UNPROOFED EXCERPT Chapter One Stay right there… Slowly, I step back from the glass pedestal, hands up and breath held. I wait, wait for an alarm to go off, but to my quick relief, nothing sounded. Inside the master of Varenhal Manor’s bedchamber, I reach for the dragon’s egg nestled beneath my dress. My eyes never leaving the knockoff, I switched in its place. Almost baby. I take another step back, paying close attention to the bookshelf on the other side of the pedestal. A few years back, I’d encountered one as a trap, sliding aside to reveal an arsenal waiting to escort me to my own wake. It doesn’t surprise me to find the egg out in the open. The wealthy like to show off their treasures, unlike the dragons they steal from, who hoard and keep safe what they hold precious. Which is why this assignment had been hard to refuse. In a four-hundred-year-old manor, such as this, I wished I had more time to explore. Soon, the ferry would come for the guests of tonight’s dinner party, and I don’t plan on missing my ride and risking having my true purpose here discovered. If I knew my aunt, I don’t have much time. This whole charade of my fake pregnancy and Shenara’s revolving art gallery will soon grow old. Outside, a cluster of clouds drifts across the moon, deepening the shadows below. Any other time, I’d escape through the window. Tonight, I am carrying precious cargo. I have to go back out the way I came. I pull up the skirt of my dress, checking once more to make sure the egg is secure in the harness holding it against me. When the sound of a door opening sends me whirling around, half expecting Rafe, my partner in crime. My skirt drops enough to cover the disguise, but my hands go under the egg like a pregnant woman holding up her belly and thus keeping my cocktail dress hiked up a bit too far Zander? My lungs hold onto the air sucked into them. My vision screams and I don’t move. It doesn’t help I’ve got forty pounds of shelled dragon egg strapped against my lungs. What is his doing here? My heart pounds against my chest and my lungs swell to the point I see black dots floating in my vision. “Zander,” it’s more a fight for breath than his name. I search his face looking for any signs of recognition after all this time. A part of me wishes he does remember me. Another part swears he won’t. To him I was just another fan girl to warm his bed for a night. My heart yanks at the thought. It was more than that, but if I let the memories rush in, I won’t get out of here with my heart or any other part of me still in tacked. Nothing about his dark wheat-colored hair or his clenched jaw has changed. He stands with his arms crossed barricading the door. I should have had Rafe check the guest list before agreeing to take on this job. No wonder it sounded too easy. I failed to look for the catch. “What are you doing here?” he ask. His gaze lands on the pendant peeking between the valleys of my breast. Self-conscious, I cover it with my hand. I’ve always worn it close to my heart since the day he gave it to me. “There are so many rooms here.” The words rush out for a cover. “I couldn’t tell which door led to the powder room.” His eyes narrow. “No. What are you doing here?” “I don’t know what you mean.” I could be asking him the same question. My lungs are taking their good old time in allowing me oxygen. I practically pant to stay conscious and don’t want him to get the wrong idea. “I’m a guest. I was invited.” I can hear Rafe, laughing at me for getting caught with my skirt up. His nostrils flare as if the mention of having been invited is an insult towards him. I take the deepest breath my lungs will allow, slow to force my heart to calm. I want to scream at him that I know what he is, but to do so blows my cover and puts Rafe in danger, too. Besides, this isn’t about me. I rub my hand over the egg. I’ve a greater mission here than to face the past and an angry man. His eyes glint, though he doesn’t show he is angry with me. Dragons have a way of hiding their treasures and their emotions in places far from reach. To have a dragons egg this close sounded too good to be true, though I hadn’t imagined to find dragons here, or Zander. Something didn’t settle right. The question rolling around in my head never reaching my tongue . What was he doing in here? “Don’t play coy with me, Brooke. If you wanted back in my bed, all you had to do was ask.” “Your bed?” I nearly choke. “This is my room.” “You’re Lord Varenhal?” Why hadn’t I known that? Like his dragon-side, Zander kept a lot of things secret. I’d discovered his dragon form that last night we spent together. I blinked, not going back there. My heart lost too much and the fissures from the cracks barely held at the sight of him. Not that I, too, had been completely honest with him. The past was better off left behind us. I’d left him. Disappeared for both our sakes. My mother always warned past mistakes rose at inconvenient times. A slow, lazy, smile formed across his lips. It did crazy things to my libido. I needed to get out of here before Zander discovered the truth of the bump beneath my skirt. He took a step towards me. I ran a hand down over my skirt to right it, assuring myself the egg remained nestled in the right spot against me to continue the pregnancy charade. Rafe's idea, not mine. