Luck of the Dragon

by Susannah Scott

  Alec’s senses hummed under his skin in primal awareness, and he only half-listened to his arguing lieutenants before Jane led the gemologist inside the casino. When she turned, Alec traced the small bumps of her spine to her narrow waist and swaying back. A small flower tattoo sat above the curve of her hips, just visible below the back of her dress. His hands reached toward her retreating back, and his men stopped talking mid-sentence.

  “Enough.” Alec reprimanded the six men who surrounded him on the stage. They waited, watching him with alert and interested expressions. “We’re ready. We go forward. Now.”

  “Jer’ol,” Darius said, using the ancient term of respect for the King of the dragons. “The families are just arriving, we have time to sort out the kinks. We could wait to start the ceremony.”

  “There is no more time.” Alec’s lieutenants didn’t know how close he was to losing his dragon form, and there were plenty of other dragons in imminent danger, as well. “We’ve waited too long for a place for our people. I won’t wait any longer.” Alec turned to the man at his right. “Leo, let the commanders know that it’s time to bring the folds together. The mating ceremony will begin as planned with the full moon.”

  “Yes, Jer’ol.” Leo put a bit of spin on the term and tugged the short hair on his chin. Alec gave him a warning glance. His oldest friend might disagree with his haste, but he would do so later, in private.

  The men disbanded to their respective assignments, and Alec headed toward the gem collection. Skirting the action around a frenzied craps table, Alec nodded at the croupier and the chips piled high on the green table. They would be in his coffers soon—it was just a matter of time. The house won 98.9% of the time, and there was nothing a dragon liked more than accruing wealth.

  At the top of one the candlelit staircases that led to the fetish dungeon, he paused. Humans were so easily titillated. A feather, a rope, hot candle wax…it didn’t take much to amuse them. Tyren, his Icelandic lieutenant, stepped up the stairs toward him.

  “How’re the receipts?” Alec asked him.

  Tyren consulted his handheld PDA. When he peered up, his pale blue eyes were amused. “It didn’t take them any time at all. We opened the doors at noon and already the paddle room is outpacing the wax room by 50K.”

  “Spanking is the top grossing room?” Alec shook his head in disbelief. The fetish rooms were Tyren’s idea. Alec was all for fun and games—he even liked a few boundary-pushing pleasures with the right lady—but nothing in the world could convince him that being spanked, even by one of Tyren’s six-foot-tall goddesses, would be fun.

  “I told you, torture them and they will come.” Tyren smiled, put his PDA back in his pocket, and glanced over the gaming room.

  “You have this well in hand, I see.” Alec smiled at the bad pun. “Let Leo know if you have any problems. I’ll be in the gem exhibit, meeting with the appraiser.”

  “She’s strange.” Tyren’s gaze moved over the nearby craps table as he talked. He was always looking, always shopping, never satisfied, this one.

  “How so?”

  “She has on expensive clothes and sexy shoes, but her toes and fingers aren’t painted.”

  Alec raised his brows. Tyren was an expert on women, but his level of scrutiny of the gemologist seemed extreme. “You checked out her toes from the stage?”

  “I notice these things.” He grinned and lifted his shoulders in a shrug.

  Alec’s dragon surged possessively in his chest. Odd. There was no logical reason for such a reaction.

  “I’ll take care of her.”

  “Much is at stake, here.” Tyren met his gaze.

  Alec took a step into Tyren’s personal space, noting the way Tyren’s cool blue irises constricted. “Do I strike you as needing a reminder of what’s at stake?”

  “No, Jer’ol.” Tyren shifted his feet.

  “Have I once, in the years it has taken us to get here, wavered from the course? Betrayed your trust?”

  “No, Jer’ol.” Tyren watched the gaming table again. “It’s just…I feel such loss as my dragon fades.” His last word broke slightly.

  Alec stepped back, needing the space. He knew the pain and the fear. He clapped Tyren on the shoulder and gave him a brotherly shake. “You keep a watch on the dungeon rooms, and I’ll keep a watch on the rest.”

  Tyren nodded.

