Cerulean Magic: A Dragon Mage Novel

by Aimee Easterling

  Chapter 21

  An hour later, salt wind blew against Sabrina’s face as she strolled down the endless line of beach with Nicholas by her side. Both passengers and crew were accounted for—either resting in the hot sand, building elaborate castles closer to the water line, or darting in and out of the waves. So why couldn’t Sabrina relax into the moment and enjoy this unexpected bout of shore leave?

  Oh yeah, that’s why, the captain thought as large fingers squeezed her own before moving on to soothe away the knotted tension alongside her neck. Hand holding, neck massages, sultry glances, beautiful scenery—this walk seemed perilously close to a date.

  Then Nicholas broke the mood and startled a laugh from Sabrina’s lips all at the same time. “By my calculations, Gunnar is at least a day behind us, assuming he knows where we were headed in the first place,” the shifter murmured, fingers changing from rub to drum as he counted miles, estimated relative velocities, and came to a heartening conclusion. Trust her companion to be running math problems in his head even as he stroked relaxation out of her tense muscles.

  Unfortunately, Sabrina wasn’t able to be nearly so coherent, not when warmth pooled in her belly and soothed deep-rooted worries out of her brain. For a single moment, she allowed herself to become a woman instead of a captain, leaning into her companion’s enticing heat. “Mmm,” she answered vaguely.

  But Nicholas appeared to expect a reply, and eventually the captain pulled herself together sufficiently to use real words. “I figured we had some wiggle room, so I told the crew we’d stay here for a few more hours. After that, Steph wants to head south along the coastline. She feels like the egg might hatch better some place warm.”

  “Good idea.”

  It was a good idea. But what seemed like an even better idea was accepting this brief respite the jet stream had delivered into their hands so they could share a moment just for the two of them. To take advantage of the solitude offered by empty beach and whistling wind to get to know each other a little better without danger breathing down all of their necks.

  Perhaps this was also her opportunity to lower time-hardened defenses and let Nicholas in on the family secret that still ruled her life and damaged her dreams. Perhaps.

  Before Sabrina could summon enough courage to broach the topic, though, heated air swirled around her face as fiery wings popped out of Nicholas’s shoulder blades. And, like a coward, she allowed herself to be sidetracked by the intricate beauty of the interwoven flames.

  Unlike the other dragons who called the Aerie home, Nicholas seemed to prefer this half-shifted form over the massive bulk of a full-on dragon. So she’d seen his human body wreathed in fire multiple times before.

  Of course, Sabrina’s attention had always been riveted elsewhere when the wings came out in the past—either focusing on attacking pigeons, on her own drunkenness, or just on general mayhem.

  Now Nicholas stood resplendent, warming the wind that swirled around them both in a playful eddy. Behind his back, orange lace danced in the breeze, the shifter’s pinions solid and amorphous at the same time. Irresistible. Before she knew what she was doing, Sabrina’s finger had reached out to trace one edge of the flickering flames.

  Then she wasn’t touching any fire at all. Instead, her hand was cupped between two broad palms, was drawn down to lie against her companion’s broad chest while his dark eyes bored into her own.

  “You’ll burn yourself,” Nicholas said gruffly by way of explanation. Despite his apologetic tone, though, he didn’t release her hand. Instead, his fingers squeezed a little tighter as if afraid she’d yank her appendage away.

  Sabrina had intended to do just that. Had intended to maintain the icicle of careful propriety that stiffened her spine and made it possible for her to carry out her job each day.

  But evidence of Nicholas’s uncertainty melted the familiar ice and tempted her to lean closer into the shifter’s warmth instead. “I’m not very breakable,” she answered at last. “You don’t have to be careful with me.”

  “I want to be careful with you,” Nicholas rebutted. Then, glancing back over one shoulder to check on the crew—several of whom were staring intently back in their direction—he more growled than spoke as he continued. “I want to be careful with you further down the beach where we won’t be stared at. May I...?”

