Fire & Ice
Page 1
Fire Ice
Dragons of Dragonose [2]
Alice Brown Lady V
JK Publishing, Inc. (2014)
* * *
Tags: Erotic, Fantasy, Menage, Paranormal, Romance
Warning: For Mature Adult Audiences. Contains language and actions some may deem offensive. Ménage – MFM.
In book two of the Dragons of Dragonose: Aiden and Adrian Barrymire, twin princes of Dragonose, yearned for a mate. They came to Earth in search of her, never expecting to find her while working on a case for their security company. When she becomes injured before they have a chance to mate her, they make the decision to transport her back to their homeland for better medical care.
Evangelina works hard to make ends meet to survive, never having anyone special to take care of her. It seemed she always fell for the losers. When Evangelina is injured, then wakes to discover she is not on earth anymore, it just solidifies her life has yet again taken a downward spiral. As if she needs any more trouble in her life, she has two men telling her she is their mate and keeping a huge secret from her. Yep, she always draws in the losers.
After so many failed relationships, can Evangelina place her trust in not only one man, but two? When their secret is revealed, will the twins lose their only chance at true happiness? And will Dragonose find a sliver of hope for their future if the three join?
Fire and Ice
Dragon of Dragonose
Book Two
by Alice Brown and Lady V
© Copyright July 2014 JK Publishing, Inc.
ISBN#
All cover art and logo © Copyright July 2014 by JK Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Edited by Kimberly Morgan
Artwork by Jess Buffett
Dragons on Cover by Kyrie Draca
Published by JK Publishing, Inc.
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Dedication
Heather, we don’t know what we would have done without your help on this one. Thank you so very much my friend! Your kindness and willingness to spend hours upon hours helping us make sure this book was its very best is amazing. We are so happy to call you our friend!
Kyrie Draca: Thank you for your help with the cover. The dragons are gorgeous, and you knew just what we were looking for! We are looking forward to working with you more in the future.
Alice Brown and Lady V
Table of Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twleve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
On the Menu
Books by Alice Brown
Books by Lady V
Excerpt from Sapphamire
Coming Soon
JK Publishing, Inc.
Prologue
Aiden and Adrian Barrymire watched a young woman walk down the street from the window of their rented, second-story stakeout.
“Man, our lady is looking fine today!” exclaimed Aiden.
“Yes, she is. I love it when she leaves her hair down,” he sighed. “Meanwhile, our problem child is just lurking. Keep a close watch on him, Aiden. That man is a nut job, and I don’t want him going off with so many children around.” He glanced back out the window. “Looks like the parade is getting ready to start up. I’m going down to mingle and keep an eye on things from there.” Adrian cocked his head toward the growing crowd, waiting for the annual holiday parade to begin.
Adrian grabbed his jacket and grudgingly put it on. Truth be told, he didn’t need it. He and his twin brother were of royal dragon blood and as such, their body temperature ran much warmer than a human’s. Their father was King Thoran, the ruler of their home world, Dragonose. Humans, of course, knew nothing about this. All they knew was the two brothers had arrived in town several years ago, and now ran their own security company, Fadri Security.
They received a call last week from the local newspaper. It seemed a man by the name of Michael Stills, had come into the newspaper office about eight months ago, claiming he knew there were paranormal beings in their fair city, and wanted to sell his story. The newspaper blew him off at the time as being a nut job.
Then about two months ago, they started receiving anonymous phone calls claiming there were witches, vampires, werewolves, and various shapeshifters in the city. Later, the calls escalated into claims that these beings were set to destroy Earth. Thankfully, a fox shifter worked for the paper and had overheard one of the phone calls. Everyone knew the “anonymous” caller was Michael, since he did nothing to try to disguise his voice. The calls were making the reporter who was handling this man very frazzled. The fox smoothly offered to take care of the caller, and had immediately contacted the brothers for help. She did not want to involve the Council until absolutely necessary. The brothers had agreed to keep an eye on him to see if he really did know anything, before bringing in the big guns.
