The Mating Game: Dating a Dragon(7)

He threw back his head and laughed at that – a deep, rich sound.

“I like you,” he said, and she thought his eyes glowed a little. “So, would tighty-whities be a dealbreaker?” He reached for his wine.

“Nahh, I like to think of myself as an open-minded girl. A banana hammock, now that would be a dealbreaker.”

He choked on the wine and his eyes watered slightly. “Right,” he rasped, and coughed to clear his throat. “No banana hammocks. I am willing to make that sacrifice.”

“What about you?” She gave him a wicked grin. “What would your dealbreakers be?”

He favored her with a slow smile that curled his sensuous mouth.

“From what I’ve seen so far, you could be a serial killer of small animals and I’d still probably make allowances.”

“I am not, however,” she assured him. “Not small animals, anyway.”

The waiter set down a bowl of bread in front of her and she began tearing into it. It was warm and delicious.

“So, tell me about yourself,” he said.

“Well, I work for an event planning company,” she said around a mouthful. “Or I did – I just quit, because in all honesty, I was going to leave town and go underground rather than be forced to mate with someone awful.”

“But now that you’ve met my charming self, you’re reconsidering?” He favored her with a roguish grin. “I don’t snore or hog the bed covers. I’m really considered quite the catch, actually.”

Just then, a waitress walked up with a bowl of soup – and tripped and spilled it on Cadence, splattering it down her shirt.

Orion leaped to his feet, eyes blazing with anger.

“That’s it,” he growled. “I demand to see your manager right now. I’ll see you fired!”

Cadence jumped to her feet as well, a sick feeling in her stomach.

“Excuse me, I’m just going to go blot this off,” she said. She grabbed her purse and hurried to the bathroom without looking back.





Chapter Three




Cadence stomped out of the back of the restaurant, stripped off her shirt, and tossed it into the dumpster. She was wearing a tank top underneath. That was okay – she enjoyed the chill in the air.

What she didn’t enjoy was the death of her hopes.

She walked to the front of the restaurant. For once, there was a cab when she needed one; not only that, but it zipped right over to pick her up.

She climbed in, regret and anxiety swirling inside her. She was back to square one. She wasn’t even going to accept Daisy’s charity, or get her involved; she was just going to pack up and leave town tonight. Vanish.

For a brief moment there, she’d thought she’d found the answer to her problems. Orion was handsome, and sexy, and charming. At least that was a good start. But then he’d flipped out and snapped at the waitress, and that was an enormous no-no in Cadence’s book. Cadence had been a bartender and waitress, and so had her mother; if there was one thing that was an absolute dealbreaker to Cadence, it was being rude to service personnel. It was not only unacceptable, it showed a personality defect that Cadence would not live with. People who were rude to wait staff were bullies in general. She hated bullies.

Well, that explained why Maude had never told her about this guy. Because he was like a chocolate-coated horse turd. Looked sweet and delicious, but below the surface, he was a big ol’ pile of poop.

She gave the cab driver her home address, and he answered with a surly grunt and began driving. Great. A crabby cabbie. Her afternoon was continuing to go well.

After a couple of minutes, the cab driver took a left turn. Wrong direction. Even better. She had a cabbie who had no idea where he was going.

“Excuse me,” she said with a touch of impatience. “You’re going the wrong way.”

“I know where I’m going.”

“No, you don’t. You’re headed in the opposite direction from my house. You need to turn around.”

He ignored her and kept driving. “You need to turn around,” she repeated more loudly, a sharp jolt of alarm running through her. They did criminal background checks on cab drivers, didn’t they? The cab was a Blue Valley Taxicab; she’d taken them dozens of times before.

“All right, stop the car,” she said with alarm. Instead, he pressed a button and her doors locked. She pulled frantically on the handle. It didn’t budge. She tried rolling the window down; it was stuck.

The car sped up.

“Stop the damn car!” she screamed. “Let me out right now!” He ignored her.

She grabbed her cell phone from her purse, and as he did, she saw him reach forward and push a button on the dashboard. When she punched 9-1-1 into her cell phone, nothing happened. There were no signal bars, even though she usually got perfect reception everywhere in Cedar Park.