Gambling on Her Bear

by Anna Lowe

  “Hey,” Tanner whispered, stroking her skin with his thumb, looking at her in a completely different way.

  She blinked until the scratchy sensation in her eyes went away. Then she rattled on with the story like an out of control train, because words were better than tears, right?

  “I spent some time with my grandfather before he died, and he told me all the old dragon stories.” There were hundreds of them, stretching back over eons, back to the beginning of time. Tales of knights and castles and battles fought and won. Tales of great prizes and brave deeds. She fought to stay focused as she spoke because it was all too easy to picture long winter nights in a cabin with Tanner and a crackling fire, where she could recount all of the stories from beginning to end.

  “My grandfather had only seen the Blood Diamond once — as a child, before it was stolen by vampires in World War II. He said his only regret was that he’d never been able to track it down.”

  “Blood Diamond?” Tanner’s eyebrows went up. “I thought that was a vampire thing.”

  She snorted. “They wish. The name comes from the story that the dragon who found it originally washed it with a drop of her own blood. That’s what gave it that special tint, that shine.” She nearly squinted, picturing the gem when she’d held it up to the moonlight in the penthouse she’d broken into. The brightest, clearest, most precious diamond she’d ever seen.

  “I spent a long time researching the Blood Diamond, trying to track it down. And for ages, I came up with nothing.” She leaned forward on her elbows. “Until one day, out of nowhere, I came across an ad for an auction.”

  Tanner pointed at her as if he knew exactly what she was talking about. “The auction here in Vegas a month ago?”

  “Exactly. An auction advertising incredible riches brought to light for the first time.”

  “Including the Blood Diamond,” he said.

  “Including the Blood Diamond.” She nodded. “So I came out here, trying to see it. To verify it. I even snuck into the auction viewing—”

  “Of course, you did.” He sighed.

  “And God, when I saw it…” She trailed off, stirring her hands in the air as if the diamond were right there, pulsing with power only a dragon could sense. “I knew that was really it.”

  She didn’t say, And I knew I had to have it, because it wasn’t about greed. It was about family pride. About righting a wrong. About proving herself.

  “I didn’t want it for me. I wanted to bring it back to dragonkind. To give them its power instead of letting vampires strut it around like just another expensive toy. I was going to give it to the dragon elders, not keep it for myself.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? To prove what I could do instead of demonstrating what I couldn’t do. To finally have them accept me and value what I could do. To…to…” She stammered, and her shoulders shook until his hand closed over hers and anchored her again.

  She inhaled sharply and stared into her soup. Wow. Had she ever rammed as many sentiments into one breath? Had she ever admitted as much to herself?

  Tanner let a minute tick by without saying anything. His fingers caressed hers while the candle on the table flickered, sending shadows over their hands.

  “I swear I would have given it to the elders,” she whispered.

  “Of course, you would.” He said it with such conviction, such unwavering faith, like it was self-evident and not a minor miracle.

  Bears had honor, she knew. Bears like him, she could trust. The question was, would he trust her?

  “Then Schiller bought it,” Tanner said, gesturing for her to continue.

  She shook her head. “He faked buying it when, in fact, he was the owner the whole time. That part was hidden, of course, so he could pose as a buyer. It was all a publicity stunt to draw attention to the casino.” It had cost her a couple of hundred bucks to bribe the truth out of a snake shifter who worked for the auctioneer.

  Tanner nodded, disgust written all over his face. “That fits Schiller perfectly. The bastard.”

  “His family stole the diamond from mine, and the auction was all a front. The high price he paid drove up the prices on all the other diamonds in the auction and brought a lot of new customers to the casino. It allowed him to take the diamond out of whatever vault he had it locked away in and show it without being asked too many questions about where he obtained it. And then the bastard had the nerve to stick my family heirloom between Elvira’s tits.”

  Tanner scowled as if the image disturbed him as much as it disturbed her.

