Read Dragon Her Back (Entangled Covet) for Free Online

sighed open and closed.
    He knew it was her without turning his head. His dragon uncoiled and snarled inside him, and the sudden rush made him bobble the bar. The unbalanced weight dove toward his right side before he straightened it.
    He didn’t want to discuss his waning dragon with her and see her oh-so-sorry face. Fresh adrenaline surged through his body, and his gut clenched. Laying his spine flat against the bench, he pressed the barbell, and it surged upward, almost leaving his grip with the force of the propulsion.
    “Hey,” Mei said from the open doorway, seeming hesitant to cross the threshold.
    He leveraged the bar up and down, faster and faster.
    “I opened your gifts.”
    Fuck. Even though it was what he wanted, it made him feel even more quarrelsome, like she’d finally gotten around to throwing him a few scraps of her precious attention, and he was supposed to pant like a street mutt. With an extra loud grunt, he lowered the bar to the cradle and sat up, wiping sweat away with a rag from his bare chest and face.
    Mei’s steps were tentative as she crossed to him, her high heels sinking in the matted floor precariously. She stopped more than an arm’s length away.
    Smart woman.
    Her scent surrounded him in a cloud of seemingly super-oxygenated air. It was the smell after a rainstorm, with the hint of salty ocean breeze at its core. She frowned, her red-painted bottom lip caught under her white teeth. He saw pity on her face, knew she was feeling sorry for him.
    His surliness boiled over to major pissed-offness. “I want my tie back.”
    Her hesitant lip chewing stopped in a millisecond and changed to narrow-eyed annoyance. He liked it a whole lot better than false concern.
    Rising, he turned his back on her and went to the pull-up bar between the weights and the gymnastics equipment. He jumped to grab the metal rod, his weary muscles renewed to Superman-level strength with her eyes watching him.
    Mei followed him to the bar, the only indication of her shifting mood the loud, top of the palate sigh that he heard as he yanked himself above the bar in strict military pull-ups.
    Below him, the top of her shining black hair was twisted into a tight bun, holding his latest gift: handmade gold and onyx chopsticks he’d ordered from a collector in his bid to soften his approach and win her over. His patience for all that fucking gentility evaporated with each pitying look she cast his way.
    He lowered his torso below the bar, letting his gaze sweep over her as he rose. Admiring her red-painted toes peeking through the front of her shoes, and her narrow ankles, to the swell of her hips under her work skirt, to her touchable breasts and down again. He’d always considered himself a leg and ass man until he met Mei. But he loved everything about her delicate stature. It made him want to cherish her, hold her, and protect her.
    His cock stirred to attention despite his continued effort to leverage himself over the bar. Fuck. How could so much trouble be contained in such a tiny package?
    If someone had told him when he was leaving Moscow to follow Alec and bring peace to the dragon kingdom, that one small woman would tie him up in knots, he would have laughed. Literally. Laughed for days, and he would have bet good Stoli vodka they were wrong.
    “I just wanted to say thank you for the gifts.” She gestured a hand at her head.
    “You’re welcome.” He huffed the words over the bar.
    “We didn’t get to finish talking last night.”
    She hadn’t been waiting for him when he’d returned to his office—no surprise there. Darius dismounted and padded to the trapeze to finish up on the rings. Mei’s gaze followed him, and by the slight tapping of her fingers against her thigh, he could tell she didn’t like being ignored. Good. Let her see how it feels for once.
    She put her hands on her hips as if she were getting ready for a presentation. He didn’t want a lecture, so he untied a rope and lowered one of