Stop Dragon My Heart Around Page 3

  Because who really wanted to live as a feeble human anyway.

  Leo’s time was coming. He felt it in the ache of his bones when he awoke in the morning, and in the soreness that lingered in his muscles after flight. He scanned the female faces, looking for any new arrivals, but all were familiar and uninteresting. There were none here for him.

  “I told Tee I would go.” Leo lifted his hand to knead an ache at the base of his skull. He didn’t need this now, while Alec was gone. The Crown Jewel had to be his focus. Not Tee. Not trouble with her tribe.

  “And the Chief?”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Leo said. “See what I can do to help.”

  “Thank you, brother.” Kane nodded and stepped away.

  Leo checked the crowd again. Dragons weren’t an amiable bunch, even in their human forms. His security forces stood discreetly in black suits against the walls, watching for flare-ups, like the U.S.’s secret service agents. It was a privilege to be able to stay in the dragons’ sanctuary. A modern day court of the king, with all the pomp and ceremony of long gone days. Dragons who couldn’t play nice were expelled and sent back to their respective folds, in their far-flung corners of the world.

  It was always an uneasy truce between the beast and the human. Hidden agendas and long-held grudges still abided, even after all of the work Leo and the other lieutenants had done to gather them together for the mating ceremony. The ceremony had brought together all the dragons of the world and had been a success. However, the old prejudices still lasted. Ice dragons distrusted storm dragons, and vice versa. Fire dragons disliked everyone. And so it went, into infinity.

  Leo was no different. Every time he had to talk to Darius, one of the ice dragon lieutenants, the two acted like bristling, rabid dogs. It didn’t help that they both knew it was unnecessary and unreasonable—it just was. It was in their blood.

  It had taken years of learned control for them to be able to work together in their human skins. Dragons were primal and aggressive in the extreme. Their fragile human skins only thinly contained the beast.

  Once he was content that all was calm at the casino, Leo went outside to the terrace. The wind whipped hard at his clothes and hair, matching his belligerent mood. He stomped to the edge of the unrailed patio and studied the specks of people milling on Las Vegas Boulevard, one hundred and thirty stories below. To the humans on the strip, he knew the Crown Jewel appeared like a biblical Babel, soaring straight to the heavens.

  Gilded, triangular buildings rose several stories high at his sides, appearing from the ground as the tines of an elaborate golden crown. No human, craning their neck from the sidewalk, would ever suspect the hundreds of “mechanical” dragons flying perimeter patterns around the tower were often real. Just the way they’d planned it.

  The dragon sanctuary was safe in Las Vegas, hidden in plain sight amidst the neon flash and awe of the strip. Tee and her high rollers helped make it all possible. Even before the official grand opening, they’d been the most profitable casino on the Strip. It was Leo’s job to safeguard their success, which meant in part, keeping Tallulah Alameda out of his bed and at the casino.

  Below him, the Luxor Casino’s sphinx face smirked in his direction. Behind it, the Mandalay Bay mirrored back the blue sky and waking mid-morning strip.

  A strong gust of air ripped over the rim. Leo extended his arms wide, leaning in to the wind and fell forward, off the edge, feeling the sure grip of gravity pulling him down, down, down. The containment of humanity stripped away, and in a surge of power that shook through his bones, he turned into his fire dragon form. Leaning into the wind, he caught an eastward stream, swooping up toward the clouds.

  Yes. Yes, his dragon voiced in his mind. Freedom.

  In the mirrors of the Mandalay Bay, his image reflected against the sky: an SUV-sized, golden-yellow dragon, darker orange at his head, with a spiky tail and soaring wings. Soon the clouds wrapped him in a moist blanket, muffling the sound of the reality below.

  Stretching out his wing tips, his dragon flipped to his back and rested on the billowy moisture of a cloud. His bestial urges took over, and Tee and the casino vanished from his mind. Icy crystals floated around him. The pretty, shiny things captured his complete attention—so lovely, so floaty. He wanted to see his jewels. Visit his lair in the desert and make sure no one had bothered anything.

  They’d better stay away from my jewels.

