Rowan caught sight of the blood on Sophea’s arm and was instantly filled with rage anew. How dare someone harm his mate? He snatched up a napkin from one of the destroyed tables and tied it around her wound. “We will find the ship’s doctor. He must see to your hurt.”

“My what? The scratch?” She shook her head and pulled the napkin from her arm in order to use it to press to his neck. “That’s nothing compared to you. Sit down. You’re losing a lot of blood, and I don’t want you to get excited or you’ll just bleed more heavily. Can you do that healing thing? Gabriel?”

Sophea strong-armed him into a chair that was still standing. “I’m fine,” he protested. “Stop fussing over me and let me attend to your injury.”

“Someone’s hurt?” Gabriel asked, his eyes widening a little when he saw the front of Rowan’s shirt. Rowan glanced down. It was soaked red, from his collar to his belt. “Ah. Just so. If you will let me examine it, Sophea—I am a healer.”

“Are you? Like a doctor?”

“Like a doctor,” Gabriel agreed, taking the napkin from her. He examined Rowan’s neck. “This isn’t too bad, although you got off lucky there. He missed your jugular. You should be able to close the wound yourself, but if it gives you trouble, let me know and I can put a little healing salve on it.”

“I’ll be fine,” Rowan protested again. Sophea was making little worried noises when Gabriel stood up. “Check her arm. She was cut.”

“Scratched,” Sophea corrected him, but she suffered Gabriel to look at the wound. Amusement filled his eyes as he gravely pronounced that Sophea would suffer no ill effect from the injury.

“See? Now you sit right there and concentrate on that wound,” Sophea said, and gave a little shout of annoyance when he started to get up. She plopped herself down on his lap. “You annoying dragon man! Sit here and heal!”

He looked at where her breasts swelled enticingly beneath her tight shirt, and felt an answering swelling in his trousers. “There’s no way I can possibly concentrate on my neck with you sitting there tempting me into doing things that I doubt you want me doing in public.”

“Oh. Good point. Sitting on you makes me want to kiss you and touch you and nibble on your ears, and… and… yeah. Point taken.”

She got up just as the captain strolled past them, pausing to raise an eyebrow at Rowan. “Do you need assistance?”

“No. It’s not a deep wound, and it should heal,” he answered.

The captain nodded and continued past, giving orders to his crew to clean up the mess once the demon bodies disappeared.

He turned back to them, adding with a wave toward the shore, “We are ahead of schedule. Maat has come on board and will proceed with the third challenge shortly. The journey is now at an end, and your trials will soon be over.” His black eyes moved from Rowan to Sophea and back. “Let us hope the ending is one you seek… and not a punishment.”

Eighteen

“Boy, he really is a little ball of sunshine, isn’t he?” I commented as the captain hurried off to greet the goddess Maat and her entourage. “Wait, don’t answer that. You probably shouldn’t talk or move until your neck is healed.”

Rowan came perilously close to rolling his eyes, but instead clearly decided to heed my advice and closed his eyes, his face filled with concentration.

“That really is amazing to watch,” I said, marveling at the way the cut flesh stopped bleeding, then began to seal itself up into a raw, red scar. Judging by his hand, I figured even that scar would fade away. “I wonder if you can teach me to do it.”

“I will try,” he said, his eyes still closed.

I looked down at him, this man who had come into my life and shaken me to my core. “Are you—did you mean what you said?”

His eyes opened at that, confusion fading into understanding, which melted away under the onslaught of little sparks of golden fire in his eyes. “Yes.”

“Oh,” I said, my breath catching a little.

“Oh?” His lips thinned. “Is that all you have to say? ‘Oh’? Not even a ‘how nice,’ or ‘golly, that’s great,’ but ‘oh’?”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized with a giggle. “I don’t really say golly. I’m more a ‘great Caesar’s ghost’ sort of girl.”

He rose and took my arms in his hands, giving me a gentle shake. “Woman, now is the time for you to tell me just how madly in love with me that you are, and how you cannot conceive of living your life without me, and how you want to spend all of your days with me, and more, all of your nights. Not this ‘oh’ business that leaves me feeling vulnerable and angsty.”

I laughed out loud at that. “I never thought I’d hear you admit you were angsty over anything.” I tipped my head back, and said against his lips, “I do love you, you know. It scares me to admit that because I loved Jian, too, and he was taken away from me before I really got to know him, and I don’t want to lose you. Promise me you won’t leave me, Rowan. I really don’t think I could go through losing a second husband.”

His breath was hot in my mouth, his tongue hotter, and his fire hottest of all. It wrapped around us like a blanket of desire, causing the heat building in me to burst into an inferno of need and wanting… and love.

“We’re on fire again,” Rowan said, nibbling on my lower lip, his hands drawing intricate patterns on my behind. I had slipped my own hands under his shirt, and was stroking the muscles of his back.

“You got that right,” I answered, doing a little nibbling of my own.

“The captain will not be happy if we scorch the deck.”

“Screw the captain,” I said heedlessly.

Rowan swung me up in his arms, obviously ready to carry me down to our room where I very much hoped we’d engage in wild, steamy sex. “I’d much rather screw—”

“Ah, these must be the dragons you spoke of.” A woman’s voice interrupted Rowan’s statement and my smutty thoughts.

Rowan turned to face the newcomers, setting me down in the process. “Er… hello.”

The woman was dark-skinned, petite, and had wild, curly shoulder-length hair and a wide, genuine smile firmly affixed as she bustled forward. Behind her came the three men, followed by the captain and a couple of his officers. After that, the deck filled up with returning passengers, all of whom chatted excitedly.