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Beau raised a lazy eyebrow. Eleven years younger than Ethan, he was ridiculously cool and good looking, the kind of cool Ethan secretly envied—admired, even, though he’d never tell Beau that. Gods forbid the kid’s head should swell even bigger.
“You’ll mess up your lungs.”
Beau gave him a glare out of bright golden eyes, just like their mom’s. “I don’t give a fuck about my lungs.”
He strolled over and took another cigarette from the pack on his dresser. With an angry growl, Ethan grabbed the pack and shredded them in his claws, then dropped them in the bin.
“You want to add to your mother’s anxiety? Selfish little shit.”
Beau shot two sharp flames at him, and the heat licked onto Ethan’s neck. It was tempting to respond in kind, but he held back. They didn’t need to get into a fight; he’d ruined more than a few of his designer shirts that way in the past.
Besides, he was more than a decade older. He knew better.
He stepped back. “I repeat, you’re making Mom’s anxiety worse.”
“Dad dying did that. I’m not wearing that guilt shit. You do it well enough for both of us.” Beau picked up a wire brush from the dresser and passed it over his scales.
“Where are you going?”
“Out.”
“Where?”
“Just somewhere.”
“Haven’t you got classes tomorrow?”
“Yeah, so? I perform better with a hangover.”
Ethan let out an exasperated growl. “Be back before eleven. And if you buy any more cigarettes, I’ll install smoke detectors.”
Beau guffawed loudly at that. “Bro, stop trying to play Dad. You’ll never fill his shoes. You’re too fucking tame.”
Ethan balled his fists at his sides, tempted to rip his little brother a new one.
“I’ve got better things to do with my life than toe the Blade line,” Beau sneered, and with that he flung open the balcony windows, jumped onto the balustrade and took off, his wings soaring and his tail snapping behind him.
Ethan gritted his teeth and swore under his breath. His brother was a thorn in his side, always had been. The pretty dragonling his mother adored. The handsome bad boy who was allowed to get away with anything, while he, Ethan, was the sensible one. No, damn it, he wasn’t tame, but he did have a deep sense of duty. He was ordered, meticulous, cautious in his dealings.
He’d done okay.
Until now. Suddenly his father’s dreams to expand the aviation business past Motham’s boundaries, had stalled dramatically.
Simply, it seemed, because Ethan was a dragon.
Maybe if he could shift, take on human form… shut up, you’re sounding just like Mom.
He pulled himself together. Glanced in the mirror and straightened his spine. He was good-looking enough, not the bad boy cute of his brother, but presentable in his own way. He had a good strong body, his eyes were striking, his bone structure strong. He’d had girlfriends—plenty. There was always a queue for dragon dick, let’s be honest.
But never, ever a human.
Truth was, he hadn’t even tried to date one. Because humans wouldn’t consider a dragon for their mate, particularly one who couldn’t shift. There was too much blood under the bridge between dragons and humans even if it wasn’t fully understood, or even spoken about in recent times.
But now, everything—fucking everything: his mom’s happiness, his self-respect, fulfilling his duty to his dad—all rested on him having a human girlfriend.
Fake human girlfriend, he reminded himself.
As Ethan closed the door on his brother’s debauched den and strode toward his own apartment on the other side of the house, he sure hoped that Adina Thrimble could deliver.