  I’ll hunt them and kill them. I’ll eat them in a single bite. The dragon tossed his jaw and snapped his fangs at a few cloud crystals, but they melted against his warm scales. No one better go near my lair.

  At his left, the sun broke through a thin wall of the clouds and cast prisms around his heavenly chamber. Mesmerized, the golden dragon watched the silver sunbeam and thought about his lair—and his shiny, humming jewels.

  He swung his heavy head this way and that as if an intruder dared interrupt his sojourn. No one. But the peaceful moment was gone, and the itchy need to hunt beat through his dragon’s blood. His protective nature aroused, the dragon huffed to attention and flipped to his stomach in a rustle of wings and sinewy muscle.

  Hunt. Chase. Kill.

  Leo’s human mind agreed with the plan. He was flying to the reservation, and the wild herds of bighorn sheep on the vast spaces of the reservation were his favorite prey. Leo restricted his dragon to hunting a few times a year, but the Chief had sent word that the ram from the west herd needed culling. He and Chief Alameda had an arrangement. He and the dragons could hunt on the reservation as long as there was no human outcry. The hunt would be good for his waning dragon form. Not life-restoring, as a mate bonding would be, but good in a do-some-serious-dragon-damage way.

  Turning to his side, the golden dragon broke through the wispy cloud barrier and found a windstream headed north. He flapped his wings hard, aiming for the deserted part of the reservation, with no roads, and no houses, and no humans. He raced against the dry wind, faster and faster, pumping his wings, feeling the burn of taxed muscle tightening at his shoulder sockets. As focused as a gas-pedal-floored racer with the flag in sight.

  Under him, the cluster of civilization dissipated and the desert expanse loomed flat and brown. The golden dragon scanned for movement with keen-sighted eyes, but only saw dry, cracked ravines and raw earth. Gliding over a flat red butte, he dove past a rock outcropping and found a crumbly looking plateau. Pivoting his neck, he searched in the shadowed rock nooks.

  His nose alerted him before his eyes.

  Sheep. Several. Upwind.

  The golden dragon circled back, tilting his wings as he honed in on the familiar scent of wool and thistles, and the faint beat of steady, unalarmed hearts. In the shadows, a harem of ewes was scattered on the steep rocks, munching on stalks of dry grass. The dragon dodged past them without letting them see or smell him. He wasn’t after the tender ewes. He was after the mean, son-of-a-bitch ram that ran the herd. The one that needed culling.

  Where was he? The dragon knew the old ram wouldn’t let his ladies wander far.

  There.

  The ram rested in the sun, with the rock at his back, chewing and alert. His big horns spiraled back from his head. Even though he was small in comparison to him, the dragon knew from experience that the ram’s sharp-edged horns could rip into his chest if he wasn’t careful. Landing on a rock above, the dragon closed his wings and crouched, careful to keep his scent and shadow off his prey.

  Then he stretched upward and roared, giving the ram a chance to run. The animal turned and gazed at him with red-rimmed eyes and took off. Pleasure ran through the dragon. The ram was crafty. He would find a dark cliff cranny for cover. The hunt just heightened the enjoyment of the kill. The dragon roared again, and jumped into the air to give chase.

  Chapter Four

  Tee met her two best friends, and roommates, for lunch.

  “Wait.” Mei sat down beside Jane, across the table from Tee. “Start again, I missed the first part. Who were you kissing?�
� Mei rotated her plate of sashimi and cooked bok choy twice to the left. The Crown Jewel restaurant didn’t have sushi on its menu, but Mei, the Crown Jewel’s best international hostess, had “connections” everywhere, and especially in the Vegas kitchens.

  “I don’t have time for the long version. Jane can fill you in,” Tee said. “I’ve got to eat and get to Signature and pick up my whale.” Signature was the private landing area of McCarran Airport where all the VIPs landed. Tee bit into her fried chicken leg. It hit her tongue with a divine medley of grease and breading and dark meat.

  “Okay, quick then,” Mei said. “No way am I waiting until after the weekend to hear the details.” Mei gave Jane a side look of horror. “Please tell me it’s not that marshmallow-waisted dude from accounting again.”

