Chapter One
Esther
Denied.
Esther ground her teeth together as she read the email again. Hours of research, writing, editing, and presenting. All for nothing. This was going to be the first dig that she headed, the first dig she’d have in the very narrow area of interest she had. But, apparently, she wasn’t experienced enough, or Pre-Classic Maya coastal sites weren’t interesting enough, or her chosen field was too expensive, or something else entirely. This was the fifth grant in the month that she was denied. If something didn’t happen soon, she was going to have to attach herself to someone else’s dig instead of delving into her own.
Maybe that would be for the best, anyway. After all, there were only limited resources to go around and if everybody was trying to get a piece of the pie… With a sigh, she closed her laptop. Responding could wait.
The taxi cab came to a halt and she looked up to see that they had stopped in front of a large white house. Esther paid the driver and stepped out. It had been a few months since she had last seen her friend Dominique and her dragon shifter mate, Virdi. Since that time, Dominique had given birth to a little boy and Esther was eager to finally see him.
Maybe it would help her take her mind off of her woes and allow her to come up with an alternate solution.
The door opened before she got to it, revealing the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. He ushered her in quickly before shutting the door. Esther gave him a sexy smile as he shut the door behind her.
“Hello. I’m Esther Doran, I’m here to see Dominique.”
She glanced down his muscular frame. He looked like the kind of guy that would be featured on the front of a romance novel. Shirtless, of course. He wore a casual jeans and flannel shirt combo now that gave him a cowboy vibe. She could just imagine the shirt open, sweat gleaming on his chest as he tossed around bales of hay.
The man’s bleach-blonde hair fell into his startling green eyes as he looked at her suspiciously. “Let me see your ID.”
Esther snorted. “My what?”
“Your ID.”
“This is because little Thunder is the new emperor, isn’t it?”
The hunky man simply stared at her. He was taller than her by a whole head, his body richly muscled beneath his flannel shirt. Those tight jeans rode low on his hips and Esther had to work to stop herself from drooling. He was deliciously hunky. And, it seemed, paranoid. She searched in her purse for her ID, and once he took it, he nodded.
“Dominique is expecting you. Hold your arms out.”
Esther stared at him, but he didn’t seem like he was joking, so she did so. When he started to pat her down she squealed and pushed him away. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Looking for weapons.”
“Oh, come on.” Esther crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. He was clearly a dragon shifter, like Virdi was, but why he was acting so paranoid was beyond her. “The least you could do is buy me dinner before you start groping me.”
The dragon loomed over her, stepping in close as an intimidation tactic. The only problem was that Esther wasn’t intimidated at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. Part of her mind wondered if this was a dream, and the other part wondered what she had to do to turn this into her lying on the table with her pants down around her ankles while—
Whoa, there. That was enough of that cheap porno daydream. She shook her head and stepped back from him and his smoky smell. It was like the first ribs of the season–a tantalizing taste Esther could never resist. Except he looked more like a feast than a causal meal.
“The emperor’s safety is nothing to joke about.” The dragon frowned at her. “If anything were to happen to him and his parents, then we would sink into utter chaos. It’s my job to—”
“Esther!”
She twisted around the big dragon to see Dominique running towards her. The dragon held out an arm to stop her, but Dominique only gave him an annoyed look before ducking under his arm and embracing Esther. They both jumped up and down, squealing, until the dragon stepped back with a scowl on his face.
“I haven’t checked to make sure she isn’t armed,” he said.
Dominique rolled her eyes. “Bryant, seriously. Give it a rest. Nobody knows that Thunder is the emperor except close friends and the Guard. Relax, go get a beer. People are going to start thinking you’re holding me and Virdi hostage here if you don’t relax.”
The scowl deepened, and Esther was hit by a pang of disappointment. He was hot, yeah, but the dude had some serious fun problems. Oh, well. It wasn’t like he was going to go after her short, plump self anyway.
“Come on.” Dominique linked her arm through Esther’s. “Thunder’s up in the nursery with Virdi.”
“I have to ask. Why Thunder?”
Dominique smirked. “We were going to name him Marcus but when he was born, it just wasn’t right. My mother called him a little thundercloud when he started to cry, and it just sort of stuck. It was the only thing that sounded right, you know?”
Esther nodded. It was an unusual name, but it sort of fit how Dominique and Virdi got together, and how they had found out that their son was going to be the emperor of dragons. As such it would one day be his place to unite all the fractioned dragon clans and usher in an era of peace and prosperity. Of course, they were keeping it a secret to give him the best chance at a normal childhood he could have.
When they got to the nursery, she found Dominique’s mate changing the baby’s diaper. The baby cooed and kicked, and as soon as Virdi buttoned up his sleepers, he curled up again. Esther squealed again and ran over to the tiny baby.
“Oh, he’s so precious!” She stroked the little cheek and smiled. “Can I hold him?”
Dominique snorted. “Of course, Esther. Bryant would probably want an extensive criminal check but—”
“But he’s right to be so careful.” Virdi wrapped his arms around Dominique’s waist and buried his face in her neck. “Better paranoid than something awful happens.”
