Chapter One
Las Vegas, Nevada
Two days earlier
“I can get myself out,” Pia said irritably when Dragos stuck his hand inside the limo.
He bent to look in at her, one black eyebrow raised. The Bellagio Hotel and Casino was busy, and they had parked to one side of the main entrance, half the limousine out of the shade of the gigantic, ornate portico.
Slanting, laser-like sunshine lined the edge of Dragos’s tough, bronzed features and black hair in radiant white. The desert sun was nothing like the sun in upstate New York. It was harsh and unforgiving here and, despite the luxurious, glittering city that sprawled around them, potentially lethal.
Dragos did not appear to be discomfited by the difference in climate, and he never needed to wear sunglasses to protect his eyes—he only wore sunglasses to maintain a barrier between him and the outside world.
He was the only physical creature Pia knew who could look directly at the sun and not be blinded by it. Whenever sunlight bathed him, he grew more burnished and vital, as if the fire that lived inside the dragon recognized the fire from the sun and gained nourishment from it.
His gold gaze narrowed. “You’ve always accepted my help before.”
She could tell his feelings weren’t hurt. He had the strongest psyche of anyone Pia had ever met. She could probably drive over and reverse on his feelings repeatedly with an eighty-thousand-pound eighteen-wheeler before she managed to put a dent in them.
No, he was simply, genuinely baffled.
Realizing she was being irrational, she breathed deeply for a moment before she explained, “I accepted your help before because it was sexy.”
And right now nothing was sexy. Not even him.
He gave her rounded belly a significant glance. “But you’re so big you actually need my help this time.”
“I’m so big,” she repeated in a flat voice. If there had been a table anywhere in reach, she would have been sorely tempted to flip it. “Thank you so much for pointing that out to me, Dragos. I hadn’t noticed how big I am. If it weren’t for you, that fact would have flown right by me. Now, if you’ll just move out of my way, I’ll get my own big damn self out of this car.”
He angled his jaw and his expression turned calculating, but he straightened and stepped back without saying another word.
Then Pia had to rock a few times before she got enough momentum to hoist herself up so she could lumber out. Moisture from the Bellagio’s famous fountains wafted against her cheeks, blown by the hot desert wind.
Gah. That must have looked horrible. She was so ungainly. She had never been ungainly before, not even when she had been at her biggest with her first pregnancy. Then, she had felt sleek and powerful, like she’d been a sex goddess and a mother goddess all rolled into one.
The times she and Dragos had shared during her first pregnancy… Then, everything had been sexy. Newly mated, they had burned up the bedsheets with an insatiable need for each other.
As Dragos opened his mouth, she angled her head away and held up a forefinger as she muttered, “Don’t say a word. I got the job done. That’s all that matters.”
Standing a few steps behind Dragos, Eva held Pia’s Kate Spade purse and waited, lips pressed together and dark eyes snapping. Her face was certainly expressive of something, but after studying Eva’s bold features, Pia decided she didn’t need to know.
Pia took her purse and told the other woman telepathically, I don’t want to hear a word from you either.
Me? Eva’s eyebrows shot up. I would never!
Eva’s mental tone was so pious, her lie so enormous, Pia had to laugh in spite of herself.
She turned to Dragos. “I’m sorry I’m so crabby.”
His eyes gleamed in a subtle smile. “You’re very pregnant,” he told her. “And as you are well aware, I’ve read several books about pregnancy. I’ve decided to consider you somewhat insane until the baby is born.”
They had flown to Las Vegas to attend Rune and Carling’s wedding, and for the trip he had dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt that hugged the muscles in his chest and arms. From his military-short black hair to his scuffed boots, he was at his plainest and most unvarnished.
But that didn’t mean he could go unnoticed. At six-foot-eight, Dragos towered over everyone else around him. His Power was so intense it shimmered around him in an invisible corona like heat rising off the pavement. She had seen the same effect in others from the first generation of the Elder Races, those who had sprung into existence when the Earth was formed.
But for some reason, Dragos’s Power felt hotter and fiercer than even the oldest of the old that Pia had met. She suspected that too was because of his Wyr form. The dragon was a creature of fire, and everyone around him seemed paler and smaller by comparison.
Behind him, a multitude of people hurried to do their jobs. The Cadillac SUV transporting Dr. Medina and Aryal, one of the Wyr sentinels, had pulled up behind the limo, and they had climbed out. Aryal impatiently directed guards and bellhops who piled luggage onto wheeled racks.
