Relic Hunters: BBW Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance (The Complete Trilogy) Read online

  Chapter 5

  Saira had never seen kitty so spooked. Timid, yes. Fearful, most of the time. But never so openly aggressive like this. Hissing, wailing into the air vent with the most fearsome and unnerving of cries and a fur standing on end over an arched back.

  “Settle, kitty. It’s probably just these ancient pipes expanding or contracting or whatever old pipes do when they make noise.” She went to pat kitty, then thought better of it. Something was amiss and she didn’t want to frighten the poor thing any more than it already was.

  She nearly jumped out of her skin though, when the metal grate over the duct flew across the room, nearly taking kitty with it, before it clanged and clattered across the floor, coming to rest against the far wall. Her attention was so focused on the airborne grate that she failed to notice the sweaty, overweight man wriggling out of the duct. However, his labored breathing and mumbled cursing soon drew her attention to him as he slithered out of the hole in the wall.

  “Professor Blane?” Saira stared at him, wide eyed with disbelief.

  Hair, dripping with sweat clung to his ruddy cheeks, partially obscuring his face, but she recognized him instantly as the sleazy, wretched deceiver who she had allowed into her bed. She swallowed back down the lump of disgust that rose in her throat at the thought of this repugnant creature wooing her with his compliments and smooth talk.

  “What the hell — ”

  Saira shook her head and blinked, hoping that it was all a dream or nightmare and she’d wake up, drooling all over the papers on her desk upon which she’d fallen asleep. That had become something of a habit of late. No, he was still there. Only this time he had something menacing in his left hand.

  “There’s a good girl. No need to be afraid. I just want the coin.” His deadpan expression and the coldness in his eyes suggested he wasn’t joking.

  The dark aperture of the gun barrel down which she stared as he said it clinched the deal, too. This wasn’t some stupid prank. This was a heist and he held out us right hand, palm up, waiting for his coin.

  He clearly said ‘the coin’. I’ve got thousands of the bloody things here. What the . . .

  Chapter 6

  “These are not the droids you’re looking for,” Bryce said to himself playfully as he allowed his inner dragon to make a connection with the security guards unprepared mind. No human was ever prepared for the incursion of a dragon shifters powers. Soon they were in sync and the unsuspecting guard was putty in Bryce’s hands.

  The flashlight stopped short of the missing glass, leaving Bryce out of range of the beam. The guard keyed the mike that was clipped to his epaulette.

  “Control, this is three-one-five. I think you’ve got a faulty sensor or a bug in your system. It’s all clear here.”

  “Copy that. Resetting the sensor now. Carry on with your assigned rounds.” The radio squawked in response.

  “Acknowledged,” the guard replied as he turned on his heel to resume his rounds, but not before stopping, as if somewhat confused. He looked up once more and saw nothing of note on the roof above. Shaking his head to clear the strange feeling that he could sense that something was actually there, he continued on his way.

  “And that, my good man, is how we do that,” he whispered to his dragon, which was itching to spread his huge leathery wings and fly. A spectacular view from so high will do that to a dragon. They are made to fly. But for now, flying would have to wait.

  “We have a job to pull, old chap, so let’s crack on and get this coin back into the family vault once and for all.”

  The pressure plates embedded into the floor of the Great Court had been disabled to allow the guard to investigate the tripped sensor on the roof. The guard hadn’t requested they be re-activated, so perhaps he intended to return after his scheduled patrol to check the roof once more. That meant that Bryce could freefall 25 feet to the floor without setting of yet another alarm. Being a dragon shifter meant that he could also make such a drop and land with the poise and grace of an elite ballet dancer rather than end up a crumpled heap with a broken ankle or two, as would be the case with any mortal burglar.

  Of course, he would have had to have shifted into his dragon as he dropped, using his wings to hover above the floor, had the pressure plates been activated. He almost wished the pressure sensors were active so he could do that, but that had been a riskier strategy than the one pure chance had offered him tonight. Tripping the pressure sensors would have been catastrophic. Titanium grilles would have cascaded from every exit from the courtyard and armed response police would have been en route within minutes. Not that they could have contained or even captured a dragon. That was never going to happen. But it would have put an end to the quest for the coin.

  For now, at least, securing the coin was the objective and dragons are mission oriented creatures if nothing else.

  Chapter 7

  “What coin? What are you talking about?” Saira waved her hands in exasperation, frustrated with herself that she had no idea what the smarmy professor was talking about. Being ignorant was not something that came easily to someone with multiple degrees and a PhD in Classical and Archaeological studies.

  “Don’t take me for a fool Miss Rolton. You must have figured it out by now and please try to keep your hands still. I’d hate to have to shoot you after all we’ve been through together.” He cast her a sickening, sarcastic grin. One that Saira wanted to slap clean off his sweaty, pig like face. She noticed, for the first time how close together his eyes were and how soulless they looked. Like a sharks eyes. Beady little sharks eyes.

  “Whoever said ‘love is blind’ knew what they were talking about,” she muttered to herself.

  “Let’s not descend to that level, now, my girl. Give me the coin and I’ll bid you adieu.” He held out his hand for the coin while the other hand kept an automatic pistol steadily aimed at Saira.

