Tropical Dragon's Destiny

by Chant, Zoe

  She smoothed the mossy ground to a seamless flat dance floor and when he led her out into a slow, sensual salsa set to the sounds of the jungle at night, she let herself close her eyes and melt into him the way she had been dying to when he first danced with her.

  This time, he did dip her, and she rose back up to the unheard music that they were dancing to and pressed her mouth against his, too hungry to resist any longer.

  They made love slowly this time, the frantic need they felt tempered with the will to prolong every touch, every caress, every discovery they made of each other.

  Scarlet drew a fingernail curiously along his runes as she pulled his shirt off of him for a second time and he hissed and yanked too hard on one of her blouse buttons. She forced herself to be patient and let him remove every piece of clothing and was rewarded with careful kisses that made her whimper in anticipation.

  Mal slipped off his shoes without untying them and when they were finally naked together, he kissed her again and again, and it was even more glorious without anything keeping their moonlit skin apart.

  He laid her down onto the moss—she made a thick, moss-soft bed for them without more than a thought for it—and she spread her legs for him eagerly.

  Mal teased her, pressing but not entering, until she was begging him without words, scratching his shoulder and tugging at his strong arms and arching up to thrust herself at him in desperation.

  When he finally slid into her, she was wet and more than ready and her world exploded into light. He brought her wave after wave of pleasure, every thrust a crest, every kiss a surrender, and Scarlet felt as if her heart would give out from sheer joy.

  He finally gave a cry of release and cradled her through their aftershocks as he succumbed to his own need at last.

  They lay tangled together as Scarlet remembered to breathe again and Mal’s heartbeat returned to something more normal against her ear.

  “Do you always do this?” he gasped suddenly.

  Scarlet opened her eyes, and realized that they were surrounded by flowers. Where there had been soft moss and short grass, there were now riots of knee-high flowers. Even day-bloomers were reaching for the weak moonlight, filling the entire clearing.

  Scarlet laughed helplessly. “I’ve never done this,” she admitted as she sat up. She held a hand to an orchid that bobbed to touch her and unfurled a happy new leaf. “It’s beautiful.”

  “You’re beautiful,” Mal said, rising on one elbow. He traced the line of her leg with a finger that promised more of what they had just enjoyed and Scarlet had to keep herself from falling upon him once again.

  “It’s vanity,” Scarlet confessed. “I could look my age, if I wanted. Or... if there was something you liked...” she added shyly.

  Mal sat the rest of the way up. “You are perfect just this way. I want nothing else. You are exactly the Scarlet I fell in love with... the beautiful pain in my ass that told me where to shove it the very first time we talked.”

  Scarlet had to smile and when Mal reached to kiss her, she flowed into his arms.

  When he ran out of air, she held his face in her hands for a long moment. “Did you mean it?”

  “That you’re beautiful?”

  “That you’re my... my mate.” Scarlet almost didn’t dare to say it.

  “Can’t you tell?” Mal traced the line of her neck with one finger and his breath stirred the hair that was loose around her face. “Don’t you feel it?”

  His touch raised fire in Scarlet’s veins, but she hesitated. “If you will recall your Greek mythology, dryads are regularly described as lusty,” she said primly. “I run hot, and it has been a long, long time. Maybe I’m confusing need with... with...”

  “With love?” Mal asked intensely.

  Scarlet took her hands back from his face and then didn’t know what to do with them. “We just met,” she chided.

  “We’ve known each other for more than a year,” Mal pointed out, taking one of her hands in his own and kissing it. He looked insufferably pleased with himself.

  “A year that you were a complete ass to me,” Scarlet pointed out.

  “Did I ever actually do you wrong?” Mal still had her hand, and he turned it over to lay a second kiss on her palm.

  “You tried to sell my island to horrible people. You attempted to steal my staff,” Scarlet reminded him, trying to dampen the desire he was igniting. She rallied. “You wanted to have Gizelle committed to a mental institution.”

