Bride Of The Dragon (4 page)

She paused by a carved antique dresser. On top of it sat a tray of jewel-studded cufflinks, most of which had no special abilities. There was one set of onyx cufflinks with some power in them, but they weren’t even that strong and they weren’t stolen. They had the ability to be mildly calming in stressful situations.
Xanax onyx,
she thought, stifling a giggle.

Anyway, didn’t matter. They were at home here. Passed down for generations. She could feel it.

After a few minutes, she was satisfied that there was nothing in her suite. She hadn’t thought it would be that easy, but then again, Gabriel struck her as someone with a perverse sense of humor, and she’d feel pretty stupid if it turned out he had hidden the Dragonsblood in a safe in her room. She really wished he had; she was a master at safe-cracking. If you wanted to defeat a crook, you had to think like a crook.

But no, there was definitely no ruby in her suite, so she left and walked into Gabriel’s room. Dear God, what a freaking huge room. Her townhouse in Seattle was pretty good-sized; she could fit the entire thing in here and then some.

The floor was flagstone, with richly colored Oriental carpets scattered across it. There were groupings of sofas and chairs and mahogany end tables. Some of them were gathered around a massive stone fireplace. There was a reading corner with shelves stocked with thousands of books. Somewhere a Barnes & Noble was jealous of Gabriel’s book collection.

“Big, scaly show-off,” she muttered to herself, sinking into an exquisitely comfortable chair and letting out a contented sigh as she plucked a book of poetry from a shelf. She stroked its glossy cover and tried not to imagine coming home to this room every night. Spending hours cushioned in this cloud-like chair, lost in in a book… Sprawling across that bed, naked… Gabriel kissing his way down her body…

“You stop that!” she scolded herself out loud. She quickly stood up and forced herself to concentrate, to open her mind back up and call out.

Come to me, Dragonsblood…and could you make it snappy before I start touching myself and humping Gabriel’s pillow?

She heard a noise coming from behind a door, which she was pretty sure led to Gabriel’s closet. She hesitated; had he come back in while she was in the shower?

“Gabriel?” she called out. There was no answer, but she heard a rattling noise.

“Winthrop?” she tried again. Still no answer.

She felt a little uneasy, but she walked over to the door and yanked it open.

She saw a row of suits hanging from a rod – rocking gently, because somebody had just moved them. And she saw a pair of pointy-heeled shoes sticking out from behind an overcoat in the corner. The closet was the size of a large bedroom, and she saw that a chest of drawers had been rifled through, with all the drawers pulled out.

Someone else was searching his room? How dare they?

“I can see you, you idiot!” she yelled.

The overcoat was shoved aside – and Pandora stepped out. She was wearing a red stretchy lycra dress with a neckline so low it was flirting with her belly button.

“Come on, Pandora – come out of the closet. I mean, nobody’s judging you – it’s the twenty-first century,” Kelly said snidely, and walked out of the closet back into Gabriel’s bedroom. Pandora stormed out, her high heels clacking on the floor.

“Who the hell are you? Are you that bitch who took my place?” Pandora advanced on her, fists clenched. Her face was red with fury.

“I’m sorry, skanky cat burglar says what?” Kelly scoffed.

Pandora began slapping and punching at her, forcing Kelly back as she kept raising her arms to ward off the blows.

“This is my room, not yours! He’s mine! Mine, mine, mine!”

Kelly blocked her again and Pandora tried to bite her arm. Kelly shrieked and dodged out of the way. Was Pandora completely insane? Some of her spit had splattered her arm. Was she going to need a rabies shot?

“Get your hands off my uncle’s fiancée, you ho-bag!” Evangeline came charging through the room’s open door and raised her fist.

“You little brat! You’re crazy! You’re just as crazy as— Ouch!” Pandora let out a scream as Evangeline’s eyes went red and reptilian and she shot a stream of flame at her. It singed off some of her hair on the right side of her head.

