Burning for the Dragon: BBW Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance (Fated Hearts Club Book 1)

by Cecilia Lane

  Would Luca have similar looking wings in his dragon form? She knew so little about the man. She and Vera spent the previous night searching for any information online. They learned he owned a development firm, whatever that was. He’d studied at one of the top universities in the country. There wasn’t much else on him, other than some business magazine interviews that were chock full of jargon and buzzwords. The Luca she read about online wasn’t anything like the Luca she’d joked with at the club.

  “Girl, you look amazing.” Vera approached and grabbed a chunk of her hair. Pursing her lips, she started weaving a braid that cascaded over one shoulder.

  “Am I crazy for doing this?” She studied Vera in the mirrored reflection. It’d only been a couple nights before that they were having a similar conversation.

  “Yes. But in a good way. I’d do some bodily damage for an opportunity like this. At least a face punch of two. Do you think he has a brother?” Vera sighed dreamily. Her eyes lit up. “Here. You can’t let him have all the say in what you wear.”

  Vera went to the slat board that held her enormous collection of jewelry. Necklaces dangled next to earrings, while her rings, large and small, were hooked anywhere there was space. It was a shiny, dangerously stylish display.

  “Hmm… Oh, here we go.” She plucked a necklace from where it hung, then moved behind Penelope and lifted her hair.

  Penelope grinned when the necklace was settled against her. She straightened a few of the pieces. The bones of a dinosaur ringed her neck and made her look ferocious. “Just a reminder of what will happen to him if anything goes wrong.”

  Just in time, too. The box by Vera’s door buzzed. She squealed again and ran to answer it before Penelope could react. She followed her friend into the living room just as Vera hit the button on the box. “Yeeesss?”

  “Hello. I’m looking for Penelope. Is this the right number?”

  A grin lifted Penelope’s lips just from the distorted sound of Luca’s voice through the box.

  Vera turned and winked before holding down the button again. “It is. Now, I want my little pumpkin home by midnight. Otherwise, I’ll have to be a meanie and track you down to pepper those wings with holes.”

  “Vera!” Penelope hissed. She stepped into the heels she picked out to go with the dress and tugged open the door. “Tell him I’ll be right down.”

  She pressed her hands against her stomach as the elevator sped down the shaft to the ground floor. She needed the time to psych herself up for the night. She’d been on dates, she’d dressed nicely for some of them, but nothing made her as nervous as her night ahead with Luca. The man was sex on a stick and made her start hoping for things she no longer thought existed, like true love or even a long term romance.

  The elevator doors opened and she spotted him as she stepped into the lobby. The world slowed and doves burst into flight around him while a chorus of soft music filled the space and everyone turned to give them congratulatory glances.

  Well, maybe not. But that’s what Penelope thought should have happened.

  Luca was stunning. He wore another black suit, but this one was more suited for a night out than a day at the office. She thought the shirt was again black, but a second look showed it was a deeply dark red. It suited him well, where it would look like someone overly trying to fit into a goth club on anyone else.

  When she reached him, she was certain his eyes darkened to pure black and erased even the whites. A second later showed that they were just normal, dark eyes that didn’t leave her face. He reached for her hand and bent over it to plant a kiss on the top, still keeping his eyes locked with hers.

  “You look even more beautiful than I imagined.”

  Be still her heart. She didn’t know if she would survive the night if he kept rushing the blood from her cheeks to her core and back again.

  “Thank you,” she managed to whisper.

  “Shall we?” He asked when he straightened. At her nod, he led her outside to a waiting limo.

  “Car service, really? You don’t just…” She flapped her hands like wings.

  He laughed. At her. She glared. “No, sweet. Not in the city where the scared little humans can see. And even if I did, I wouldn’t want to mess up your beautiful hair.”

  Damn his consideration. Not only for her, but for all the scared little humans. She knew at the heart of that was a little self-preservation, but it still made her melt.

  He waved away the driver and held the door for her himself. Only after she settled did he duck into the back and let the door close behind him. He overwhelmed the small space, his head nearly brushing the top of the car and his legs stretched out long in front of him. Instead of panicking her, it soothed her nerves. He was big and strong and could protect her, should it be needed. Outside of that, there was so much of him for her to curl into and cuddle against.

  Penelope put the brakes on that thought. As much as she wanted to press her face into his chest and lick all the delightful inches of him she knew she’d find under his clothes, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She wanted some assurance that he wouldn’t take wing after the next thing that looked at him. She wanted loyalty, and while Luca was earning tons of brownie points for seeking her out, she wasn’t sure if it would last. Or if his attraction to her would last.

  The cold thoughts of her head kept dousing the flames that were starting to melt her heart. Luca would need to massively turn up the heat if he wanted to chip through her defenses.

  Chapter Five

  The limo pulled up to the hottest Italian restaurant in the city. Even without having plans to ever visit, Penelope knew the place took months to get a reservation. Their private dining rooms cost a fortune on top of the long wait.

  But someone like Luca was able to secure a spot in a day.

