“Meat ribbons?” Wyatt’s shoulders shook with laughter and she felt a bit of pride. “I’m really enjoying your choice of descriptors. They really bring the story to life.”
“What can I say? I’m a writer.” She imagined his tight smiles were relaxed into something more real. Knowing that was her doing warmed her. She wanted to see him smile over and over. “How about you? Any truly bad dates in your life?”
He was silent for so long, she feared she’d crossed a line. That his past was his and that she shouldn’t be digging. Then, he let out a languished sigh. She craned her neck to peer at him, but he never turned so she could see his face.
“I think my worst date was a warning that I didn’t heed.”
Kennedy waited for him to go on, thoroughly confused now. His shoulders bunched again, and his hands stilled.
“I took her hiking. I thought it’d be a good time to talk and get to know one another. The whole time we hiked, she complained. If it wasn’t her heels hurting after a quarter mile, she was complaining about the sun being too bright, or the hum of the bugs in the distance. The bugs weren’t even biting her. She just didn’t like the sound of them.”
“She sounds like she didn’t like the outdoors,” Kennedy said, though she couldn’t relate. The world had so much to offer, not all of it found behind the glass case at a bakery.
“I think she just hated everything,” Wyatt went on. “Date number two was a dinner. I figured if we were inside and she could sit down, then she would be happier. Instead, she sent her plate back three times and strong-armed the waiter into a free dessert.”
“I’m glad you ended it there.” Kennedy used the silent moment to add detail to the dragon’s tail on her mug, but when the silence stretched too long, a stone fell in the pit of her stomach. “You didn’t end it there. Did you?”
“I’m an absolute fool,” Wyatt said. “I dated her for two more years before deciding I was going to propose to her.”
She was struck. Not just by his willingness to be blind, but his desire to be loved, even if he had to imagine love where it didn’t exist. Slowly, she pushed her chair back. At first, Kennedy didn’t know what she was going to do, only that she had to do something. The chair let out a soft screech against the floor.
Wyatt protested when she stepped near, rushing to hide the mug he was painting. Kennedy smiled and knelt beside his chair. From there, she looked up at him. His eyes swirled with hot bronze, and his lips parted. She wanted to claim them, to mark them as hers, but she knew this wasn’t the right time. He needed to…
What did he need? After the story he told her, Kennedy realized Wyatt needed to learn what it meant to be loved. Sure, she’d only known him a short time, but the potential for love was there and it spoke truer than anything she’d ever felt. There was no way to explain it. She had no words that would make sense of what she intrinsically knew.
Kennedy reached up, her fingers touching the curling hair at the nape of his neck. He said her name, barely a whisper on his lips like a prayer or a blessing. Unable to stop now, she pulled him to her. His lips were hesitant at first. She took it slow, each small movement a question and a promise all in one.
She asked permission, to kiss him, to love him. But she also promised that she would be there to show him what it meant to be loved, how love could change their lives. Finally, he opened up to her. He leaned in and his tongue pressed against hers. She fought back the moan in her throat, trying to keep the kiss appropriate for public, when she wanted to pull him to the floor and feel his weight atop her.
When she pulled back, his eyes remained closed. Wyatt’s expression was one of intoxication, as if he savored the taste of her on his lips. Kennedy would have promised him there would be much more to come, but Wyatt needed to come to that decision on his own. She couldn’t force this to happen.
“I should go finish painting your mug,” she said quietly.
He reached for her, then clenched his fist. She watched, wondering if he was fighting against himself. In the end, Wyatt nodded, and she retreated.
The dragon on her mug took form. She layered metallic paints over the scales so that the beast shimmered when she turned it. The mug looked dull otherwise, not yet gleaming like the other ceramics she’d seen in her life. She trusted that some sort of magic would happen once they handed the pieces over to the employees.
Once they were finished painting, the employee told them the pieces would be glazed and fired in the clay oven. The mugs wouldn’t be ready for a few days, meaning she wouldn’t be able to see what he’d painted for her. Despite her desire to know what he’d created, she was okay with this.
It meant there would be another reason to see him again.
“You know,” Kennedy began as they left the shop, “I still owe you dinner. I promised to make you dinner the first time we met.”
“Was that the first time we met?”
She knew what he meant. The morning at the diner felt like ages ago, but it had only been two days. Since then, she’d learned that he was not just a man but a magical dragon shifter. The truth should have frightened her, but she felt a twinge of excitement.
“You’re really…” She bit the inside of her cheek. What was she going to say? That he was a pretty dragon? Men probably didn’t want to hear about how pretty their scales were. What she’d planned on saying faded to nothing.
“I’m what? I’d love to know what you think of me?” Wyatt nudged her with his elbow. “Am I too sour? A curmudgeon? I’ve been called both before.”
Kennedy was aghast. “No. I would never say anything like that. You haven’t been sour with me.”
He studied her face for a long while. She wondered what he saw there. Was he searching for a lie? Because he wasn’t going to find one. She’d thoroughly enjoyed his company and every time he left, she couldn’t wait for the next time she would run into him.