  “It’s not.” Jane stabbed her healthy chicken salad with a fork. In her regulation buttoned-up white shirt and glasses and slicked-back brown hair, she looked like a school principal.

  “It was a couple of weeks ago,” Tee admitted, somewhat sheepishly. “I was just kind of waiting to see what happened, but now I need advice.”

  “Who was it?”

  Tee leaned over the table, avoiding her loaded plate. “Leo.”

  “LEO.” Mei’s chopsticks spread open in the air, mimicking her red-lipsticked mouth.

  “Shhhh, Mei,” Jane said, “There’re ears everywhere.”

  “Leo?” Mei gave her it-all-adds-up-now look. “You came over from the Bellagio because of him. You’ve had the hots for him forever haven’t you?”

  “Yah,” Tee said and swallowed hard. “I have.”

  Jane reached across the table and patted her hand. “It’s okay. It’s not like anyone else would’ve noticed. We just know you better than everyone else.”

  “We have such an amazing connection. I guess I thought something would eventually come from it.” Tee gripped her napkin. “And the huge salary and commission increase were nice, too.”

  “And the Louis XV desk he gave you.” Jane gave a closed mouth smile.

  “Yeah. What kind of guy gives a girl a desk—a very expensive, unique-to-her-taste desk—unless he’s interested in her?”

  “Start over. Please.” Mei picked up a piece of pink raw fish with her chopsticks. “I need to hear about the kissing.”

  “First, let me tell you about this morning,” Tee said. “Leo came down to tell me that Roy got the jump on the comps for this weekend—”

  “That bastard,” Mei said between chews. “Does this mean you’ll lose the bonus? You needed that to get off our futon and get your own place, didn’t you?”

  “And help the reservation school,” Jane added, giving Mei a glance.

  “I should still win.” Tee smiled. “I flipped his whale to my account.” Mei and Jane gave excited shrieks and high-fived her across the table. Tee dug into her food, savoring the small victory shared with true friends.

  “We don’t want you to move out, Tee,” Jane said. “You know Mei is just giving you a hard time.”

  “I know.” A comfortable camaraderie settled over the table as they ate.

  “You know all the meat and potatoes you eat are going to kill you.” Mei gave an elegant shudder.

  “And that mushroom fungus and that raw stuff you eat isn’t?” Tee said. “You probably have a tapeworm bigger than you coiled up in your stomach.”

  “Ick.” Jane looked disgusted and moved her salad away. “Get to the kissing part.”

  “So you know how Leo and I have always had that cool back and forth thing? I’ve told you about that.” Tee said, and both Jane and Mei nodded. “Well, a few weeks ago, I was back stage at le Dragon trying to find a headdress for one of my players.”

  “A headdress?” Mei asked. “Your U.S. players are crazy.”

  “Keep going,” Jane said.

  “Leo came up behind me and said my name, only he said Tall-u-lah, all long and accented, and then he kissed me. Hard. We fell backward into the wardrobe clothes but he just kept kissing me. It was amazing.” Tee sighed at the memory. “Things got pretty hot and heavy, and I thought we might, you know, just have sex right there on the costumes.”

  “You were okay with that?” Jane asked.

  “Yeah.” Tee didn’t hesitate. She still remembered the weight of him, the run of his hands inside her clothes, caressing her body.

  “But you didn’t have sex?”

  “No. He stopped things. He pulled me to my feet, put his hand on my face, and left.”

  “He didn’t say a word?” Jane asked. “That’s weird.”

  “No, he didn’t. Nothing but my name, that one time.” Tee heaved out a confused breath.

  Mei and Jane went quiet.

  “About the time he pulled me up,” Tee continued, “the dancers were coming into the auditorium, so I just thought we’d been interrupted, and we could pick things up later. I was so happy. But now, it’s been weeks, and every time I try to talk to him about it, he changes the subject or disappears.” She chewed her grease-soaked green beans. Everything really was better with bacon.

  “What does he say when you bring it up?”

  “Well, today he said that ‘we can’t do this thing’.” She lowered her voice mimicking Leo.

