part, knew I was caught and how, the little daredevil section of my brain said that if I could just grab the aquamanile, I could run for it. True, the odds weren't in my favor, but there was still a chance I might be able to get by Drake if I could get Jim to distract him by attacking.

OK, it was avery small chance. But I didn't have much choice, now, did I?

I took another step back, my fingers brushing against the brass handle on the front of the case. Drake was giv-ing Jim a look that had the demon backing away as it mumbled, "It was just a suggestion. Sheesh."

"Would it surprise you to know that I've been expect-ing you?" Drake asked, leaning back against the door, his arms crossed over his chest. "The police were here ear-lier, asking many questions about you and my alleged visit to Mme. Deauville's apartment. I, as an upstanding businessman, naturally expressed horror and surprise at accusations such as you have evidently leveled against me. The police seemed very satisfied of my innocence when they left, but somehow, I knew you would pay me a visit.

The memory of my highly detailed, erotic-beyond-my-wildest-dreams fantasy about him the night before was potent enough to make me shiver at odd moments during the day, but seeing him in the flesh took my breath away. I used a few moments to admire the hunter-green silk shirt he wore (the color matched his eyes perfectly) and the marvelous way it caressed the muscles of his arms and chest, as well as the tight fit of his black leather pants. He really was gorgeous, enough that my tongue cleaved to the roof of my mouth for a moment. I engaged in a little decleaving while swallowing hard a couple of times, my fingers busy as they opened the case behind me, quickly closing over the cool metal shape of a dragon.

"Were you? How prescient of you. Would it surprise you to know that I've got my aquamanile?" I crowed tri-umphantly as I whipped the gold object around in front of me. I pointed at Drake and used my best demon-ordering voice .to say, "Effrijim, I command thee by thy lord Amaymon to attack him!"

Jim sat down. "You havegot to be kidding."

Drake smiled, amusement clearly visible in his eyes. I wanted to scream. Why did nothing ever go right in my life?

I marched over to Jim and shook the aquamanile at him. "You are supposed to be my demon, mine to order, mine to give commands. I gave you an order. I'm in a desperate situation here. Drake is likely to kill me if you don't help me escape. If I die, no one is going to buy you hamburgers anymore. Now are we on the same wave-length?"

Jim made a pouty face. "He's not going to kill you— you're his mate. Dragons mate for life; they can't kill their mate or their own life ends."

I looked at Drake. He was still smiling. "Is that true?"

He looked me over carefully, his eyes lingering on my breasts. My mind went off on a little excursion remem-bering what it felt like to have his mouth on my flesh. I smoothed down the taupe linen tunic while I reminded myself that what had passed between us had been a dream, not real… even if the nightgown had been.

"You claim you aren't my mate."

"No, I meant that if I were—and I'm not saying I am—but if I were, is it true you can't kill me without

corking off, too?"

The amusement in his eyes turned to outright laughter. "The demon does not lie."

"Whew," I said, breathing a huge sigh of relief. "That's nice to know. Hoo! I was worried there for a minute that you were going to get a bit testy over me hav-ing my aquamanile back, but I don't have anything to worry about if you can't hurt me—"

"I didn't say I couldn't hurt you—I said I couldn't kill my mate. As far as I'm aware, you have not agreed that you are my mate; therefore, were I to take exception to the fact that you have broken into my house with the in-tention to rob me, I could do so without any repercus-sions."

I clutched the aquamanile to my chest as I squared my shoulders and sent him as offended a glare as I could rally. "I donot like you."

"At this moment I'm not exceedingly fond of you, ei-ther." Drake straightened up, striding toward me, his hand outstretched for the aquamanile. "You will return my treasure now."

I clutched it tighter, moving backwards as he contin-ued forward. "No. It's mine. I've stolen it back from you. If you want it, you're going to have to agree to help me, because there's no other way you're going to get it from me."

He backed me up until I was against the wall, the cool-ness of the stone seeping through the thin linen of my tunic. "You little fool, I allowed you to enter my home. Do you really think I have learned nothing about security in all my hundreds of years of existence?"

"You heard me," I accused, breathlessly aware of every inch of his body as he leaned against me, the dragon caught between us.

His fingers trailed a line from my ear down my neck. It was an oddly gentle touch. "It's called closed-circuit TV, sweetheart, and it can be found in every room of this building. As can the silent alarms on all the doors and windows, the pressure-sensitive floor alarms, and the thermal detectors that alert me to anyone who enters the house. If you had gone into the room beyond my bed-room, you would have seen the monitors that show me what's happening in every room."

"You have thermal detectors?" I asked, my mind going all girly as he tucked an errant curl behind my ear.

"I have many of them."

"Oh." My heart sank as I accepted the truth. We hadn't been fooling Drake at all. See? Not the brightest bulb. "I didn't see any of those."

Drake smiled his slow, sexy smile at me. "I knew sooner or later you would try to take the aquamanile back, so I decided to make it easier for you."

"Why?"

His hands slid up my waist, slipping under my crossed arms to head for the no-man's-land made up of my breasts. "Perhaps I wanted to lure you into my home. You liked my bedroom."

"It's very… you," I gasped as his thumbs rubbed across my breasts. The familiar fire was back in his eyes, a fire that warmed me to my toenails, a fire that set my whole body alight, but I was a woman determined. I kept a firm hold on the aquamanile as Drake pulled me tighter against him. "I thought you said you weren't fond of me?"

"I don't have to like you to want you," he murmured as he pressed his mouth against the pulse point in my throat. My knees threatened to give way under the erotic touch of his tongue against my flesh. I wanted to be of-fended by his statement, but in truth, I was not terribly happy with him at that moment, and yet he was stirring things deep in my soul that no one had stirred before. I was far from perfect, but I would not add hypocrite to my list of failings.