  “Which part of ‘I don’t know what coin you’re talking about’ don’t you get? For a professor, you’re not very smart, are you? Then again, if you were, you wouldn’t have to steal your students work so you could get published in the Journal? How about I bid you a good old fashioned go fuck yourself?”

  Anger darkened Blane’s face and the gun in hand wavered as he sought to regain his composure. It was then that he caught a glimpse of kitty, who had, by now, sought refuge in his favorite chair, curled up in the hope of remaining undetected by the aggressive intruder. Kitty knew full well what happened the last time he encountered someone giving off this kind of serious vibe reeking of hatred and dread.

  Without taking his eyes off Saira, Blane swung his arm toward the cat, aiming the lethal weapon at the unsuspecting creature.

  “Don’t you dare,” Saira spat at him vehemently. “Don’t you bloody dare point that thing at my cat!”

  “You’re in no position to be giving orders. I want the coin and I want it right now unless you want to see what damage a hollow point bullet does to a cat at close range. Trust me it’s not a pretty sight.” He smiled at her knowingly. There was no doubt he’d do it, either, just because he could and because he’d most likely enjoy it.

  But that didn’t help Saira. She still had no idea what the professor was talking about. Obviously something of great value, but even though the Hoxne Hoard was valued in the millions, no single coin would be worth more than around a thousand dollars. She was missing something important and she knew it. More annoying was the fact that something scrabbled within her subconscious. Something she knew that she knew but hadn’t yet put it into context. Such was the curse of her academic mind. She didn’t know how to process abstract concepts or an idea that were outside of the boundaries of pure science and that’s what she was when all said and done — a scientist. She’d been a nerd and bookworm all her life. Now kitty’s life depended on her coming up with a solution to a problem she had no clue, only a gnawing memory that wouldn’t come to the fore.

  “That’s not very sporting of you,” announced a cultured and
under the circumstances, unusually calm voice from behind the professor.

  Startled, he swung around to face the man who had silently entered the room behind him and was met with a hard fist to the nose. That was the last thing the professor remembered before his vision clouded and the lights went out. He collapsed in a rumpled heap, the gun skittling across the floor toward Saira.

  Without hesitation, she picked up the unfamiliar weapon and pointed at the new arrival in the black body suit.

  “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not going anywhere until I get security here.” She did her best to hold the heavy gun steady.

  Bryce glanced at his watch nonchalantly. “One guard is currently in the Sainsbury Gallery and wouldn’t get here in under 10 minutes, another is patrolling Greek and Roman Sculpture and would normally take 7 minutes to get here, but he will most likely take a lot longer since he’s still recovering from a knee reconstruction and can’t run. The remaining guard is having a fag somewhere outback, which he always does when the other two are on patrol. So, Miss Rolton, I’ll have that gun out of your hands and the coin I seek and be long gone before anyone can come to your rescue.” He folded his arms and waited for all that to sink in.

  “How . . . how do you know my name? Who are you?”

  “I’m an antiquities thief,” Bryce introduced himself as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “It’s my job to know everything about everyone involved in any job I’m pulling .. . ah . . . undertaking. Except for this chap.” He gave the professor a disdainful kick in the ribs. “I did not count on him being here. I don’t know who he is but I do know he doesn’t like animals and that, my dear, is totally unacceptable. I also have a fair idea who might have sent him here and it’s obvious what he was sent here to retrieve.”

  “What do you want? Why are you all the way down here? Anything of real value is on display in the galleries.” Her voice tremored, despite her best effort to appear in control.

  She looked at him properly for the first time, realizing that his slick black suit showed off a very nice frame indeed. Broad shoulders without being muscle bound, a tapered waist atop which rested a broad, muscular chest and thighs that she imagined would feel powerful and hard wrapped around her . . .

  She shook her head. Visions of him caressing her and nestling his hard, muscled body against her soft curves filled her head and she struggled for breath as her chest heaved at the thought of enjoying him in that way.

  What the hell?

  Bryce smiled. Now she noticed how dangerously handsome he was. Strong jaw, cheekbones that looked like they’d been sculptured by a renaissance master and his stormy blue-gray eyes that seemed to look right through her, right into her very heart and soul.

  There was something wrong with this picture. Two men trying to rob the museum, one out cold on the floor and another simply smiling at her like nothing unusual was going on at all. And she’s holding a gun. An actual gun! Saira had never held a gun before in her life. This was London. Who even owned a gun here?

  Yet, despite all of that, all she was really aware of was the heat pooling between her thighs and the wanton desire she felt for the man in the black body suit. No, something was very wrong indeed with this whole scene.

  Chapter 8

  He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help himself. It would have been a simple matter to have her hand over the gun and the coin and the job would have been as good as gold. But no, he had to let his dragon toy with her. It was a bad idea and Bryce knew it, but how can you deny your dragon. The dragon wants what the dragon wants, right?

  And she was kind of cute. Full breasted, curvy all the way down to her full, rounded hips. Just how he and most of the dragons he knew liked them. He’d never have given her a second glance if she’d been one of the fragile, rail thin girls that seem to be everywhere these days. What good was a woman who couldn’t handle the way a dragon shifter made love to his mate?

