“Get her to the surface,” Edward ordered an Atlantis guardsman. Rick scooped me up in his arms and climbed on the back of a seahorse. My gills started to close, and my lungs started to fill with water.
“Hang on, Sirena,” Rick murmured in my ear. “We’re almost there.”
My fingers dug into the fabric of his shirt, water filled my lungs, and my world started to go…
* * *
Black.
* * *
Cool wind rushed across my face. I rolled over to my side and heaved out seawater. A firm hand clapped me on the back, sending up more water.
“Is she okay?” Roxy’s voice wavered.
“She’s going to be just fine,” a deep timbered voice willed, delivering another hard blow on my back.
“Stop,” I coughed out. “Stop hitting me.”
The sun nearly blinded me when I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by Rick, Roxy, Kat, Luca, and Edward.
I focused on Edward. He had my father’s red hair, hazel eyes, and cheekbones that would probably cut a man if he dared to test them with a punch.
“There she is.” He smiled, and Edward had the same downturned pull of his lips my father had. “How you feeling, sunshine?”
“Like—”
“You were a mermaid and now you’re not?” Roxy finished for me. “Really, Sirena. You could have told me. I mean, I knew you were cool but mythological cool?” She made little explosions with her fingers by her head. “Mind. Blown.”
I giggled, but it felt like my lungs were on fire.
“It’ll take a few weeks for your body to adjust,” Kat added. “You can stay with me until you figure out your next move.”
“Her next move?” Rick asked. “Her next move is with me.” He pressed his lips to the side of my head.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
“Oh, God, Rick. You think the girl wants to give all this beautiful water up to live with tumbleweeds.”
“Our backyard is Carter Lake.”
“It’s still no Caribbean Sea.” Roxy hoisted herself up, and the ocean breeze caught in her auburn hair. “I could use a stiff drink. Anyone else want one?”
Edward smiled. I didn’t know if Roxy realized that was her father, and it hurt too much to ask.
Rick pulled me up into his lap, cradling me in his arms so I could wrap my arms around his neck. “Thanks for what you did down there?”
“I’m sorry I put you in danger.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “So, you didn’t answer me.”
I pulled back in his arms, not sure what he was talking about.
“You and me and the tumbleweeds?”
I smiled at Rick and knew I’d found my home. “Sounds like heaven.”
If you plan to continue with this series, there’s an epilogue…but I suggest you stop here if you don’t like cliffhangers and don’t plan to continue.
Thanks for reading!
Epilogue
Rick
College Station, Texas
Three years later.
“You know why she’s coming home, right?” I caught Sirena’s withering look in the kitchen window.
Sirena ran her hand down my back, instantly chasing away some of the ire I’d been holding onto since this morning’s text from Roxy.
Sirena cleared her throat. The last of my anger disappeared when she grabbed a dishtowel, laid her head on my shoulder, and stared up at me with those big brown eyes.
“You mean besides the fact that it’s Christmas, she’s graduated college a year and a half early, and jumped through every other hoop you’ve thrown in front of her when it comes to getting into your Mom’s safety deposit box.” She reached up and pressed her finger into the line between my eyes. “I know you want to protect her, Rick, but keeping whatever secrets are in that box from her is only going to bite you in the ass?”
I turned my focus back to the dishes in the sink, scrubbing them a little harder than they deserved. “Roxy didn’t even want me to pick her up at the airport.”
“Because she wanted to see her friends.”
“You remember what kind of trouble the Roxy Posse got into the last time they were together, right?’
Sirena tossed the dishtowel on the sink and slipped in between my dish duty and me. “The trouble that landed you a wife.”
She snaked her hands up into my shirt, and heat exploded in places that I normally would have no problem sharing with Sirena, but who knew when Roxy and her gal pals would walk through the front door. And me having my way with my former siren/ now wife on the kitchen floor probably wasn’t the best –
Sirena wrapped her hand around my neck and pulled me into her lips cutting off all the reasons why we couldn’t make love on the kitchen floor and replacing them with all the ways it would be so right. I hoisted her off the floor; her long legs wrapped around my waist and pulled me into the center of her.
“You don’t fight fair, you evil siren,” I growled in between ravishing her lips. Her fingers tangled in my hair, sending my pulse skyrocketing. She let out a little sigh when I trailed my tongue along her neck and worked my way down past the sweater. My lips so close to capturing that perky little nub, I nearly wept when her grip on my hair tightened, and she brought my face level with hers.
“You know I love you, Rick Martin.”
“I do.” I tried to return to her breast.
“Then don’t be so stubborn.” She placed a small innocent kiss on the tip of my nose, and I knew this was done.
“Sirena,” I begged, but that little smile that pulled at the scar over her eye said I’d have to wait.
The front door bounced off the entryway along with Roxy’s, “Hello? I’m home, so stop getting freaky on the kitchen floor.”
