Near his ear, she whispered, “I like you, too. Are you contagious?”
“Not contagious.”
That wasn’t strictly true. He hoped she would catch it, in a way.
Cai wound his arms around Ember’s soft body and cradled her against him, trying to press every burning iota of his flesh against her. “I like you a lot.”
Her lips brushed his throat, and he groaned.
Cai lifted her chin with one hand and lipped down her long neck, whispering, “I adore you. Everything about you draws me to you. Your kindness and the care you take with the elementals is beautiful. You work so hard at everything, and yet you’re sweet to everyone. Every time I see you, I find something more that amazes me. You fascinate me. I am enchanted by you.”
She stiffened in his arms, and her hands lightened on his shoulders. “Cai?”
He breathed her in, the faint vanilla of her perfume and a sweet scent that was all woman filling his body and damping the flames for an instant. “You are everything to me.”
“Um—” A note of panic lit her voice.
Her hesitancy echoed in Cai’s head.
He didn’t want to do this, just then. A sudden confession of love seemed false and forced, and he couldn’t imagine this night ending in anything other than Ember stomping out and himself with no options.
He said, “Let’s go out. Let’s have our night together. I know a great restaurant. We can go there for dinner. And I’ve got an idea for afterward.”
She flinched and waved her hand at her slacks and shirt. “Okay? But I’m not dressed to go out?”
Wardrobe problems, Cai could solve. He was a concert producer, and if the talent wanted it, Cai could wrangle up (on no notice) a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown ones picked out, a brand-new toilet seat, canned ravioli and chunky soup, Taco Bell catering platters, a boa constrictor that was greater than or equal to fifteen feet, or a butt-shaped pinata filled with airplane-sized liquor bottles and fine chocolates.
And then, there were the weird requests.
Finding seven dwarves to greet one singer as they entered their dressing room after the show had taken a while.
But a dress? Cai had already thought of that.
He said, “I had something brought up for you. I was planning this date for a week or so from now, maybe after the gala opening when everything calmed down.”
Ember looked confused, her lovely brows dipping with a little frown. “Okay, I suppose. Yeah, okay.”
“The dress is in the closet. I’ll get ready in the other bathroom. Half an hour?”
Ember glanced at the curtained window, then back at him. “Okay, I guess.”
For an early supper, Cai took Ember to a lovely little restaurant, a hole in the wall just off of the Strip, that turned out to be a five-star celebrity chef’s side project. Cai had met the chef because she was opening a grand restaurant in the Dragon’s Den Casino. The chef had told Cai about her secret project where she tested new recipes and served A-list celebrities who couldn’t otherwise go out to supper without being mobbed.
The tiny restaurant had eight tables, all draped with luxurious linen tablecloths and set with shining china and crystal.
The dress that he had bought for Ember fit her perfectly, and he loved the way that the silk molded to her figure and the scarlet color played on her skin and matched her lipstick. She said, “Wow, I didn’t even know this place was here. Hey, is that—”
Cai glanced over at the couple sitting at a table over by the wall. The woman’s long ponytail flowed from the top of her head and almost reached the ground, and Cai was pretty sure he had seen the guy on Saturday Night Live the weekend before. “Yeah, I think so. I’ve heard the food is good, too.”
The food was amazing, or at least Cai thought that it probably was from the way that Ember kept closing her eyes as she chewed. Cai could barely taste the Châteaubriand and creamy potatoes on his plate because every time he took a bite, dragonfire filled his mouth and burned it to ashes before he could even taste it.
Every time he looked into Ember’s dark, glorious eyes, he yearned for her.
Afterward, Cai drove her back to the casino, though he noticed her poking at the leather seats on his rental Porsche the whole way. Inside, he squired her to the arena in the Dragon’s Den casino, where the opening-night band was performing their dress rehearsal for their concert.
They were the only two people in the audience, so they sat in the front row and laughed at the situation.
But the music was great.