  No, this girl caught his attention and the fact that she was pointing a loaded gun at him didn’t faze him one bit. If anything, he thought it made her look as hot as hell.

  Suddenly, both of them looked down at the unconscious professor, their attention attracted by a constant beeping. Bryce knelt alongside the prostrate figure and pulled back the cuff of his sweat stained shirt, revealing something that looked much like some kind of fitness watch that was all the rage these days. It emitted a shrill, pulsing beep and a set of LED’s on the dial were alternating red and green.

  “It’s a biometric sensor,” he pronounced as he looked up at Saira and into the barrel of her wavering gun. “That’s not a good thing.”

  “So, his heart rate has dropped below his training zone. From the look of him, he hasn’t been taking his fitness too seriously anyway. What’s the big —”

  A loud explosion and the sound of distant gunfire cut her short. The cacophony of mayhem was punctuated with an ear piercing wail of the museum alarm systems echoing through the entire complex.

  “Like I said,” Bryce pointed to the flashing LED’s, “this is not a good thing. They know he’s been incapacitated and they’re moving in to execute their Plan B. We need to get out of here. Right now,” he commanded hurriedly.

  Saira didn’t budge. She had no idea who they were or what their Plan B was, but she knew she wasn’t running off with a confessed thief. No way. Instead, she used her other hand to steady the gun as her adrenaline rush caused her entire body to shake.

  Gunfire. But . . . that can’t be —

  “Where’s the coin?” Bryce snapped at her.

  “Enough with the bloody coin, already. That’s all he was on about, too. ‘Give me the coin’ he said, over and over, just before you burst in here.”

  “And saved your life,” he added.

  “Whatever. Anyway, I’ll tell you what I was going to tell him — I don’t know what either of you were talking about.

  “The one that doesn’t belong. The only one from the so called Hoxne Hoard that was minted in Antioch. Where is it?”

  Without meaning to, her eyes darted to the XRF spectrometer. So, it was true then. Yet she still didn’t really believe it.

  Bryce turned his attention to the machine which clearly held only one coin at a time.

  The sound of gunfire grew closer and the alarms seemed to be growing louder by the second. Bryce didn’t want to harm the poor girl. That was never the plan. Then again, neither was what sounded like an armed invasion force storming the otherwise tranquil halls of the British Museum nor the blowing up every obstacle along the way. It was only a matter of time, too, before a convoy London’s notorious anti-terrorist Armed Response Vehicles or ARV’s came screeching to a halt around the museum perimeter, offloading a seriously lethal threat in the form the elite and highly trained SCO19 armed response officers. Once they were deployed, escape without severe casualties would be impossible. The time to act was right now.

  He had no other choice. It was time to use the most powerful weapon he had.

  Chapter 9

  Bryce fixed his gaze on Saira and immediately, she began to respond to his unspoken commands. Within seconds she had engaged the safety on the pistol she held and handed it to Bryce, butt first before moving toward the XRF machine. Without a moment’s hesitation, she removed the coin from the sampling apparatus and brought it to Bryce, handing it over as if nothing were amiss.

  The coin felt warm in Bryce’s hand and he knew that had nothing to do with the XRF analysis. The warmth spread from his hand to his forearm before he remembered the special pouch he had brought to house the precious artifact.

  Once secured and placed on a chain around his neck, Bryce released Saira from his control in the hope he could enlist her help in escaping. With the Circle closing in, their fates were now inextricably entwined. They would put a bullet through her eye socket just for knowing they were there. And that’s if she was lucky. No, Bryce had brought this upon her and now it was his duty to care for her and see her to safety
. Dragon shifters had a code and it was a strict and unwavering one at that.

  “We need a way out of here and we need it right now.” He gripped her arm firmly as he spoke, glaring at her with wide eyes. The urgency was not lost on Saira. She was nobody’s fool.

  “I thought you burglar types always had a super cool exit strategy, like in the movies.” The heat of his touch on her arm felt good. Strong and protective. She wished it didn’t. He was an antiquities thief, after all and she was a museum curator. She should have been repulsed by his touch. She felt ashamed that she wasn’t.

  “Sweetheart, this isn’t a movie and any exit plan I had was shot to pieces when I took your boyfriend down and saved your life. I’m out of options now and once they get here, killing you will be as high on their priority list as getting their hands on this coin.” His hand went involuntarily to the pouch beneath his suit and it radiated warmth as soon as he touched it. Of course, that couldn’t even be possible given the thermal shielding built into the fabric of the suit. Could it? He pulled his hand away sharply, afraid of the feeling that swept through him whenever he made contact with it.

  Bristling with irritation Saira snatched her arm free of Bryce’s grip. He arched an eyebrow as much in surprise at her strength as in admiration for her feisty attitude. This girl was just full of surprises.

  “I’m not your sweetheart. I’ll be the witness at your trial when the police get here, put you in cuffs and throw your stealing ass in jail, but until then, I’m anything but your sweetheart.” But even as she said it, she felt the heat rise in her belly again as she looked into his gorgeous eyes and she longed for the warmth of his touch once more.