Sirena giggled as I leaned my head on her shoulder. “You two are evil through and through.”
“You wouldn’t have it any other way.” Sirena threaded her fingers through my hair, kissing my temple.
“Oh, God!” Roxy shrieked. “I text you I was ten minutes from home; you can’t keep your hands off each other for more than ten minutes?” Roxy threw her hands up in the air, but the smile on her face said there was no bite to her bark.
Even though it pained me in ways that were both physical and mental, I pushed away from the counter –and Sirena- and strode across the kitchen to grab my little sister.
“Put your boner away before you hug me, brother.”
I shook my head—doing a quick double take I wasn’t inappropriately poking out— before scooping my little sister up in a monster bear hug.
“You know you weren’t due home until Christmas Eve.”
“Yeah, well, what’s ten days early?” She pushed against my chest. “Put me down. I have something for you.”
“Me too.” I was pretty sure my something wasn’t nearly as dangerous as hers. I grabbed the Christmas card from Jamaica from under the magnet on the fridge. “Xavier sent you a wish.”
I turned in time to watch all the emotions storm across Roxy’s eyes before she blinked them away. She grabbed the card from grasp and tossed it on the kitchen table, giving it the voodoo look she normally did when Xavier’s name was mentioned.
“Here.” She shoved a manila envelope in my hand and left her extended. I knew what was in it. “Look at this, honey.” I turned and rattled the envelope. “Complete with a Do Not Open Until Xmas tag!”
“No there isn’t,” Sirena giggled.
I turned back to Roxy, startled a little by the heated look she was giving the card on the table. “It’s my diploma, Rick. And Monday morning you’re taking me to the bank.”
Everything inside me stilled. “No.”
“Rick,” Sirena warned the same time Roxy screeched my name.
“No, it’s not safe.”
“Fine.” Roxy huffed, turning on her heels and grabbing the duffle bag she’d dropped by the kitchen door. “I thought you’d be reasonable.
No, hoped. But I knew you weren’t going to let me in that box even after I met Mom’s stipulations. So Monday morning, I’ve got an appointment with Mom’s lawyer, Mike Steponovich.” She stormed back across the kitchen jabbing a finger in my chest. “Good, your eyes should look like a gerbil squeezed too hard around the middle.”
“Don’t do this, Rox.” I warned.
“Don’t do what? Get what Mom wanted me to have?” She stomped her foot. “I met Mom’s wishes. I met your wishes. Now it’s time you meet mine. What’s in the box the two of you are so freaking scared of me finding out.” Roxy’s chin jutted up just like my wife’s did when we were nearing a standoff. It was a subtle thing, but it screamed they were related. They were cousins. And that’s what terrified me. Sirena had no fear dancing with the deadliest igetis in the all the oceans for her freedom; I couldn’t fathom what Roxy would snuggle up to when it came to answering the questions that burned hot and deep inside her.
“Who’s Xavier?” Sirena interrupted, throwing me a lifeline.
“Xavier’s the only boy Roxy-girl ever loved.” I pushed past Roxanne and joined my wife at the kitchen table. When I took the chair next to hers, she was examining the Christmas card again. My heart jolted when I saw her eyes land on the mark in the bottom right corner. Her gaze pulled from the card and met mine. She finally realized why I was so worried about Roxy. Those two slashes with the X in the middle was a pirate’s calling card. “She never trusted another man with her heart after Xavier broke it.”
“That’s not true.” Roxy shot me a warning look. “I trust you.”
“Hardly.”
“Besides, he wasn’t the who broke my trust.”
Sirena jumped up to grab the kettle from the stove. “He didn’t break your heart?” she asked, grabbing three teacups from the cupboard.
“I told you to keep her away from the happily-ever-after channel, Rick.” Roxy pointed a judgmental finger my direction then turned it on Sirena. “No, he didn’t break my heart.”
“Liar,” I whispered, hiding my smile behind the back of my hand. My wife had seriously overdosed on the Hallmark channel’s Christmas movies. Roxy in a fit of Christmas past two years ago had introduced Sirena to the love conquers all notion when we crashed her San Diego anti-Christmas. Roxy still blames the eggnog at the Hotel Del Coronado; I blamed Xavier Romero and the Christmas’ Eve breakup Roxy’s sophomore year in high school. Xavier was a senior who dropped out and took off for parts unknown. He’d been sending Christmas cards to Roxy ever since, and Mom had been stashing them with all the other secrets she didn’t want Roxy to find out.
“Rick!” Roxy stomped her foot again.
“What?” I whined.
“Your wife was asking you a question.” Roxy shoved the manila envelope across the kitchen table, giving it and then me a good hard look.
Sirena shook her head. “Actually, Roxanne, I was asking you who broke your trust.”