They kept coming together like this. She felt like a comet shooting through the sky with no purpose only to be snatched by his gravitational pull. He drew her in and kept her rotating around him. Perhaps that was why Grove called to her. It wasn’t just the picturesque buildings, the sprawling mountains, or the good food around every corner.
It was Wyatt.
She hoped, with everything she had, that he would fall for her just like he promised.
“Kennedy? Are you alright?”
She startled and found Wyatt watching her with concern furrowing his brows. His lips were parted, and she wanted nothing more than to reach up and steal another kiss. She wouldn’t, even if she felt an unseen force at her back, pushing her toward him.
“I’m fine,” she lied. It wasn’t that big of a lie. She couldn’t tell him that she was worried he would realize he might never love her, or that she feared it was her own need to be loved driving her toward him.
He nodded, clearly unconvinced. “Well, I think your dinner offer was repaid the other day when you took me out.”
She scowled. “But I didn’t even pay for it. You put it on Jasper’s tab.”
He shrugged, as if there were no difference. Kennedy realized she’d convinced herself that if she could cook for him, she would steal her way to his heart through his stomach like a spy sneaking into enemy territory. It wouldn’t work that way, though.
This was his decision. All she could do was wait for it to be made. The wait was maddening, but each step they took left her hopeful. The moments they shared were filled with the bright intensity of a possible future, one she craved more than anything.
More than macarons or coffee.
“Thank you for today,” she whispered, letting the subject slide.
“You act like today is over.” His hand slid into hers. “The day has just begun. I’d like to spend a little more time with you. If that’s alright?”
She nodded, eager to remain in his presence. Even if they weren’t talking, letting silence hang between them, she was happy. They continued to wal
k for a while. The mountain’s chill winter air didn’t bother her as much when he was beside her. Eventually, she begged him to stop for cocoa because she needed something to warm her from the inside out.
Kennedy wanted to know everything about Grove and the dragons that inhabited it, but she didn’t know if she was allowed to ask in public. She figured she would have to wait for a time when they were alone, though they’d rarely escaped the eye of pedestrians or waiters as long as they’d known each other. Wyatt wasn’t ready to go back to her hotel room, even if it would allow them some privacy.
Everywhere she looked, now that she knew the truth, she saw evidence of dragons. There were wrought iron dragons hidden in the gates of old homes, dragons painted on the sides of buildings, and ceramic dragons guarding doors. They sprouted up here and there.
“Your family has lived in Grove for a long time, huh?”
Wyatt followed her gaze to a pair of stone dragons outside the library. The corner of his mouth quirked in pleasant surprise. She pointed out another hidden dragon and he shook his head, expression incredulous.
“The Drakes have been here for a long time. Maybe two hundred years? I can’t believe how much we’ve influenced the town, though. These are things I’ve never noticed before.” Wyatt’s eyes were searching up and down the street now. He let out a breath, but it didn’t seem annoyed or sad. “We all try to leave Grove at some point, but we’re drawn back for one thing or another. This is where we belong.”
***
Wyatt knew as he spoke the words that he had convinced himself, a truth that had been growing inside him that he’d barely looked at. Grove hid the dragons from the prying eyes of the world, but it also welcomed them and made for them a home that would never turn them away.
He’d left and tried to find himself in the world outside Grove, but he’d only truly found himself once he returned. He wondered if that was what it’d been like for Ashton. Had his cousin rebelled against the thought of Grove until he actually set foot in the town? Had it been the sight of Makenna that reignited his love for the place?
There was only one thing that would make Grove the home of his heart and he was currently holding her hand. He wanted to hold onto her forever, but he still wasn’t sure if that was real or if Kennedy was everything Nicole hadn’t been, and he was desperate to hold into the idea and not the woman.
He hadn’t expected to spend three hours painting a coffee mug in the little craft shop, but the time had been more pleasant than he thought. Even if they hadn’t been sitting at the same table, making something for her and overturning all the truths he’d hidden from left him feeling…light.
It was as if he’d shrugged off the shame he’d held onto. Wyatt knew he shouldn’t feel shame, but he did nonetheless. It’d made him feel heavy, like he could barely lift his feet off the sidewalk. He’d kept Nicole in a loveless relationship, forcing them both to be unhappy for the years they’d been together. The lie that he’d fostered had wasted so much time. It’d nearly broken something inside him, the hope that love could be real.
When he returned to Grove, he’d been convinced that he would never find happiness with someone. While he could watch Makenna and Ashton flaunt their happiness, Wyatt had to face the fact that he would never be allowed the same feeling. At least, that was what he’d thought until Kennedy arrived.
She’d shown him that there were so many ways to be happy. Through her eyes, he could see the world and all the unexpected joy it had to offer, from a steak seasoned with coffee to painting mugs. These things seemed silly on the surface, but he never would have thought of either without Kennedy urging him forward.
Being with her was like breathing again. Wyatt hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath. Not just since he returned to Grove, but long before that. He’d been holding back, as if waiting for something to happen when he should have been making things happen.
