by Chant, Zoe
She couldn’t look away from his eyes. There was something strange about them. They were filled by a light she’d never seen before, blazing a deep, mysterious blue. It was like staring at the ocean on a sunny day, or like seeing a jewel catch the light.
“Nice to meet you, Liana,” he said softly, taking her hand. “I’m Timothy Drago.”
Liana felt something inside her flutter, as if her heart had suddenly grown wings and wanted to escape her chest. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe.
All she could see was the blue of his eyes. They were the blue of a deep pool of water she was sinking into. She could hear the sound of waves lapping at the shore, the musical trickle of a waterfall...
She’d never felt anything like it before.
His handshake was firm, and his touch kindled a strange heat in her. It was like an electric shock ran from her hand through her entire body.
Have I seen him before? Is he some kind of celebrity?
She couldn’t look away from his eyes, and she only realized for how long she’d held on to his hand when her sister giggled behind her.
“Well, seems like you two hit it off. Shall we head in?”
“Who’s your sexy friend brooding over there?” one of Clairice’s friends asked teasingly. “Won’t you introduce us?”
Timothy blinked, as if he’d been just as lost in their encounter as Liana had been. Then he took a step back and nodded to a man Liana hadn’t even noticed.
“That’s Braeden. He’s, ah, not from here. He’s from... Iceland. Never left his sheep farm before, so everything here’s very new to him. Be kind.”
He winked at Clairice’s friends, who cooed in delight and had the stranger surrounded in seconds.
Which Liana was completely okay with, because that left her and Timothy without their audience.
Timothy took hold of her hand again, and Liana almost gasped when the electric tingle made the hair at the back of her neck stand up.
What is this?
She didn’t let go of his hand when he led her into the club. She didn’t think she could have, even if she’d wanted to. There was some weird force in place—almost like a magnet, drawing her to him.
Maybe it’s just because he’s hot and I haven’t had a date in ages. Maybe I’m coming down with a cold or running a fever or...
Whatever it was, walking into the club after him felt like a dream. She’d never liked these places before. She’d always felt as if everyone was staring at her and talking about her behind her back.
Right now, the club could have been empty and she wouldn’t have noticed.
All she could see was Timothy, his broad back moving smoothly beneath the silk. Her body pulsed with the throb of the bass. She felt the same kind of reckless dizziness she usually felt after a glass of wine—but she hadn’t had anything to drink today.
Inside, the club was packed. All around her, people were swaying to the music, only half visible in the flashes of light that lit the room.
Usually, she stuck close to her sister and gratefully scrambled into whatever table she’d reserved in a quiet alcove, offering to watch her friends’ purses until her sister finally grew impatient and dragged her off to dance.
Today, Liana couldn’t even say if her sister had entered the club before or after them. All she had eyes for was Timothy, who moved with the fluid grace of an athlete making his way through a crowded pool.
And then the music stopped for a heartbeat. A moment later, it returned with a new beat, and Liana found herself tightly drawn against Timothy.
Before she even knew it, her body was moving in time to the music. Dimly, she recognized the song
She raised her arms, singing along as a strange wave of euphoria rushed through her. She didn’t even mind that she was in the middle of the dance floor, all eyes on her, because right now Timothy was pressing himself against her. Every inch of his body was firm with muscle. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his powerful body effortlessly picking up her rhythm.
Heat flooded her body. All around them, people pressed in, but she’d already completely forgotten about her sister and her friends.
Even in the club’s darkness, Timothy’s eyes were still lit by that strange light—as if they were actual jewels. They shone like sapphires, the color of the ocean.
And she could smell the ocean on him. He smelled like clean water, like salt on wet skin and the wind coming in from the ocean, cool and fresh and wild.
They didn’t talk. Their bodies did the talking. For half an hour Liana found herself dancing with him, breathless and laughing and overwhelmed by that weird, wonderful feeling of being close to him.
She wasn’t a bad dancer—her body’d always effortlessly picked up on the rhythm, and she loved the feeling of losing herself in the music.
But she’d never had a partner like Timothy before. His body followed the swaying of hers as if they’d rehearsed it—or as if there was some magic at work that made them both move, pulling them this way and that.
In the flashes of light, he looked like an ancient warrior who’d come to life for her. The heat in his eyes seemed to intensify as he looked at her, his hands on her back as she raised her arms around his neck, the slinky, golden shirt showing off all of her gyrating curves.
She’d never before felt as sexy as she felt right now. Usually it took a drink to give her the courage to dance with a stranger. But if Timothy looked like an ancient warrior, the way he looked at her made her feel like a goddess.
As long as he looked at her with that heat in his eyes, it didn’t matter what anyone else thought of her dance moves right now.
At last, when the bass changed to a slower, low throb, he pressed close enough to speak into her ear over the music.
“Want to sit down and get a drink?”
His skin was hot and damp with perspiration. Liana trembled at the way he felt pressed against her like that. Beneath the clean, cool scent of fresh water, she could make out a hint of virile musk now, and that sent another wave of heat rushing through her.