  His hands hovered above her waist now, warmth evident even with air and clothes between them. The last time he’d carried her, Nicholas hadn’t asked for permission. Of course, the last time he’d carried her, she’d been drunk out of her gourd on air magic...and also plummeting to her death. So Nicholas definitely didn’t lose any gentleman points for his previous actions.

  “Please do,” Sabrina answered and was gratified when strong arms and beating wings lifted them both into the air as a unit.

  The sensation was even more intoxicating than she remembered. Heated air swirled around her face, danced amidst her braids, and tickled the back of her neck. Meanwhile, Nicholas’s mere presence made her feel like she was sunbathing on a sunny February afternoon following a long stretch of frigid winter. Opening herself to the experience, Sabrina rejoiced in the euphoria of being borne aloft in the arms of a dragon.

  Somehow over the last few hours, the captain had allowed herself to conclude that yesterday’s euphoria emanated from the effects of an excessively high elevation scrambling her brain chemistry. But now, as her head began to spin with pure joy while located only ten feet above the ground, she realized that a healthy helping of that ecstasy had been entirely and totally real.

  Unconsciously, Sabrina reached forward to brace herself against the shifter’s broad shoulders. Then she relaxed into the sensation of being carried face to face with a minor yet powerful sun.

  ***

  Nicholas would have been glad to hold his treasured burden aloft forever. But he decided not to push his luck and instead settled them both atop a dune close enough to the airship so they could watch small figures frolicking in the waves without being overly visible themselves.

  “I don’t think these grasses will attack,” he started. “But if you’d rather, I can burn them back....”

  Sabrina smiled. Or at least he thought that might be a smile, when his companion’s lips stayed firm and straight but her eyes crinkled up with secret amusement no one else seemed able to discern. “I can handle a few overbearing grasses,” she said dryly.

  Then she stood there, silent and awkward as a fish out of water...or a captain away from her airship. While flying, Sabrina had relaxed against his chest and swayed in tandem with his motion. Now, though, their unity of purpose was gone and Nicholas had no idea how to bring it back.

  If he’d been smart, he would have packed a blanket to sit on, perhaps a meal as well. Something to make this occasion more special than two people standing atop a mound of sand while staring out at the sea rather than at each other.

  Well, sitting is better than standing. So, picking a few sand burs out of the earth at their feet, Nicholas dropped to the ground and was gratified when Sabrina did the same.

  He was even more gratified when she leaned up against his side as if drawn to his warmth. Which really might have been the case since the wind was blowing hard, the temperature far chillier than the blazing sun overhead would have suggested. Still, Nicholas dared fate and slipped one arm around his companion’s shoulders, then nearly turned into a pillar of satisfied flames when she responded by burrowing into his sideways embrace.

  “I need to talk to you,” he began at last, breathing in the ozone-scented warmth of the captain’s braided hair. She smelled like a thunderstorm—invigorating and wild and a little bit dangerous. And, thunderstorm-like, her mood changed in an instant, muscles tensing against his own as she leveraged herself back into her own personal space.

  Reluctantly, Nicholas allowed the captain to pull away and cross her arms in a shield against his continued proximity. “Okay,” she said, her cautious tone contrasting with the affirmative word. �
��Right. We need to talk business. Figure out what to do with Gleason, find a long-term solution to Gunnar, decide how to handle Steph....”

  “Shh.” Placing one finger atop the airship captain’s lips, Nicholas half expected the appendage in question to be bitten off. Still, optimism expanded his chest and set him talking. After all, if business was the only reason Sabrina had pulled away, then he could deal with her roadblocks. “Afternoon off, remember? That’s not what I want to talk to you about.”

  Before Sabrina could come up with another round of problems to toss between them, Nicholas dove into the speech he’d been compiling while flying through the air moments earlier. “I want to be up front with you, Sabrina. This isn’t just a job for me any longer, if it ever was one. Yes, I’m committed to protecting Steph and her egg. And, yes, I’ll do anything you ask me to as your first mate. But that’s not why I’m here right now.”

