Hidden Dragons Read Online Free Page A

total flirt. His brother Rick must have had a cow. Unless . . .” Cass hesitated. “Unless he’s gay too?”
    “That truly would be cruel.” A small smile played around Bridie’s mouth. “As far as I know, Rick Lupone is a hundred percent hetero.”
    “Not that it’s my business,” Cass said hastily.
    “No.” Jin grinned like her cousin was. “There’s no reason he’d be your business.”
    “I don’t still have a crush on him.”
    “Of course you don’t, and of course you’re completely uninterested in the fact that he’s single. Not even dating, from what I hear.”
    Cass’s human half blushed too hot for comfort. Hoping the girlish reaction would go away, she placed one slice of pizza on a gilt-edged plate and set it on the ground. Poly leaped on the treat as if Cass hadn’t fed her less than an hour ago.
    To be fair to the cat, if Rick Lupone had been laid out for Cass, she’d have leaped on him too.
    She’d had it bad for the hot werewolf. He’d been a jock in high school but not stupid. Sweet, sexy and just plain big. Mile wide shoulders. Long solid legs. A butt that did dangerous things to a pair of jeans. Never the most outgoing, Cass had gone mute if he so much as looked at her. Reams of diary pages immortalized her yearning. How decent he was amazed her, how kind, how unlike any other male! His younger brother, Tony, though charming, always struck her as a player. Rick the paragon was a gentleman.
    She’d dragged her friends to every sporting event he’d played, ducking behind their shoulders if it seemed like he’d catch her watching.
    What made all this more pathetic was that he barely knew she existed.
    Once, at a vending machine, when she’d run out of change, he’d bought her a candy bar—a random act of kindness for a girl she doubted he knew by name. She was pretty sure she still had the caramel SnickErrs. Mummified probably, at the back of her treasure drawer.
    Jin and Bridie hadn’t understood why she didn’t just spell Rick to fall for her. She’d had the juice but couldn’t bring herself to use it. Half fae or not, she’d had a human girl’s romanticism. Love shouldn’t be magicked. Love should be genuine.
    Memories of how he’d thrown her teenage hormones into a tizzy distracted her from the dinner talk. She nodded and laughed when her friends spoke to her, but Rick’s awesome biceps and killer butt took up the lion’s share of her thoughts. All these years later, he still made her thighs sweaty.
    She wondered if he was as fit as he used to be. As a cop, that seemed probable. Was he harder now? Had he seen things that put an edge on his old sweetness? Suddenly Cass was glad for the cover-up she’d pulled over her bathing suit. Her nipples had tightened at the thought of him being grown.
    Maybe he was the one who’d put a charm on her.
    Almost before she knew it, Jin and Bridie were clearing plates and making noises about how early they needed to be at the studio tomorrow.
    “This was the best!” they exclaimed with an enthusiasm she couldn’t doubt. “Let’s do it again real soon.”
    They flattered her more than they realized. Cass hadn’t assumed they’d automatically fall back into friendship. “I’d like that,” she said sincerely.
    Her eyes were teary. Knowing she didn’t hug, Bridie squeezed her sleeve quickly. “We missed you too, sweetie.”
    While the glamorous Levine cousins called the elevator, Rhona paused in the entryway. Pip was a momentarily quiet bundle on her hip. Like most fox shifters, Rhona was strong but petite. Holding Pip evened out the weight of the humongous baby bag on her opposite shoulder.
    “I’ll catch up,” Rhona promised when the door hissed open and Jin looked back at her. “I want to talk to Cass a second.”
    “All right. We won’t let the limo pull off without you unless we see Channing Tatum and need to shadow him.”
    Jin was kidding. Hollywood actors didn’t know about the Pocket.
    “They have a limo?”