Her Dragon's Treasure

by Suzanne Roslyn

  She shoved against his chest. “Wait.” His chest heaved under her touch. “There is some place I need you to take me first.”

  Chapter Seven

  Edmund could think of nothing more than her buttery smooth skin during his time in the forest. He scouted the area, letting his heart war with his raging emotions. His dragon camouflaged in the trees, he stayed close to the country house. At night, he watched Cassandra through the upstairs window. Her laptop on her lap or painting until the wee hours when even his dragon urged him to rest.

  He stalked the forest, putting his jeans on, preferring the moss and earth against his bare feet. He found a place near a trail on the mountain where cell signal worked in his favor. He called Bogdan to give him an update on what he’d learned from Cassandra. Blake’s fiú, Amelia, screeched in the background.

  Bogdan spoke to him in a sing-song voice, trying to both calm the infant in his arms and catch up with Edmund, while Blake took Emily for a much-needed break from the demanding infant. His thoughts went straight to Cassandra and her part of the egg dealings.

  “If she’s your mate. Take my advice, claim her before it’s too late. Put yourself in her shoes. Consider what she’s protecting. If Margaret would put a hit on her own son, then what makes you think your girl is no different?”

  Bogdan’s voice rang in his ears as he and Cassandra hit the highway on his motorcycle.

  “And Margaret?” Edmund had asked. “What does Blake say to do about her?”

  “I’ll talk to him. In the meanwhile, I say we give her a taste of her own medicine. I think it’s time someone put a stop to her little operation, don’t you?”

  Edmund couldn’t have agreed more whole-heartedly. With Cassandra’s help, they would put a stop to Margaret’s dealings. Save anymore innocent fiú, and free Cassandra from whatever hold Margaret held over her.

  Forty-five minutes later, Cassandra signaled for him to turn. They pulled into the parking lot of Bellingham Elder Estates. After she dismounted, he held her glasses, while she pulled off the helmet, shaking her long dark tresses over her shoulders. He exchanged the helmet for her glasses. “Come on. There is someone I want you to meet.”

  Outside the door, she pushed the button on the intercom. “Cassandra Balkan visiting Nadine Balkan.”

  A voice granted them access and Edmund opened the door for Cassandra. Down the hall, they came to a nurse’s station.

  “Cass, I didn’t expect you.” A middle-aged woman with pale blond hair pulled back in a twist greeted Cassandra.

  “Hey, Mary. We’re making an unrecorded visit, if that’s okay with you?” Edmund took Cassandra’s hand and squeezed it. He grinned at the woman and she returned his smile.

  “Of course. You’ve come on a good day. Stay to the left of the hall.” She winked and went on about her business at the desk.

  Cassandra lead him down a long hallway, staying to the left as Mary instructed. He noted the camera’s above their heads. A few doors down Cassandra paused. He felt her body stiffen. She peered around the doorway, then leaned back against him. Taking a deep breath, she gazed up at him. “Whatever you do, please don’t mention my Aunt Margaret or the reason you’re with me.”

  “You’re my mate.” He frowned. “Margaret Moldvan is your aunt?”

  Cassandra sighed, her expression fell. She peered around the doorway again then back at him. “Please. I’ll explain later. For now, well...just come meet my mother.”

  Edmund gave her hand another squeeze. “I’d be honored.”

  Inside the room, an older version of his mate sat staring out the window. Her fingers knitting with a ball of yarn spinning on her blanketed lap. Cassandra released his hand, entering first. “Hey, Mom. It’s Cassandra.”

  Nadine Balkan glanced over, her brilliant blue eyes lit up at the sight of her daughter. A smile lifted the otherwise gloomy feel of the dark room. Cassandra flipped on a light near the chair and pulled the curtains further open. “Cass dear, why aren’t you at school?”

  Edmund noted the confusion swirling in the older woman’s eyes and felt the disappointment in Cassandra’s heart. “No more school. I’m done now.”

  Nadine’s hands paused from her knitting. “Did you tell your father? You know how hard he’s been working to help you.”

