Whisper Kiss Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Author's Note

  Teaser chapter

  About the Author

  Praise for the Dragonfire Novels

  Winter Kiss

  "A beautiful and emotionally gripping fourth novel, Winter Kiss is compelling and will keep readers riveted in their seats and breathing a happy sigh at the love shared between Delaney and Ginger. . . . Sizzling-hot love scenes and explosive emotions make Winter Kiss a must read!"

  --Romance Junkies

  "A terrific novel!"

  --Romance Reviews Today

  "All the Pyr and their mates from the previous three books in this exciting series are included in this final confrontation with Magnus and his evil Dragon's Blood Elixir. It's another stellar addition to this dynamic paranormal saga with the promise of more to come."

  --Fresh Fiction

  Kiss of Fate

  "An intense ride. Ms. Cooke has a great talent. . . . If you love paranormal romance in any way, this is a series you should be following."

  --Night Owl Romance (reviewer top pick)

  "Second chances are a key theme in this latest Dragonfire adventure. Cooke keeps the pace intense and the emotions raging in this powerful new read. She's top-notch, as always."

  --Romantic Times

  Kiss of Fury

  "Those sexy dragons are back in the second chapter of Cooke's exciting paranormal series. . . . The intriguing characters continue to grow and offer terrific opportunities for story expansion. Balancing a hormone-driven romance with high-stakes action can be difficult, but Cooke manages with ease. Visiting this world is a pleasure."

  --Romantic Times

  "This second book in Deborah Cooke's phenomenal Dragonfire series expertly sets the stage for the next thrilling episode."

  --Fresh Fiction

  "Entertaining and imaginative . . . a must read for paranormal fans."

  --BookLoons

  "Riveting . . . Deborah Cooke delivers a fiery tale of love and passion. . . . She manages to leave us with just enough new questions to have us awaiting book three with bated breath!"

  --Wild on Books

  "Epic battles, suspense, ecological concerns, humor, and romance are highlights that readers can expect in this tale. Excellent writing, a smart story, and exceptional characters earn this novel the RRT Perfect 10 Rating. Don't miss the very highly recommended Kiss of Fury."

  --Romance Reviews Today

  "Combustible . . . extremely fascinating. . . . Deborah Cooke has only touched the surface about these wonderful men called the Pyr and their battle with the evil dragons. . . . I am dying for more."

  --Romance Junkies

  Kiss of Fire

  "Cooke, aka bestseller Claire Delacroix, dips into the paranormal realm with her sizzling new Dragonfire series. With a self-described loner as a hero, this heroine has to adjust to her new role in the supernatural and establish bonds of trust. Efficient plotting moves the story at a brisk pace and paves the way for more exciting battles to come."

  --Romantic Times

  "Wow, what an innovative and dazzling world Ms. Cooke has built with this new Dragonfire series. Her smooth and precise writing quickly draws the reader in and has you believing it could almost be real. . . . I can't wait for the next two books."

  --Fresh Fiction

  "Deborah Cooke has definitely made me a fan. I am now lying in wait for the second book in this extremely exciting series."

  --Romance Junkies

  "Paranormal fans with a soft spot for shape-shifting dragons will definitely enjoy Kiss of Fire, a story brimming with sexy heroes; evil villains threatening mayhem, death, and world domination; ancient prophecies; and an engaging love story. . . . An intriguing mythology and various unanswered plot threads set the stage for plenty more adventure to come in future Dragonfire stories."

  --BookLoons

  The Dragonfire Novels

  Kiss of Fire

  Kiss of Fury

  Kiss of Fate

  Winter Kiss

  SIGNET ECLIPSE

  Published by New American Library, a division of

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  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:

  80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  First published by Signet Eclipse, an imprint of New American Library,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  First Printing, August 2010

  Copyright (c) Claire Delacroix, Inc., 2010

  All rights reserved

  eISBN : 978-1-101-19823-0

  SIGNET ECLIPSE and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  PUBLISHER'S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

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  For Kon, as always

  Chapter 1

  New York City

  June 26, 2010

  Rox came home, triumphant. She'd finally found the perfect job for her roommate and current "project."

  This would work.

