Bubbles boiled from under the water.
A whole lot of bubbles.
Bubbles filled the water in the entire basin of the fountain.
Bubbles like carbonation, bubbles like a jacuzzi, and more bubbles like a sudden chemical reaction that had just needed a little bit of energy of activation and was now surging to completion.
The bubbles broke the surface.
A foul stench leaped into the air, burning Ember’s eyes and nose.
“Holy Ladies of Magic!” She backpedaled from the stone wall, trying to get away from the noxious gas, and dropped Jumpy’s bottle back into her purse.
Beside her, Cai coughed and stumbled backward, too. “Dragon Lords, what is that smell?”
Ember was falling, her eyes streaming. She caught herself with one hand as her butt smacked the cement. With her other arm, she tried to hide the fact that her nose was running snot down her face. “Oh, Magical Forces. It smells like farts that someone put in Tupperware and forgot in the back of the refrigerator for a month!”
“Is that from the fountain?” he asked.
“When the water elemental drilled through the oil layer, I think it broke the seal. I think that’s what was containing the smell!”
A roar echoed off the casino and cement around them.
Ember looked up, far-oh-my-ladies up, at a sea serpent towering and wavering over her head. “What!”
The scarlet sea serpent—a long and snaky aquatic dragon in the genus of the Chinese dragons—loomed over them, snarled, and opened its fanged jaws to strike.
“Draco, Tiamat, and Wyvern!” Cai cursed and spread his arms wide.
Ember had the impression of blinding white light surrounding her, brighter even than the sun, and then a wall of diamond and crystal materialized in front of her.
The gigantic wall larger than her apartment building expanded like an umbrella opening, and she realized that enormous ribs stretched the crystalline skin as the beast inhaled.
Beast?
Toward the fountain, the glittering, alabaster wall narrowed and became the arrow-shaped head of a dragon. The dragon opened its mouth and roared, a blast of noise and fury and symphony that drove the sea serpent to dive back under the water.
Holy Ladies, Cai really was a dragon shifter.
Ember scrambled backward on her hands and heels, trying to get away in case Cai’s dragon stepped on her with his huge feet. His pure white dragon was enormous, with a long, whipping tail, four tree-trunk legs, and giant wings that sparkled in the sunlight.
The dragon blasted another trumpeting roar over the fountain, and his call reverberated off the glass and concrete around them.
Out on the Strip, the crowd swiveled and looked around for the noise.
The naturals looked up, checking for an airplane overhead breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic boom.
The supernatural beings out there looked straight at the dragon and ran. A fae swept her child from the sidewalk and darted on gossamer wings through the crowd. A day-going vampire slunk back behind the security fence and then peeked around the edge.
The dragon snarled at the crowd, and the supernaturals cleared out, running, flying, or popping into the ether to leave the area.
The naturals, of course, were still scanning the sky for a supersonic jet.
The ice-white dragon swiveled his head and stared down at Ember.
She quailed. “Nice—dragon?”
The dragon tilted his head, examining her as she sat on the warm cement with his emerald eyes that rushed with fire like Cai’s did. Oh, she hoped that she was not about to become witch-flavored sushi.
The alabaster dragon leaned down, snuffling her with wood-smoke breath.
She reached up, slowly, her hand nearing his white nose.
The dragon watched her with his bright green, fiery eyes as her fingers neared his nose and touched him.
His skin wasn’t scaly or slimy at all, but pebbly, the stones almost sharp with crystalline facets. Sunlight sparked through the cut glass of his skin.
But that wasn’t cut glass, and they weren’t rhinestones.
She peered more closely at him.
Those glittering stones were diamonds, all of them, enormous to small, colorless, flawless diamonds.
She breathed, “You’re so beautiful.”
The dragon blinked, closed his green eyes, and sighed, and then Cai was crouching in front of her on the cement.
Naked.
“Oh my!” She used her witchy conjuring powers and threw clothes onto him.