  “So you decided to steal it?” He sounded doubtful.

  “Okay, okay, that might not have been the best plan. But I had to do something. And it’s not like I could outbid the Count of fucking Transylvania at his own game. Nineteen million, he paid for it.”

  Tanner scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Nineteen point two.”

  “You were there?” she almost yelped.

  He nodded, and she nearly shoved the table. “You were at the auction? You stood by and let Count Fangula buy what rightfully belongs to me?”

  He put up his hands in that, Hey, I’m a good guy move he did so well. “I didn’t know it was yours. I didn’t know you.”

  They stared at each other for a second while a thousand emotions collided in her heart and mind. Anger. Lust. Betrayal. Love. Hope. Bitter defeat.

  “What are you doing working for those jerks, anyway?” she managed to shoot out.

  He opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again, then looked at his soup. “It’s a long story.”

  “Summarize,” she shot back.

  He looked at her, and for the first time ever, he looked doubtful, even ashamed.

  “I’ll tell you,” he said, sounding a little hoarse as his gaze studied everything in the room but her. “While you eat. I have the feeling this is going to be a long night.”

  Chapter Nine

  Tanner puffed out his cheeks, then forced down some soup. His appetite had pretty much disappeared the second Karen brought up Schiller. His boss. His goddamned vampire boss. Jesus, how did he ever agree to this gig?

  He paused, tripping up on his own words. He was a bear working for a vampire. Christ, what did that make him look like?

  And right there, he realized he should know better than to jump to hasty conclusions about a person. Maybe Karen being half witch didn’t matter that much. The heart was what mattered, right?

  The heart. His bear nodded. The soul.

  He looked deep into her eyes and nearly drifted away there. It took a mental shake to force himself back to her question. Why was he working for bloodsuckers, again?

  “Schiller’s holding company—” he started, but Karen cut him off with a snort.

  “Scarlet fucking Enterprises?”

  He nodded. “They’re expanding, even as far as Idaho. My bear clan caught wind of their latest project up there.”

  The elderly waitress cut into the conversation, swapping their soup bowls for food platters and trundling out again.

  “Let me guess,” Karen said as he took a bite of beef. “Another casino?”

  “Yep. One they wanted to put smack in the middle of a stretch of pristine woods that borders our land. We saw the plans. They want to market it as some kind of get-in-touch with nature place.”

  “Sure,” Karen snorted. “In touch with nature, like Vegas is? You can’t even tell if it’s day or night here, much less breathe fresh air.”

  Don’t I know it, his bear sighed.

  “We thought that land was an untouchable reserve but it turns out the deed is being disputed by a Native group.” He put air quotes around the last two words.

  “How Native?”

  He shook his head. “About as Native as Schiller is.”

  “So what’s the connection?”

  “Schiller’s men found some guy who’s one-thirty-second Native — just enough to count — paid him off, and bankrolled the campaign to win the rights to the land.”

&nbs
p; “How about you buy off this guy instead?”

  “We tried, but we can’t match Schiller’s offer.”

  “Which is?”

  “Six million dollars.”

  Karen whistled while he ground his teeth. His clan was rich in things that really counted — fresh air, clean water, and thick woods. Cash reserves, on the other hand, were pretty slim. And the last thing they needed was a group of vampires running a casino next door. The forest that buffered theirs would be cut down, and there would be outsiders all over the place. Outsider humans and, worse, vampires, who seemed to bring their own brand of organized crime everywhere they went.

  “Isn’t there some other way around it?”

  He nodded. Thank God for that. “There’s another guy — an owl shifter who’s a genuine Native — who’s been trying to protect that land for years as a preserve. If he finds enough money to take the case to court, we know he’ll beat Schiller’s guy. The land will stay wild, and the vampires will stay the hell away.”

  “So what’s the problem?” she asked.

  He scoffed. “Do you have a million dollars to spare?”

