Page 4 of The Black Dragon
2
He was the prisoner,and she the jailer. Safe behind bars, Justin the black dragon could not hurther.
But he could answer questions. The ache of constant lonelinesseased.
“What’s it like to explore the world and meet people from other lands?” Ariel wrapped herfingers around the bars again. “Have you seen much ofit?”
Justin nodded. “There are wonders you cannot imagine, little bird. Exotic people with intriguing customs, flat plains filled with bounty, tall mountains where snow leopards snarl and mate, and ships that sail bluewaters.”
He gave a lazy stretch. “Since I turned seventeen, I have traveled around the globe, seeking what ithas to offer. I would be doing so now if I werefree.”
Tilting his head, he frowned. “So what is your excuse for stayinghere?”
Ariel hesitated. What irony to possess a name indicating flight when she’d been grounded for life. Justin was a stranger. A male captured for hismagick.
I will never see him again once he is setfree.
For once she longed to share her realself with someone else. Ariel never talked about herself with anyone else. She’d practiced long and hard to ensure even the cleverest of Others thought her as normal, if notslow.
Ariel removed her hand-tooled leather boots and socks. She stood and unzipped her jeans, pulling them down past her hips and then shrugged out ofthem.
A deep laugh rumbled from Justin’s throat. “Changeyour mind about losing your innocence? I would enjoy obliging you, little bird, but I am restricted by thesechains.”
Ignoring the droll remark, she unfastened the hated, but necessary prosthetic limb that allowed her mobility, but never true freedom. Ariel set itaside.
Eyes dry, she stared at the leg ending in a stump just above her leftankle.
“I don’t need nor want pity.No one outside these walls knows I’m acripple.”
She had not heard him move, nor the chains clink. Ariel hopped backward. This was a dangerous dragon, inclined tostealth.
But Justin made no additional moves toward her, only studied her stump. “Did ithurt?”
Blinking, she shook her head. “I have no memory of it. My father said I passed out. When I woke up, I was in the hospital.But even afterward, the most powerful of healers could do nothing to bring back myfoot.”
“Can I feelit?”
Shock pummeled her. She’d expected revulsion, not avid curiosity. “No.”
“I promise I will not hurt you.” His voice turned unexpectedlygentle.
No one had ever seen her stump before, let alone drawn close toit.
No man had ever seen her this bare andexposed.
Driven by a desperate compulsion to break free of her shame, Ariel unlocked the door and hopped into Justin’s cell. She sat close to him, close enough for him to touch her, but within easy reach of thedoor.
His hand felt gentle on her skin, the touch soothing and yet erotic as he stroked a thumb over the place where a foot should be. Justin touched her where no man had ever seenbefore.
I wonder what his hands would feel like on my body? Between mylegs?
Flushing, she banished thethought.
Dark brown eyes searched her face. “Do you want to tell me how ithappened?”
Ariel struggled with her emotions. She gave a brittle laugh, her nerves like fragile glass. “Car accident. My mother was killed. I was in the back seat and my foot wedged beneaththe seat and crushed. I wasfourteen.”
“My parents were killed in a car crash when I was twelve,” he saidslowly.
