Tropical Leopard's Longing (Shifting Sands Resort Book 8)

  Tropical Leopard’s Longing

  Zoe Chant

  © 2019 Zoe Chant

  Shifting Sands Resort

  This is the eighth book of the Shifting Sands Resort series. All of my books are standalones (No cliffhangers! Always a happy ending!) and can be read independently, but many of these characters reappear in subsequent books. This is the order the series may be most enjoyed:

  Tropical Tiger Spy (Book 1)

  Tropical Wounded Wolf (Book 2)

  Tropical Bartender Bear (Book 3)

  Tropical Lynx's Lover (Book 4)

  Tropical Dragon Diver (Book 5)

  Tropical Panther’s Penance (Book 6)

  Tropical Christmas Stag (Book 7)

  Tropical Leopard’s Longing (Book 8)

  Tropical Lion’s Legacy (Book 9 – coming in 2019)

  * * *

  The Master Shark's Mate (A Fire & Rescue Shifters/Shifting Sands Resort crossover, occurs in the timeline between Tropical Wounded Wolf and Tropical Bartender Bear)

  Firefighter Phoenix (A Fire & Rescue Shifters novel, has scenes set at Shifting Sands, and occurs in the timeline between Tropical Christmas Stag and Tropical Leopard’s Longing)

  Chapter 1

  Darla Grant’s heart pounded in her chest.

  Being in the hoard always made her anxious, but this was worse than ever before.

  This time, everything was at stake.

  All around them, treasure gleamed: jeweled golden goblets, chains of silver and platinum, cut gems, loose stones, coins, tapestries with real gold thread, statues carved out of jade and tiger’s eye, priceless art in solid gold frames. A raw diamond the size of a dining room table sat on a low dais, surrounded by cut rubies and emeralds that were merely the size of bulldogs.

  Everything was sitting on priceless marble columns or displayed on cunning, hand carved shelves from extinct hardwoods. Strings of precious stones and jewels in findings hung across rafters above them like garlands. Drifts of gold and silver coins filled every corner.

  A protection spell shivered in the air around them, the faintest metallic haze over everything.

  Beside Darla, Liam let out the breath he’d been holding.

  Darla shot him a glance, glad to see that he looked awed rather than disgusted. She had tried to prepare him for the sight, but descriptions of the hoard fell short of the staggering reality of it.

  She wasn’t the only one watching for his reaction.

  Jubilee Grant’s mouth turned up in a smug smile of satisfaction. “As you can see, marrying my daughter comes with a great responsibility,” she said severely. “With my blessing on her wedding, her union will satisfy the dragon contract and unlock the hoard in entirety.”

  Liam looked adorably confused, glancing behind them at the door they had just come through. It had been conspicuously open. “It’s… locked?”

  “Magic, of course,” Jubilee was happy to explain. “My dear, departed husband had a protection spell set over it. He was the last dragon shifter of his line, and so disappointed that Darla ended up being a snow leopard shifter. He wanted her to continue the dragon line, much as my father had hoped for me.”

  Darla gazed forward with practiced serenity. She had never felt like her father had been particularly disappointed in her shift form; certainly not to the extent that her mother had. She wondered how much of her mother’s disapproval came from the disappointment that Jubilee herself had grown up with; she had also been the last of a great dragon line, and had also failed to manifest wings and scales.

  “The spell was one of the last things he did before he died,” Jubilee continued. “Dragons are so protective of their hoards. You know how that goes, of course!”

  Liam gave her a dazed smile, nodding agreeably. Neither he nor Darla bothered to explain that Eastern dragons were considerably less motivated by wealth than their Western counterparts. Liam himself was as poor as a proverbial churchmouse.

  Would her mother care about that? Darla wondered, her heart in her mouth. Would she approve of Liam as a suitor for her hand, or would she find his poor origins and ordinary shifter bloodline too distasteful to forgive? The alternative… Darla carefully did not look past her mother to where Eugene was frowning thoughtfully at a particularly gaudy dragon statue studded with cut gems.

