Angel’s Guilty Pleasures

He had to admire her discretion, even though they were seemingly alone.

“Why would you think that?” he asked. He was curious to see how her mind worked and how much she actually knew about his kind.

Frustration flashed across her face, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine. You want to be all mysterious, don’t tell me.”

“Answer my question, and I’ll answer yours.” Maybe he wouldn’t tell her everything, but he’d give her some kind of answer.

She gave him a look that told him she knew he was tricking her somehow but was willing to go along.

“That tattoos for one. I’ve seen similar ones.”

On her brother-in-law, most likely. “What else?”

“You’re big and strong, and there’s something about you.” She shook her head when he started to smile. “Yeah, you don’t need your ego stroked.”

But he did, at least by her. He leaned forward and propped his forearms on his thighs and linked his hands together. It pulled the material of his sweater up, exposing his tattoos. “Don’t stop now.”

Abigail huffed in pure frustration. “Then there’s the bracelet.” She slipped her sleeve back and stared at the silver band with the embedded drakon tear. The more he saw it, the less he liked her wearing the tear from another drakon.

Abigail was his treasure.

“You were attracted to the bracelet, not me. Admit that much.”

Vasili nodded. “I did sense the bracelet, but once I saw you, it no longer mattered.

“Yeah, right.” She pulled her sleeve back down. “You wanted to know where it came from, how I got it, and if I was working for a certain group who shall remain nameless.”

“You’re right. I did want to know all of that and more.” Once he’d seen her, he’d wanted to know everything about her. That had concerned him at first, but now that he knew her better, he was coming to realize just how special she was.

“What I can’t figure out is, if the bracelet is a trap…” She looked to him for confirmation.

“It is,” he assured her. Even now, there was no denying the pulsing power coming from her wrist.

“Then why doesn’t it affect you?”

Vasili knew he was at a crossroad. He’d always had a sense about such things. This moment and what he said would affect the rest of his life. He knew if he didn’t share something with Abigail, she would leave him as soon as possible. If he couldn’t build some kind of trust between them, he would lose her.

His dragon roared inside him, and the skin on his forearms rippled. He desperately wanted to shift and barely managed to control himself.

Abigail gasped and sat back on the bunk. She glanced at the door of the cabin, but it was closed, giving them privacy. She wasn’t afraid of him. Not his Abigail. She was afraid for him.

That stung. He was a drakon, mighty and powerful. She should trust him to take care of her, should recognize his strength.

He knew he was being totally irrational. That, too, was out of character. What was it about Abigail that pulled at all of his senses?

One day she gave notice at her job on a Friday morning. On Sunday afternoon, she received a tentative acceptance for her first erotic romance novel and life would never be the same.

N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good look will vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

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