  Karen leaned back in her chair, and his bear moaned a little, seeing the space between them open up again.

  “Wow. Okay. Maybe not.” She leaned forward again, and his bear rejoiced. “So you came to Vegas to…?”

  He forked a piece of beef a little more viciously than he meant to. “My clan sent me. The elders had this idea of somehow winning enough of Schiller’s money to undermine him at his own game.”

  Karen grinned. “There is a beauty to that, I have to say.”

  “They assigned me the job of infiltrating Schiller’s operation and setting something up.”

  “Something? Like what?”

  He chewed another mouthful and washed it down with a swig of Tsingtao beer, buying time. Could he trust Karen with his secret?

  She trusts us, his bear said. We can trust her.

  But it wasn’t that easy, was it?

  Sure it is, his bear said. Just make it easy.

  Man, he could see the look on the faces of the clan elders if he came home to say he’d not only fucked things up, but he’d done so after blurting secrets to a woman he barely knew.

  “How about we eat first?” he said at last, and she immediately made a face. “Not because I don’t trust you,” he added quickly.

  “No?” She glared at him and pointed her fork. “Then why not tell me?”

  He bit his lip. “Because I don’t trust myself.”

  “What’s not to trust?”

  He snorted. What wasn’t to trust? Instinct. Emotion. Deviation from the original plan. Plus his bear, who kept insisting this woman was his mate. If he didn’t watch it, he’d be on his knees with a ring in no time.

  Karen regarded him in a way that said she didn’t understand what about him was not to be trusted, which scared the crap out of him. Having the clan trust him to pull off the impossible was bad enough. Having a gorgeous dragon shifter trust him, too…

  A good thing that busybody of a waitress bustled in then, this time with a baby panda on her hip.

  “Aren’t you a cutie?” Karen cooed, petting its ears.

  Tanner expected his bear to get all jealous at that, but the grizzly inside him turned to mush.

  So cute, the bear murmured. And someday—

  Whoa, buddy, Tanner cut the bear off with a long, hard slug of his drink. One thing at a time, right?

  And just like that, his focus zoomed right in on Karen. On her sparkling eyes, her mile-a-minute lips making baby sounds, her silky hair. Everything else ceased to exist, and it was just the two of them again.

  He’d end up telling her, of course. He knew already he would. Every last detail of his plan — and the fact that it was going down tomorrow, and where and how and the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help him God, because there was no way he could lie to his mate.

  His half-dragon, half-witch mate. Jesus, would he have a lot of explaining to do if he made it back to Idaho alive.

  Daunting as that was, though, he warmed at the idea.

  This is Karen, he’d say, holding her close while he introduced her to his family. My mate.

  His bear nodded his approval and practiced the throaty growl he’d let out if any fool tried protesting such a crazy match.

  My destined mate.

  It kind of had a ring to it.

  When the old lady took their dishes and left, Karen tilted her head at him. “You should see your expression right now. What are you thinking about?”

  “You,” he murmured. “You.”

  She reached over the table, took his hand, and ran her fingers over his. Her skin was soft and nice and warm, and he couldn’t help but close his eyes.

  “What are you thinking of now?” she asked very quietly.

  “Touching you,” he whispered.

  A silent second ticked by, and then she whispered back.

  “Where?”

  And, whoosh! The little inner flames that had been flickering with lust for her throughout the past hour suddenly blazed into a giant inferno.

  “Everywhere,” he answered truthfully as his jeans grew tight.

  A slow, sultry minute ticked by, and a bead of sweat formed on his brow as she undressed him with her eyes.

  “And what else?” Her husky voice made his toes tingle, his blood heat.

  “I’m thinking of kissing you. Everywhere.” He imagined exactly where he’d start — on the sweet spot just under her ear — and where he’d go from there. Like the hollow of her neck, the curve of her collarbone, the rise of her breast. “I want to make love to you all night and all day.”

  She chuckled quietly, “You sure you mean me?”

