Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“Ha! It’s your lucky day, Sammy, because I’m pretty sure you hired our clan to escort you into the mountains,” Dimitri crowed, while the archeologist’s mouth hung open in wordless silence for a couple of seconds.
“You’re kidding me,” Samuel finally managed when he located his voice again. “I hired dragons as a guide?” He sounded far from thrilled about the prospect. “You don’t have anything to do with that, right?”
“I might.” He grinned and Samuel’s shoulders slumped. “Let me call it in and check.” Dimitri grabbed his cellphone from the back pocket of his jeans and pulled up Misha’s number.
“What the hell is taking so long?” the dragon snarled the second he answered the call. “We sent you out for beijinho more than hour ago.”
Dimitri winced. Shit. He’d forgotten about the beijinho. Nearly every dragon in the clan was addicted to the coconut-sweet candy. The chefs at the compound made an excellent version of it, but it was never enough. Plus, there was this tiny shop in Barra da Tijuca that made a beijinho that couldn’t be topped. Someone was sent to the shop at least once a week, and this time, he’d drawn the short straw.
“Can you not worry about your stomach for one minute?” Dimitri grumbled, intentionally switching to Russian. He kept an eye on Samuel to see if there was any sign that he could understand the conversation, but the archeologist just wiped the sweat from his brow and kept his eyes on the stack of papers tightly clenched between both hands.
“We’re talking beijinho. Of course I’m worried about that.” Misha suddenly swore. “You dicked around too long, and they’re sold out already, aren’t they? We told you to go first thing in the morning!”
“I’m not calling about the beijinho! Will you pull up the schedule? A team is scheduled to take some archeologist into the forests near Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina, right? This week?”
“What? Archeologist?”
Dimitri scrubbed a hand over his face and silently cursed Misha. The dragon was an excellent tracker and a superb fighter, but his brain was going soft from all the beijinho he was inhaling each day. “Pull up the schedule,” he bit out between clenched teeth.
“Don’t get your tail in a knot. I’m looking,” Misha mumbled over a clatter of keys. At least he was at his desk now. “Yeah. I got it here. Dr. Samuel Hunter. We’re supposed to take him up into the mountains for some research thing. We got a vague location out of him. He’s supposed to give us better details to allow us to plan more effectively when we meet with him tomorrow morning. Why?”
“Because I’m staring at Dr. Samuel Hunter right now.” The mention of the archeologist’s name drew Samuel’s wide blue eyes up to him. One dark eyebrow lifted in silent question. “And he’s a mage,” Dimitri continued in Russian, his gaze locked on Samuel. The other man’s expression never changed.
“Are you shitting me?” Misha roared, forcing Dimitri to jerk the phone away if he wanted to protect his eardrum. “Not only do you stumble across our newest client, but you also find a mage. What the hell? Some dragons have all the luck.”
Dimitri swallowed a groan and turned away from his newest “friend.” “I said that I found a mage, not my mage.”
Even as he said the words, he felt as if his dragon had kicked him in the stomach. Samuel was not his mage. It didn’t matter how pissy his dragon got about it.
Sure, Samuel was a cute little nerd, which Dimitri found incredibly sexy.
And, yes, the mage’s grumpy, standoffish attitude was unexpectedly pushing so many buttons. Dimitri was sorely tempted to pin this sexy man to the wall and nibble on all his bits until he was a writhing and whimpering mess beneath him.
None of that made Dr. Samuel Hunter his mage, and his dragon needed to get that straight.
“When are you getting back with him?”
Dimitri glanced over his shoulder at Samuel, cringing for a new reason. The archaeologist already didn’t seem fond of him or particularly excited about spending more time than necessary with him. Dimitri wasn’t sure he was going to like the idea of accompanying him to the clan.
But Dimitri had a very legitimate and logical reason to bring the man straight to the clan. It wasn’t just that he could potentially be the long-sought mate of one of his clan members, but Samuel Hunter was a freaking mage. He needed protection at all costs. There might be more mages in the world than they’d previously believed, but they were still an incredible rarity. Each one was a precious treasure—even if this one was starting to glare at him like he was some annoying bug to be flicked away or squashed under his foot.
“Soon. Hopefully.”
“Good. And don’t forget the beijinho!” Misha ended the call before Dimitri could tell him exactly where he could shove the coconut treat.