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  Lucky for her they were getting married so she didn’t have to worry about either of them getting lonely and trying to contact her.

  No, if Skye had learned anything from her debacle, it was that life was too short and unpredictable to make good choices all the time.

  So here she was stealing a boat and trying to sneak onto a private island full of monsters.

  Yeah, she was real smart.

  Skye sat up and peered around. She didn’t see any movement. Hopefully Liam was still asleep. She had chatted up several of the shopkeepers and a few had mentioned that he didn’t always patrol at night. Sometimes he hired someone to, but for the most part, Liam let the boats sit because who was going to steal a boat from the harbormaster?

  Who would do that?

  He had video surveillance, of course, and he would figure out soon enough who had taken the little P.O.S. boat, but for now, Skye was on her own. There would be time to apologize later.

  She untied the boat from the dock. She stood on wobbly legs for a second, but managed to balance long enough to kick away from shore. She would wait until she was floating a bit away before starting the motor. She knew that much.

  Skye hadn’t operated a boat in years. Her grandfather used to take her out fishing, but that was long ago when she was just a girl, before he died and before Skye had become jaded.

  She pulled out one of the oars and began paddling, trying to push the boat further out from the dock. Her efforts were wildly ineffective. She fought the water for a few minutes, but soon Skye was heading straight back toward the harbor.

  Fuck.

  She hadn’t considered that the tide might be coming in or that she would have a hard time getting out of earshot before starting the motor. Well, she’d have to take her chances. Maybe Liam was a heavy sleeper or maybe she’d manage to disappear before he came out to see who was causing the ruckus.

  Only one way to find out.

  She dropped the oar inside the boat and started the engine.

  Smooth, fast, and loud.

  She turned back toward the houseboat as Liam emerged wearing only pajama pants and with a huge frown on his face. Even though the harbor was only minimally lit, she knew he could see her.

  Dammit.

  He yelled something and started to run toward the dock she had just left, but Skye turned away. She hurried and started hauling ass out to sea, not bothering to try to understand what Liam was yelling at her.

  He’d get the message that Skye wasn’t someone you could fuck with.

  Not today.

  Not ever.

  **

  The city girl was slick. Liam should have known she had given up too easy when it came to going to Dragon Isle, but how was he to know she’d steal his fucking boat? Though some of the townspeople rented harbor space to dock their sailboats and speedboats, Liam owned most of the ones at the harbor.

  That was how he ran his business.

  He hired people to deliver things to the world of dragons. Though Dragon Isle wasn’t particularly far from Nellenston, not all dragons wanted to leave to go buy groceries or clothes or supplies. Not all dragons wanted to spend time among humans and not all dragons wanted to risk flying over the ocean.

  Poachers weren’t horribly prevalent in the area, but they did exist and a few dragons had been killed while flying around.

  Liam thought it was best to just avoid all those problems and offer reasonably-priced transport services for the inhabitants of the island.

  Only now he was not only short a boat, but he had to deal with an unwanted human trying to claw her way onto Dragon Isle.

  Liam was irritated that Skye had taken his boat. Frustrations aside, though, he was concerned that there was a storm moving in and that she’d undoubtedly be caught in it. Hadn’t she noticed the drizzle? Hadn’t she taken a look at the clouds before hopping in that boat?

  Fucking humans.

  Though Liam himself was human, he rarely considered himself to be one. He’d been living among the dragons for so long he had forgotten what the world was like without them. If Skye’s behavior was any indication, the world Liam would choose to characterize humans would be “stupid,” but he knew that was unfair.

  You couldn’t label an entire group based on the actions of one person.

  Still, Liam couldn’t just let her escape, not without warning the dragons that trouble was coming. Oh, he had seen the glimmer of excitement when she said she wanted to go to the island. He didn’t think she was dangerous to anyone but herself. She was annoying, to be sure, but Liam didn’t think she was on an assassination mission or anything like that.

  Assassins weren’t as stupid as Skye.

  Liam headed back into his houseboat and grabbed his phone. With a sigh, he dialed the leader of the dragon clan. Emerson also happened to be Liam’s brother-in-law.

  “Do you know what fucking time it is?” Emerson growled as he answered the phone. “This better be fucking good.”

  Liam sighed. He didn’t want to be awake any more than Emerson did.

  “Someone just stole a boat,” he said. “She’s heading for the island.”

  Liam heard Emerson start shuffling around, probably getting dressed. Yeah, that had gotten his attention.

  “She?” he asked. “You know the thief? How much damage control am I going to have to do? Do you know who she’s after?”

  “A girl came to the harbor earlier asking for passage to Dragon Isle. I refused, seeing as she seemed like a little troublemaker. At best she’s a tourist. At worst she’s a fangirl. Either way, I didn’t think she was the type of person you wanted coming around. Do you really want a little human female who wants to come drool over how sexy you dragonmen are?”

  “Why, Liam,” Emerson said in a mocking tone. “Did you just call me sexy?”

  Fucking dragons.

  “There’s a storm coming,” Liam said. “I don’t think she’ll make it all the way. Just wanted to give you a warning that if you happen to find any wreckage in the morning, check around for a little human. She’s scrappy, so she’ll probably end up swimming.”