Their long walk through town had led them back to Kennedy’s hotel. He looked up at the old building, a relic of days long past that caught the light and tried to transport them back to those days. Wyatt shook his head.
“Well, looks like this is my stop,” Kennedy said as she kicked the ground.
He could see that she was biting her cheek. He reached for her, rubbing his thumb along the cheek she was worrying. Kennedy offered an apologetic smile. They were both thinking the same thing. His beast demanded that he follow her inside. She’d offered it before. He could still feel the press of her lips against his. It ignited hunger deep inside him, one that refused to be ignored.
But, he wasn’t sure if he was ready. It wasn’t about Kennedy. It was bout getting his own mind in line. He wouldn’t be able to give Kennedy what she deserved until he knew his mind was free of Nicole. When he no longer thought back and compared every step to the woman he thought he’d loved, then he could experience love.
Real love.
Kennedy sighed. She placed her hand over his, holding him to her cheek. “It’s alright if you want to say no.”
He could hear the disappointment in her voice. He didn’t want to disappoint her. It was the last thing he wanted. Wyatt couldn’t help but feel like he disappointed everyone. He’d yet succeed in stopping Jasper’s tantrums. Every time he had to face his cousin, he needed the help of the others to keep his cousin from killing him. If he thought harder, Nicole’s disappointment would surface to twist his insides.
To hear it in Kennedy’s voice hurt him, but he knew it was the right thing. Eventually, there would be a day when he would make up for every small disappointment. He would fill her life with happiness.
He wanted to make a promise to her, but that seemed too forward.
“Rain check?” he asked.
Kennedy turned away from him, but nodded. She swiped at her cheeks. Was she crying? His heart cracked and filled him with pain. He wasn’t sure how to make the situation better. Wyatt felt like a fool, a man who knew nothing about the ways of the heart or the happiness of lovers. He was useless as he watched Kennedy retreat inside the hotel.
Chapter Nine
Kennedy had been so hopeful after they day they’d had. She’d thought he’d made a decision. There had been a look in his eyes, past the bronze of his beast, that made her feel like she’d won a place inside his heart. Then, he’d abandoned her at the front door.
She drew in a breath, slow and long, to settle herself and organize her mind. She’d jumped to panic, but the truth of the situation was not so bad. If Wyatt needed another day, then she could give it to him. Her desire for him was not all consuming. She had work to do, anyway.
She tightened her jacket around her as she headed toward the elevator. Her head went up when the feeling of being watched crept over her skin and raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Across the way, a man watched her. His lips slowly split into a smile, one less kind and more predatory.
A chill rippled through her, but she shrugged off her coat. Immediately, the man’s eyes fell to her neck. His face blanched and he scurried off. She fought the urge to touch the mark Wyatt had left. It had worked the way Wyatt promised, but she couldn’t help but feel like it was more than he’d meant.
He’d implied there was meaning behind the mark, more than he’d been willing to explain. Kennedy could not claim to understand it, especially since she knew nothing about the dragons who lived in these mountains, but she could read Wyatt.
Her earlier disappointment faded and was replaced by a spark of hope. She grinned as she stepped into the elevator, letting her hand slide over the mark on her neck. Warmth pooled inside her, cascading from her neck to her core.
Of course, she thought Grove was unlike nay other place in the world. It was here that she discovered Wyatt and the magical secret his family hid from the world. She never knew that was exactly what she was searching for all her life, but when she found it, a part of her was nearly complete.
Now, all she had to do was wait for Wyatt.
C
hapter Ten
Kennedy wasn’t sure what she wanted to do the next day. She dressed with the hopes that she might run into Wyatt, though she was sure he would give her space for the day. She pulled tight leggings over her hips, the kind that lifted and showcased her butt. From the bottom of her suitcase, she found a gauzy shirt that hung low between her breasts. Remembering the way Wyatt had stared at her long necklace the night at the bar, she added that as well.
Together, the outfit gave her athletic frame the impression of curves. She mourned hiding such a look under her coat, but it was too cold outside to go without it. The mountains forgave no one unless they were a dragon, it seemed.
In the lobby, she felt eyes on her. Behind the counter, the same man from the day before watched her. When their eyes connected and she let her coat slip lower on her shoulders, his gaze dropped to the mark on her neck. Quickly, he looked away and pretended to busy himself with a task.
She smiled, glad to bear the mark. Not only because of the way it deterred creepy strangers, but because of what else it meant. Kennedy had a feeling something like the mark on her neck was reserved for private relations. Even if Wyatt wasn’t ready, every other dragon in town would know she was waiting for Wyatt.
For her bronze dragon.
The doors swung open. She tore her gaze away from the stranger to find Wyatt. His cheeks were pink from the cold, his hair tousled from the wind. Her lips parted in surprise. She hadn’t expected to see him. Just standing before him filled her with joy.
“What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you came to pick up your great aunt and this is just an awkward encounter.” Kennedy thought they agreed they would give it more time, more space.
Wyatt scratched the back of his head sheepishly. The little quirk at the corner of his mouth made her heart do backflips. “No, I came with the hopes of finding you before you left for the day. Do you have anything planned?”
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