Chapter One
S ard gritted his teeth against the searing pain in his chest as he soared over northeast Portland.
Liquid dripped down his wrist, and he balled his fist, then forced the zipper of the leather jacket up to his neck. The jacket was too small for his great chest, powerful even in human form, and the constricting fabric helped bind his wounds.
Shifting into dragon form would be even better, but he couldn’t do it. As a human, he was a little speck soaring over the city. As a dragon, he was large enough to show up on scanners.
A male dragon wasn’t as large as a female, of course, but he would still easily be noticed. For the same reason, he didn’t dare go to any dragon medical facilities. His appearance would be reported, and then there’d be no escape.
This attack had surprised him, but he’d already handled it pretty well, he thought. He’d had to deviate from his goal and had led his pursuers back toward his old office building outside Longview, Washington.
“Boss?” his previous employee, Syenite, had crackled softly in his earbud communicator when he’d gotten within range of the building.
“I’m not your boss anymore,” he’d growled, the communicator picking up his voice easily over the icy wind.
“Yes, sir,” Syenite had said, ignoring that. “We didn’t know you were coming back to Earth, or we’d have prepared?—”
“I’m not flying to you,” he’d said truthfully, although he had intended to make his pursuers think so.
“We see you’re in distress. Please endure a little longer while we mount a counterattack.”
“Nonsense. Don’t get yourself involved in my affairs.”
“But, Boss?—”
He’d pulled the communicator out of his ear and thrown it into the Columbia River. This was close enough to fool his pursuers. He’d dived and hidden in a human park until everyone—his old employees and his new pursuers—had lost track of him.
No one would imagine that he, a former heavyweight CEO and beloved aristocrat of the dragon empire, would lower himself to hunching inside a yellow, plastic twisty slide!
Although some of the bulky, wrapped-up children who wanted to go down the slide had run away and cried to their confused parents, no one ever came to check on him.
Truly, he was masterful in his deception.
After his pursuers had become fully engaged with his old office, he’d doubled back, and now he was almost at the original goal of his journey. Over the rushing, chilly February wind, he listened for any ships creeping up behind him, but there was nothing.
He, Sard Carnelian, had thrown them off! Of course, without a single instant of doubt, he’d known that he would succeed!
He landed on the front step of the town house. It was an unfamiliar location, but the red heart decoration with sparkly letters hanging from the door confirmed to him that this home was hers.
Julie’s radiant face glimmered in his mind.
Her thick brown hair with dark purple streaks spread over the pillow as she gazed at his nude body admiringly…
her adorable, freckled cheeks flushed as she yielded to his thick cock…
her velvet-brown eyes filling with tears as she suddenly hid her face in his shoulder and murmured that she loved him and only him…
He swelled with purpose as he walked forward and raised his fist to smash through the door.
Then he checked his movement.
What is wrong with you? the ghostly memory of his Julie demanded, her eyes flashing as she crossed her arms. Every day, she had sparred with him, stood up to him, enticed him with her inner fire until he couldn’t go a single hour without thinking about her.
Come in like a normal person. Or isn’t a great big dragon CEO capable of doing that?
Of course he was capable of following human norms. He searched for a door knocker and instead found a small button—a doorbell—and pressed it.
Hmm. Did it work?
He pressed it several more times. A faint, muffled noise came from inside.
He straightened, his heart soaring as he held his jacket sleeve closed so he didn’t bleed out on her doorstep.
Look at him, following human norms unprompted!
He imagined her soft, shy smile, the one that he’d seen only once, while they were tangled up in the bedsheets together on the best morning of his life, as she now gazed on him again.
He grinned. He’d dreamed of this moment for two full years. And now, here he was!
She was going to be so surprised.
Julie backed cautiously out of the nursery, holding her breath so she could monitor the faint wheezing in the crib. Her one-year-old was too young to fight naps, but he was determined like his father, and she’d already put him down for this particular nap twice. The third time had to be the charm!
Her bath was probably cold by now, but even if it was, she was going to sit in the lukewarm water and eat the Valentine’s bonbons she’d bought for herself from the local store, drink the wine she’d picked out from the bottom shelf, and read at least two chapters in her new book, Single Mothers Are Doing Fine .