But not before she’d gotten an eyeful of his powerful thighs, long legs, broad and strong shoulders, and the black dragon tattoo winding up his ribs where the bricks of his abdominals stacked under his light golden skin.
She almost snatched the conjured clothes back to get a better look, but Ember was a good girl, a nice girl. She would not magically strip a man naked just to ogle him, especially in public.
But she might think about it.
But in the end, she wouldn’t.
And speaking of ends, his naked ass had been strong, muscular, round, and thoroughly grabbable.
But Ember was a good girl.
So his magical clothes stayed on.
One of his pants’ hems frayed a little, but Ember wiggled a pinkie at it and sewed it back up.
Cai looked down at the white shirt and black slacks she’d thrown on him because it had seemed like a good choice at the time. “Hey, thanks! That’s one of the hazards of being a shifter: your clothes occasionally get shredded.”
“Yeah, you should walk around with a witch all the time, just to poof you up some clothes when you need them.”
His smile broadened into something gleeful and hungry. “I’d like that.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean—”
“I can’t believe my dragon let you touch him on the nose like that. He’s a jerk. He likes to scare people. That’s why he was bellowing at the crowd.”
“I think he’s beautiful.”
“He liked you, too. He liked you a lot. I’ve never seen him like someone so much. He didn’t even try for a little nibble, not even one arm or leg.” Cai grabbed her hand and dragged her to standing. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Sounded like a great plan to Ember.
The Penthouse
EMBER followed Cai Wyvern to the casino’s elevator.
The doors closed, and the floor dragged at her feet as they soared upward.
After Cai inserted a keycard into the slot above the floor buttons and pressed his thumb on a reader, he turned to her. “My room is pretty high up there, so we have a minute to talk. I feel that I should let you know that anything between us is in no way coercion nor related to your employment at the Dragon’s Den Casino—”
Ember grabbed the crisp cotton of Cai’s shirt and flung herself against the back wall, dragging him with her.
He stumbled but ended up with his hands on both sides of her head and a small smile on his lips. His voice was deeper as he said, “As I was saying, Dragon’s Den Casino is a wholly separate entity and has no bearing nor effect on anything—”
She hauled him down to kiss her.
And he did.
Oh, he did.
That gorgeous man pressed his lips against her mouth, and his hand slipped around the back of her head. He stepped closer to her, and Ember lost her grip on his shirt. His other hand slipped around her waist and pressed her against his chest and stomach. Heat from his body warmed her like he was on fire inside. She slipped her hands up to his shoulders, feeling the rounded muscle of his pecs and broad shoulders through his shirt.
His lips parted, sucking on hers, and she opened her mouth.
The faintest taste of smoke lingered on his tongue, not like he’d been smoking a cigarette, more like the subtle suggestion that he burned inside.
He kissed her more deeply, his hand slipping around under her jaw to lift her face, and then his fingers slipped down the skin of her neck. His thu
mb rested in the hollow of her throat, just a suggestion that he might really get rough.
Oh, wow.
She was into it. She was up for it. She would do anything.
When the elevator door opened, Cai glanced up at the row of buttons and stepped back, holding both her hands in his and grinning.
She just loved the way he grinned, a funny combination of lasciviousness and self-deprecating laughter. It looked like he wanted her, but if she wasn’t into it, he would just laugh it off and everything would be a joke.
But the upturned corners of his eyes looked a little devilish.
That scared her just a little—the thought that maybe going with him was the wrong thing to do, to have sex with this guy she’d just met for absolutely no reason because certainly they weren’t in love or anything—but she grinned back at Cai even if she was gritting her teeth behind her open lips.
Hey, Ember could do a lot worse than funny, smiling, hot, gorgeous Cai Wyvern for her first time.
She swung her hips as she pranced after him into the penthouse, and his grin widened.
They walked directly from the elevator into the vestibule of the penthouse, a wide room with a table in the center holding an enormous vase of tall, fresh flowers. The profusion of blue hydrangeas and wide-throated lilies was as extravagant as the gold-veined marble floor and dark red, velvet curtains around the columned doorways that led to other rooms.