  Alec strode past a bar overflowing with tipsy tourists, past a five-star restaurant serving gourmet food but in medieval-style. The lack of utensils made the experience messy, but the humans loved it, and it provided higher profit margins for him.

  All of Alec’s plans were just as calculated and successful. His mind worked number margins so quickly that when they had first come to Vegas, he had been banned from gambling because he could count cards, even the four-deck loaders the super casinos used. The Vegas Old Guard had pissed him off when they told him he couldn’t play their human games. That’s when he had decided to buy a casino and turn it into a haven for his people.

  Much was hidden in plain sight at the Crown Jewel.

  No human would ever guess that the hundreds of “mechanical” dragons patrolling the top of the casino were sometimes real. No human needed to know that the top twenty floors of the casino provided housing for dragons. And if a herd of cattle sometimes disappeared in the desert…no one in Vegas noticed that, either.

  He made sure of it.

  After the Old Guard tried to stop him, Alec went behind their backs and bought an aging, down-on-her-luck spinster of a casino downtown, off the Strip. Using a portion of his significant cash reserves, he gave the old gal a tune up, and a boutique-ish feel. He’d collaborated with his neighbors, all small casino owners weary of being overshadowed by the flash from the Strip. Together, they had created the Freemont Street Experience, running party busses 24/7 to the super casinos on the Strip, hauling patrons, and their cash, to him downtown.

  The plan had been a huge success. He’d cashed out for a hefty profit and bought a prime piece of real estate in between the Luxor and New York, New York. He’d built the Crown Jewel while the Old Guard watched and cursed him from the sidelines. It had been a sweet revenge. Made even better now that his people had a sanctuary.

  “Jer’ol…” Alec heard one of his hostesses call his name.

  He stopped and waited for her to reach him. “Mei, how are your whales?” Everyone in the industry called the highest of the high-rollers “whales.” Personally, Alec found it insulting, but the whales did not seem offended that the casinos planned to beach them—and their money.

  “I’m having a problem with Mr. Qian’s funds.” Mei frowned, making her nose wrinkle. She was descended from the dragons of the Orient. In her human form, she was stunning with her straight black hair and eyes. She was smart, spoke four Asian languages, and could add her weekly commission in her head, to the penny.

  Alec tucked his hands in his pockets, waiting for the rest of the story. Qian was a pain in the ass with his bizarre personal requests, but the last time he had stayed with them downtown, he dumped fifteen million dollars into the coffers like it was chump change. A casino could put up with a lot of pain for that kind of profit.

  “I tried to set up his usual bankroll, but his bank in Hong Kong is denying the transaction. I don’t want to tell him because he’ll just throw a hissy-fit. He’s already threatening to go to the Hard Rock.” Mei grimaced at the possibility of losing her player and her commission.

  “No, we don’t want him to leave, especially since this is his first time at Crown Jewel. Advance him one million to play and ask Darius to sort out the money problem.”

  Mei tightened her lips as if she had bitten a lemon wedge. “Darius and I are not speaking.”

  “This is business.” Alec extended his hand for her microphone and earpiece. Mei pulled it from her ear and handed it to him.

  “Floor to Darius,” Alec spoke into the mic. Although the dragons could communicate telepathically with each other by mindspeak, the
intercom system was more secure, and private.

  “Yes, Jer’ol,” Darius answered, his Russian accent clipped and matter-of-fact.

  “Mei is having a problem with a whale’s bankroll. Fix it.”

  “Yes, Jer’ol.”

  Only Alec and Mei would have detected the slight hesitation in Darius’s voice at being asked to help Mei with a problem. Alec disconnected and shook his head.

  “You knew you would have to go to Darius with this?”

  Mei nodded, her chin offset in annoyance.

  “Any other two dragons on earth would thank the Great One to have found their mate.” Alec fought down his frustration at the always-squabbling duo. “Eventually, Darius will lose his dragon form if you do not find a way to do a hell of a lot more than work out a bankroll problem together.”

  “With all due respect, Jer’ol,” Mei tapped one elegant foot on the Italian tile. “I had no choice in the matter.”

