Chapter Two
Marjan rushed over, half shifted, claws shooting from her fingertips. Her enormous fangs sliced down, curving out of her mouth.
“Quit moleshting my friend!” she hissed furiously, the fangs making her lisp. “Get your handsh off of her, you shcaly pervert!”
Two tall, handsome dragons who resembled Jaspar laughed behind their hands. His brothers, Sterran and Korl. Not that Liza had obsessively researched Jaspar and his clan and stared at pictures of him over and over again ever since she’d met him last month. No, not at all.
“Members of the Most Exalted and Glorious Balthazar Clan of the Fiery Death-Bringers do not molest,” Jaspar said indignantly. “If anything, your friend molestedme.” He glanced down at her. “Not that I mind.”
Oh,swoon.The handsome bastard was flirting with her. This was so unfair.
“Ha! That’s why your handsh are all over her. As the humansh would shay,whatever,” Marjan said, grabbing Liza. Liza took a deep breath and pushed Jaspar away from her. He released her instantly Marjan helped Liza walk over to the front porch, where she took a deep breath and tried to steady herself.
“Are you all right? Why did you almost faint? Did he shoot you with a poison dart or something?” Marjan glared at the Drakken. “They’re treacherous. I can feel it; I’m fighting the urge to shift. That only happens when there is a severe threat nearby.”
“He didn’t poison me,” Liza said. “I don’t know what came over me. Maybe I just haven’t been eating enough. That and all the stress.”
She knew that wasn’t really the case. Whatever the feeling was, it had been caused by Jaspar. Some kind of weird mind control? She didn’t know what he was doing to her, but every time she laid eyes on the bastard, he made her woozy. Also, she felt a strange mixture of lust and longing such as she had never felt before.
Jaspar didn’t seem to be the least bit disturbed. He had an enormous, smug grin on his handsome face as he stood there, eyes fixed on her.
“Thank God I saved you from that creepy pervert,” Marjan huffed.
“Yeah, that’s right. Good thing you got there when you did.” But secretly, Liza was thinking that it wouldn’t have been so bad if Marjan had left her slumped in Jaspar’s arms for a few moments longer. Just another minute – or hour, or overnight – would have been okay.
She shook her head to clear those ridiculous thoughts.
Some of Jaspar’s men were actually carrying luggage, she realized, and they were moving towards the bed and breakfast. Liza hurried over to block them, and Marjan joined her, claws extended. Marjan let out a low, threatening hiss.
“What are you doing?” Liza demanded.
Two of the men who’d accompanied Jaspar, who were almost as tall as he was, hurried forward. “Presenting His Most Glorious Excellency, He Who Rains Death From the Skies, He Who—”
“He who can’t speak for himself?” Liza interrupted rudely. She didn’t care if the Drakken apparently had some weird power that made all her pink bits tingle. He was the jerk who’d taken advantage of her family’s misfortune and scooped up their land in a fire sale. And what the hell did he mean, he was going to claim her? As if.
“I most certainly can speak for myself,” Jaspar said coolly.
“So did you come here to gloat?” Liza fixed him with a steely glare.
“No, we came to book your bed and breakfast for the next two weeks.”
“Are you kidding me? Why would I rent out our rooms to the bastards who destroyed our entire colony?”
“I am offended,” Korl said.
“Tough titty.” Liza glared at him. “We know it was you.”
Korl snorted, and wisps of smoke curled from his nostrils. “If we had destroyed your land, there would not be a blade of grass left standing.” He gestured all around him. “All of the buildings are intact. And the trees and the flowers and the underbrush. People walk in the streets and laugh, rather than lamenting over the smoking corpses of their loved ones. We are the fiery death-bringers. How dare you say we did such a poor job of destroying this world?”
“My brother speaks the truth,” Jaspar said. “But I forgive you for misunderstanding our abilities. Soon you will know us much better. Most especially me. You will know me and my abilities.” His eyes gleamed in a way that left no doubt as to what he meant.
“Why?” Liza stared at him suspiciously.
“Because you are my—” He said a word that didn’t translate.
“Your what?”
Geneva’s voice sounded behind Liza. “Oh, I know what that means.” Liza turned around and scowled at her. Her sister had the habit of holo-calling at the most annoying and inconvenient moments.
