Dark Heat

by Donna Grant

  She took a step toward him, and promptly slipped. Her hands caught her before she completely lost her balance. When she stood, a scream locked in her throat as Guy jumped.

  Elena ran to the edge, sliding to a halt, just in time to see Guy shift into a dragon. His wide crimson wings caught a current and swept him high into the sky.

  He flew up, then dived straight down, his wings tucked against his body. As he neared the ground, his wings spread and took him once more into the sky.

  With his long tail streaming behind him, Elena watched as Guy rolled and dipped, turned and dived. For the first time, she saw who he really was—man and dragon.

  He’d asked for nothing of her, even when he knew she had chosen her career over him. He hadn’t yelled, hadn’t given her an ultimatum.

  He’d let her go.

  Guy had protected her, fought for her, and loved her. She had rewarded him by walking away. What kind of woman did that? What kind of woman had the man of her dreams hold her at night and chose cold gemstones over him?

  “Not me,” she whispered.

  Elena didn’t know how long she watched Guy before he noticed her. He flew into the valley behind her. She turned and started down the mountain as he shifted back into human form.

  “What are you doing here?” he shouted over the rain as he stood naked and glaring at her.

  She shrugged as she approached and said, “I saw you from the house.”

  “You could have fallen. I wouldna have known, Elena. You could have died!”

  “I love you,” she said, surprising herself and him. She laughed then. “Oh, God. I do. I love you, Guy.”

  He stood there with his mouth parted simply staring at her for the longest time, and then he jerked her against his body, his mouth sealing over hers.

  Elena clung to him and his heat. The kiss was hard and fierce, but she welcomed it, welcomed him.

  He ended the kiss and looked down at her. “I thought…”

  “I know,” she said. “I did, too. But then I realized I have no life without you. You are what I’ve been looking for my entire life, not the gems. I know I hurt you earlier, and I’m sorry. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you and proving that I love you.”

  “Elena—”

  “Please,” she said over him. “Please let me stay with you, Guy.”

  He held her face in his hands and smiled. “Are you sure?”

  “That I want to stay? Yes.”

  “No,” he said with a laugh. “Are you sure you love me?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Oh, yes. I love you.”

  His eyes closed for a moment before he swept her up in his arms with a wide grin. “I love you, Elena Griffin. I love you!”

  Guy would have made love to Elena right then, but he felt her shivering against him. So he gathered her in his arms and ran back to the mansion.

  They were laughing and dripping water all through the house as they ran up to her room. They burst through the door and came to a halt when they found Con sitting in a chair with his back to them.

  “Con?” Guy asked. “What is it?”

  “I just got a call from Banan. Someone knows about us.”

  Guy gripped Elena’s hand as Con’s words sank into his mind. All the laughter and happiness faded. “Who?”

  “Banan is trying to find out.” Con rose and faced them. “I’m glad to see the two of you together. It looks like you made the right decision, Elena.”

  She smiled as she looked at Guy. “Yes, I did.”

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you both to hold off the binding ceremony.”

  Guy kissed the back of Elena’s hand. “I thought we’d wait anyway to give Elena some time, since everything has happened so fast.”

  “I’m ready right now,” she said with grin.

  “We have time,” Guy insisted.

  Con walked to the door and stopped. “I have a favor, Elena.”

  “Nay,” Guy said as he comprehended what Con was going to ask.

  Elena looked from Guy to Con and back to Guy. “What is it?”

  “Con wants to use you as bait,” Guy ground out.

  Con sighed. “Nay, I doona wish that. The truth, Elena, is that I think the only way we’ll discover who sent Sloan here is through you.”

  “I see,” she said slowly. She looked at Guy. “It makes sense. No one will suspect that I’ve fallen in love with someone here. They’ll buy whatever story I give them. I’ll tell them that I stayed here because of my ankle.”

  “I doona like it,” Guy said. “I willna be able to protect you.”

