by Cecilia Lane
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.”
&n
bsp; “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.
Chapter Four
“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 unex
pected 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.
