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.