  “No one knows you. You can be there, just not with me.”

  Guy squeezed her hand. “I can no’ lose you, Elena.”

  “I willna let that happen,” Con promised.

  Elena smiled as she faced Guy. “Think of it as an adventure. I’ve gotten to see your world. You’ll get to see mine until we uncover who is threatening Dreagan and all of you.”

  “Or until you’re in danger.” Guy forced her to look at him. “At the first sign of a threat to you, I’m bringing you home.”

  “Home,” she said with a smile. “Yes, this is home now.”

  Guy was able to return her smile.

  “I’m sorry I ask this of both of you,” Con said. “I’d ask someone else if I could. Hal and Cassie are on their way back, and I’ve sent Laith to rendezvous with Banan in London. You’ll have those two along with Guy for protection, Elena.”

  “It’ll be enough. I’m glad you asked me. I feel a part of this family now. I’ll find what you need to know.”

  Guy gave Con a nod. “Elena, you’ve been a part of us since the moment you kissed me.”

  “You leave in the morning. Get some rest,” Con said.

  But rest wasn’t what Guy had in mind as they ran to her room. He was in such a haste to pull off Elena’s long-sleeve shirt that he tore it. They laughed as they fell together on the bed.

  EPILOGUE

  Elena gave Guy one final kiss before she walked out of the mansion and into the waiting helicopter that would return her to London.

  She hated to leave, but it had been worse for Guy. He’d come up with all sorts of arguments as to why she shouldn’t go without him. It had taken her and Con both to make him realize they couldn’t be seen together lest anyone realize who he was. Still, Elena hated it.

  She kept her eyes closed the entire ride back to London. It was her first helicopter ride, but all she could think about was crimson dragons and Guy’s kisses.

  When she arrived in London, it was to find PureGems had a car waiting for her. She got out of the helicopter and the door to the black Mercedes opened and Richard Arnold, Sloan’s boss, greeted her.

  “Elena, I’m so glad you’ve gotten out of this ordeal with nothing more than a sprained ankle. I hope those at Dreagan treated you well.”

  She shook Richard’s hand, but couldn’t stop being suspicious of him. “I’m just glad to be home. I still can’t believe Sloan is gone.”

  “A few days off are in order. I insist,” he said when she started to decline. “We can catch up on everything when you get back. And I want to know everything there is to know about those at Dreagan, Elena.”

  “Of course.”

  Richard smiled and turned as another car pulled up. “I have a meeting, but you’ll be driven home. It’s the least we can do.”

  Elena climbed into the car, a feeling of dread descending upon her. Everyone at Dreagan was counting on her. She wouldn’t let them down.

  Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. That’s when she saw Guy. He stood in the shadows, but he was there. Watching her.

  Together they would find out who was putting the Dragon Kings at risk. And they would stop it.

  “Your address, Miss Griffin?”

  She gasped as she looked to the driver to find Banan’s gray gaze staring at her through the rearview mirror. A slow smile spread as she realized that no one stood a chance
against the Dragon Kings.

  No one.

  DAWN’S DESIRE

  CHAPTER

  ONE

  London, June 2012

  Banan glanced at Elena Griffin in the rearview mirror as he merged into traffic from the helicopter pad. They didn’t speak, because as far as the world knew, they didn’t know each other.

  It was a dangerous game they played with Elena’s life, but she was their only link to discovering what was going on at PureGems.

  Banan tightened his grip on the steering wheel. The realization that someone at PureGems knew the secret so carefully guarded at Dreagan left him furious. He couldn’t wait to discover who it was, and when he did, he was going to make sure their secret stayed hidden.

  He and the others who called Dreagan home kept what they were a secret for a reason. The world couldn’t know about them. It was bad enough that two human females now knew. After several millennia of it being just the men, having females about seemed … odd.

  And human ones, at that.

