Free Dragon's Curse (Harlequin Nocturne) by Denise Lynn Page A

whipping Ariel’s
hair in her face.
    “What the—” Cam’s harsh curse drowned out her question.
    She dragged her fingers through her hair, raking it out of her
eyes. Heart racing, she looked at Cameron, then followed his stare toward the
furniture they’d been discussing.
    Instead of the buff-colored suede, the pieces were now covered
in off-white denim.
    The temperature instantly returned to normal, but it did little
to warm the frigid terror assaulting her.
    Ariel clamped her open mouth shut and gritted her teeth as she
backed toward the door.
    Without turning around, Cam ordered, “Stay there and don’t
faint.”
    She froze at the anger evident in his tone. He was enraged with her? For what? Before she could get her tongue
unstuck from the roof of her mouth to ask, Cam swung around to face her.
    “Who are you?”
    “Ar-Ariel John-Johnson,” she stuttered. “You think I did that?”
The idea would be laughable at any other time, or in any place other than the
Lair.
    “I know I didn’t.” He came closer. Rage darkened his eyes until
they glittered like uncut gems. “There isn’t any sign of another wizard.”
    “ A what? ” Ariel ignored his earlier
command and headed for the door. Earlier he’d only admitted to being a man and
nothing more. But she knew there was something different about Cameron Drake.
She’d thought he was gifted with psychic abilities. Possible insanity hadn’t
entered her mind.
    Too leery to take her stare off Cameron, she searched blindly
with her hand behind her for the door handle. Unable to locate it immediately,
she fought back her rising panic and tried again. When her fumbling hand finally
touched metal, she held on to it like a lifeline.
    Cameron hitched a brow. She thought she was leaving? He
silently locked the door against her escape.
    “Sit down.”
    Her eyes widened further and she shook her head.
    “You aren’t leaving here.”
    “You can’t stop me.”
    Ariel spun around and tugged on the door.
    He crossed his arms against his chest and watched her
frantically struggle, pounding her fists against the solid slab of wood to no
avail.
    “Stop it. You’re only going to hurt yourself.”
    When she ignored him, Cam went to pull her away from the door.
He stopped behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
    Ariel screamed and jerked away from his touch. “Get away from
me!”
    She hadn’t been lying—she hadn’t changed the furniture. From
the wide-eyed, unblinking stare on her near-colorless face, he could tell she
was terrified.
    Of him.
    The woman was mortal. Cam was fairly certain that outside of
the dragon changeling she’d barely seen at Mirabilus, she’d had little prior
contact with magic.
    Even so, she was working for the Learneds; if they hadn’t used
magic around her yet, they eventually would. Just as they would use her to work
their vile magic here at the Lair.
    That knowledge made it difficult to have much sympathy for her
fear now.
    “Ariel, sit down.” He made no move to approach her, but she
still took off running down the hall toward the master bedroom.
    The slamming of the door and loud click of the lock made him
shake his head. She thought that would keep him out?
    He’d almost decided to play along with the locked-door routine
until he heard the sound of furniture being moved in the room. Cam had just
headed down the hall toward the bedroom, when his cell phone vibrated.
    He pulled the phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen
before answering. “What do you want, Sean?”
    “You need any help in there?”
    Cam flipped the phone closed, cutting off his brother’s nosy
sarcasm and slid it back into his pocket. He waved a spell to temporarily
soundproof the apartment.
    If Sean heard them, it was certain that Danielle would, too. He
wasn’t about to let his aunt get involved in this matter.
    The sound of something heavy scraping against the inside of the
bedroom door drew him back to the task at hand. He didn’t need any special