Burning for the Dragon: BBW Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance (Fated Hearts Club Book 1) (3 page)

Mate. She was it. She was
meant for him.

He eyed her ring. “Take off
your jewelry.”

She jerked back. “I’m sorry,
what?”

“Your ring. It’s silver. I
can’t shake your hand for a proper introduction if you’re wearing silver.
Shouldn’t you know to not wear silver to a shifter event?” It was gruffer than
he intended and he regretted the words when her concern turned to
embarrassment.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t
know.” She twisted and pulled at the ring, but it didn’t want to budge off her
finger.

“Never—” He cut off and
winced at the sudden blaring of the fire alarm.

The lights turned up to their
full power and revealed all the darkened corners occupied by close couples.
Many frowned and cursed in frustration. Staff members soon appeared to direct
everyone to evacuate out the stairwells.

He caught the scent of the
room. The faintest whiff of smoke came from a corner, but it looked only like a
burning candle. He wanted to tell the staff to shut off the alarm, that there
was no danger, but he had no chance. He grudgingly admitted to himself that
something could be wrong somewhere in the building below.

She hopped off her seat and
glanced behind for him to follow. She barely reached his shoulder. He tried to
keep close to her, but the crowd jostled together and displaced everyone from
their pairings. He soon lost her in the crowd. He tried to look for clear spots
that would mean people swirling around the short woman, but even that didn’t
help track her.

Luca growled in frustration.
He was hurried down one set of stairs. The stink of anxiety and other shifters
was thick in the air. He couldn’t inhale without catching all their scents.
There was no way to sort out the sweetly spicy cinnamon scent he sought.

The stairwell wound down the
building, and soon guests of the Fated Hearts Club mingled with the residents
of the building and patrons of the attached restaurants. He stalked through the
crowd and tried to find her, but there was no sign of the curvy temptress that
was to be his mate.

His dragon beat against his
walls of control and urged him to take flight. They could scan the crowd from
above and find her that way. It was a tempting thought, but Luca stayed in his
human shape. There were rules against shifting in public, designed to keep both
shifters and mortals safe. He didn’t want to draw undue attention to the club
or his dragon brethren.

Even if it meant letting her
slip through his grasp for the time being.

Shit
.

He didn’t even
get her name.

The Dragon King and his Consort were formidable rulers. Luca
wasn’t concerned with pissing off the most powerful dragons in the world. He
was concerned with pissing off his parents.

“Luca, dear, you haven’t spoken to us since you left!”

His mother’s tone sounded like she was sad and a little bit
hurt, but Luca knew she really meant to shame him for not communicating.

“You’re next in line to rule, son. You can’t go missing
without letting us know what’s going on.”

His father sounded like a patient man, but Luca knew
underneath was the stiff spine of a man used to getting his way.

It was not a conversation he wished to have, even less in
the middle of his workday. He directed a glare out of the glass walls lining
his office and toward his assistant. He tried to remind himself that she was
new and didn’t yet know to take messages if any personal calls from family came
through, but he still felt the urge to gut the poor girl.

“You know I needed to be back at my business.” He tried to
keep his voice light but distracted. Perhaps he could claim an urgent meeting
and reschedule the dreaded call when he was safely back in his own lair that
night. “Listen, I’ll need to speak with you both later. Something has come up
and—”

“And you know you cannot be alone, not when you’re the
future of our kind. We have much to discuss. Namely, your mate. You’re looking,
I take it?” His mother chose to ignore his excuse.

So much for deflecting.

“Perhaps it would be best if you gave up this business and
came home. You’ll have uninterrupted time to learn how to run the court.”

Luca bristled at his father’s suggestion. He knew ruling
from the Dragon Thrones would be a serious undertaking. He knew it would likely
mean the end to all his other business. But he didn’t want to give up what he’d
worked so hard to build. The company was a success, and to abandon it felt
wrong.

“There’s no point in that just yet, is there? You and Mother
are still going strong and don’t plan to abdicate anytime soon. Besides,
wouldn’t you want my mate to come with me? It’ll be hard to find someone if I’m
at court all the time.” He inhaled and exhaled silently and reminded himself
that he was a grown man, no matter how much his parents tried to make him feel
like a misbehaving child.

“You can’t be a bachelor forever, Luca.” There was a warning
in his father’s voice. He sounded more like the Dragon King than a father.

“I’m not planning on it.” He swiveled in his chair and
stared out the glass. The cityscape stretched out below him and he wondered
just how many conversations like his were going on that very moment. The exact
circumstances would be different, sure, but mothers and fathers had a universal
commonality of interfering in their children’s lives when it wasn’t wanted.