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you missed me.” “Like a bad cold.” I retort. My heart picks up again and I try to keep calm. Dragons have excellent hearing like most shifters. The last thing I want is for this man, this dragon, to think he has gotten the upper hand. He shakes his head. Those intense brown eyes sparking with shards of gold. Warmth spreads across my abdomen. “You’ve obviously hit your head. Did you hurt yourself during your last performance?” It would explain why he isn’t thinking straight. An advantage to me for sure. “You clearly can’t think I’d come here after all this time looking for you.” Quite the opposite. I planned to have a talk with great aunt Shenara after I got out of here. Slowly, I take a few steps towards him and the door. “As I said I was looking for the lavatory.” His eyes land on the faux egg on the pedestal behind me. His smile turns upside down. His eyes narrow on me. Like fireworks, hot embers explode in my chest and settled in my womb. I shift from one foot to the other to ease the sudden intense pain. A silent moan stays trapped behind sealed lips. “Brooke.” “It was one night,” I snap. My eyes flutter closed at the rumble of my name coming from his deep voice. Heat rides up against me, and I can’t help to say something or groan and let my discomfort known. “If you don’t mind.” My eyes snapped open. “If this is your house, you can at least be kind enough to direct me toward the right room before…” What? I spontaneously com-bust and turn to ash? I’d never recovered an egg this hot. I’d also never strapped one to my body before. I shuffle from one foot to the other. I’m holding onto the egg, and my face never held up well in a poker game. I hope my distress is enough to make this believable. “Is that why you bailed?” I shake my head, gritting my teeth. I need to get out of here. NOW. I can’t explain this to him in a way he’d understand. A mortal, like me, probably, but not him. “Hi, I made a mistake and told you my real name all those years ago, but my operative name is Reece and my family is part of a faction that protects the world from dragons.” I almost snort hearing in my head how it might sound. My position in the fraction didn’t exactly welcome me into a dragon’s territory. The dragons blamed us for their dwindling numbers and for trying to manipulate the specious. If not for a mage teaching them the ability to shift and become human to walk amongst us, their sorry hides all these centuries ago. Of course, the dragons didn’t see it that way. I, on the other hand, never once regretted taking up my current role in the family biz. I would have agreed to anything to spare my mother the kind of death the draconian society inflicted upon her—even the price of leaving Zander and any ambitions of a singing career behind. Maybe I did have a regret, but just one. I never meant for anyone to get hurt. “I need to go. If you’re not going to point me to the nearest lavatory, I’ll keep looking. My aunt will wonder what has become of me.” I move to go past him, reaching for the door. “Does your aunt know you’re a thief?” His hand shoots out and grabs me by the wrist. I come face to face with him, and a wave of sheer longing unwinds within me. I steady myself from backing up. “I’m not the one who took something that doesn’t belong to me.” A single low note escapes me. His eyes lose focus for half a second. Then, deliberately, he shakes it off. Something moves across his face, too quick to catch, and then he smile with a little too much glee in his eyes. “I can’t let you go.” Sweet chocolate with oranges, that voice and his accent. It ripples all the way to my toes and every place in between, thanks to his alpha command. Devil dragon. Too bad for him, alpha commands don’t work on me. “Is that why you offered to host my aunt’s revolving art gallery here?” I jerk my arm from his grasp, but his hold tightens. “Wouldn’t that be you luring me here?” “Shenara Molyvann is your aunt?” As stunned as he sounds, I might almost have believed he didn’t know. Still, I take full advantage of his confusion. