Page 20 of Connor and the Dragons

“I know.” He went pink across the cheekbones, which was a genuinely strange thing to watch on a man built like a siege engine. “I’m sorry. Connor, I am. Not about this,” he gestured at himself, comprehensively, “this is just anatomy. About dropping you. I would rather have hit the water myself than see you fall.” The pink deepened.

“So why not hold your form?” Kessrin snapped.

“Because I couldn’t risk Vyranthos taking control again. Not with Connor in my care!” Oallian said. “He’s too dangerous, too controlling. So I was deliberately thinking about sex because it’s how I keep Vyranthos quiet.”

“What?” I asked, tilting my head.

“The human form is his reproductive form,” Kessrin said quietly. “So thinking about… reproductive things…”

“Ah,” I said. “Do you… also have to think about reproductive things?”

Kessrin shook his head. “My dragon and I are one, unified. Fire dragons are two-spirited, and the spirits inside them are often at war.”

Oallian nodded. “Usually I can hold it at a simmer, but you were down there in the basket, sleeves rolled up, I lost track of that a little.”

“My sleeves?” I asked.

“You have very nice forearms.”

Kessrin looked at my forearms, then visibly shook himself and turned back to Oallian. “I’m sorry, I did not mean to yell, I was just concerned.”

“All right, so you’re flying my basket, Kess,” I said. “And let’s keep a change of clothes for both of you with me in case Oallian loses control again.”

Oallian had the grace to look completely ashamed. “I’m so sorry, I should have suggested that from the start.”

“Okay, so we’re off again? Or do you need to rest?”

“I, er, cannot transform with this.” He pointed at his erection. “And I’m not sure how to make it go away, not with Kessrin standing there looking so gorgeous, and you with the forearms. Did you know that ice dragons love to have their holes fucked? And their natural lubricant is quite the thing to experience.”

Kessrin blinked, and turned away from us, looking flustered.

“And look at the curve of his ass. Is it not perfect?” Oallian said. I reached for a blanket from the basket and tossed it to Kessrin, who draped it over all of his delectable parts. Then I rolled my sleeves down, just to be safe.

“Think about something boring,” I said. “Paperwork. Long meetings. Lines at the DMV.”

“What is a DMV?”

“A place where you have to stand in very long lines.”

“That sounds fascinating.”

“Recite the treaty provisions for the great peace,” Kessrin said, arms folded, staring out to sea with his jaw set. “All forty-one articles. That is what I do.”

“Why would I know the treaty provisions?” Oallian asked. “I’ve spent the last few centuries as Vyranthos, and believe you me, he cannot read for long before he sets the book on fire. We have lost a great many good novels that way.”

“Try disappointment,” I offered. “Think about how disappointed Kessrin is in you right now.”

There was a pause.

“That is not helping,” Oallian said, in a smaller voice. “That is the opposite of helping. Please stop looking at me disapprovingly, Kessrin, I think I like it. I think I might like it more if you were to threaten to spank me for being such a naughty little dragon.”

Kessrin bit his bottom lip, then turned around and looked at the sea with his whole body.

I turned, searching for a solution, and my eyes landed on a small leather item, made of three straps and buckles that attached a bundle of extra rope to the basket. “Kessrin, could you make me some ice?” I asked, walking towards Oallian. Kessrin walked to the water’s edge cupped a handful of seawater, and returned with an ice cube. I took it, and the leather straps, and held them out to Oallian.

“What is that?”

“I’m going to fashion a makeshift cock cage for you. It’ll keep you from getting hard. This may hurt at first, though. May I?”