  “So he changed his mind,” Mei said, a hard glint in her black eyes. “To hell with him. Move on.”

  “It’s not that simple. I’m not sure I can move on until I know for sure that nothing can happen between us. I love him.”

  Mei wiped her mouth carefully on a white napkin and gave Tee an incredulous look. “You cannot love him. Impossible. You don’t even know him.”

  “But I do,” Tee insisted. “I know it’s ridiculous. Probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done. But I do. I just do.”

  Jane looked at her sympathetically “Well, you just need a plan then.”

  “There’s one more thing,” Tee said. “He’s been doing this weird thing when he sees me, looking at my hands, like he’s trying to read my palms. He never did that before.”

  Mei and Jane exchanged a head-tilted look.

  “What? Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “Maybe he just has other things going on, and it has nothing to do with you,” Jane suggested.

  “How did you guys leave things today?” Mei asked.

  “He said he had a meeting with Darius, but I don’t think there was a meeting,” Tee admitted. “I think it was just an excuse.”

  “What time was it?” Mei asked.

  “Nine-ish.”

  “No, he couldn’t have had a meeting with Darius. Darius was in the vault with the security guys all morning.”

  “For a gal who can’t stand to be in the same room with the guy, you sure do keep a tight leash on your Darius.” Jane glanced sideways at Mei, and Tee watched Mei’s posture tighten along with her grip on her chopsticks.

  “I’m just saying, Leo didn’t have a meeting with Darius, that’s all,” Mei said.

  Tee looked down at her plate, pushing around the uneaten food but not really seeing it. She knew better than to wade into the Darius-Mei murky water. Their “relationship” was beyond strange. The two acted like they hated each other, but Mei didn’t want anyone else going out with the sexy Russian—as Tee had found out the hard way.

  When Tee had first come to work for Leo, Darius had asked her out. The dude was hot with his deep, clipped voice and blue eyes, and Tee had accepted. Not an hour later, Mei had stopped by to introduce herself. Tee was still unpacking her office, but Mei had made it clear, if they were going to get along, it was hands-off the sexy Head of Casino Security. Tee had wisely chosen Mei over Darius.

  “You should forget about Leo.” Mei broke through her thoughts with the unusually gentle words. “You’ve already given him your heart. All he’ll do is break it.”

  “I don’t see where I’ve anything else to lose,” Tee said.

  “Trust me. You have everything else to lose.”

  Tee shook her head, listening, but sile
ntly disagreeing with Mei’s advice. “He said he would go to the Black Earth Festival with me this weekend, but I kind of coerced him. I think he doesn’t really want to go. So here’s my question: should I tell him never mind, or take this last chance to get him alone?”

  “I disagree with Mei,” Jane said without heat. The three of them often debated topics. Disagreements and different conclusions between them were common, and it was all to the better. “I think you’ll never be able to move on until you put Leo in your rearview mirror.”

  “You don’t think it can work between us either?”

  “No, I’m sorry. I don’t. He told you as much.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t know what he wants.”

  “Pleeaase,” Mei said. “I think we can all agree that Leo knows his own mind.”

  Jane crossed her arms and put her elbows politely on the table. “You should go to Black Earth with him. You just need a plan. We’ll call it Operation Leo.” Jane smiled, showing perfectly straight white teeth. Tactics were her strong suit, and her brain worked like a one-woman file-sorter.

  Tee considered jacking up her Operation Leo efforts. He was a great friend—but he would be an amazing lover. Operation Leo had some pretty hefty stakes. They might not be friends anymore after she confronted him in the desert, with nowhere for him to run. Was it worth risking the friendship?

  Yes.

  Jane was right, without getting him out of her system she would never be able to move on. She needed her own place, her own life. She was ready for the next step. If Leo wasn’t going to be a part of it, better to find out now than pine for him for more years.

  “Okay, walk me through it,” Tee said. “How does Operation Leo go?”

  “If you’re determined to do it,” Mei said. “You’ll have to run him to ground.”

  “No, no.” Jane disagreed. “That won’t work with Leo. You need to get him to come after you.”