  He was a distant cousin from her mother’s family, chummy with her mother and rather more friendly to Darla than she had ever wished he would be. His lingering looks had bothered her even before he had started leaving hints that a marriage between them would be beneficial to the precious family line. When her twenty-fifth birthday — the usual age of engagement for dragons — came around, his hints and his distasteful courtship had grown considerably less subtle.

  Only years of training kept Darla from shuddering at the very thought of marrying Eugene, and she let her hand tighten in Liam’s just a little.

  He looked down at her anxiously and Darla smiled gratefully up at him.

  “Well, Mother, what do you say?” she asked, trying to look just the right amount of eager. “Don’t leave Liam in suspense!”

  “He doesn’t come from an established dragon line,” Eugene was quick to remind them. He had done a poor job of hiding his seething anger behind his social polish since Darla had sprung Liam on them that afternoon. “He doesn’t understand dragon honor.”

  “But he is a dragon shifter,” Jubilee said, a little smile at her lips.

  “A great surprise to my dear mother,” Liam said, with a charming little laugh.

  “It’s a good match,” Darla said coaxingly. “And we’re very fond of each other.” It wasn’t a falsehood; Darla was not brave enough to outright lie to her mother, though she had been practicing a series of half-truths that might be convincing in the event that her mother was reluctant to approve the union.

  It appeared that she needn’t have worried.

  Jubilee, despite Eugene’s dissent, seemed so taken by the idea of a dragon shifter to marry Darla to that she didn’t seem to mind his common origins or Eugene’s not-so-subtle protests of the union.

  “Madame Nadine told me that Darla would be best suited to someone she’d known a long time,” Jubilee said knowingly. “And that she would be the start to a long, healthy line of new dragon shifters. Liam, you are obviously exactly who she meant; Darla’s been volunteering at your retirement home for years now! You were so sly not to tell me of your relationship earlier!”

  Eugene sputtered unexpectedly. As much as he usually supported Jubilee’s unhealthy obsession with her psychic, he seemed weirdly surprised that Jubilee would follow her advice now.

  Darla tried not to feel too smug about thwarting him; he was as clever as he was unsavory, and she knew from his dark expression that he wasn’t done trying to get her hand — or the incredible hoard she would inherit once she was married.

  Liam was not oblivious to his ire either. He met Eugene’s hateful gaze evenly and calmly.

  “Oh, yes,” Jubilee said, not noticing either of them. “Eugene, this is perfect! You don’t have to marry Darla now after all! Oh, everything is falling into place, just as Madame Nadine predicted!”

  Darla almost smirked; Eugene had played up marrying Darla as his duty so heavy-handedly to her mother that he had no footing against Jubilee’s enthusiasm for the new suitor she presented. “Thank you, Mother,” she said, casting her gaze down like the very picture of a dutiful daughter. “I’m sure we’ll be very happy.”

  “My thanks, Mrs. Grant,” Liam added politely.

  Jubilee clapped her hands happily. “Come, let’s go talk with the lawyer regarding the dowry, and t
here will be an engagement party — we can do that next week. I’ve been researching all the dragon customs in great detail and oh, I know exactly where I want the wedding. There’s this lovely luxury resort for shifters off the coast of Costa Rica that I’ve heard the most wonderful things about! Eugene, come help me figure out the guest list. All the best people, of course…”

  Liam and Darla were the least of her concerns now, and Jubilee Grant swept out of the hoard with Eugene simmering at her heels, not even noticing that the two to be married lingered behind.

  Darla let out her breath, letting relief wash over her at last. “It worked,” she said gratefully. “Oh, Liam, you are a lifesaver.”

  “I should say the same,” Liam said, but he sounded hesitant. “Are you sure about this? You deserve a love match, and you know I can’t...”

  “She never wanted a love match for me,” Darla said calmly. “And this solves so many problems for both of us.”

  “You don’t have to do this for the retirement home,” Liam protested. “I could probably find other funding. Somehow.”

