Page 1 of Fire Dragon
Chapter One
“Oh my God. I look like a stripper.” Emma stared at herself in the mirror. Her new uniform had arrived, and it was as though the tailor had lost his marbles.
Jane, her weapons mistress, shook her head as she looked her up and down. “Well, I must say, you’ve been hiding some serious assets.” She then chuckled.
“Would you stop. This is serious.” She turned to scowl at her friend who was clearly biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing again. “How am I going to fix this? I’m on call and I want my first battle assignment to be completely professional.”
Jane’s lips twitched. “Well, you do look like a pro.”
“That is so not funny.”
Turning back to the mirror, she stared at an abundance of cleavage, more than she even thought she had. Whatever mishap had occurred at the tailor’s, the cut of the bodice area of her uniform pushed her already full bosom up and out. Jane was right: She looked like a hooker. Or a stripper. Or both. Or whatever.
She kept shaking her head. Which of the famous dragon warriors would ever take her seriously if they saw her in this uniform?
She tried to pull the front plackets together, but the stiff black leather and silver metal bindings of her dragon-rider uniform made it impossible.
The cut was all wrong, pure and simple. “I went to a dozen fittings. How is this kind of mistake even possible?”
“Maybe you’ve put on a few pounds,” Jane suggested, though she compressed her lips even more.
Emma pivoted once more to face Jane. She was a blond, elf-like creature with enormous blue eyes who was ridiculously short to be serving on the Arranfar Defense Force. “Are you kidding me? I run ten miles a day and work out for another two. There has to be a mix-up. This can’t be my uniform.” She drew in a sharp breath as another thought occurred. “Unless, of course, it’s some kind of first-run hazing thing.”
“Oh, well. There ya go. Mystery solved. I’ll bet Logan did this. Your best friend can be a real pain in the ass.”
Logan.
Of course.
He was dragon warrior, one of the famous magnificent seven. But he had a mischievous streak about a mile wide.
Jane grinned.
The show of all those teeth told another part of the tale. “Not you, too?”
“Couldn’t help myself, not when there was a good chance Liam would get an eye-full and finally lose his renowned self-control where you’re concerned.”
Emma clamped down on her rising temper. Thoughts of Liam Holden, a Commander of the First-Tier Dragons, seeing her like this brought heat to her cheeks. It was the last thing she wanted.
But the deed was done, and she couldn’t exactly do anything about it right now, at least not where the perpetrators were concerned. She was on deck for her virgin run as a full-fledged dragon-rider. The minute the enemy showed up it was her turn to prove her worth in battle.
Still, she was pissed as hell.
She didn’t want Liam or the other amazing dragon warriors to see her as anything but professional.
She breathed hard through her nose, planted her hands on her hips and lifted her gaze to the ceiling. She counted backward starting at a million.
“Oh, lighten up. You always made too much of Liam’s smash-and-dash. Besides, I’ve suspected the reason he didn’t ask for a second date was because he felt too much. Logan thinks so, too. The dragon wanted you bad. He still does.” She lifted her nose and sniffed in that superior manner of hers.
Emma tried not to think about it. She’d had one too many old-fashioneds that fateful night and had slept with a dragon she’d been craving for at least a decade. She’d given in to desire and had paid for it ever since.
But, Liam.
Oh, God, Liam.
She still wanted him, but he was not hers to have. He’d sworn off serious relationships for almost two decades. The man had a broken heart and he’d become the king of one-night stands.
She sighed. She’d trained for two years and had over a thousand hours in the air with training-dragons, all in preparation for this day. But this would be her first battle run serving as a dragon-rider to a seasoned warrior. “All I can say is thank God Liam’s on caravan duty. The last thing I want is for him to be my first.”