  “I couldn’t let that poor woman stay here and be destroyed,” Mal said firmly. “And I gave you as many carrots as sticks. You never admitted to your staff how much I offered to pay you if you broke the lease.”

  It was hard to think with her hand captured in his, with his shoulders and chest bare, with the warmth of him so close it made her skin prickle. “You could have told me the truth,” she pointed out faintly.

  “It didn’t occur to me that I needed to,” Mal said. “But I’m sorry that I didn’t, if that helps.”

  It did, somehow. “We still have a problem,” Scarlet pointed out. “I would also like to not be destroyed and you said that we were running out of time.”

  Mal sobered.

  “So tell me how you plan to battle this creature, and how I might help.”

  “I’ll do better,” Mal said, pulling away from her seriously. “I’ll show you.”

  Chapter 15

  It was full night now and the silver moon was no longer above the clearing. But they didn’t need light where Mal planned to take them.

  He stepped away from Scarlet, wading through knee-deep flowers that whispered against his legs and smelled like paradise. When he had enough space, he shifted and his dragon arched his neck in pleasure at his mate’s admiring eyes.

  He was a large dragon, in shimmering golden earth colors muted by the darkness. In sunlight, he was like tiger’s eye gemstone.

  I’m an earth dragon, he told Scarlet, and he felt her delight in the brush of his mind.

  You’re beautiful. Her mental voice had layers that spoken voices couldn’t hold: admiration, wonder, curiosity.

  His dragon spread his wings and sat up to turn and share a new angle.

  Don’t let it go to your head, Mal snorted privately. To Scarlet, he cautioned, I cannot go deep without risking waking the wyrm. But I can take you under.

  Under the island? Scarlet looked down curiously. Is there a cave?

  I don’t need caves, Mal scoffed. He regarded her form thoughtfully. She was standing now, her pale, lithe form dressed only in her wild hair. Your form, it is solid?

  You tell me, Scarlet teased, brushing her hair back over her shoulder.

  Certainly she had been plenty to hold onto just moments before. Mal gave a huff of a dragon laugh and vowed to do further experimentation with the solidity of her form at the first available opportunity.

  He crouched. Hold onto me and don’t let go. I can take you with me, but I cannot protect you if I lose contact. It’s a little like Saina’s ability to allow others to breathe underwater when she’s touching them, but it would be much more painful than drowning.

  Where are you taking me? Scarlet asked, walking fearlessly between his forelegs and putting her hand on one of his front feet. Mal closed his claws around her waist gently and then folded his wings around them both.

  Down.

  He fell forward into the earth, keeping his dive shallow and quiet. Even so, the island trembled as he passed the top levels of the dirt, sliding into the bedrock that lay below. He could feel it flow through him as he sank, carefully, not too far. He could sense the creature further down and he stayed well away, near the surface. They were near the peak of the island; hundreds of feet of rock separated them.

  Scarlet was alarmed at first, then Mal felt her curiosity and wonder blossom.

  It’s not dark, she observed in surprise.

  It’s not really sight, Mal tried to explain. Not with eyes.

  The different kinds of rock wer
e rainbows of colors, patterns of earth energy. The soil at the top was a soup of mineral hues. The stone roots of the world stretched below them in glowing tones, and the surface of the earth was like the surface of water, reflecting back a distorted view.

  The threads of rock snagged and caught on him as he swam through the slabs and they made a ringing song that wasn’t really sound as they dove.

  Mal moved carefully, slipping through the rock gently. Even so, the resort would be getting a good tremor; Scarlet would undoubtedly bill him for the broken glassware.

  He drew them back up into the clearing and as they approached the surface, they caught a glimpse of Scarlet’s roots, gleaming with life and power.

  You are as beautiful from below as you are from above, Mal told her.

  Her laughter was flattered.

  Then, not wanting to disrupt more than he had to, or risk disturbing the wyrm’s slumber, Mal reluctantly returned to the air.