  Alec exhaled a deep sigh. Some days, he felt more like a babysitter than the king of anything. “‘The Fates shall choose thee your mate,’” he reminded her. At Mei’s continued stubborn look, he could only shake his head.

  “Don’t let your personal feelings affect business.”

  “Yes, Jer’ol.” Mei turned on her stiletto heel and marched off in pursuit of her whale.

  Alec continued toward the unopened exhibit but slowed slightly as he walked through the grand entry of the casino. The gold and jewels in the ceiling made the entrance gleam like his ancient lair. It pleased him. His dragon senses vibrated with the pleasure of being around the jewels.

  Alec swiped his keycard outside of the sealed gem exhibit. A ten-by-ten foot steel door slid open with a slight swish and then closed just as silently behind him. The exhibit was set up for visitors, with balconies on four sides surrounding a gilded throne room. His grandfather’s, and now his, gold throne sat at the far end, behind a pane of glass. Inside the room, a female voice talked with Leo. “I don’t understand why I can’t examine the pieces now,” the gemologist said.

  “You can speak with Mr. Gerald when he arrives.”

  “Leonides, Leonides,” the woman cooed. She stood above Leo on the right-side balcony, bending over to examine a case of sealed jewels. “We do not need to wait for Mr. King of Las Vegas. I know you must have the codes.”

  “Mr. Gerald will be here soon.” Leo’s tone was implacable.

  Alec stopped beside Leo at the foot of the stairs. “Are you looking up her dress?” His voice was quiet, not carrying to the woman.

  “Of course,” Leo responded in a similar hushed manner. “Aren’t you?”

  Alec let his gaze wander up the woman’s strappy shoes to her legs. She was wearing stockings. Odd, no one wore panty hose in Vegas. One of her hands held her dark red hair back from her face, presumably so she could see his jewels better. Her exposed backside looked just right in the tight red dress, like an upside-down heart.

  Alec’s dragon jumped inside him. Need clenched his gut tight. “I’ve got this.”

  “You sure?” Leo lifted a brow. “Dr. Luciana De Luca is a handful. Make that two hands full.”

  “I can see that.”

  Leo laughed under his breath. “Tee needs me to stop by her office anyway.”

  Alec looked sideways at his friend with a knowing smile. “Better hurry up, then.” Tee was Leo’s best domestic casino hostess. As the head of Casino Operations, Leo constantly had to meet and greet her high-rollers.

  “It’s not like that with us,” Leo protested. “She’s my employee and friend. That’s it.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Tee’s damn good for the bottom line, that’s what she is,” Leo said with sharp finality.

  “She does have a lovely bottom line.” Alec enjoyed the good-natured ribbing.

  Leo shook his head. “I’ll see you at the evening briefing,” he said before stomping to the exit and leaving the exhibit.

  Alec turned his gaze back to the appraiser. She had not moved from her spot on the balcony and seemed wholly entranced by the sealed case. He bounded up the stairs with a light tread.

  “Interesting,” Luciana muttered to herself. “I’ve never seen this color…it’s like the ring.”

  Alec stopped near her and inhaled her scent. No daisies here—she was musky with a hint of vanilla. His dragon wings pulsed invisibly at his back. Bestial urges flared and warmed his skin, so much that he wouldn’t have been surprised to see steam fill the room. Alec frowned. His physical reaction to this human woman was unusual.

  “You’re hot.” The woman turned to face him, seeming not at all surprised to see him standing next to her.

  “So I’ve been told.” He rested his elbow on the case, letting the back of his hand brush her bare skin. Energy zapped along his arm with the suddenness of a snake bite. Alec fought to keep his expression neutral and unthreatening.

  “I bet.” The woman dropped her hair and scooted away from him along the edge of the case. “I meant you are warm, temperature-wise. I can feel it.” A flush started at her neck and climbed to her cheeks. “Even in this meat locker.”

  Alec stepped closer, purposely crowding her. Luciana’s pupils dilated, but she lifted her chin toward him like a shield. Heat swarmed from him and settled over her. “You’re a contradiction, Dr. De Luca.”