While Dragos stood ignoring them all, his attention solely focused on her, they orbited around him like satellites as they did his bidding.
She’d been lying to herself. His brutal handsomeness and raw masculinity tugged at her even when she was at her most tired and cranky. He was always the sexiest thing she had ever seen, and it was never subtle.
No, she was the one who wasn’t sexy anymore. She felt huge, puffy, and clumsy, like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man that had rampaged New York in Ghostbusters, and the only way she could hide the dark circles that seemed to have taken up permanent residence underneath her eyes was with a liberal application of concealer.
She caught sight of a tall, leggy blonde walking past them. The woman had supermodel good looks and wore a halter top and shorts so short they showed a hint of lacy purple underwear. Completing the outfit were cowboy boots, long dangly earrings, and a cowboy hat. She stared at Dragos with such single-minded hunger she walked into a nearby bush, apologized to it absently, and moved on.
Meanwhile, Aryal strode over to Dragos and they talked together in low voices. Dragos had never even noticed the leggy blonde woman or her antics.
Pia didn’t know whether she wanted to snarl or laugh. Maybe both?
She rubbed her face instead and struggled to get a grip on her unruly emotions. Dragos was indisputably hers. They were married, and in the unique way that Wyr had, they had bonded for life.
Still, the part of her that had gone somewhat insane whispered that their mating bond only ensured they would be mated for the rest of their lives. It didn’t guarantee anything about sexual fidelity or enduring love.
Meanwhile, the drug protocol she needed to take daily in order to bring their unborn son safely to term had dampened her immune system. When she had been pregnant with her first son, the only weight she had gained was baby weight. Even when she had been eight months pregnant, she could have run for miles, a particular talent she took from her Wyr form.
This time she had already gained far too much weight, and Stinkpot wasn’t born yet. Just the thought of running made her want to lie down and take a nap, and a perpetual low-level anxiety chewed at her like mice nibbling at the electrical conduits in a house. She felt frayed and frumpy. She’d had no idea how much her self-esteem had been tied to her looks until she’d lost them.
Besides, Eva said, amusement lacing her voice, even if I did want to say something, I’m on your side.
Pia started and glanced at the other woman. She had been so preoccupied with her own miserable thoughts she’d forgotten that she and Eva had been talking telepathically. Her memory and attention span were other casualties of this pregnancy.
Oh yeah?
Eva shrugged. He might have read several pregnancy books, but that don’t make him no expert on nothing. Nobody should tell their baby mama she too big to get herself out of a car. Men really are from Mars, I guess.
Men might be from Mars, Pia said, and women could possibly be from Venus, but Dragos is a planet all on his own. Just look how everyone revolves around him. On Planet Dragos everything goes the way he arranges it—unless you decide to cross him, and God help you then, because he doesn’t know how to back down, and he doesn’t ever, ever let up.
She had been reaching for lighthearted and amused, but that comment had come out sharper than she had meant it to.
Eva asked, You guys still fighting?
Yep. She could feel Eva studying her profile but refused to look in the other woman’s direction. I don’t want to talk about it.
After a small silence, Eva said finally, Well, if you ever do, let me know. I’m here for you.
Thanks. Pia tried to smile, but she had a feeling it came out all twisted.
Dragos touched her arm. “I’ve got to talk to Aryal, but there’s no reason for you to wait while I do. Why don’t you go inside where it’s cooler?”
“Sounds good.”
As she and Eva turned to the front doors of their hotel, Pia glanced in the direction where the supermodel blonde had been walking, but the other woman had disappeared.
A flash of light caught her attention. She looked up to see Dragos’s figure featured on a billboard surrounded with colored lights.
Wait, what?
Jolted out of her preoccupation, she stared more closely as a shadow passed over the sun. The scene on the billboard was a luxurious nightclub filled with dark shadows, white and gold lights, and red roses.
A powerful figure of a man stood on a stage. He wore a black suit and was in silhouette, half turned away. Twisting at the waist to look back over one wide shoulder at the camera, he held out a hand as if beckoning the onlooker. One corner of the billboard read LAST DANCE, THE MIDNIGHT LOUNGE, RIVERVIEW HOTEL & CASINO.