  The ground was still resettling as he broke the surface and Scarlet nearly lost her balance on the heaving moss as he set her down again, shifting to catch her.

  He needn’t have bothered; it steadied at once, but the feeling of her in his arms was intoxicating, so he didn’t let go.

  “Did you... like it?”

  Scarlet regarded him seriously. “I can’t say it was comfortable,” she confessed. “But it was beautiful.”

  “There aren’t many places I can go deep without risking innocent surface casualties,” Mal said regretfully. “Only a few of the stronger seams of the earth, or land where no one lives.”

  “You planned to fight the wyrm like that, from inside the rock?” Scarlet didn’t seem to be in a hurry to be free of his embrace, letting her hands wander up his arms to his shoulders.

  “We would be evenly matched on neutral ground,” Mal conceded, trying to concentrate on problems that didn’t involve her clever fingers and their dearth of clothing. “And if he gains the sky, my chances of success start to plummet. I don’t particularly want to give up my advantage... but that was just a skim into upper bedrock. Our battle will shake the pillars of the island itself. There may not even be an island at the end of it.” He did not have to add that with no island, there would be no Scarlet.

  We cannot let her be destroyed, his dragon creeled.

  There’s a way, Mal insisted. He didn’t know what it was, yet, but he was used to solving insurmountable problems and they had time before the storms crept in.

  “You don’t seem all that worried,” Scarlet observed skeptically.

  “We’ve got days before the storms arrive,” Mal pointed out. “And your power is not to be discounted. I cannot believe that I will not be able to figure out a way to either protect your clearing from an underground battle, or fight the creature above. I’ll fix this,” he said confidently. “I will protect you, and I will fulfill my destiny.”

  Scarlet shook her head at him. “I want you to try another word in that sentence.”

  Mal was puzzled. “Fate?” he suggested, wondering if she had a problem with the word destiny.

  “We,” Scarlet corrected. “We’ll fix it, we’ll figure it out. It’s my life at risk and I have no intention of sitting aside wringing my hands while you try to save me.”

  Mal felt something in his chest shift unexpectedly.

  He’d never had a partner. He’d always relied on his own cleverness, his dragon, and his power. He had clients, and business associates, and plenty of people who were desperate to claim him as a friend to their own advantage. But wealth and magic were better allies and he’d never acknowledged the empty place that lay like a cave in the stone of his heart, or the walls that he’d built to protect it after the last of his family had died.

  Those walls had cracked at the first sight of Scarlet... or maybe even before, as he had investigated her and built an impression of who she was from her selfless actions. And now she was here, with him: his soulmate, his partner.

  He traced the edge of her face in wonder. “Scarlet...”

  “Mal,” she said warmly, and it was a thousand times more beautiful than Mr. Moore had ever been. Her arms were around his neck and her slim, strong body was against his. “Did I warn you about the lusty part?” she purred, her mouth near his. “We have a few hours before I can do anything about the evacuation... and I don’t need sleep.”

  Mal could only growl in reply and catch her in his arms and kiss her. He laid her down in the mossy flowers of the clearing and the earth rose up to meet them. They were two of a kind, isolated by their strength, sharing powers of earth. He felt like every moment of loneliness was swept away at the touch of her mouth and the stroke of her fingers.

  Show her, his dragon begged. Show her that she is our mate, that there is no room for doubt between us, that we are hers.

  Mal could feel it, that bright, unbreakable bond, streaked with need and longing and joy. “I love you,” he murmured between kisses, knowing that it was pitiful compared to the strength and the beauty of what they shared. “I will love you to the end of the world and I give you everything that I am and everything I have and everything I will ever be.”

  She gave a small wordless keen of pleasure and surrender and Mal set himself to satisfying the needs of her nature.

  Chapter 16

  Scarlet met Graham at the entrance to the courtyard, her phone with the text she’d just sent in her hand. Sunrise was staining the sky.

