The Dragon’s E-Mail Order Menage

She just stood there, in the middle of the vast living room of Levi’s house, a room full of more expensive art than some of the galleries down on Canyon Road contained, and wondered if this was really the place for her, after all. She had heard that being uncomfortable was a good thing that it meant that whatever new thing you were trying was working, but at the moment she certainly wasn’t feeling that way. She had zero confidence in this whole endeavor at all and wondered for one wild eyed second what it would be like if she just went home with her tail between her legs. She couldn’t imagine that it would be a pretty scene, but at least she would be comfortable.

“Hey! Maggie! You coming with, or were you just planning on standing there all day?”

It was Levi, that mischievous look in his eyes, and he was leaning against the door frame waiting for her. He really was devastatingly handsome, this alpha dragon of hers, and when she looked at him she knew that she wouldn’t be going back home soon. Or never.  She was not a coward and the promise of the adventures she could have with Hudson and Levi was too great. No way was she running away now. Her dragon snorted in disdain at the mere thought of the action. So she swallowed her nerves, met Levi’s smirk of a gaze, and smiled.

“I’m coming with. Just trying to mentally prepare myself for whatever trouble you two are about to lead me into.”

“Not possible, sweetheart. You’ve just gotta jump in feet first and hope you know how to swim well enough to keep afloat.”

“Excellent,” she muttered under her breath, shaking her head and stomping past him with as much dignity as she could muster. She could feel him smiling that wicked smile, could feel his eyes roaming slowly up and down her body and then right back up again, but she did not look at him. She made a point of not looking at him. She needed to keep some of her power, needed to do her best to keep the upper hand. She knew that if she looked into those eyes right now those things would be lost to her once and for all. She would be a fool to think she could out-maneuver Levi in this game of flirtation. It would be like looking into Medusa’s eyes and expecting not to turn to stone.

As she passed him, he reached out and gave her a firm smack on her ass, making her stop but still not enough to break her resolve on keeping her eyes straight in front of her. A little bit ahead of her she could see Hudson hanging out of the car door, his head resting lazily on his arms and his eyes interested in nothing but her. She felt a little lurch at the feel of his gaze and she smiled at him, somehow knowing that his game would be less dangerous to play than his friend’s.

He smiled back and shook his head apologetically, Maggie assumed in response to Levi’s less than gentlemanly behavior. Levi, who was now bending over one shoulder, so close that she could feel his hot breath trailing across her neck and up her ear. It made her entire body instantaneously break out into goosebumps and she shivered despite the warm mid-morning breeze blowing lazily across the front terrace.

“That one was for good luck, Maggie. The next one will be because you want me to.”

She opened his mouth to say something, anything, but her brain was completely frozen. She couldn’t get a single word out and soon he was sauntering past her as if he hadn’t ever spoken a word. He glanced back at her over his shoulder, raised both of his eyebrows, and made his way towards the driver’s seat of his beat up old jeep. She shuddered once more, a motion that was totally involuntary, and then joined them in the car, letting herself into the back seat next to the camping gear they had piled up haphazardly. Levi let out a crow of triumph and Hudson began to laugh as Levi threw the car into motion so abrupt it locked Maggie’s seatbelt and she had to unbuckle it to release the tension. At least she was able to release that tension so easily.

As for the rest of the tension, the tension so thick she could have cut it with a knife, she thought that it might take something a little more creative and more involved to put a stop to that. For a minute, her mind began to wander to what exactly that might entail and she could feel her face grow hot with an angry red blush that she was positive was giving her thoughts away to Levi as he looked at her through the rearview mirror.

“I’d say we’re about an hour away, hour and a half tops. That sit all right with you?”

“Sure, that’s nothing.”

“Nothing is right. That amount of time? Ain’t nothing at all for something that’s going to feel like being transported to a whole other world entirely.”

“Am I right?”

“I’m honestly not sure.”

But Maggie had spoken those last words so quietly that neither Levi nor Hudson had heard them. Or, if they had, they hadn’t felt that her comment warranted a response. Hudson turned the stereo up, some scratchy old rock song she knew she had heard but couldn’t quite place, and all three of them looked out of the windows, their heads momentarily having gone to places the others could not go.

“All right kids, this is it. Welcome. Well, to you, Maggie. Welcome to paradise.”

“Here? We’re going to camp here?”

“We are indeed, little lady. Bet you didn’t imagine we’d be going to a place that looked like this. Bet you didn’t see it in your wildest dreams.”

“No,” Maggie whispered with a faraway look in her eyes, “not in my wildest dreams.”

“Sh*t! Good, that’s good. This is what I was hoping for by bringing you here. Didn’t I say it, Hudson? Didn’t I say this was what I was hoping for?”

“Sure thing, brother. I believe it was.”

“What? What were you hoping for?”