Blue Dragon

wondering why he was so impatient. He led me off the balcony into a room and closed the pearly doors behind us.
    There was a shining mirror in front of us, swirling like quicksilver.
    Go through , John said. You will be perfectly safe.
    I walked through without hesitation, trusting him completely.
    I stopped dead. I was in air, not water, inside a large, white-walled bedchamber with an enormously high ceiling. The four-poster bed had white gauzy linen and appeared to be made of huge staghorn corals that had grown into the frame’s shape.
    I looked down: I was dry. John stopped and dried himself completely as well.
    ‘What do you think?’ he said.
    ‘This place is truly marvellous,’ I said. ‘I’m so glad I was able to see it. Where are we going next? I want to see everything!’
    ‘Are you sure?’ John said. ‘Because that’s not the reason I brought you here.’
    He moved closer to me and his smile broadened. Before I knew what was happening he swept me into his arms and I buried my face in his bare chest. He kissed the top of my head. I threw my arms around him and tried to squeeze the life from him.
    ‘Hey,’ he said softly, and I looked up. He smiled down at me. He held the back of my neck, lowered his face and kissed me. We were lost in each other for a very long time.
    His hands moved to my waist and worked at the hem of my top, eventually pulling it free so that he could draw it over my head. He threw it to one side and buried his face in my throat. He bent, scooped me up and carried me, dropping me onto something soft and silken.
    He leaned over me. ‘We don’t have much time,’ he whispered. ‘It’s already two. It will take us an hour or so to return against the tide. We have to make the most of the short time we have.’
    I gazed into his wonderful brown eyes without saying a word. I loaded my hands with chi and brushed them over his back. He dropped his head and grimaced.
    I moved my hands over his back and down, running them just beneath the top of his pants, over the indentations at either side of the base of his spine.
    ‘I love you,’ I whispered, and his whole body went rigid.
    The skin of his back was smooth and fine. I moved my loaded hands further up his back and brushed them over his shoulders, feeling the outline of the muscles beneath. He breathed heavily and his face jerked up so that he could look at me. Then he buried his face in my throat, running his lips along my neck and down to my collarbone, sending shivers of response through me.
    ‘You are the only one I will ever love,’ I whispered into his ear.
    He pulled back to gaze into my eyes. He couldn’t speak, his face was rigid with the effort of maintaining control. He kissed the edge of my chin and along the line of my throat.
    I pulled him down next to me, added more chi to my hands and lightly floated them over his shoulders, feeling him flex his muscles in response. I held my hands on his shoulders and ran my mouth down the silken side of his throat. He tasted salty, like the sea. He quivered under my lips but still didn’t lose it.
    ‘I will wait for you forever.’
    I worked my mouth over him until he arched his back and a deep, vibrating sound of pleasure escaped from somewhere inside him. He pulled me up so that my face was level with his, planted his mouth on mine, and pushed into me as I ran my hands along the chiselled muscles of his back.
    He pulled away and studied me. He ran his handthrough my hair and down the side of my face, tracing my features.
    I ran my fingertips over his cheek, feeling the gritty stubble over the silken skin. ‘Let go. Let go for me.’
    I slid my hand down his throat, lightly running my fingers over his shoulder and down the muscles of his chest. He inhaled sharply and his eyes went very dark, but he still had control.
    Not for long.
    I smiled gently at him, moved my hand lower, loaded it with even more chi and pushed it right into him.
    He exhaled in a huge gasping breath and completely lost it. The dark shutters rolled up over his eyes and his face went rigid. He grabbed my shoulders, rolled me onto my belly and shoved me into the silky white sheets. One of his hands held my shoulder down while the other ripped my shorts away, pulling impatiently as the fabric shredded. He crushed me into the sheets so hard I had to turn my head to one side so that I could breathe.
    Then he threw himself on top of me, grabbed me around the middle and tugged me into him. He pulled at his