Tianna Xander

Like her sister Rose, Tansy fears her
inner powers. They’re dangerous. Fire follows her wherever she goes
and Tansy is certain it’s only a matter of time before she harms
someone. When Tony, a dragon she met at one of her sister, April’s,
dating parties begins to make his move, she runs away. She fears
him, her power and intimacy with an ancient dragon.

When Tony finds his mate in the arms of
another man, he wants to rage at the world. In fact, he finds it
difficult to rein in the power of his dragon at the sight. What is
his mate doing in the arms of another dragon male? One thing is
certain. He will do anything to convince Tansy that she belongs
with him and him alone.

The unauthorized reproduction or
distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal
copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary
gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years
in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Please purchase only authorized
electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the
electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the
author’s rights is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents either are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

The Fire Dragon

Copyright © 2012 Tianna
Xander

ISBN: 978-1-77111-118-8

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in
any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole
or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the
written permission of the publisher.

Published by Devine
Destinies

An imprint of eXtasy Books

Look for us online at:

www.devinedestinies.com

Smashwords Edition

The Fire Dragon

By

Tianna Xander

Acknowledgments:

To Kevin: Thanks for playing
the
What if
game
with me at all hours of the day and night.

To Viola: Huge thanks for always being
there when I need a push in the right direction or someone to tell
me to stop chatting and goofing off on the internet and get my bum
back to work.

Chapter One

“
Where are you taking me for
dinner?” Normally, Tansy wouldn’t be so pushy, but she was hungry.
She’d had a few snacks since her sister Rose left here with her
mate, but it had been nearly twenty-four hours since her last full
meal and she needed something more substantial than a few crackers
and a cup of soup.

Sighing, she watched Armand as he gave
a few last minute instructions to his manager. He was so handsome.
She was almost positive he was the man she wanted to spend the rest
of her life with. However, she couldn’t shake the feeling that
there was something that just wasn’t quite right. She was afraid
she shouldn’t feel this way for him. After all, over the last two
weeks, she’d been thinking of no one but Antonio Saladino and now
she was drooling over Armand. What was wrong with her? Shouldn’t
she pick one man and stick with him?

Tansy felt as though she was being
fickle and she didn’t like it. It was one thing to lust after two
men she didn’t know, it was quite another to find herself trying to
decide between two men she wanted to date.

One at a time, please.

She bit the tip of her thumb, deep in
thought as she watched Armand working with his people. He was so
handsome with his dark hair and chocolate brown eyes. He was tall,
too. That was always a bonus. She wished he was just a bit more
muscular like Antonio though.

What bothered her most about the
situation was that she was attracted to Armand as much as she was
to Antonio which was more than she had wanted any other man in her
life. She just didn’t know why it didn’t seem right or why she kept
thinking of Antonio when she should be thinking of Armand and their
upcoming dinner together and, she thought with a blush, the
subsequent dessert.

“
Our dinner destination is a
surprise.” Armand smiled at her and winked, his dark eyes filled
with sensual promise that only made her feel even worse that she
couldn’t keep the other man from her thoughts. “I will take you to
dinner, then we will retire to my home where we will indulge
ourselves in other, more delicious pursuits.”

Just the thought of what he meant by
that made her shiver. Tansy waved her hands in front of her face.
“Hooo! You really know how to make a girl tremble with
anticipation.” Her insides twisted with that same need they always
did when she looked at him or talked to him. Her tummy
flip-flopped, and her hands trembled, but why didn’t her heart feel
as though it was stuttering the way it did around Antonio? Tansy
sighed, wondering why the other man kept invading her thoughts and
frowned.

She felt her face heat when the last of
Armand’s employees left the office. Thoughts of what they could do
here in this room had goosebumps covering her skin. It was strange
how she couldn’t wait to be alone with him, yet dreaded it all at
the same time. She fidgeted in her seat and slid forward, her hands
gripping the arms of her chair.

“
Can we go now?” Was she in
such a hurry to leave so they could be alone later, or was she
afraid of being alone with Armand now? Tansy bit her lip, wondering
what she was doing here at all.

She took a deep breath and sighed. When
she looked at Armand, she remembered why she wanted to be with him.
He was the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on in her life. What
bothered her was what happened when she wasn’t looking at him. When
she wasn’t staring into his beautiful eyes or at his handsome face,
she thought of Antonio and how just being here with Armand seemed
like a betrayal.

They had to get out of here. If they
didn’t, she was going to jump Armand’s bones right here in his
office. While office sex wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, she didn’t
want their first time to be on the top of his desk…or worse yet, on
the floor.