“Let us help you find someone, dear. You’ll have the final
say, of course. But we really cannot wait.”

The threat was plain to Luca. Find someone or they would
find someone for him. It’d been what he heard and feared while we was home for
Leo’s funeral. “No.”

“No? You’re refusing the order of the king?” The Dragon King
growled.

Luca didn’t back down. He would rule one day, and he
couldn’t allow any to push him around then. He told himself it was good practice
to stick up to his parents. “I’m refusing to accept an arranged mating. I will
find my own consort.”

“Luca…” his mother whined.

“Mother, Father, respect this. I’m not giving up on the dragons;
I’m not trying to be a bachelor for life. I will find my own mate.”

His mother huffed on the other line while his father
remained silent. He could almost imagine the man chewing rocks and digging for
the right words to cut him down. His mother was the first to speak again. All
niceties were gone. “I don’t understand your unwillingness. Your father and I
didn’t know each other before we were mated, and we turned out fine.”

“Mother—”

“No, Luca. You listen to me now. You’re acting like a
spoiled child. Would you have the world’s dragons fracture and become as lawless
as all those other shifters? That’s where we’re heading if you don’t show them
the strength they expect.”

His father continued to drive the point home. “Our numbers
are falling with each year. It will be up to you and the rest of the young ones
to find their mates and clutch to ensure the next generation. If you don’t find
a mate, we will.”

Luca stared at the phone when the line clicked dead. He
wanted to crack a smile at the absurdity of his parents hanging up on
him
.
Were they pouting teenagers? Then he remembered that angst sometimes drove
hasty actions. He would not accept an arranged mating, not when the woman for
him was somewhere in the city.

She’d been on his mind since the night before when he lost
her in the crowd. He walked through the group several times with his eyes and
nose open for her, but she’d vanished. Smoke left more of a trace than that
woman did and it frustrated him to no end that he’d lost her even before he
knew her name.

Which brought him back to his meeting. He punched a button
on the phone base and waited patiently for his assistant to pick up.

“Yes, Mr. de Rege?” He didn’t need to turn to see the girl
practically bouncing in her seat.

“Send in my next appointment.”

“The next on the schedule, or where you left off for your phone
call?”

Luca did not sigh. He would not snap at a new employee. She
was still learning his temperament and how he liked his business run. She did
not deserve harsh words.

Yet.

“Where we left off, please. Push everything else back. See
if the four o’clock will reschedule for tomorrow morning.”

“Of course, Mr. de Rege.”

He swiveled in his chair again and made the minor
preparations for his next meeting. He unlocked his computer and tucked the
contracts he was working on into a file. They would be of no use, and he
preferred they remain confidential until the deals were brokered.

He could hear his assistant stand and walk the few steps to
the waiting area of his office. She chatted pleasantly with the man she led
toward his door, then quieted when she pushed it open to let him in.

“Franklin Uso, Mr. de Rege.”

Luca stood as the man approached. They shook hands and then
took their seats. He started immediately. “You came highly recommended,
Franklin.”

“Thank you, sir. I take pride in giving the highest quality
of work to my clients.”

“And you’re planning to continue working for Medved Tech?” Carson
was the first person he reached out to when he hatched his plan. He ran a cyber
security company that most of the large businesses in the city used and had a
name almost before Luca finished speaking.

“As long as Carson is willing to keep me on. It’s honest
work and a way to make a living. I’d rather deal with the computer side of
things than the people side.”

Luca nodded. It was nearly identical to what Carson had said
of the man. Franklin was gruff with people but extremely talented at his job.
He ran into a bit of trouble in his younger years when he wasn’t so careful
with what his actions would do, but had straightened up when Carson offered him
a job. If he didn’t think it’d piss his friend off, Luca might try to convince
the man to take a job in his own IT department.

Luca steepled his fingers and locked Franklin in an
unblinking stare. The man was distantly related to Carson and smelled just as
strongly of the bear below his human half. Even bears needed to worry when a
dragon was displeased.

“I will need you to hack a website for me. The Fated Hearts
Club.”

“Excuse me?” Franklin blinked.

“There is some information I need to get. Full name of a
woman, for one. Any location or employment information, if they have it.”

Franklin frowned. “I don’t really do any black hat work.
This is more than a little… unprofessional.”

Luca narrowed his eyes. “Did I ask for your opinion?”

Franklin shifted uncomfortably in his seat, which was a
thing to see. He was a big man and fidgeting looked out of place on his frame.

“Can you do it?”

Franklin’s frown turned to a scowl. “You’ll smell it if I
lie. Yes. I can do it.”