  Thorolf, who called himself T, was a big bike courier with no direction or ambition. Rox had known from the outset that T could make more of himself, but she'd had a hard time persuading him to try. Every option had been impossib
le in his view, but Rox hadn't given up. And now her efforts would pay off. True to form, Rox had pulled in a favor and found exactly the right job for T.

  Reduce, reuse, and recycle didn't apply to just goods in Rox's world. People could be reinvented, too.

  And if there was ever a man who needed reinvention, it was T. She'd never met anyone with such a lack of focus, yet so much potential. Once she'd seen what he could do, Rox had been determined to help him make the most of his innate gift.

  T, unfortunately, wasn't inclined to change.

  Delivering groceries for the neighborhood organic store would be a perfect step for him. The job would give him a paycheck, enable him to help with the rent, allow him to be outside--which he preferred--and keep him from partying late so that he could get to work early each day. Rox thought it was the perfect combination of responsibility and freedom.

  But it would work only if Rox could persuade T to accept the job. He was the obstacle to his own success.

  She unlocked her apartment door and heard T rummaging in the bedroom. It was a good sign that he was home. She dropped the bag of groceries on the counter--scored while she finalized the job offer--and strode into his bedroom, only to find T packing his few possessions.

  He was still in his black Lycra tights with the khaki shorts over top of them, the mud up his back fresh from a day of being a bicycle courier. He was home early, though--and the fact that he hadn't just grabbed himself a beer from the fridge and crashed on the couch, or gone drinking with his buddies, meant something was up.

  Something, Rox would bet, that she wasn't going to like.

  The furtive glance T shot over his shoulder in her direction, as if he had been caught, only fed her suspicions.

  "What's going on?" she asked.

  T dropped his gaze and returned to his packing. If anything, he was moving faster. "I'm, uh, leaving."

  Rox folded her arms across her chest. "Leaving as in taking a vacation or leaving as in moving out?"

  "Door number two," he mumbled, not looking at her.

  Rox feared he was going to move in with one of his friends, whom she considered to be bad influences. "You find a job or just a better offer?"

  "Both."

  Rox waited, but T said nothing more. He picked up greasy bike parts from the floor in the corner of the room and packed them with a reverence most people would have saved for precious gems. She waited, but he kept packing, gaining speed. She tapped her toe and he ignored her.

  Rox's anger flared at his evasiveness. "You've finally found a job, after three years of my bugging you about it, and you can't even look me in the eye to tell me?"

  T shuffled his feet. "I know you'll be pissed." In another time and place, Rox might have been amused that this man--who was almost two feet taller than she and weighed easily twice as much, who could use his fists like no one she'd ever known, and who could change into a dragon at will--was afraid of her.

  As it was, her mouth went dry. What had T gotten himself into?

  "It's not a real job, is it?" she guessed. "Are you involved in something illegal? Because you know that has to be the stupidest choice--"

  "It's not illegal, Rox. Just weird." He faced her, but still didn't meet her eyes.

  This was bad news.

  "Tell me the truth," Rox demanded. "No matter what you've done, I'll be more mad if you lie to me." She poked him in the shoulder when he didn't immediately reply. "What's going on, T?"

  "Not T," he insisted, as had become his habit recently. It was exactly the opposite argument he'd made when she'd first met him--then, he'd insisted that he had to be T.

  And they said women changed their minds too much.

  "Thorolf," she said deliberately, wondering what the hell had gotten into him. If he needed direction, she had one for him. "I found you a job today. That organic grocery store by the tattoo shop needs a delivery guy. You'd be outside pretty much all day, but you'd get a regular check. . . ."

  His lips set stubbornly. "No. I gotta go, Rox. That's all there is to it."

  "Where are you going to live?"

  "That's taken care of, too."

  It wasn't much of an answer, not enough of one to suit Rox, but T turned back to his packing. He began to jam T-shirts and bicycle parts into his backpack in no particular order, obviously in a rush to get away from her. It was incomprehensible that this man who had never shown a spark of initiative or determination, despite her many efforts, had finally developed some resolve.

  And it meant he was saying no to her.

  After three years of encouraging him, after three years of trying to make something of the mess of a man she'd met in a bar and taken into her protection, Rox was not amused.

  She was worried.

  "Why?" she demanded.

  "There's something I gotta do. Something I gotta learn." He ran a hand over his hair. "A whole lotta stuff I gotta learn and it's not easy."

