Water Dragon (The Bride Hunt Book 2) Read online

  Water Dragon

  Book 2: The Bride Hunt

  Charlene Hartnady

  Contents

  Copyright

  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

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  About the Author

  Also by Charlene Hartnady

  Excerpt

  Copyright September © 2016 by Charlene Hartnady

  Cover art by melody Simmons

  Edited by KR

  Produced in South Africa

  [email protected]

  Royal Dragon is a work of fiction and characters, events and dialogue found within are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, either living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Chapter 1

  Ellis made a snorting sound as he blew out a breath. He looked away for a moment, clearly annoyed. Then he turned back to her and his eyes widened, a look of shock took the place of the annoyed one.

  The guy was a complete asshole! “You’re acting like this is news to you. How many times have I warned you? You obviously haven’t been listening to me.” Candy put her hands on her hips, keeping her gaze on his.

  “I heard you just fine.” He rolled his eyes. She couldn’t believe that she had actually liked him once upon a time. That she had believed that he had her best interests at heart. Ellis only cared about number one. End of story. She was finally old enough and wise enough to realize it. He frowned. “You don’t mean it. The money is amazing. How can you just walk away?”

  “Easily and I couldn’t be more serious if I tried. I’ve warned you and warned you. School starts in two weeks. I’ve enrolled.”

  “Candy.” He spoke using soft tones. “Get in the car.” He tapped the soft top of his convertible. “We’ll talk about this later. You’re going to be late for your first—”

  Candy folded her arms and sighed heavily. “I told you that I’m not meeting any new clients. What part of – I want out – don’t you understand?” She spoke softly and clearly, not that it would help.

  Ellis clenched his jaw, when he turned his eyes back on her, they had hardened up. “Don’t do this, Candy. I’m counting on you. You would’ve been in a gutter somewhere if it weren’t for me.”

  Here we go again. Ellis was about to play the guilt card. She’d had enough of him and his bullshit. “I told you plenty of times. I explained things very carefully. When I agreed to our terms it was under the strict condition that it was a short term thing. I can’t do this anymore.”

  “Why the hell not? Do you know how many women would love to be in your shoes? They would kill. Look at you.” He waved his hand in front of her. “Designer digs… the best tits money can buy… you drive a—”

  “None of it matters.”

  “Come on, Candy.” He sounded exasperated. “You have two clients.” He held up two fingers. “Two, god dammit. One of them can’t get it up and the other would prefer to have you on his arm than on the end of his dick, you get money for jam.”

  “It’s soul destroying. I wasn’t put on this earth to entertain wealthy men… even if they are good guys… I have a greater purpose.” She wasn’t sure exactly what that purpose was but getting a degree would be a good start.

  Ellis laughed. It was a nasty sneer, devoid of any type of humor. “You are a fine piece of ass that can suck dick like—”

  Candy didn’t know what came over her. She hit him across the face. There was a cracking sound as her palm hit his cheek. It felt good.

  Damn him.

  She’d had enough of Ellis and his remarks. He pretended to respect her but the truth was that he said what he had to, to keep her happy. His eyes narrowed, his face flushed from anger. It was times like this when his true colors were revealed and they were selfish and nasty.

  Candy wanted nothing more to do with him or his escort agency. She had enough money saved to survive, frugally, for the next few years. Hopefully it would be enough to see her through medical school. Even if she had to get a job waiting tables or cleaning toilets. She didn’t care what it took. She would stand on her own two feet and make a go at life.

  The slap was hard enough to sting and she fought the urge to rub her hands together. Ellis didn’t move a muscle for a half a second. In that moment, she was tempted to apologize. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from doing it. He deserved it. She wasn’t taking it back even though she knew there would be repercussions.

  “Fuck, Candy! You are a whore. Do you hear me? Nothing more than a fucking whore.” He put his hands around her throat and pushed her up against his car. His grip was tight, but he did it carefully so as not to damage his paint job or to leave marks on her. “If I tell you that you are going to see a new client then you damn well do as I say. You only get to leave the business when I say you can and not a moment sooner. I’ve always been good to you.” His voice softened. “I’ve never hurt you or pumped you full of drugs. I’ve never sampled the goods myself.” His fingers tightened ever so slightly, making it a little hard to breathe. “All that can change, little Candy. I think someone has forgotten their place.”

  One of his hands unfurled from around her neck and closed on one of her breasts. He squeezed her flesh while making a moaning noise. “I’ll pump you full of heroine. I’ll get you so addicted that you’ll be begging to suck any cock I put in front of you for a hit. Is that what you want?” He moved closer to her, his hot breath all over her face.