  But Elena and Cassie weren’t just any humans. They had the love of a Dragon King—a rare event for sure. Because of that, Banan would risk his own life to keep the women safe.

  Fortunately for him, he only had to worry about Elena right now. He wasn’t alone though. Banan inwardly smiled because he knew Guy was near, watching Elena. There was no way Guy would allow his woman out of his sight for long. Guy had wanted to be the one driving her, but both Elena and Banan knew in order for their careful planning to work, Guy had to keep his distance.

  So Guy relented. Sort of.

  “I hope we’re doing the right thing,” Elena said in her American accent as she lifted her mobile phone to her ear and pretended to use it so they could talk.

  Banan slowed the car to a stop in front of a traffic light and watched a mob of people walk across the street in front of the vehicle. “There’s no other way. We’ve been over this.”

  “I know. It’s just…” She paused and sighed. “I worked hard to get promoted to this position in London. PureGems is supposed to be one of the top five companies in the world to work for. How would they have learned about you and the others? More importantly, why do they want to know?”

  They were good questions, and ones Banan desperately wanted answered. The fact he and the others were dragon shifters had been a vigilantly shielded secret since they had sent all the dragons to another realm eons ago.

  Banan clenched his jaw as thoughts of the dragons and the life he’d once had began to fill him. Instantly, he shut off those memories. He couldn’t allow them.

  Ever.

  He’d racked his brain, trying to determine how anyone would know what they were. Their company, and their home, Dreagan Industries, was situated deep in the Highlands—very nearly impossible to reach.

  He and the others who owned and ran Dreagan had gone out of their way to keep what they were hidden, which was difficult considering they made one of the finest scotches in all the world. But concealing their true identities had been something they’d done since the war with the humans had nearly ended both species.

  It wasn’t always easy in this time of video cameras on every street corner, satellites, and mobile phones to keep the truth that they could shift into dragons from everyone. People were more aware of others, and if someone tried to hide, they would search even harder to discover just what that person was withholding and why.

  Which was why they were careful not to appear as if they were hiding. They were walking on a knife’s edge, and one stumble could end it all.

  That stumble nearly happened when Elena and her boss, Sloan, had gone caving on Dreagan land. Sloan had died, and the Dragon Kings saved Elena in the nick of time.

  Banan glanced up at the sky through the buildings cluttering London as he pressed the accelerator and proceeded through the intersection.

  Anger simmered at the freedom he was denied. It had been decades since he dared to spread his wings and take to the sky. There had been a time dragons outnumbered people, but that time was so long ago it almost seemed a dream now.

  Banan pressed his lips together. He was a Dragon King, but he no longer had any dragons to rule. They were gone. But at least they were safe.

  “All you have to do is discover what they know,” Banan said to Elena in order to turn his mind off the past. “Guy will make sure you are no’ harmed.”

  “And you?” she whispered, her gaze meeting his in the rearview mirror.

  Banan grinned confidently. “I’m here to ensure that whoever it is who dared to send people onto our land and see us in dragon form can no’ talk anymore.”

  Elena shivered, but lowered her phone and dropped it into her purse. There was no more need for words. It had been said over and over again. And the plan was flawless.

  PureGems contacted Elena after learning Sloan had died while they were caving on Dreagan land. It hadn’t taken Elena and Guy long to give in to their attraction, or for Elena to tell him all she knew.

  Which, fortunately for Guy, hadn’t been very much. Yet Elena wanted to get to the bottom of it just as much as the Dragon Kings did.

  So when PureGems offered to fly Elena back to London via helicopter, their plan was set into motion. With all Dreagan’s connections, it was easy enough for Banan to take the place of a driver at PureGems.

  He, Guy, and Rhys made the trip to London ahead of Elena, and it had taken everything he had to keep Guy from going to his woman and ruining their carefully thought-out plan.

  As Banan pulled to the curb in front of PureGems, he spotted Rhys hiding in an alley across the street. Banan would hazard a guess that Guy was up on a rooftop somewhere, observing.