The Council was very strict on their
“no humans must know of us” rule. However, as had happened more than once, the human in question didn’t have solid proof to back up their story. And since they had agreed to keep an eye on Michael and discover what he really knew, it had become obvious to them that he was a troubled man; while watching him they soon discovered he was stalking a young woman and when their dragon caught sight of her, he demanded the woman was to be their mate. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get close enough to her to verify for themselves.
As Aiden watched Adrian exit from the door below and mingle with the crowd, he thought back to when they demanded their father let them come to Earth to find their mate. The king had not been pleased his only sons would be leaving for an unknown amount of time; however, they promised one call would bring them right back home.
Both he and Adrian were mighty warriors, but when they changed to dragon form, their bodies combined to form one dragon with two heads. Fadri, their dragon, was a force to be reckoned with. His dragon body was charcoal grey with the exception of the two heads. He controlled the fire-orange head, which breathed fire while Adrian’s ice-blue head blasted out liquid nitrogen. He also held some magical healing abilities.
Evangelina Blackmon searched for the perfect spot to set up. She didn’t want to get in the way of children watching the parade, but she needed an open spot to photograph. The local newspaper was offering her a hundred and fifty dollars for both pictures and a short write-up in tomorrow morning’s edition, and she desperately needed the money. She was a struggling photographer, and often found herself doing freelance jobs with the local paper just to make ends meet. Finding the perfect spot, she quickly set up her camera on the tripod, and started adjusting her lens.
That's when she spotted him walking toward her, looking like a Greek god in tight jeans and a t-shirt that molded to his upper torso. Throw in a leather jacket for good measure and my oh my! Damn, she could feel her body already preparing itself. Damn, and double damn! Guess it’s a good thing I’ve got an extra set of batteries for good ol’ faithful BOB! She took her eye away from the lens for a few seconds, and when she looked back into it, her mystery god had disappeared.
Adrian felt her eyes upon him the minute she spotted him. Crap! He would really need to lose himself within the crowd now. Tapping his earpiece, he contacted his brother, “I’ve been spotted.”
“So I see. And let me tell you something, bro, if her body language is anything to go on, she likes what she sees. I swear I am watching her nipples harden and poke through her shirt as we speak.”
Adrian came across two buildings with just enough space between them to sneak in the tiny alleyway. It was little more than a dirt path, but he could see it led straight through to the next street over. He walked around the block so he could come in on the opposite side. From there, he found a spot that allowed him to watch their troubled charge and the young woman, all the while looking like he was watching the parade.
'When are you and your brother going to listen to me and claim that sweetheart as your mate? You could have had her in your arms by now.' Fadri questioned, maintaining his belief the young woman was their mate.
Adrian stood in the shadows and watched Evangelina take photo after photo of the parade floats. He grinned as he observed her bending down to speak to a couple of curious kids who were sitting near her.
'She will make a good mother to our younglings,' his dragon sighed dramatically.
“Aiden, have we received that background check yet?”
“I am hoping it will be sitting in my inbox when we get home tonight.”
Later that evening, Aiden sat back in his chair, running a frustrated hand through his hair. Whoever this guy was, it wasn't Michael Stills. They had found only one Michael Stills in their city, and the man they were following was not him. Obviously, the man who called had given the newspaper an alias.
“Fuck,” he snarled as he threw the report on the desk. His brother stuck his head in the door.
“Let me guess, our charge isn’t named Michael Stills, is he?” Adrian snarked.
“No, and I need a drink. It’s Friday night, is our girl going out tonight by chance?”
“Yes, she was meeting a friend around eight, but said she wouldn’t be staying long. She told her friend she had to get home and write her report for the local newspaper about the parade. It’s supposed to go out in tomorrow’s edition,” Adrian replied as he cocked his head to one side. “Tracking down the real name of our charge shouldn’t prove difficult. I wonder if Evangelina could help us identify him.”
Aiden stood from behind his desk. “We probably should have approached her first. Sure would have saved a lot of time and headache. I’m going to go take a shower and get ready to go out. Maybe we can salvage today after all.” He had a frown on his face as he walked out of the office.
