Ling paced from one wall to the next, unable to remain calm while Cao risked himself for her. For them. She hadn’t even had the chance to explain why this was important to her. Maybe she hadn’t needed to. He’d agreed, so easily.

Because he cares for me?

Oh, gods, if anything happened to him…

A blaze of incandescent blue fire shot out of the archway.

Ling and the others leapt backward. She braced her forearm over her eyes against the scorching heat.

Sweet Emperor. Was Cao okay?

She held her breath. The flames dissipated and everything within the chamber grew eerily quiet.

The silence persisted for long moments. Ling released a raspy exhalation, beginning to fear the worst. A gentle hand clamped onto her shoulder. Delun. From Dragon, she sensed calm and reassuring waves.

Cao was going to be all right. He had to be.

She wasn’t sure she could live with herself otherwise.

What if he was wrong? What if some things could kill him? Like dragon fire.

As the worst imaginings coursed through her mind, a figure emerged from the billowing clouds of smoke. A man. He swaggered forward, cocky and proud.

She’d never been so damned happy to see him like that.

Ling raced to Cao and crashed into his chest, crushing out a puff of his breath. “Oomph. Hi, love,” he murmured against her hair, and she squeezed her arms around his waist.

“I was so scared.” She pressed her cheek against his chest, comfort flooding her veins and spiking her system with jolts of energy.

“You don’t have to be.” He stroked her head and bent to whisper against her hair. “Immortal, remember.” Then he lifted his head and opened his hand. “Here’s your jewel.”

Right. In her relief, she’d almost forgotten. “You’re amazing.” She raised her face to his and beamed at him.

“So I’ve been told.” He started to grin, but cleared his throat as he shifted his focus to their audience.

Ling twisted from his arms. “We need a place to wait this out.”

Ry, who’d been skulking by the wall in her human form, nodded. “Follow me.”

Single file, they wove through half a dozen more tunnels, each one growing narrower. If she didn’t trust Ry, she’d be worried this was a trap. It still might be, but she refused to live placing doubt instead of hope in others.

Their course ended in a small cavern. “No one will find you here.” Ry inclined her head at them. “I’ll go keep an eye on the others. I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I do.” Ling sent her an assured smile.

“What happened with the Dragon King?” Delun queried Cao.

“Well, after he spewed dragon fire around his chamber, he fell back asleep. I managed to get away with this.” He opened his palm and revealed the sparkling stone atop it. The egg-sized shard had several smooth, flat edges, indicating it was part of a larger piece. Though clear, the stone cast a violet hue across Cao’s skin. Which one was it? She squinted, following the path of smooth lines, getting lost in how it reflected the light. A warmth spread over her, and she closed her eyes, stretching her senses.

Qì. Life-force energy. Odd. Why would her grandfather cherish it so? No one would confirm whether dragons were immortal, but the speculation leaned that way. What use would the Dragon King have for prolonged life, when his was already eternal?

Perhaps because, unlike Cao, dragons could still be killed? Did the stone protect Ao Guang from death?

She opened her eyes, staring at the powerful rock brimming with life-force energy. For a second, Ling was mesmerized. The closer she came to embracing her dragon nature, the greater hold objects like sparkly jewelry had over her.

Cao closed his palm, and she breathed a sigh of relief. “You want to hold it?”

“Nope.” She whipped her head. “I’m good.”

No point in augmenting the temptation.

“What now?” Price paced from one side of the chamber to the other, raking a hand through his dark locks.

This was the hard part. These three men had risked their lives for her. Even worse, she’d asked them to do the same for someone they didn’t know. What was about to come would prove the greatest risk.

Confronting an enraged dragon and getting him to hold his temper long enough to negotiate.

“You have to go back.” Ling met each of their gazes. “Things are about to get ugly.”

“No fucking way.” Price grimaced. “We’re not leaving you alone.”

Her heart squeezed at the bond of friendship between them. “This is how it has to be. I’ll be fine. He won’t hurt me.” She hoped. “Besides, this plan only works if the jewel is far from here. Someone has to take it and it can’t be me.”

“What do you mean?” Delun regarded her, those serious brows bunched.

“If I have the stone, he’ll zap me to a crisp and get it back. If I don’t have it, and I don’t know where it is, he has to let me go. Otherwise, he’ll never see it again.”

“Makes sense.” Delun nodded. “We’ll do it. What about Cao?”

Her guardian steeled his stance. “I’m not going anywhere.”

* * *

His ward might have thought through her brilliant plan, but Cao wasn’t about to leave her alone to enact it. She opened her mouth as though to protest, but pressed her lips together.

Good.

Price communicated with his wife through the compact mirror and she soon opened a portal to the other side. After a quick hug with Ling, the two men stepped through the portal and in a flash of light, disappeared.

Finally, they were alone.

