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FLAMES OF THE DRAGON’S DESIRE is now available!
Shifters in Heat, Book 4
The timid librarian gets a fantasy of her own when she meets the sexy dragon king.
Chloe Hoffman thought she was going out for a night on the town with her closest friends, but ends up being dragged out to a mysterious shifter party in the woods. When a sexy man follows her into the library, she’s caught up in an unexpected fling. The big, handsome dragon shifter is working hard to seduce her and she’s having a hard time not giving in.
Adrian Dracos has made a lifetime goal to avoid meeting his mate. As a dragon shifter, he outlives nearly everyone, and he doesn’t want to open himself up to heartbreak. When a lovely human activates his mate sense all hell breaks loose. Chloe is kind, sweet and beautiful. He can’t stand to think about living a single moment without her.
Convincing the cautious human to give love with a shifter a chance is not so simple. Their love reveals a weakness to his centuries-old enemy. If Adrian gets Chloe, her life will be on the line. One of them will be destroyed by their romance. Is the chance at love worth risking everything for?
Read a Sneak Peek
CHLOE
“You know,” Adrian said, eyes half-lidded. “You don’t look like you belong here.”
Chloe tried to comprehend how she’d ended up in this situation, sitting on a couch beside the most handsome man she’d seen in her life. She and her friends had gone to the bar as planned but ended up overhearing about a shifter party. Curious, her friends had convinced her to sneak in despite Chloe’s serious reservations.
Every hair on Chloe’s body stood straight up. Her breath hitched in her throat, sweat beading on the back of her neck.
If she ended up being the reason her friends got kicked out, they’d never let her live it down. And who knows how rich shifters would react to party crashers in their midst? Would they call the cops on them? Did shifters even use the police, or did they settle things more … savagely?
“I don’t know what you mean,” Chloe stammered. “We had that key and everything, so I definitely belong here.” She didn’t add that Fiona had found the key to get into the party on the floor of the bar, where some guests had dropped it, or that they definitely had not been on the invite list.
She could still hear the thumping on the walls and the moans from the other room. Somehow, she had found herself crashing some kind of rich shifter sex party filled with fountains of real champagne and canapes that probably cost as much as her annual salary.
And it all started because she and her friends decided to go to a bar for Alexis’s birthday. And that had somehow, inexplicably, led them here. For once, her life was like a novel, and she was truthfully a bit terrified.
She wanted nothing more than to sit down with a good book, but now she imagined how she’d look in her mugshot once this unreadable man turned her in with her friends. They’d be completely caught off-guard, having split off from her to entertain men of their own. Unlike Chloe, they had probably already sealed the deal.
The man … Adrian Dracos, as he had identified himself, just stared at her, a wry smile across his face.
Chloe was surprised when he chuckled. It was not malicious.
He sat back against the cushion and tilted his head knowingly.
“Really? You’re holed up here in the library by yourself, actually reading on the wildest night of the month,” he asked. “Come on, you couldn’t be more obvious.”
Chloe gripped the hem of her skirt, feeling like she just made the biggest mistake of her life.
“Okay. Okay, fine, yes, my friends dragged me here. They’re the party girls. I’m just along for the ride,” she said. “As usual,” she added, a little quieter to herself.
Adrian moved closer, scooting across the couch until the two of them were nearly touching. Then he leaned down, pushed his nose against the side of her neck, and took a very long inhale.
Chloe froze, every muscle stiffening as she tried to figure out what was happening.
Being sniffed by a handsome man at a masquerade was certainly not on her bingo card for the year, yet here she was. She was sure everyone here was a shifter except for her and her friends, of course. She wondered what kind of shifter he was, but she wasn’t sure it mattered. None of the animals that jumped to mind weren’t anything less than frightening.
“You’re a human,” he said matter-of-factly.
She questioned how she should respond and wondered if this might be a trap. There was no hint of anger or resentment in his eyes.
So she nodded, hoping he wasn’t going to tear her apart.