“All of you! Stop it!” Gabriel bellowed from the doorway. He hurried into the room. “Pandora, what the hell are you doing here?”

“My family was invited to the celebration,” she snapped. “Since we assumed it would be
my
celebration. So we have every right to be here.”

Gabriel shrugged, looking annoyed. “Yes, I knew you were on the grounds, but that doesn’t give you the right to be in my bedroom.”

“Or searching his closet,” Kelly added.

At Gabriel’s startled look, Pandora said quickly, in a wheedling tone, “I caught her going through your closet. She pulled out all of your drawers. Go see for yourself! She’s a thief!”

“Oh, good, then she’ll fit right in.” Gabriel bared big white teeth in a grin as Kelly spluttered a protest. “Now run along, Pandora. There’s an open bar at the wedding celebration; I hear you like those.”

Apparently Pandora’s reputation preceded her.

Pandora stood right where she was, her hands on her hips. “This is my wedding celebration! I know dragon law! This is my room, you are my fiancé, and I am not leaving.” Her eyes glittered with rage.

Gabriel snorted. “You’ll leave, all right. I don’t care if I have to throw you out.”

“She tried to set me on fire! I’ll have her arrested!” Pandora pointed at Evangeline, hand shaking.

“She called me crazy.” Evangeline’s face was flushed with anger.

“She is crazy,” Pandora hissed. She jabbed her finger right in Evangeline’s face. “She should have a straitjacket on her and be locked up like— Owww!” Evangeline shot flame at her fingers, and Pandora yanked her injured digits back and shook her hand hard.

“Excuse me while I call for the guards.” Gabriel walked over to an intercom on the wall, and glanced back at Pandora. “Of course, this is going to be quite embarrassing for you, being hauled out of here in front of everyone. I’ll make sure you’re carried past all of the guests.”

“Fine,” she spat at him. “I’ll leave for now, but don’t think you’ve gotten away with anything. We’re appealing to the Dragon Elders and they’ll
make
you marry me.”

“How romantic…I mean pathetic,” Evangeline sneered, and Pandora lunged at her, and there was another brief interchange of screaming and slapping and very unladylike swearing before Pandora stormed out.

“Thank you,” Kelly said to Evangeline.

Evangeline scowled at her. “I didn’t do it because I like you. I did it because I hate Pandora,” she said stiffly, and marched towards the door.

“Evangeline!” Gabriel barked at her, but she kept walking.

He stormed after her, grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around. There was an exchange of angry words before she yelled at Kelly, “Fine! I’m sorry!” and stomped off.

Gabriel walked back into his room, shaking his head in exasperation. “I apologize for her,” he said. “I sent her to her room for the rest of the party. She’s got some teenage drama going on in her life, but it’s no excuse for her behaving like that.”

“It’s all right. I was all ‘woe is me’ too, when I was a teenager.” Kelly shrugged. Of course, that had been because her father was in prison and all the kids in school hated her because her dad had bankrupted their parents, and her mother was thrown out of their country club and continually railed at Kelly and Teresa as if it were their fault, but still. She understood angsty teenagers. “So, what’s on the agenda now?”

“Well, tonight we feast. Then, according to tradition, we’re supposed to come up to my room, where I pleasure you all night long. That’s certainly an option.” He looked at her hopefully.

“Pass,” she said dismissively.

“Ouch.” He placed his hand on his heart dramatically and pretended to look wounded.

She snorted. “You’re still a suspect, and therefore it is not appropriate for me to be romantically involved with you,” she said primly.

He just smiled and shook his head. “You’ll change your mind. And in the meantime, the wedding is a month from now.”

“There will be no wedding.”

“Your hallucinations are so cute,” he said to her with an infuriating smirk. “Anyway, according to tradition, tonight we have the celebration banquet, then over the next few days I take you on a tour of the castle and of the town, and you get started on your wedding planning.”