  Ellis wasn’t a bad looking guy. He was tall and built, covered in tattoos. The guy could pretty much crook his finger and women would come running. Candy had never been attracted to him. In recent months she’d gone from thinking of him as her boss, someone who had helped her when she really needed it, to hating his guts.

  “So tell me. Do you want to be a crack whore, Candy?” He squeezed her breast, harder this time.

  “No,” she managed to push out. It was barely a whisper.

  “I don’t want that either.” He released her. “You would have to service at least ten guys a day and you still wouldn’t make half of what you do now. In short…” He fixed the lapels on her jacket and straightened out her pearl necklace. “You are worth way more to me now. One more client. That brings the total up to three. One or two dates each a week. Your new client is much younger, he’s a prominent figure.”

  He said it like it would change her mind. She was done in this business. It wasn’t something she’d ever been comfortable with. Candy hadn’t had an actual boyfriend or been on a real date since working at Kitty’s. She wanted her life back. She wanted to be able to look at herself in the mirror again.

  In this moment though, she wasn’t sure what to do. She was shaking like a leaf. Her heels felt wobbly against the aspha
lt. What the hell was she going to do? How was she going to get out of this? She was fooling herself by thinking that Ellis would ever let her go.

  When she didn’t say anything, her asshole boss obviously took it as consent because he smiled and cupped her cheek. It took everything in her to keep from pulling away. That hard look was still there. His shoulders were tense. Self preservation kicked in and she didn’t move a muscle. “That’s my girl.” He narrowed his eyes, looking at her lips. He’d never looked at her sexually before. His rules were not to sample the merchandise. He had a lot of such sayings. She should have known that he was a ginormous douchebag by the way he insisted on talking about women like they were retail stock.

  He pulled away from her, staying within her personal space. “His identification must remain strictly confidential. It’s important that you know that he’s insisted on an exclusive fuck. He insisted on you, Candy.”

  Candy felt herself flinch at his crass words. She had to be just about the most timid call girl in the business.

  “As far as the senator is concerned, you are going to be servicing him and him alone. He knows you date those two old farts, but he must never know that Charles actually gets it up on the odd occasion.”

  “The senator as in, William Lawson?” Her voice was a little high pitched.

  “One and the same.” There was a glint in Ellis’ eyes. “He asked for you by name. My best, and I’m giving it to him.”

  It. Like she was some kind of commodity.

  Ellis cocked his head. “He’s willing to pay double your going rate, which equates to a small fucking fortune.”

  “No damned way.” The words were out before she could stop them. “Senator Lawson is married.”

  “Unhappily.”

  “I don’t care,” she blurted. “You know my terms. I won’t date…” She forced the word out. They both knew that this wouldn’t just be a freaking date. Confidentiality. This wasn’t about being arm candy for an elderly gentleman. The senator was in his late forties, young compared to Charles and Harold. What he wanted would take place strictly behind closed doors. It turned her stomach and had bile rising in her throat.

  “You are going to meet with the senator. I’m getting sick of repeating myself. Get in the car and quit mouthing off. If we don’t leave right fucking now we’re going to be late.”

  His face had turned red again and his hands were fisted at his sides.

  “He’s married,” she mumbled.

  “You sound like a god damned stuck fucking record. Quit your whining and get in the car.”

  Candy grit her teeth to keep herself from calling him a couple of choice names that might help her feel better but wouldn’t get her out of this situation. She needed to buy herself some time so she could think. “I’ll get in on one condition.” Ellis still needed her. There was an edge of desperation in his actions and tone.

  He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “What?” he spat.

  “I’m not having sex with him today. I’ll meet with him and talk to—”

  Ellis cut her off with a laugh. He turned his eyes to the sky and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The senator doesn’t want to meet with you to discuss the weather or politics.” He laughed at his own stupid joke. “He wants a set of perfect tits and an ass that just won’t fucking quit. He wants to fuck, Candy.” He just stood there looking at her, blinking his eyes like a moron. “If a fuck is what the good senator wants, then a fuck is what he will get.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t sign up for this. This wasn’t a part of our agreem—” She didn’t get to finish her sentence because Ellis backhanded her. It was hard enough to make her stagger. Hard enough that she could taste the metallic tang of blood in her mouth but not so hard as to leave a mark or a bruise. Her lipstick would still be perfect. She didn’t even have to check. Ellis was a pro at roughing up a woman without leaving a mark.

  “You listen and you listen good. I’m sick of your whining. My girlfriend puts out more than you do. You’re taking this gig with the senator and you will keep seeing your granddaddy dates. More importantly, you’re going to pretend to love every second.”

  “All I’m asking is to be given an opportunity to meet with him first.”

  “What for? You’re a hooker. You might get paid more than most but that’s what you are. A cheap, fucking whore. It’s about time you realized that.”

