Billionaire Dragon's Mate: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Dragon Romance Nove Read Online Free Page A

and, with a sigh, ordered a tequila shot. Might as well get wasted, there wasn’t anything left to lose that night anyway.
    “Another, please,” a deep voice said next to her, causing her to spin around to face the owner of such a damn sexy voice.
    And there he stood, the most damnably hot man she’d seen in a long, long time. He was tall and built like a wall, but still had a certain catlike grace to his movements. Wide shoulders and a tapered waist that led into narrow hips, and she had to physically stop herself from allowing her eyes to trek any lower. Though they wanted to.
    Damn, she thought, wetting her lips and turning away to eye her drink again.
    It hadn’t been fast enough though. He’d noticed her looking at him. Her heart beat harder in her chest, and she could feel a blush coming to her cheeks as he seemed to take her in from head to toe, his mesmerizing green eyes considering her like she was the tastiest treat and he a man long unfed. When Cable wore a look close to it, it made her cringe with disgust, but when this guy gave her that bedroom look… Well, let’s just say she immediately wondered where the closest quiet corner was.
    Joe the barkeeper handed the mystery man his drink, and he picked it off the bar.
    “Drinking to your engagement?” he asked, a chuckle in his voice.
    Well, there it was. All her girlish excitement flung straight out the window. Ruby barely suppressed a groan and threw him a look that could freeze hell over, but he seemed positively untouched by it. If anything, his amusement deepened, and that devilish smirk of his curved a bit at the corner of his mouth. He wore a black tank and a worn leather jacket with dark jeans that clung to his muscled legs, and boots that roped up all the way.
    The only standout oddities about him were the thick gold cuffs he wore on his wrists and the several slim gold chains around his neck. She could spy the colored corners and edges of a few tattoos, but he looked a lot cleaner cut than most of the ruffians at The Rusty Nail . Definitely handsome. Definitely a heartthrob. Definitely off-limits. Wasn’t that just life for you? He didn’t exactly help his case by stepping on that festering boil on her soul called her engagement, either.
    “Sure,” she offered noncommittally, raising her shot glass to him.
    “Salut,” he said, and his soft, deep timber voice rumbled through her, making her core pulse.
    She’d given up hope of seeing anyone that really caught her interest near Cable, but here he was, in all his gruff, slightly unwashed but incredibly sexy glory – a bad boy right to her taste. They both kicked back the drinks and put the glasses back on the counter, where Joe snatched them up before anyone else got the bright idea of smashing his wares.
    “Again,” the mystery man said, throwing some bills on the counter.
    “No, man, I don’t think you should be drinking with me. And in any case, I don’t need you to buy for me,” Ruby said, glancing at him from under lowered lashes.
    His reddish-brown hair fell slightly on his forehead, and it looked so soft that she just wanted to run her fingers through it. Probably not a good idea. Unless she wanted to get his ass kicked by Cable & Co.
    “Let me decide what I want to do, hmm, sugar?” he said, and the way he purred the last word made the hairs on the back of her arm stand up in excitement.
    Where was he when she was looking for her adventure, huh? Ruby could bet he wouldn’t want to wed her to prove a point!
    You really need to improve your taste in men, Ruby. Like, take this guy. He’d likely piss dad off and he wouldn’t sell you to the Mexicans if you got on his nerves. Best of both worlds.
    She grinned at the thought. Though, as things stood, she thought she had learned her lesson. Better to toe the line a little than actually cross it and end up in a mess like this. And all for what? To rebel a little? She was a grown-ass woman for heaven’s sake! With a degree in