Excerpt of Dragon Her Back by Susannah Scott

Mei stared at him from the tethered distance of three feet way, her face a melee of concern and false bravado.

“What romantic weekend destination would please you?” Darius tilted his head sideways as if trying to come up with the answer, and then shook his head. “I’ve no fucking clue, because I don’t know a damn thing about you and why you keep lying to me.”

“I am not lying,” she said with too much force and not enough contractions.

***

“Best workout ever.” Darius sat next to her and rested his back against the soft mat.

She laughed and fumbled to put on her bra. He lifted the weight of her hair from her back and helped her pull down her silk shirt.

For a moment, he held the length of her hair in his hand as he had the swing rope. He tugged gently to turn her face to his, and then released it. His face was open and relaxed, his pale blue eyes warm and content.

His knees fell open to rest against hers. The feel of skin on skin, bone to bone, was easy, the most natural thing in the world. “Next time we should try the pommel horse.”

Mei laughed. “You still got pommeling on your mind?”

“Oh yeah.”

***

“I thought…” Mei raised her face to him, beseeching and vulnerable, so that he knew that whatever she said next was the truth.

Right. The truth according to Mei.

It only meant she herself believed it, not that it was the actual truth.

“You wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you in the ass.”

“What?” She snapped her head back as if dodging a blow, but quickly recovered. “I get that you’re angry.”

“Really? What gave it away?”

***

Holding her gaze, Darius lowered his body into an iron cross.

“Are you showing off?” Her tone was teasing, and her speculative gaze up and down his body sent tiny tingles of awareness shooting through him that had nothing to do with exertion.

“Are you impressed?”

“No.” But she continued watching him, her lips parted in admiration.

***

“Is this a date?” Mei smiled, and he saw in her expression that she liked the idea of pretending things were normal. “I thought we were running for our lives.” “That’s just the foreplay.” He rested his forehead against hers.

She laughed against him, and he knew, just knew, they were going to make it. They had to. But first, they had to make it to Monday.