  Cassandra sat on the corner of a bed. She placed her hand over her mother’s. “Dad knows.”

  Nadine’s brow furrowed. “I do wish he’d return soon. It’s not like him to be gone this long.”

  Cassandra’s gaze lifted and met Edmund’s. He read the plea in her eyes. He stood beside her, placing his hand on her shoulder. She lifted her hand to cover his, comforted by his presence. “I know, Mom. I miss him too.”

  Nadine relaxed, resumed her knitting.

  “I’ve brought someone to meet you.”

  Edmund waited for the older woman’s eyes to rise and meet his. Her blue eyes grew large as saucers. Her hand slapped her chest, knitting needle still gripped between her fingers. “He’s one of them,” she hissed.

  Before he spoke, Cassandra squeezed his hand. “It’s okay. Edmund’s my…” Cassandra thrust out her wrist, showing her mother the branded mark, like a tattoo lightly etched on her wrist.

  Nadine grabbed Cassandra’s wrist. She looked first from her daughter to Edmund. He felt Cassandra lean back against him, holding her breath.

  “Does your father know?”

  Cassandra shook her head.

  “With your husband out of town, we thought it best to come to you. I’d like permission to marry your daughter. I want to claim her as my mate.”

  At first Cassandra’s mother didn’t say a word. She pondered his words. Her eyes staring at his mark on Cassandra, proof of the bond he made with her.

  He let his hand venture down Cassandra’s back, rubbing it until he felt her breathe again.

  Nadine looked past Cassandra to him. “That is very honorable. You are both young.” She looked directly at Cassandra. “Has your father ever told you why this type of bond and its mark is forbidden?”

  “Because the human riders betrayed the dragons and now the families of those humans are forced to serve the dragons, to keep their secret, and protect them where we once failed.”

  Nadine held Cassandra’s hand between hers. “You were always a good girl, Cassandra. A good listener.” Nadine gazed up at Edmund. “In the old days, a dragon would place a mark such as this on their human riders. More than a bond of trust, it bonded them together as one. They shared thoughts and feelings… and it is said… even death if the bond became strong enough.”

  Edmund nodded. Cassandra’s mother knew more than most humans of the old dragon legends.

  “It is also said, that the bond became so strong between the riders, that it was not uncommon for a dragon and its rider to mate. Over time, the dragons changed and took the form of their human lovers. But in the transition of time, some of the dragons didn’t take kindly to being chosen over a human, and because of this jealously the dragons were cursed.”

  “So, it is said,” Edmund agreed. “There are not many of us left who feel the old laws still apply.”

  Nadine’s smile returned. “Love is a funny thing, is it not? My Jeremiah would agree with you. Even now he works in our society, but petitions the laws, challenging for change.”

  It had been that challenge which got him killed, Cassandra thought. Tears welled up in Nadine’s eyes. She turned and stared out the window. “My what a lovely day it is.”

  Cassandra stood, placing the blanket back up on her mother’s lap. “Not as lovely as you, Mom.” She kissed the older woman’s cheek.

  Nadine never looked back. She stared out the window. Cassandra turned, and Edmund followed her out.

  Back outside, she wrapped her arms around him, tilted up her face and said, “Now you know. If it wasn’t for my mom...”

  He placed a finger over her lips to silence her. His heart could not have swelled more for the love he had for this woman. “I meant
what I said. I want you for my mate.”

  Chapter Eight

  All through their dinner at the Chinese buffet restaurant, Cassandra avoided mentioning her meeting with Margaret. Edmund impressed her with the way he handled the two Asian waitresses who lingered by their table. Offering to clear his plate and refill it as soon as he finished. By the time they’d left, the two waitresses had worked up their nerve to asking him for an autograph.

  Once they returned to their secluded home in the woods, he took her hand. Feeling her hand against his warm palm made her heart race. He hadn’t touched her since they left Seattle. Her body flushed with heat like a wanton teenager, remembering the sensations he released from within her.

  A battle warred inside her. Part of her—a large part—wanted him to claim her. Anticipation sent a shiver down her spine. She longed to show him exactly how he made her feel. Maybe because the society of her family forbid it. Maybe because he was a dragon. Maybe because she liked him, almost loved him.

