Holy Smokes by Katie MacAlister Read Free Book Online Page A

to get up anytime before noon,” Jim said, flipping a page.
    “I’ve been up for a couple of hours, Mr. Smarty Demon, trying to find a hotel with a decent-sized room we can use for a reception. Man, I have a headache. Where is everyone? Is Uncle Damian here yet? And Rene? Have you seen Drake? Did Paula go out shopping, or is she going to come with us to find a new dress?”
    “For a prince of Abaddon, you sure don’t seem to know much,” Jim answered, not bothering to look up from the newspaper. “Hoo baby! Look at those hooters! You gotta love the English newspapers!”
    “Answer my question, oh ye of the smart-aleck mouth.”
    Jim heaved a profound sigh. “Depends on who you mean. Yes. No. Yes, but he left. No, she and the absentminded professor went for their morning walk, and finally, yes. Anything more you’d like to know? The square root of fifteen million? Why the sky is blue? How many demons can dance on the head of a pin?”
    “Left?” I asked, focusing on the most important tidbit of information. “Drake left? Where did he go? We only have a couple of hours before the wedding.”
    “Dunno. He just said Uncle Damian and Rene were going to be your guards this morning, and took off with Pál and István.”
    Uncle Damian loomed up in the doorway, fixing me with a gimlet eye. “There you are.”
    “Good morning. Do you happen to know where Drake has gone off to?”
    “He didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. Come in here. I want to talk to you.” He did an about-face back into the living room.
    “Uh-oh. Someone’s in trouble,” Jim said, standing up and stretching.
    “Hardly that,” I said, although I had to admit my uncle’s forebidding frown was not something I took lightly.
    “I’m going to see if Suzanne needs any help with breakfast,” Jim said, strolling toward the back regions of the house where the kitchen was.
    “Just remember that she works for Drake and me, not you. If you try to bribe her into hiding the fact that you filched an additional breakfast, she’ll tell me!”
    “Who is Suzanne?” Uncle Damian asked as I closed the door behind me.
    “A green dragon who is our cook and general dogsbody, no reference to Jim intended. She’s István’s girlfriend. You probably saw her last night.”
    “Ah. Short girl. Dark hair.” He nodded.
    “That’s her. She’s a doll; I don’t know what we’d do without her. Is this going to take long? I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of time,” I said, glancing with fondness at a small table in the corner of the room. Drake and I had enjoyed many steamy moments by means of that particular piece of furniture. Just thinking about some of the times had my pulse pounding. “I’ve had a horrible time trying to find a room for the reception, and there’s still the shopping to be done. Are you sure Drake didn’t say where he was going?”
    “Yes.”
    “Dammit. I suppose I could call him—” I had started reaching for the phone when Uncle Damian stopped me with a few words.
    “He says you’re pregnant.”
    I sighed and sat down on the arm of the couch, clicking off the phone. “ Possibly pregnant. We’re not sure, although I do have an ultrasound scheduled for this afternoon. I’m sorry if you’re shocked that it’s possible I’m pregnant before we got married, but—”
    Scorn curled his lip. “Do you seriously believe I care about that?”
    “Well…I know Paula will be full of lectures for weeks when she finds out.”
    “I am not your stepmother. But I am evidently now your bodyguard. What’s this business of you going over to another group of dragons?”
    “Drake told you about that, huh? It would take hours to explain it, so I’ll just give you the quick and dirty version—two other wyverns pulled a nasty on us last month, with the end result that I am temporarily considered the blue wyvern’s mate. And since we’re already at war with one sept, I’d like to avoid any similar confrontation with the blue dragons, hence