Cao shifted his focus to Ling. She released a shuddering respiration, her features drawn and worried. It was late and she needed sleep. “You should rest.” He plunked onto the hard stone floor and offered his hand. “I make a pretty good pillow.”

Her lips curved and she slipped her hand into his. He tugged her onto the ground beside him, her head resting on his chest.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her fingers spreading across his abdomen.

“For what?” He wound his fingers into her silky locks, brushing through them.

“Trusting me, and for risking yourself. You didn’t have to.”

“Actually,” he droned, “I’m fairly certain that’s in my job description.”

She laughed and slapped her hand on his chest. “I’m serious. I appreciate it.”

He wasn’t sure how else to respond, so he let his silence speak for him. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Also, did she reciprocate Ry’s obvious crush?

“Sort of.” Ling puffed her breath. “Part of me belongs here, but the other half knows it’s human. It wants…human things.”

Hell, he was going to take the bait. “Like…?”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “A normal, monogamous relationship.”

With a man or a woman? He almost blurted, but instead, he stroked her hair. “Some dragons have that. Liem does. So does Lok.”

“I guess.” She traced a lazy line across his chest, as though unaware how hard she was going to make him in the next two seconds. “I don’t know how to explain that to Ry.”

“Are you considering taking her up on her offer?”

Ling froze. “Um, no. She’s great, but I’m not attracted to her.”

“Not even a little curious?” he pressed.

“Why, should I be?”

“I try everything once, remember.” He winked.

A flaming blush crept across her cheeks. “Right.”

“It solidified my preferences, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Which are…?”

He curled his hand around her chin, tipping her face to his. “Right now, I only have one.”

* * *

The smolder in Cao’s depths burned hotter than dragon fire. His opening up to her made Ling feel closer to him. Now might be a good time to reveal her lack of experience.

“Cao, I’ve never—”

His mouth halted her confession, his hot respirations crashing through her. Spikes of yearning jolted to her toes, flinging back into her core, and making her wet with desire.

“I know.” His lips curved wickedly, and he rasped, “I want you, Ling.”

Wait, what? How did he figure it out? Though her first instinct was to be embarrassed, Cao started kissing her again and, suddenly, his confidence spread to her.

This was the least romantic place she’d ever envisioned losing her virginity, but she didn’t care. His breaths were heavy under her fingertips, his hard muscles flexing so deliciously.

He slipped his tongue inside her mouth, exploring and possessing, tangling with hers. She uttered a low moan, craving more of him.

She’d never been this close to anyone. She’d never wanted to be.

With Cao, everything was different.

He gripped her hips, lifting her to straddle him. The hard press of his erection made her grow even wetter. She sank into his kiss, ready to let him lead her anywhere. His hand closed over hers and lowered her fingers to his waist. Together, they fumbled with the buckle of his jeans until it sprang open, the button and zipper soon following. Before she could feel shy, he’d shoved her hand on top of his erection, her fingers greeting hard, hot flesh. Gods, he was long and thick, her hand not fitting around him. While she trailed her fingertips along his shaft, Cao slammed a fist at his side and hissed.

She paused, assessing him. “Is this okay?”

“Fuck yes, don’t stop.” He jerked his hips, thrusting himself into her grasp, then surged forward and wrenched up her top, baring her breasts, his mouth latching on to one pebbled nipple.

Blinding bolts of pleasure shot through her and she mewled, tossing back her head. Cao’s mouth was warm and demanding against her glowing dragon flesh.

It was happening again.

“Sorry to interrupt,” a female chirped from the doorway. “Well, no, I’m not.”

Crap.

As fast as she tensed, Cao had already shuffled her off him and leapt to his feet, clutching his pants closed, protectively standing between her and the enemy.

Dizzy, she swallowed the urge to swoon and staggered to her feet.

“The Dragon King has awakened and discovered his jewel is missing.” Ry watched Cao adjust his clothes, tension in her jaw. “He’s demanding we assemble.”

“Right.” Ling bobbed her head. “Show time.”

“Are you ready for this?” Cao whispered at her side, clasping her hand and squeezing.

She nodded. “I am.”

They filed into the massive waterfall chamber she’d first arrived in, along with at least two or three hundred other Qinglong dragons. Sweet Emperor, there were a ton of them, and they were spectacular. Beautiful in their human forms, majestic in their dragon shapes.

At the front, on the throne platform, paced her grandfather. He snorted wisps of blue smoke, the edge of his dragon fire threatening to pass through.

Ling glided forward, declaring, “I have your jewel, Grandfather.”

The sea of dragons parted, as though no one wished to be close to her when the Dragon King barbequed her to a crisp.

The King’s incandescent blue gaze settled on her, but she kept advancing, back straight, shoulders steeled. If she couldn’t handle a tiny negotiation with the leader of one dragon clan, how would she ever manage to bridge the gaps between dozens of them?

