AFTER their mating, Bethany and Math had stayed in the penthouse suite for a week, making sure that sex after mating was every bit as good as sex during mating.
And it was. It really was. The magical bond between them fed back their sensations until both of them were overwhelmed, every time.
They’d slept a lot, too, absolutely exhausted, flopped over each other’s naked bodies.
They’d also ordered room service five times a day and again for a midnight snack.
Bethany seriously could not eat enough, and she had lost three pounds. Her slacks had loosened around her waist, but her bra seemed oddly tight.
When she’d been getting out of the shower the day before, while Math was still in there washing himself off a second time, a full-length mirror had captured her reflection.
Her waist was nipped in, and her breasts had become fuller.
Somehow, straight-stick, floppy Bethany had grown a slim, hourglass figure.
She could even see the taut lines of toned yoga-tummy muscles on her lower belly.
This dragonmate thing had its benefits.
Even beyond having an insatiable, ravenous dragon for a mate.
And he had a dragon metabolism, too.
But after a week of isolation, Math had checked his email and found a list of increasingly panic-stricken messages from Smedley the HR Squid and the people at Dragons Den, Inc. He’d groused, but they’d left the penthouse the next morning to try to deal with the chaos and the impending visit from the angel investors.
The ballroom still needed a lot of work, and Bethany summoned the meerkats, whom she suspected were snickering at her behind their crayon-colored paws.
Which brought them to this moment and Bethany trying like heck to whip the ballroom into shape while they both procrastinated dealing with the slimefest full of sea monsters at the casino’s entrance.
She performed one last incantation maneuver, a sweeping magical movement ending on her tiptoes with both her arms in an upward stretch, to direct her apparitions who were putting the final touches on the space.
Power rushed through her bones, so much power.
Her apparitions—now a troupe of fifty candy-colored gorillas—were marching tables and chairs through the two sets of double doors at the far end and positioning them under the glowing chandeliers. The spirit manifestations were so much bigger than before, and so many more of them had popped into corporeal being than had ever answered her previous calls. Twenty new spirits had swung over to take a look at her and perform the ritual greeting ceremony.
That was odd.
And awesome.
She felt like a real witch and everything.
“We have to look at that dang thing sometime,” Math said to her.
“No, we don’t.”
“Unfortunately, we do.” He was sitting at one of the tables, typing furiously on his laptop, and he looked funny to her because he was wearing clothes. She’d gotten used to running her eyes, fingers, and tongue over any part of him she wanted to, and he’d evidently become accustomed to the same with her. “We can’t avoid it forever.”
“Yeah,” Bethany said, cringing inside.
“They’re going to be here in two days.”
“Yeah,” Bethany said, cringing harder.
He laughed. “I felt that. It’ll be okay. We’ll figure something out. If we need to, I can hire someone to cast a glamour over the whole thing and make it disappear.”
“Angels can see through glamours,” she fretted.
“Then we’ll bring them in through the back doors.”
“Angels fly. They’ll fly right over that fountain full of sea monsters and slimy, green crud.”
“We still need to figure out what to do about it. Maybe I’ll shift to my dragon and order the serpents to keep their ugly heads underwater.”
“Yeah,” Bethany said, cringing again.
He was right, though.
But they didn’t have to go yet.
The neon-glowing apes sprinted around the ballroom, carrying chairs over their heads or tables slung between them while Bethany conducted the operation, her arms flailing.
In an hour, the ballroom was staged, and the gorillas leaped into the air and dissipated into smoke.
Bethany performed another summoning, steeling herself for statistically what was likely to be a catastrophic failure. She hadn’t had a glitterbomb in weeks. Her spellwork that morning had been outperforming her work on every previous occasion.
She braced herself, eyes slitted, for glitter grenades or a slimy green waterfall full of slithering sea serpents to manifest.
Math asked, “Bethany? You okay?”
She waved him off and focused her energy on punching the portal and summoning the spirits.
Crayon-colored storks and flying foxes soared through her hole in the veils of reality, carrying tablecloths and chair-covers draped between them.
Red pandas, looking like crosses between bears and foxes, trundled in, running upright and holding pink and green floral centerpieces in their front paws.
Good Lords of Magic, she hadn’t screwed up.
Oh, it was going to be so much worse when she finally did.
But she got to directing these apparitions at dressing the ballroom.
In twenty minutes, the cavernous space looked like it was ready for a fancy wedding reception.
With the last of the tables ready, Bethany clapped her hands, and the red-panda and stork apparitions spun in the air and vanished.
With the ballroom staged, she couldn’t procrastinate any longer.
She turned to Math. “Okay, fine. Let’s go.”
Math slapped his laptop closed. “Things are going on back at New Wales, too. We’ll need to go there after the angel investors leave.”