  And the more time she spent with him, the more she felt herself falling head over heels for him.

  She couldn’t do this right now.

  She had the meeting with Margaret.

  What would happen?

  Maybe in time she could settle down, when the Keepers elected change and Margaret no longer posed a threat to her family.

  They walked together, along a lit path into the woods. “I need to tell you something. But first, I need you to promise you won’t go disappearing on me for several days again.”

  He took her other hand, pulled her close. “I will control my temper, and I didn’t ever go far from you.”

  Cassandra’s gut reaction told her to trust him. She swallowed hard, preparing for his reaction. “I’ve made contact with Margaret, and I’ve arranged a meeting with her.”

  Edmund released her. He ran his hand and ran it through his hair. “And this is why you took me to meet your mother, to understand her blackmailing you?”

  She shouldn’t have been surprised, after all, her father had always warned Cassandra trouble would catch up with them sooner or later. “She is all I have left. I have to protect her.” Cassandra took a deep breath. “Which is why I need you to take me to Vancouver.”

  “So that is where she has fled.”

  “And there is actually one more thing I need to tell you.” Cassandra watched him carefully. “Margaret Moldvan is my mother’s half-sister.”

  “I see,” he said. And to his credit, he didn’t appear as horrified as she expected. “Are all you Keepers related?”

  She laughed, trying to ease the tension she felt. “No. There are few families left in our circle, so it would seem as it would be so, but not all of us are. There are the Moldvans, Doylans, Balkans, and Rankins.”

  Edmund snagged her in his magnetic gaze. Instead of the judgment she cringed to see, she found compassion and kindness in his eyes. “How long has your mother been…”

  “Since my father’s accident,” she finished for him.

  Edmund nodded. “And this meeting with Margaret?”

  “Friday at the Dungeon.”

  “Dungeon?”

  “It’s Drake’s place. A strip club in Vancouver.” At Edmund’s deepening frown she said, “Another one of Margaret’s operations.”

  She felt the unexpected anger boil up inside him. He tried his best to hide his feelings, but she sensed them, feeling them as much as her own.

  “You understand I mean to shut her down. I need proof for our counsel to show the Keepers haven’t been obeying their own rules to help Blake and Emily with their own union. And I mean to free you of this blackmail.”

  Cassandra nodded, spoke slowly. “I’d like that very much, but I don’t see how. I’ve tried for years to protect the fiú in Margaret’s dealing. Then Drake took it on himself, he freezes the ones that come from his horde. I don’t get many whole eggs sent to the gallery anymore. Just the empty shells of when they hatch from his lair below the club or from Uncle Istvan at the hatchery.”

  His jaw tensed. She held on to his hand, hoping he would not storm off and leave her again as he promised. “The art is yours. The paintings, it is you who decorates and makes sculptures out of the empty shells.”

  She looked away from him. “The first one I painted, I gave to a family whose son hatched from that egg. Margaret convinced my parents it was a way to add funds to help the hatchery since the government had cut funding to it several years ago. Then after I’d bought the gallery, my father died, and Margaret pulled me into making her deals as you now know.”

  A growl escaped him. “This stops now.”

  Alarmed, Cassandra placed her hands on his chest. Her heart pounding with fear. “You can’t. Margaret’s too powerful. She’ll send Drake and Raymond and try to kill you like she did Jacques. And then my mother…”

  Edmund tilted her face up with his hands. His eyes changed, no longer human. “No harm will ever come to you or your mother. I will arrange for her to be taken to our safe haven on the island. Even now, your uncle, Emily’s father, is there out of Margaret’s reach.”

  “But Drake…”

  Edmund growled again. “Cannot touch what is mine!”

  And she wanted to be his. God help her, all fear aside, she belonged to him.

  Cassandra pulled his head down, crushing her lips to his. Edmund drove his tongue inside her mouth, fire licking between them. One taste of his raw need, and Cassandra felt her knees almost give way.

