Tropical Leopard's Longing (Shifting Sands Resort 8)

Darla sat cross-legged in her black dress across from Liam. A single candle sat between them, already half burnt down. Her mother and Alison were seated a short distance away, outside the flickering circle. Alison had sensibly brought a tablet, and was reading an ebook that reflected cool light onto her face.

Jubilee had protested, but not strenuously; there was no language in the wedding description that prohibited such an item directly, and Alison had pointed out that six hours of sitting out in the middle of the night wasn’t going to be a whole lot of fun. Jubilee’s restlessness suggested that she wished she’d had the same forethought.

After an hour or so, Jubilee stilled in her chair, and a series of quiet snores made Darla put her hands over her mouth to stifle her giggles.

“You laugh so much more than you used to,” Liam observed quietly.

“I had a good teacher,” Darla said, with a wry smile.

“Are you sure you still want to do this?” Liam asked. “It’s not too late yet. And I don’t want you to regret all the things I can’t give you. Don’t do this out of worry for me, or for the home. That’s not a good enough reason to trap yourself forever.”

Darla smiled at him over the candle. “I’m sure,” she said with unexpected serenity. “I’ve never been more sure. It isn’t ideal, and it isn’t fair, because life isn’t ideal, and it isn’t fair. But this is the best I’m going to do with the cards I was dealt, and it isn’t like marrying you is any kind of… torture. Things could be better, but they could be a lot worse.”

Liam smiled back. “As long as it isn’t torture,” he teased.

Darla might have teased him back, but her mother stirred, and they were quiet until she settled back into a new position and her snores resumed.

“I can change my own tire now,” Darla said with satisfaction. “And no one can take my memories away.”

Chapter 38

Breck rubbed his arm ruefully as he walked through the dark resort, trying not to watch the spot of bright candlelight at the point where Darla’s wedding was starting.

Tex had sworn he’d been easy on Breck, but the leopard shifter didn’t need Graham’s scowl, or Travis’ worry, or Wrench’s dire predictions to let him know that he hadn’t showered himself in glory. He probably had a black eye, though the scratches had at least scabbed over now.

Eugene, he reminded himself, was also a cave bear, an extinct kind of giant bear, not just a brown bear like Tex, and an experienced fighter on top of that.

Breck had no chance of winning a challenge against him.

He was going to have to switch tactics, if he was going to make this work, and he had his jaw set now. He wasn’t going to let Darla go. He couldn’t do it.

And if he couldn’t do it with claws, maybe he could do it with his tongue, so to speak.

Eugene’s cottage was just past the one Darla had shared with her mother, and Breck gave the dark windows one wry glance as he passed.

Eugene opened the door at Breck’s knock and greeted him with a smirk. “You look a little worse for the wear. I hear you got canned for banging the bride.”

Breck reminded himself that he was there to try to avoid a fight, not start one. “Darla’s my mate,” he said frankly.

“So I’ve heard,” Eugene said thoughtfully.

“I love her, and I want to challenge for her hand.”

Eugene’s face twitched and he didn’t say anything.

“Promise not to challenge me,” Breck said firmly. “And I’ll give you half the hoard.” Half the hoard was enough to fund a small nation for decades, based on the descriptions he’d heard.

Eugene leaned against the doorframe of his cottage, arms crossed. “Or I could challenge you and have the whole hoard, and Darla.”

Neither of them had to say out loud that Breck had no chance of winning the challenge.

“It’s a dragon contract,” Breck reminded him. “You’d have Darla and no one else for the rest of your life. And she despises you.”

He’d hit a sore spot, Breck realized, at Eugene’s narrow expression. Eugene didn’t want to be shackled to one person the rest of his life. He wanted all the prizes, and none of the responsibilities. Eugene must not have figured a way out of that part of the contract.

Breck almost smiled. There had been a time not long ago that he’d believed that being restricted to one person would be some kind of imprisonment. Then he’d met Darla, and now he wanted nothing more in the world. Settling down had stopped feeling like settling.

“The whole hoard,” Eugene countered. “I want the whole thing.”