Mated to the Ocean Dragon (Elemental Mates 3)

Which might still happen. Don’t get your hopes up. A guy who buys a $200 bottle of champagne doesn’t care about your silly dragon game or your opinion on the latest Star Wars movie.

“Wow,” he said softly when he looked at her, his eyes still overwhelmingly blue. “I expected another lawyer. Your sister didn’t tell me you were...” He broke off, looking at her with his lips parted as if he couldn’t find the right words.

“Gorgeous,” he finally ended, his voice husky. “And an incredible dancer.”

Holy shit! No one who’d gone out with her had ever said that before.

Liana suppressed a giggle, flustered by his words. She was going to ruin this any minute now...

“I’m a programmer.” She smiled nervously. “For a game. For kids,” she added quickly, in case he was one of those guys who would go on and on about how amazing they were at killing other players in Call of Duty.

“Really?” he said. “Gorgeous and smart!”

Liana nearly squirmed in her seat, then gratefully took hold of her glass when he poured the champagne.

She wasn’t used to men being so charming to her. What were you even supposed to say to that?

Thanks, you’re super sexy too?

“So what do you do?” she asked, before she realized that her sister had already told her that he had enough money to need a law firm to deal with it all.

“Investments, mainly,” he said easily. “You don’t need to be smart for that, no matter what people want you to believe. The more money you have, the easier they make it to earn more.”

“Tell me about it,” Liana said with a deep sigh as she thought of her boss’s boss, the bastard, who’d sold their small gaming company a year ago for several million dollars and now wouldn’t shut up about the money his investments made.

“What’s your game about?” he asked as he scooted a little closer.

His shoulder brushed against hers, and even through the layers of fabric, another shock ran through her.

Everything inside her tightened, her body throbbing with a sudden need. Her mouth was dry as she stared at him.

She could still smell his scent. Even here, inside the club, with hundreds of people sweating on the dance floor, he smelled crisp and clean, like a deep pool fed by mountain glaciers.

Liana exhaled, desperately trying to think of something—anything but the way his eyes gleamed like sapphires in the strobe light of the club.

“It’s called Dragon Heights,” she said. “You breed and compete with dragons.”

She could feel him stiffen against her, his eyes narrowing for a moment.

Now you’ve done it. He’s started to realize that you’re not gorgeous or sexy or whatever the lighting here tricked him into believing. Nope, not a goddess—just a geek girl who loves her dumb dragon game.

“It’s very cute,” she said, raising her chin in challenge. “Yeah, it’s for kids, but we’ve got a huge number of adults playing too. You can breed hundreds of different dragons, and they come in all sorts of colors. And then you can outfit them with clothes and armor and accessories, and let them compete against other players.”

“Really,” Timothy murmured slowly.

There was a weird smile playing on his lips. Liana frowned as she tried to place it. Was he mocking her? Did he think it was a stupid game for silly girls? That was what the last guy she’d dated had thought, and he’d been a geek, too—but a geek of the sort

who spent his days collecting comics, which apparently was somehow more adult than playing a dragon game.

“We’ve just introduced our latest dragon,” Liana said deliberately. “It’s my favorite. It was my suggestion, actually. The Ocean Dragon. You can buy him for a couple dollars if you’re impatient—or win a hundred tournaments.”

She didn’t say that she’d bought that dragon as soon as it became available. She usually preferred to win their new dragons in the game. And it felt silly to put her salary back into the company. But hey, the dragon was basically the price of a latte, and he was really, really gorgeous.

Twice a year they had a meeting with the boss where everyone could suggest new themes for upcoming dragon releases—and for the first time, one of her suggestions had won.

And their designers had turned her ocean theme into the most beautiful dragon their game had ever seen. The dragon’s body was covered in blue-green scales that glittered, and his eyes shone like sapphires.

Liana drew in a sudden breath.