  “How so?” Her tone was bold, unperturbed, but she bit her bottom lip. More contradictions.

  “You are a natural redhead of Italian descent.” Alec let his gaze drop to her unpainted toes, then travel up the swell of her hips to her narrow waist, then linger over her unbound breasts until her nipples puckered. Luciana crossed her arms.

  Alec waited patiently for her to meet his gaze again.

  “Look.” Luciana put her right hand on his chest and patted him, as if he were a child being told to wait for dinner. “I am only interested in the jewels.” She bit the tip of her left index finger and touched her lips. The flash of white teeth and stretch of red lips distracted him, but not enough that he couldn’t feel her right hand take his keycard from his jacket pocket.

  Interesting.

  Alec smiled wider, baring his own teeth. He liked a challenge. He reached past her, and his arm brushed her breast. Luciana stepped back with an indrawn breath. Alec affected a dispassionate mask and leaned around her to press his thumb to the glass. Immediately, the case next to her opened with a click of efficient electronics.

  Luciana narrowed her eyes, as if she were afraid he might touch her again. She chewed on her lip and then seemed to make a decision. She reached into the case and removed a blue sapphire the size of her palm, set in Byzantine gold. “All the cases open with your fingerprint?”

  “My fingers can be very persuasive,” Alec said.

  She ignored him.

  Luciana replaced the sapphire and picked up a jewel-encrusted dagger sheath. Pulling the wicked looking blade, she turned to him. “This piece is priceless, slag-free crucible steel, and the handle is 18-carat gold inlaid with rough-cut rubies and emeralds. It’s probably Viking, 800 AD, but I’ll need to test it to be sure.”

  Alec knew exactly where the dagger had come from. “Everything in here is priceless to me.” Luciana replaced the knife and leaned back on her heels, her features tight, looking like she might run. Back off, you’re scaring her, Alec’s human mind interceded. “We need to have your appraisal done before we can open the exhibit to the public in September,” he said, his voice casual. “When can you start?”

  “But there must be fifty cases in here.” Luciana peered over his shoulder and pointed behind him. “Are all the cases as full as this one?”

  “I was told you were the best?” Alec let the challenge dangle.

  “I am. But getting an accurate value on this many gems will take time. And it’s going to cost you. A lot.”

  Alec laughed and ignored the urge to touch her again. “I imagine I can afford your price.”

  Lucy scowled. “Let’s get something straight. I�
��m not interested in your private collection of obscure etchings…or anything else private you might have.”

  “How do you know? The reviews on my, what did you call them…etchings are quite flattering.” Alec watched her face, liking the way heat flushed her pale neck, and her brown eyes snapped with annoyance.

  “I am a gem appraiser. That is it.”

  “But etchings can be so very stimulating.” Alec brushed her arm again, feeling the warm tingle in the tips of his fingers.

  Lucy shook her head. “Quit messing with me, or you can find another appraiser.”

  “Okay,” Alec said. “No more messing.”

  “Okay?” Lucy stepped backward—heel to toe, heel to toe—to the stair landing. “Just like that, you’re going to back off?”

  “Just like that.” Alec held still, waiting to see what she would do. “What do you need to start your appraisal tomorrow?”

  Lucy looked behind her to the steel door on the bottom level. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think this is a good idea.” She clomped down the stairs, the sexy sway of her hips completely gone in her hurry to escape.

  The exhilaration of the hunt flared through Alec’s system.

  Silly woman. You should never, never run from a dragon.

  “One hundred thousand dollars.” He followed her flight down the stairs with a light step.

  “What?” Lucy stood in front of the closed steel door, her eyes wide and unbelieving.

  “One hundred thousand dollars now. And an additional one hundred thousand when you finish the appraisal.”

  “That’s three times my usual fee,” Luciana said, anger again firing her face. “I told you, I don’t do etchings.”

  “The fee is just for appraising the exhibit, but you must begin tomorrow and be done in a month.”

  “Mr. Gerald, thank you for your generous offer, but I’m going to have to decline.”