Monster Dragon (The Feisty Dragons 3)

He made it there in record time. He didn’t even bother going into the house, didn’t go into the gated yard, didn’t do any of that.

He simply stripped out of his clothes, dropping them in the sand as he walked, and made his way toward the ocean. The waves were crashing against the beach, and he smiled as he started walking toward the water.

“Beautiful,” he whispered.

Beautiful.

He loved living on an island for many reasons, but his very favorite reason was the fact that the air always smelled fresh, like salt and fruit. Brian started running, hurrying toward the water, and he kept moving until he was in the waves, beneath the waves, and sinking down, down, down.

He kept his eyes closed, and he held his breath.

He would just hide under here for a little while.

Chapter 2

Winter watched from her position on the lawn as the tall guy ran toward the ocean. He was a beautiful-looking man: muscular, lean, cut. She felt herself growing excited when she watched him moving. He was hot as hell, and she was wildly tempted to touch herself as she watched him swimming. Soon he sunk beneath the waves, and she lost sight of him, but that was probably for the best.

After all, she didn’t want to be a weirdo who masturbated to strangers like some sort of peeping tom.

She wasn’t trying to peep. Not at all. She was only on the island until Tuesday, at the very latest. She was just here for a story. Winter was a writer for a newspaper – not a reporter – and she was working on a story about dragon-owned businesses. The world knew all about shifters now, and Winter wanted to show the world exactly how powerful dragons could be.

Humans still liked to view shifters as less-than-intelligent creatures, but Winter knew perfectly well that you should never underestimate a shifter.

They might bite you, or fuck you, or make you want to forget your own name.

At least, that had been her experience with shifters.

Now she was on Sapphire Island, and she was hanging out on the beach like a total bum. That was fine with her. She worked too much anyway. The hotels on the island had been full this weekend due to some sort of conference, but she hadn’t minded. She’d taken a ferry to the island, found a nice, empty beach, and set up a little tent in between a cluster of coconut trees.

Nobody was going to be the wiser.

She was close to a couple of big houses, but the owners hadn’t been around, and besides, nobody could see her from her little spot tucked between the trees. The coconut trees themselves didn’t offer a lot of shade or invisibility, but the grass that grew near them offered at least a little bit of protection. Besides, each of the houses on the beach was surrounded by these huge, high fences.

Nobody was going to see her.

Nobody was going to know.

Winter turned back to her computer and started writing. She was already halfway through her story about dragon businesses. On Monday, she’d be able to finish her story. She just had the final interview with Brian Monster of Monster Brothers Security. She had no idea what the guy looked like – he was notoriously camera shy – but judging by the way he’d sounded on the phone, she had a feeling he was going to be melt-your-panties off hot.

Good.

Winter could deal with hot.

As she typed, her phone rang. It was her boss at the newspaper, and even though it was the weekend, Winter knew better than to ignore a phone call from the tiger shifter.

“Leon,” she said. “What can I do you for?”

He sighed.

“Don’t talk like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re a 1970s dad on some canceled sitcom,” Leon said.

Winter only laughed. Leon was barely 30, and he was the only cat shifter at a newspaper full of bears and penguins and birds. Winter was human, but she was the only human at the press. In some ways, that gave her great insight when she was writing, but mostly, it just felt lonely.

She’d been thinking about quitting the paper for a wh