“All right,” she snapped. “I get the picture.” Maybe there was something of Jack in the taniwha after all. They were both bossy.
Emma sat on a fallen log and glared. The dragon’s mouth widened, and she could have sworn the creature was smirking.
Day passed to night and the temperature dropped. Emma shivered, fighting the need to sleep, her head dropping to her chest before she jerked awake again.
Suddenly, Jack grunted. He ambled over and scooped her off the log before she could scramble away.
“I don’t think—”
He growled and flashed his teeth.
“All right!”
Jack placed her on the fern bed and positioned himself beside her.
“You could have told me instead of scaring me half to death. I thought you were trying to drown me,” Emma stated with a trace of defiance.
Jack grunted, the sound coming close to a bark of amusement.
Emma turned away. She wouldn’t sleep—she knew it—but she might as well pretend.
The twitter of birds woke her at first light the next morning. She rolled over, away from the clammy warmth to see Jack, still in taniwha form, studying her warily.
“Morning,” she mumbled, self-consciously finger combing her messy curls. “When do you change back? You do change back, right?”
Jack grunted. He seemed to do that a lot but she was no linguist. Each grunt sounded much the same.
He walked heavily toward a path the other side of the clearing then stopped to glance at Emma.
She sighed. “All right. I’m coming.”
They walked for hours, navigating heavy bush, scrambling up and down hills. By late afternoon, Emma was footsore, tired and desperately hungry. When they reached a clearing and a bubbling stream, she stopped, refusing to go a step farther without rest.
She glared at Jack, half expecting a thunderous protest but he shrugged and strode into the stream where he spent ten minutes splashing like a playful child. Then, he stepped from the water and stood before her. His skin glowed in the sunshine. He shimmered.
Emma blinked as the air around him shifted. The length of his jaw changed, becoming smaller before her eyes. “He’s transforming,” she whispered, amazement coloring her voice as his long tail disappeared.
Soon, all that remained of the taniwha was the whiff of fish and mangrove mud that lingered in the air.
Jack took a cautious step toward Emma. She hadn’t behaved in the way he’d expected. She hadn’t screamed, at least until she’d realized he intended to swim to the mainland. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“You make a very ugly dragon.”
Jack scowled. “There is nothing wrong with my taniwha appearance. I look the same as all the others.”
A slow grinned danced across her face as she scanned him. “You’re stark naked.”
“That’s it?”
“Um, I’m glad we didn’t drown?”
That was it? Reaction buckled his knees, and Jack sank to the ground.
She closed the distance between them and crouched beside him. She placed her palm on his forehead and frowned. “Are you okay?”
“The last woman who saw me in taniwha form panicked. She fled the scene and was so traumatized she crashed her car into a tree. It was my fault she died.”
“Oh, please,” Emma scoffed. “How was it your fault? You made her drive? You made her crash?”
Bemusement filled Jack as her wide, bright smile bloomed. He opened his mouth and closed it again. Hope bloomed and his cock rose in a silent demand. She looked damn sexy with that snooty, superior expression on her face.
“So what do we do now? Have we got enough to fry Mahoney’s ass?”
“Don’t you care that I change into a dragon when the moon is full?” He’d leave the explanation about sex for later. The issue was clouded enough already. No, he’d give her the worst now. “When the full moon approaches, I need sex several times a day to help me maintain human form.”
“It doesn’t have any bearing on our case,” Emma said, but her cheeks flushed a bright red. “Can we get Mahoney for running the sports-drug racket and selling illicit movies? We have to do something. He’s a creep. Besides, I don’t want our images for sale on the net.”
He didn’t want that either. They’d get back every damn copy and destroy the master. But maybe he’d keep one for private viewing. “I love you,” he said, his gut bucking with uncertainty.
“You do? About time!” Emma dropped to the ground at his side. She plucked at the white flowers of a manuka tree, before looking up to flash him a blinding smile. “It took you long enough to work it out for yourself. The sex part is fine with me. I enjoy sex with you.”