Burning for the Dragon: BBW Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance (Fated Hearts Club Book 1) (4 page)

Damn his consideration. Not only for her, but for all the
scared little humans. She knew at the heart of that was a little
self-preservation, but it still made her melt.

He waved away the driver and held the door for her himself.
Only after she settled did he duck into the back and let the door close behind
him. He overwhelmed the small space, his head nearly brushing the top of the
car and his legs stretched out long in front of him. Instead of panicking her,
it soothed her nerves. He was big and strong and could protect her, should it
be needed. Outside of that, there was so much of him for her to curl into and
cuddle against.

Penelope put the brakes on that thought. As much as she
wanted to press her face into his chest and lick all the delightful inches of
him she knew she’d find under his clothes, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
She wanted some assurance that he wouldn’t take wing after the next thing that
looked at him. She wanted loyalty, and while Luca was earning tons of brownie
points for seeking her out, she wasn’t sure if it would last. Or if his
attraction to her would last.

The cold thoughts of her head kept dousing the flames that
were starting to melt her heart. Luca would need to massively turn up the heat
if he wanted to chip through her defenses.

The limo pulled up to
the
hottest Italian restaurant
in the city. Even without having plans to ever visit, Penelope knew the place
took months to get a reservation. Their private dining rooms cost a fortune on
top of the long wait.

But someone like Luca was able to secure a spot in a day.

Penelope almost whined when he helped her from the car. Even
though she looked like she belonged, she didn’t feel it. She glanced at the
line of people waiting for a last minute cancellation. The women were dressed
in gowns and the men in suits, but their eyes weighed her and found her
wanting. They could scent out the poor as easily as a shark could smell blood.

Luca placed her hand on his arm and led her forward. A quick
chat with the hostess and they were let through the velvet rope that hung
across the entrance.

“
He
is with
her
?” She heard some disappointed
woman mutter.

Inside was little better. Rich tapestries draped over the
walls anywhere there wasn’t an ornate painting. Space and privacy were granted
in equal amounts. Each tiny table looked lost in a sea of plush carpet.

The whispers continued as the host led them on. Luca
obviously heard more than she, and his jaw stiffened. The little sign of his
irritation buoyed her confidence.

She clung to his arm and lifted her chin. Let them stare.
She was the one he asked to join him, and she was the one he sent a dress.
She’d dealt with their type before. They were jealous, catty bitches and
couldn’t fathom that the curvy girl had snagged herself the most attractive man
in the place. They could go dig for gold elsewhere.

They were led through the restaurant and out to the back
dining platform. A small handful of other tables were present, each lit with
candles. The view was spectacular and Penelope gasped. Here was the real reason
why the reservation list was so long.

Over the ornate railing was a view of the river. On the
other side were the skyscrapers that seemed to breed each time she looked at
the skyline. Behind them and nearly glowing with the setting sun and lights of
the city were the mountains she rarely visited.

“You didn’t need to go through with all of this,” she
whispered across the table after they were seated.

Luca shrugged. “I wanted to show the most beautiful woman I
know the most beautiful view I know.”

The waiter appeared almost as soon as they were seated and
poured out glasses of red wine. She swirled the liquid in the glass after he
left, and tried to think of something to say. They’d been so witty with each
other at the Fated Hearts Club, but now it felt like her head was stuffed full
of cotton.

“Do you come here often, then?”

He shook his head. “Only when I miss home. The seat of our
power is in Italy. Some say when Mount Vesuvius erupted, ash and lava weren’t
the only things that spilled into the world. The dragons rose up from the angry
earth and beat their wings for the first time.”

“Really? And here I thought you were all just a bunch of
highly evolved lizards.” She grinned over the rim of her wine glass.

A thin trail of smoke exited his nostrils. It was a reminder
that underneath his human form was a deadly creature that could probably
swallow her in one bite. Instead of fear gripping her heart, arousal wove
through her veins.

“We are
not
lizards.”

“I much prefer your story, anyway.” She assured him and
reached across the table to put her hand over his. A jolt of electricity zinged
through her as soon as their skin touched. She’d never felt anything like it
before. It must have been a shifter thing. She opened her mouth to ask when the
waiter reappeared at their side. She didn’t miss the look of annoyance that
flashed through Luca’s eyes.

