Dragon's Flame Read Online Free PDF Page A

at the fair—probably.
    Smoke streamed from his nostrils at envisioning Saffron in another man’s arms. He’d just regained sight of her when…
    Long time no see.
    The words had registered seconds too late, seconds after the kiss his mate had given the blond, seconds after his fire had gotten away from him for the second time that day.
    Taine stopped in Maksim’s doorway. This was as embarrassing as being called before a dragon elder.
    The elders loved to have offenders stand on a rock that was hot enough to force a wrongdoer to shuffle from foot to foot in front of an audience, further putting them in their place.
    Maksim pointed to a chair on the opposite side of his desk. It was hard wood, straight backed and without cushioning. The equivalent of the elders’ sun-heated rock.
    Taine sat. Maksim said, “You were supposed to prevent problems at the fair, not create them.”
    “It won’t happen again.”
    “Really?” Maksim picked up a piece of paper. “Saturday, a little less than four weeks ago. Incident report. A red Porsche nine-fifty-nine owned by—you—apparently went up in flames in an event you claimed was akin to spontaneous combustion.”
    Maksim slapped the paper onto his desk. “No great loss. It was an ugly little sports car. But that wasn’t the end of it.”
    Taine shifted from one buttock to the next on the hard seat. Maksim picked up a different piece of paper.
    “Tuesday, roughly two weeks ago. Incident report. A silver Porsche nine-eighteen Spyder, valued by humans at close to eight hundred and fifty thousand and won by you in a poker game a couple of months ago, was irreparably damaged in a blaze of unknown origins.”
    The report was slammed down onto the desk with greater force than the previous one.
    Maksim jabbed a finger onto his computer keyboard, for effect since Taine was fairly certain the report was already on screen. “Flash forward to earlier today. You know what this report says?”
    “There was another incident.”
    “That’s right, there was another incident .” If Maksim were a dragon, smoke would be streaming from his nostrils. “So don’t sit there and tell me it’s not going to happen again—especially after what happened at the fair! Thankfully the damage control there was easy, and the vendor, if he sees you, would probably kiss your ass—scaly or human. Rumor charged through the fair that supernaturals were afraid his charms contained too much magic. He sold out of everything, including what you torched, and I’m told has orders for enough charms to keep him busy for a year.”
    Some of the tightness eased in Taine’s chest. “No harm done then.”
    Maksim expression went from fire to ice. “You’re a good agent. But I can’t turn a blind eye to the loss of control. It’s pretty obvious. You’ve come across your mate but haven’t claimed her.”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you going to?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’m not going to tell you how or when to claim her. I’m not going to ask why the hell it hasn’t already happened. But I am going to give you a warning. The next time you lose control of your fire, you’re going back to the dragon realm and you won’t be able to return to this world for a full century. Understood?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good. You’re dismissed.”
    “Back to the fair?”
    “Is the fair still going on?”
    “Yes.”
    Maksim gave him a pointed look. “Then?”
    “I’m on it.”
    Taine left the office, breathing a small sigh of relief. It could have been worse. Maksim could have given him the choice of returning to the dragon realm alone, or returning to the dragon realm with Saffron.
    Plucking a human from this world and returning home with her had once been fairly common. The majority of mates eventually accepted the loss of everything familiar and all those that they loved, but some didn’t. Some had wasted away. And some had leapt to their deaths from rocky precipices.
    He shuddered, and was grateful Maksim hadn’t ordered him