  “Remember, Elena, as soon as you have information, get out,” Banan said. “Guy willna wait long for you.”

  She leaned forward and grasped the handle of the door. “Just make sure Guy doesn’t get hurt.”

  Banan turned his head and smiled as he rested his arm across the back of the seat. “You keep forgetting we’re immortal.”

  “I don’t forget,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “I just can’t quite believe nothing will harm any of you. I’m doing this to keep Guy and all the Dragon Kings at Dreagan secret.”

  “And we appreciate it more than you know.”

  She put her hand atop his. “I hope I can get the information. I’ve not been here that long. They don’t trust me fully yet.”

  “And Guy willna allow you to risk your life too long. See what you can get. If it’s no’ enough, then we’ll figure out another way. The main thing is that you come out of this unharmed. Guy would never survive something happening to you.”

  She gave a nod and slid out of the Mercedes. Banan watched until she was inside PureGems before he turned his head to where Rhys hid.

  For eons, the magic they used to block romantic feelings and prevent close bonds with humans had never failed. Why had that suddenly changed? Banan had seen how Hal and Guy reacted upon falling for their women.

  He didn’t want to do the same.

  Too much was at stake for him to allow emotions to get in the way. They would only complicate his duty, which was why—no matter what—he wasn’t going to allow some woman to jeopardize that.

  * * *

  Jane Holden twisted her ankle as she stepped onto the elevator. “Damn,” she muttered, and leaned a shoulder against the wall so she could take her weight off the injury.

  “Beautiful shoes.”

  For the first time, Jane realized she wasn’t alone. She looked over at the blond beauty and realized who she was. “You’re Elena Griffin. I’m glad you’re back, and so very sorry about Sloan. It was such a tragic event.”

  Elena’s smile was forced, but Jane didn’t hold it against her. She’d been through a traumatic experience in that awful mountain in the Highlands of Scotland.

  “You’re from the States as well?” Elena asked, her sage green eyes kind.

  Jane looked at the floor to hide her embarrassme
nt over her clumsiness and tenderly put some weight on her ankle. She wasn’t surprised Elena hadn’t noticed her before. No one ever noticed her unless she was being her usual klutzy self.

  Whereas Elena was stunning, and literally stopped men in their tracks with her wavy blond hair and green eyes, Jane was plain. She’d prayed as a little girl that she would grow out of the nickname Plain Jane, but she’d not been so fortunate.

  Her features were too stark, her eyes too large, and her lips too full. Her hair was an awful shade of auburn that couldn’t decide whether to be brown or red.

  Jane cleared her throat when she realized she hadn’t answered. “Yes. Seattle, actually.”

  “What brings you to London?”

  She was wondering how to answer Elena when the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Jane stayed in the back corner as Elena stepped onto the top floor of PureGems and was immediately surrounded by people.

  Jane watched her for a moment. She envied how easily Elena carried herself around people. It wasn’t until the doors began to close that Jane leaped forward to stop them and dropped her armful of papers in the process.

  Her body prevented the doors from closing as she hastily gathered the spilled papers and straightened. She swallowed and smiled when she realized everyone was staring at her with a mixture of laughter and horror.

  Jane was forever doing stupid things. Apparently, being a klutz had been programmed into her DNA. Her mother had often joked that it took skill to fall on a flat surface, which Jane did often.

  All Jane knew was that it was mortifying.

  She straightened her pencil skirt with her free hand and walked to her desk, praying she made it without incident. After plopping the mound of papers on her desk, she sat down with a sigh.

  “Jane!”

  She jumped when Richard Arnold’s voice bellowed through the speaker on her desk phone. His voice was full of distaste, and he always looked down on her Americanisms, as if his being British made him a better person.

  Jane leaped to her feet and hurried to open the door to his office. She poked her head in and asked, “Yes, sir?”