“Compliments of the chef, Mr. de Rege. Ravioli with red clam
sauce. An experiment for the evening.” The waiter set down the full plates and
stood in expectant attendance.

“My compliments, thank you.” Luca waved him away.

Penelope eyed the dish. They hadn’t even ordered a thing.
She didn’t move in the same circles as Luca, but certainly, that was an oddity.
It grated on her that she wasn’t allowed to order for herself. Luca didn’t seem
like the patronizing type, but that could always lurk under the surface. Her
fingers brushed against her necklace designed to look like bones. Politeness be
damned.

She raised an eyebrow. “Compliments of the chef?”

Luca nodded. “A distant relative. She uses me as her taster
whenever I come by for a meal.” A worried look darkened his eyes. “If you
prefer something else…”

“Oh, no! This looks wonderful.” Her worry faded. He came to
the restaurant when he wanted a reminder of his home. Barring actually meeting
his parents, it felt like she’d gained some kind of acceptance into his world
if she was being treated as he would alone.

The first bite curled her toes with an explosion of flavors
and the last residual bit of worry fled. There was no possible way she could be
upset over the delicious food. Her scale would probably regret it in the
morning, but she didn’t care.

“Vera was certainly impressed when she heard that you came
to my work to ask me out. She liked the dress you picked out, too. She wanted
me to ask if you had a brother.” She grinned over her fork.

He set down his fork and stared across the river. “He’s
dead.”

“Shit, Luca. I’m sorry.” Her fork clattered to the plate,
startling the nearest tables. She’d really put her foot in her mouth with that
one. Pain contorted Luca’s face when she dared to peek at him.

“It’s fine. Please, don’t worry about it.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked quietly. Though
his words said he wasn’t upset, his entire demeanor told otherwise. His body
was tight with the emotion that ran through him. She wanted to comfort him, but
not in a way that he would hate. Though she’d never lost anyone close, she knew
people handled their grief differently.

“Leo was… the best at everything. He made the better marks
in school, he was easier to get on with, he could even manage to distract our
parents from any wrongdoing he was caught in.” His voice was thick with
emotion.

“You were close?”

“My best friend, until I left home. The physical distance
between us meant we weren’t in each other’s lives as much. To be honest, I was
enjoying my freedom from home. I think he respected that and didn’t push me to
visit as much as he should.”

“But that’s normal. Everyone grows away from their family at
some point.” She certainly had, though her growth had been hindered until she
forced her way out. If her stepmother had her say, she’d still be on the plot
of land and doing all the hard work for the family. Vera had taken Penelope
under her wing during their first month of college and given her a crash course
in living for herself.

“Not dragons. We remain very close. It’s for our own
survival. A lonely dragon can lose his way in the world and become a rogue. A
dragon alone is an easy target for dragon slayers, as well.” Luca’s mouth
twisted into a snarl and Penelope reached across the table for his hands.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to say anything if you don’t
want.”

He shook his head. “No. It’s painful and maddening, but there’s
no changing it. A dragon slayer caught my brother unawares and ended his life.”

She stroked his hand and let him have his silence. Slowly,
his fingers unclenched from a fist and opened to her. She ran her fingertips
over his palms and down his digits.

“They’re a foul, cowardly group that killed most of my kind.
They won’t be happy until all dragons are gone from this world.”

“The killer wasn’t ever caught?” Oh, the poor man. He didn’t
even have the closure of justice.

The shake of his head seemed to shake away the worst of his
outburst. Penelope couldn’t help but feel he was packing himself away again and
she was being shown a mask of Luca instead of the real man below. She didn’t
try to hold on when he slid his hand away from her and adjusted the plate of
food in front of him.

“Let’s talk about something more pleasant than killers and
death, shall we? Tell me about your Vera. How did you two meet?”

She studied him through her eyelashes. He didn’t quite look
her way, but he didn’t look as lost as he had when telling the snippet of his
past, either. It was too soon to push for more and the place they were in
wasn’t exactly ideal for such a charged conversation. She’d let him have his
distraction.

She launched into the saga that was Vera’s influence on her.
“Well, we were assigned to the same room during our freshman year of college.
She barely noticed me at first, probably because she was always out at a party
or something. Actually, that much hasn’t changed.”

