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“Fine,” she says, letting out an irritated breath I’m not sure is directed at me, or at herself. “Fine. Yes. I’ll come with you.”

There she is.

My brave, beautiful mate. My ember, not quite ready to let our spark die.

43

Kenna

“Is this the part where you drive me out to the middle of nowhere and murder me?”

Blair chuckles at the question, and the fact that he doesn’t give me an immediate ‘no’ should probably concern me more.

I’m not concerned, though, not really. Just annoyed beyond belief with myself that I even agreed to this.

We drive north out of town in the Jeep he got from god knows where, toward the patch of open land he found me in two days ago. Blair still looks pleased as hell that I accepted his offer to see whatever surprise it is he has for me, but I’m staying closed-lipped, stewing over whatever insanity made me come with him.

When he offered me more space, I should have taken it.

I shouldn’t have agreed so easily, shouldn’t have gone anywhere with him. Even now, I’m not really sure why I did.

It’s just… whenever he’s close, nothing else in the world feels so right. I can’t think, can’t be logical and objective about any of this, can’t stop myself from leaning into him, aching to touch him, trying to get just a little closer.

I’m still brooding when he pulls off the paved county road. But as we head down the gravel toward the middle of nowhere, I can’t deny the pulse of curiosity that moves through me.

“But seriously. Where are we going?”

“So impatient, ember,” he says, and it’s just one more thing I should probably be mad about.

But how can I? God, I love when he uses that nickname.

Just a little ember, aren’t you? Ready to spark a flame and burn me to ash.

Every time he says it, it’s a reminder of the power I’ve always had over this dragon. Since the very beginning, it’smehe’s lost his mind over, and I’d have to be a much stronger woman for that not to thrill me in some deep, dark corner of my psyche.

Blair stops the Jeep at the dead end of the dirt road and glances over at me when he reaches for his door.

“Wait there.”

I don’t have the chance to ask him why before he lets himself out and crosses in front of the Jeep. He opens my door with a pleased smile spreading over his face.

Rolling my eyes, I let him help me out. I hold a hand up to my forehead to shade my eyes from the sun and survey the area.

“This is the surprise?”

“No,” Blair says, walking around back to open the tailgate. “This is the surprise.”

When I join him there, I’m not sure what I’m looking at. Some kind of contraption made of buckles and straps and a broad expanse of leather that looks like…

“Is that… a saddle?”

Blair chuckles. “Didn’t you once ask if you could ride me?”

He shifts it further out of the Jeep’s back end, laying it on the grassy ground. It looks complicated and expertly made. Expensive. Like something he would have had to order a while ago for it to be here, now, in all its improbable beauty.

“I… you…”

I stutter a little as he crouches and gets to work arranging all the saddle’s complicated mechanics, and he shoots me a provoking grin.