“What do you plan to do with Ms. Linwood…after?” Barty held hisbreath.
Conrad’s dark chuckle made Barty’s skin crawl. “After? I suppose if there is anything left, I could give her toyou.”
Barty wasn’t interested in taking a man’s seconds, but Piper was attractive enough that he would take what he could get. Conrad shot him a quick imperiousglance.
“Have everything ready by tomorrow night. Do not disappointme.”
Barty nodded. “Consider it done, Mr.Sinclair.”
Without another glance, Conrad stalked from the room. People scrambled out of his way instinctively. Barty snatched a champagne glass of his own and hastily downed the fizzy liquid. He knew how theyfelt.
There was something scary as hell about Conrad Sinclair. Maybe he wouldn’t worry about getting Piper afterward. Whatever Conrad wanted to do with her was his business. With a sigh, he smoothed his shirt and tie with shaky hands and headed toward the table of appetizers, putting as much distance between himself and Piper Linwood aspossible.
* * *
Conrad Sinclair steppedinto his private car waiting outside the Thorne Auction House, his nostrils still filled with the scent of Piper Linwood. A virgin, of childbearing age no less. It was so rare to find them in these modern days. Hundreds of years ago, there had been an abundance of sweet-smelling creatures he could pluck like ripe fruit, but now? It was almostimpossible.
Conrad’s skin burned at the thought of stripping the woman’s clothes and shoving her onto her back so he could take her. He would enjoy her cries of pain and the feel of her nails clawing at him. He loved it when females fought him. He was a male dragon, after all, and enjoyed being dominant in bed and in life. Dragons did not breed with weak creatures. He would prefer a dragoness, of course, but they were increasingly rare and more resistant to the advances of dragon males thanever.
He watched the streets with their bright flashing lights and immense video advertisements and growled. The modern age was a dreadful thing. A hint of smoke escaped his nostrils as his body responded to his mood. His dragon was just beneath his skin, clawing to get out. It’d been two weeks since he’d allowed himself the luxury of changing form and taking to theair.
The dangers were too great here, so close to London. The Brotherhood of the Blood Moon had a large hub in London. The last thing Conrad wanted was to be on their radar. He’d worked too hard to erase the evidence of his family lineage, as the last of the Sinclair dragons. The Brotherhood shouldn’t know he was a dragon, which meant that if his plans went accordingly, when he became prime minister they would never see the threat coming. But he couldn’t resist going after the jewels. He would just have to risk being recognized by the Brotherhood as a dragon if they came sniffing around. It would be worth it, though, to have the Cheapside hoard in hispossession.
Heneededthose jewels. Both for practical reasons and out of spite. They had once belonged to Mikhail Barinov, given in exchange for a treaty with the Belishaws. It was because of Mikhail that he had been robbed of the power that should have beenhis.
And it had gone so well for so long. Being immortal, dragons could be patient creatures. He thought nothing of spending a decade slowly becoming a trusted assistant and confidant to the man who would someday be the queen’s court magician, John Dee. Teaching him a little of his people—not much, but enough to put him on the right paths ofinvestigation.
He had planned to use the queen to rid himself of his greatest rivals at the time, the Belishaws. Dee learned much of the dragons’ nature, including what plants and minerals could quiet their inner beast, to the point of making as them weak and vulnerable as any human. Finding a potion to bring out the words of truth in his kind had been an unexpected but not unwelcomebonus.
Conrad knew that once he used Dee to poison Elizabeth against the Belishaws, those potions would ensure their destruction and secure his place and power over all of England, queen or noqueen.
Then Mikhail Barinov had arrived and ruined everything. As soon as he had begun making secret overtures to Elizabeth, Conrad knew his plans were in peril. If Mikhail were to bond with her, claim her as his true mate, she would never turn on the Belishaws. In the end, Conrad had not only been forced to speed up his plans, but to change his target aswell.
It had worked well enough. Barinov had been locked up in a dungeon, kept weak and helpless, and his treasures taken. But then Conrad had to wait years before he could move on the Belishaws. Too soon and he risked exposure. Time. He had all the time in theworld.
Or so he’dthought.
He buried the memories of the past deep, ignoring the flare of his dragon’srage.
“Soon we will have all that we are owed. Soon,” he promised the beast pacing insidehim.
I trusted her, that human witch, but she betrayed me. I will have the hoard at last and will stand laughing over hertomb.
He closed his eyes, imagining the gleam of the rubies in the firelight of his treasure room and the sweet scent of a virgin in hisbed.
Some days it was good to be adragon.
* * *
Mikhail waitedin the shadows of the mews outside Thorne Auction House, counting each heartbeat as he watched the lights in the windows being extinguished one by one. It reminded him of times long ago, with dark nights and firelight, eagerly waiting for any hint that Elizabeth wished to seehim.
I was such a fool then to wait for a queen’s command. For one who knew so little of lovemaking, the Virgin Queen had known exactly how to master and manipulate men. But that was long ago, centuries away from this moment and the woman he wanted to seenow.
Piper Linwood. His true mate. The moment he’d kissed her, he’d caught flickering visions of a little girl chasing a fat white rabbit in a backyard before stopping to pick up some brightly colored eggs. The vision had changed to a young woman bent over a desk, staring at gems gleaming on a black velvet cloth, her focus intense as she studiedthem.
A dragon knew his true mate by the bonding that began with a first kiss. Invisible threads would slowly bind his heart and hers together over time, until they could share thoughts and emotions almost telepathically. But it all started with a shared memory during akiss.
When he’d recognized Elizabeth as his true mate, he’d thought that losing her would mean he’d never get a second chance. But fate had sent him Piper. His dragon was hesitant, though, and didn’t want to risk mating a woman if she would only betray him as Elizabeth had. It would kill him. He tried to send encouraging thoughts to hisdragon.