The lead singer of Shifter Valentine sang right to them, obviously thrilled that someone, anyone was there for the rehearsal. The performance was only marred by the drummer’s sudden transformation into a half-grown wolf puppy who gamboled around the stage for a few minutes before one of the stage technicians—a tiny woman clad in black—walked out from the wings and shouted at him, and he transformed back. He did manage to pick up the beat on the next measure of the song and performed his drum solo without a hitch.
Cai and Ember stumbled back into his penthouse, laughing uproariously and joking about how the band had outnumbered the audience.
“It’s a good thing we started dancing,” Ember said, hanging on his arm. “The lead singer looked like he was going to have a heart attack if we hadn’t enjoyed it.”
“It was fun, right?” Cai asked, turning a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket to read the label. Yes, it was the expensive kind that Ember had bought a case of and put on his tab.
“Wow, it was the best night of my life!” she exclaimed, her eyes flashing as she grinned at him. “The food, the concert. Everything was perfect!”
Cai smiled and took her into his arms. Yes, this was how the night should go. This giddy happiness was how she should be before he proposed binding her to him for all their lives as his dragonmate.
Which he had to do before he got too sick with mating frenzy.
He said, “I’m so glad you thought so. Ember, let’s talk.”
Refusal
EXCITEMENT bubbled in Ember’s head along with the bubbles from the champagne she’d been drinking at the concert rehearsal. Wow, it was too easy to get tipsy on champagne.
“Talk?” she laughed, wiggling with Cai’s arms around her and grinning up at him. “I don’t want to talk.”
He lifted her chin with one knuckle. Even though he was smiling, his eyes seemed sad.
And it seemed like more darkness intruded on the flowing, electric green of his eyes.
“Cai?” she asked, examining the black tendrils in his eyes. “You okay?”
He said, “Ember, I want more than just to take you to bed tonight.”
The funniness of the situation dropped away. With some guys, you have to spell things out.
She said, “Um, look. I want you to be my first, but I am not up for the proverbial ‘fifth base,’ okay? I like my butt the way it is.”
Cai chuckled. “That’s not what I meant.”
She was serious. “Well, I mean it, and I’m telling you right now that I mean it.”
“I respect your butt virginity,” he said, chuckling more. “I promise that I will make no moves on your butt.”
“Well, okay then.” Ember was still suspicious.
“But there is something I want to ask you,” he said. “A very important thing.”
This was getting weird. Odd trembles started in her fingers. “Okay, as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with my butt.”
Cai sucked in a deep breath and said, all in a rush, “You are the sun in my sky and the air that I breathe.”
Oh, Ladies of Magic, what was he doing?
Ember told him, “You don’t have to do this. I am totally okay with tonight staying casual and fun. You’re a hot guy, and you obviously know what you’re doing in bed. We met. We flirted. We went on a really nice date tonight, and I had a really great time, an amazing time. I want to do this. You don’t have to pretend like you’re in love with me or anything.”
Because he couldn’t be, right?
Cai’s voice dropped lower, and he moved backward and lowered himself to one knee. “The second I saw you, I fell in love with you, and I’ve fallen further every minute I’ve known you.”
“You can’t be,” she whispered and tugged on his arm. “Cai, I just want to sleep with you. I don’t want the ‘boyfriend experience.’ You don’t have to pretend it’s like this when it’s not.”
“It’s true,” he said. “I don’t want to just sleep with you. I want to spend my life with you. I want to marry you. I want you to be my dragonmate for our whole lives. My dragon is enamored with you. I am drowning in you.”
Her voice grew sharper because she was scared out of her wits by his crazy change. “Cai, baby. This is too much. We’ve known each other less than a month, and I’ve gotten the feeling that you’ve been dodging me half the time.”
He was still so serious. “I was. I was trying to stay away from you.”
“You don’t have to lie to me,” she pleaded with him.
“I’m not kidding around. I mean every word. Marry me. Be my dragonmate.”
