“Right now, for instance,” I said, nibbling on his earlobe. “What do you feel?”

He was silent for a moment, his hands tightening on my hips. “Aroused. Powerful. Dominant but protective. Do that last thing again.”

I nipped the underside of his chin. He growled again.

“That just makes me… it’s difficult to put into words. It’s like what I felt before I was changed, only magnified by a power of ten.” He closed his eyes for a moment, his chest moving against my fingers as he drew in deep breaths. “I can smell the scent of you, wildflowers in a sunny meadow teasing me and raising my temperature. There’s a fire deep inside me and when you are near, when you touch me, it courses through my blood, setting me alight with the need to claim you.”

“Wow,” I said, marveling at all of that. When he opened his eyes, the gold flecks were glittering brightly. “That’s really amazing. I had no idea about any of that. It explains a lot about your behavior with the other dragons, too.”

He made a face. “I have a feeling I should apologize for my bad manners, but every time I think about them, I feel exactly the same sense of antagonism.”

“That’s okay. I think you’ll get a handle on your dragonish emotions in time.” I slipped out of his embrace and moved over to the end table, opening a little drawer in its side. “Mrs. P gave me something earlier to show you. Before you say anything, I’m perfectly aware that she must have lifted this from someone, and I’m going to give it to the captain so he can return it to its proper owner. But Mrs. P said you would enjoy seeing it.”

“It’s not an adult toy, is it?” he asked, looking faintly startled.

“No, no, she hasn’t stolen one of those since the trip from L.A. to Munich.” I pulled out the gold watch from the drawer and went to Rowan with it, holding it up so he could see it. “It’s a watch.”

The reaction was instantaneous—the red flecks in his eyes glowed scarlet. His whole body stiffened, and red scales rippled up his arms to his elbows. His nostrils flared and a tiny wisp of smoke curled out of his mouth.

“Gold,” he said on a breath.

“Mrs. P said gold acts like an aphrodisiac to dragons. I can see some of that—I mean, I think it’s nice and I like to touch it, but…” My words trailed off when Rowan made a noise deep in his chest.

“Run.”

“What?” I gazed at him, wondering if I’d heard him correctly.

“Run,” he said more loudly, his teeth clenched together.

“Why? Run where? For what purpose?”

He closed his eyes for a second as if he was struggling to maintain control. “It’s a sexual thing. I must chase you. Run now.”

The light dawned on me. “Ohhh, that sort of run. I thought you meant to go for a jog or something.”

Rowan’s chest heaved, a pained expression on his face. “For the love of all that’s holy, run, woman, run!”

“All right.” I trotted to the door, went through it, and got three steps down the hall before a question struck me. I returned to the cabin and asked, “Where am I running to?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he snapped, his entire body rigid. “Just run!”

“But there isn’t really anywhere private to go that others couldn’t find,” I pointed out. “Assuming, that is, that you’ll want to have wild, steamy dragon sex as soon as you catch me. If you tell me where you want to find me, I can go there and wait.”

An odd mixture of frustration, anguish, and humor twisted across his face. He closed his eyes and I could see his lips move as he silently counted to twelve. “Run, Sophea. Anywhere. Just run if you want me to survive the next few minutes.”

“Gotcha.”

I left the room, and this time made it to the upper floor before I paused, trying to decide if it was worth enraging him to ask if he wanted me to lead him on a chase through the ship before ending up in our shared room.

“The only stupid question is the one not asked,” I told myself, and returned to our floor. I had just put my hand on the doorknob when the door was yanked open, Rowan standing in the doorway, his eyes blazing, and half the room alight with dragon fire.

“RUN!” he roared, and I swear to the goddess the glass in the portholes rattled. His image seemed to shimmer and blur, just the way the air did before the First Dragon showed up. And for a fraction of a second, for a fraction of that fraction, Rowan’s image shifted to that of a red dragon. It was so quick that I wondered if I had even seen it.

My brain didn’t wonder. It registered the fact that there was an impossibly scary thing roaring and smoking and setting fire to everything right there in front of me, and instantly I was running, racing down the hallway, leaping down flights of stairs so fast it was all a blur to me.

All my mind knew was that something big and bad was out there, and I was in its sights.

The very bottom level of the ship was given over to the engines, the electrical works, and things like a minuscule laundry and a kitchen. As I tore down the hallways, careening around corners, I scattered apologies behind me to all the ship’s staff whom I crashed into. My ears were deafened to all but one sound: Rowan.

I heard him even as I ran up the employees’ staircase at the aft of the ship, a small, narrow, dimly lit metal structure that heightened the sound of a man pounding down the passage behind me.

It was exhilarating, this chase, and yet at the same time scary as hell. I wanted to tell Rowan to stop it instantly, while begging him to do it every single night. I was just wondering how long it would take me to get back up to our cabin when I rounded a corner and caught sight of a figure just behind me.

I screamed and flung myself at the nearest door, which was, luckily, unlocked. I slammed it behind me, and looked wildly around the room for somewhere to hide. There was only one light on in the adjacent bathroom, leaving the rest of the room dim. It was one of the lower cost cabins, containing two bunks, a tiny little round table, and two suitcases neatly stacked one on top of the other.

That’s all I saw before the door was thrown open with enough force that it left a mark on the wall. Rowan stood silhouetted in the doorway for a moment before stalking in. I jumped when he slammed the door shut behind him, and backed up as he approached, alternately watching him and desperately trying to find an avenue of escape.