Dierdre chose consort Fontaine (The Queen’s Plight). Temporary territory, Washington, DC, and Virginia, USA.
Margery chose consort Remy, aka Champ (The Queen’s Dance). Temporary territory, Vermont, USA.
Mei Hua chose human protector Joachim (The Queen’s Choice), director of the Order of Dragon Slayers. Temporary territory, New Jersey, USA. Land rights in Italy via the Order.
Queens who are being housed in Cassandra’s keep in Ireland: Idira, Nalia, Marisol, Adanna, Eva, Zoe, Sofia, Rika, Xiaoling, Miriam.
After the events in The Queen’s Dance:
Nessie and twenty-five Queens who shifted midcurse—South Keeling Islands, Australia.
Bella chose consort Lane. Temporary territory, the island of Maui, Hawaii, USA.
The unattached studs:
Casimiro—A famous Latin singer, this dragon shaman can seduce human women through his magic. He is Margery’s protector, much to Remy’s disgust.
Niall—The Great Wyrm of Yale spends most of his time in his research and hasn’t a preference to play the Queen game—for himself, anyway. He’s very interested in seeing his sons, Reed, Byron, and Fontaine, happily settled.
Justice—White Celtic dragon, formerly protector of Queen Cassandra’s court. Mated to Amaranthe, who is unfortunately possessing Viola’s white horse’s head when she is in dragon form.
Bonus Scene
It happened one Christmas
It was chilly standing in line to get into Yarn Barn Crafts. Viola stamped her feet to get some feeling back into them. She was bundled up like that kid in Christmas story, only she could move her arms.
“This is ridiculous,” Sergei bitched in her ear.
“It’s tradition.”
“You are a dragon Queen. If you only let me, I would have had the store open hours ago for a private viewing. Hell, you could just tell me what you want and would buy it for you and to hell with the price.”
Sergei looked around, probably to make sure no one was eavesdropping on their conversation. He made her go all the way to upstate New York to make sure no one would recognize them. The paperwork alone to allow her to enter Queen Arianna’s state was nauseating and she had to knit her a scarf for tribute. That part wasn’t so bad, and she made Justice do the paperwork.
“I could probably buy you the entire store.”
Viola huffed out a breath of white smoke. Since she didn’t have a breath weapon, having her words condense into fog was the closest she got. “What’s the fun in that?”
“What’s the fun of this?” He indicated the sleepy shoppers, sipping coffee from Thermoses and leaning against the building.
“Can’t you feel the anticipation building?” she asked, looking up to the sky. Maybe it would start snowing. She was feeling homesick for Greenland, of all places.
“No.”
“Well trust me, it is.” At his sour face, Viola continued. “It’s either this or we go out looking for Queens in trouble.”
“They come to you. You don’t have to go looking for them.” He frowned down at her stomach. “Are the babies cold?”
“No.” She shook her head. “They’re nice and toasty and will be for the next four months, so don’t try using my pregnancy as an excuse.”
Sergei looked around. “I don’t want to have to kill anyone today.” He forgot to lower his voice. Or did he? A few customers backed away from them.
“It’s good to have daily goals,” Viola said, patting his arm. “Here, hold my coupons while I look at the flyer again.”
He stifled a groan. “Don’t you have that thing memorized yet?”
“I want to make sure we get all the door stopper deals.” She rattled the paper at him.
Just then, the doors opened and the crowd pushed forward.
“Don’t get separated from me,” Sergei warned, tugged the knitted hat she made him over his ears.
“Keep up,” she said, stuffing the ad in her pocket so she had both hands free to stock up on yarn.
Bypassing the line that formed for the free doughnuts and coffee, Viola eyeballed the mini doughnut maker on the way by. “We should get that.”
Sergei grunted and used his height advantage to snatch one off the top shelf over the heads of the customers looking to get it off the display table. When he thought she wasn’t looking, Viola saw him grab a couple of bags of chocolate candy melts. She liked where his head was at. That would make a nice coating for the mini doughnuts.
But what she was really here for was the large bumps of yarn whose strands were as thick as a garden hose. There! Up ahead. Picking up speed, she dodged the Christmas ribbon people and managed to snag her hair on a plastic bird. Not bothering to stop, she took it with her.
“Your hair is a bird’s nest,” Sergei said from behind her. She felt him try to gently detangle it.
“I need ten bumps of the camel and ten of the buffalo.”
“Are we talking about livestock?”
“Go get a carriage or hold out your hands.” Viola dug through the big shelving box of yarn.
“I’m not leaving you.” Sergei managed to pry the bird free from her hair. “You’re covered in glitter,” he said.
“I like the glitter.”
“Figured as much,” he said and audibly stifled a sigh.
She tossed nine of the big bumps of yarn at him. “I need one more buffalo.”
Sergei had four under each of his arms and one under a chin. “Hey lady,” he asked a woman looking at the candle making supplies.
She looked up, noticed that the big biker dude was looking at her and forced a smile.
“I’ll give you fifty bucks for that carriage.”
Apparently she got over her fear of tattooed men in leather and hustled the cart over to him. Sergei unloaded the large skeins of yarn and peeled off a hundred dollar bill and handed it to her. “Keep the change,” he said.