  "You?" Rox was incredulous. "You've never had any ambition to learn anything, no matter how many ideas I shove under your nose. You don't even have the initiative to stock beer in the fridge."

  "Well, that's gonna change." His tone was resolute. "I know this guy and he's teaching me things. . . ."

  Rox felt her eyes narrow as everything began to make sense. "Guy?"

  "Yeah." For perhaps the first time ever, T--Thorolf--showed real enthusiasm. "His name's Niall Talbot and he's a bit of a pain--snotty; you know--but he's teaching me this great stuff that I want to know. And now it's time to take the next step."

  "What kind of great stuff?"

  "I, uh, can't tell you." His nervousness gave Rox a pretty good idea of what was really going on. T was a lousy liar. "I need to go and live there with him, like an apprentice, and learn as much as I can."

  "There?"

  "He runs an ecotourism travel place, with an office down in Chinatown. I'm gonna stay with him. Erik said so."

  Rox's suspicion rose with the introduction of another unfamiliar name. "Who's Erik?"

  "He's, um, this other guy." Thorolf rummaged in the pockets of his shorts and came up with a business card that looked the worse for wear. "There! That's Niall." He smiled triumphantly as he handed it to Rox, then began to whistle as he plucked his spare brake parts off the radiator.

  He was leaving and he was happy.

  Rox found her hand shaking as she stared at the card. Either T had finally gotten a decent job, just the way she'd been bugging him to do for years, or he was lying to her and had found some big trouble.

  Rox would have bet her favorite tattoo gun on option number two. She was pretty sure "Niall" was a cover story for a woman. T only showed this much energy when he thought he was going to get lucky.

  What was she going to tell Gary about the delivery guy who was no longer around to take the job?

  And what would happen to T?

  "You found this card," she accused, "or you delivered a parcel there. You don't know this guy."

  "Sure I do." He gestured vaguely with one hand. "He's, um, like me." Thorolf slanted Rox a glance that made her heart stop cold.

  That admission changed everything. She had seen T shift shape in that bar fight when they had first met; she had seen him become a dragon right before her eyes. If she hadn't been stone-cold sober, she wouldn't have believed it. If she hadn't already been crazy in love with dragons, she would have been afraid.

  As it was, Rox had taken T's nature in stride.

  In fact, she'd thought--very, very briefly--that he might have been her dream come to life. One morning had been all it had taken to relieve Rox of that romantic notion.

  T was a mess.

  He was a project, not a dream date.

  Part of the reason she had taken T into her care was to give him an alibi and an endorsement. She didn't doubt there were many people who would take advantage of his odd talent, and T was ridiculously trusting.

  But two dragon shape shifters in New York? With a bit more thought, Rox had more doubts. She flicke
d the corner of the card, not troubling to hide her skepticism. "Have you seen him do it?"

  "Well, sure." T shuffled his feet. "He knows stuff, a lot of stuff."

  "Like what?"

  "I can't tell you."

  "No." Rox didn't believe him. "This is a bad idea."

  He appeared to be insulted. "Why shouldn't I learn to use my abilities?"

  "It would be one thing if you did, but I know you, T." At the flash in his eyes, she corrected herself. "Thorolf. You're driven by three things--sex, sex, and beer, in that order. You have no aspirations, no dreams, no desire to learn anything. If you weren't such a big sweetie, I'd have given up on you ages ago."

  "That's not why you stick up for me," he said, gesturing toward the living room walls.

  Rox wasn't interested in talking about her motivations. She wagged the card at him. "This isn't true. You found this card. You're really moving into some woman's place, aren't you?"

  T pushed a hand through his hair and looked discomfited. "Awww, don't make this harder than it is, Rox."

  "Why not? I'm worried about you!" It was typical of T to think he could just saunter out of her life without giving a decent explanation, without even realizing that someone gave a crap about him and his survival.

  Rox knew that the world could be a tough place, and that an ability to fight wasn't always enough.

  "Okay, so maybe it's because of you." T held up a hand when she might have argued. "Maybe because you've been on my ass all these years, I recognized opportunity when I saw it." He appealed to her, apparently sincere. "I'm doing what you've always wanted me to do, Rox. I'm learning about my powers. Be happy for me."