WILLOW Sage sat in the HR office, doing her best not to stare at Smedley O’Tentacle, the HR Director of Dragon’s Den Casino, but he was making it very difficult.
Every time O’Tentacle picked up a pen, his fingers became sinuous and grew suckers on the pads.
She’d never met a squid shifter before, and when his hand squished moistly over the computer mouse, she resolved not to look away from his eyes, which were almost colorless, but for the dark, horizontal bar of a pupil across the center.
O’Tentacle frowned at her, his lips pursing out and looking decidedly beaky. “Is something the matter?”
“Oh, no! Not at all,” Willow stammered, trying not to sound stupid. “Everything’s fine.”
Smedley squinted at her but went back to typing her information into the computer. “Hiring someone without a thorough vetting process is very irregular. Usually, we post a job opening, collect applications, and then rank resumes using a rubric. I’ve never even heard of the,” he squinted at the paper, too, “Sorcière Université Potions Program.”
It was the Sorcière Université Remedial Potions Program, but Willow wasn’t going to admit that. “The program is very selective.”
Selective, in that they only admitted the most hopeless potion witches who couldn’t cook to save their lives.
Which she still was.
Willow was the culinary school dropout who was still desperately trying to make buttercream roses even though her cakes always fell and her racks of lamb were always burnt to charcoal.
But she was going to keep trying.
And she was good with animals.
Which was why her bestie Bethany Aura had gotten her this job at the Dragon’s Den Casino as a professional sea monster zookeeper.
That, and because Willow was running out of money. She hadn’t been able to find a job. If she didn’t get something by the end of the week, she was going to have to move back in with her parents in Desert Stars, a town that lay an hour outside of Las Vegas.
This short-term cash infusion would keep her afloat for another month or two.
Evidently, the apparitional sea serpents were looking sickly, and they thought a potions witch might be able to whip up a vitamin cocktail to make their scales glossy and their tentacles more . . . tentacly.
Like Smedley’s undulating fingers.
Willow snapped her attention back up to his face.
Smedley licked his lips. His tongue had suckers on it, too. “This is most irregular.”
“I’m very sorry about that, but Bethany did say that they were in need of urgent care. The CFO, Mr. Draco, approved hiring me. At the very least, I can fill in and help the serpents until you can get a proper marine magicobiologist. You don’t want a half-dozen deceased sea serpents bloating and stinking up the casino fountain like six tons of dead fish, rotting in the sun.”
Smedley’s upper lip curled in what must be a squidly snarl. “Fine. But I’m marking this as a temporary position. The casino’s Head of Security, Mr. Arawn Tiamat, is on his way down. I must warn you, he’s one of the most by-the-book dragon shifters I’ve ever met. Mr. Tiamat will never approve your hire, even if Mr. Draco did.”
“We’ll leave it up to Mr. Tiamat, then,” she said.
The office door opened, and a man walked in. He didn’t notice Willow sitting in the applicant’s chair but rounded on Smedley, saying in a low, bass voice, “Those sea serpents look ghastly. When will the potions witch get here?”
The man was very tall, blond, and excessively broad-shouldered under that expensive suit he wore. He was movie-star handsome with cut cheekbones and a square jaw.
She knew he would have amazing blue eyes when he turned to look at her.
He also had a dragon tattoo on his ribs that Willow had licked many times.
Her breath rushed into her.
She had dated Aaron Timmit for just over a year and lived with him for the last six months of their relationship, before he had come back to their apartment one day and quietly told her that he was moving to Los Angeles and wouldn’t be able to be with her anymore.
Tears pricked her eyes.
She blinked hard before Aaron saw them.
Smedley gestured toward Willow. “She’s right behind you, Mr. Tiamat. And I must protest the highly irregular hiring practices that have been instituted in the last month.”
She didn’t know why Smedley was mispronouncing Aaron Timmit’s name so badly.
Aaron turned, his slim hips twisting just a fraction before his shoulders and then his head.
When he was facing her, his expression didn’t change, though he blinked his bright blue eyes. “Willow?”
Her heart lurched behind her sternum, then sprinted. “Um, Aaron? What are you doing here?”
He said, “I’m the Head of Security for the Dragon’s Den Casino. Man-eating sea monsters fall under my jurisdiction, even sick ones.”
“But Mr. O’Tentacle said that a dragon shifter was in charge of that.”
Aaron’s expression fell, and he placed his hands in his pants pockets. “About that—”
Behind Aaron, Smedley said, “I must protest. The last time we hired someone without due process, we ended up with glitterbombs detonating in the penthouses.”