She nodded breathlessly, not trusting herself to speak.
A moment later, his hand on her back steered her to a miraculously free alcove. It must have been reserved for him, because there was already a bottle of champagne waiting for him—the real, expensive stuff, Liana saw with wide eyes as she settled down.
Across the dance floor, she could see her sister give her a thumbs-up, and she felt her face heat.
This sort of thing never happened to her. When her sister got her a date, the guy would usually be nice enough to get her a drink and dance for a while—but no one had ever looked at her the way Timothy did. No one had ever moved like him, as if his body knew her moves before she even knew herself.
Of course, most guys fled as soon as Liana opened her mouth afterward and outed herself as a big, embarrassing geek.
Which might still happen. Don’t get your hopes up. A guy who buys a $200 bottle of champagne doesn’t care about your silly dragon game or your opinion on the latest Star Wars movie.
“Wow,” he said softly when he looked at her, his eyes still overwhelmingly blue. “I expected another lawyer. Your sister didn’t tell me you were...” He broke off, looking at her with his lips parted as if he couldn’t find the right words.
“Gorgeous,” he finally ended, his voice husky. “And an incredible dancer.”
Holy shit! No one who’d gone out with her had ever said that before.
Liana suppressed a giggle, flustered by his words. She was going to ruin this any minute now...
“I’m a programmer.” She smiled nervously. “For a game. For kids,” she added quickly, in case he was one of those guys who would go on and on about how amazing they were at killing other players in Call of Duty.
“Really?” he said. “Gorgeous and smart!”
Liana nearly squirmed in her seat, then gratefully took hold of her glass when he poured the champagne.
She wasn’t used to men being s
o charming to her. What were you even supposed to say to that?
Thanks, you’re super sexy too?
“So what do you do?” she asked, before she realized that her sister had already told her that he had enough money to need a law firm to deal with it all.
“Investments, mainly,” he said easily. “You don’t need to be smart for that, no matter what people want you to believe. The more money you have, the easier they make it to earn more.”
“Tell me about it,” Liana said with a deep sigh as she thought of her boss’s boss, the bastard, who’d sold their small gaming company a year ago for several million dollars and now wouldn’t shut up about the money his investments made.
“What’s your game about?” he asked as he scooted a little closer.
His shoulder brushed against hers, and even through the layers of fabric, another shock ran through her.
Everything inside her tightened, her body throbbing with a sudden need. Her mouth was dry as she stared at him.
She could still smell his scent. Even here, inside the club, with hundreds of people sweating on the dance floor, he smelled crisp and clean, like a deep pool fed by mountain glaciers.
Liana exhaled, desperately trying to think of something—anything but the way his eyes gleamed like sapphires in the strobe light of the club.
“It’s called Dragon Heights,” she said. “You breed and compete with dragons.”
She could feel him stiffen against her, his eyes narrowing for a moment.
Now you’ve done it. He’s started to realize that you’re not gorgeous or sexy or whatever the lighting here tricked him into believing. Nope, not a goddess—just a geek girl who loves her dumb dragon game.
“It’s very cute,” she said, raising her chin in challenge. “Yeah, it’s for kids, but we’ve got a huge number of adults playing too. You can breed hundreds of different dragons, and they come in all sorts of colors. And then you can outfit them with clothes and armor and accessories, and let them compete against other players.”
“Really,” Timothy murmured slowly.
There was a weird smile playing on his lips. Liana frowned as she tried to place it. Was he mocking her? Did he think it was a stupid game for silly girls? That was what the last guy she’d dated had thought, and he’d been a geek, too—but a geek of the sort who spent his days collecting comics, which apparently was somehow more adult than playing a dragon game.
“We’ve just introduced our latest dragon,” Liana said deliberately. “It’s my favorite. It was my suggestion, actually. The Ocean Dragon. You can buy him for a couple dollars if you’re impatient—or win a hundred tournaments.”
She didn’t say that she’d bought that dragon as soon as it became available. She usually preferred to win their new dragons in the game. And it felt silly to put her salary back into the company. But hey, the dragon was basically the price of a latte, and he was really, really gorgeous.
Twice a year they had a meeting with the boss where everyone could suggest new themes for upcoming dragon releases—and for the first time, one of her suggestions had won.
And their designers had turned her ocean theme into the most beautiful dragon their game had ever seen. The dragon’s body was covered in blue-green scales that glittered, and his eyes shone like sapphires.
Liana drew in a sudden breath.
Blue eyes... Eyes just like Timothy’s. Was that where this weird feeling came from? He reminded her of her game?
No. That was silly. At least she hadn’t blurted out that thought yet—if the dragons hadn’t done it, that surely would’ve sent him running.
“That sounds fun,” Timothy said to her utter surprise.
He was grinning at her, his eyes alight with that weird, blue light again.
“Why dragons? I love dragons myself. I didn’t know there were games about them—I’ll have to check it out.”
“Really?” she said, shocked. Then she found herself blushing. “I mean—you should! It’s a lot of fun. If that sort of game is your thing.”