Esther cradled the baby to her chest, awed by how tiny and warm he was. She watched Dominique and Virdi kiss from the corner of her eye and couldn’t stop a swirl of tightness as it moved through her chest. She tried to push the jealousy away, but after all the disappointments she’d already had that day, she couldn’t stop herself.
She had decided long ago that love wasn’t what she wanted from life. Or rather, finding love, getting married and having babies just wasn’t in the cards for her. She wasn’t built for it. Yes, she liked guys and yes, she had sexual desires, but having that forever bond… it just wasn’t there. Never. She had never met a guy that she might actually think about marrying.
So, she had set aside those thoughts and concentrated on her career. She was still young and there was so much she wanted to discover and share with the world.
Denied. She turned away from the couple and focused on the baby in her arms, trying not to think about the email she had received earlier. There were other opportunities… it was the mantra she had been telling herself for almost a year now.
Ever since the disastrous dig with Claire Perry, when they had found the egg that later bonded to Dominique to give her first child the authority of the emperor, her career had ground to a halt. The guest lectures that she’d had lined up had all fallen apart and the dig that she was trying desperately to fund was getting nowhere. Her life was going nowhere. She’d given up on love and babies, and what did she have to show for it? A failed career and an uncertain future.
Esther shook the thoughts from her head and turned back as Virdi slipped from the room. “How are you doing, anyway? I mean, it’s gotta be stressful and sore...”
“It is. My nipples are chafed and sore all the time from him chewing on them. He doesn’t like to just suck. No, you like to chew Mommy to pieces.” Dominique shook a finger at her son. He giggled and waved his hand back at her. Her face melted into a loving smile. “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I never realized how much one person can dominate your whole world.”
“And… are you going to go back to work or be a stay-at-home mom?” Esther bounced the baby. “Not that you have to decide right away.”
“If you asked me to choose I wouldn’t know what to say. I love him so much, I just want to hold him and be with him all the time.” Dominique stroked Thunder’s hair. “Work, though… I love going on digs and doing research. It’s something Virdi and I have talked about a little bit, but right now we’re focusing on security and Thunder. We’ve got a few… financial backers, I guess, so we have everything we need.”
“Security.” Esther nodded. It was understandable, considering everything. Not everybody wanted the Emperor back, since he would create equality and they didn’t want to give up their power. “So, what’s the deal with that Bryant guy?”
Dominique laughed. “Bryant. He’s… odd. When he’s on duty you’d think that he’s the most serious man on Earth. But when he’s off duty, I can hardly get him to stop flirting with me. It’d be flattering, except he flirts with everything in a skirt. Remember how we used to think Virdi was?”
Esther thought of the playboy dragon who always took women out into the forest and sent them back hours later with disheveled clothing and wonderous smiles and nodded.
“Well, that’s Bryant.”
“Virdi was just taking them flying, though.”
Dominque gave her a stern look. “That’s not what Bryant is doing. He goes through women like a baby goes through diapers. And he’s on the security detail. The Emperor’s Guard has this Game of Thrones thing going on. They take on these vows that make them renounce citizenship with their clans and forbid them from taking on mates or having children.”
“So, I guess that means no flirting with him.”
“They’re allowed to sleep with women.” Dominique shook her head. “Lots of dragons still think that a woman can’t get pregnant unless she sleeps with her mate. Bryant had a mate and she was killed. So now he sleeps around with impunity. If you want a guy like that I’m not going to stop you but—"
“I don’t want a guy like that.”
They settled down on a couple of chairs as Esther’s back started to ache. Her face was in a heavy frown as she rocked back and forth, troubled thoughts about her lack of possibilities seeping back into her mind. Thunder was starting to gurgle a little, squirming this way and that, so she propped him up into a sitting position on her lap and let his legs stretch out. His tiny hand curled around her fingers.
Dominique poked her in the side. “Are there any guys that you’ve met?”
“I’m so done with all that nonsense.” Esther tried to sound upbeat. “Went to a club the other day for plus-sized gals. It was awful. The men kept wanting to wobble my arms or watch me shake my belly or feed me cheesecake. It made my skin crawl. I want a guy that loves me as is, but I don’t want him to love me because I’m overweight, you know? I want someone who can help me be healthy, no matter how much I weigh. Not that I want a guy at all,” she added quickly. “I’m over guys.”
“I get it.” Dominique gave her a sassy grin. “So, any girls that you’ve met?”
Esther rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. I’m focusing on work.”
“How’s that going?”
Esther sighed.
“That well, huh?” Dominique smirked. “Listen, there’s a guy I know, Shane Freeman. He’s this billionaire CEO dragon shifter, and he’s always looking to help start up small businesses and stuff. I’ll give him a call, see if he’s interested in maybe funding your dig.”
Esther’s eyes lit up. “You’d do that?”
“Of course. As long as I’m allowed to come and play in the dirt, too.”
“Yes!” Esther laughed. “Thank you.”
Dominique nodded. “Excellent. I’ll give him a call, then. But for right now, tell me about what you want to do. Underwater Maya sites, right?”