Page 25 of To Ignite a Dragon's Desire

Her head rested against the back of my shoulder.

A little faster…my dragon conceded.

It seemed my mate did want to fly.

∞

“How was that?” I asked, removing her helmet.

Riley’s smile was bright as she tried to tame her wild hair. “It was all right. I used to ride dirt bikes…” Her voice trailed off as her smile fell. “A lifetime ago.”

My mate’s surprises knew no bounds.

“I hardly think it was that long ago,” I teased, excited to be given this new tidbit.

“Oh yeah, I forgot you were ancient.” Riley smiled again and my heart soared. “When I was a kid I used to ride dirt bikes and quads with my friends during the summer. It’s been long enough that I’d almost forgotten.”

“You can drive us back then. I’ll help you remember the basics.” I put the helmets in the empty saddlebags.

“Maybe.” Riley chewed her lip as she looked around the deserted parking lot. “Where are we?”

A tumbleweed blew across the asphalt.

The sun’s heat beat against the distant sand.

“Nevada.” I placed my hand on her lower back, guiding her toward the old shopping mall. “Just outside of Reno.”

“This is crazy. I’ve never been so far south.” The wonder in her voice did something to me.

If she wanted to travel, I’d take her anywhere, even further south than this. The laws of the land and the prophecy had no hold on me anymore. My only job now was to spoil my mate.

I was calling it early retirement—and glad to experience this before the end.

We can’t leave him, though.

The bitter anguish was a sharp reminder.

I turned to Riley, discreetly inhaling her invigorating, spicy scent.

It revived me in a way nothing else could.

“Is there anything in particular you need?” I asked.

“Is anything still open?” Riley frowned as she looked at the darkened windows and chains on the doors. Trash blew against the walls on the south side of the mostly abandoned building.

“A few stores,” I said.

The pain in her eyes was old enough that I had trouble remembering how young she really was. She’d witnessed her generation’s decline and would mourn seeing a once thriving marketplace become a ghostly shell with limited options.

Me? I’d seen the rise and fall of nations and had fought in battles on both sides.

If this was the end, I planned to go out in a blaze of glory, living life exactly the way I wanted with whatever time I had left and enjoying the bits of existence hard enough to survive the downfall.

And protecting what was mine.

Riley’s phone pinged with an incoming message. Her pulse quickened as she looked at the screen.

“Who is that?” I kept my tone casual, feeling anything but. If something worried her, I’d—

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