  Penelope almost whined when he helped her from the car. Even though she looked like she belonged, she didn’t feel it. She glanced at the line of people waiting for a last minute cancellation. The women were dressed in gowns and the men in suits, but their eyes weighed her and found her wanting. They could scent out the poor as easily as a shark could smell blood.

  Luca placed her hand on his arm and led her forward. A quick chat with the hostess and they were let through the velvet rope that hung across the entrance.

  “He is with her?” She heard some disappointed woman mutter.

  Inside was little better. Rich tapestries draped over the walls anywhere there wasn’t an ornate painting. Space and privacy were granted in equal amounts. Each tiny table looked lost in a sea of plush carpet.

  The whispers continued as the host led them on. Luca obviously heard more than she, and his jaw stiffened. The little sign of his irritation buoyed her confidence.

  She clung to his arm and lifted her chin. Let them stare. She was the one he asked to join him, and she was the one he sent a dress. She’d dealt with their type before. They were jealous, catty bitches and couldn’t fathom that the curvy girl had snagged herself the most attractive man in the place. They could go dig for gold elsewhere.

  They were led through the restaurant and out to the back dining platform. A small handful of other tables were present, each lit with candles. The view was spectacular and Penelope gasped. Here was the real reason why the reservation list was so long.

  Over the ornate railing was a view of the river. On the other side were the skyscrapers that seemed to breed each time she looked at the skyline. Behind them and nearly glowing with the setting sun and lights of the city were the mountains she rarely visited.

  “You didn’t need to go through with all of this,” she whispered across the table after they were seated.

  Luca shrugged. “I wanted to show the most beautiful woman I know the most beautiful view I know.”

  The waiter appeared almost as soon as they were seated and poured out glasses of red wine. She swirled the liquid in the glass after he left, and tried to think of something to say. They’d been so witty with each other at the Fate
d Hearts Club, but now it felt like her head was stuffed full of cotton.

  “Do you come here often, then?”

  He shook his head. “Only when I miss home. The seat of our power is in Italy. Some say when Mount Vesuvius erupted, ash and lava weren’t the only things that spilled into the world. The dragons rose up from the angry earth and beat their wings for the first time.”

  “Really? And here I thought you were all just a bunch of highly evolved lizards.” She grinned over the rim of her wine glass.

  A thin trail of smoke exited his nostrils. It was a reminder that underneath his human form was a deadly creature that could probably swallow her in one bite. Instead of fear gripping her heart, arousal wove through her veins.

  “We are not lizards.”

  “I much prefer your story, anyway.” She assured him and reached across the table to put her hand over his. A jolt of electricity zinged through her as soon as their skin touched. She’d never felt anything like it before. It must have been a shifter thing. She opened her mouth to ask when the waiter reappeared at their side. She didn’t miss the look of annoyance that flashed through Luca’s eyes.

  “Compliments of the chef, Mr. de Rege. Ravioli with red clam sauce. An experiment for the evening.” The waiter set down the full plates and stood in expectant attendance.

  “My compliments, thank you.” Luca waved him away.

  Penelope eyed the dish. They hadn’t even ordered a thing. She didn’t move in the same circles as Luca, but certainly, that was an oddity. It grated on her that she wasn’t allowed to order for herself. Luca didn’t seem like the patronizing type, but that could always lurk under the surface. Her fingers brushed against her necklace designed to look like bones. Politeness be damned.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Compliments of the chef?”

  Luca nodded. “A distant relative. She uses me as her taster whenever I come by for a meal.” A worried look darkened his eyes. “If you prefer something else…”

  “Oh, no! This looks wonderful.” Her worry faded. He came to the restaurant when he wanted a reminder of his home. Barring actually meeting his parents, it felt like she’d gained some kind of acceptance into his world if she was being treated as he would alone.

  The first bite curled her toes with an explosion of flavors and the last residual bit of worry fled. There was no possible way she could be upset over the delicious food. Her scale would probably regret it in the morning, but she didn’t care.

  “Vera was certainly impressed when she heard that you came to my work to ask me out. She liked the dress you picked out, too. She wanted me to ask if you had a brother.” She grinned over her fork.

  He set down his fork and stared across the river. “He’s dead.”

  “Shit, Luca. I’m sorry.” Her fork clattered to the plate, startling the nearest tables. She’d really put her foot in her mouth with that one. Pain contorted Luca’s face when she dared to peek at him.

  “It’s fine. Please, don’t worry about it.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?” She asked quietly. Though his words said he wasn’t upset, his entire demeanor told otherwise. His body was tight with the emotion that ran through him. She wanted to comfort him, but not in a way that he would hate. Though she’d never lost anyone close, she knew people handled their grief differently.

  “Leo was… the best at everything. He made the better marks in school, he was easier to get on with, he could even manage to distract our parents from any wrongdoing he was caught in.” His voice was thick with emotion.

  “You were close?”

  “My best friend, until I left home. The physical distance between us meant we weren’t in each other’s lives as much. To be honest, I was enjoying my freedom from home. I think he respected that and didn’t push me to visit as much as he should.”

  “But that’s normal. Everyone grows away from their family at some point.” She certainly had, though her growth had been hindered until she forced her way out. If her stepmother had her say, she’d still be on the plot of land and doing all the hard work for the family. Vera had taken Penelope under her wing during their first month of college and given her a crash course in living for herself.