  “Fucking humans,” Emerson mumbled.

  Emerson promised to notify the dragons that there might be a human sneaking around come the morning. And though Liam wouldn’t venture out in the coming storm to save anyone, much less a thief, he couldn’t help but hope Skye managed to make it okay.

  She might be a liar, but she didn’t seem like a bad person.

  She didn’t deserve what was coming.

  Liam just hoped she was a good swimmer.

  **

  The storm had come out of nowhere.

  One second, Skye was enjoying the breeze in her face as she guided the boat toward the lights of Dragon Isle. The next, she was biting back sheets of rain that were pouring into the boat and into her face.

  She wasn’t going to make it.

  She was so close to the island, but she wasn’t going to make it.

  She had to.

  She had to do this for herself. She had spent too much time making good girl choices. She had spent too much time doing what was right instead of what she wanted. Now was the time for all that to change. Now was the time for her to be brave, to be crazy, to be wild.

  But she had to survive first.

  She stopped trying to steer and put on a life vest. She should have done it earlier because wiggling into a life jacket wasn’t easy when you were dry. It was much more difficult while soaking wet. Still, she needed to do anything she could to survive the inevitable crash. The boat was going to capsize soon or break in half and Skye wanted to give herself the best chance possible of surviving.

  She wished she had thought to put her laptop in a plastic bag. Even with her plastic hard shell luggage, she had her doubts about its survival. Maybe her flash drive would make it, at least. Maybe something, anything, would survive.

  Thunder roared in the sky followed by flash after flash of lightning. Still, Skye’s racing heart drowned out the so
unds of the storm.

  “You can do this, beautiful,” she whispered to herself. “You can do this.”

  When Skye was a little girl, her mother used to sing her nursery songs to help her sleep. Skye’s favorite was about a princess who found friendship with a grumpy old dragon.

  As the boat jostled from side to side and the water continued to pour in, Skye thought about the words of the song.

  Little princess, why so shy?

  Don’t you hide yourself tonight

  Dragon’s brave and Dragon’s bold

  He’ll give you someone strong to hold

  She never knew what it meant, never knew why the song had been so special to her mother. The only thing she knew was that when Mom was singing to Skye, she had never looked so beautiful or at peace.

  “Little princess,” Skye whispered against the storm. “Why so shy?” She might not make it long enough to find a dragon to talk to, much less to hold. She might not make it to the island. She might not get to write that story she so desperately wanted to.

  But even if the ocean claimed her tonight, at least she would have tried.

  3

  Alan jogged steadily down the beach. The sounds of Alice Cooper’s “Poison” pounded in his ears, courtesy of his new mp3 player. He had always run in silence, but Anthony, the dragon who ran the new BDSM club on the island, told him he should try running to club music.

  So he did.

  Alan wondered why he had never tried running to this kind of music before. It invigorated him. It excited him. It got him thinking of women and The Dungeon and all the dirty things he could do to them there.

  It helped him stay focused on his goal of staying in perfect shape.

  Contrary to popular opinion, not all dragons had an easy time getting and staying fit. Oh, they were all tall. You wouldn’t be a dragon if you weren’t tall. Alan had noticed a little bit of weight gain since moving to Dragon Isle, though, and he wanted to stay on top of it. Though he had no plans to take a mate, Alan felt he should stay in perfect shape just in case someone wanted to see him naked.

  After all, he planned to play at The Dungeon as much as possible. Maybe he could find a little human who was into dragons or a dragonwoman who was into medical play. He didn’t care much beyond finding someone who didn’t mind that he didn’t do relationships.

  He wasn’t that type of dragon.

  Alan ran, one foot in front of the other, the steady beat of the music pulsing through his veins. He made it through the first mile and was halfway through the second when he rounded a bend on the beach.

  Then he saw it.

  He saw the wreckage.

  Alan’s heart skipped a beat as he raced over, all thoughts of dungeons and sex toys vanishing. Now he was in full-on doctor mode and he was worried. No one could have survived that. What the hell had happened?

  Half a boat had washed up on shore, along with an assortment of women’s clothing. Bras, panties, and stilettos lined the beach. Who the hell had been in that boat? And who had she been going to see? Alan stepped over varying bits of debris and looked around the wreckage, but he didn’t see any bodies.

  Fuck.

  He hadn’t brought his phone along, so he couldn’t even call for backup. If he found someone, he knew she’d need treatment right away. No one could get through something like that without a little bit of damage.

  Or a lot.

  He growled, looking around the beach. Alan couldn’t see around the bend up ahead, nor could he see anything behind him, but he had to look. He had to see if he could find any survivors. He might not know what they had been up to or where they had been going, but he could find out if they were savable and he could do his job.

  As a doctor, as a dragon, and as a Dom.

  He waded into the water and shifted through pieces of the boat. A random tarp floated by. He saw flares and food and half of an oar. He turned and twisted, pushing and pulling at the different pieces.

  Nothing.

  He would have to look further down the beach.