She’d been stuck on the intro chapter for a week.
She needed this break so badly that if she didn’t get it, she was going to stab something.
Julie eased her weight onto her heel. Her son snored. Almost to the doorway…almost to the door…
Ding-dong.
She froze.
The breathing sound changed. Her baby made a small noise, then returned to sleeping.
Oh, thank goodness?—
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
Her baby made a whimper.
Rage crackled in her. She breathed steadily through her nose and silently prayed. Go away.
Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong ding-
Her baby son, Copper, wailed.
Argh!
She thundered down the stairs, grabbed the pen from the neatly organized entryway table next to the front door, and threw it open with the pen raised like a weapon. “What? What do you want?”
The bald, hulking gangster covered in piercings and wearing a leather jacket on her doorstep should’ve frightened her, but she was too used to dragons to react.
True, they never came to her house, but the normal fear was gone.
There was only a brief moment of confusion in her brain as the man, whose smile was accented by silver caps, blinked and answered in that familiar gruff voice that made her insides quiver.
“What do I want? You.”
Shock, then blazing heat flushed through her as her body recognized him before her brain did.
Sard Carnelian, the powerful CEO dragon shifter who had shattered her heart with a sledgehammer two years ago, stood before her in all his imposing glory.
Late afternoon sunlight caught the silver piercings on his eyebrows, ears, and chin, making them glint like distant stars.
His head was bald and smooth just like she remembered, and his red eyes, the same gemstone color as his scales, glowed with inner fire.
“What are you…” Pen still raised, she gripped the door for support as the strength left her legs. Her voice was so soft in her dry throat that it cracked. “What are you doing here?”
“I have returned…” He grinned, and his silver caps glimmered, making her frozen heart jump with electrical shocks as it came back to life. “…to accept your declaration of love. Become mine.”
Her heart thumped. “I decline.”
His grin dropped. “What?”
“My declaration of love expired.”
“It can’t have expired.”
“Two years ago,” she said numbly.
His brows darkened as he became the stormy, dominant male she remembered.
Her heart squeezed. She pressed her lips together. They were numb. All of her was numb. She could barely feel her fingertips. “You missed it. Sorry.”
His nostrils flared. “Fine. I’ll convince you to declare your love again.”
That was just like him. She put up the slightest obstacle, and he didn’t even try to argue with her about it; he simply vaulted over it and smashed right back into her life just exactly how he broke out of it.
No.
The aching pain of the last two years crystallized in her chest. He would do it too. If she gave a single inch, he’d stroll back in, and she absolutely could not get sucked into his dragon world of epic drama and heartbreak again. She had more than herself to worry about now.
She found her voice, tried to make it sound detached and carefree. “I said, no, thanks.”
He stepped forward and grabbed the door. “Let me in, Julie.”
She held it fast with her free hand. “No, I don’t think I will.”
“One hour. Give me one hour to convince you.”
“Now’s a really bad time…” She tried to close the door.
“Why?” He tried to peer past her. “Is someone else here?”
“No,” she said, too defensively. “Of course not.”
“I’ll chase them out.”
“You absolutely will not.”
“I’m highly capable of chasing away anyone.”
“I know,” she said, her temperature rising as she pulled on the door that was immovable in his grip. She used both hands, the pen held fast against the wooden edge. “And that’s not why you can’t come in. Go away.”
“Julie—”
“Let go of the door.”
“I must come in and convince you.”
“No!”
“Let me in, Julie.”
“Sard, you can’t!” She fought to hold the door while still gripping the pen. Her grip slipped, and she accidentally buried the pen in the back of his hand.
They both stared at the pen.
“Oh my god.” Julie’s chest heaved, as she tried to catch her breath. She stepped back from the surprise of her own actions, her empty hands flexing, and laughed shakily as it felt like everything was sliding out of her grip. “Why do you make me so crazy?”
“I asked myself this same question a hundred times.” Sard stepped in after her, the door closing behind him. He removed the pen archly—it wasn’t very deep—and tapped it against the injured back of his hand. “And you said humans had no defenses against dragons.”
“Well, it wasn’t a good defense, seeing as you’re inside.” She moved her messy hair out of her face and crossed her arms. “What are you really doing here?”