Yes! A tour of the castle! She could search for the Dragonsblood to her heart’s content.

Things were finally looking up.

A shrill voice drifted down the hallway. “Is she there? I swear to God I’m going to kill her!”

Gabriel quirked a brow in amusement. “Your beloved sister, I presume?”

She groaned. “You presume correctly. Why, universe? Why can’t I just once catch a break?”

Chapter Six

Kelly and Teresa left Gabriel’s room and went downstairs to the drawing room so that Teresa could verbally eviscerate Kelly in private.

They flopped onto an eighteenth-century sofa with bowed, hand-carved legs and blue silk cushions.

“Go on, have at it,” Kelly said. “Let it all out. I know you’re dying to.”

“I can’t believe this,” Teresa stormed at Kelly. “This has got to be the worst fiasco in…in the history of fiascos!”

“There’s a history of fiascos?” Kelly wondered. “Is it in encyclopedia form? Is our father in there?”

“Don’t you dare make light of this,” Teresa hissed. “I told you it was a bad idea from the very beginning, and now look where we are.” She glanced around wildly, gesturing with her hand at the enormous room.
“Here.”

Kelly glanced around. True, things hadn’t gone as planned, but it was hardly a dungeon.

The antique furniture was all re-upholstered and immaculately polished. There were crystal vases of fresh flowers everywhere. The room was lit with electric torches set on the walls, and a massive chandelier which sprinkled light like diamonds on the flagstone floor. Servants glided noiselessly through the room, dusting and sweeping, and several younger dragonlings flapped through the air, chased by their scolding mothers.

Neither of them had ever been in a dragon’s castle before; Kelly was actually finding it fascinating. Granted, she would have greatly preferred it if everything had gone to plan, but she still had a fair shot at accomplishing her mission.

Teresa might be going with the “woe is me” thing, but Kelly had long ago figured out that panicking got you exactly nowhere. It just made you hyperventilate and get dizzy.

After all, this wasn’t the first time she’d had to think on her feet. “Oh, I don’t know. It might still turn out all right.”

“Are you crazy? First of all, I got arrested. Me! I don’t even jaywalk, I don’t have so much as a parking ticket on my record, and I got
arrested
. And I had to sit in a jail cell with
criminals
.” She glared at Kelly. “Chad better never hear of this. His family will lose their minds. I’m lucky they’re willing to forgive my past history.”

Kelly snorted. She couldn’t stand Chad and his enormous white teeth and his thick gelled helmet of hair, and she despised his blue-blooded snobby family, but there was no point in rehashing that conversation with Teresa. It wasn’t as if she and her sister were close enough to discuss things like that; she wasn’t even invited to Teresa’s wedding.

“And now you’re going to marry our suspect? That should really go down well with the Rossis. And…you-know-who.”

Kelly felt her insides twist in dismay at the mention of you-know-who. “Don’t be silly. I’m not really marrying Gabriel.”

“Oh, is that a fact?” Teresa scoffed. “Because his mother asked me if I was going to be the maid of honor and said she needed to measure me for a dress.”

Kelly winced. “The alleged wedding is a month away. I will find the jewel before then, and go home.”

“No you won’t. You’ll…you’ll fall in love with him and marry him, that’s what you’ll do! You always mess everything up!”

“Actually, I don’t,” Kelly said calmly. That was why Teresa resented her so much. Because even though Kelly’s methods were unorthodox and bent the rules, she got results.

“Hey, my mother needs to see you for a minute before dinner!” Gabriel was walking towards them, dressed in linen slacks and a button-down shirt and loafers, looking devastatingly handsome. “Something about getting a head-count of how many people you’ll be inviting to the wedding.”

“Told you,” Teresa sneered.

“None!” Kelly called out to him. “I’m basically an orphan…” she cast a glance at Teresa “…and I work too many hours to have any friends, so it will just be me.”

“Well, that sounds rather sad,” Gabriel observed. “Thank God we found each other and you no longer have to endure such a lonely life.”

