He leaned back, his head cradled by the high back of the chair. “The situation is complicated.”

I kissed his chin. “I think that’s going to be the understatement of the year. I’m so confused, I don’t know where to begin asking questions.”

Drake slid another longing glance toward the bed. “I don’t suppose you would care to follow the others’ lead and put this off until morning? I am very tired, but not so tired I cannot pay homage to you as is your due.”

I flinched at the word “homage.” It brought up a horribly nagging feeling that I should be focusing on the situation with Bael rather than the more pressing dragon situation. But Bael had given me five days, and I’d only spent two of them. “I think I’m due a few answers first. To be honest, I don’t understand why you were so angry with me about rescuing you. You sent me the dream telling me you needed help, after all.”

“You mentioned a dream before, but it is untrue. I sent you no dream.”

“Then how do you explain the fact that I dreamed about a wind horse?”

He looked startled for a moment, pulling from his pocket a tattered green scrap of fabric that matched the one I’d woken up with.

“That’s it!”

“I was going to bring this home for you, but then we were captured,” he said slowly. “I did not send you a dream message, kincsem. I would have endangered you by asking you to find me, and as it happens, I am furious with Gabriel for doing just that.”

I touched the dirty bit of prayer flag. “I guess your subconscious was less stubborn than your waking mind. Oh, stop looking at me like that—everything turned out OK. Besides, there are more important things to focus on than what might have been.”

His hand slid along my thigh. “Such as my desire to make love to you?”

I stopped his hand from climbing any higher, knowing full well that once he bent his mind to seduction, there was nothing short of nuclear war that could stop him. “I would be perfectly happy to let you make wild, passionate, steamy dragon love to me, but first you have to answer a couple of questions.”

His chest heaved with resignation, his pupils black slits in a field of green that glittered with speculation and no little amount of passion. “Very well. You may ask me three questions.”

“Oh, we’re back to three questions, are we?” I asked, smiling against his mouth as I remembered the first wildly erotic dream I shared with him. “All right. First question: was it Kostya you went away to help?”

“Yes.”

I waited for more information, but none was forthcoming. “Who was keeping you prisoner?”

“I don’t know.” His expression turned thoughtful as he narrowed his gaze on the flames in the fireplace. “I thought at first Chuan Ren had found Kostya, but upon reflection, I decided it could not be her. She would not have let me live if she had me in her power. The one holding us prisoner was very careful not to be seen, and used only mortals to bring us food.”

“Hmm. There were two dragons Gabriel found outside, but he said they weren’t red dragons. What about that one you knocked out in the hallway?”

He shook his head. “I did not recognize him, nor did I have time to examine him for signs of a sept. I do not know who he was.”

“Crap. OK, last question—”

“Your third question was about the dragon in the hallway. Now I demand payment for my amiability.” Drake pushed me off his lap just long enough to stand up and scoop me into his arms, marching determinedly to the bed. With moves I didn’t even try to follow, he stripped himself, then me, and before I could form a single word of protest, he tossed me onto the bed.

“That question was part of the second one, and you know it,” I said, trying to look indignant, but failing miserably when he ran his hand up the bare calf of my leg. I shivered at his touch.

His mouth kissed a path around my belly, heading northwards to my breasts. “Very well. Since I am fond of you, I will this once grant you an additional question. But make it quickly, before I become too busy to attend mere words.”

I stopped stroking his back and pinched him hard enough to make him rear back. “Fond of me? You’re fond of me?”

He grinned, his eyes dancing as wickedly as his fingers, which had found extremely sensitive flesh. As if the touch wasn’t enough to drive me senseless, his grin melted me completely. Drake in his usual sober mood was sexy as hell…Drake being playful was downright irresistible. His head dipped again as he licked a shape onto my stomach, breaking fire to it to set it alight.

It was a heart.

“Perhaps fond is too mild a word,” he conceded as I pulled him down on top of me, my hands and mouth going wild on him. I was suddenly desperate to feel him inside of me, needing the joining to reassure myself that he was safe, and that nothing could take him away from me. He must have sensed that need in me, because he didn’t torment me with teasing touches as he normally did; he simply gave me what I wanted, fulfilling the need to hold him deep within me, so deep he was an integral part of my very being.

“If that’s fond,” I said some time later, pressing a kiss to his damp chest as I scooted upward along his body until I could peer down into his face, “I doubt if I could survive a stronger emotion.”

His eyes were closed, his face relaxed, his fingers drawing lazy patterns of fire on my behind. One side of his mouth quirked. I kissed it, decided I liked the taste of the quirk, and kissed it a couple of more times, sucking his lower lip into my mouth until he opened his eyes, a spark of interest in them. “You are a demanding woman, kincsem. I will do my best to rise to the challenge you pose, but I fear the events of the last few days will make me a bit slower than normal…”

“I have no doubt you’d meet that particular challenge,” I answered, squirming when his fingers slid lower. “But that’s not actually what I was hinting at. You still owe me a question.”

He closed his eyes again, his chest rising and falling more slowly now that we were both recovering from the passion of a few minutes past. “I have never understood how women have the energy or desire to conduct lengthy conversations after lovemaking. I am male. I must rest after I have met your not-insubstantial wanton demands.”

“Uh-huh. And if I did this—” My hand slid down his chest, trailed over his belly, and wrapped around interesting scenery southwards. His eyes shot open. “—You wouldn’t suddenly be wide awake?”