Her mother always said that in Las Vegas, everything was overdone, super-sized, and certainly the work of the Devil. Nothing was modest, clean, and clear, which were her unyielding standards.
Well, the penthouse did look clean. The floor under Ember’s black witch boots had been buffed to a high gloss, and reflections of her shoes trailed down into the glassy floor and met her feet as she walked.
Ember kept a big ol’ smile on her face and followed Cai into the Vegas penthouse.
“Would you like something to drink?” Cai asked, his voice unconcerned, casual. He caught her fingertips in his. “A glass of wine before lunch?”
The last thing she needed was to drink too much from nerves and get weepy or barf on him. “No, thanks. I’m fine. Do you want anything?”
With a twitch of his fingers, he tugged her forward, and she was in his arms again. He buried his face in her neck and nibbled from her shoulder to her ear. “I think you know what I want.”
“Yes,” Ember said, suddenly breathless. She closed her eyes to feel the moment and his strong body more deeply, to remember this singular moment.
“Is that consent?” he asked, growling in her ear, “because I want you to fully enjoy and want what I’m about to do to you. Otherwise, we can stop right here. Understand me?”
“Yes,” she said, still not quite able to breathe. His chest was so warm, almost glowing with some sort of magic she’d never seen before. It wasn’t black magic or clear, and it wasn’t elemental like her little bottle dwellers. It was beautiful, shimmery, and ethereal, almost angelic. His arms around her waist and back cinched her body tightly against his.
“I like it when you say yes,” Cai said, nipping her neck.
“Yes,” she sighed, letting her head fall back as his warm breath crested over her shoulder and flowed down her back under her blouse and suit jacket.
“Just like that,” he growled.
Her feet lightened, and his arms were under her knees and shoulders, carrying her. “I can walk!”
He laughed and bounced her in his arms. “You’re a feather.”
She grabbed his neck, afraid of falling. “I am not!”
“Dragons tend to be strong from flying,” he said as he walked through the living room and past the dining room with a table set for ten. “You’re just a tiny bit of fluff to me.”
Ember had never been a bit of fluff before. She was a lot curvier than any fluff yet discovered.
It was kind of nice to be a tiny bit of fluff.
She laid her cheek on his shoulder, and he smiled down at her.
The green glitter in his eyes rushed from the edges of his irises into the center, glowing with emerald fire. If anything, they were even more vibrant than just an hour ago when she had met him in the HR office. She sighed, “You have such beautiful eyes.”
He blinked, and his smile faded a bit. “My mother had green eyes.”
“They’re not just green, and they’re really pretty.”
He tilted his head. “I like your eyes. I think your eyes are beautiful.”
“My eyes?” She was totally fishing for compliments.
“Yes, yours. They’re as dark as my favorite time of night, when anything can happen, when all the impossible things become possible and magic glows at midnight.”
The Man with the Dragon Tattoo
CAI lowered Ember and settled her on the bedsheets.
She caught herself with her hands and glanced around the bedroom of the penthouse. A half-open duffel bag rested on the luggage rack, one white shirt sleeve hanging out of it.
Cai unclipped his watch and tossed into the duffel bag while he pried his shoes off with his toes. He unbuttoned the next button of his dress shirt, exposing more of his tanned throat and the neckline of a white tee shirt.
Gauzy curtains wavered like pale fog over the walls and wide windows, and a giant bed took up most of the room. Four thick columns held a dark red canopy fringed with gold suspended above the bed, and in the center of the canopy—
Oh, Mistresses of Magic, was he serious?
—an enormous mirror was stuck to the canopy above her and reflected Ember sprawled on the bed, her dark blue business skirt suit and hourglass shape stark against the white sheets.
Ember raised her finger to point upward and asked Cai, “Is that—”
But he was already clambering onto the bed, bending the mattress as he crawled, his green eyes bright with laughter.
Ember lay back, giggling, as Cai scrambled, his hands and knees slipping on the sheets.
