He caught her around the waist and kissed her back, his lips warm and demanding. She snaked her arms around his neck and let herself go.
He smelled amazing, like warm cinnamon and hot man, and for someone who hadn’t gotten out in like, a hundred years, he was a damn good kisser. He sipped at her lips, running his tongue along her lower lip. One hand was on her back, and the other slipped down to her ass.
“Mmmm,” she said. “Nothing like a reward for a morning of hard work.”
“You’re getting another reward, too,” he said.
“What’s that? Is it dirty? Because I could maybe get behind something dirty.”
He grinned. “Nope. Well, yup, I could probably think of something dirty to do with you.” He kissed her again, just about curling her toes.
“But this isn’t it. The web crawlers are going to take a while to come back with anything, so tonight I’m taking you on a date.”
That took a second to compute.
“A what?”
He stepped back, putting some air between them, which allowed her to think more clearly. “A date. You know, like humans do.”
“A date. You and me?”
“All of us.”
“What?”
“You keep saying that.” Thorne looked uncertain. “Don’t human women like going on dates? I was sure dating was still a thing.”
A group date with a reclusive dragon and his friends? To who knew where? Not actually a thing, no.
“Um, depends on the date?” she said.
Thorne looked pleased with himself. “This is a good one. I talked it over with the other guys…”
Uh-oh.
“And we’re all going bowling.” He waited for her reaction.
Rebel had actually only been in a bowling alley once, when she was thirteen and her foster family had taken all the kids for somebody’s birthday.
She’d had a sucky time. She’d been better at bowling than the other kids, and so they’d dumped cigarette ashes in her nachos.
Then she’d punched one of them in the face—a guy named Joey—and had been given a time out and hadn’t been allowed to bowl anymore.
Thorne looked at her hopefully. “Bowling is a typical date, right?”
For some people, yes. For billionaire dragons, not so much. But she loved the hopeful look in his eyes.
And let’s face it, dragons bowling would be hilarious. Screaming kids and bowling shirts and stinky rental shoes. Bad pizza and too much beer.
“Sure,” she said, kissing him again. “It’s a perfect date.”
She couldn’t wait.
Chapter 26
Once he’d decided to woo his mate with a fun date, Thorne had work to do. Rebel caught up with him while he was at one of his computers in the Batcave, patching all the ward monitoring systems and feeds from the newly-installed security cameras into a phone app, so he could monitor them remotely.
When all of them were at the bowling alley.
“You’re really serious about this group date thing,” she said, leaning against his desk. “Have you ever even been bowling?”
She was so close he could reach out and touch her. He wanted to—she’d just taken a shower and she smelled delicious. But he still wasn’t sure what the rules were, in their relationship.
But if they were on a date, casual touching and kissing were usually okay, weren’t they? Expected, even. And Rebel seemed to like kisses. Neck kisses, especially. He remembered her soft moans from their night together, and felt his dick start getting hard. He tried to ignore it.
What else did she like? Challenges.
“Afraid I’ll beat you?” he said.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to beat me. You’ve never been bowling. You probably don’t even know how to keep score.”
“I looked it up on the internet. And I have superior strength and reflexes.”
She patted him on the head teasingly. “Of course you do.”
He smiled tantalizingly at her. “You’ll see.”
He went back to his work, but she didn’t leave. She just stood there, leaning on the desk, arms folded, looking at him strangely.
“Are you just going to stand there and stare at me all afternoon?” he asked finally? Having her there was not making his boner go away.
“No,” she said. “I’m just trying to wrap my head around cautious, security-obsessed Thorne the Guardian vacating the lair for an entire evening, just to go on a date. A human date. Not that I don’t want to go, but isn’t it a risk?”
“That’s what the alert app is for.” He indicated the screen. “We’ll know if anything tries to breach security, and we can fly back here in two minutes.” His face darkened for a moment. “I mean, Zane and Tyr can.”
She put her hand on his shoulder, acknowledging how much it sucked that he couldn’t fly with them. “Looks like you have everything under control,” she said. Her voice grew teasing again. “And if you want to learn how to have fun, far be it from me to stop you.”
“Human women like fun,” he said, going back to his program. Fun wasn’t his strong suit, but if that was what she needed, he’d do it or die trying.
“Hey,” she said, her fingers grazing his cheek. He looked up, startled. “You don’t have to change yourself for me,” she said. “You shouldn’t change yourself for anybody.”
He turned his head and impulsively kissed her hand, warmth spreading through his chest. He liked that she liked him the way he was. But he should change, if how he was couldn’t make her happy. He should be whatever his mate needed.
“Just be ready at six,” he said. “And you don’t need to eat dinner. We’re having pizza and nachos at the bowling alley.” Proper bowling food.
He’d looked that up on the internet, too.
When Rebel and the other mates appeared at six o-clock, Thorne was bowled over. And they hadn’t even gone near the alleys yet.
Blaze and Rebel and Tempest had gone into a girl-huddle earlier, and then dragged Zane away. Something to do with fashion and conjuring proper bowling outfits for them.
