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.