  “Not dragons. We remain very close. It’s for our own survival. A lonely dragon can lose his way in the world and become a rogue. A dragon alone is an easy target for dragon slayers, as well.” Luca’s mouth twisted into a snarl and Penelope reached across the table for his hands.

  “It’s okay. You don’t need to say anything if you don’t want.”

  He shook his head. “No. It’s painful and maddening, but there’s no changing it. A dragon slayer caught my brother unawares and ended his life.”

  She stroked his hand and let him have his silence. Slowly, his fingers unclenched from a fist and opened to her. She ran her fingertips over his palms and down his digits.

  “They’re a foul, cowardly group that killed most of my kind. They won’t be happy until all dragons are gone from this world.”

  “The killer wasn’t ever caught?” Oh, the poor man. He didn’t even have the closure of justice.

  The shake of his head seemed to shake away the worst of his outburst. Penelope couldn’t help but feel he was packing himself away again and she was being shown a mask of Luca instead of the real man below. She didn’t try to hold on when he slid his hand away from her and adjusted the plate of food in front of him.

  “Let’s talk about something more pleasant than killers and death, shall we? Tell me about your Vera. How did you two meet?”

  She studied him through her eyelashes. He didn’t quite look her way, but he didn’t look as lost as he had when telling the snippet of his past, either. It was too soon to push for more and the place they were in wasn’t exactly ideal for such a charged conversation. She’d let him have his distraction.

  She launched into the saga that was Vera’s influence on her. “Well, we were assigned to the same room during our freshman year of college. She barely noticed me at first, probably because she was always out at a party or something. Actually, that much hasn’t changed.”

  ***

  Luca listened to her words roll over him. It was like faerie music or the soft tinkle of bells or, or, or… Oh, hell, he didn’t know. Everything about her was gorgeous, from her head to her toes, but her voice alone would be enough to undo him.

  It was the distraction he needed to avoid thinking of his brother. He shouldn’t have spoken of Leon, shouldn’t have caused a scene. He didn’t want pity. He wanted revenge.

  But her voice alone wouldn’t be enough to be the Consort of the Dragon King. She would need to command beside him. Dragons wouldn’t accept weakness.

  Except his dragon urged him to damn them all and sweep the gorgeous Penelope into their arms. They could fly to their lair and take the woman as their mate. Everything else were details to be penned at a later date.

  Luca was tempted to agree with the beast. It roared with triumph in his head and gathered the power to start shifting, but Luca held it back. They had the room on the open patio, but they wouldn’t ruin the restaurant’s business by frightening the other patrons.

  He felt a pull to Penelope that went beyond the call of dragon to mate or the need for someone to rule at his side. It was unlike anything he’d ever felt before, and beyond what he’d heard whispered when the talk of fated mates came up in conversation. She was like air in his lungs and blood in his body. He needed her in every way. Underneath the need to mate and further the dragon line was the true draw of a man to a beautiful woman, one that he thought would make him happy for the rest of his long life. He wouldn’t rush it. He wanted her to feel the same before he sunk his fangs into her skin and marked her as his own.

  If she would even want him and everything that came with him. He would be the Dragon King and she the Consort. There would be more than just mates once he took the throne. The petty squabbles of everyday life, for one. The need for actual justice was another duty, and not just
the justice served between wronged parties of the court. If the dragon slayers were on the rise again…

  No. He wouldn’t tarnish the evening with more thoughts of his brother’s killer. Penelope deserved to be the focus of his attention.

  The curve of her lips stopped moving and pulled into a frown. The green of her eyes sparkled with worry. Her cheeks flushed, and he wasn’t sure if it was anger or embarrassment behind the color.

  He blinked at her and realized he’d missed a question.

  “I apologize. What did you say?” He cleared his throat.

  “What do you want out of your life?”

  What did he want? To see her skin flushed pink with passion as he brought her to the edge again and again. To see her stomach round with their growing children. To rip the dress from her body and put his hands all over her skin.

  His dragon reared its head again and breathed fire on his arousal. His mind wandered to the mouth-watering image of her spread out in his lair and beckoning him forward. Not for the first time since picking her up, Luca had to beat the animal part of him back to keep his human form.

  If he hadn’t sent her running with talk of his dead brother and the killers of his people, he wasn’t about to frighten her away with being too forceful in a public place. He had the rest of the night to convince her how much he wanted her body.

  “My firm is really taking off, so there are different directions I’d like to go with that. We have many projects on the table. I tend to get involved heavily—”

  “Yes, but what do you want?”

  She was persistent, he had to give her that. Leo would like her.

  Would have liked, he corrected himself. Past tense.

  It alarmed him how it still shocked him that his brother was dead. There was no changing the fact and he needed to accept it. He was the heir to the Dragon Throne now.

  “Dragons are still very medieval creatures. We have our hierarchy of power we must respect. There are so few of us left, too, so an even greater importance is placed on the future generations. But we can’t have children without our mates. I need to find my mate that will help continue the line.”