Light His Fire: Paranormal BBW Dragon Shifter Mail-Order Bride Romance (5 page)

I wonder if it always beats so fast…

Or maybe it was just her? With a blush, she backed away from him a small step, wishing to all things holy that her composure would somehow return to her. It had been rather annoyingly absent so far.

“If you want to know more, you have to agree to come on a date with me. Just one. You can call it a business meeting if it suits you better. We can discuss growth ratios and investment options and how to get you out of those clothes… You know, all the important stuff?”

He winked at her and she wanted to both slap him and kiss him with equal measures of force.

“You’re not going to give up, are you?” she asked, resigning herself to the inevitable.

“Don’t intend to, nope.”

Biting her lip, she nodded finally.

“Fine. Just one date. ONE! Hey, put me down!” Pearl yelped as Ares unceremoniously grabbed her by the waist and spun her around as if she were a ragdoll and he caught in some Disney movie.

When he did finally release her from his impossibly strong yet gentle grasp, Pearl couldn’t hide the laughter anymore. He was a bastard alright, but maybe there was something to him, like Andrei had said. Maybe he wasn’t a completely horrible choice to spend her time with?

Careful, Pearl…
she reminded herself.

He was a dragon. And as little as she knew about dragons, she was sure that trusting one blindly was not the smartest thing to do.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow. From here, seven o’clock. Wear as little as possible. And now, go command your troops. I’m pretty sure one of the bears is making faces at your honey pot and I don’t mean the one between your legs.”

There it was again. That desire to smack him and kiss him at the same time. How does one deal with that?

Can’t wait to find out!

CHAPTER FIVE

Ares

Dragging himself away from Shifter Grove was like walking through nails barefooted, all the while getting whipped and flogged by a million invisible belts. Every mile away meant being further from Pearl and that was the absolute last thing he wanted. Ares gritted his teeth, parking his big rental truck at the end of a narrow road that had been nigh impenetrable for the last three miles. And no wonder, considering that it was heading up one of the tallest peaks in the area, Sleeping Dragon Hill.

Of course, it was no hill. It was a proper mountain, and his second reason for coming to Shifter Grove. Contrary to what every single person and shifter in the town seemed to want, Ares Goldplains was not looking for the simple life. He didn’t want to retire in the midst of some thick woods and raise his children to run wild and free in a mecca of peace.

Nope, he wanted adventure – had always wanted it and would always want it. He couldn’t see it ever changing. His definition of adventure, maybe, but not the desire for the thrill itself.

He wasn’t the kind of man to settle down in a rocking chair and strum the guitar while fireflies buzzed around him. No, he wanted to play to packed arenas of screaming fans, girls throwing their bras at him and guys screaming their lungs out as he laid down a sick solo.

And he didn’t want to breathe in the fresh mountain air and enjoy the view. He wanted to rip that mountain apart and find what it was hiding.

Ares inhaled deeply, and the scent was unmistakable.

“Gold,” he said to himself, smiling broadly.

The scent had been just at the edge of his consciousness since he arrived in the area. From the moment he settled down on that clearing and every second since then, it had been following him around, enticing him and telling him to come seek out his fortune. Pearl was more inviting still, but now that he had talked her into spending an evening with him, he could finally chase down the other mistress that had been eluding him so skillfully.

Wealth, power, treasure – he was a dragon, alright, and he
loved
his gold.

Cursing under his breath, Ares began scaling the nearly upright wall with catlike ease. He could have shifted and just flown right to the top, but he was sure that it would have garnered too much unwanted attention, as well as given too much power to his dragon. Although he trusted the dragon to do the right thing, eventually, Ares was pretty bloody sure that the damn beast would fly straight back to Pearl and not leave her side until she agreed to wear a piece of his hoard.

That thought brought along another snort. His hoard? What a joke.

The Goldplains hoard, more like it. As far as Ares was concerned, the life of the younger brood of dragons had always been one of rather crippling depression. If you were the firstborn, or part of an Alpha twins pair, the world was your oyster. The family hoard was yours to lord over and your dragon and man could coexist happily side-by-side. But when you weren’t the Alpha and just a younger sibling, well, things got a lot bleaker.

Ares had been keeping an eye on the main treasure for years while his other brothers were scattered around the world, guarding the smaller piles. It made sense – he was the eldest after Alexander and Apollo, after all. But now that his brothers had returned home with their new bride, spending much more time in Colorado than on the road, Ares had suddenly become redundant. And there were no other hoards to lord over.

So, there he was, a dragon without riches. A broken beast without a place to go. Of course, he could return home, but he didn’t feel like there was much room there for him. Not with Jade and the little ones fluttering about, anyway. And too many dragons around one pile of gold… Well, they were all brothers, but it could get ugly, fast.

What’s a dragon to do?

He’d decided on the unspeakable. The unthinkable. The unfathomable!

Creating his own hoard.

Ares grinned at the thought. Ah yes, his own hoard. His very own treasure throve to guard and revel in, full of gold and diamonds and all things sparkly. That sounded fantastic, especially if he could also get a particular redheaded minx to be his mate.

But there was one notable downside to it – it required him to work.

