Page 41 of Desired By the Dragon

“My vote is for us to get very, very drunk.”

I shook my head immediately. “No. What if she needs me?”

Taylor threw back the rest of his drink and nodded. “Okay, how about we go out? Fly around the cove? If we stay away from prying eyes, we should be okay.”

Flying. Yes, that sounded good. I tossed back the dregs of my drink and nodded. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Sixteen

Kiernan

“Okay. Come on. Time to get up and out of bed, Kier.”

I rolled over, groaning, and heard the crunch of a Cheeto turning to powder somewhere underneath my body. “No, thank you.”

Taz blew out a breath. “You’ve moped, we’ve watched hot werewolves on TV, and we ate our body weight in snacks. Now, tell me what happened. Do I need to set Max on fire? Because I will.”

I tried to laugh but gave up when it came out sounding wrong. “Nothing happened.”

A large intake of breath made me tense and Taz slowly blew it all back out, ruffling my hair as I buried my face in the covers. “Okay, fine. I wasn’t going to tell you this, but the reason I showed up at your door so fast yesterday when you called is because I was already on my way over.” The pause she took let me know I wasn’t going to like what she had to say next. “Taylor called, Max asked me to check on you.”

Sitting up abruptly, I glared accusingly at my best friend. “Et tu, Brutus?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Max said something about your ex stalking you? Is that true? Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

Damn it. Max and his big mouth. “Stalking is a bit strong. I didn’t want to worry anyone, and at first I thought I was just being paranoid.”

“And now?”

I shrugged. “Not-so paranoid.”

“Fuck, Kier. At some point, you do have to trust somebody. I mean, to not even tell me?”

“I did trust somebody,” I snapped. “I told fucking Max and he–he⁠—”

Taz gripped my arm, brows furrowing as her green eyes flashed. “He what?”

“He told me he loves me,” I whined, sobs breaking free as I let my head drop onto Taz’s shoulder. She was baffled, I could tell, but still, she hugged me, rubbed soothing circles onto my back, and when I sniffled she went to the bathroom and came back with a wad of tissue. “Why would he do that to me?”

There was real pain on Taz’s face when she put her hands on my shoulders and peered into my eyes. “Because he cares about you. And generally, that’s a good thing. Okay? Tell me, has Max ever hurt you?”

I hiccuped, twisting the tissue in my hands until it formed a ball and started to disintegrate. “No.”

“And you trusted him enough to tell him about your ex?”

“Derek,” I supplied and then nodded.

“So what makes you think that this is a bad thing?”

I took a steadying breath and then threw myself back onto my pillow, staring up at the ceiling. “The fact that it doesn’t feel bad. It feels good. Right, even.”

Taz reclined next to me and reached over to hold my hand. “You love him, too.”

The words made me instinctively wince. “I don’t know how this happened.” It wasn’t fair. I’d done everything right, I’d kept him at a distance as much as possible, and for the most part we’d stuck to the rules I’d demanded. He’d never once complained. But he was all I fucking thought about. I woke up and his was the first face I conjured, I went to sleep and I dreamed about him, and my waking thoughts were no better. “Flame fucking take me,” I muttered and then groaned. “I fell in love with the dragon.”

“For what it’s worth, I think you picked a good one this time.”

“That’s what I think every time, and then they set me up for a robbery, or fuck their ex.” I frowned, remembering the blonde woman he’d danced with at the dragon mating celebration. I said as much and Taz laughed before glancing at me and realizing I was serious.