  Only you, his bear chipped in. There is only you. No one else. Never.

  “You,” he whispered, letting his thumb tango with hers.

  “You and me?” Her voice became sultry. Hungry.

  He nodded. “You and me.”

  His eyes were still closed, but he could picture the room. The silky wallpaper, the rich color of the red lamps overhead. Behind the smell of burning candles came the unmistakable scent of arousal. His, hers, wrapped around each other in the first steps of a very close samba. He took a deep breath.

  “You and me…” she prompted, running her hand up his arm. Sparks shot through his body.

  “You and me, together, like that night under the stars,” he whispered.

  Her hand stayed on his while she stood from her chair, and it scraped against the floor. The space to his left warmed with her presence as her hand pulled slightly to the side. He pushed his chair back and let her slide into his lap. Smoothly, as if she’d done it a thousand times before. Eagerly, as if she wanted to do it a thousand more times in the future, maybe even in front of a roaring fire in that log cabin he kept picturing whenever he thought ahead.

  Her lips brushed over his, and she whispered softly in his ear. “You have that motorcycle somewhere nearby?”

  His heart pounded harder. He nodded slowly, and her lips stayed on his ear, moving up and down with him. Moving around, massaging his skin. Making every nerve in his body scream for her.

  His arms slid around her — one around her waist, the other around her shoulders — without even a peek to guide him. His body knew hers instinctively. And when he opened his mouth to whisper, her lips were right there, so he couldn’t tell if he started the kiss or she did. Didn’t really care who it was, frankly, because a hundred delicious flavors filled his mouth and nose as he drank her in.

  Beautiful, his bear murmured, already in ecstasy. So beautiful.

  She squeezed closer. So close, her nipples pressed into his chest, about as erect as his cock was inside his jeans. The buttons of that tight silk dress pressed against him, too, and he pictured popping them open, one at a time.

  “Not sure I’ll make it all the way to the bike and out to the hills,” he murmured, letting his left hand curve over her ribs.<
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  “Not sure I will, either,” she said, kissing him down the side of his face and along his neck. She nibbled as much as she kissed and ran a hand inside his shirt.

  The hand he’d been sneaking upward suddenly decided to go down, and he let it glide over her thigh, making her surge closer. He found the hem of her dress and tugged it higher. Higher. Higher…

  “Tanner,” she whispered.

  A door opened and closed somewhere down the hall, and he popped his head up, looking and listening.

  “Don’t stop,” Karen begged, pushing his hand back to where it had been.

  “Don’t want to. But I really don’t want Grandma Panda interrupting us now,” he said, barely holding back. God, she was even more beautiful when she was turned on.

  Karen pulled away from him, wearing a sly smile.

  “I rented a room upstairs,” she said, sliding slowly off his lap. “A small room with a very big bed.”

  “Show me the way, sweetheart,” he said, rising with her, keeping firm hold of her hand. “Show me the way.”

  Chapter Ten

  Karen led Tanner out of the room, down a hallway, and up a creaky set of stairs. She didn’t make it far, though, before pausing for another kiss. A quick kiss, a little taste of him to tide her over until they reached the privacy of her room.

  Somehow, though, quick turned into long and little turned into deep, and she whimpered with the pleasure of it all. It only got better when Tanner backed her up and pinned her against the wall with his body. His big, hard body.

  Her dragon purred inside. This kind of manhandling, she liked.

  His hands tugged at the hem of her qípáo dress, and she congratulated herself on her choice of evening wear.

  “You like this dress?” she murmured between kisses.

  “I like this dress so much I need to take it off you very, very soon,” he growled, pressing into another kiss. The firm line of his lips guided hers open, and his tongue plundered her mouth, exploring, celebrating, claiming all that territory as his.

  A dozen alarms should have gone off in her mind, because everyone knew bears were the most territorial shifters of them all. She really ought to be on guard against that. She was her own woman, after all.