Blue Dragon

relationships.’
    ‘Happens all the time on the Mountain,’ he said, amused. ‘Both the students and the Masters have the wisdom and discipline to keep professional and personal completely separate, otherwise they would not be on the Mountain in the first place.’
    ‘I noticed,’ I said. ‘But Leo would never touch any student.’
    ‘Leo is the wisest of us all.’ He pulled me in again and sighed. ‘We have to go soon.’
    ‘I’d like to return here some day.’
    He rolled over to face me and ran his hand along my arm. ‘You will. I promise you. And you will one day be presented to the King of the Dragons as my Empress, and you will see the finest undersea palace in existence.’
    ‘Do you have one?’ I said. ‘You’re Water.’
    ‘I have a small holiday place under the North Pole, only about ten rooms,’ he said. ‘Cold and dark, the way I like it. I use it to get away sometimes, to have time alone. I don’t need anything bigger. I spend most of my time on my Mountain and in the Northern Heavens. When I have a choice, that is.’
    ‘Holy shit, you have a Fortress of Solitude at the North Pole,’ I said, barely controlling the giggles.
    ‘I don’t understand,’ he said, bemused.
    I pulled myself into him. He put his arms around me and buried his face in my hair.
    ‘You have one last chance if you wish,’ he said into my hair. ‘We have time, and you know that I have the ability.’
    I didn’t look up at him. I left my cheek against his chest. ‘Can we just stay here like this?’
    ‘It is what I would prefer as well.’
    We held each other close.
    He sat upright and levered his long legs over the edge of the bed. He tapped me on the shoulder. ‘The Dragon’s here to take us back.’ He rose and pulled on his pyjama pants. I giggled. ‘What?’ he said.
    ‘I don’t have any pants,’ I said, sitting cross-legged on the bed and lifting the remains of my shorts. ‘After we’re married I’ll have my entire wardrobe made with Velcro fastenings, otherwise I’ll spend my whole time buying new clothes.’
    ‘Good idea,’ he said, turning away and concentrating. ‘Michelle…’ He stopped.
    ‘Michelle what?’ I said gently.
    He hesitated and looked down.
    ‘It’s okay, tell me.’
    He looked back up at me and smiled. ‘Michelle enjoyed having new clothes made. But she’d shoot me anyway.’
    ‘I wish I could have met her.’
    A light cotton robe appeared on the bed next to me. ‘Wear that,’ he said.
    ‘No way am I riding the Dragon wearing that,’ I said fiercely.
    ‘Put it on anyway,’ he said. ‘They’ll have something else for us.’
    I rose and slipped on the robe. He approached to help me, pressing himself into me from behind while he wrapped the belt around my waist. He pushed his face into my neck, then shoved his hand inside the front of the robe and ran it over me, making me gasp. My skin burned in trails where his fingers touched me. He gently drew the top of the robe down over my shoulders and ran kisses over my skin, making me writhe with need.
    Both of us breathed heavily as he pushed into me from behind. I felt him hard against my back. He ran his hands under the hem of the robe and drifted his fingertips up my thighs and further. My knees went weak and I sagged as he held me.
    ‘To hell with it,’ he said, yanking the robe up and pushing me forward to bend me over the bed. ‘They can wait.’
    I didn’t have the breath to say anything. But I still hoped they didn’t hear me.

CHAPTER NINETEEN
    O nce again Leo couldn’t meditate on the boat back to Hong Kong from Macau. I sat next to him on the couch in the lounge and moved to take his hand, but he pulled it away.
    ‘Tell me what happened,’ I said.
    He closed his eyes and pretended to meditate, his dark face rigid with concentration.
    ‘They found out, didn’t they.’
    He didn’t move.
    ‘What did they do to you?’
    He remained completely still.
    ‘One of the Celestials could help you, you know. Meredith could clear it all up for you.’
    ‘Not an issue,’ he said, then threw himself up and stalked down the stairs into the cabin at the front of the boat.
    I moved to sit near John, and he looked at me over the top of his book. ‘Do you know what happened?’ I said.
    ‘No. He’s never told anybody. Most of them think that somebody sabotaged the seatbelt in the helicopter rescue simulation.’
    That was too horrible to be true. ‘I know about that,’ I said. ‘They put you in a