Gambling on Trouble Read online

  Holy crap! she cried to her dragon. What are you doing?

  Craving my mate, the beast purred. Turning him on.

  She peeked, and his eyes were closed, his nose sniffing deeply the way she’d inhaled him.

  A glass shattered in the pub, and both their heads snapped up. Then he looked at her with eyes that asked, What are you doing to me, woman? Or was he thinking, I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you?

  Either way, his lips moved, but no sound came out.

  “So… You’re Tanner?” she managed, pulling herself together enough to arch an eyebrow at him.

  He nodded. “Karen, huh?”

  His voice was deep and gritty, throwing all her girl parts on to red alert.

  Want this man. Need this man, her dragon urged.

  “Karen.” She nodded, hoping he’d say her name again — and say it with the same hunger, the same wonder as he had the first time.

  His lips moved as if he was saying her name to himself, over and over, practicing a dozen ways to turn her on just by uttering her name.

  “Karen.” He nodded to himself like he’d just reached some decision. Something along the lines of, Yes, this woman is mine, she hoped.

  She slid her hands behind his neck and lifted onto her toes to come into kissing distance again. “Nice to meet you, Tanner.”

  He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her flush against his body, and his brown eyes locked on hers. “Nice to meet you, Karen.”

  She smiled, then felt it fade away. “About your feathered fan club back there…” She’d die if he said Amber was his girlfriend. “Are those friends of yours?”

  He shook his head quickly. “Not friends. They’re… they’re…”

  “Barely dressed? Yes, I noticed that.”

  He shook his head even harder, and she almost felt bad about teasing him. Almost.

  “Colleagues, you might say. We work in the same place.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Somehow I can’t see you in a lineup on stage.”

  Her dragon swiped its tail as it pictured him bare-chested, wearing a Chippendales bow tie.

  “I work in security,” he said, then clamped his mouth shut as if he’d said too much.

  “Security?” She pulled back, remembering what she’d come to Vegas for. Namely, to get her hands on a diamond, even if it meant stealing the thing. And her crazy dragon had led her right to a security dude? What if he worked for the Scarlet Palace?

  Never mind that, her dragon whispered, sidling closer to him. Mind this, the beast hummed, feeling his body heat reach out to hers. Doesn’t matter that my bear has secrets. We do, too.

  My bear? How could she be sure?

  “So, what’s a nice bear like you doing in a place like this?”

  His eyes sparkled and his nostrils flared, testing her scent. Bears, she’d heard, had the best noses in the world. Would he be able to figure out what kind of shifter she was?

  “I was going to ask you the same thing, dragon.”

  So he could tell. Ten points to the burly bear shifter who’d just figured out half her genetics. She hoped to hell he wouldn’t figure out the other half. Not with the grudge bears held against witches.

  “Ha,” she cackled. “What if I’m not a nice girl?”

  The hard-on that had been nudging her thigh twitched and grew. His eyes went wide, telling her he didn’t have much practice flirting with women who played hard and fast.

  Not that she usually did, but right now… Hard and fast was just what she wanted.

  “I guess I’ll take the risk,” he rumbled as a dozen veiled fantasies raced through his eyes. All she caught were brief flashes, but those were enough. Like him and her, yanking each other’s clothes off. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he pumped into her again and again. His teeth clenched as he carried her through an incredible high.

  And just like that, the last scraps of control and doubt fled her, and pure greed took over her body the way it sometimes did when she held a flawless diamond up to the light.

  Gorgeous, her dragon hummed. Perfect. Mine.

  A racket started in the front room, popping her bubble of fantasies. Lights flashed, bells rang, and people cheered. Apparently, someone had just hit a winning combination on one of the slot machines.

  “God, I hate Vegas sometimes,” she grumbled.

  “Tell me about it,” he sighed. His voice was so full of longing, she blinked, considering.

  Some shifters simply didn’t belong in cities, and Sin City — well, it had to be hell for a bear.