“I have your jewel, Grandfather,” she repeated, marching straight to his enormous head.

“Is this a jest, little one?” He huffed, the searing glow from his nostrils bright enough to cast heat onto her skin. “Well, is it?”

“No, I have it. I stole it. Well, my friends and I stole it.” She glanced back at Cao, who didn’t struggle even as two dragon guards wrested him between them, binding his arms.

“I wouldn’t suggest that.” Ling kept her tone even, shoving down the trepidation of any harm coming to Cao.

“You’re a bloody fool, Immortal, for ever stepping foot inside my palace again,” the Dragon King bellowed, his rumble rattling the piles of jewels and coins.

“He works for me.” Ling swept her hand beneath the dragon’s head, drawing the attention onto her. “I’m the one who has the stone. Not him.”

A whoosh of hot air blasted across her and she fought the urge to fan it away. Stinky dragon breath. Ugh.

“I have opened my home to you and this is how you repay me? By stealing from me? You will regret this, little one.”

The tone of “little one” had gone from endearing to derogative lighting fast.

“I think you mean, you’ve kept me prisoner. Against my will. Just like you’ve done to my mother.” She enunciated each word, to drill this concept into this thick skull. He couldn’t go around caging everyone he sought to protect.

“It was for your own good. You cannot fathom how many enemies you have.” His eyes narrowed into thin slits. “How many times you’ve come close to death.”

She frowned. Was he implying he’d saved her, before?

“What makes you presume you can survive out there on your own? Cut off from your people? Your very dragon denied and imprisoned within you?” He curled his lips, baring his fangs. “This is not our way.”

“You might be right.” She inclined her head in deference. “However, it’s my choice, and I can never recover my dragon in this place. I need freedom. You will grant it to me.”

“Or what? You have tangled with the wrong Dragon King, child.” He straightened, reclining in a towering mass above her. “Seize her.” He barked at his guards, who locked their steel grasps around her upper arms.

She struggled, but there was no fighting them.

“Perchance a century or two in my dungeon will change your mind.” He bent his head to hers once more to sneer. “Now, you will learn. I don’t negotiate.”

* * *

Their plan had utterly failed. Cao tugged on the manacles binding his wrists above his head, but they held firm. He surmised what would come next. Torture. Punishment.

The guards had stripped them naked before stringing them up beside each other. Likely, they’d checked their clothes for the stone and come up empty.

That must’ve pissed off the Dragon King even more. Hopefully, that piece he’d swiped was still hidden.

To his right, clinking resounded, indicating Ling was struggling to get free, too.

“It’s pointless.” He groaned. “Dragons forge the strongest metal. We can’t break these.”

“Well, we can’t stay here,” Ling puffed, anger firing in her tone. “He’ll realize soon enough we don’t have it. That he needs us in order to obtain it.”

“Yeah.” Cao tilted his head to the side to peek at her. “Or he decides to forget about us for a few centuries. He’s a dragon. Trust me, he just might do that.”

“No. I can’t give up. There has to be a way.”

She was so bloody determined. The spark of fire in her so blazing and bright. He couldn’t help but grin and admire her.

Even the dank dungeon didn’t detract from her sensuously nude body.

Ah, if only they’d been shackled closer together…

Cao cleared his throat and tore his focus off her, to peer into the dimness. Well, at least they were alone.

A clink echoed from across the chamber. Wait. He tensed, searching harder, squinting, piercing.

Something stared back.

No, someone. A masculine figure was bound in the same manner as they were.

“Ah, Ling.” He hedged a glance at her. “We’re not alone.”

“I know,” she squeaked.

How much had their cellmate overheard? How much had he ogled Ling’s nakedness, or his?

“So, how’d you piss him off?” Cao jerked his chin toward the guy.

The longer he watched, the more details he made out. The male was tall, with chiseled muscles, but he’d been down here a while because he was too thin for his frame. Long dark locks flowed past his shoulders, adding to the theory. Slowly, he lifted his face, hair falling across his eyes, but liquid pools of molten silver glinted between the strands.

Instead of answering his question, he shifted his face toward Ling. “Didn’t think this was where we’d meet.” His voice rasped, low and uneven, as though he hadn’t spoken in a long time, but he had the same kind of lilting tone the dragons spoke with. Qinglong? Or something else?

What the fuck did he mean by meet?

“Hey, dumbass, you speak to me, not to her.” Cao fisted his hands in the shackles above his head. “That clear?”

“No.” The male targeted those incandescent eyes on him. “It’s not.” Then he regarded Ling again.

“Ling?” Cao raked his assessment to her, concerned by her lack of response. He studied her, but she wasn’t moving. Bloody hell.

He whipped his gaze back to the male. “What the fuck are you doing to her?”