Free Gambling on Her Bear (Shifters in Vegas) by Anna Lowe

deep breath.
    “Ma Po Tofu,” she said to the waitress, looking for his okay. “And an order of Beef Broccoli with white rice.”
    He gave a tiny nod and told himself she was right. They needed to talk. They needed to figure things out. First things first, right?
    And second things…
his bear growled inside, picturing a different kind of feast.
    The waitress placed a cup of soup in front of him and left the room. He looked at Karen through the curling threads of steam that rose, separated, and met again, and took a deep breath. What to say? Where to start?
    Karen, are you a witch?
One of the thousand questions in his mind muscled its way to the front, but he didn’t say it. He wasn’t really ready for that one yet.
    Karen, do you feel this, too? This unquenchable thirst?
    Should he admit it? Shouldn’t he?
    Karen, are you my destined mate?
    If she wasn’t, he was going crazy, because no woman had ever done this to him before.
    “So,” he started slowly, finally pushing a few words through tight lips. “Tell me about that diamond.”



Chapter Eight
    Karen hid her trembling fingers in her lap and did her best to meet Tanner’s level gaze. What she really wanted to do was reach out and stroke his skin. A little swipe of the coarse stubble dotting his chin, a tiny brush of a finger over those perfect, slanting eyebrows. Just a little contact to settle her jumpy nerves.
    But touching him would only fan the fire blazing inside her, and she knew it. He was so close, so temptingly close. As keyed up for her as she was for him. And damn, he looked even better in faded jeans and a T-shirt than he did in a suit. Freer, more relaxed. Well, maybe not exactly relaxed, given the furrowed brow and dark, searching gaze, but still.
    She twisted her fingers together and cleared her throat.
    “The diamond?” she asked, positive that was not the question that had been on the tip of his tongue.
    He pointed to the middle of his broad chest, and her brain short-circuited for a second. Wow, that was a lot of acreage he had there. And yes, she’d like to touch that spot. In fact, she had touched it — kissed it, too — one incredible night not too long ago.
    He kept his thumb on his shirt and said, “The diamond.”
    “Oh, that diamond,” she answered, snapping back to the subject. Her words came out barked and bitter as she pictured her precious family heirloom stuck between Elvira’s fake boobs.
    Tanner stuck his hands up, signaling something like,
Whoa. Just asking.
Either she was as transparent as the broth of her soup or the man had a knack for reading her like a book.
    “You said it belonged to your family,” he prompted.
    She stared down at her bowl, studying the scallion floating in the soup. Wondering if she dared explain. Wondering if she could keep herself together if she did.
    He reached over, tipped her chin up gently, and offered her a crooked smile that said,
It’ll be okay. It will be all right.
Like he really, truly understood all her worries, her insecurities, her fears.
    God, the man’s gaze was magic. And his touch… She could float away on it. Float away into the kind of dream she’d never, ever want to end.
    “It’s not really dragon soup, is it?” he joked, breaking the tension in the room.
    She shook her head and pulled herself together. “Nah. Just hot and sour soup.”
    He tilted his head at her. “Do you know the people who run this place?”
    An easier topic than everything else they had to cover, thank goodness.
    “Distant cousins on my mother’s side.” She said between sips of soup. The dragons of old Europe and those of the Orient had stayed separate for thousands of years, but there’d been occasional mixing, too.
    “Your dragon side?” he asked quietly, and she froze with the spoon halfway to her mouth.
    Shit, had he figured out what her other half was? She studied the eyes that studied her, dark and deep and, yes, a little wary. The world was full of shifter species, and though