Bryn (Dragon Hearts 3): Dragon Hearts, #3

By Carole Mortimer

Bryn is the 3rd book in USA Today Bestselling and Amazon #1 author, Carole Mortimer's, NEW paranormal series, DRAGON HEARTS.

Author's Note: Beware of very sexy alpha dragon shifters on the hunt for their fates mates!

To say Brynis reluctant when his sister-in-law, Chloe, asks him to act as bodyguard to her friend, is an understatement. As a fifteen-hundred-year-old dragon shifter, very close to becoming feral, he prefers to stay as far away from humans as possible. But none of the Pendragon brothers can resist Chloe when she looks at them with those big blue eyes. Including Bryn.

Tegan doesn't know what to make of the taciturn grouch her friend Chloe has asked to accompany her to New York as her bodyguard. Yes, Tegan's ex-boyfriend is being a creepy stalker, and she appreciates Chloe's concern. But that doesn't change the fact Chloe's brother-in-law, Bryn, is rude, arrogant, and totally overbearing.

He's also hot as hell, and just being around him makes Tegan's panties wet!

Bryn can't seem to resist her either, and it isn't long before the passion between the two of them blazes hot and strong. Even so, Tegan senses he's hiding something, she just has no idea what that something is.

Can Bryn keep Tegan safe from her ex-boyfriend?

More importantly, should Tegan really allow herself to fall in love with Bryn, a man so intensely sexual neither she nor her heart have any defences against him?

More books by Carole Mortimer:

Dragon Hearts:
NATHANIEL (Dragon Hearts 1)
DERYK (Dragon Hearts 2)
BRYN (Dragon Hearts 3)
DYLAN (Dragon Hearts 4) Coming Soon
More books to come in this series

Regency Sinners Series:
Wicked Torment (Regency Sinners 1)
Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners 2)
Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3)
Wicked Deception (Regency Sinners 4)
Wicked Captive (Regency Sinners 5)
More books to come in this series

Regency Unlaced Series:
Books 1-9: Series is now complete

Contemporary Knight Security Series – spin-off to Alpha Series:
Books 0.5–6: Series is now complete

Contemporary Alpha Series:
Books 1-8: Series is now complete.

Carole Mortimer has written 230 books, in paranormal romance, contemporary romantic suspense, and Regency. In May 2017 she received a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times. She is the Recipient of the 2015 Romance Writers of America's Lifetime Achievement Award. An Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Romance Author—ever. 2014 Romantic Times Pioneer of Romance. She was also recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, for her "outstanding service to literature".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carole Mortimer
• Release date: Dec 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781910597590

Carole Mortimer

Carole Mortimer was born in England, the youngest of three children. She began writing in 1978, and has now written over one hundred and seventy books for Harlequin Mills and Boon®. Carole has six sons, Matthew, Joshua, Timothy, Michael, David and Peter. She says, ‘I’m happily married to Peter senior; we’re best friends as well as lovers, which is probably the best recipe for a successful relationship. We live in a lovely part of England.’

Book preview

Dragon Hearts 3

BRYN

By

Carole Mortimer

USA Today Bestselling Author

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2017 Carole Mortimer

Cover Design Copyright © Glass Slipper Designs

Editor: Linda Ingmanson

Formatter: Matthew Mortimer

ISBN: 978-1-910597-59-0

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved.

DEDICATIONS

My Wonderful Family

Chapter 1

Pendragon Castle, N. Wales

Bryn scowled. I agreed to be the bodyguard of this woman, purely as a favor to you, because she has a stalker. I did not agree to act the role of her boyfriend!

Chloe, his soon-to-be sister-in-law, looked up at him with huge and pleading blue eyes. "Tegan isn’t a this woman, she’s my best friend. We were at university together. She’s also my editor, and one of the reasons she’s going to New York is because my first book is up for an award and I can’t go myself. She gave a pointed glance at the huge curvature of her abdomen. I feel like I’m about to pop, Bryn," she wailed, tears poised on the edge of her dark lashes.

Chloe had become more and more emotional during the last weeks of the pregnancy, and Bryn’s brother Nathaniel was going to kick his ass if Bryn upset his heavily pregnant mate.

Bryn put an arm awkwardly about Chloe’s slender shoulders. Dylan said everything is okay with the baby in the last scan, didn’t he? He might be a surly bastard at the best of times, but he cared about Chloe.