“You are so beautiful, Ember.” He kissed her, and she melted through her giggles. “From the moment I saw you in the HR office, I thought you were beautiful.” He kissed her again, his lips sucking at hers. “I am certain that I have never met another woman as wonderful as you.” He ducked his head and kissed her jaw below her ear. “I am going to make you scream my name.” He gently nibbled along her jaw, “I am going to make sure you never forget this afternoon,” kissed under her chin, “or this evening,” parted her blouse and teased his lips over the hollow of her throat and down her breastbone, “or this whole night until dawn tomorrow morning.”
She got to laughing at him because he was so earnest and yet he grinned up at her when he spoke. The green in his eyes glowed as he glanced up, his chin almost resting on her bosom.
She teased him, “All night, huh?”
“Oh, yes,” he assured her, his eyes still laughing. “And tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow, too. And maybe we’ll go shopping tomorrow afternoon and inspect the jewelry stores that should be running during the casino’s soft open. They need inspection. We’ll inspect them.” He paused, his eyebrows dipping, but he shook his head like he was shaking an odd thought out from between his ears. “But definitely tomorrow, too.”
“When am I supposed to take care of the sea serpents?”
“Who cares?” He ran his hand over the swell of her breasts and down her side where her waist nipped in. “They’ll survive. Dragons can go for days without food.”
“Can you?” She was still giggling at him.
“Yes, but we’ll order room service in an hour or so. We missed lunch, and I’m hungry.”
“Are you?” she asked.
“Oh, yes.” This time when he glanced up at her, he wasn’t laughing, but his eyes were twinkling, and the devilishness of his expression had rocketed off the charts. He slowly dropped a kiss on her blouse right over her belly button. “I am absolutely famished.”
“Oh!”
He tugged her blouse out of her waistband and shoved it up, plan
ting his lips on her stomach. Ember arched at the contact of his lips on the flesh of her tummy, and she forgot to be self-conscious as his long fingers spread over her ribs. His warm breath puffed over her skin as he lipped her navel, and she smelled smoke.
Cai hurriedly patted the bed beside her and then rolled her hips away slightly, peering at her side. “You okay?”
“Oh, Goddesses, yes,” Ember said. “I’m fine. I’m okay. Yes.”
He continued patting the mattress beside her. “Sorry. I never do that. Premature conflagration, ha-ha-ha. I guess you can tell people we set the bed on fire. I’ll have to tell housekeeping to put the flame-retardant sheets on the bed. Jeez, it’s like I’m a randy teenager or something. I promise it won’t happen again. In the meantime, however—”
Cai dipped his head, and his amber and sunlit hair brushed her stomach as he tongued her belly again. His hands slipped up her sides and caressed her breasts, his thumbs slipping over her nips, first over the white lace of her bra, and then inside.
Ember stared at herself in the mirror above the bed. Her black hair splayed over the white pillow, and Cai lay halfway down her body. His white shirt on his broad back blazed as white as the sheets. Her legs were twisted together as if she didn’t want to open them, but she would have to get over that.
Cai looked over her tummy at her, catching her looking, and grinned.
She held onto his shoulders and explored the strong cords of his neck, her fingers slipping up through his silky hair as his hands and mouth sent delicious shivers over her skin. When she couldn’t handle the gasping anymore, and to her chagrin, she moaned, Cai glanced up from her tummy and over her bosom and then, with a wicked smile, crawled up to take her breasts in his mouth, sucking on the full peaks.
She did arch her back off the bed and closed her eyes to hide in darkness as the sensation of his mouth pulled pleasure from her. Ember clawed at his shirt, pulling it up. He helped her shuck it off over his head.
A dark tattoo of a dragon was emblazoned on his left side over his ribs as he stretched, tossing his shirts over the side of the bed. She’d gotten a peek at it when he’d been naked earlier, but it was absolutely glorious, dark and tribal and deeply inked into his skin.
Dragons and Fire Page 5