  “Ever tempted to escape?” she asked.

  Escape seemed to be the right word, because his eyes slid up and to the right as if he could see a tempting horizon of mountains and woods. Bear country, in other words.

  “All the time,” he whispered. “All the time.”

  She wondered what kept him in the city, then. She leaned closer, tickling his ear with her lips. “So how about we get out of this place?”

  A deep, animal rumble built in his chest.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” She grinned and led him to the back door.

  Chapter Two: Tanner

  What the hell was he doing?

  Tanner blinked and tried digging his heels into the ground, but he couldn’t stop himself from following the auburn-haired beauty outside. His body was on autopilot, and all he could do was watch.

  I got this, his bear said. Trust me, I got this.

  I got this were three words that triggered every warning system in the human half of his mind, but Jesus, he couldn’t resist. He didn’t want to resist, even though he knew he should.

  Forget about should, at least for tonight. His bear sounded so convincing, so smooth despite the lie laced into the words for tonight .

  She pushed the back door open, and they went from the air-conditioned chill of the pub to the solid wall of heat that was Nevada. And even though Tanner knew the bone-dry air would sear his lungs, he breathed deeply. Outdoors was outdoors, even if the air was nowhere near as fresh as it was back home. With that gulp of air came another whiff of her, giving him another high.

  Dragon. Holy smokes. A dragon. He’d always figured they’d carry the rotten egg smell of a volcano, but Karen’s scent was delicate and fresh like an orchid in full bloom. All feminine, all mystery.

  All mine, his bear hummed.

  It was dusk, and the sky was splitting into a fractured palette of colors — orange and yellow and oozing red. She’d led him out to a back alley, which was just buffered enough from the clamor and lights of the city to make the first star of night visible. It winked at him, saying, Go, bear. Go. Follow your destiny.

  Which was crazy. His destiny was to serve his clan, and that meant keeping his head screwed on straight. Especially now. He was just two weeks away from seeing through an intricate plan that had been months in the making, and he couldn’t allow himself the slightest indiscretion now.

  This isn’t indiscretion, his bear insisted. It’s destiny.

  Destiny? He’d always pictured destiny as a wise and ancient force. That, or a complicated contraption used by the gods — one with a lot of gears that interlocked and creaked in slow, ponderous circles.

  He’d never imagined this rush, this need, this desperate desire to act, and act fast.

  Get her. Keep her. Win your mate, a voice sounded urgently in his mind.

  His hands opened and closed on thin air. If only destiny had an emergency brake he could hit when things started spinning out of control the way they did now. Christ, he’d never moved this fast with a woman before. He was a bear, and bears had it knocked into them from an early age that caution was better than regret. To look before they leaped. That it was better to be safe than sorry and a whole lot of other proverbs that had always made a lot of sense to him.

  Except now. Now, he couldn’t hold back.

  He tried counting to ten — a trick every good bear was taught as a cub — but he kept stalling out at about three.


  Still, he tried again.

  One…

  Think about your duty. Your mission for the clan, he tried telling himself.

  Two…

  Think how close you are to getting out of this hellhole, he added, trying to slow his pounding heart.

  Three…

  Think about… Um…

  And that was the problem. He couldn’t think. He could barely even see straight, damn it.

  Think about how perfect we’ll be together, his bear supplied.

  “Where to?” Karen asked.

  Her voice was low and husky, and damn it, just hearing it made his blood pump faster.

  Take her, his bear growled. Take her and show her a good time.

  “I’ll show you. Hop on,” he heard himself saying when they reached the motorcycle he’d parked a few blocks away. He didn’t even remember swinging a leg over the saddle and settling in, but he sure noticed Karen mount up.

  “Nice ride,” she murmured.

  Her eyes sang with excitement, and when she put a hand on his shoulder to steady herself, his whole body cheered. Then she slid into the saddle behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and—

  Whoa. He squeezed the handlebars tighter, trying to hang on as every nerve in his brain short-circuited.

