Page 29 of Fire Dragon
Two hours after making herself at home in her hotel room, Emma looked at herself in the mirror. “Not half bad.”
She was glad Liam hadn’t asked her to dinner. She really didn’t want him to know that she already had plans for the evening and she definitely wanted him completely ignorant about exactly where she was headed.
She’d curled her long hair and wore a silver club dress that was cut almost to the waist in back. Logan had told her to go shorter, but she drew the line at revealing that much leg. As it was, she felt almost naked without a bra.
Excitement, however, had her in a fever pitch.
She was going out for the first time in a long time. Despite that her preference was for Liam, she’d made the decision to get back in the game and tonight was the night.
Liam had issues that she understood perfectly. Fine. And being battle partners had made it worse than ever. She kept waking up in the middle of wild sex dreams, with Liam mounting her like a wild boar.
She had to get on with her dating life or she would go insane.
She was also done hoping for something that could never happen.
So tonight, if she felt like it, if she felt safe enough, she was going home with a vampire.
Despite that she truly needed to create some distance between herself and the dragon she craved, that it would be for the best to start seeing other men, maybe even a lot of other men, somehow, it felt disloyal and wrong.
Still, Logan had set her up with a warrior vampire he knew and trusted. He’d also encouraged her to spread her wings a bit. She’d be in a new city, no strings attached, and she deserved to have some fun.
Over the years, she’d had many conversations with girlfriends who’d vacationed in the south at Kochwick and how they had enjoyed the company of vampires. It was all about the nightlife. She’d also heard detailed accounts of what it was like to be with a vampire, have him sink his fangs while in the throes of sex.
Emma knew – she knew – that if she didn’t start getting laid properly, she would do something terrible with Liam that she could never take back. She’d end up wrecking their excellent working relationship and her heart would be torn into a thousand pieces.
So, clubbing in Kochwick it was and maybe even sharing a bed with a man with fangs.
She turned to look at her ass in the mirror as well. Running everyday had made her damn fit. She could even smile.
But when she met her gaze in the mirror once more, she felt fear and something else.
Deep, soul-crunching guilt.
But why?
On a social level, she didn’t owe Liam anything. He couldn’t be with her for his own reasons and she needed to move on. So why did it feel wrong to go on a date with another man?
She uttered a disgusted grunt.
She got up close to the mirror and stared straight into her eyes. “Just do what Logan said. Go out and have some fun. Maybe you’ll sleep with a vampire. Maybe you won’t. But you’ve got to start putting yourself out there or you’ll go crazy.”
Logan had given her a righteous pep talk as well before she’d headed out to the caravan. She could still hear his voice in her head. ‘Go to the club I told you about, the Wicked Fang, and ask for Ethan. He’ll be expecting you. He’s a good man. He’ll be good for you and you can trust him not to cross any line you don’t want him to cross. Now go get you some. Just don’t let Liam know what you’re doing. He can’t be with you, but he won’t like it when you’re with another man.”
So, she’d been grateful Liam hadn’t asked her to dinner and she was taking Logan’s advice.
She’d already arranged for a cab, and it was time to go. She remembered this wise if raunchy expression from an Earth TV show she’d watched recently:If you wanted to get over someone, you had to get under someone else.
Fine.
She asked the cab, however, to take it slow. Not because she was nervous, although she was that, but she’d never been to Kochwick before.
The air smelled so different from her lake world, exotic and full of spices. There were food carts everywhere, which surprised her. But then this was a land that relied on tourism at night to keep its population fed…literally.
Part of the tourist experience was being with a vampire.
She lowered the window and took it all in, the sights, the smells, the sounds of the different music coming from the various clubs. After a mile of passing open door after open door, she realized the undercurrent, no matter which type of band was playing, seemed oddly or perhaps purposefully seductive.
She leaned back in her seat and smiled. What had begun as her first caravan experience had now transformed to a night of clubbing. She’d heard Kochwick was the best on two planets, heavily policed and very safe.