Teresa’s cell phone rang, and she answered it and then looked at Kelly and held it out with a smirk of malicious triumph. “It’s for you. Apparently you haven’t been answering your cell phone.”

That was true, and there was a reason for that. But there was no putting it off any longer.

Kelly winced and grabbed the phone. There was only one person this could be.

“I should have known you’d fail,” said the shrill voice on the other end of the phone. “You’re such a complete loser.”

Kelly’s heart sank. She’d recovered eight stolen jewels in the past year. Eight. More than anybody else at their firm. But no matter what she did, it was never good enough.

“I didn’t necessarily fail,” she protested weakly.

“You didn’t necessarily fail?” the voice mocked. “I should have listened to your sister. I never should have let you go ahead with this idiot scheme. You incompetent moron. It’s all over the news, and you’ve made our firm look like fools. I’ll be fired and lose everything. Have you found the ruby yet?”

“No,” she said.

“Then you failed! Because that’s what you do! You are a complete and utter failure! Find that damn ruby or I swear to God—”

Kelly thought she might throw up. She needed to halt the stream of abuse. “I’m standing next to Gabriel, so you might want to stop screaming at me.”

“Standing next to him! You pathetic moron! You loser! You incompetent, bumbling, sloppy, useless—”

Kelly felt her throat constricting just as Gabriel plucked the phone from her hand, and she suddenly realized that tears were pouring down her face. Teresa sat on the couch, arms folded across her chest and a big, smug smile on her face.

Gabriel stalked off, holding the phone, and Kelly ran after him.

“Listen the hell up,” Gabriel snarled into the phone. “That is my future wife you’re talking to. And if you ever talk to her like that again, I will hunt you down and burn you to a pile of ash.” And then he crushed the phone in his hand and dropped the pieces on the floor.

Winthrop scampered over to clean up the shards of plastic.

“That was my phone!” Teresa screamed. “You broke my phone! My fiancé might be calling me! I’m in the middle of planning my wedding! I need my phone!”

“Sorry, miss,” Winthrop said apologetically. He gave Gabriel a severe look of reproach. “Sir, that simply isn’t
done
.”

“These people are monsters!” Teresa’s chest was heaving and her face was bright red.

Winthrop nodded glumly. “You have no idea.”

“I’ll buy you a new one,” Gabriel said irritably. Then he looked at Kelly and his voice softened. “Kelly, come with me.”

He led her out of the room and back up the stairs to his bedroom as Kelly wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

“I’m sorry,” Kelly sniffled when they reached his room. “I shouldn’t let her get to me like that. I’m being stupid.”

A wave of misery washed over her.

He put his arm around her and pulled her up against him. It felt so warm and safe and right that she never wanted to leave. But she would – any minute now. Yep, she’d shrug his arm off walk away from him…any minute now…

“You aren’t being stupid at all,” Gabriel said. “I made things difficult for you by insisting on marrying you, which is selfish of me, but it’s what I want.”

She rested her head against his broad chest.

“It is?” He couldn’t possibly mean that, but it was wonderful to hear at a time when her feelings had just been stomped on with hobnail boots.

“Yes, it is. And whoever you’re working for is a vile, abusive bitch. Why do you let someone treat you like that?”

“Well, I guess because she’s my mother.”

Gabriel’s mouth dropped open and he began stammering apologies. Kelly burst into laughter and held her hand up to stop him.

“It’s all right,” she said. “You’re entirely right. She’s been like that to me ever since…well, ever since my father got arrested.” Then she flushed with embarrassment. “Go ahead. Mock me. Call me a hypocrite.”

“Why?” He looked puzzled. “Your father was arrested, not you.”