But when he saw what they’d come up with, his mouth dropped open. They had on matching black bowling shirts covered in sequins, with the shirttails knotted up under their breasts, leaving their midriffs bare.
Those were definitely not regulation.
They were paired with low-slung jeans with plenty of spandex for ease of movement. And to hug every curve.
He looked at Tyr looking at Tempest and saw how silly he looked with his mouth hanging open, so Thorne closed his. He looked back at Rebel and swallowed hard.
There went that boner again.
Rebel walked over to him and twirled around so he could get the full effect. “What do you think?”
He thought he wanted to rip it all back off her and make love to her here and now. A surge of desire overtook him, and with it came a surge of power and confidence.
Mine. Forget protocols and proper etiquette. He wanted her with all the force of a dragon. Instinct took over.
He moved closer to her, resting his hands on her waist. The feel of her bare skin under his hands was intoxicating.
“Sexy,” he said. “I’m not going to be able to concentrate on bowling.”
“That’s the plan, Liz—” She broke off. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said. It really didn’t hurt this time, to hear her pet name for his dragon. “Seeing you in that outfit is making me feel very… dragony.” He leaned in closer and murmured, “Like I could just drag you off to my lair and ravish you until you scream my name.”
He felt her swallow hard. She said, “If you beat me at bowling, maybe I’ll let you.”
A surge of heat flashed through him. “Really?” He traced the top of her low-slung pants with his finger, and felt her shiver. “Willing to make a bet with me?”
Her voice was husky. “What do you have in mind?”
He let his hand drift up to where her shirt was tied, just under her
breasts.
His dick was pressing painfully against the zipper of his jeans.
He said recklessly, “If I win, then I get to do anything I want to you in the bedroom for…” He thought. “An hour.”
He could smell her arousal. He let his hand drift up over her breast, feeling the taut hard nipple. He circled it with his finger, and heard her tiny gasp.
“What do I get if I win?” she asked breathlessly.
“You get to do anything you want to me in the bedroom. For as long as you want.”
“Notice how both options end up with us in the bedroom,” she pointed out.
He moved his hand to the other breast. “I noticed that,” he said. “What about it, Thief? Are you in? Or are you afraid of a challenge?”
“Never,” she whispered. “Besides, I have a feeling bowling with a boner is really going to cramp your style.”
She might be right about that.
Chapter 27
The internet had clearly not prepared Thorne and the other dragons for the reality of a bowling alley. They walked in and stopped dead, staring around at the chaos.
Nearly lane was full. Groups of guys drinking beer and cheering each other on. Groups of women drinking beer and cheering each other on.
Groups of teenagers, showing off, making out, and Rebel was pretty sure there was something extra in their soda cups. There would have been when she was a teenager, anyway.
At one end was a group of families with little kids. They were screaming, crying, fighting over French fries, and, as they watched, one of them spilled a Coke all over the kid next to him.
The noise of people and falling pins was deafening.
Thorne frowned. “It’s louder than I expected,” he said.
Zane added, “They seem to be drinking an awful lot of beer for a sport that requires pinpoint precision.”
Tyr was just looking around, arms folded, studying the entire thing like it was an archeological study or a sociological experiment.
It was priceless.
Tempest looked around, her face alight. “I always wanted to go bowling,” she said. “Fun!” She spied the shoe rental counter and said, “Are those the shoes? I always wanted to wear bowling shoes!” Without waiting for an answer, she dashed off, tossing over her shoulder, “Can I get a sparkly ball? I want a sparkly ball!”
She was immediately lost in the crowd. Rebel nudged Tyr. “Better go after her, sparkly balls,” she said wickedly. “You have to pay for her bowling shoes.”
He started, then looked around for Tempest, who had already vanished. “That way,” Rebel said. Tyr began pushing through the crowd.
She went up to Thorne, who had his head tilted, watching a large black woman gracefully send her ball careening down the lane. It curved slightly, then hit the pins with a smack. They all went down.
“Strike!” she yelled. Her girlfriends hooted, toasting her with their umbrella-decorated drinks. She did a little dance, fists in the air.
“Are you going to dance when you get a strike?” she asked. “Because I’d pay to see that.”
Thorne gave her a sideways glance, that sexy smile lurking at the corner of his mouth. “I will if you will.”
No earthly way in hell.
“Come on,” she said. “We need shoes.”
He looked at his feet. “I have shoes.” Rebel rolled her eyes. “I see some of the rituals of human society are still a mystery to you, despite the internet. We need bowling shoes. Come on.”
She dragged him up to the shoe rental counter, followed by Blaze and Zane, who kept looking back at the girls’ night out bowling league, drinking pink drinks and whooping it up.
It only took one whiff of the recently-used bowling shoes, though, for all three guys to balk.
“Don’t be such a wussy,” Rebel said, pulling her own size nines off the countertop. “Live a little.”
“I prefer to live without other people’s foot sweat,” Thorne said. “Besides,” he added innocently, “I brought my own.”
She looked down at his feet, which were now wearing a pristine pair of custom-fitting bowling shoes. Huh. It seemed he still kept the magical clothing gene while his dragon was absent. Good to know.