  He went back to the sand and jogged around the bend up ahead. No longer listening to music, he managed to retain his focus. Despite the stress and the anxiety of not knowing what he was going to find, he centered himself. He could do this. He was made to do this.

  Alan turned the corner and found the rest of the wreckage.

  And a girl.

  She was face-up on the sand. Her eyes were closed. Her dark hair was sprawled out all around her and she was torn up. From a distance, he could see that she was bleeding and cut in several areas. At the very least, she’d need stitches. At the most, she might have broken bones that needed to be reset.

  Alan ran over and started to look her over. He checked her pulse, which, despite the situation, was strong and steady.

  “Can you hear me?” He asked, touching her cheek softly.

  “Please,” the girl whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  4

  Skye groaned.

  Everything hurt.

  Every inch of her body, every part of her skin, every ounce of her being was in pain.

  What had she done last night?

  Oh yeah. She had stolen a boat and crashed it horribly.

  Fuck.

  How was she going to pay for that?

  She opened her eyes and immediately closed them again. The room she was in was bright. Too bright. After a moment, she decided to try opening her eyes once more. She blinked several times to get used to the sun streaming in the windows.

  Skye didn’t remember walking away from the crash and she didn’t remember being rescued. She wasn’t in a hospital, so obviously the paramedics or police hadn’t found her. Where was she?

  She was in a soft bed and was covered in warm blankets. She sat up slowly, allowing the blankets to fall to her waist.

  Oh, she was naked.

  Well, then.

  She grabbed the blankets and pulled them back up to cover her breasts.

  “Don’t bother,” a masculine voice said from the other side of the room. “You have lovely breasts.”

  Skye whipped her head around toward the sound of the voice and immediately regretted it.

  “Ow,” she whined, grabbing her head. It was pounding. She must have hit it on something.

  “You’re going to hurt for awhile,” the voice said sympathetically. “Would you like something for the pain?”

  “No thanks, I-” She stopped herself before she could finish her sentence. I like a little bit of pain. Who the fuck had thoughts like that? Dammit, she was so weird. No wonder she was single. No wonder Jesse had found someone else, someone better, someone prettier.

  Realistically, she knew he hadn’t left her because of anything she had done. Jesse had been cheating on her since the start of their relationship, long before she had a chance to make him mad. That was who he was and maybe he wasn’t really that bad of a guy. Maybe he was just bad for her.

  Why was she sitting around thinking about Jesse?

  Skye had better things to do. After all, she was probably on Dragon Isle now. She had been heading straight for the island when she had wrecked. To her knowledge, there weren’t many other islands around. There certainly weren’t any that were inhabited.

  She tried again to locate the man. She was in a bedroom, maybe a guest room. The bed was in the center of the room and there was a big dresser at the foot of the bed. A huge mirror sat on top. She could see herself.

  She turned away.

  The man was sitting in a chair. It seemed to be the only other piece of furniture in the room. He was tall. He was much too tall for the chair, but he was slouched down in it with his legs crossed.

  “You’re a dragonman,” she said.

  “Ding ding ding,” the man said sarcastically. “You’re very observant.”

  “I’m sorry,” she blushed, realizing he was offended. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  “I don’t care that you’re rude,” the man said. He stood then and came to the
bed. “I care that you almost died on the beach. You would have, you know. Luckily, I happen to like jogging in the mornings and I’m such a stand-up guy that I decided to save you instead of leave you for dead.”

  Great.

  She closed her eyes.

  This guy hated her guts. He had every right to, Skye knew. She tried to focus on his words on not on the way she’d felt warm and excited when he said she had lovely breasts. She had always been a little self-conscious of them. They were a bit big and she worried they sagged more than they should. When she found out that Jesse and Tara were sleeping together, that was the first thing she’d thought about.

  Tara was tiny and petite and had perfect little “A” breasts.

  The dragonman’s compliment, though a little embarrassing, made Skye feel really good about herself.

  Made her feel sexy.

  “You aren’t going to say anything?” He practically growled. He was standing so close to her that she could smell him: sandalwood and musk and dragonman. He was so close she could lean over and lick him if she wanted to, which she did, but she wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

  “I’m sorry,” she managed to squeak out. Skye knew she was blushing. He could probably see just how bright her cheeks were. Even if he didn’t notice, Skye had heard rumors that dragons were really good at smelling emotions. Could he scent her embarrassment? Her arousal?

  The dragonman sighed and ran a hand through his gorgeous hair. Light brown. It complemented his tan skin. Skye wondered what he did for work. Obviously, he liked to run. He was sun-kissed and had a smattering of freckles on his nose.

  She wanted to lick his freckles, one by one, until he moaned and begged for her to lick him somewhere else.

  Everywhere else.

  “You’re killing me,” he said, staring down at her.

  “What?” She whispered. What else was he going to yell at her about?

  “Are you always this horny?”

  Holy shit. The rumors were true.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She couldn’t believe he knew she was horny and wanted to touch him and eat him up. She couldn’t believe he had said something about it. Were all dragons this blunt? Skye hadn’t exactly been the epitome of proper since her breakup, but she couldn’t imagine just calling someone out on something like that.