Dragon Her Back (Entangled Covet) Read Online Free PDF Page B

blackjack tables. He approached a table of gambling humans and spoke to the pit boss. The humans sat straight on their stools, casting uncertain looks around the table.
    Darius said nothing, just stared. After a moment, he widened his stance and crossed his arms over his chest, making his suit gather over his biceps and shoulder muscles. One of the humans shifted, clearly uncomfortable with his perusal, as the dealer dealt the next hand. The players signaled for additional cards, their hand gestures quick and nervous.
    At the end of the hand, the humans stood together and left the gaming area. Mei knew that casino security would discreetly round them up and hold them for questioning. Darius hadn’t said a word; he hadn’t needed to.
    When Darius turned on his heel to leave the floor, he staggered against the card table and steadied himself.
    “What?” Her voice was loud in the quiet room.
    He’d nearly fallen over for no reason. She replayed the scene in her mind’s eye, seeing his knees buckle like no healthy dragon’s would. Was it a simple trip—or was his dragon really waning? Fear, compounded on fear, filled her as her possibilities pinched down to just one. She couldn’t leave him with the fall out and potential waning of his dragon.
    She would have to stay.

Chapter Five
    Darius pushed the two hundred pound barbell off his chest with an exhale that displaced sweat from around his mouth. He steadied the weight overhead, inhaled, and then lowered the bar before pushing it upward again. He was exercising in the Crown Jewel theatre troupe’s private weight room. It was a cavernous space, containing traditional weight sets, cardio equipment, and a complete trapeze set on the south side.
    He preferred the troupe gym to the glossy private facility for dragons on the top floor of the casino. The smell of gymnastics chalk and well-used weights reminded him of his childhood with his parents in Russia. Plus, the troupe athletes left him alone, no chatting or inane questions. He didn’t like being fucked with when he was working out, and tonight, he thankfully had the place to himself.
    The bar banged as he racked it and sat to add five pounds to either side. He shook his head, clearing the exertion spots from his vision, and then lay back to continue taking his frustrations out on the barbell.
    Mei.
    He didn’t count reps as he pushed the bar, just repeated her name in his head. His arms trembled on an overhead drive, and the ache in his chest muscles told him he wouldn’t reach his last week’s bench press weight of 325 pounds. Maybe not ever again.
    Mei.
    His time was running out. He was weakening, as Mei had guessed. He hadn’t wanted her to know—hadn’t wanted to see pity in her eyes. His dragon form would cannibalize his human form until there was nothing left for either but death.
    Mei.
    With the next thrust, his arms shook and his back bowed off the bench with effort. He groaned and forced the bar up, then lowered it. The burn through his chest was a welcome distraction to his frustration.
    The length of the death spiral was unique to each dragon. Some waned over years, some over weeks. One thing was certain—without the completion of his mating bond with Mei, he would lose his dragon form forever. Sweat broke out on his brow. More than from simple exertion, this was the sweat of pain. He pushed through, making his muscles strain, trying to strengthen that which he knew was dying.
    His next breath dislodged sweat from his face, which he ignored. It really pissed him off how indecisive she made him. He was never indecisive, always choosing action over inaction, so that his father had frequently chastised him, calling him a bull in a china shop.
    He’d rather be a bull than a steer any day. But she’d held his balls in her hands since the first time they had touched each other in Paris. The barbell hit his chest hard, and he grunted at the contact and pushed it away.
    Mei.
    The door of the weight room