Dylan, another Pendragon brother, was also their healer, and he was going to be almost as angry as Nathaniel if Bryn did anything to jeopardize Chloe’s pregnancy.

The baby is fine. Chloe gave a dismissive wave of her hand. I’m just worried about Tegan.

Any stress caused to Chloe was something Nathaniel would be far from happy about.

She was beautiful, fierce, brave as hell, and totally in love with Nathaniel. She was also expecting the first young to be born to any of the Pendragon brothers in all the centuries they had been alive.

The brothers were all dragon shifters and had been born in the late fifth century to a human father and their Welsh goddess mother. They had been born to become the secret army of the King Arthur most humans believe had only been a myth and legend from the mists of time. Except Arthur had been very real, and the Pendragon brothers had ensured he lived long enough to be the direct descendant of the future kings of Wales.

Sixteen centuries later and Arthur was long dead, but the brothers continued on, now searching for the fated mates promised to them. Their mates would ensure they would live for another sixteen centuries and possibly longer still, rather than losing all humanity and becoming only dragon. Two of the brothers, Nathaniel and Deryk, had found their mates in the past year. Both women were from the human world, but they also possessed enough dragon DNA to survive the fierceness of the mating.

Chloe had not only survived the dragon mating, she was now carrying the first of their offspring. As soon as the baby was born, she and Nathaniel were going to be married in a human ceremony; Chloe had absolutely refused to walk down the aisle with her noticeable baby bump.

Chloe was also the internationally bestselling author of the Dragon Hearts series of books. Two so far, both with dragon shifters as the hero. No one but the brothers and their mates knew the first book in the series, Nathaniel, had been mainly autobiographical. Deryk, the second book, was also as close to the truth as possible, without Chloe actually being in the bedroom with Deryk and Izzy, his Russian mate. Chloe was just waiting for the next brother to find his mate so she could write about him too.

But as far as the reading public was concerned, those books were fiction. Even Tegan McCall, Chloe’s close friend and editor, had no idea Nathaniel and his brothers really were dragon shifters.

Chloe now gave a pained wince. It was just a single red rose left under one of the windscreen wipers on Tegan’s car for a whole week. This past week, he’s upped the creepiness and started sending her other…stuff.

He being Tegan McCall’s stalker, and the reason Chloe had asked Bryn to accompany the other woman when she attended an author/reader conference in New York next week.

Bryn removed his arm before stepping away from his sister-in-law. He’d never been touchy-feely, and with his dragon so close to turning feral, he tended to avoid skin-to-skin contact with anyone. What sort of stuff?

Chloe looked even more pained. Well, first it was a dozen red roses delivered to her office, with no card attached to say who had sent them.

He shrugged. Aren’t a dozen red roses, along with the single ones, something you human women consider romantic?

Chloe narrowed her gaze on him. Then it was a set of sexy underwear sent to her apartment, again with no card or return address to say who it was from.

Bryn’s mouth quirked in an almost smile. What man doesn’t like to see his woman in sexy underwear?

Tegan isn’t his woman! His sister-in-law gave him a fierce glare. "And when I say sexy, I meant very sexy."

Explain.

It was red lace, and the bra had… There were two strategically placed holes for her nipples to peep out, and the matching thong was—can you believe this?—crotchless. An inch-wide piece of lace and—

I get it, very sexy, Bryn cut in hastily. Jesus! Anything else?

Yesterday, he sent these matching jeweled nipple clamps and clit stimulator—

Okay, got it. Bryn stopped her again. Chloe might write very sexy dragon shifter books, but he wasn’t comfortable talking with her about nipple clamps and clit stimulators, even jeweled ones.

Chloe eyed him curiously. Are you embarrassed by the subject of sex aids?

Not in the least. His scowl gave lie to the claim. It just isn’t the image I want to have when I first meet your friend Tegan.

The other woman had visited the castle during the almost ten months Chloe had lived here, but on both occasions, Bryn had been away somewhere on a job for Pendragon Security, the retrieval and protection company owned by the eight brothers.

God, no. Chloe chuckled before as quickly sobering. Yesterday, he sent her another dozen red roses, but this time, there was a card with them. It only had four words printed on it. ‘We’ll be together soon.’

Bryn breathed deeply. She still has no proof as to who could be sending her these things?

Chloe shook her head. Tegan contacted the florist who delivered the two bouquets of roses and the sex-aid shop where the other things came from, but both said they were paid cash for the items. So there’s no physical receipt for them to know the name of the buyer.