Adrian shook his head as his brother left. They knew the young woman’s name, Evangelina Blackmon. He loved the way her name rolled off his tongue. He hoped Fadri was correct, and she was their mate, because he was going to be hard-pressed to look at another woman. The moment he had seen her, that had been it for him.
The only reason they hadn’t already thrown the book at the man they were following was because he hadn’t made any type of move. They had both his and her phone lines tapped, but he had even gone as far as putting his phone in his alias. So far, other than going around talking to himself, they were unable to pin anything on him.
As far as their possible situation with Evangelina went, they had wanted to wrap the situation up with the newspaper before approaching her. But the case was dragging out a lot longer than expected. As long as Fadri insisted she was their mate, they would watch over her and protect her. As far as they could tell, she was not even aware she was being followed, which was something Adrian planned to rectify, and soon! She obviously needed to be more concerned about her surroundings.
Chapter One
Evangelina Blackmon sipped her glass of white wine while perched on a bar stool talking with her best friend, Angel.
“Well, at least I’ll be able to keep my lights on another month, thanks to the newspaper article I am going to be knocking out tonight.”
Her friend gave her a sympathetic look. “I know. I swear it gets harder and harder to make ends meet every month!” She shook her head as she reached for her beer. “The little bit of fun I allow myself now has to be taken out of grocery money.”
Evangelina already felt bad for cutting the night short, and she didn’t want to bog down their spirits complaining about finances. “Oh, did I tell you I saw the best-looking man I have ever laid my eyes on today at the parade? Honey, he put everyone else to shame!” She leaned in a bit closer so only her friend could hear. “I just about climaxed right there in the middle of the street!”
Her friend burst into giggles. “Now this I’ve got to hear. Come on, I want details, girlfriend!”
“Well, he was really tall. Like, well over six feet. And a body to die for. You could tell he works out, no man has that kind of upper body without working out…a lot. He had gorgeous blonde hair, just begging for a woman’s fingers to run through.”
Angel laughed. “I was about to tell you to turn around, because your dream man was right behind you, but he has short, black hair.”
Evangelina looked over her shoulder to see what her friend was talking about, and almost fell off her bar stool. Standing right beside her, ordering two beers, was her dream man. Only it wasn’t her dream man. This man had black hair. Other than the difference in hair color, he was practically identical to the man she had seen at the parade today.
“Good evening, ladies, may I buy you a drink?” he asked solicitously.
Evangelina stared at the man who could pass for her dream guy’s twin. Then she realized her mouth was hanging wide open. Smooth, girl, real smooth. Thankfully, her friend didn’t appear to be as dumbstruck as she was.
“Umm, hi, I’m Angel, and this is Evangelina. And sure, if you want to get
our drinks refilled, that would be great.”
Evangelina realized even though Angel was talking, this stranger couldn’t take his eyes off her. And then he smiled, lighting up his entire face. The man is gorgeous, she thought. Then, as if by magic, her dream guy came walking toward them.
“Hey, bro, got those beers yet?”
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Evangelina found her tongue. “Are you following me?” Great, don’t even give the guy a chance. And you wonder why you don’t have a boyfriend. Paranoid much? Her conscience screamed at her.
Even though she was having an internal war with herself, she held her ground and cocked an eyebrow up at the men. She couldn’t be too careful these days. Experience had taught her not to trust men.
The one with the dark hair sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Yes, but it is not what you think. May we refresh your drinks? Then how about we sit down and talk about this. Someone is following you, and we are trying to find out why.”
The words had just left his mouth when both women looked at each other and said in unison, “Gerald.”
Blondie spoke next, “Look, we mean neither of you any harm. We run our own security company, Fadri Security. Here is our card. How about we take this to the corner booth where we can have a bit of privacy. You are still in a crowded bar, so if you do not feel comfortable, you can get up and walk away at any time.” He then pulled out his credit card and motioned for the bartender.