  Looking into her sky blue eyes, Nicholas couldn’t decide whether he saw evasion, fear, or anticipation swirling in those airy depths. It would be so easy to blow this tentative truce they’d built between them sky high. So easy to lose the possibility his instincts had been begging him to pursue ever since he and Sabrina first met months earlier.

  Easy to lose my opportunity through inaction as well, he reminded himself. So he gave in to yearning and stroked one finger down the smooth skin of Sabrina’s cheek. The minor contact was enough to send fire flaring through his gut and crackling around his back even though he’d sucked in his wings as soon as they touched down.

  “Sabrina Fairweather, I’m not looking for your secrets,” he continued. “I’m not looking for your value as an airship captain, although I understand you’re the best of the best. I think your ability to manage the wind is hotter than hell, but that’s not what I want to talk about.

  “I want to get to know you, Sabrina. Will you give me permission to try?”

  Chapter 22

  “I want to get to know you, Sabrina. Will you give me permission to try?”

  A chill ran down Sabrina’s spine at the words, but she ignored her instincts and turned aggressor instead. This time when Nicholas’s lips opened to further ruin the moment, she reached up with both hands to grip his face, pulling the troublesome shifter into their first audience-free kiss.

  Nicholas was hard and soft, forceful and responsive all at once. The scratch of stubble that he hadn’t yet found time to shave should have been unpleasant, but the roughness instead tweaked sensitive nerve endings and sent a shiver racing down her spine. His tongue tapped against her lips, begging entry, and Sabrina found herself losing all thought as, together, they deepened the kiss.

  Then her companion shifted his weight beneath her, bending his knees so she slid down to settle against his body from head to hip. Nicholas was wreathed in fire, but he’d shielded the heat so carefully that it titillated rather than burned. Flames slid between her braids, licked beneath the neckline of her jacket, traced patterns of fiery pleasure across her skin as if Nicholas possessed eight arms rather than just two.

  And yet, he didn’t press his advantage. Instead, Sabrina’s companion pushed her gently aside with one fiery hand so he could stare directly into her eyes.

  “I’m serious, Sabrina,” the shifter in question growled so quietly she felt rather than heard his complaint. Tiny breezes were born out of the words, dancing around her ears and tickling the sensitive skin at the nape of her neck. “I want an answer. Yes or no?”

  He might have been serious...but he didn’t wait for a reply. Instead, Nicholas’s hand once again transitioned from restraint to enticement, trailing across her wrist and leaving a line of tantalizing fire in its wake. Then his lips drifted down to match hers once again.

  The shifter’s touch felt just as blissful and all-encompassing as previously, but this time his words reverberated in her mind and prevented Sabrina from losing herself fully in the sensation. Because Nicholas had already proven that he was different from the short-term bed partners she’d left without a thought in various ports, none of whom had asked for more than a single night of shared pleasure. In contrast, this fascinating and dangerous dragon wanted Sabrina to bare her soul, to let him into the most hidden parts of her psyche where angels feared to tread.

  Sabrina’s lips parted in an attempt to reply, but no sound came out. She couldn’t say yes...and she couldn’t say no. Instead, she leaned forward, pressing against her companion’s chest until he toppled backward onto the dune. Then the captain unbuttoned her jacket and shed two outer layers all in one go. Surely an offer of physical gratification would have to be enough.

  No such luck. Rather than staring down at the lacy-edged bra that should, by rights, have captured his full attention, Nicholas’s mouth thinned and he turned away. “Sabrina, you didn’t answer me,” he said, speaking into the wind that gusted down the beach toward them. “I don’t want to do this if it’s only a game for you.”

  And now the air around them turned cold as Nicholas’s tantalizing flames winked abruptly out. Sabrina tried to tell herself that the descending chill was the only reason she felt absurdly naked despite being completely covered from the waist down. But she knew as well as Nicholas did that her continued silence spoke volumes.

  Unable to meet her companion’s questioning eyes, the captain turned her head aside. “I...” she started, not knowing how her sentence would end.

