“Take it back,” Silver said, practically spitting as he approached her. She was taken back by his apparent beauty as he got close. Platinum stepped around and got in front of her, his expression foreboding. Like any dragon, he was beautiful, too, with the face and build of a model, but scaled much larger.
“The human has interesting thoughts, doesn’t she?” Gold said, sitting lazily in a large silver chair with a red cushion that looked more like a throne. Where had he gotten such a thing?
Silver waved a hand, and a chair appeared behind her, sweeping her legs out from under her and forcing her to sit. She gasped.
“Save the theatrics,” Silver said, pulling up a chair to sit next to her. Platinum sat on her other side.
Then it got quiet and awkward.
“Why did you break into my house last night?” she asked, glaring at Gold.
Gold raised a dark-blond eyebrow and flipped his long, golden hair over his back. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Liar,” she said, standing. “It had to be you.”
Suddenly, she felt cool metal sliding over her arms, pulling her back to the chair and locking her down against it. She looked down with a gasp to see metal vines twining around her, binding her wrists.
“Thank you, Silver. We can hardly expect to have a dignified conversation with a human using their usual barbaric tactics.”
Silver flushed at the praise, and Gold nodded at him graciously.
“Now.” Gold continued. “To address your ridiculous assertion that I would creep into your residence like a thief in the middle of the night.” He stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles, and put his arms lazily over the arms of his giant chair. “Do I really look like the kind of man who would suffer that indignity?”
“Liam chased you, and you jumped out of the window.”
Silver let out a snort, and Gold merely raised an eyebrow. “Shh, Silver. It seems there’s actually something to this.”
“She could be making it up,” Platinum said. “Trying to distract us.”
“Yes, true,” Gold said, standing slowly. “And besides, that is not why we’re here. Though, let me reassure you once again that I would never lower myself to breaking into your little residence.”
“But you would kidnap me in your car,” she retorted.
“Your ride here was comfortable, was it not? And we have treated you well. Would you like something to drink? Tea?”
Were they psycho? She wasn’t going to drink tea with kidnapping dragons.
“A pity,” Gold said. “Then I’m afraid it’s time to get down to business.”
Her skin started to crawl. “What is business?”
“Courting you,” he said. “Giving you a better option than that silly steel dragon and his crew.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, shrinking back against her chair.
Gold took another step forward, hands clasped behind his back. He was beautiful, handsome almost to a fault, but she didn’t want anything to do with him.
She only wanted Liam, and she now felt supremely stupid for leaving him.
Looking back at her life, if she lost it, she wouldn’t regret losing her job. But she would regret losing a chance with a guy like Liam because she was stupid.
She’d thought the job was the only thing that made her happy, but really, it was just standing between her and happiness.
And now she might die.
“Don’t be so morose,” Gold said. “I’m not going to kill you. Why would I? I’m just giving you a chance to be with someone more elegant, more high class, than the dragon you chose.”
“I like Liam. I’ll keep him, thank you very much.”
“Over me?” Gold looked supremely offended. “I knew you had to say that in front of him, and he wouldn’t give me a chance to court you with him around, but I didn’t think you would actually say that to my face.”
“Oh, I’m saying it,” she said. “I’d rather die than be with you, so you might as well let me go if you aren’t going to kill me.”
Gold sat in his chair again, clearly frustrated. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. You see, Liam did wrong to us long ago, and I can’t afford to let him be happy. He hurt my crew.”
She looked around the room, seeing only stony assent. “That doesn’t sound like Liam. What did he do?”
Gold sighed. “It doesn’t matter, does it?” he stood again and crossed over to her, getting on one knee in front of her. He was still basically eye level. He raised a hand and wiggled his fingers, and she gasped as gold showered from his fingertips in little nuggets. Her eyes went to the pile on the ground and the pile he’d caught in his other hand.
“Does that change anything?” he asked. “I could give you the world.”
“No,” she said. “I’d rather have a nice yard.” She laughed at her own joke because it was really the only response she had to the situation. And if she knew Liam, he was out there looking for her. Somehow, she felt he would catch up.
“That’s a good point,” Gold said. “That doesn’t leave much time for seduction.”
She wrinkled her nose. Seduction? Ew.
“You may change your mind when you see all I have to offer,” Gold said, unbuttoning his shirt.
She struggled in her chair, realizing this asshole was really going to try something. She wasn’t sure what, but she wasn’t having it.
“I’m not going to force you,” Gold said, undoing the last row of buttons and revealing a set of perfect, hard, tanned abs with softly glistening skin. “I’m just going to use a bit of persuasion.” He turned to Silver. “Let go of her bonds. You’re scaring her.”
She felt the metal loosen and tried to bolt from the chair, but Gold gave her a little shove back into it.
She let out a growl of frustration as she landed back in the hard chair, a slight jolt of pain going through her. She rubbed her hand absentmindedly over the bracelet Liam had given her as she heard Gold argue with Silver.
“Dammit, you hurt her,” she heard Gold say, offended. “We aren’t supposed to—”
They all froze as a flash of light lit the room and a huge sword appeared in front of her, ornate and old-fashioned.
Gold, Platinum, and Silver all stared, stunned, as she took the sword in both hands, wondering if she could wield it.
Then they all started laughing.
Just then, the sword shot out of her hands, rushing toward them, and Silver and Platinum were forced to jump out of the way.
Gold’s brows furrowed. “What is going on?”
“That bastard’s sword must think it’s protecting her,” Platinum said.
“Is that even possible?”
“How would I know?” Platinum said. “You know it has been a long time since any of our kind found a mate.” He shook his head. “Though I think it’s the epitome of foolishness to give away an ancestral weapon.”
“Stupid,” Silver said. “Then again, they always were idiots. They were idiots for betraying us, and they’ll be idiots when their captain’s sword gets broken because they aren’t here to defend it.”