Page 40 of Red Dragon’s Heart

His broad shoulders rippled under his t-shirt, and when he bent down to put something on the lower shelf, his jeans pulled tight over his butt, showing every muscle.

A sudden memory flash came to her—wrapping her hands around that butt while he thrust into her. A hot flush of want came over her body.

Oh, crap. This was not good. Get ahold of yourself, Maddie.

But all she could think about was the naked desire on his face in the dream, the need, the gentleness as well as the passion. There was so much more to him than she’d thought, and part of her longed to break through the tough shell he presented to the world.

To make him look at her like that for real.

Maddie bit her lip and turned away. She couldn’t go getting involved with this man. He was a shifter—a dragon—and they were worlds apart. Not even the same species.

And she’d done something terrible to him, however inadvertently. He would never forgive her for that.

He finished the groceries, grabbed a cold beer and went and flung himself on the couch in front of the TV, still not talking to her. In fact, he turned on a hockey game and proceeded to ignore her completely.

The vibe between them was worse up close. Maddie took the coward’s way out and went to the other side of the room to unpack her boxes.

She had no idea what to do with her clothes. She explored the rest of the basement lair and found a bathroom—not luxurious but surprisingly clean, considering Zak didn’t seem to have a housewifely bone in his body. There was a cabinet that held towels and some basic toiletries, but no closet anywhere.

No clothes, for that matter, except what he had on. Where the hell did the man keep his clothes? Did he have a huge walk-in closet upstairs in the warehouse, with mirrors so he could admire himself from every angle? Or maybe he was like Jack Reacher in those mysteries by Lee Child, who just bought cheap clothes, threw them out when they got dirty, and bought new ones.

Well, regardless of what he did, she needed a place to put her clothes. She emptied some of the cardboard cartons, stacked them sideways on top of each other in makeshift shelves, and tucked her folded clothes inside.

By that point her stomach was growling like crazy, so she made herself a sandwich. Despite his snarky comments earlier, Zak had in fact bought fruit and vegetables, snacks, a variety of drinks, and other meal ingredients besides meat.

She hoped he didn’t expect her to cook, because she hated it—and also sucked at it. Although making spaghetti and dumping sauce on it wasn’t beyond her, so she could probably make do.

After a mental debate, she made Zak a sandwich too, with some raw veggies on the side. Maybe it would surprise him into actual speech, and they could decide their next move.

When she took it over to the couch—along with another beer for him and a Coke for her—she realized he was playing with Princess Diana, dangling one of the felt mice in front of her so she could pounce on it.

As soon as he realized Maddie was there, he dropped the mouse and pretended to be absorbed in a commercial about tactical sunglasses. He said loftily, “What do you want, human captive?”

“World peace, a million dollars, a bottomless box of dark chocolate sea salt caramels, and a cure for kidney disease. I also came to offer you a sandwich. You haven’t eaten.”

A fleeting look of surprise crossed his face before he hid it. He took the plate and sniffed the sandwich, then poked dubiously at the vegetables.

“What are these? I’m a mighty dragon—an apex predator. Only prey eats vegetables. Rabbits. Deer. Little fluffy lambs.”

She sat down next to him. He was sitting in the middle of the couch, legs splayed, so it meant they were way too close, but there was nowhere else to sit, and she was done letting him intimidate her with his sexiness. It was time to take the battle to him.

“What about human vegetarians?” she asked. “Where do they fall on your evolutionary scale? Predators or prey?”

“They’re delicious,” he said, leering at her. “Especially with barbecue sauce.”

“Good thing I eat meat then.”

“I could still eat you.” He turned and looked her up and down, his gaze lingering on her boobs and thighs.

Whooa. She got another flash of last night, his tongue between her legs doing incredible things, and took a quick sip of Coke to cool herself down.

She dug into her sandwich, feeling the magnetism in the air between them. She could almost see it visibly quivering, like heat waves over a hot highway.

Finally she said, “I thought I’d go ahead and make a start in the lab this afternoon.” She paused. “I brought the original hard drives from Belvedere over from the trailer.”

He snorted. “I knew those weren’t the real ones, last night.”

“Of course not. I’d never let Eric get anywhere near those.” She stopped and then said softly, “I really never meant for my work to be used to hurt shifters who weren’t sick.”