It wasn’t Dragos. It couldn’t be. The man had the same black hair, but upon closer examination, he appeared to be slimmer. The only thing she could tell for sure about his lean face was that he appeared to have green eyes.
“How odd,” she murmured. “Dragos, do you know who that is? He looks like you.”
Like Pia, he had been in midmotion as he turned back to Aryal, who was arguing with someone over the phone. He paused to look in the same direction as she did, and his expression hardened.
“He’s nobody,” Dragos said. “Ignore him.”
Aryal walked up, held her phone out to Dragos, and snapped, “You talk to him. I’m done.”
Dragos gave the billboard one last, long look. Then he bent his head to kiss Pia’s cheek. He told her, “This may take a little while.”
“No problem,” Pia said as she tilted her head up to him. He hadn’t exactly answered her question, had he?
The sensation of his warm lips lingered on her skin as he held the phone up to his ear and strode back to Aryal. The shadow across the sun darkened further.
Dragos walked by behind her. He said in her ear, “Why don’t you come see me?”
Wait, no. That wasn’t Dragos’s voice.
Dragos was not behind her either. She had watched him walk away as he talked to whoever had put Aryal into a temper.
Frowning, Pia spun in a slow circle, looking for the tall, dark man who had spoken into her ear.
There wasn’t anybody nearby. Eva had not yet noticed that Pia had stopped to have an exchange with Dragos and had continued walking to the hotel’s front doors where Dr. Medina had joined her. Pia stood alone among the swirl and eddy of people.
The day brightened again. As she glanced up, the sky was a clear, cloudless blue.
Maybe the desert heat was getting to her. Maybe she had hallucinated the whole thing.
Did she believe that?
She shook her head. Nope. She did not.
Lips pursed, she strode over to Dr. Medina and Eva. “We don’t have anything on the schedule until the wedding reception this evening. Carling’s probably sleeping, and in any case it’s not polite to bother a Vampyre in the middle of the day unless there’s an emergency. I’m sure Rune is around somewhere, but he’ll be busy doing whatever it is guys do in Las Vegas the day before their wedding. Anybody up for a little sightseeing this afternoon?”
“You know I’ll go,” Eva said.
“Yeah, well, you kind of have to.” Pia gave the other woman an affectionate push with one shoulder. “Seeing as you’re my bodyguard and all.”
With a grin, Eva nudged her back. When they’d met, they had been at odds with each other, but despite the rocky beginning they had become fast friends.
Dr. Medina watched them, smiling. “I’ll pass. After I check your vitals, I’ve got some patients I need to call.”
Pia’s smile faded, but daily checkups with Dr. Medina, along with the doctor’s attendance on this trip, was the compromise she had suggested to Dragos after they’d had their worst argument to date.
So she said, “You bet. Let’s get it done.”
Two of their guards had already completed the check-in procedure and had gone to clear the suite, and Pia, Dr. Medina, and Eva headed for the Spa Tower. The Bellagio resort was huge, so it was a bit of a hike.
Once they reached the luxurious penthouse suite, Dr. Medina checked Pia’s blood pressure and heart rate, scanned the baby magically, then gave Pia her daily shot of the drug protocol.
“All good?” Pia asked when the doctor was finished.
The older woman gave her a smile. “Everything is fine. Have fun sightseeing.”
“Thanks.”
Even though she had been given the all clear, she hesitated, torn.
Other people were arriving for the wedding, and Carling and Rune had reserved an entire floor in the Spa Tower for the wedding guests.
Of Dragos’s original sentinels, Aryal had flown in with Dragos and Pia, and Bayne, Graydon, and his mate, Beluviel, would be arriving later in the afternoon. The two newer sentinels, Alexander and Aryal’s mate, Quentin, had remained back in New York, while Tiago and his mate, Niniane, were in Adriyel and unable to attend.
Rune and Carling also had friends from Florida who would either already be here or arriving soon—Duncan and Seremela, Grace and Khalil, and Claudia and Luis—but Pia didn’t know any of those couples very well.
Part of her felt as if she should stay and be social, but the other part…
The other part didn’t want to look into their faces as they saw how much she had changed.
She would have to face the others soon enough this evening. For now she was going to give herself permission to avoid everything.
She jotted a quick note for Dragos on hotel stationery and left it in a prominent place on the hall table by the suite’s double doors. Then, grabbing her purse, she said to Eva, “Let’s get out of here.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the Riverview Casino.”