Drake laughed and put his hands on my hips, turning me to face him. "If I wanted to see you undress—and I'll admit, it's a thought that gives me pause—I wouldn't have to resort to using a camera to do so."

I went all breathless and weak-kneed, which was pretty much my standard response to Drake whenever he was closer to me than fifty feet. "Oh, yeah? You're aw-fully sure of yourself."

For a moment his eyes were filled with longing, and I knew he was absolutely right. If we weren't both making the effort to keep our desires safely leashed, we'd be rolling around that big bed of his at that very moment. "Don't be too long. I'm very—" His gaze roamed over me. "—hungry."

The door clicked quietly closed behind him as I stood in the middle of the room and hugged myself. "I am so out of my depth with him," I said softly.

The sound of my voice reminded me that I had things to do, important things, things that did not involve moon-ing over a dragon in a male form that made great huge puddles of slobber gather in my mouth. I checked the clothing on the bed, approving of the two lightweight dresses, a sleeveless silk blouse styled very like my tunic, and a pair of white gauze harem pants. Pal got full marks for getting darn close with the size of the clothes (includ-ing a pair of espadrilles that fit perfectly). There were also three sizes of both bras and undies, one of which was mine, so I added bonus points to his tally as I trotted into the bathroom to take a fast shower.

AfterI threw one of the dresses over the camera. I wasn't taking any chances with Drake.

12

Acold, wet nose rubbed against my cheek, dragging me from a very erotic, very detailed dream involving Drake, me, and a container of yogurt. Lemon yogurt. My favorite, especially when consumed in the manner Drake was feeding it to me.

"Mmmmm. What? Who… oh, Jim. What are you doing here?"

"I know you're heading for forty, but I didn't think old age would be catching up to you so quickly."

"Huh?" I rubbed my eyes, pushing myself up on one elbow to glare at my hairy little demon.

It glared right back at me. "Have you forgotten that you got down on your dimpled knees and begged me to stay in your room so as to protect your chastity from the big bad dragon?"

"My knees aren't dimpled," I said irritably. I was en-joying my dream about Drake. If I couldn't taste the for-bidden fruits he posed in reality, at least my subconscious deserved to have a good time. "And I didn't beg you, I commanded, and the only reason I commanded was be-cause Drake kept trying to seduce me last night."

"Really? I didn't see that. He didn't even touch you after dinner."

I blushed. It hadn't been an easy thing to sleep in the same house as Drake, knowing his lovely, warm, enticing body was sleeping just down the hall from me. "He didn't have to. He just sat there oozing sensuality at me, the rat fink. Besides, I figured it was safer for everyone if you spent the night here. Istvan was ready to gut you after you tried mating with his leg. What on earth possessed you to do that?"

Jim looked over my shoulder, a mildly embarrassed look on its face. "I wanted to find out if it was as good as I thought it would be."

I wouldn't ask, I wouldn't ask….

"It was," Jim said.

"Right, I've heard enough. Now I feel all icky," I said, climbing out of bed. "I'm going to take a shower—then I'll take you for walkies."

"Eh … you better take me out now, unless you want to be explaining to Drake why there are some pretty bo-dacious pee stains in this carpet."

"Great, just what I need, an incontinent demon," I grumbled as I pulled on the pants and tunic from the day before. I snatched up the leash and waved Jim out of the room, stopping by the kitchen long enough to ask Istvan (who was sitting at the kitchen table sipping coffee) for some plastic bags. The furious look he shot Jim made me glad I'd kept the demon in my room during the night.

We returned twenty minutes later with me muttering about Jim being nothing but a walking poop

machine, and the demon grousing about who it had to bribe lo get some food.

"I'll take you down for breakfast as soon as I've had a shower," I said once we were back in my room. I pulled off the tunic top, casting a quick glance over to make sure my dress was still covering the camera. I started to undo my bra. "Turn around."

"Oh, please. I'm a demon," Jim said with a roll of its eyes.

"I know exactly what you are, and I'm not getting naked in front of you. Turn around."

"You really have issues, you know that?" Jim turned its back to me. I peeled off the bra, grabbed some fresh clothing, and with the lodestone that had been under my pillow all night, headed toward the bathroom.

"Just what am I supposed to do while you're taking your time in there?" Jim asked plaintively as I was about to close the bathroom door. "Other than starve to death, that is. I know how long you women can take in a bath-room."

"Comments like that are not going to make me hurry. Go… oh, I don't know, go explore. Just don't touch anything or get into any trouble, and if you have any brains in that big furry head of yours, stay away from Istvan!"

I made my morning ablutions, taking the time after-wards to use a pair of manicure scissors I found in a drawer to make a slit in the double-lined cup of my bra, sliding the lodestone into it. The stone was so flat, it couldn't be seen, although I had no doubt that should Drake's hand go awandering, he'd feel the large round stone instantly. "I'll just have to make sure there's no touchy-feely business going on, that's all," I said to my-self as I did a twirl in front of the steamy bathroom mir-ror. The gauze dress Pal had selected fit almost perfectly. I slipped on the espadrilles, tidied my bedroom, and was about to go find Jim when the door burst open and the demon dashed into the room, its eyes wild.

"Thank the fires of Abaddon you're done!" Jim panted.

"What's wrong? Why do you look so frightened?" My breath caught in ray throat as my heart started galloping. "Oh, god, the police aren't here, are they?"

"No, it's worse than that," Jim said, turning back to the door.

My heart settled down into its normal rhythm, the hor-rible suspicion that Drake might have turned me in evap-orating even as I drew a breath. "Don't scare me like that! What could possibly be worse than the police?"