  “Graham, thank you for coming so quickly. I need an emergency staff meeting. All the senior and secondary staff, please, within the hour. We’ll meet at the event hall; there isn’t space for everyone in our usual room.”

  Graham cleared his throat. “Ah, Scarlet?” he asked, gesturing behind her.

  Scarlet turned, to find that the courtyard behind her had erupted into bloom. Every plant that ever put out a flower had done so, and in many cases, glorious clusters of them. Some of the plants had changed colors, showing off their most flamboyant hues, regardless of the season.

  “Oh, hmm,” Scarlet said, looking over the blossom-crowded room. Oops.

  A swollen bud gave an audible little pop as it burst into flower and a vine unfurled a whole flurry of folded up leaves and fresh buds.

  “This is new,” Graham observed.

  Scarlet blushed.

  Graham’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  “I’ll keep it under control,” Scarlet promised. Another flower unfolded petals and the hedge leading down into the resort was rather suddenly peppered with white blossoms.

  “This have to do with Beehag’s lawyer?” Graham guessed.

  My mate, Scarlet thought, for a moment so giddy and full of tangled emotion that she almost forgot he had come to destroy her resort.

  Graham was still looking at her dubiously and Scarlet realized that she was smiling foolishly at him. “It’s complicated,” she said, in vast understatement. “Please get everyone ready as quickly as you can.”

  After he left, Scarlet closed her eyes and tried to center herself. It felt so unreal, to feel so happy, to know that so much was at risk.

  Mal seemed confident he—that they—could find a solution to the wyrm problem that didn’t involve the destruction her tree, but she could see the fear and worry beneath that.

  Together, together, they would be able to make it work. They were both strong and clever, and with their combined might, there must be a way to overcome the wyrm.

  She went into her office to see if the printer needed more paper and to gather the rest of the notes she had taken.

  First, she had to make certain that the people who trusted her with their safety were taken care of. She knew they weren’t going to like what she had to tell them.

  SCARLET DIDN’T HAVE to wait for the staff to grow quiet; they were already poised in anxious expectation. So many dear faces, so many people she had come to consider friends and closer.

  She didn’t try to soften the blow. “The island has come under an emergency storm evacuation warn
ing. We will be closing indefinitely. We need to safely and calmly evacuate all guests and staff as quickly as possible.”

  There was stunned silence. Whatever they had expected, this was not it.

  “I have already contacted the charter and they will be able to get a plane here three times today in total, which should be sufficient to clear out the guests and about two-thirds of the staff in coordination with using our boat to take trips to the mainland; Travis, that will be your focus today. I’ve started negotiations with hotels along the coast to take our clients. The restaurant will remain open with full services as long as possible, if you are willing, Chef. The spa is to be closed and all activities will be canceled. We’ll leave the bar open unless it proves problematic. Tex, please use your best judgment.”

  She calmly called off the remainder of the assignments:

  “Lydia, I’d like your staff to assist with letting the guests know about our predicament and prioritizing the ones who should be evacuated first.” Lydia had a quiet manner suited to keeping people from panic and her beauty team was well-trained in deflecting drama. “I have printed out a letter of explanation to be distributed that should answer most of their questions and explain the evacuation procedure.”

  “Liam, I want you and the elders on the first flight out. I’ve got housing reserved for you in San Jose. It’s just a warehouse with some bunk beds, I’m afraid. There wasn’t time to find anything more suitable but I hope to have something more long term in place by the end of today so you shouldn’t have to stay there long.” Liam ran a modest shifter retirement home and, among other complications, needed a place where an elderly mammoth shifter with poor shifting control could have ‘accidents.’

  “Wrench, Graham, I’m not expecting any major trouble, but I’d like you to keep order. The perceived pinch point will be the shuttle to the airstrip, so I’d like you to maintain a presence there and respond to other incidents as needed. You’ll want to keep an eye on the dock as well, keep in touch with Travis about his schedule.”