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really do need to go.” About to shove him aside, I sway on my feet. My eyes drift shut as my entire body flushes with heat. I’m way too young for hot flashes. “Not before you return what is mine.” My eyes snap open again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Oh, I think you do.” He lays his other hand against the egg nestled against my abdomen beneath the hidden layers of lace in my dress. I can’t take my eyes off him. I take my other hand as any protective mother would and knock his hand away. “How dare you try to take possession of my…” Then I laugh harshly. This is so absurd and cover the flash of a memory that very well might cost me this assignment. I need to skip out of here and be the first one on that ferry. Think, Brooke. He’s a dragon. “You can’t think this is yours after how long it’s been.” I am supposedly pregnant, and it takes nine months for mortals like me to carry a child to full term. Not that I’d know. I don’t have any children of my own, and the only man I’ve ever been with is standing in front of me with a wicked glint in his eye. “I can smell you.” EEWW. Did I not put enough lotion and deodorant on before we came? I almost lift my arm to confirm, but I don’t think it’s me he’s referring to. This big egg of mine carries a scent signature only the most sensitive of noses can pick up. I’d rather this one be spoiled than rotten when I get back to the hatchery. He leans forward, nuzzling my neck. Dragons like other shifters have sensitive smell along with hearing. It’s the egg, but a shiver goes down my spine at the thought of him memorizing my scent. Dragons are predators. They also have memories like elephants. His other hand presses the small of my back. I press a hand against his shoulder, trying to keep the egg from becoming smashed between us. His breath blows hot against my ear. “If it’s a hatchling you desire, I’m happy to oblige you.” Every never in my body lights up like the fourth of July. Dragon donuts and applesauce I’m better at this. Or I was. I reign back my emotions, focus on the target as Mom taught me. In all my years, no one has ever gotten past my defenses. “I’ve already got one, but thanks,” I hold my breath, watching his golden eyes intensify. “I can’t allow you to leave with that egg. Hand it over and I won’t have to force you.” He means the egg. This is his room. I’m the thief. What if Shenara’s information is wrong this time? What if this egg isn’t in danger? Dragons don’t harm their young. They protect them. Unless this egg is from another dragon clan, which knowing how ruthless dragons are… apples in a barrel. I’m getting you out of here baby . “I can’t allow you to get beneath my skirt.” Or any other place, I think. It should have never happened the first time. I imagine him with a collection of exotic panties hidden in a closet somewhere. My plain cotton black ones amongst them. Dragons also like trophies with their treasures. The thought of being nothing more than another trophy…. I’m not going to go there. I’ve gotten myself into this. I’ll find a way out. His grip loosens on my wrist, but not enough for me to yank out of it yet. He tilts his head and his gaze falls to my lips. “Are you sure?” Before I can form a reply, heat explodes inside my belly. The hot flash grows and spreads through my lower limbs, radiating from the egg pressed against my stomach and not from Zander’s lips a breath away from mine. I will myself to pull back, but his hand has left the egg and cradles my neck. No. I’m not falling for him again. Yet, I can’t move. There’s no alpha dominance or magic restraining me. My body has done it all on its own. Slowly, he brings his lips down to mine, his gaze searching, giving me an opportunity to object. I don’t object. His mouth lands on mine and I whimper, my lips parting at the first swipe of his tongue. My body turns traitor in full, humiliating surrender. Eight years and he still undoes me in under ten seconds. His hand releases my wrist. Six feet to the door. Forty minutes until the ferry arrives to take the first group of guests back to the mainland. The egg is threatening to burn a hole through my dress. I know all this. I tangle my hands in his hair anyway. His hand slides under my skirt, finding the inside of my thigh and I let him because I am apparently a disaster wrapped in a cocktail dress. Just another second. His mouth leaves mine to brush feather light kisses down my neck. An old wound flares under his lips, bitter sweet. I don’t need any more reminders of that night. “Zander,” I whisper. Just another second. One more for the goodbye kiss I never gave him. The harness clasp snaps. My knee comes up before my brain fully catches up with what just happened. Zander hisses, clutching his groin and I flee as far as I can from him. I'm looking for readers to join my launch team.