She shoved on his broad, strong chest, and he opened his arms so she could step away from him. “This is too weird.”
“Ember—”
She ducked away from him. “We should talk about this, slowly, and later, much later, and not rush into anything crazy. But this is too soon and too much, and I know that you don’t love me. Please don’t pretend that you do. Don’t break my heart like that.”
“I want to marry—”
“Don’t lie to me, and don’t ask me that again.”
“So—” Cai inhaled long and slow like the wind had been knocked out of him. “So, that’s a no.”
“Yes, that’s a no,” she told him. “We met and flirted, but you’ve ducked out on me at every opportunity! And now you’re like, ‘Hey, let’s get married.’ You’re obviously going to flee again at some point, even if I were to marry you.”
“I won’t,” he said. “I couldn’t.”
Ember kept talking. “Maybe we’d be going along just fine. Maybe we’d have a kid, and then one day, you’ll just walk out, leaving me with nothing but a,” she grabbed a folder off the coffee table, “a damn room service menu, and then I’ll get all crazy and go into religion and try to only do clear magic in some misguided, stupid attempt to deserve your love again.”
“Ember, I wouldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t.”
“Look, if it’s my black magic that keeps scaring you off, then you should know that I can’t change it. I’m an elemental witch. That’s what I do. That’s how I roll. That’s my shtick. You should know that right now.”
He leaned back on the couch, his head hanging. “Your magic isn’t a problem for me. I think your magic is wonderful. You’re amazing with the elementals. I have nothing but admiration for your magic.”
“And yet you keep running away!”
“I’m not running now. I admit, the intensity of the mating fever shocked me—”
“Mating fever! So this is just some sort of weird dragony crush-thing that you’ll get over and leave me someday?”
“No, not at all,” he told her, his voice more frantic.
Fear and loneliness rose up in Ember, and her hands were shaking so hard. “It’s exactly like that, isn’t it? You just called your feelings some kind of sickness.”
He stood and took a step toward her, his hands out and imploring. “It’s not a sickness. Well, it is—”
“Ah-hah!” She’d known it. She’d known that she wasn’t the right type for a dragon like this guy. He probably did have to marry a dragon duchess or something.
“I’m sorry that I made you mad—” He sat on the couch, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
“Yeah, well, elemental witches run hot, but jeez, Cai! You can’t dump something like that on me! I thought we just here for a night, and suddenly, you’re all, love and hearts and roses and marriage and stuff.”
“Surely, you understood my intent when I sent you jewelry and the other things. Didn’t Bethany and Willow explain about dragons and how we are when we fall in love with someone?”
“I thought it was weird. You can have it all back. Except I ate the desserts, and the flowers died. But you can have the jewelry back.”
He looked frantic. “No. I want you to have that jewelry. I want you to wear it. I want to see it on you. It’s a dragon thing.”
“You will not. You will not see me ever again. You can’t toy with people like this, Cai. You can’t dodge me, and yet text me. You can’t run away every time we’re together, and yet send me diamonds. You can’t take me out for an amazing date and then propose when I know you’re just going to ditch me again!”
“I’ve messed this up.” Cai stood. “I’m sorry. I’ve messed everything up. I’ll call you in a few days or something, all right? I’ll explain. Or I’ll text you and explain. Or something. And I’m sorry.”
Cai strode out, leaving her alone again in the damn penthouse.
“See? You’re walking out on me again!” Ember’s growl turned into a roar, and she slammed the throw pillows onto the coffee table and the floor and the walls. That must be why they were called throw pillows because when your damned date dumps you for the third time, you can throw the damned things across the room.
Ember sent a text to Willow and Bethany, Girls, my place for a midnight snack.
She picked up the hotel phone and said, “Hello, room service? I’d like to place an order to go, please, starting with another case of that champagne and three lobsters and all the trimmings.”
Two texts popped up on her phone.
I could eat.
I could eat, too. Bring another one of those chocolate cakes.