Paying a florist with cash is a bit odd, he accepted. But I doubt customers using cash in a sex-aid shop is unusual.

Chloe sighed her impatience with his reasoning. I already told you, the guy Tegan broke up with a few months ago threatened her, said he was never letting her go.

That sounds more like desperation than a threat. Bryn couldn’t imagine caring about any woman enough to keep pursuing her when she’d made it clear she no longer wanted him.

Not if he also warned her about getting involved with someone else.

Bryn’s brows rose. Sounds like you’ve decided to set me up as the target instead of Miss McCall.

Chloe snorted. You can take it. And you really should start calling her Tegan if you’re her boyfriend.

Which I’m not.

"Pretending to be her boyfriend, then. She sighed her frustration with his attitude. It has to be the ex-boyfriend who is sending these things, she maintained stubbornly. And as an editor for another publishing house, he’s also going to be at this conference in New York."

Which was why Chloe had asked Bryn to accompany Tegan to New York as her bodyguard.

Bryn had no problem with protecting Miss McCall if it set Chloe’s mind at rest to know her friend was being protected while she was in New York. What Bryn did have a problem with was posing as the other woman’s boyfriend. He hadn’t lived the life of a celibate monk the past sixteen centuries, but he’d also never been any woman’s boyfriend, had no idea how to even go about acting like one.

Except to now know it was creepy to anonymously send her ultra-sexy underwear and jeweled sex aids!

He frowned. What’s wrong with my going to New York as Tegan’s bodyguard?

Because it’s a romance author and readers’ conference.

He shrugged. A bodyguard can be sexy.

Not when Tegan is trying to keep her job. Hawke Publishing was bought out three months ago by a US-based company, she explained at his questioning look. Tegan says there are sure to be redundancies and cutbacks. The president and vice presidents of the new company will be joining the conference too, along with Hawke Publishing’s CEO, Justin Hawke. It’s important to Tegan she make a good impression.

And having a bodyguard isn’t it?

No.

Bryn grimaced. How many people are going to be at this conference?

Five thousand or so.

Five… All women?

Chloe gave him a scathing glance. Believe it or not, men read and write romance novels too.

How many of those attending will be editors?

Maybe a couple of hundred from around the world. There are four other editors traveling over with Tegan from Hawke Publishing.

Do any of these other editors take their boyfriends with them?

Some do. Chloe shrugged. I really wouldn’t worry about that part of it, Bryn, the readers are going to love you, she added slyly.

His eyes narrowed. How so?

She snorted. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Her gaze raked over him. Black hair. Broody expression, and unusual bronze-colored eyes. Chiseled features. A ripped body. You’re like a drool-worthy hero from the front cover of every romance book on the market.

Great. Just great. Maybe you should ask one of the other brothers…

Chloe raised her brows. Nathaniel obviously can’t go. Deryk and Izzy are in Russia visiting the in-laws. Dylan needs to stay here for the birth of the baby. She ticked off each brother in turn on her fingers. Aeran, Rhys, and Garrett are all in Mexico on a job for Pendragon Security, and Grigor… Well, God knows where Grigor is right now. Her frown turned to one of concern.

They were all worried about Grigor. As the eldest Pendragon brother, and another unmated dragon, Grigor had become more and more unstable during the past year as his dragon fought for complete domination. If the dragon won, then Grigor would turn feral and the other brothers would have no choice but to eliminate him before he hurt someone, more than likely a human. Grigor had started to spend more and more time alone in his cave in Alaska.

Which meant Bryn was the only one left to act as Tegan McCall’s bodyguard. Or boyfriend. Okay, he sighed his defeat. But as Miss McCall is traveling with other editors, I doubt this guy will make his move before she gets to New York. I’ll meet up with her at the hotel there. I have no intention of flying to New York on a public airline. He gave a shudder at the memory of six months ago, when he’d accompanied a client on a flight to Singapore.

Being stuck in a claustrophobic metal tube for hours with several hundred humans was not something Bryn wanted to repeat in a hurry. Nor was there any reason for him to do so when he could shift in seconds and fly there in dragon form.

Thank you! Chloe gave him a warm hug before releasing him. And Bryn? she called out as he reached the door.

Yes? he prompted warily, not trusting the mischievous glow in her eyes. Nathaniel certainly had his hands full with his human mate. Chloe had insisted on being totally financially independent, hence her writing career, and her red hair was