Tansy was certain that was the reason
she wanted to leave here. It had nothing to do with the fact that
she wasn’t sure she should be here with him at all. What she kept
telling herself was that it was only because the last thing she
wanted was to be covered in rug burns when she went home.
Explaining how she got them to her sisters wasn’t at the top of her
list.

“
I have one more meeting,
sweetheart, then we shall begin our first night of
many.”

Crap
!

Apparently, she wasn’t going to get him
out of here any time soon and it was getting more difficult to
control herself. She didn’t understand it. Especially since Armand
never spoke of forever the way she thought he should. If she was
his mate, shouldn’t he be talking about how long they would be
together, how her life force would be irrevocably tied to
his?

If someone had asked her who she was
attracted to last night, she would have said Antonio. That was one
of the reasons she had talked her sister Rose into running away
with her. Of course she wanted to get married someday, but Tansy
didn’t think she was ready for it now. Still, that sentiment didn’t
stop her from wanting Armand. Was that the difference then? She
lusted after Antonio, but fate intended her mate to be Armand? Or
did she have it backward?

Whatever it was, she had to get out of
Drake’s house earlier. It didn’t matter that she and Rose had both
put themselves in danger, that someone had tried to kidnap them and
that eventually, she would have to answer to her mate—whoever he
was—about her indiscretion. Armand made sure she was aware of that
fact.

Tansy fought the urge to
twiddle her thumbs and stared at the man whom she was relatively
certain, at least today, was her mate. Suddenly, she realized why
this all felt so wrong. She didn’t want to be
any
man’s mate. At least not right
now. Right now she wanted her freedom, freedom to be herself and to
live her life the way she saw fit. That was why she ran away in the
first place.

Then what happened? Not three hours
after she and her sister Rose made their break for freedom, the cab
they procured from the man attempting to kidnap them, got a flat
tire and they ended up hitching a ride from Armand, a man she
couldn’t seem to get enough of for some reason. She just couldn’t
win.

She crossed her arms,
irritated with herself, then she looked back at Armand and
sighed.
He
is
a handsome devil.

Tansy stared at Armand
trying to figure out what it was about him that attracted her so
much. She wanted him, that was a fact, but she didn’t
feel
anything emotionally
for him. Her stomach clenched at the thought and she frowned
again.
That’s what’s
wrong
.

Antonio made her feel hot and cold all
over and she felt a stirring of…something deep inside her when he
danced with her. He made her feel strange, all warm and tingly
inside, when she pressed her body close to his and her heart did
that weird turning over thing. When she looked up into his eyes
that were almost the same color as Kentucky grass she wanted more
than to jump his bones. She wanted a family, children, when she
looked at Antonio.

With Armand, it was just sex. The
thought made her scowl. What was it about her today? Why couldn’t
she seem to make up her mind? Looking up, she took a deep breath,
ready to tell Armand that she had made a horrible mistake and
suddenly, she couldn’t say it. She wanted him all over again and
all of her logic seemed to fly out the proverbial
window.

“
We have an hour before my
next meeting.” Armand winked. “Can you think of something we could
do to kill the time?”

“
Ha! With what I’m thinking,
an hour just isn’t going to cut it.” Besides, she did
not
want to do anything in
his office. Making love in his office would make her feel cheap,
sleazy even.

“
Then we shall talk, shall
we?” He rested his hands on the desk in front of him and clasped
his fingers together.

Tansy pasted a smile on her face. “Talk
it is.” Anything else was unthinkable here in this office where any
one of his flunkies could barge right in without
warning.

Moving over to the sofa across the room
from his desk, she sat down on her hands to keep herself from
twisting her fingers and watched as Armand moved from his desk to
the chair opposite the couch.

She was proud of herself, really. She
waited a full thirty-five seconds before she launched herself at
him. “I don’t know why, but I can’t wait to feel your hands on my
skin.”

“
I feel the same,
sweetheart.”

Taking that as an admission of more
tender feelings he had yet to display, Tansy wrapped her arms
around his neck and pressed her lips against his. Her only thought
had been to feel his lips against hers a moment ago, now she was
confused all over again that she could feel this way for two men as
thoughts of Antonio invaded her mind.

His kiss wasn’t what she expected at
all. It did nothing for her emotionally, though a part of her still
couldn’t keep her hands from roaming over his broad shoulders and
well-formed chest. Still, something niggled at the back of her
mind. Wasn’t something supposed to happen when a witch kissed her
mate?

Armand grasped her by the waist, his
lips still locked with hers and slid his hands beneath the hem of
her blouse. The door burst open just as he lifted his hands and
began to remove her shirt.

Tansy, jerked back, her face burning
with mortification at the interruption. Yanking the hem of her
blouse back down to her waist, she glanced toward the door and
their newest visitor. With a gasp, she pushed away from Armand and
fell to the floor on her rear with an inglorious thump.