  “You’ve met Eugene, now,” Darla reminded him. “I am not just doing this to keep the home afloat. I mean, I could just marry him and use my pocket money to keep the center open.” The very idea left an awful taste in her mouth.

  “Now that I see what you consider casual spending money, I believe you could,” Liam said dryly. He was clearly still staggered by the wealth of the hoard. They left the halls of treasure behind to return to the house, going from unimaginable treasure to more pedestrian ridiculous wealth; the paintings here were only in gilded frames, not solid gold, and the decor was more ‘tasteful opulence’ than ‘actual piles of gold.’

  “Anyway, it won’t be so bad, marrying me,” Darla promised coaxingly. “I think we’ll get along just fine, and I know this great retirement home where we can grow old together.”

  Liam smiled at her. “What could possibly go wrong?”

  Chapter 2

  “Have you got a key to cottage fifteen?” the handyman Travis asked, striding into the kitchen with his rattling tool belt. “Scarlet says we’re missing one, and you’re the likeliest candidate.”

  Breck Aster, leopard shifter and head waiter at Shifting Sands Resort, looked up from the plates where he was arranging garnish and grinned. “Oh, cottage fifteen? That gorgeous brunette with the legs for miles. And her sister. Yeah, I probably still have that.” He made a show of searching for the key in his pocket as if there were several to choose from. “Mmm, the stories this key could tell…” He pulled it out.

  “I don’t want to know,” Travis protested. “I really don’t want to know.”

  The lynx shifter took the key with distaste, and carried it back out of the kitchen held out in front of him as if afraid that it was permanently contaminated.

  Breck watched him go with a satisfied smirk that faded as he turned back to give the garnish one final tweak.

  Appearances matter, he reminded himself, lifting the plates into his hands and carrying them out to the restaurant deck. Travis didn’t need to know that Breck hadn’t been using any of the keys he’d been collecting.

  “The beef tenderloin,” he announced, setting the plate down in front of a fresh-faced blonde woman with a wink. “And the halibut filet for the catch of the sea.” His exaggerated appreciative appraisal of her boyfriend made him startle and squirm, even after a week of the treatment, but it was a flattered and tolerant embarrassment, not a harassed objection to the attention.

  The young woman laughed in amusement, delighted with her boyfriend’s discomfort.

  “Can I order you anything from the bar?” he offered. “A mojito for the lady? A beefeater for the beef?” These two had been at the resort for nearly a week, and he’d figured out their habits within a day.

  “Just top off the water,” the blonde said regretfully. “We’re packing up to fly out tonight.”

  Breck put his hands over his heart. “The resort will be empty without you,” he said dramatically. “My nights will cease to have meaning.”

  Even the boyfriend laughed at that.

  Breck topped off water for all the tables on the deck, smiling at the single woman in blue who was making eyes at him over her sunglasses and steak. He flirted very lightly with her, keeping it silly and over-the-top when she might have been angling for something more, and he escaped back to the kitchen as quickly as the conversation politely allowed.

  It was quiet, for the time of evening; the resort was in an odd lull. Usually, people streamed in and out at regular intervals with the scheduled charters, groups overlapping. But this time, the entire resort was being emptied to make space for an exclusive wedding of two high-profile dragon families. For the first few days, it would be only the immediate family and wedding party. Then there would be almost a week of extended guests, stuffing the resort to the seams.

  The wedding itself was a two day affair, with a ceremony so convoluted and steeped in specific tradition that Scarlet, the resort owner, had diagramed it with visual aids. There was a midnight vigil, hours for recitation of the family lines, formal dances, even a two hour window for a duel of challenge, should there be one.

  Everyone was under strict orders to be on their best behavior, and the staff knew that Scarlet was hoping that this was the event that would tip the resort over into genuine solvency.

  Chef was singing something operatic in the back of the kitchen, chopping and banging pans around as he started concocting experimental hors d'oeuvres to offer as options for the wedding.

  “They’ll choose the worst one,” Breck warned him, depositing a load of dishes into the sink. “It’s inevitable.”