“How strange,” he mused. “Why would your shifter friends bring a human to this of all parties? You stand out like a nun in a whorehouse.”
Chloe blushed, not sure how to take his statement. Normally, she’d at least feel driven to defend her friends. But that night, even she was feeling apt to agree with him. She wouldn’t be correcting his assumptions about them being shifters. Not yet, at least, if it meant her friends could keep having their fun.
And maybe they’d return the favor and not bother her.
Chloe shrugged in response. She still had no idea what hunter’s block was nor how to answer his question.
That seemed to satisfy him as he leaned back slightly with a small smile. But Chloe could tell by the way his eyes lingered across her body that Adrian was far from done questioning her.
“So, is there a reason you’re so at home with all these books?”
She nodded.
“Actually, I’m a librarian,” Chloe replied, excited at the prospect of getting to explain her job.
“Fascinating. And how does one become a librarian?” he asked. “Do you simply collect enough books over time?”
Chloe let out a short laugh, wishing that were the case.
“Try four years of studying library science, a lengthy internship, and one of the most cutthroat industries to get a decent job in.”
“Really? I had no idea.”
Adrian leaned his head in his hand, resting the elbow on the back of the couch. He was so close that Chloe could take in what she assumed to be his cologne. Musky, like a campfire, but somehow also wrapped in velvet.
“All that work to stack books?”
Chloe rolled her eyes. That was a common misconception about her career, and she was used to it by now. But just as she opened her mouth to correct it, another man stepped into the library’s door, temporarily making the sexual commotion outside more audible.
She snapped to attention, trying hard not to look suspicious. The well-dressed man seemed to look right through her as he walked farther into the room and began attending to the fire there.
“Hello, Dan,” Adrian said. He looked Chloe over and shook his head slightly. “Dan works for Callum, the man who hosts this party.”
Then he leaned down close again and whispered. “Alpha wolf.”
Chloe shivered, not just from Adrian’s proximity but the realization that she was truly surrounded by shifters here.
“May I bring anything for you and your guest, Mr. Dracos?” Dan asked, picking up the book Chloe had grabbed and placing it back exactly where it came from. She wondered if the owner, Callum, had his own classification system for his books.
“Some of that wine, if you don’t mind. Not the bubbly kind, something red,” Adrian said nonchalantly.
“Shall I fetch a bottle of it, sir?” Dan asked.
“That would be wonderful, and some food, thank you. Whatever pairs well. I believe there was some beef tartare on the buffet?”
“Very good, sir.” Dan turned on his heel and showed himself out.
Chloe released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She didn’t need to be so anxious if Adrian was treating her like any other party guest. Her chances of being kicked out had surely dropped by now.
She relaxed and found herself simply chatting with the man like they were at any normal party. The wine was tart with a beautiful balance of sweetness. And the food was plentiful. Dan kept coming to check on them, offering to refill their glasses or retrieve some petit fours from the kitchen.
It wasn’t until Dan’s fourth visit that Chloe realized how close Adrian was. Their knees were touching, his arm draped languidly across her shoulders. It happened so casually, so easily, that the moment of contact simply didn’t register with her.
Her pulse picked up. She wasn’t this kind of girl. Firstly, she did not sleep with someone on the first date. That was a hard rule for her. And secondly, she most certainly never hooked up with a stranger at a party.
Even so, as Adrian’s eyes locked with hers, she felt a pull she couldn’t describe. It wasn’t the wine. She’d certainly been drunker than this before. Maybe it was the warmth of the fire, the lingering taste of cherries and chocolate on her tongue, or the way Adrian’s eyes seemed to reflect the dancing flames.
Whatever it was, when Adrian leaned his face toward her, she met him halfway.
Sparks erupted like she’d only read about. She didn’t know they were real.
Chloe leaned harder into the kiss, balancing herself with her palms on his chest.
He didn’t break their contact, which she took as an invitation to carry on…
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