Gambling on Her Bear (Shifters in Vegas) Read Online Free PDF

dear,” Schiller sighed in that aristocratic Eastern European accent of his. He tapped his long, perfectly manicured fingernails on the glass surface of the chest-high cocktail table beside him. Slowly, thoughtfully.
    “Dragons don’t try,” she retorted, echoing one of her grandfather’s favorite lines. “We succeed.”
    “And this is your definition of success?” Schiller pointed to the posse of security guards cutting off every avenue of escape.
    Okay, so her diamond heist hadn’t gone exactly to plan. She’d figure something out…eventually.
    “The night is young.” She shrugged.
    “That it is, my dear,” Schiller said, eyeing her neck.
    A low, gritty sound came from her left, and though she didn’t dare look away from Schiller, she could sense Tanner bristling at her side. Barely holding back an open growl — and barely holding back his inner beast, judging by the feral scent wafting off his wide shoulders.
    Tanner. Part of her had melted the second she’d spotted him. And damn it, most of her had melted when he’d touched her, because some kind of crazy heat shield started up whenever he came close, cocooning the two of them from the outside world. His deep brown eyes promised her everything, even if his face gave away nothing. The man was a mystery. An enigma. A riddle she had never been able to puzzle out.
    But damn, she sure would like to keep trying.
    Her dragon hummed deep inside.
Like for the next century or two.
    Did bears even live that long? She had no idea. It was rather a moot point, given the vampires looming all around them. And anyway, Tanner was a jerk, right? He hadn’t shown up to their second date, for starters. And worse, it seemed that Tanner worked for Schiller. What kind of self-respecting shifter did that?
    But there was something hidden deep in his eyes that said,
Wait. Please. Wait until I can explain.
    As if she had time to wait. As if she wanted to hear a bear out. If he worked for Schiller, he would have known she had been a captive in the casino for ten miserable days. And had the bear so much as shown his face in that entire time? No. That tough-on-the-outside, sweet-on-the-inside bear charm had all been a show. He didn’t love her. He didn’t care. She couldn’t trust him.
    But—
her dragon protested.
    No buts. She had better things to think about than that stupid bear.
    She ripped free of Tanner’s grip and turned on every watt of defiance in her bones.
    “Igor.” She made sure to pronounce his name the way he hated.
Ee-gor,
not the Eastern European version with the emphasis on the end.
    She allowed herself one moment to enjoy the flicker of annoyance in the vampire’s eyes.
    “I see you have returned for another visit,” he said in that stiff, Count Dracula accent of his.
    She snorted and shook her head. “Just passing through. Transylvania just doesn’t do it for me.” She waved a hand in the stuffy air.
    “Such a pity I cannot let you go without showing you some more of our fine hospitality.”
    Just what she dreaded most.
    “Of course, you can.”
    “Of course, I cannot.”
    “You must be so busy,” she tried. “Sucking blood, rigging poker tables, filing your nails. I’d hate to take up your valuable time.”
    “So you’ll just take one object and be on your way?” His eyes flickered to the diamond clutched in her fist.
    Well, that had been the idea. And damn it, it had all been going so well. She’d started the fire in the corridor below, then darted upstairs when the guards ran off to investigate. She’d disabled the alarms with an old trick her auntie May had taught her a long time ago. The diamond was right where she figured it would be, on Elvira’s antique dressing table, and all she had to do was head to the roof and soar to freedom.
    Okay, okay,
glide
to freedom, but that would have worked, too.
    She hadn’t been counting on the goddamn spider web spell Schiller’s third-rate witches cast over the place, and that had been her