Shut up, shut up, shut up, she told herself. You’re so embarrassing! Can’t you say something suave, or sexy? Who talks about dragons on a first date?
“I love the ocean,” he said, giving her that easy, heart-stopping smile again. “Good choice for a dragon. If I had to design a dragon, that’s what I would have gone for myself. Maybe I should look into investing in dragon games?”
Was she just imagining that, or was he still flirting? Guys like him usually just gave her a pitying look as soon as she started about the game...
“I fear it’s too late for that,” she said glumly. “It was one of those hot startups. Our boss and founder sold it to one of the big gaming companies last year. Now he’s a few millions richer and still gets to hang around in senior management. Meanwhile, our new overlords want us to make a ton more money, instead of giving the kids the fun updates they keep asking for.”
You’re still being boring, she thought with a grimace. Oh well, better he knows what he’s in for with me.
Timothy snorted. “They usually do, in my experience. Which is why I’m so grateful for the good work your sister’s been doing for me. I like startups. I like people with visions and bright ideas. But when you’re faced with a board of shareholders who only think of their quarterly profit margins, and who don’t see that they’re squeezing a promising company dry...”
“You’re the one who bought that new tech company,” Liana breathed when several pieces finally clicked into place in her brain. “The one that had her busy for almost a year—something about, uh. Water energy?”
“Tidal energy,” Timothy said, leaning forward to speak over the low throb of music.
His eyes were gleaming even more brightly, and he looked genuinely excited—as excited as she’d felt when she’d first seen their designer’s sketches of the new Ocean Dragon.
“It’s a technology that’s been around for quite a while, but that little startup has ideas that might revolutionize the percentage of energy we get out of it. The big oil companies aren’t very fond of that idea, of course, and I suspect that they’ve been paying some of the shareholders to sabotage our meetings. Anyway, thanks to your sister, I now own all the shares. And I don’t care about profit—this is the sort of thing that won’t be profitable for ten, twenty years. But it’s important. It’ll protect our oceans, too. It’s energy that won’t pollute our water.”
An extremely rich investments type of guy with a conscience and the body of an ancient warrior. This is really too good to be true. I’m going to wake up any minute now.
The people on the dance floor were just a blur in the flickering light. But Timothy was close enough that she could make out every detail of that handsome face: the strong jaw, the hint of dark stubble, the black hair that was just long enough to curl a little—and those incredible eyes shining mysteriously blue, like sunlight hitting the ocean.
“Sorry.” He gave her a chagrined look. “I get carried away when I’m in love with an idea. I promise I’m not usually that boring. Do you want to dance some more?”
“That wasn’t boring at all—that was fascinating,” she said, barely daring to believe that he hadn’t been turned off by her blathering on and on about her dragons. “Oh—and I’d love that,” she added belatedly, beaming at him.
It didn’t even matter that he was the sexiest guy in this entire club. He was just so charming and genuinely fun to talk to that it suddenly seemed like a terrible waste to spend the night worrying if she’d managed to chase him away.
He was here, and he wanted to spend time with her—so for once in her life she’d tell her brain to shut up. She was going to enjoy this for as long as it lasted, and that was that.
Chapter Four: Timothy
It was close to 4 a.m. when they came out of the club. Timothy’s driver was waiting for them already, and they both pretended that they didn’t see Clairice’s grin and thumbs-up gesture.
Hurriedly, Liana scooted into th
e limousine, then breathed a sigh of relief when Timothy closed the door after them.
“Let’s drive you home first,” he murmured, unable to tear his eyes away from her.
He’d known that she was his mate from the moment he’d first seen her. She was gorgeous, with a sensitive mouth, hazel eyes framed by long lashes, and soft curves that made him ache to run his hands all over her luscious body. She wore her hair in tiny braids held up in a bun, and in the flickering, artificial light of the club, her smooth skin had glowed in tones of lustrous amber and warm russet.
And she had to feel it, too. The dragon she’d described, the dragon they had designed for her game, had sounded exactly like Timothy when he’d shifted into his dragon.
As the dragon of water, his dragon’s body was covered all over with blue-green scales, so that when he moved, it looked like the rippling of waves spreading across a lake.
He’d been born with the power over the element of water, which made him one of the three most powerful dragons in the world. Also, like every other mythological shifter, he was invisible to humans when he shifted into his dragon.
Which meant that even though she’d never seen him, a part of Liana’s soul had already known him.
“Thanks for the evening,” she said quietly. “I really had fun today.”
“So did I.” He reached out for her hand when the car came to a stop. “Would you like to have dinner tomorrow?”
The look she gave him was almost shocked, as if she wasn’t used to being asked out for dinner. Which in turn shocked him, because surely a gorgeous woman like her would have a whole horde of admirers.
“I’d love that,” she said after a moment, giving him that smile again that made her entire face light up.
Her scent enveloped him. It was sweet and floral—she’d put on perfume for the evening. But beneath that layer, there was a warm scent, deep and thick like honey, that had him half hard already just from being close to her.
It made him want to taste her, to cover her warm skin with his kisses, to lay claim to each and every inch of her...