The Dragon’s E-Mail Order Menage

Levi came up behind her so that she could feel his sweet breath on the back of her neck again. When he spoke, she could actually hear the smile in his voice; she didn’t even need to be looking at him to know it was there.

“Magic. I was hoping you would see the magic in this place just like me and Hudson do. Like I said, not in your wildest dreams.”

Maggie nodded absently and looked around her with a kind of dumbfounded awe. He was right, this place was truly magnificent, a vast scenery of epic proportion, and she was ecstatic to be here. She felt a sweet kind of honor at the idea of Levi and Hudson wanting to share what she could easily see was a very special place to them with her and she knew that this trip would irrevocably change the relationship between the three of them, one way or another. Levi was right about the sentiment he was expressing but he wasn’t right about everything. Not everything, not exactly.

“What is it?”

Now it was Hudson who had crept up behind her and was speaking softly into her ear, a sensation that brought a whole new kind of tingling to her body. It wasn’t necessarily better or worse than the feeling she had gotten when Levi had been so close to her, it was just different, and that was something she found oddly comforting. It was good to know that both of these men could make her feel so eager, so alive, but that they managed to do that in ways that felt unique to them.

Knowing that made her sure that this thing with the three of them could really work. If they could do it without getting jealous at all (and she wasn’t vain enough to believe that she was so enticing that she would break up a friendship that had been forged almost at birth), this thing could really work. The opinions of her parents and any other nay-sayers be damned. But her mind was wandering and when she reined herself in, managed to come back to herself, she could feel that Hudson was still behind her, still waiting.

“Maggie? You okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. It’s just something that Levi said.”

“Don’t pay him any mind. He has a nasty habit of offending people, but he doesn’t mean anything by it. He just doesn’t always do so well with boundaries, that’s all.”

“No, no, that’s not it.”

“Then what?”

She still had her eyes on Levi’s back, was watching as he approached a man in a park ranger’s uniform who seemed like he must work here. The two of them spoke in hushed tones, the ranger looking around them every couple of seconds or so like he was worried someone was going to be listening in on what they had to say to each other. Maggie turned to look at Hudson and was touched to see concern in his eyes.

On a whim, she reached up and put her hand softly against his face, feeling her dragon stir in response to his hot skin beneath her fingers. She wondered vaguely, and not for the first time, if his dragon felt so strongly about her. But now was not the time for that particular question. She couldn’t exactly handle every single question that crossed her mind all at the same time, now could she? And right now there was something more pressing on her mind.

“Maggie, I don’t want to sound like a complete chicken sh*t, but you’re kind of freaking me out a little bit.”

“Am I?”

“Yeah, you are. Your face is white like a ghost. What’s going on? Should we not have brought you here?”

“No,” she said quickly, the slight edge of fear in her voice finally snapping her out of the strange haze she had sunk into upon arrival at this odd place, “no, nothing like that. It really is amazing. It’s just something Levi said that made me remember.”

“Remember what?”

“He said it was something I wouldn’t see in my wildest dreams. Except that I have. I have seen it in my dreams. I didn’t realize it was a real place until now, but seeing it, it’s like I’ve actually been here. It’s a dream that feels physical, except that it looks different in some ways I can’t put my finger on, you know? The way dreams sometimes go.”

“I know that feeling. Were they good dreams or bad ones?”

“I think they were good ones. I’m glad we’re here. I’m actually really glad we’re here. It was just kind of a surprise.”

“But a good surprise.”

“Yes,” she smiled warmly, suddenly feeling like all of her insides were full of light, “it’s a good surprise. Can I ask you a question, though?”

“Sure, anything you want. I might even know the answer.”

Feeling emboldened, Maggie linked her arm through his and felt a sense of delight at the blush she saw creep across his face. So she did have an effect on him. Thank god for the fact that his face showed his feelings at least a fraction of the amount that hers did. Otherwise, she might not have realized that she wasn’t the only one feeling a little bit lost at sea in this situation. She wouldn’t have realized that he liked her.

Hudson liked her and that may have sounded like no big thing to someone else but Maggie wasn’t someone else; she was herself, and she had a particular set of beliefs when it came to things like “like.” Everyone always made such a big thing about saying the words “I love you,” but nobody ever thought all that much about the phrases sweeter, more innocent cousin, like.

Maggie thought it meant the world, though. She knew that saying “I love you” was something that could easily turn into little more than a reflex. She knew that you could love a person and at the same time not be able to stand them in any way, shape, or form. But like. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about being loved, but she also wanted to be liked all along the way.

So realizing in that moment of contact that he liked her gave her a shot of confidence that she wasn’t sure anything else could have provided her with. She grinned to herself, half hoping he wouldn’t notice and half hoping he would, and started to walk them both slowly forward.