“Bless you.” The woman stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek and practically skipped to the front of the store.
“That was so nice.” Viola hugged him.
“My arms were getting tired. Don’t read anything into it.” He crossed his arms.
“I’m short a buffalo and three camels.” Viola sighed in frustration.
“What are you planning on making?”
“I was going to knit you a sweater.”
Sergei looked in the cart. “Why do you need twenty skeins?”
“For your dragon form, silly. I guess we’ll just have to hit another store. There’s one in Albany. We can fly there if you’d rather not drive.”
“I’m not carrying shopping bags in my talons,” he gritted out, pushing the carriage to the long line. It was fifteen people deep. “Oh for fu—”
Viola clamped a hand over his mouth. “There are children present.”
Sergei rolled his eyes. “I’ve got twenty bucks for everyone who lets us go ahead of them,” he shouted when she removed her hand.
He had a few takers.
“Stop bribing people. It’s embarrassing,” Viola whispered as they jumped line.
“You don’t have to knit me a sweater. Dragons don’t wear sweaters,” he whispered back. “Make a blanket instead. That’s enough yarn.”
“Blasphemer. There is never enough yarn.” Viola didn’t like the calculating look in his eyes. It meant he was thinking up something devious and probably irresistible.
“Why don’t you knit me a bike cozy for my new Hayabusa?”
She put her hand to her chest in shock. “I didn’t know you even knew the word cozy.”
“Do we have a deal? You knit me a cover for my bike. We don’t go to anymore stores today.”
Viola wasn’t born yesterday. “What’s in it for me?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“I’ll buy you a Hayabusa of your own and we can take a road trip to all the Fiber Festivals next year.”
“Sold.”
They shook on it.
Other books by Jamie K. Schmidt:
&nb
sp; IF YOU LIKED THIS BOOK, you may want to try...
Club Inferno Series (erotic contemporary romance)
USA Today Best Seller: Heat
Longing
Fever
The Emerging Queens Series
(high heat paranormal romance)
The Queen’s Mystery – FREE on most e-book retailers!
The Queen's Wings
The Queen's Flight
The Queen's Dance
The Truth & Lies Series (erotic New Adult romance)
Truth Kills
Truth Reveals
Truth Thrills coming 2018
Truth Decides coming 2018
The Hawaii Heat series
(high heat contemporary romance)
USA Today Best Seller: Life's a Beach
Beach Happens
Beach My Life
Beauty and the Beach
The Sentinels of Babylon series
(high heat contemporary romance)
Necessary Evil
Sentinel's Kiss
Warden's Woman - coming 2018
Ryder's Dream - coming 2018
Stand-alone novels (high heat contemporary romance)
2018 Rita® Finalist in Erotic Romance: Stud
Hard Cover
Spice - Book Three in the Fate Series - Co-written with Jenna Jameson
Stand-alone novels & novellas
Trinity (erotic ménage paranormal romance)
Midnight Lady, A Bad Girls book (high heat fantasy romance)
Naked Truth (romantic suspense)
Santa Genie (erotic paranormal romance) - coming December 3, 2018
Samurai’s Heart (erotic paranormal romance)
A Casual Christmas (contemporary romance) – coming December 10, 2018
Anthologies & Collections
Graveyard Shift (High heat paranormal romance)
Flash Magic (No heat at all speculative fiction stories
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Did you love The Queen's Dance? Then you should read Midnight Lady by Jamie K. Schmidt!
Maggie Flannery failed at being a pirate and then ran away from her arranged marriage with a prince. Her mother, the infamous Black Belle, disowned her.So now Maggie serves up sangria to tourists by day, and smugglers by night from her bar in Cozumel. She hooked up with a nefarious airship captain, Quick Donner, for some wild sex and adventures, but lately, it's been more quickies and take-out tostadas.When her ex-fiancé blows into town and tells her he has decided to run away from his scheming mother and join an airship crew, Maggie leaves her bar, her boyfriend, and the prince's bodyguards behind to find a mother who might blow her out of the sky as soon as she gets in range.
Read more at Jamie K. Schmidt’s site.
Also by Jamie K. Schmidt
Hawaii Heat
Beach Happens
Beach My Life
The Emerging Queens
The Queen's Dance
The Queen's Mystery
The Truth & Lies Series
Truth Kills
Truth Reveals
Standalone
Trinity
Flash Magic
Samurai's Heart
Watch for more at Jamie K. Schmidt’s site.
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author, Jamie K. Schmidt, writes erotic contemporary love stories and paranormal romances. Her steamy, romantic comedy, Life’s a Beach, reached #65 on USA Today, #2 on Barnes & Noble and #9 on Amazon and iBooks. Her Club Inferno series from Random House’s Loveswept line has hit both the Amazon and Barnes & Noble top one hundred lists. The first book in the series, Heat, put her on the USA Today bestseller list for the first time, and is a #1 Amazon bestseller. Her dragon paranormal romance series has been called “fun and quirky” and “endearing.” Partnered with New York Times bestselling author and former porn actress, Jenna Jameson, Jamie’s hardcover debut, SPICE, continues Jenna’s FATE trilogy.
Read more at Jamie K. Schmidt’s site.
The Queen's Dance: Book 3 of The Emerging Queens Series Page 21