Rebel put on her own shoes, which were still suspiciously warm from the last customer. “You’re not getting the full experience.”
“I’m sure I’m getting as much as I need,” he said.
This was going to be so much fun.
She, Blaze and Tempest sent the guys off for food while they went off to claim the lanes Thorne had reserved.
“Dibs on the blue ball!” Tempest said immediately, picking up a sparkly blue bowling ball off the rack. “Oof. This thing weighs a ton!”
“Better give that one to Tyr,” Blaze said. “Here’s another one that matches. It’s lighter.”
She began picking out balls for herself and Zane. Rebel chose a green marbled ball, and a sparkly pink one that could be seen for miles.
The guys came back, loaded down with pizza, nachos, cheese pretzels, beer, and pink drinks like the girls’ night out crew had.
“Tyr!” Tempest called out. “Come on. I got us blue balls.”
Rebel snickered. Zane snorted, almost choking on a nacho.
“Already got those,” Tyr muttered.
Rebel smacked him on the shoulder. “Hey. That’s my baby sister.”
“That explains a lot.” He went over and collected his ball from Tempest. Rebel turned to see Thorne behind her. “I brought you a drink,” he said, handing her one of the sickly pink things with the umbrella.
She took one sip. The thing was so sweet it made her teeth ache, but it seemed to have plenty of alcohol. She had a feeling she was going to need it.
“Mmm,” she said, gasping. “Yummy.” Thorne grinned at her, taking her breath away. He was obviously relaxing into the whole ‘slice of humanity’ experience.
Or maybe he was just contemplating getting her drunk and taking advantage of her.
“I thought you’d enjoy it,” he said. He glanced at the balls she’d claimed. “Besides, it matches your pink bowling ball.”
Rebel looked at him innocently. “Oh, that one’s much too heavy for me,” she said. “It’s for you.”
Thorne picked up the two balls, one in each hand. It was obvious the pink one was heavier. “Seriously?” he said. “Who did they even make this for? Godzilla Barbie?”
Rebel almost snorted pink drink out her nose. “I think the drinks are for her too.” She batted her eyelashes and tried a sultry pout. cocked her head. “You’re not going to disappoint me when I picked that out just for you, are you?”
Thorne laughed. She guessed her feminine wiles needed a little work.
But it was good to see him having fun at last.
Chapter 28
The bowling was turning out to be as entertaining as Rebel had hoped. Zane refused to take it seriously, doing all kinds of crazy lead-ups before every throw: dance steps, twirls, and fancy poses. Half the time his ball ended up in the gutter, but he didn’t seem to care.
Thorne was as serious about bowling as he was about everything else he did. The look of concentration on his face every time he stepped up for his turn was adorable.
Or maybe he was just concentrating on winning their bet.
Rebel couldn’t decide if it would be more fun to win herself, or to let him win and see what he had in store for her.
Either possibility made her hot with anticipation. Not to mention, he looked ridiculously hot in a midnight-blue button-down shirt that exactly matched his eyes. It was made of some soft material that clung to his chest and made her want to pet him like Bucephalus.
And watching his butt muscles flex every time he made another graceful throw was making her want to rip his jeans off right there and take a bite out of him.
Rebel took another swallow of her pink drink. Those things really grew on you after awhile. They also packed a punch—she was feeling pleasantly tipsy.
More like, well on her way to hammered.
After his fourth strike, Thorne walked back to the scoring table, looking extremely cocky and pleased with himself. Also extremely sexy. He entered his score and then pulled Rebel down on his lap, nuzzling her ear.
“I’m twenty pins ahead,” he murmured, nibbling on his favorite place on the side of her neck. The one that made her all hot and melty. He was also stroking her bare midriff, running his fingers up and down her lower spine.
All her sexy parts started tingling.
He added, “Better start deciding which way you want me to tie you down—face up or face down.”
Rebel almost choked on her pink drink. He wanted to tie her down? Holy fuck. She’d never tried anything like that before—too much like being trapped.
Thorne ran his tongue up the side of her neck, and claimed her lips in a deep kiss. Mmm… wow. Suddenly the idea of Thorne tying her down and having his way with her for as long as he wanted, with nothing for her to do but enjoy it, started looking more appealing. Maybe she should lose that bet.
Or maybe that was the pink drinks talking.
Rebel finally managed to peel herself off Thorne and see what was going on in the other lanes. Tempest was beating everyone—though Rebel had realized pretty early on it was because Tyr was totally cheating for her. He was using his magical telekinesis abilities to send Tempest’s ball into the pocket practically every time, giving her strike after strike.
Every now and then he’d let her miss one, as if that would keep everyone from figuring out what he was doing.
Apparently, though, it took the others awhile. Mostly because Zane was too busy showing off—and Blaze was too busy ogling his ass—for them to notice anything. Now, though, Blaze had checked the scores and realized something was off.
“Hey!” she said, fists on her hips, “No way is Tempest getting all those strikes on her own.” She looked again. “And neither is Tyr.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tempest said innocently. “We’re just that good.”
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