She managed a wry smile. “My mother doesn’t see it that way. My father was arrested for embezzlement; he financially ruined a lot of people in my mother’s social set. The big irony is, she was working as an insurance investigator even then. It nearly ruined the firm, which had been passed down to her by her father. So she had to sell most of her interest in the firm, and they changed it so the firm no longer has our family name on it. She’s co-owner, but she’s hoping to buy it back some day, and if we don’t get the Dragonsblood back, that can’t happen. I have lived my entire life trying to make up for what my father’s done, and I’ve got a perfect solve rate up until now, and even so, every time I make the littlest mistake my mother gets hysterical and starts yelling about how I can never do anything right and I’m my father’s daughter, and I’m determined to—”

Her voice was rising higher and higher. She was getting dizzy.

“Kelly!” Gabriel barked at her, and she stopped and looked at him.

“What?”

“Breathe.”

“Oh,” she nodded. “Thanks. I forgot.” She took several deep breaths and tried to calm down. What was it about her mother’s vicious disapproval that sent her into hysterics? She should be used to it by now.

She took a moment to compose herself.

“I appreciate how decent you’re being about my mother,” she said. “And I know my mother shouldn’t treat me like that, and maybe it’s time that I go out on my own and work for myself, or at least for some other agency. But that doesn’t change what I’m obligated to do, here and now.” She looked him square in the eye. “Once I take on a job, I finish it. Always. That means I’m still looking for the Dragonsblood Ruby, and if I find that you have it, I’m turning you in.”

He winked at her. “I’d expect no less of you.”

She scowled. He could at least look worried, the smug son of a bitch.

“You’re taking this far too lightly. You stole a precious family heirloom. You have no right to it.” Her father had been a thief, and she’d seen the devastation that he’d caused. Families who’d invested their life savings with him losing their homes and businesses. She’d had to go to school with their children. She’d endured their taunts, the food and books they’d thrown at her head. She’d eaten her lunch alone, in the bathroom. She’d figured she’d deserved it. Her father had ruined their lives.

“Well, I’d investigate that ‘precious family heirloom’ thing a little more, but anyway, other than that, carry on. Best of luck. Search away.”

“I’m planning on it. What do you mean about investigating? What should I investigate?”

He countered with, “What fun is it if I do your work for you?”

She frowned at him. “You know, I have had it with your smug attitude. You can let go of me at any time.”
No, don’t!
part of her cried out. He was so strong and warm and solid. She wanted to stay in his arms forever, but she couldn’t exactly tell him that.

“You can step away at any time,” he pointed out, gently caressing the small of her back with his fingertips.

She couldn’t believe he was being so unreasonable.

“You first!” she said indignantly.

“Oh, no, it has to be ladies first. I was raised to be a gentleman.”

She snorted. “You most certainly were not. You were raised to be a first-class cad.”

“At least you think I’m first class.” He stared down into her eyes. “I could stand here all night. I’m quite enjoying myself. Your move, sweetheart.”

“I hate you very much right now.” She felt that her attempt at a scowl wasn’t convincing enough, but it was hard to glare when she was light-headed with lust.

“I have an alternative proposal,” he said to her.

“I’m listening.”

“Given how very, very much I want to fuck your brains out right now…” she gasped at the crudity of his words, spoken in that rich, cultured voice…”you could try to seduce the truth about the Dragonsblood out of me.”

She should slap him for that. She should definitely storm off in fury. How dare he imply that she’d use sex to get what she wanted? Instead, she stared up at him, dazed with desire. “That is a terrible line.”

“Not my best, not my worst.” He shrugged. “But entirely sincere.” He moved, and suddenly he was pressing up against her, his thick erection rock-hard against her stomach. Oh dear God. He really did want her as much as she wanted him.

“I’m not marrying you… I’m still going to find the jewel and turn you in…” Her breath was coming in pants now, and she was trembling with need.

“Then you should at least grant me this one last wish, shouldn’t you?” He bent down to kiss her.

That doesn’t even make sense,
she tried to say, but instead the words that spilled from her lips sounded more like, “I want you
now
.”