“My father.” Roxy folded her arms across her chest, much like she did the night of the father-daughter cotillion. I leaned forward, my elbows landing hard on the table. Roxy was certain her dad would show up. Borrowed a pink dress from Beth, stole fifty dollars from Mom’s purse to buy the tickets, all because she’d put a letter in the mail that never reached Edward Teach. I knew it hadn’t because I found her letter in Mom’s safety deposit box. Something inside me twisted tight. If I kept Roxy from finding out her father was still alive, and a pirate in the Caribbean serving my father Timaeus … I’d risk losing her just like Mom had lost me when I discovered all her secrets.
“Fine.” I reached across the table, reaching for Roxy’s hand.
Her eyes glassed over, but she didn’t give me her hand.
“You really want to know all the secrets buried in that--”
“Yes!” She cut me off.
“It’s not pretty, Rox.”
“I can handle ugly; I can’t handle lies.”
I nodded.
“So you’ll take me on Monday?” Roxy pushed.
All that weight I carried on my shoulders shifted to my heart. I knew what Roxy would find in that box. She’d find twenty plus years of lies from the woman who demanded we not lie to her. I may not have been able to keep Roxanne out of the safety deposit box, but I sure as hell could keep her out of the Caribbean. And with Xavier’s help, maybe we’d keep her safe.
.
The End
Finish the Heart of the Sea Stories in book two, The Pirate Known as Roxanne.
Setting Sail July 2018
www.mindyruizbooks.com
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About the Author
www.MindyRuiz.com
Mindy Ruiz is the author of the award winning and best selling Game of Heart series and Stupid Cupid stories. Since her first story about a magical, museum hopping chair in the fourth grade, she’s loved exploring those things that cannot be explained, and must simply be believed.
Now, Mindy writes romances both of this world and worlds yet to be discovered that are guaranteed to make your heart race … because love is always an adventure. Her stories combine snarky heroines, tormented heroes, and buckets of swoon. Mindy is the lover of a good romance, the underdog, and all things John Hughes. She spends her free time chasing after three boys, or flirting with her hunky husband.
Mindy lives in a sleepy beach town in Southern California where her toes are often in the sand and her mind is always in the clouds.
The Lady Prefers Dragons
Katalina Leon
The Lady Prefers Dragons © copyright December 2017 Katalina Leon
* * *
Author Katalina Leon
Editing Hot Tree, Becky Johnson
Content editor Liv Ventura
Copy proof Kristin Scearce
Copyright notice: All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: 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 prison and a fine of $250,000.
The Lady Prefers Dragons
Doesn’t every girl dream of having two protective dragons of her own?
In an odd Wiccan shop in Salem, Devon pulls an unusual stone from a witch’s wish bag. Little does she know her wildest dreams of adventure and a torrid affair with two gorgeous coworkers are about to come true—in spades.
Devon’s hunky boss, Jace, offers her the assignment of a lifetime, a photo safari to Mount Kilimanjaro. The African scenery is stunning but the unexpected arrival of her two office crushes, Jace and Beau, really ignites her passion. But just as things are getting steamy, danger strikes. Militant dragon hunters set a trap, and the guys are forced to take dragon form and abduct Devon to their mountain liar on Kilimanjaro. There she discovers the truth about the origins of the Marduko dragons. The possibility of becoming a life-mated trio is raised, but the risks are high. The guys are withholding a life-or-death secret that will push Devon’s courageous heart and commitment to the limits.
Contains M/M and M/F/M ménage.
Author’s Note
The Lady Prefers Dragons was previously published. This version of the book has been greatly revised, reedited, and expanded.
This is Devon’s story and picks up where we left her in the Silver Moon Scrying Shoppe at the beginning of The Strix. For maximum read
ing enjoyment, please read at least the first chapter of The Strix. Wording in Devon’s POV is slightly different.
This book is dedicated to a very talented and generous author, Amber Skyze. This version of The Lady Prefers Dragons is based on ideas originally written by her in 2011. With Amber’s permission, the story has gone through two major revisions and expansions, and none of it would exist were it not for the brilliant Amber Skyze. Thank you, Amber, for being such a lovely friend.
1
Salem, Massachusetts, November 2, All Souls Day
Witches, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night. Devon had been hearing about them all day, but enough was an enough and it was getting annoying.
The tour shuttle slowed as they drove past a foreboding slate-gray Federation era home. An overly cheerful and apple-cheeked tour guide gestured to her right. “On our right is the infamous House of the Seven Gables…”
Devon had already seen it earlier during a walking portion of the Salem witch tour. She glanced down at her phone. There was a message from her mother, Annie.
She texted Annie back. With Arcona.
Your college roommate? How is she coping postdivorce?
Girlfriend is having a bad day. Need to cheer her up. We’re doing the Salem witch tour.
Annie was quick to respond. Witch tour? That won’t cheer her up!
Arcona’s funny. Lately, she seems obsessed with witchcraft.
Tell her to lighten up. Bring her 2 dinner. Made garlic black beans and pulled pork.
Sirens and Scales Page 414