  “Even my worst is better than they’ll find anywhere on the mainland,” Chef said expansively, waggling a cleaver at Breck when he snuck in for a taste of the truffles being chopped.

  “Your genius in the kitchen is only exceeded by your humility,” Breck agreed, licking his fingers.

  He washed his hands dutifully, and went to freshen up the dessert platter.

  By the time the young couple was finished with their meal, the forward woman with the sunglasses had left… leaving her key conspicuously behind.

  Breck pocketed it thoughtfully and dismissed the rest of the staff early.

  As he finished clearing the last tables himself, he found himself patting the key in his pocket thoughtfully. He was in the longest dry spell of his life, and it wasn’t for lack of opportunity. But the endless string of available partners had somehow lost its lustre, and Breck found himself searching faces for… something more.

  It wasn’t that she was too old, or that she wasn’t plenty attractive — Breck appreciated beauty in all packages — it was just that Breck felt like he had nothing left to give.

  He felt oddly like he’d been giving a little piece of himself away with every lover, never asking for anything in return. And now, at last, he’d been whittled away to a tired, hollow shell that felt like a mask.

  He had that mask firmly in place, smiling in apparent self-satisfaction when he returned to The Den.

  “Don’t tell me,” Jenny guessed, as he rummaged in the staff fridge for a beer and she grabbed ice cubes from the freezer next to him. “That male model from Italy decided to try your side of the fence, didn’t he! He’s been eying you curiously all week.”

  Jenny, an otter shifter and the resort lawyer, and her identical twin Laura both had mates living with them in The Den. Their presence had turned the building from an established bachelor pad into more of a community house; Breck and the landscaper Graham were the only single men left living there now.

  “All sides of the fence are mine,” Breck said with a saucy wink. “And let’s just say, he got the courage up to peek over… and liked what he saw.”

  Jenny laughed, shaking her head. “I’m sure he did, Breck.” She kissed his cheek in a sisterly way. “You’ll break his heart like all the others,” she teased.

  Breck checked his watch. �
�I’ve got a late evening of heartbreaking lined up in just a tick,” he said, too loudly to his own ears. “Just enough time to catch a shower first…”

  But he needn’t have worried about fooling Jenny; her attention was caught by Bastian, who was groaning dramatically. “My parents,” the dragon shifter lifeguard was saying in despair. “My parents are coming to this awful wedding.”

  “Did they get over the fact that they didn’t get a fancy formal affair for you and Saina?” Jenny asked.

  Bastian was too busy groaning and putting his head on his arms to answer, so his mate Saina did for him. “It’s hard to tell. There’s been echoing silence from them since we eloped, which suits us both just fine. The letter letting us know they were coming was very vague and brief. Dragons, you know.” She shrugged with all the nonchalance of a siren. “They never say more than they have to, lest they get caught up in an unintentional contract.”

  “I love weddings,” Breck said as he opened his beer. “They put everyone in the mood to make connections.”

  “As if you needed an excuse,” Jenny ribbed him.

  Breck gave her a cheeky smile and toasted her with his beer as he left the kitchen.

  His smile faded at his exit.

  The Den had not been designed as staff housing, but as a luxury mansion for the original owner of the resort. Scarlet had moved them to open up spaces for guests in the hotel building, because so many of the amenities had to be shared and it wasn’t structured for individual rentals. Breck sometime wondered what the original plan had been for staff, and what had happened to the owner who was supposed to be living in the lush accommodations.

  He took his beer with him to the spa-like shared shower, and stood with the hot water spilling down over his bare shoulders.

  He had not told Jenny the whole story.

  The model from Italy had been three sheets to the wind, finding his courage for experimentation in the bottles at Tex’s bar. Even at better times, Breck would not have indulged his desires with such questionable consent. Though he didn’t advertise it, and let people believe whatever they wanted, he had a very strict code of honor, and he never poached drunk partners, invited angry liaisons meant to cause jealousy, or propositioned anyone already in a relationship, no matter how willing they were.