Tropical Leopard's Longing (Shifting Sands Resort 8)
“Don’t tell me,” Jenny guessed, as he rummaged in the staff fridge for a beer and she grabbed ice cubes from the freezer next to him. “That male model from Italy decided to try your side of the fence, didn’t he! He’s been eying you curiously all week.”
Jenny, an otter shifter and the resort lawyer, and her identical twin Laura both had mates living with them in The Den. Their presence had turned the building from an established bachelor pad into more of a community house; Breck and the landscaper Graham were the only single men left living there now.
“All sides of the fence are mine,” Breck said with a saucy wink. “And let’s just say, he got the courage up to peek over… and liked what he saw.”
Jenny laughed, shaking her head. “I’m sure he did, Breck.” She kissed his cheek in a sisterly way. “You’ll break his heart like all the others,” she teased.
Breck checked his watch. ?
?I’ve got a late evening of heartbreaking lined up in just a tick,” he said, too loudly to his own ears. “Just enough time to catch a shower first…”
But he needn’t have worried about fooling Jenny; her attention was caught by Bastian, who was groaning dramatically. “My parents,” the dragon shifter lifeguard was saying in despair. “My parents are coming to this awful wedding.”
“Did they get over the fact that they didn’t get a fancy formal affair for you and Saina?” Jenny asked.
Bastian was too busy groaning and putting his head on his arms to answer, so his mate Saina did for him. “It’s hard to tell. There’s been echoing silence from them since we eloped, which suits us both just fine. The letter letting us know they were coming was very vague and brief. Dragons, you know.” She shrugged with all the nonchalance of a siren. “They never say more than they have to, lest they get caught up in an unintentional contract.”
“I love weddings,” Breck said as he opened his beer. “They put everyone in the mood to make connections.”
“As if you needed an excuse,” Jenny ribbed him.
Breck gave her a cheeky smile and toasted her with his beer as he left the kitchen.
His smile faded at his exit.
The Den had not been designed as staff housing, but as a luxury mansion for the original owner of the resort. Scarlet had moved them to open up spaces for guests in the hotel building, because so many of the amenities had to be shared and it wasn’t structured for individual rentals. Breck sometime wondered what the original plan had been for staff, and what had happened to the owner who was supposed to be living in the lush accommodations.
He took his beer with him to the spa-like shared shower, and stood with the hot water spilling down over his bare shoulders.
He had not told Jenny the whole story.
The model from Italy had been three sheets to the wind, finding his courage for experimentation in the bottles at Tex’s bar. Even at better times, Breck would not have indulged his desires with such questionable consent. Though he didn’t advertise it, and let people believe whatever they wanted, he had a very strict code of honor, and he never poached drunk partners, invited angry liaisons meant to cause jealousy, or propositioned anyone already in a relationship, no matter how willing they were.
He’d given the model a cup of coffee and a kind, private decline that left them both smiling. If Breck’s smile was more relieved than anything, he would never have admitted it.
“Don’t wait up!” he called as he left The Den a quarter of an hour later.
“Wasn’t planning to,” Travis retorted cheerfully.
“I don’t want to know about it later, either!” Tex added.
Chapter 3
Darla stared at the laptop that was open on the tiny airplane tray in front of her.
Two words started the page: I vow…
The rest was blank.
This shouldn’t be any harder than writing a thank you letter, or a polite invitation response. Finishing school had given her plenty of the applicable skills to use; there were standards to follow, and patterns that should make this simple and straightforward. All she had to do was pick a few flowery phrases and put them in a pleasing order, something she did regularly.
It wasn’t even like she was lying about what she was trying to write; she really did want to marry Liam. She glanced ahead down the aisle of the little jet to where Eugene was sitting next to her mother, sipping a glass of wine and exchanging small talk with her.
Darla shuddered. Yes, she really did want to marry Liam.
She turned the silver bracelet on her left wrist and fingered the dragon lettering that translated to ‘Unbroken Line.’
It was hot against her skin.