Revenge Lobster #2
“I’M not going to see Cai Wyvern ever again,” Ember told Bethany and Willow as she cracked the lobster shell with the pliers thingee and then ripped it apart with both hands.
Bethany and Ember watched her disembowel the crustacean, looked at each other, and nodded to her without saying a word. They were sitting on the couch in her apartment, while Ember sat in the chair. The take-out containers from the Dragon’s Den casino were stacked five-high on and around the coffee table. They’d already finished the first bottle of champagne.
Ember insisted, “I’m not going to. I’m through with him. I’m done. I am totally done with Mr. Run-Hot-and-Run-Cold. I am finished with Mr. Run-Away-and-Hide. I am all the way over Mr. Send-Gifts-and-Ghost. I can’t take this anymore. I won’t let him break my heart.”
Too late.
Ember pushed that thought aside.
A stupid wet drop splashed on the lobster, adding salt.
Bethany was on her feet and rushed to Ember’s side. “Honey—”
“Nope, I’m fine, don’t! Nope-I’m-fine-don’t!” Ember choked out as she pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes.
Willow watched them from where she sat on the couch, her eyes wide and horrified, and she flinched forward like she wasn’t sure whether she should jump up or not.
Bethany laid her hand on Ember’s shoulder, and Ember grabbed all her emotions and shoved them into a little ball. She’d hardly met Cai Wyvern. They’d had lunch and done sexy things but not The Deed. There was no reason for her to be broken up in the slightest about that damn dragon. She crammed the stupid-emotion ball down somewhere deep inside herself. “Bethany, I’m fine!”
Bethany patted Ember’s shoulder. “Yes, you are.”
Willow set her Styrofoam box on the coffee table and put her hands on her knees like she was about to stand up.
Ember sucked in a deep breath and then stuffed a chunk of buttery lobster in her mouth after it. She mumbled around the shellfish, “See? I’m eating. I’m fine. Don’t encourage my stupid display of emotion. Sit down.”
Bethany side-hugged her quickly and then went back and sat on the couch. She and Willow traded a long look, though.
<
br /> Ember chomped her way through the lobster, stabbing her fork into it and pushing hunks of meat into her mouth. “I’m fine,” she said between bites. “I’m totally fine. Really, I’m mad at that jerk. If he called me, I wouldn’t pick up the damn phone right now. If he texted me, I would delete his conversation. I’m so stupid. I totally believed him when he said he liked me.”
Willow and Bethany exchanged another look. Willow asked, “How did he say he liked you?”
“We were just sitting there, and he said that he really liked me.”
Another look passed between the two of them.
Bethany asked, “He said he really liked you?”
Ember nodded and switched to the truffled salad. “Yeah, so?”
Willow muttered to Bethany, “That’s interesting.”
Ember scowled at them.
Bethany nodded to Willow. “Are you also seeing the shiny things that I’m seeing?”
Willow glanced at Ember, and light dawned in her light eyes. “Oh!”
“Yeah,” Bethany said. “And over on the side table.”
Willow glanced over to the table under the window, where three huge bouquets composed of everything but roses were standing in vases. “Uh-huh.”
Neither one of them looked particularly worried about Ember anymore.
Indeed, both Bethany and Willow both had their eyes wide open like they totally believed Ember and were trying not to laugh at her, and Ember didn’t care one damn bit. “What is wrong with the two of you?”
“You’re absolutely right,” Bethany said. “You’re doing the right thing.”
“Yes,” Willow said. “What she said. You’re totally in the right. He’s totally in the wrong. And you’re doing the right thing.”
Ember yelled at them, “Why are you two laughing at me?”
They both shook their heads with that stupid wide-eyed, too-much-innocence look on their faces.
“Tell me right now!” Ember insisted.
Willow bit her lip and stared at her lobster.
Bethany looked at Willow and then up at the ceiling.
“You two! Talk now!”
Dragons and Fire Page 14