As she was still staring at him, agog, he decided to show mercy by changing the conversation. “So what are your plans to save Date-A-Dragon?” he asked casually.
She sat back in relief, pulling out her laptop. “Finally, something I want to talk about. I have a lot of ideas, and I’d love to hear your input.”
He cocked his head, surprisingly pleased. He wasn’t used to people caring for his opinion, and he found he liked it. “Sure.”
“Well, first off, we need a manager,” she said. “Someone to help Citrine. A woman.”
He frowned. “I’m not sure about that.”
“Come on. Citrine is too nice,” she said.
Were they talking about the same dragon? He cocked his head. “He’s pretty angry all the time if you ask me.”
“Right, but he doesn’t keep you in line. He’s too nice to actually do anything about it.”
“Ah,” he said. Since she wasn’t even aware of the existence of dragons, she probably didn’t need to know that Citrine was one of the most dangerous, despite being a warm, nice guy. That like the sun, he could be warm or he could choose to blind everyone on the planet.
Still, in a way she was right. “I guess so,” he said. “But I’d love to see the woman who could work well with Citrine. He’s super independent.”
“We’ll find the right one,” she said. “Someone who won’t take crap from the ‘dragons.’”
“Right,” he said halfheartedly.
“And that’s another thing. We need to change the name.”
“Not going to happen,” he said, leaning back against his seat.
“Why not?” she asked, wrinkling her brow.
“It’s an inside joke, a personal thing,” he said. “Besides, didn’t Citrine tell you our slogan? ‘So hot we’re almost mythical.’”
She shook her head. “While that may be true, it just doesn’t tell women what to expect.”
He snorted. Yes, it did. It promised dragons, and they were dragons. But she didn’t know that, and he didn’t know when she would.
He’d been told to take it slow with humans where knowledge of shifters was concerned.
“Did you just say I was hot?” he teased, leaning forward.
She grunted. “I said the slogan was true. That’s it.”
“You think I’m hot,” he said, getting close to her ear, enjoying the way she stiffened and her lips parted slightly.
Then she jerked forward, swatting at him until he moved out of the way. “Not as much as you think you are.”
But as she went back to talking about ideas for Date-A-Dragon, his mate was visibly flustered.
For now, that was enough for him.
Four
When they landed, Dante grabbed their carry-ons and asked for her hand to lead her through the crowd, saying he didn’t want to lose track of her.
She was beginning to realize how dangerous he was, and she knew touching him escalated that, but she supposed he was right.
Plus, it would be more convincing for her parents when they saw them.
They were supposed to be engaged after all.
Her parents had swallowed the fact that she’d been secretly engaged surprisingly easily.
But she wondered if that would still be the case when they saw Dante.
Everywhere they went, women stared at him, but he seemed oblivious. Or maybe he was just so used to female attention that it didn’t matter to him.
She hoped he kept his promise not to fawn over her sister. She knew it was selfish, but just for once, she wanted a guy’s attention on her instead. Even if she was technically paying for it. Trading for it. Whatever their business arrangement was called.
They walked toward the baggage claim, and she saw a group of people waiting with a sign.
Her heart dropped into her stomach as she noticed her mom, short and curvy like her, with beautiful curls that could probably be Ella’s if she cared to try with them, standing next to her dad.
Both were beaming.
Her chest tightened slightly as her eyes moved to her sister, standing tall and skinny and perfectly blond as ever, a smug expression on her face.
When she was younger, she’d hoped for a better relationship with her sister, but one had never materialized, and she’d slowly given up.
Her sister had encouraged the bullying against her when they were younger, and besides, they had nothing in common now that they were older.
But Ella could still be happy for her.
She let go of Dante’s hand and stepped forward to shake her sister’s hand, when she caught sight of her fiancé behind her, arms wrapped around her waist.
She froze, looking up at his kind face, which was giving her a welcoming smile.