  Mine, his bear declared, feeling her body mesh with his. Mate.

  But holy crap, how could a dragon be his mate? He was supposed to find a nice girl from back home. A she-bear who valued all the things he did, like calm and stability and family, not to mention planning for hard times.

  In other words, the polar opposite of the woman snuggled up behind him now.

  He could see his mother’s look of horror if he brought home a woman who shifted into a scaled dragon instead of a furry bear. But… but…

  But it feels so right! his bear cried.

  Over the past weeks, the lights and crowds of Vegas had him permanently on edge, and his soul had felt so caged. But the second Karen touched him, the sun came out again. Not the pounding Nevada sun, but the smiling sun he knew from Idaho. The one that shone kindly on blue skies and craggy mountains and sparkling rivers. Not only that, but that fingernails-on-a-chalkboard feeling that Vegas always created in him had given way to a pleasant hum.

  Destiny, his bear murmured. Destiny.

  He gunned his Triumph into a higher gear and shot off down the road. Fast. Over the speed limit, in fact, which he never, ever did. But he couldn’t help it because Karen had squeaked in delight and squeezed even closer to his back.

  God, what a rush. A thrill. And it wasn’t the bike doing that to him. It was her.

  “What are you doing in Vegas?” he shouted over his shoulder.

  “The usual.”

  She said it all too innocently, and that set off alarms in his mind. But those were all the way in the back, and he could barely see them for all the fireworks shooting around the foreground. Big, booming fireworks that exploded into all kinds of naughty images of him and her.

  Well, keep away from the Scarlet Palace, he nearly said. It’s not your kind of place.

  But he clamped his mouth shut just in time. He had the sneaking suspicion Karen was exactly the type to go straight to a place she’d been warned away from. And he didn’t want her anywhere near the casino he worked for, ever. The place was far too dangerous and corrupt.

  “Leaving Las Vegas?” Karen yelled over the sound of the engine, reading a sign as he hit the highway and headed out of town. “Where exactly are you taking me, bear?”

  She sounded excited, not alarmed, and he grinned at her in the side mirror.

  “Up there.” He pointed ahead.

  “Aha. You’re taking me to the sun,” she joked. “Haven’t you heard the story of Icarus?”

  He laughed. No, his bike wasn’t held together with wax like Icarus’ wings. “We’re going up to that ridge.”

  My special spot, his bear added. And I hope you like it as much as I do.

  He caught himself wishing desperately that she would, then shook his head. Was he nuts? Taking a woman to the drab room he rented would be smarter. That place was anonymous. It didn’t reveal anything about him. But taking her up to Razorback Ridge — that was like letting her glimpse inside his soul, practically.

  “We’re going off-road?” Her voice went up in hope.

  “Hang on,” he said, swinging off the highway much, much faster than he usually did to hit the dirt trail.

  Vroom! He gunned the engine again, sending up a cloud of dust in his rush to allow his mate to catch one more glimpse of the sun before it slipped out of sight.

  “Awesome!” Karen hooted.

  She liked the bumps as much as he did, shrieking and urging him on. And damn, was it fun, laughing out loud just out of the joy of it all.

  Lust for life, his bear whispered. That’s our mate.

  Life wasn’t the only thing she had lust for, he figured as her hold on his ribs dropped closer and closer to his crotch. Which was fine with him. He sped up the last bit of the hill, drove another quarter mile along the ridgeline as she oohed and aahed at the views, and finally rolled to a stop.

  “This is it,” he said, holding his breath.

  Would she like it? Or would she clobber him over the head and demand that he take her back?

  “This is gorgeous,” she breathed.

  His bear did a happy dance.

  They’d made it just in time to watch the sun drop beyond the horizon, and he swore it winked at him.

  “Green flash!” she cried. “Did you see it?”

  Part of him wanted to fib and satisfy his mate by saying, Yes! Wasn’t it great? but there was no way he could lie to her. No way.

