Alfred didn’t say a word when Luc asked him to open the boot of the beastless carriage. Nor did he comment when Luc tossed his burden inside.

Alfred waited until they’d embarked on the route for home before clearing his throat and remarking, “Kidnapping is a felony.”

“Is there anything that isn’t a crime by human standards?” Luc grumbled because it seemed at every turn there was some kind of law against something. It really cramped his plans for world domination.

“Might I ask why you felt a need to kidnap Miss Elspeth?”

“The woman foiled my plans for coitus.”

“Hence why you knocked her unconscious, abducted her, and set fire to the tavern.”

“Me?” Luc couldn’t help an indignant lilt. “I had nothing to do with the violence that erupted.” Although he had greatly enjoyed it. Enough that, when Elspeth went a little crazy and began throwing chairs and laughing with great gusto when she knocked someone down, he’d stepped in just when a large fellow thought he could accost her.

“Don’t touch her,” he’d growled at the man in the bar. No one was to lay a hand on the dragoness. No one but him.

For revenge, of course.

Nothing else.

Now if only he could get his damned cock to forget how it felt to have her in his arms. Plush and womanly.

“Miss Elspeth was involved in a violent fracas?” Alfred shook his head as his query brought Luc back to the present. “I find that hard to believe.”

Luc didn’t. She was a big and bold warrior female, obviously. The kind his people used to produce before they became pacifists.

“Her friend helped with the chaos, too.”

“Won’t her friend notice that you kidnapped Miss Elspeth?”

“Her friend was the one to encourage me to take her.” Which he found immediately suspicious since the other female was also a dragon.

However, given the humans running screaming from the burning building while Elspeth giggled, in between chugging from various bottles, he could see how the friend might have wanted a male to step in and take control.

So Luc had. Stepped close, that was.

“Cease your actions at once.”

One eye closed, the other open and glazed, Elspeth smiled. Sloppily. “Make me, handsome.”

Handsome? She found him attractive. How dare she try to disarm her enemy with flattery. He didn’t fall for it for a single moment.

Okay, maybe his cock did, but he knew she lied.

“You ruined my evening,” he declared.

“You’re a buzz kill,” was her reply, followed by a belch that ignited. The fiery gas bubble floated away and clung to the ceiling, blackening a new spot.

“You don’t hold your liquor well.”

“Ma-ma-mother says I shouldn’t drink.”

Given the chaos, he could see why.

“You leave me no choice,” he declared. “You wrecked my plans.”

“Saved you, more like. How could you do that to Alfred?” she said with a wag of her finger. “You’re supposed to be in loooooove.”

“What are you speaking of, woman?” he asked, sidestepping when a human went screeching by screaming, “Fi-i-i-r-r-e.”

Way to state the obvious.

“You and Alfred. And your relationship. How could you cheat on him like that?”

His mouth rounded, and he grabbed her by the arm to yank her close just as a section of the ceiling by the bar collapsed. “Are you implying I am amorously involved with Alfred?”

“Aren’t you? I mean, you live together and all, and he calls you master.”

“Because he is my manservant. He works for me.”

“Works?” Her eyes widened with a temporary moment of lucidity. “So you’re not screwing?”

“Most assuredly not!”

“Oh. Are you married?”

“No.”

“Dating someone?”

“No.”

“Then that means it’s okay for me to do this.” She leaned forward and kissed him.

Pressed her damned mouth to his, causing his senses to awaken all at once while sucking all the breath from his lungs.

He couldn’t say anything, could merely enjoy the sensation of her mouth moving against his. The feel of her hands drawing him close. His own hands found their way around her body, the impression of her firm flesh even through her clothes exciting.

The squeeze of her against him, arousing.

He panted for air as she continued her embrace, siphoning his reasoning. Making him ignore the danger.

Danger? Smoke. Fire.

His eyes flashed opened as he realized something crucial.

The kiss was incredible.

No, not that. She was killing him, with pleasure! That was her plan.

And it worked. He’d never been harder or more aroused.

Completely unnatural and devious, which was why he pushed away from her.

Her eyes were soft, her lips parted and full. The color on them smudged. A wipe of his hand across his mouth showed a red streak. Her mark on him.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. She reached for him—

Clonk. The falling light fixture knocked her out cold, sending her into a heap on the floor.

He regarded her for a moment, taking note of the fire all around that crept closer. He should walk out and let her burn.

Burn for the sins of her ancestors.

Burn for igniting his lust.

Burn for casting a spell on him that wouldn’t let him walk away.

Perhaps his revenge would be better served by not letting her have a quick death.

Reaching down, he lifted her into his arms and transported her through the inferno, his lungs not bothered by the smoke. The heat barely kissing his exposed skin. His clothes, though, smoldered, and he noticed Elspeth turned a rosy shade of pink. Interesting. Her human form wasn’t impervious to fire. Was her dragon?

Exiting outside, he heard sirens, screams. Even saw a flash as people held up tiny squares aimed in his direction.

Was he under attack? He bared his teeth and roared, and for a moment, his true self shimmered through. Only barely, but he felt some grim satisfaction in seeing the humans scatter with screams of “Monster!”

Not exactly. His kind preferred the term demon.

Elspeth chose that moment to wake, her query soft and vulnerable.

“Wh-wha-at h-h-appened?” she slurred.

“You destroyed the bar.” In a most spectacular fashion.

“What are you doing?”

“Carrying you.”

“That doesn’t seem proper. I don’t even know your name,” she protested.

“I am Lucifer.”

“Aha, knew you were a handsome devil.” She giggled. “You really should put me down.”

He held her closer. “When I’m done with you. Go back to sleep.” He muttered a guttural word of power, a sleeping spell that worked even on dragons. One he could use now that he was free of the dungeon with the thick layers of magic that prevented it.

Her eyes shut. Her body went limp, and he slung her over his shoulder, ready to leave, only to have her short friend plant herself in front of him.

“Whatcha doing with Elsie?”

“Taking her to my lair and torturing her for answers.”

The woman squinted at him. “You going to kill her?”

“Uh, no.” Not initially. He had too many questions.

“How’s your personal injury insurance?”

He frowned. “My what?”

“I don’t suppose you’d sign an indemnity form?” the friend asked.

“A what?”

“I’m going to take it you don’t keep a lawyer on retainer.”

He drew himself tall, knowing enough about lawyers from the telly-vision to assert, “I am not a criminal.”

“Good enough for me. Just remember to wear a rubber.”

A statement that made absolutely no sense, and yet it proved enough to have the short friend trot off. Leaving him with Elspeth still draped over his shoulder.

A few more paces, and he was well away from the burning tavern and the approaching sirens.

Alfred was parked nearby, and that was how he ended up smelling of smoke, with a female dragon in his trunk, listening to Alfred lecture him about, “…might cause some trouble. What happened to simply finding a sexual partner?”

“I had one but she”—of the golden hair who smelled so much better than the woman who’d accosted him with her mouth—“interfered.”

“Really? I wonder why.”

Luc wasn’t about to explain her erroneous assumption that he was involved with his manservant. “Because I told you, she is out to destroy me.”

“Or she was jealous.”

The very idea clamped his lips shut. Preposterous, of course. They’d met once. Briefly. More likely, she worried about him gathering human allies that would support him in his bid for world domination.

“What will you do with her?” Alfred asked.

Strip her naked and lick her like she once threatened to do to me.

“Lock her in the dungeon.” He’d deal with her later, after a cold shower. A long one.