  It wasn’t the lustful kind of need. She could have refused him that. It was the kind of need penetrating her heart, taking over her senses, and stripping her of any last reservations.

  The kind of need that told her she’d fallen recklessly, hopelessly in love with this dragon.

  “Cassandra,” her name rumbled deep in his chest as they both came up for air.

  “I’m yours,” she breathed. There was no going back. Not now. Not that she’d admitted these feelings to herself.

  He slid his tongue across her bottom lip and swept his tongue back into her mouth. His arm snapped around her back, bringing her against him.

  She whimpered, tugging him closer. So close, she wanted to be part of him. His scorching kiss, possessive grip, and his throaty growl excited her. Then he broke away from her. “Leave now, unless you wish for me to claim you.”

  Beneath the tall Aspens and Mountain Ash, he allowed his arm to drop away from her. His nostrils flared, and she trembled. Her heart thudded, her mind screaming for her to run. Her heart pumping as erratic as her pulse. She felt his stare, waiting for her to answer or flee.

  She licked her bottom lip, tasted him, like Mandarin orange and cashews from their supper. Was it possible to orgasm from a kiss?

  She hoped not. Seeing his broad chest heave, she knew there was more she wanted to explore.

  Stepping back from him, Cassandra took her shirt by the bottom hem, pulling it up over her head. His breath caught, his fists clenched at his sides, watching her remove her boots, first one foot than the other

  Tilting her head, unsnapping her jeans and sliding them down to the ground, she stood before him in noting more than her silk bra and panties. His heated gaze enough to keep her warm.

  He took her in his arms, wrapping them around her. “You are sure. Once I claim you…”

  She pressed her fingers to his lips. “I have this ache,” she whispered. “Only you can fill.” She kissed him, slow. Sweet. Deliberate.

  She’d never tried to seduce a man before, not like this. Not in the woods, with the lights of the trail casting shadows around them.

  She tugged up his shirt, pressing her hands to his warm, hard abs. As her hand dipped to his waist band, he tensed. “Wait. Not here.”

  Chapter Nine

  Edmund found a clearing, not far into the trees away from the trail near the house. He laid her upon a soft bed of moss, in the cover of the ferns and sweet smells of the cedars and pine. Above them, the twinkling of a million stars like flickering ca
ndles.

  He’d wanted her since he caught her sweet vanilla scent at the gallery, but not in the woods, not when it was his mate’s first time.

  He’d laid against the dark moss and mulched earth for several nights envisioning her long tresses, wide blue eyes, and soft skin wrapped around him.

  A slow sexy smile curved his lips. Taking off her glasses, those long lashes blinking for her eyes to bring him in focus. Glasses aside, he stretched out beside her. Holding her gaze, he made quick work of her bra as he bent and swirled his tongue across her nipple.

  She dropped her head back, sinking her fingers in his hair. Every hot tug of his mouth brought little noises from her throat.

  Cassandra moaned, intent on kissing him, but he held strong. Flickering the tip of her breast with his tongue, running his hand down to cup her ass. His body burned hotter as she squirmed against him.

  He took his time, sucking her, nipping her, squeezing her ass.

  Then he kissed her, cupping her breast, brushing his thumb across her nipple.

  He tossed her bra aside. Her hands tugging at his belt. he brushed them aside. She found his cock, bulged against his jeans. Taking her hands, he raised them above her head and held them there. “Trust me, luv, you don’t want to rush this.”

  Arching she exposed her breast like a sweet dessert he intended to enjoy right down to the last lick. Slowly.

  Satisfaction curled through him as Cassandra moaned, reinforcing his dragon’s need to dominate. It took all his control not to flip her over on her belly and thrust into her from behind.

  Her scent of arousal filling his head, tempting him. Desperate as he was for her, she wasn’t ready for him. Not yet.

  She tasted so sweet.

  He released her to get his hand inside her wet panties. He slid a finger under the edge. Such a thin strap of fabric and it slid easily down her hips.

  “Edmund,” she breathed when his finger found her clit. She quivered with every pass of his touch. “Please,” she moaned. “Please.”