***

Luca listened to her words roll over him. It was like faerie
music or the soft tinkle of bells or, or, or… Oh, hell, he didn’t know.
Everything about her was gorgeous, from her head to her toes, but her voice
alone would be enough to undo him.

It was the distraction he needed to avoid thinking of his
brother. He shouldn’t have spoken of Leon, shouldn’t have caused a scene. He
didn’t want pity. He wanted revenge.

But her voice alone wouldn’t be enough to be the Consort of
the Dragon King. She would need to command beside him. Dragons wouldn’t accept
weakness.

Except his dragon urged him to damn them all and sweep the
gorgeous Penelope into their arms. They could fly to their lair and take the
woman as their mate. Everything else were details to be penned at a later date.

Luca was tempted to agree with the beast. It roared with
triumph in his head and gathered the power to start shifting, but Luca held it
back. They had the room on the open patio, but they wouldn’t ruin the
restaurant’s business by frightening the other patrons.

He felt a pull to Penelope that went beyond the call of
dragon to mate or the need for someone to rule at his side. It was unlike
anything he’d ever felt before, and beyond what he’d heard whispered when the
talk of fated mates came up in conversation. She was like air in his lungs and
blood in his body. He needed her in every way. Underneath the need to mate and
further the dragon line was the true draw of a man to a beautiful woman, one
that he thought would make him happy for the rest of his long life. He wouldn’t
rush it. He wanted her to feel the same before he sunk his fangs into her skin
and marked her as his own.

If she would even want him and everything that came with
him. He would be the Dragon King and she the Consort. There would be more than
just mates once he took the throne. The petty squabbles of everyday life, for
one. The need for actual justice was another duty, and not just the justice
served between wronged parties of the court. If the dragon slayers were on the
rise again…

No. He wouldn’t tarnish the evening with more thoughts of
his brother’s killer. Penelope deserved to be the focus of his attention.

The curve of her lips stopped moving and pulled into a
frown. The green of her eyes sparkled with worry. Her cheeks flushed, and he
wasn’t sure if it was anger or embarrassment behind the color.

He blinked at her and realized he’d missed a question.

“I apologize. What did you say?” He cleared his throat.

“What do you want out of your life?”

What did he want? To see her skin flushed pink with passion
as he brought her to the edge again and again. To see her stomach round with
their growing children. To rip the dress from her body and put his hands all
over her skin.

His dragon reared its head again and breathed fire on his arousal.
His mind wandered to the mouth-watering image of her spread out in his lair and
beckoning him forward. Not for the first time since picking her up, Luca had to
beat the animal part of him back to keep his human form.

If he hadn’t sent her running with talk of his dead brother
and the killers of his people, he wasn’t about to frighten her away with being
too forceful in a public place. He had the rest of the night to convince her
how much he wanted her body.

“My firm is really taking off, so there are different
directions I’d like to go with that. We have many projects on the table. I tend
to get involved heavily—”

“Yes, but what do you
want
?”

She was persistent, he had to give her that. Leo would like
her.

Would have liked, he corrected himself. Past tense.

It alarmed him how it still shocked him that his brother was
dead. There was no changing the fact and he needed to accept it. He was the
heir to the Dragon Throne now.

“Dragons are still very medieval creatures. We have our
hierarchy of power we must respect. There are so few of us left, too, so an
even greater importance is placed on the future generations. But we can’t have
children without our mates. I need to find my mate that will help continue the
line.”

He dodged the question and managed to plant another in her
mind, the hint of it clear in her eyes. He cut it off before she could ask. He
didn’t want to hurry her into any decision. She was timid underneath the
bravado, and he wouldn’t scare his little rabbit into running from him.

“What do you want with your life? Do you enjoy being a
travel agent?”

It wasn’t for him to judge. Some people liked to work with
their hands, while others wanted to delve into the insides of computers. What
mattered was that she found her work fulfilling and enjoyable.

“It’s only something to pay the bills. I had to leave my
previous job quicker than I intended.”

The question in her eyes vanished and was replaced with
hurt. He wanted to go to her side of the table and wrap her in his arms. He’d
roast anything that tried to hurt her. “What happened?”