  Not by choice. She screamed it inside her head.

  Ellis pointed at her, his finger only inches from her face. “You are getting in this car and putting out. Whatever Senator Lawson wants, he gets. I don’t care if you have to suck dick or take it up the ass. I will stand outside that fucking hotel room door and I want to hear him having the time of his life. When you walk out of there, so fucking help me, he had better be a satisfied man or…”

  There was a gust of air and his eyes widened. One minute Ellis was standing in front of her and the next he was gone. No, not gone. He was sprawled on the ground about ten feet away. How did that happen? What the hell… His arm was at a strange angle and he wasn’t moving. Not even an inch.

  The hairs on her whole body stood on end and everything in her told her to look up. Yet, at the same time, that same voice screamed for her not to look but rather to run instead. Icy tendrils of fear crept up and down her spine. Oh god! Her eyes slowly lifted.

  What the hell!

  It was large and scaly with golden eyes. Its wings spanned at least twenty feet.

  A dragon? No fucking way? Had Ellis knocked her unconscious? That had to be it. This was a dream.

  It was a nightmare! The thing swooped down, grabbing her in it’s giant talons. It wrapped those huge claws around her in a vice-like grip and rocketed to the sky so quickly that the air was pulled from her lungs, taking her blood curdling scream along with it. It sure as hell felt real. The wind in her face, the scales against her skin, the adrenaline in her veins. Lord help her. She had just been taken by a dragon. The scream finally made it from her lungs and once she started, she struggled to stop.

  Chapter 2

  The next day…

  Water filled her throat and nostrils. She was going to drown. If she wasn’t so busy fighting for her next breath, she would have laughed at the irony. Less than twenty-four hours ago she didn’t think that things could get worse. Yesterday she had two choices, agree to a third escort—a prominent senator who wanted to screw her brains out—or become a crack whore. Neither decision had seemed appealing at the time. Go figure!

  At least she’ d had a choice in the matter though. Right now her only option was to run.

  Run.

  Run.

  Run.

  Make that… drown. Her only consolation was that she was moving fast down stream. The current that threatened to take her life, was also saving it. Another hilarious irony. The relentless current was taking her farther and farther away from the dragon shifters. Those huge SOB’s that were intent on raping her.

  Candy managed to break to the surface, she gulped in air. She had given up trying to swim to the edge. It was no use, the current was just too strong. She felt like a leaf in a shit-storm.

  Her dress was thin, it didn’t weigh her down, but it was up around her arms and her hair was in her face. She was too busy trying to gulp down her next breath to care.

  Those monsters that were after them had to have been almost seven feet tall. Their chests were bare and roped with layer upon layer of muscles. She prayed that the other four women were okay. All of them had been abducted by dragons for a barbaric pastime. Fun for the dragon men. Terrifying for them.

  The hunt.

  Panic welled up in her and she kicked harder even though there was a small part of her that told her it might be better to give up. To stop trying to survive. To let the river take her. It would be better than what those assholes would do if they got their hands on her.

  “No.” She sobbed as she broke to the surface, quickly sucking in a ragged breath. Water churned around h
er. Candy was so cold she could barely feel her limbs. She was a fighter, a survivor. There was no way she was giving up now.

  No way in hell.

  Despite the freezing cold and her quivering muscles, she continued to kick. Continued to fight for that next breath and then the next. Whether she had been in the water for minutes, for an hour, or more, was hard to tell.

  Candy slammed into something with her shoulder. Pain blossomed, shooting down her arm. The current pulled at her legs, pulling her under even though the solid object was in front of her.

  It must have been on instinct that her arms wrapped around whatever the big solid thing was. By some miracle she managed to pull herself up so that her head came out of the water. Candy filled her lungs, she coughed and spluttered for about a half a minute before she was able to get enough oxygen into her air starved body that she could think clearly.

  Had to get out.

  Had. To.

  She was going to die otherwise.

  It was a massive tree that must have fallen into the water. Half of it’s bulk lay in the water and the other other half straddled the shore. Candy had her arms wrapped around the trunk. There was no way she could pull herself out like this. She was afraid to let go with the bottom hand because the river might pull her under if she did. She couldn’t stay in the water like this indefinitely though. The warmth inside her was slowly being sapped from her body. Her teeth were clattering so hard that she thought they might crack at any moment. She was panting hard.

  Gripping as tightly as she could with the hand on the top of the trunk, she released the hand on the bottom. For a second she thought she was a goner. The currents were terrifyingly powerful. The river was strong and deep. If it took her again she probably wouldn’t survive. If she didn’t get out soon though… Candy slapped her other hand on top of the trunk. Using all of her waning strength, she pulled with all her might. It felt like she weighed a freaking ton. Like her legs had been carved from lead.