Tropical Dragon's Destiny (Shifting Sands Resort 10)

He stopped himself, then stepped closer. “We cannot fail,” he corrected himself, and when he brought his mouth to Scarlet’s, every tree within a hundred feet burst into bloom.

Chapter 21

Mal would have liked to spend more time experimenting with Scarlet’s power... or exploring her kisses with the new strength of their mate-bond.

But time was one thing they didn’t have.

She drew back reluctantly. “I have to go. There are angry guests gathering, and I can’t leave Graham and Wrench to deal with them alone.”

“Do you always know what is going on, everywhere at the resort?” Mal had to ask.

Scarlet, leaving one last kiss along his jaw that he knew was going to burn for hours after she left, shook her head. “Not always, everywhere. I have to think about someone to know where they are, or think about a place and know what is happening there.”

She closed her eyes and showed him, and it was a weird and dissociated feeling, like he was looking down at the courtyard by her office using some kind of heat vision. Someone was snapping with anger and fear, another was a tangle of anxiousness, another frustrated and confused. What he saw was much more about what they were feeling than what they looked like.

“I have to go,” she said apologetically. Before he could ask when she would be back, or any of the hundreds of questions that were crowding his mind, she vanished from his arms.

Mal wondered if he’d ever get used to the sense of loss when she did that, but was comforted by the feel of her inside his chest. He would never lose her, they would never truly be apart.

Our mate, his dragon sighed happily. Forever.

He looked at the book he had tossed on the table and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. Trying to very specifically draw only on the power through the gleaming mate-bond inside, he muttered a short spell and gestured.

The book shot open, flipped through every page like a crazed fan, and violently shut again, nearly bouncing off the table.

What are you doing? Scarlet demanded in his head.

Sorry, Mal laughed helplessly. I was experimenting, did I bother you?

I’m trying to evacuate my resort and that’s very distracting, Scarlet said impatiently. Then she softened. It tickles.

> I’ll keep it to a minimum, Mal promised.

She gave him a parting caress of her mind, like a kiss on the cheek, and Mal refrained from disturbing the mate-bond again.

He cleaned up the books he’d brought in, returning the stacks to the library through a portal that he had to consciously not draw from Scarlet’s abundant energy. If the library was alarmed by the swift return, they were professional enough not to comment by his unexpected arrival.

As full as he was, with her bright power, and the warm presence of her, Mal became aware that his body was hungry. He considered using a portal to obtain a meal, but steeled himself to have dinner at the restaurant instead. He was, after all, paying a considerable amount for gourmet food, and whatever else he was, he was not too cowardly to face Scarlet’s staff again.

The glow of Scarlet’s mate-bond also helped him admit to himself that he also wanted the companionship of the restaurant. He was tired of solitary meals and isolated studies.

Breck gave him a curious look when he arrived at the restaurant, but led him to a table without comment. It was the same table that Mal had seated himself in the morning before, and he guessed that wasn’t a coincidence.

Breck poured him a tall glass of cold water. “Our dinner menu tonight is your choice of a halibut with cream sauce and dill, served with either a baked or mashed potato side, or a Mediterranean lamb roast with young root vegetables and a reduced olive glaze.”

“Lamb,” Mal selected mildly, and both of them pretended that there was not any more important conversation they could possibly have than the choice of drink to accompany it, even though Breck was clearly dying for more information.

It was quiet; most of the guests had already been evacuated, and several members of the staff were murmuring and watching him not at all surreptitiously as they helped themselves from the buffet.

Mal was not unaware of the entrance of Alice, Amber, and Mary, but he was surprised when Alice led them in a beeline directly to his table.

“Mind if we sit with you?”

Alice, her head cocked in challenge, towered over Mal where he was seated. Mary and Amber looked dubious, but when Mal graciously gestured at the empty chairs, they all took seats. Alice was brave enough to sit beside him, while Mary timidly took the seat across from him and Amber awkwardly lowered herself into the remaining chair.

Breck returned to pour everyone water and give the dinner choices, a distinct lack of flirtation in his service.

“I am surprised to see you two here still,” Mal observed across the table, once the waiter had returned to the kitchen with their choices.