Luca’s face split into a grin that held far too many and too
long teeth. Let the man read the threat as he would. “Fantastic. I’ll just
slide out of your way and let you get to work. Will you need my login?”

“No.” Franklin let a bit of his bear shine through with a
growl.

Well, Carson hadn’t promised the man would be happy about
the job.

Luca settled with a pile of paperwork in a corner chair. He
didn’t want to be far when Franklin finished his task. He did his best to
ignore the frequent, under breath curses and key clicks. He refused to look at
the clock and count the minutes as they ticked into an hour. He should have
rescheduled his entire afternoon. He would need to leave soon to visit another
floor and go over the scale model plans for a new building community.

“Done.”

Luca was across the room in a flash.

“It looks like the profiles go inactive after each event. If
she hasn’t accepted any new invitations, she’s not visible.”

Luca nodded. He suspected as much. The site was vague about
the profiles of their members. One phone call to the customer service hellhole
made him not want to repeat the experience. Better to have Franklin dig around.

“Here’s the list of attendees for the date you gave… And
here you go. You’ll just need to scroll through the list and find her picture.
Her profile will load for you now.”

“Thank you.” Luca nodded. He could be gracious. Franklin
lingered at the edge of his desk. “That will be all.”

His dragon surged up as they scrolled past the profile
pictures of the women who attended the last event. The beast wanted to be as
involved in the process as possible, even if lurking at the back of Luca’s mind
gave the same result. There would be no shifting in the office, and no sudden
flights across the city.

They both nearly howled for joy when they found the picture
they were seeking. Her dark red hair was even more vibrant in the sunlight of
her picture. He clicked on the thumbnail and was given full access to her
profile.

Penelope Minett. Travel agent at Sunrise Tomorrow.

“So you didn’t wait around for him? Chica, why not?”

Penelope rolled her eyes at Blanca. She’d explained the
story to Marybeth, then to Janet. Joan and Sammy heard her tale next. Finally,
it was Blanca’s turn to listen and give her opinion.

They all wondered why she hadn’t stuck around. Hell,
she
wasn’t certain why she fled after the alarm. There were so many people in the
parking lots. She could have looked for him. She did, briefly. Before she
chickened out and left.

She wasn’t being truthful with herself. She knew why she
left. She’d been insecure. It always came back to not feeling good enough.

Despite Vera’s promises, the number of bigger girls didn’t
stack up against the skinny models. She was usually comfortable in her curves,
but a dark part of her whispered that maybe she’d still have her last boyfriend
and her job if she’d lost a few pounds when he asked. She hated that voice and
could crush it more times than not, but it rose up again as she walked through
the crowd outside of the twin skyscrapers.

The women were all dressed in clothes she’d never be able to
afford and they looked like their daily beauty routine cost more than the
beater of a car she drove. The men eyed her with curiosity before turning away
while the women warned her away with disdain in their eyes. Even in her
borrowed clothes and fancy hairdo, she didn’t belong. If the general crowd
scented her inferiority, how quickly would that man have figured it out?

She was decidedly ordinary and he was a freaking dragon.
What would they have in common, really?

“I waited until the crowd started clearing back inside. I
didn’t see him at all, so I left. Vera was tongue deep with her date by that
time so she wasn’t going to miss me if I caught a cab.”

Blanca cackled and slapped her knee. “That girl is crazy.
Are you going to track him down?”

She shrugged and sighed. “I didn’t even get his name.
Sometimes it’s just not meant to be, you know. Oh, I’ve got a call. Hold that
thought.”

She pressed a button on her line and answered with the
scripted greeting all the employees were forced to rattle off. With the rise of
the information age, the travel agency had turned into something closer
resembling a call center. Joan, the owner, hated it and still kept an office
set aside for any walk-in visitors that wanted to plan their travel in person.

While she pulled up pricing for the called, she glanced over
the top of her monitor. Penelope’s eyes widened and she lost all coherent
thought for a moment. The voice in her headset repeated the question she failed
to hear.

He
stood in the small, couldn’t even call it a lobby,
space at the front of Sunrise Tomorrow.

“Yes, we have great packages to Cancun this year.” She shook
herself back to the call at hand and tried not to stare when he flashed a
breathtaking smile in her direction.

While the Fated Heart Club website didn’t list prices for
the shifters wanting access to the club’s attendees, Penelope mentally added
the cost up to
RICH
. The men and women at the event were dressed to
impress, and she doubted they all had best friends like Vera offering up wardrobes.
They were successful shifters, which was part of the draw for the humans.

