Read Dragon Heat 1 - Dead Sexy Dragon for Free Online Page B

turning gears as she processed their
    bizarre conversation. Whether she believed him was still
    to be determined.
    They finished dinner and cleaned up the kitchen
    together. Tense silence stretched between them. Stig eyed
    the window and gauged how much time he had until the
    change. Knowing the time was coming, he reached for
    Cora’s hand. She stiffened at his touch but he kept hold.
    “Come with me.”
    Her fingers relaxed in his. “Okay.”
    Stig led her upstairs to his bedroom. He’d imagined
    taking Cora to his room before but never under these
    circumstances. It seemed almost anticlimactic to sit her
    down on the side of his bed. She looked so young and
    fragile with her hands clamped between her knees. He
    hated himself for what he was about to do. In just a few
    moments, he’d shatter everything she’d ever believed to
    be true.
    “I don’t know why I’ve kept all of these things.” Stig
    removed a keychain from his bedside drawer and
    unlocked the door to the corner closet. He dragged a large
    trunk to the edge of the bed. He handed Cora the keychain.
    “The skeleton key opens this trunk.”
    She took the keychain and stared at it. “What’s inside
    the trunk?”
    “My history.” Stig cupped her cheek as he bent down
    and pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead. “I’m going to
    lock myself in the basement. Promise me you’ll stay out of
    there tonight.”
    She gulped and bobbed her chin. “I will.”
    “When you’re done, close the lid on the trunk. I’ll put it
    back tomorrow.”
    “And the key?” She lifted the keychain he’d never let
    anyone else but himself touch until now.
    “You keep it. I trusted you with my house key. I trust
    you with this one, too.” His fingertips trailed along her
    jaw. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
    Stig cast one lingering glance at Cora before leaving his
    room and rushing downstairs. The sooner he was in chains
    tonight the better.

    * * *
    Cora turned the keychain over in her hand. Everything Stig
    had told her at dinner seemed so implausible. He’d
    insinuated he’d been alive for quite a long time. And what
    was all that business about going through violent phases?
    Apparently the answers to those questions rested within
    the antique trunk. With great trepidation, she stuck the
    skeleton key in the lock. It clicked loudly as the tumblers
    spun. She lifted the heavy lid and gazed down at the
    contents.
    There were yellowing photos and official-looking
    papers on the top. Layer by layer, she dug through his
    mementos. Cora uncovered military commendations and
    medals from Vietnam and World War II. Immigration
    paperwork from Ellis Island in 1893 showed him as a
    Norwegian male aged thirty-four under the name of
    Stigandr Wyvern. There were photos and daguerreotypes
    of Stig throughout various eras. He looked so strange in
    fashions of the Edwardian and Victorian ages. Farther
    down, Cora uncovered painted portraits and pamphlets
    from the Regency era.
    Cora stopped when she found bits and pieces from the
    sixteenth century. The more she dug, the more bewildered
    she grew. Her brain screamed that all of this was
    impossible. There was no way a person could live for six
    or seven centuries and yet the proof was there in black and
    white.
    Surrounded by Stig’s history, Cora tried to reconcile all
    this evidence with the reality she’d lived in her entire life.
    It wasn’t possible for a human being to live for hundreds
    of years. Cora had always been a big fan of paranormal
    romances and urban fantasy novels. The heroines of those
    stories always seemed to deal with the discovery of their
    lover’s supernatural existence with such grace. But she
    felt like running out to her car and racing away from the
    house as fast as the car would go. She’d stepped into some
    bizarre reality where suddenly things that were fantastic
    and fictional were a possibility.
    So what did that make Stig? Vampire? Werewolf?
    Some other kind of creature she’d never