Page 37 of Fence

15

Ciera

I blinked rapidlyas every thought I ever had dissolved and left my brain empty.

Did he just say that?

Was I imagining what I wanted to hear? That had to be it. No way he loved me. I was tired and foggy-headed and confused.

But the way he looked at me…

Like he meant it.

“What did you just say? The last part. Can you repeat it, please?”

The ghost of a smile touched his handsome face. “I said I love you,” he replied.

Hearing it again didn’t make it any more believable. I wondered why it was so hard for me to believe he meant it. There was no reason to lie. Telling me he wanted me to go with him for the sake of my safety was enough. I knew that once I had the time to think it over, leaving would make sense. I didn’t have any desire to meet up with anyone strong enough to take down an entire clan of dragon shifters.

Are you really entertaining the possibility that any of this is true? My rational mind still refused to acknowledge the existence of such a thing. I wanted more than anything to tell him I felt the same way he did.

I loved him. My heart was so full of love, I was sure it would crack open. My hands ached to touch him. My body ached to feel him all over me. There was just that one thing still standing between us. The ability to believe that what he said was possible.

Instead of telling him I loved him, too, I asked, “Can you do something for me?”

* * *

“You’resure you won’t get into any trouble for doing this?” I looked around, suddenly worried. The woods were thick, and we hadn’t come across anything even remotely resembling a campfire or tents or anything that would warn us of the presence of outsiders.

“I’m sure. Once I take to the air, no one will be able to see me, anyway.” He peeled off his jacket, folding it before placing it on the ground.

“How’s that possible?”

“An enchantment granted us; we’re invisible to human eyes while in flight.”

I could only shake my head in wonder. If he was making it up, he was doing a good job of it. He hadn’t so much as hesitated to answer a single question I’d thrown his way.

He crossed his arms over his abdomen and took the hem of his sweater in his hands, then lifted. I forgot how to breathe as he revealed himself to me—eight-pack abs, chiseled pecs, biceps that looked more like bowling balls than muscles. I swallowed hard when saliva flooded my mouth.

“You okay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Define okay.”

He only chuckled knowingly as he kicked off his shoes and lowered his pants. I was halfway through licking my lips before I noticed I was doing it. It was better for me to look away and let him get on with it before somebody found us.

“You’re ready for this?” he asked.

I glanced up briefly, just enough to see that he was completely, gloriously naked, and nodded. My heart raced almost sickeningly fast. I was about to see something that shouldn’t be possible. Something I wouldn’t have believed only a few days earlier.

The shift happened quickly. One second, he was Fence, with an almost obscenely perfect body, perfect enough to stir deep, dark longing in my core. The next, he threw back his head and threw his arms out to the sides before falling forward, on all fours. His body lengthened, wings unfolded themselves from his shoulder blades, his skin turned to shining, amber scales.

Before me stood a full-grown, magnificent dragon with eyes the color of black coffee. Just like Fence’s.

“It’s all real,” I whispered, not sure if I should laugh or cry or both. He was real. Everything he’d told me was real. I wrung my hands, wanting to touch him but almost afraid to. Was he in there? Did he think as himself when he was the dragon?

When he lowered his head until his chin nearly touched the ground, exposing his long, graceful neck, I knew he was inviting me to touch him.

I heard the heavy, deep breath coming from nostrils nearly as large as I was tall and reminded myself that I was still dealing with a beast—a very large, very powerful beast—but it was a beast with Fence’s heart. And he’d sworn he would never hurt me.

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