian's face as she slowly ground herself against him. "Urn, I forgot the words."
He laughed as he lifted his hips, driving himself so deep into her that she groaned. "I accept you as you are."
"Oh," she breathed, then remembering what she was doing, she repeated his words. "I accept you as you are."
"And I will always hold you close to my heart."
"Umm, hmmm. I will most definitely hold you close to my heart."
"I will walk beside you forever."
She placed her hand on his chest, over his heart. "I will walk beside you forever."
His eyes turned eerily dark. He reached up with his free hand and cupped her cheek. His voice was a deep, low growl, a cross between the voice of the dragon and the voice of the man. "I accept you as you are, and I will always hold you close to my heart. I will walk beside you forever."
He'd barely finished the words before his teeth grew long and sharp and his eyes darkened to the color of obsidian.
"Sebastian?"
"Don't be afraid," he said as he bared his fangs. "It's the dragon wanting to bond with you, but I have control of it."
"And if I want to bond with you?"
He hesitated. "Do you understand what you're doing?"
Channon paused with him inside her and locked gazes with him. "I've lived alone all my life, Sebastian. I don't want to do it another day."
He sat up, keeping them joined.
Channon hissed at how good he felt as she wrapped her free arm around his waist and he pulled her against him with his.
She lifted her hips, then dropped herself down on him.
"That's it, love, claim me as yours." Sebastian let her ride him slowly as he waited for more of his powers to return. He needed to be in total control for this.
Their marked hands still joined, he held her close to him so that he could feel her heart beating in rapid time to his.
When he was certain his powers were perfectly aligned, he leaned his head forward and sank his teeth gently into her neck.
Channon shivered at the feeling of his hot breath and teeth on her, but oddly enough, there was no pain at all. Instead, it was an erotic pleasure so intense that her entire
body exploded into a sensation of colors and sound. Her head fell back as she felt the strength of him moving through her, the smell of him engulfing her. It was electrifying and terrifying.
Her sight grew sharper and clearer, and she felt her teeth elongate.
Growling, she knew instinctively what she was supposed to do. She clutched feverishly at his shoulders, pulling herself up in his arms. Then she leaned forward and sank her teeth into his shoulder.
For an instant, time stood still with them locked together. Channon couldn't breathe as her body and mind joined his in a place she'd never known existed. It was just the two of them. Just their hearts beating, their bodies joining.
Sebastian hissed as he felt their bonding. The air around them sizzled and spun as they came together in an orgasm so intense, so powerful, that they cried out in unison.
Panting and weak from it, he kissed her lips, holding her to him as he felt her teeth recede.
"That was incredible," she said, still clutching him to her.
He smiled. 'Too bad it's a one-time thing."
"Really?"
He nodded. "You're fully human again. Except you have a long life ahead of you."
She bit her lip and gave him a hot, promising look. "And my own pet dragon."
"Aye, my lady. And you can pet him any time you want."
She laughed at him. "You know, since the moment I saw you, I keep having this strange feeling that all of this is just some weird dream."
"Well, if it is, I don't want to wake up."
"Neither do I, my love. Neither do I."
Two years later
Channon left the podium, her heart pounding in triumph. Every historian in the room had been left completely speechless by the paper and research she had just delivered to them. She'd done the one thing she'd always wanted to do.
She'd solved the mystery of the tapestry, which now hung back in the museum.
"Brilliant research, Dr. Kattalakis," Dr. Lazarus said, shaking her hand as she left the podium. "Completely ground-breaking. This takes us into a whole new area."
"Thank you."
She tried to step past him, but he cut her off.
"How ever did you find those answers? I mean that Book of Dragons, you said it was from the Library of Alexandria. How did you ever find it?"
She looked past his shoulder to see Sebastian leaning
against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, waiting patiently for her. Dressed all in black, he cut a fearsome pose.
Still, she missed seeing him in his armor. Something about the mail over those luscious muscles ...
She needed to get back home. Real soon.
She returned her attention to Dr. Lazarus and his questions.
The Book of Dragons had been her birthday present from Sebastian last year. He said he'd swiped it the day before the fire that burned the ancient library. With that book and Antiphone's tapestry, she had been able to concoct an entire mythology based on his people that was guaranteed to keep any "experts" from ever discovering the truth of the Draki people.
The Arcadian Draki were safe from human curiosity.
'The book was found in an estate sale. I've handed it over to the Richmond Museum." She patted his arm. "Now, if you'll please excuse me?"
She sidestepped him.
But before she could reach Sebastian, Dr. Herter stopped her. "Have you reconsidered coming back to work?"
She shook her head. "No, sir. I told you, I'm retired."
"But after that paper you just delivered—"
"I'm going home." She handed him the pages in her hand. "Publish it and be happy."
