Tianna Xander (2 page)

“
Hi!” She reached up to
smooth her hair with trembling fingers. What was
he
doing standing there in
the doorway? “Antonio! I didn’t expect to see you here.”

He turned that beautiful green gaze on
her, his expression filled with what she thought looked like a
mixture of anger and pain. “I wish could say the same to you.” He
turned his stormy expression toward Armand. “We have business,
Armand. I would like speak to you alone.”

* * * *

Tony could feel himself losing control.
His dragon struggled to break free of the tight hold he had on it.
It raged at finding his mate in the arms of another male. The
dragon may be a part of him, but it still maintained the ancient
code which was, never mess with another male’s mate.

His
mate. The woman Tony waited over five-thousand years for sat
staring up at him as though she didn’t know what she was doing
here. She probably didn’t. She
was
under the influence of the world’s strongest
aphrodisiac after all.

He clenched his fists in an effort to
keep himself from changing into his dragon form. There wasn’t room
for it here. The office was too small and he didn’t want to harm
Tansy. He had almost lost control at Drake’s home when he learned
that his mate was here with this French fop and that Drake
suspected Armand had been exposed to Dragon’s Desire.

Dragon’s Desire was an aphrodisiac that
affected dragons as well as humans. That his mate was here with
Armand, could only mean that Tansy was under the influence as
well.

He didn’t want to believe it at first,
but when her sister Rose told him she was here and it looked as
though Armand was her mate, Tony stormed from the house and
immediately made his way across the state. He almost smiled at the
thought of ripping the other man to shreds.

After waiting so long for this woman,
he wasn’t going to give her up now. Not after he’d finally begun to
live again. Hell, he’d been without a woman, a person to share his
life with for so long, he had even contemplated ending his life. It
wasn’t unusual for one of his kind to end their existence after
several lifetimes of awaiting a mate that never came.

Even though Tony knew what Tansy was
doing here and why, it didn’t stop his anger from surfacing. Armand
knew Tony was days from staking his claim, yet he exposed himself
to the drug and allowed the woman to throw herself at
him.

It didn’t matter that Tony knew they
both were under the influence of Dragonkin’s strongest aphrodisiac.
All he could think about was finding his mate in the other man’s
arms, with Armand’s hands under her top. What if he had been thirty
minutes later? Tony couldn’t help the growl that started deep in
his chest and rumbled through the room at that thought.

Armand stood and looked down at Tansy.
She still sat on the floor, wearing a stunned expression. It was
good that she was confused. Perhaps it would keep her from doing
something foolish until the damned drug wore off. One thing was
certain, it would never wear off as long as she stayed near Armand.
At least not until it wore off Armand at any rate.

“
I will be right back,
Tansy. Please make yourself at home until I return.” Armand winked
at her. “Then we can pick up where we left off.”

“
Over my dead body, Armand.”
Tony practically growled the words. He knew his skin shimmered with
the orange red of his scales as the need to shift and fight for his
mate nearly overpowered him. Seeing Tansy on the floor, her hair
and clothes disheveled with her lips full and bruised from Armand’s
passionate kiss didn’t help matters.

“
She chose me, Saladino.
Find your own female.” Armand’s tone was surprising. Never had he
been willing to fight for a woman, but he seemed prepared to battle
for Tansy. But then again, it was probably the drug
talking.

Armand was not Tansy’s mate and could
not feel the intense need for her that Tony felt. It was
impossible. Besides, it didn’t escape Tony’s notice that Armand had
told him to find his own female, not to find his own mate. That in
itself brought a small amount of relief and Tony relaxed, but just
a bit.

Tony sighed. He hated to think what
would have happened had he not arrived when he did. Tansy may be a
witch like the rest of her sisters, but that didn’t mean she would
have the same immunity to the drug.

Perhaps she was susceptible to the
Dragon’s Desire because she had been around her mate this last week
and was already aroused…or perhaps that was why she still hadn’t
succumbed to the effects of the drug even though the two of them
had been alone for more than three hours.

Mundane humans couldn’t fight the
aphrodisiac. They had no immunity to it, though it seemed the
witches could fight it at least a bit. The moment most humans were
exposed, every sane thought flew from their minds, replaced by the
need to be with the first person of the opposite sex they met
unless a dragon was around. If a dragon was near, they would always
gravitate to them. The witches, however, seemed to have some sort
of immunity. It affected them, but it wasn’t as strong.

When a dragon was exposed, it not only
drew him or her to the opposite sex like humans, it drew members of
the opposite sex to them as well. That alone was why it was called
Dragon’s Desire. It was also why using it was illegal in their
world.

Usually, a witch was not attracted to
anyone but his or her mate strongly enough to lose control when
under the influence. There was no doubt that Tansy was his mate, he
just couldn’t figure out why she had succumbed to the effects of
the Dragon’s Desire so completely with Armand. Could she be his
mate, too, or was there some other explanation?

“
Do you plan to explain why
you have attempted to stake your claim on my woman or should I just
kill you where you stand?”

“
Do you hear yourself,
Armand? You say
the female, your
woman
.” Tony waved his arm as though to
dismiss the entire ridiculous situation. “Not once have you said my
mate.”

Tony stepped closer,
standing face to face with Armand. “Tell me, Armand. Say it!” He
pointed toward Tansy. “Tell me she is your mate and perhaps I will
withdraw my claim upon her.”
That
would never happen, but Armand had no way of
knowing it. Tony used the argument to get Armand to see
reason.

“
To hell with it, Armand,”
Tony said, clenching his fists and straightening his stance. “If
you want to do this here, I’m happy to oblige you.” He glanced
toward Tansy who Armand seemed content to keep on the floor
confused. With a curse, he moved over to help Tansy to her feet.
“Please, Tansy, let me talk with Armand alone.”