As progressive as the Goldplains were, it was never really in the blood of dragons to work for anything. Cillian Greenmeadow was a notable exception, and Ares and his brothers had played music for money for as long as they could remember, but there was a big difference between strumming the guitar and breaking apart a mountain with the sole purpose of digging out gold.

“If Cillian can do it, you can do it,” Ares muttered under his breath, hauling himself up on an outcropping and catching his breath.

He’d driven as far as he could and now, after having climbed for much longer than he was comfortable with, he was given the most magnificent view of the valley Shifter Grove was nestled in. It was a gorgeous little speck of life in the middle of towering mountains and thick, plush forests. Ares cocked his head to the side, considering it quietly. He could see what the locals saw in it, but for him, it wasn’t enough. He needed more. Perhaps to the tune of a large pile of gold?

Yes, that would do. With gold by his side, and a woman in his arms, he could tolerate any manner of drudgery – welcome it, even. Hell, who knew, perhaps he would even get that rocking chair!

Chuckling to himself, Ares hauled himself up on his feet and wandered along the treacherous mountainside. He was quick on his feet, but sometimes even he found it difficult to keep his balance. There were plenty of loose rocks and precarious ledges that would have crumbled to dust underneath the feet of a less agile person.

The smell of gold grew thicker in the air and, soon, Ares was following his nose like a scent hound on a blood trail. The sickly sweet tang of the thing that dragons loved so dearly – gold – was maddening. Finally, he stopped in front of a sheet of rock that went up pretty much straight for as long as the eye could see. A wide smile curved on his lips. This was it, his hoard.

Ares put his palm against the rock and stilled for a moment, feeling the ancient lines of gold and wealth entwining in the rock, calling to him. There had never been many dragons in these areas, which would explain why this treasure had been left unearthed. There were ice dragons further to the north, but they tended to keep to their side of the border, and most other dragons preferred to be in warmer climates, further south.

Although dragons have eternal fires blazing in them, even they aren’t immune to the sniffles. Ever seen a dragon sneeze? Some of the worst brushfires in history have grown out of an unfortunate dragon’s cold. It isn’t something they advertise much, though.

 
He stood there for a good long while, his eyes closed, listening to the call of the gold. He kept getting interrupted by a much louder voice inside of him, though, demanding that he return to Shifter Grove and make sure Pearl was still there and that she hadn’t taken off in another one of her elaborate escapes from him.

As much as Ares hated to admit it, he was beginning to fear he had met his match. He wanted to be an ass and joke and flirt his way through everything with her – which is what he usually did – but it didn’t come naturally. With her, he kept finding himself willing to lay down the attitude and let her close. Hell, he wanted to
talk
to her as much as he wanted to fuck her, and that was just insane.

When Alexander and Apollo had announced that they’d found a mate, Ares had been sure that the entire Treasure Lane gang had entirely lost their minds. First Devon and then Cillian and his brothers, all settling down, having babies and embarking on their happily-ever-afters – insanity. And yet, here he was, not that much later, considering getting a house in Shifter Grove, breaking a mountain down into tiny bits to make his own hoard and… getting a mate. How the mighty had fallen. Or risen? It remained to be seen.

“Right. Back to business,” he said to himself finally, the sun already ticking lower on the horizon and casting gloomy shadows over the woods.

It was dark enough to hide in the folds of blackness, but Ares opted against it – if for no other reason than to avoid ruining his chances with Pearl in case his dragon decided to get a mind of its own and go park itself on her lawn. That would be a real sight for sore eyes – some old-fashioned dragon courtship. Burn her house down so she wouldn’t have anywhere to go.

Ares had heard that Devon had threatened his bride with that. He had to assume that Pearl would have none of it and would hand his wings back to him ground into powder if he tried to pull a stunt like that.

He couldn’t wait to
really
piss her off one day and then get the best angry sex ever. He knew she had it in her. A woman with an ass like that and a mouth that wouldn’t skip obscenities even when faced with the biggest and most dangerous shifter in the world
had
to be a real fireball in bed.

I wonder if I find out exactly what she’s like tomorrow night…

CHAPTER SIX

Pearl

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Pearl said blankly, staring at her reflection in Danni’s big mirror.

“Why? Did I do something wrong? You want a darker brow, maybe?” Danni asked, worriedly taking another look at Pearl’s make-up and hair.

Frankly, Pearl looked gorgeous. The last time she’d been so dolled up had been for senior prom and that had ended up with her having the single most disappointing sexual experience of her life.

Somehow, she got the feeling that Ares wouldn’t disappoint if things ever got that far. She couldn’t imagine that man being anything less than godlike in bed… Which just made everything worse in Pearl’s opinion. It wasn’t fair that a man that hot knew just how attractive he was and knew how to use it, too.

Pearl wasn’t the kind of woman to feel bad about her curves or wrack her brain over whether or not a man would find her attractive. She was sexy and she knew it. But Ares Goldplains was
smoking
hot. He had had hundreds of women screaming his name, and Pearl was pretty sure that didn’t only include the concerts he’d played with the Gold Dragons with his brothers. No, he was a heartbreaker and she knew it.

So why was she still doing this?

“No, Danni, nothing’s wrong. Everything’s just right, you’ve done an amazing job,” Pearl said, smiling.