The man she joked with that night matched her impression. He
was dressed in a suit that screamed tailored to his body. The black of his
pants and jacket was only slightly darker than the black of his shirt and tie.
His hair, equally dark, hung in loose waves that brushed his shoulders. His
beard was trimmed to look fashionably unkempt.

She wanted to hum with pleasure. Instead, she pressed her
thighs together and did her best to concentrate on her call.

It went on. And on. And on. She never wanted to discuss
Cancun again by the time it finished up. She tossed her headset on the desk and
couldn’t even remember if she’d made the sale or not.

He
was there. He’d found her, somehow. Vera had
assured her that there would be no creepy stalkers like from other dating
sites. Their information would only be available to the pool of attendees, and
hidden away until they signed up for another event. But here he was.

Stalking her.

She couldn’t find it in her to be upset.

“Penelope?”

“Hi.” ‘Hi?’ ‘Hi’, really? She wanted to kick herself. Where
was the cool, confident woman she wanted to be in the face of a possible
stalker? ‘Hi’ wouldn’t scare him off.

“Luca. de Rege.”

He held out his hand, but she didn’t notice until he glanced
down at the space between them. Her cheeks flushed. She was too busy staring
into his beautiful eyes.

“Penelope Minett. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
She took his hand and was surprised at how warm he was. Dragon, she reminded
herself. He was probably warm all over. No need for an extra blanket in the
winter with him around.

What the hell was she thinking? He’d drop her in a second.

“I had to give up our half child for the information, but I
figured neither of us would care too much about that.”

His voice stroked down her back and warmed her even more
than his hand. “Ah, well. Halfie wasn’t living much of a life in the attic
anyway.”

“I was wondering if you’d care to join me for dinner
sometime.”

She chewed her lip. The hateful side of her said to deny him
and go back to hiding in her studio apartment, that no one would want her
looking the way she did. But his eyes didn’t leave her face, except to journey
down her body. Heat followed his gaze, as surely as if he’d touched where his
eyes looked. When he changed direction, she couldn’t help but notice the lust
written on his expression. It made her nipples pebble in her uniform shirt and
hope grow in her heart.

What had Vera said when convincing her to go to the club in
the first place? She’d be fucking for the good of girlkind? She’d do just about
anything to sink her teeth into Luca at that moment.

“If you two are done eye fucking each other, I know what
she’s going to say.”

They turned to the voice. Penelope blushed again. She’d
forgotten Blanca was even there. “You do?”

Blanca waved her hands like she was smacking Penelope in the
head. “Chica, you’re going.”

She turned back to Luca. His eyes met hers and the world
seemed to drop away again. “I… I’d love to. We’ll need to get a sitter, of
course. But you have that covered, right? You did say you’d provide for the
full children.”

Luca laughed. “Absolutely. How about you give me your
address and I’ll pick you up tomorrow night?”

***

“I can’t believe you gave him my address.” Vera groaned from
her bedroom.

Penelope eyed the dress Luca had sent to her work. It looked
gorgeous in the box and on the hanger. It looked like something she’d never,
ever wear. It was too edgy, even for Vera’s tastes. It was not
Penelope
Minett
.

But he’d sent it, with a note asking that she humor him and
wear it for their date. She recognized the brand as something so far outside of
her price range that she never thought she’d be within touching distance of one
of their dresses. Humoring her date and not her usual style aside, she wanted
to wear the thing.

“I didn’t want him to know where I lived in case he turned
out to be psycho.” She didn’t think there was a chance of that, but she
couldn’t be too careful. The news always said it was the unexpected ones that
turned out to have murder rooms in their basements. Not that Luca would need
one. He could just roast her with one, fiery breath of his dragon.

She also didn’t want him to see where she lived in squalor.
The building didn’t have a doorman or interior halls or security cameras. It
was a dump on the outside, and little better on the inside. A man like Luca
would run as fast as he could to get away from that.

“Oh, but it’s okay he knows where I live? Thanks!”

“You need to buzz to get into your building. Mine is not so
secure.” She couldn’t help the resignation that entered her voice. She’d lived
in a nice place before the split with her ex. Before she’d been forced from her
job. Before everything went to shit.

“Penny… It’s going to be okay. You’ll bounce back. You
always do.”

“I’m just tired of it, you know? Don’t get me wrong, this is
nice. More than nice. It’s fantastic! But I’m tired of getting my hopes up and
then having them crushed again. I keep telling you that cats would be easier.”

“Well, in that case, let’s just call Luca up and
cancel—”

“Don’t you dare!” Penelope shouted.

“Life is about taking risks. You fail, that sucks. But you
still need to dust yourself off and try again.”