He didn’t want her to see
the dark side of him that he continued to battle for control. It
would frighten her. He had no desire for her to think of herself as
nothing more than a prize—nothing more than a dragon’s treasure.
Though she would be
his
greatest treasure, she was so much more than that. Yet, he
knew if he had to, he would kill Armand before he let the man touch
Tansy again.

“
You’re under the influence
of Dragon’s Desire, Armand.” Tony didn’t take his attention from
Tansy. He wanted to see her reaction when she realized that what
she felt for Armand was nothing more than a reaction to a drug…a
very powerful drug.

What she felt for Tony over the last
week was real. And he knew she had felt something for him. It was
in the way she looked at him, danced with him and rubbed her body
against his like a cat in need of attention. That wasn’t something
caused by an aphrodisiac thought extinct by the world. She was his
mate and it was time he claimed her.

He had wanted to give her time to get
to know him, time to come to terms with the fact that they were
meant for each other, but with the plant or at least parts of it,
being carried about to parts unknown by God knew who, he had to
stake his claim or take the chance of losing her forever. Something
told him that if she made love with another dragon because of the
aphrodisiac, she would never forgive herself.

“
What Tansy feels for you is
nothing more than the effects of a drug long thought dead.
Somewhere you came in contact with it and it’s in your blood,
sending out mating hormones.
Fake
mating hormones,” he added with a glance toward
Tansy. “Soon it will wear off and then you will see that I’m
telling the truth. It isn’t real.” He reached out to her. “What you
feel for him isn’t real, Tansy. Remember what you felt for me
before you met Armand and let your mind tell you I speak the
truth.”

Chapter Two

Tansy stared at Antonio. His dark hair
fell over one eye in that cute way that made her fingers
practically itch to brush it back. She knew it would do no good.
That stray lock of hair always seemed to fall over his left eye,
giving him that rakish look she found so appealing. As usual, all
of her feminine parts stood up and took notice when Antonio was in
the same room with her.

Frowning, she alternated looking at
each of the men and wondered if Antonio spoke the truth. She wanted
it to be the truth. Never had she been so fickle as to be attracted
to two men at the same time and she knew Antonio. Her attraction to
him made sense. Her attraction to Armand did not. Maybe that was
why she kept having second thoughts. She looked at Armand and felt
nothing beyond the desire she felt from the moment she laid eyes on
him. When she looked at Antonio, however, he made every feminine
part of her tingle with anticipation.

It was as though all of her
girly parts reached out for him as he stood in the doorway looking
like some avenging angel bent on the rescue of his damsel in
distress. Not only that, she felt something more intense than what
she felt for Armand. It was a need deep inside her that told her
this was the man her
heart
wanted, no matter how much her body may want
Armand.

Biting her lip, she moved
toward Antonio. Even if he wasn’t telling the truth, he
was
the man she had lusted
for over the last week, not Armand and it didn’t make sense that
she would suddenly want the other man more. No. It made sense that
she was under the influence of some strange drug like Antonio
said.

Besides, now that she thought about it,
not once did Armand say anything about a lifetime together. Not
once had he indicated that their time together would last for the
rest of their lives. He had called her sweetheart, and honey, not
my heart or my love, the way she remembered Antonio doing over the
last week. Antonio spoke of forever. Armand spoke of the first
night of many, not the first night of the rest of their
lives…

Tansy sighed. When had things become so
complicated? She continued to watch the two men, her mind made up.
Whatever it was about this Dragon’s Desire, it had certainly thrown
her for a loop.

She never expected to fall in love with
one man and fall in lust with another. It just didn’t seem right.
Even though Armand still exuded the pheromones or whatever brought
on by the Dragon’s Desire, her heart still wanted Antonio. There
was something about him that made her burn inside. That she wanted
them both so insistently, told her that something wasn’t as it
should be. Tansy wasn’t a fickle woman and she knew, deep down
inside, that what she felt for Armand just wasn’t right. Tansy’s
mind had been telling her that since her sister, Rose, left with
her own mate, Viktor. Her body just hadn’t been
listening.

Ever since Antonio first approached
her, she knew that things with him would get hot between
them…literally and they had been. Something about him brought out
her penchant for burning things with her magic to the point where
almost everyone avoided her. She’d even burned her brother-in-law,
Drake’s, assistant, Martin Baccus’s hair off, the poor man—almost
all of his hair, not just some of it.

Tansy shuddered at the thought that
somehow she had even managed to burn the hair off of the man’s
genitalia without even trying. That action brought forward the
question of what she had been thinking about to mind—namely, her
sisters’ minds.

Whatever it was, it left Drake’s
harried assistant as smooth as a baby everywhere but the top of his
head. Ever since then, everyone avoided her but Antonio and now
Armand. She watched the two men as they stepped away and lowered
their voices. So what if they didn’t want her hearing what they
said to each other? She’d already made up her mind to leave with
Antonio. If what she felt for Armand was real, she would still feel
that way in the morning and she didn’t have to lower her moral
standards by sleeping with a man she had only just met a few short
hours ago. Just that she could control her base urges now that
Antonio was here was telling. It made sense that he spoke the
truth.

Tansy knew it was time to go
when the two men began to smoke. Literally. It was when Antonio
began to shimmer in some strange iridescent red-orange color that
she knew it was time they left before someone got hurt. This room
would never hold him in dragon form and she didn’t want him to get
injured. That she didn’t give a damn about Armand’s welfare was
telling, even in her artificially aroused state— and she
did
believe it was
artificial now. Just the thought of Antonio hurting himself by
shifting shape while in the confines of this small room made her
almost sick with worry.