Jim nosed aside a bit of parsley garnish. “Yeah. I’m not going to eat this green stuff. It smells funky.”

“It’s parsley, and it wouldn’t hurt you to eat it. Since Kostya has that look on his face that says he’s getting tired of answering questions—”

“I am always tired of answering questions.”

“—then let’s you and I go see how the rich people fly.” I stood up and started for the door Kostya had indicated, but paused and glanced over my shoulder at him. “What are you going to do?”

“Plan,” was all he said.

I thought about saying several things to that but decided that none of them were going to be well received and, with Jim at my side, retired to the bedroom.

It was every bit as decadent as I expected, with its own bathroom en suite (complete with marble counters and a surprisingly large shower) and comfy bed. There was also a second, smaller room leading off the bedroom with another couch, a couple of captain’s chairs, and a flat-screen TV.

“Oooh, DVDs,” Jim said, nosing through them. “Hot damn, they have the original cast version of Hair. Put it on for me, would you?”

“All right, but I don’t want you singing along with it,” I warned, slipping the DVD into the player. “No freaking out the normal people, remember.”

“Gotcha,” the demon dog said, flopping down on the couch, his eyes on the screen. “Hoo baby, naked boobies. I love this movie!”

“I’d tell you that it is beyond strange for a dog to be ogling women’s breasts, but you go so far beyond strange that it’s not even possible to form that sentence. Besides, I thought you lost your memory—how do you know that you love Hair?”

“Beats me. I just do. Hubba hubba for boobies,” he said, one paw tapping along with the opening music.

“I just… there are no words.” I shook my head, dismissing the strangeness that was Jim. “Stay put and stay silent.”

I closed the door to the room and turned around, wondering if I should take a shower first or climb into bed and catch up on some of the sleep I’d been missing. “Shower,” I decided, and went into the bathroom to eyeball the facilities. There was a basket of sample toiletries and a stack of super-fluffy green-and-white towels, but there was one big issue that I didn’t think the amenities covered. I thought for a moment, then went out to the main part of the plane, where Kostya was sitting with a tablet of paper and a pencil, making notes about something. He looked up as I approached. I eyed the flight attendant, judging that she was far enough away to speak.

“Can you magic up some new clothes for me?”

He just stared at me.

“I take it that’s a no?”

The martyred look that I was coming to know very well took over his face. “I am a wyvern, Aoife. I have no magical abilities. I can’t create clothing out of nothing.”

“But you can shape-shift.”

“That is not magic. That is what dragons are.”

I let that point go, since I doubted if he’d understand that to everyone else in the world, dragons were magical beings. “I figured it was worth a try. I’m going to take a shower and thought it would be nice to have some clean clothes to change into, but if you can’t do magic stuff like that, then I guess I’ll just cope with what I have.”

“I will get you new clothing in Paris,” he said, looking back at his pad of paper.

I thought for a moment, decided that since the rules were different now, I could do things that I might not normally do, and then said, “It’s too bad I’m not your mate, because if I was, I’d invite you to take a shower with me.”

The pencil snapped in half. “We do not have to be mated to enjoy showers together,” he said, standing, his eyes suddenly so full of heat I swear they started my blood boiling.

“No, but I’ve never been the sort of girl who’d throw herself at a man she just met. Now, if you were my wyvern, then that could be excused,” I said, and immediately was ashamed of myself. Kostya had taken a step toward me, obviously all eager anticipation, when my words hit him.

He froze, his face an unreadable mask.

“Oh, Kostya, I’m sorry. I should never have said that.” I recognized the pain in his eyes: betrayal was in there, as were suspicion and self-doubt. I’d seen those very same emotions in the mirror, and I knew what pain accompanied them. Without considering what I was doing, I wrapped my arms around him, saying into his neck, “That was wrong of me to say. I’m not offering myself to you conditionally, and I’m not saying you can only join me in the shower if you say I’m your mate. I’m afraid the truth is much worse—I’m just shameless enough to want you to join me regardless of that, although I expect that now that I’ve put my foot in my mouth, you won’t want to have anything to do with me, and honestly, I couldn’t blame you—aieee!”

He scooped me up in his arms without regard to the flight attendant puttering around the cabin or the fact that he had a broken collarbone earlier that morning.

Ten

“Sweet salty balls, Kostya! You aren’t doing this!”

“I am,” he said calmly, entering the bedroom and using his foot to close the door behind him. “You desire me. You just stated that you do, and since I have no objection to fulfilling those desires, then yes, I am carrying you into the bedroom. Where is Jim?”

I wanted to smack him on the shoulder, but just in case his collarbone was still a bit ouchie, I contented myself with pinching his arm. “I never once said I desire you! I simply invited you to take a shower with me. Maybe you stink, and I wanted to get you clean—did you ever think of that?”

One eyebrow rose a quarter of an inch.

“Fine,” I told him, annoyed that he’d called my bluff. “You don’t smell, but that God’s-gift-to-the-world attitude really rankles, Kostya. You could take a hit or two from the humility bat, you know that? Oh, all right, put me down. I don’t want you hurting yourself by hauling me all over the place.”

He set me down onto the bed and, having ignored most of what I said, announced, “We will have sex, and then when you are sated, I will return to making plans.”

I squinted at him, refusing to allow my body to be distracted when he started to matter-of-factly remove his clothing. “You think so, huh? I sure hope you didn’t talk to your ex-girlfriend in that condescending and arrogant way, because if you did, then I’m going to have to switch sides and sympathize with her.”