“Wise words, Vera. And here I thought you were just a
sex-crazed bimbo.” She made the last few adjustments to the dress and zipped up
the back. She didn’t look or feel like herself. But maybe that was okay, she
told herself. Maybe it was okay to be a different Penelope for the evening.
“Okay, I think I’m ready.”

“Let me seeeee!” Vera squealed.

Penelope exited the bathroom to the sounds of Vera bouncing
up and down on her bed. It wasn’t quite the drumroll she wanted, but it’d have
to do in a pinch.

The dress fit like a glove against her upper half. The upper
neckline was all lace in the same deep purple as the rest of the silky dress.
Solid material started modestly above her cleavage and nipped in at her waist.
The skirt flared around her hips even without the addition of a fluffed
petticoat. Flared, jagged edges of the sleeves cupped her shoulders. She was
reminded of the fictional depictions of dragon wings.

Would Luca have similar looking wings in his dragon form?
She knew so little about the man. She and Vera spent the previous night
searching for any information online. They learned he owned a development firm,
whatever that was. He’d studied at one of the top universities in the country.
There wasn’t much else on him, other than some business magazine interviews
that were chock full of jargon and buzzwords. The Luca she read about online
wasn’t anything like the Luca she’d joked with at the club.

“Girl, you look amazing.” Vera approached and grabbed a
chunk of her hair. Pursing her lips, she started weaving a braid that cascaded
over one shoulder.

“Am I crazy for doing this?” She studied Vera in the
mirrored reflection. It’d only been a couple nights before that they were
having a similar conversation.

“Yes. But in a good way. I’d do some bodily damage for an
opportunity like this. At least a face punch of two. Do you think he has a
brother?” Vera sighed dreamily. Her eyes lit up. “Here. You can’t let him have
all the say in what you wear.”

Vera went to the slat board that held her enormous
collection of jewelry. Necklaces dangled next to earrings, while her rings,
large and small, were hooked anywhere there was space. It was a shiny,
dangerously stylish display.

“Hmm… Oh, here we go.” She plucked a necklace from where it
hung, then moved behind Penelope and lifted her hair.

Penelope grinned when the necklace was settled against her.
She straightened a few of the pieces. The bones of a dinosaur ringed her neck
and made her look ferocious. “Just a reminder of what will happen to him if
anything goes wrong.”

Just in time, too. The box by Vera’s door buzzed. She
squealed again and ran to answer it before Penelope could react. She followed
her friend into the living room just as Vera hit the button on the box.
“Yeeesss?”

“Hello. I’m looking for Penelope. Is this the right number?”

A grin lifted Penelope’s lips just from the distorted sound
of Luca’s voice through the box.

Vera turned and winked before holding down the button again.
“It is. Now, I want my little pumpkin home by midnight. Otherwise, I’ll have to
be a meanie and track you down to pepper those wings with holes.”

“Vera!” Penelope hissed. She stepped into the heels she
picked out to go with the dress and tugged open the door. “Tell him I’ll be
right down.”

She pressed her hands against her stomach as the elevator
sped down the shaft to the ground floor. She needed the time to psych herself
up for the night. She’d been on dates, she’d dressed nicely for some of them,
but nothing made her as nervous as her night ahead with Luca. The man was sex
on a stick and made her start hoping for things she no longer thought existed,
like true love or even a long term romance.

The elevator doors opened and she spotted him as she stepped
into the lobby. The world slowed and doves burst into flight around him while a
chorus of soft music filled the space and everyone turned to give them
congratulatory glances.

Well, maybe not. But that’s what Penelope thought should
have happened.

Luca was stunning. He wore another black suit, but this one
was more suited for a night out than a day at the office. She thought the shirt
was again black, but a second look showed it was a deeply dark red. It suited
him well, where it would look like someone overly trying to fit into a goth
club on anyone else.

When she reached him, she was certain his eyes darkened to
pure black and erased even the whites. A second later showed that they were
just normal, dark eyes that didn’t leave her face. He reached for her hand and
bent over it to plant a kiss on the top, still keeping his eyes locked with
hers.

“You look even more beautiful than I imagined.”

Be still her heart. She didn’t know if she would survive the
night if he kept rushing the blood from her cheeks to her core and back again.

“Thank you,” she managed to whisper.

“Shall we?” He asked when he straightened. At her nod, he
led her outside to a waiting limo.

“Car service, really? You don’t just…” She flapped her hands
like wings.

He laughed. At her. She glared. “No, sweet. Not in the city
where the scared little humans can see. And even if I did, I wouldn’t want to
mess up your beautiful hair.”