Heart of the Dragon Read Online Free Page A

life.”
    One second dragged into two before a narrow-eyed Tagart lowered his sword.
    Darius lowered his own weapon; his features remained stony. “Finish your meal, all of you, thenretire to the practice arena. You will exercise until you have not the strength to stand. That’s an order.”
    He strode from the chamber quite aware he had not given his men the reaction they craved.
     
    D ARIUS DESCENDED the cave steps four at a time. Ready to finish the deed and resume his meal in private, he removed his shirt and tossed the black fabric into a far corner. The medallion he wore, as well as the tattoos on his chest, glowed like tiny pinpricks of flame, waiting for him to fulfill his vow.
    Expression blank, mind clear, he tightened his clasp on his sword, positioned himself to the left of the mist…and he waited.

CHAPTER TWO
    G RACE C ARLYLE ALWAYS hoped she’d die from intense pleasure while having sex with her husband. Well, she wasn’t married, and she’d never had sex, but she was still going to die.
    And not from intense pleasure.
    From heat exhaustion? Maybe.
    From hunger? Possibly.
    From her own stupidity? Absolutely.
    She was lost and alone in the freaking Amazon jungle.
    As she strode past tangled green vines and towering trees, beads of sweat trickled down her chest and back. Small shards of light seeped from the leafy canopy above, providing hazy visibility. Barely adequate, but appreciated. The smells of rotting vegetation, old rain and flowers mingled together, forming a conflicting fragrance of sweet and sour. She wrinkled her nose.
    “All I wanted was a little excitement,” she muttered. “Instead I end up broke, lost, and trapped in this bug-infested sauna.”
    To complete her descent into hell, she expected thesky to open and pour out a deluge of rain at any moment.
    The only good thing about her current circumstances was that all this hiking and sweating might actually help her lose a few pounds from her too-curvy figure. Not that losing weight did her any good here. Except, perhaps, in the newspapers.
     
    New Yorker found dead in Amazon
    A shame. She was hot!
     
    Scowling, she swatted a mosquito trying to drink her arm dry—even though she’d applied several layers of ucuru oil to prevent such bites. Where the hell was Alex? She should have run into her brother by now. Or, at the very least, stumbled upon a tour group. Or even blundered upon an indigenous tribe.
    If only she hadn’t taken an extended leave of absence from AirTravel, she’d be soaring through the air, relaxed and listening to the hypnotic hum of a jet engine.
    “I’d be in an air-conditioned G-IV,” she said, slashing her hand like a machete through the thick, green foliage. “I’d be sipping vanilla Coke.” Another slash. “I’d be listening to my coworkers discuss stiletto heels, expensive dates and mind-shattering orgasms.”
    And I’d still be miserable, she thought, wishing I were anywhere else.
    She stopped abruptly and closed her eyes. I just want to be happy. Is that too much to ask?
    Obviously.
    So often lately she battled a sense of discontent, a desire to experience so much more. Her mother had tried to warn her what such discontent would bring her. “You’re going to get yourself in trouble,” she’d admonished. But had Grace listened? Noooo. Instead she’d followed her aunt Sophie’s lovely bit of wisdom. Aunt Sophie, for God’s sake! The woman who wore leopard print spandex and cavorted with mailmen and strippers. “I know you’ve done some exciting things, Gracie honey,” Sophie had said, “but that’s not really living. Something’s missing from your life and if you don’t find it, you’ll end up a shriveled old prune like your mom.”
    Something was missing from Grace’s life. She knew that, and in an effort to find that mysterious “something,” she’d tried speed dating, Internet dating and singles bars. When those failed, she decided to give night school a try. Not to meet men, but