  And then the drama of intimacy was abruptly forgotten as Sabrina caught sight of a dark speck a quarter of a mile west of her precious airship. Falling onto her hands and knees in her haste to remove herself from Nicholas’s embrace, the captain formed a magnifying lens out of water droplets and peered into the distance. “Oh, shit,” she muttered into the cooling air.

  “What is it?” Nicholas demanded, reaching out to steady her as she swayed. By rights, he should have been angry that she wasn’t able to answer a simple question, couldn’t give him permission to pry into her secrets. But, instead, the shifter switched from lover to defender in an instant, dropping the personal issue and focusing on the distant danger instead.

  Breathing a sigh of relief at being let off the hook, Sabrina increased the magnification of her air-made telescope...and winced. She’d hoped to be wrong, hoped that the invader was just a seagull. Or at least an incoming mechanical that could be fought off using friendly air currents and dragon-fueled fire.

  Sure enough, the speck materialized into yet another robotic pigeon. But this particular mechanical was flying due west away from the Intrepid rather than toward it. The dangerous device was already out of range of both her magic and—she suspected ---- of Nicholas’s draconic wings.

  I let down my guard and allowed danger to come to my ship, she thought, goosebumps rising on both arms.

  Because the captain sometimes used pigeons to carry messages, but she knew for a fact that she hadn’t ordered that particular robot released. Which meant it must have been sent on the sly...perhaps to alert the gunmetal gray dragon about Intrepid’s current location and proposed future path?

  “It’s a mechanical bird,” the captain said at last, allowing water particles to fall out of alignment and splatter harmlessly onto the sand as she pulled on her jacket without another glance at the shifter by her side. This time she didn’t even pretend that his initial question was still on the table and awaiting a reply.

  Because Nicholas was a distraction she couldn’t afford, their dalliance a danger to Zach and to Steph and to her inherited ship. That tenuous connection had already tricked her into making one mistake and it would likely cause others as well.

  No, the conclusion was obvious. Her attraction to Nicholas needed to be dropped if Sabrina hoped to keep the Intrepid airborne.

  Suddenly, the wind whipping down the beach felt as cold as a midwinter gale, and Sabrina rolled her eyes at her own melodrama. She wasn’t losing anything, she told herself, because there’d never been anything concrete between them to begin with.

  Nothing but an unbridled attra
ction that was bound to cause problems for everyone involved. Luckily, Sabrina was smart enough to save them both from future pain.

  ***

  Nicholas wanted to roar his frustration at the sky. He’d chased that dratted pigeon for ten hair-raising minutes, every second worrying that Sabrina might lose her grip on his draconic back and tumble toward the ground while his attention was focused elsewhere. But despite pushing himself to the limit, the robot seemed to sense his presence, flitting down into the Green and easily evading his pursuit. After circling several times in hopes he’d catch sight of the messenger once again, Nicholas had eventually turned around and slunk back to the ship in defeat.

  There, the entire situation escalated from bad to worse. The moment he touched down, Sabrina leapt off his back as if she’d been burned, Captain Fairweather rising back up along her spine like a possessing demon. The same woman who had leaned into his touch an hour earlier now shook off the consoling hand he placed on her arm, grimacing at the minor touch. Then she strode away without a backwards glance, aiming directly for the pregnant cook busy soaking up rays on the open deck.

  “Gather the crew,” the captain snapped at her chief culinary officer without bothering with a greeting. “Send someone to bring Steph back aboard then count heads. We’re lifting off in ten minutes.”

  “I thought we were going to stay here all afternoon,” Charlotte countered. “I started some pastries that won’t bake properly in the air. They...”

  “Do I look like I care about pastries?”

  Charlotte’s eyebrows rose at the snipe from a captain who had always been impeccably polite in the past. Then her gaze turned to Nicholas, the authority she knew best.

  Good thing Sabrina didn’t see that, Nicholas thought. But he lost no time jerking his chin once in wordless agreement, backing Sabrina up even though he wasn’t entirely sure what was going through the captain’s mind at the present moment.