Aaron turned his head toward Smedley, but his bright blue eyes didn’t leave Willow’s. “I thought we were hiring a witch.”
Smedley said, “Ms. Willow Sage says she’s a witch. Her resumé says she’s a witch.”
Willow straightened her spine. She wouldn’t cry. Surely in the four months since they’d broken up, she had gained enough perspective and composure that she could hold herself together for a few minutes in the HR office. “Yes, Aaron. I’m a witch.”
One of his light brown eyebrows lowered, but his perfect face didn’t otherwise move. “You never told me you were a supernatural.”
“I’m a witch. I’ve always been a witch. And evidently, you’re a dragon and your name is Arawn Tiamat, not Aaron Timmit. So, I guess there’s a lot we both forgot to mention about ourselves.”
What happens when old flames
Arawn Tiamat and Willow Sage
discover they have to work together?
Their second chance at love gets messy
in the new PNR from Poppy Wolfe and Blair Babylon,
~~~~~
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading Dragons & Magic (Dragon’s Den Casino #1).
If you’d like to know when my next books come out, please visit my website or sign up for the Dragon’s Den VIP Lounge.
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I hope that you’ll also leave a review with your thoughts where you bought this ebook. Reviews are the best way to let other readers know about new books or to tell the author that you enjoyed it.
Again, thank you for reading!
Blair Babylon (who writes PNR as Poppy Wolfe)
Want to read about aristocratic billionaires instead? Try the Runaway Billionaires series, which are funny, sexy romps with courageous, loyal men who are so much more than the naughty playboys with jet airplanes and fast cars they appear to be. (3 Books.) CLICK HERE.
Or do you like your billionaires tall, blond, blue-eyed, dominant, and royal? Meet Wulf, a secret Billionaire in Disguise (2 Books.) CLICK HERE.
Do you like your billionaires to rock hard? Rock star Xan Valentine is the lead singer for Killer Valentine, and he has a huge secret. (4 Books.) CLICK HERE.
Want something a little darker? Theo rescues Lizzy from a BDSM relationship gone bad, but they end up in a suspenseful chase through the Southwest to Paris. (4 Books.) CLICK HERE.
Or you can read about a modern-day princess who escapes from her abusive ex by running away with her bodyguard who was her first love, and he never stopped loving her. (5 Books.) CLICK HERE.
~~~~~
{{{{{INSERT NOTE FROM BLAIR HERE}}}}}
~~~~~
BILLIONAIRES IN DISGUISE SERIES
READING ORDER
Here’s the theoretical and chronological reading order:
Working Stiff (Runaway Billionaires #1, Casimir)
Stiff Drink (Runaway Billionaires #2, Arthur Duet, Part 1)
Hard Liquor (Runaway Billionaires #3, Arthur Duet, Part 2)
Billionaires in Disguise: Rae, Complete Omnibus Edition (includes “Rae Falling”)
“An Extravagant Proposal” (A Side Story for Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
Falling Hard (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #1)
Playing Rough (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #2)
Breaking Rules (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #3)
Burning Bright (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #4)
“Alwaysland” (Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, A Prequel)
What A Girl Wants (Rock Stars in Disguise: Rhiannon)
Somebody To Love (Rock Stars in Disguise: Tryp)
Every Breath You Take (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #1) (includes Rae/Wulf civil wedding) ~FREE!
Wild Thing (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #2)
“Skiing in June, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #1” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
“Kidnapped, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #2” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
“Rae and Wulf: At the Hospital”
Lay Your Hands On Me (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #3)
Nothing Else Matters (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #4)
“Montreux, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #3” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
The Rock Star’s Secret Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Cadell)
“Dream On” (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, Epilogue #1)
“Keep Dreaming”
Santa, Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Peyton)
Runaway Princess Bride (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
In Shining Armor (Runaway Princess #2) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
In A Faraway Land (Runaway Princess #3) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
At Midnight (Runaway Princess #4) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
Happily Ever After (Runaway Princess #5) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
Stiff Competition (Runaway Billionaires #4, Maxence)
You don’t have to read everything perfectly in this order. I try to recap or make books as standalone as possible. The mini-series within this overall list, such as the Lizzy books or the Georgie books, should be read in order. ~BB
Also, just so you know what you’re getting up there, novel-length books are in italics, like this, but “short forms,” like short stories and novellas, are in “quotation marks.”
Check for New Releases by Blair Babylon at Kobo
~~~
Copyright 2019 by Malachite Publishing LLC
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s wild and naughty imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission from the author or publisher.
1st Edition: January, 2019