“We?” Bethany squeaked.
“Yeah,” Math sighed, looking downcast. Bethany felt waves of reticence roll off of him through their mating bond. Wow, there was something he really didn’t want to tell her. “We need to talk about New Wales and dragon society. There’s some stuff happening you need to be briefed on. But first, we need to see about those dang sea monsters in the fountain out front.”
“We could totally talk about New Wales. Let’s talk about New Wales.”
“Nope,” he said. “I’m still the CFO of this casino, for the time being, at least, and I say let’s deal with those serpents.”
Well, Math was still her boss, even if she was sleeping with the boss.
“Okay,” Bethany sighed.
They walked through the lobby of the casino, where glistening rows of card tables lined up into the gloomy distance. The chairs, serving stations, and dark slot machines were in good shape, but Bethany would task her minions with one last polish tomorrow morning before the angel investors arrived.
The sliding doors opened, and they strolled out into the harsh desert sunlight.
Ahead of them, amidst a sea of concrete, the fountain sparkled in the sun.
Wait, sparkled?
Yes, the fountain’s switched-off mechanicals and the clean water in the pond were sparkling. Tall nozzles that would spray water upward twinkled silver. Black gaskets gleamed.
“What happened to it?” Bethany asked, placing her hands on the warm cement retaining wall and leaning over.
Math wrapped one strong arm around her waist and dragged her back a step, doubtlessly thinking he was saving her from another green slime-based assassination attempt. “Careful.”
“The green slime is all gone. Did the serpents eat it?”
“Sea serpents are piscivores, not vegetarians. They eat fish, a lot of fish. Dragons are obligate carnivores and don’t eat plants. They wouldn’t eat algae.”
“Oh, no. The poor things must have been so hungry.”
“They’re reptilian, though. Their metabolic rate is lower than that of mammals’. They should be able to go for weeks or longer between feedings.”
Bethany looked at him. “You don’t have a slow metabolism.”
He shrugged. “That’s the fire thing. Generating fire takes a lot of energy. And flying. But sea serpents don’t do either of those. Algae and plankton are tiny. I’ve never seen a serpent eat anything smaller than a medium-sized shark.”
The broad head of a sea monster broke through the pond’s surface, horns shining in the sun and tendrils trailing behind it. It leered at them with its horizontal-barred eye and grinned with its many-tusked mouth before diving back into the dark, silent water.
Bethany said, “It looks like it could eat a shark. They look kind of sickly, though. Maybe they should be eating more than just algae.”
Another sea serpent breached the surface, shaking its head that was ringed with tentacles like a lion’s mane. As it fell back toward the water, it opened its wide maw and nose-dived toward a fountain fixture, half-swallowing the tall prong.
Math backed up a step. “Oh, my.”
Bethany blinked. “What’s it doing?”
Math flinched away. “I think it’s cleaning the algae off, but—”
The sea serpent worked its mouth up and down the fountain spigot, scraping with its teeth and sucking off every last bit of plankton and algae.
Bethany winced as she watched the serpent bobbing up and down the rod. “That looks obscene.”
The sea monster’s wet mouth slurped as it gobbled the steel.
Math said, “It can’t do that while the angel investors are here. Those kinds of ranches are only legal outside the city limits.”
The sea monster gagged, coughing and horking as it swallowed.
Math covered his eyes. “Oh! Geez, Bethany. Can’t you order them to stop?”
“Controlling legendaries is Master Mage-level magic. Can’t you go alpha dragon and order them to stop?”
The sea serpent thrashed as it thrust the rod deeper into its own throat, it’s long, snake-like tail whipping the water.
They dodged the waves of water sloshing out of the fountain.
He said, “They’re eating. I can’t order them to starve themselves to death. Can’t you conjure up some fish for them to eat?”
“Apparitions don’t have physical bodies. They’re manifested spirits. The sea serpents would still be hungry if they ate apparition fish. My usual guys don’t eat. I guess legendaries need to eat, though.”
The sea serpent slobbered and sucked on the spigot as it thrashed in the water.
A rogue wave jumped the retaining wall and slapped Bethany, knocking her off her feet.
Beside her, Math staggered backward and grabbed her hand to help her off the cement.
Sun-warmed water streamed down her soaked hair and clothes, puddling in her shoes.
“Are you okay?” Math asked, horrified. “You didn’t swallow any, did you?”
She spit fresh water out of her mouth and laughed. “No, but I have to say, that water is a thousand times cleaner than it was last week.”
“At least those damned creatures ate the green slime,” Math muttered. “Come on, let’s go back to the penthouse and get those wet clothes off of you.”
Bethany nodded. “Yeah, I need to change into something dry.”
“That is not what I said.”