  “Somehow, I always miss it,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t be disappointed in him.

  But Karen just leaned in — way, way in, so close he could feel her fresh breath on his neck — and whispered, “Next time, then.”

  His jaw dropped. Maybe she realized that this might be about forever, too. Maybe she really was his mate.

  Then she kissed his ear, and her voice dropped lower. “But later is later. Right now, all I want is now.” She chuckled at her own tangle of words and ran her fingers along the waistband of his jeans. “All I want is you.”

  He’d always pictured heaven as a place deep in the woods where berries grew thick and the grass was springy underfoot. But maybe heaven was right up here on a dusty ridge in Nevada.

  “I’d hate to make out in a thorn bush, though,” she added a second later, looking around at the scrubby plants. “You got a plan for this, bear?”

  A plan? He’d had a plan until he met her. Now, he had no idea what the hell he was doing. Only that it felt right and good. Sinfully good.

  Luckily, he did have an old blanket in the saddlebag, and the rock at the very top of the lookout point was nice and flat — the perfect place to lay his beauty down and make sweet love to her all night long.

  See? his bear demanded. Destiny.

  She kissed him just then, making his mind go blank of everything but desire.

  “Up here,” he panted, dragging himself away from the kiss. He led the way up to the rocky outcrop at the very top of the ridge.

  “Wow,” she said, leaping from rock to rock right to the top. “What a view.”

  He caught up to her and took it all in. Yeah, the view was beautiful. Vegas was a glow of lights on one horizon, but he favored the north side, where stars were already filling up the sky, lighting up one by one like so many fireflies. It was beautiful. Perfect. Serene.

  But that wasn’t what had his heart swelling and what made him sigh in sheer joy.

  “What a view,” he murmured, looking at her.

  For weeks, he’d come up here, dreaming about how soon he might get home. But right now, all he dreamed of was her.

  Don’t have to dream, his bear whispered, exactly at the same moment Karen turned and locked eyes with him.

  Her eyes glinted, and he wondered whether i
t was reflected starlight or the dragon within. She didn’t give him much time to wonder, though, because a heartbeat later, she stepped closer and tipped her chin up toward his.

  Kiss her. Take her. Make her ours, his bear begged.

  He pressed his lips to hers, intending to start slow and give her time. Maybe stroke her silky hair for a while. But a minute later, they were both panting and clawing at each other’s clothes.

  Was he going too fast? Was he risking too much? Tanner shook the thoughts away as he lowered her to the blanket. There was no slowing this down. This was destiny. It had to be.

  Destiny, his bear murmured.

  Destiny, Karen’s sparkling eyes agreed.

  “Never been with a bear before,” she teased, working his fly down slowly. Much too slowly, because suddenly he was in a wild rush.

  “Never been with a dragon before,” he echoed, unsnapping her bra.

  “Your chance to give me a night to remember,” she said, kissing his ear.

  Oh, he’d give her that, all right. And maybe even lots of nights to remember if his bear got its way.

  But first things first. He lowered Karen gently to the blanket and stripped her out of the rest of her clothes, feeling every bit a teen on his first night past first base.

  “What are you looking at, bear?” she purred, opening her body to his gaze.

  He could have answered a dozen different ways. Looking at the starlight glowing on your skin, for instance. Or, I’m looking at the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

  But the answer that outraced all other answers to the tip of his tongue was, Mate. I’m looking at my mate.

  He squeezed his lips together just in time to hold the words back, though. What if he scared her off? What if dragons didn’t know about destiny?

  “Looking at you,” he said.

  Three little words, but they came out as a growl, and a second later, he was consuming her, unable to hold back. He worshiped her breasts. Devoured her nipples. Circled her slick entrance a hundred times with his fingers as she fisted his cock and worked him every bit as intensely as he worked her.

  “Yes,” she moaned again and again. “Yes.”

  Yes, he nearly groaned aloud as a need unlike anything he’d ever felt engulfed him.