Page 23

23

Elle

F uck. Great. Having a fight outside a dinner party after my boyfriend beat his brother’s ass, like the trashiest of white trash.

I stormed away from Az and back to our room before he could say something else ridiculous. Even if leaving halfway through meeting his parents was embarrassing, facing them again while I tried to pull myself together sounded way worse. My back was soaked with sweat after having two dragons transform mere feet from me.

God, I should have known this would be a disaster. We’d started off the night with my mom making us late. Then his parents picked him apart about random bullshit. His brother only added to it, and of course his sister was no help.

I’d never been more grateful to be the only child of a single parent.

Back in the room, I called Mama. She’d ask me a million questions, but I needed to check on her, and it wasn’t like tonight could get any worse.

“Hey, Mama.”

“Hey, baby, how’s that fancy-schmancy dinner going? Do his parents like you?”

I was pretty sure his parents hated me, but I was also pretty sure I didn’t give a shit. “It’s fine. How’s the apartment? ”

“Good.” A pause. “You want some shrimp and grits when you get home tomorrow?”

“You know that’s my favorite.” And no restaurant I’d ever worked at made it quite like my mom did. “But you don’t have to cook me anything. If you’re hungry, there’s some leftovers in the fridge.”

“Oh no. No, no, no. You need a home-cooked meal.”

Yeah, that sounded pretty fucking good, even if I wouldn’t get to eat it until tomorrow. Hell, I’d probably need it more tomorrow. I doubted things with Az would be all peachy keen by then.

But I didn’t want to treat Mama the same way Dwayne did. Like a vending machine for all my favorite meals, just because I’d put a roof over her head. “Don’t go through all that trouble for me, Mama. Relax a bit.”

“Don’t be silly. Nothing beats a nice, homemade bowl of shrimp and grits. Maybe I’ll throw in some banana pudding, too.”

I started salivating.

“Dwayne never liked my nanner pudding. That fool didn’t like bananas at all.”

I snorted. “Maybe anyone who doesn’t like banana pudding should be considered undateable.” I didn’t even hesitate to shit-talk Dwayne now that they were through. Mama was the most decisive woman I knew. Loyal to the bone while in a relationship, but once she was done, she was done . No on-again, off-again with her.

She chuckled. “It’d be nice to eat my own recipe for a change instead of eating someone else’s version.”

“You do make the best nanner pudding.”

“I’ll make some,” she said. I could hear her opening and closing my cabinets. “You really don’t have much in your pantry, do you? I’ll pick up some basics while I’m getting all the ingredients.”

“I’ll send you something for the groceries. ”

“No, no. I’ve made decent money selling my sewing online. Let me take care of it. It’s the least I can do. I’ve got to transfer my portion out of our joint account anyway, now that I’m thinking about it.” Her voice got farther away as she spoke, like she was moving the phone away from her face.

A sharp inhale came down the line. “Fuck. Shit. Fuck.”

Adrenaline surged through me. “Mama?”

“That motherfucker drained our account!” Mama cursed loud and long after that pronouncement.

My back teeth ground together. Fuck Dwayne and the horse he rode in on. Of course he cleaned out their account the second she kicked him to the curb. Couldn’t do the right thing once in his entire pathetic life. I pulled my phone away from my ear and transferred her a couple hundred bucks. “What happened to the money I sent you a few days ago?”

“I put it all in our joint account because, you know, we’re a team. Or we were supposed to be a team.” She huffed into the phone. “I should have listened to you, baby.”

“For what it’s worth, I wish I’d been wrong.” I wanted my mom’s boyfriends to treat her right. They just never did. Her man-picker was broken, and given my own dating history, I figured she’d passed the broken man-picker down to me.

Four years with Dwayne, and Mama didn’t even have enough money for groceries.

“At least you found you a good man,” Mama muttered.

I hummed noncommittally. Az had acted like I was a few shakes of some glittery jewels away from leaving him for his obnoxious brother.

“Generous. Dependable. Didn’t bat an eye when you wanted to move me into your apartment—even though I assume he’s paying for it. ”

My cheeks burned at the reminder. “Yeah.”

The money I’d just sent her was part of that initial twenty-five grand he’d given me. If this was the end of mine and Az’s relationship, I had a lot more than grocery money. Enough to do something with my life, if I could figure out what the hell that was.

“Dwayne would have bitched endlessly about that kind of favor. Bet your dragon wouldn’t leave you high and dry like this.”

I blinked. “I think if another dragon found out he’d taken back a gift, they’d ostracize him.” Dragons were weird as shit about gifts, showing off and dick-swinging about how rich they were. If I had to guess, I’d bet that taking back a gift would be one of the most offensive things he could do.

I was so used to men who thought money gave them control. Az didn’t do quite the same thing, but he still treated it like an exchange. His money, my time. Even when I tried to take the gifts out of it, he still gave me things.

“See? He cares about you. I’m so happy you found him.”

The door swished open. Speak of the devil…

“Sure, Mama. Listen, he just came in. I’ve got to go.” I hung up and turned to face Az. He had a ridiculous gold velvet cloth wrapped around his waist, his chest on full display, presumably because his suit had disappeared in a flash of magic when he transformed into his four-legged dragon form.

In a burst of sparks, my thoughtful boyfriend had become pure muscle—teeth, claws, and rage. His chest and wings were decorated with quickly healing claw marks.

He was back in his humanoid form now, and looking chagrined. “How’s Betty?”

“Not great. Dwayne emptied her bank account.”

Az stared at me in incomprehension. “Banks allow theft ? Why would humans trust them?”

“They share an account. He has as much power to take out money as she does.” The dickhead had insisted on a joint account mere months into their relationship. But Az had never pressured me to give him access to all my stuff. Even when he wanted me to quit my job, he’d made it clear that what he wanted most was to spend more time with me, and for me to be happy.

Az’s lips curled in disgust. “Stupid. If he cared about your mother, he’d load her down with gifts in gratitude for the time she granted him.”

“I sent her something to an account he doesn’t have access to.”

“Good. Give me the account number. I’ll send a little more.”

Something loosened in my chest. We’d left off in the middle of a fight, yet he still thought of nothing but helping me and my mom.

“I quit my job yesterday,” I blurted out. Shit. I’d wanted to open with a calm, collected Let’s talk.

Az’s wings snapped close to his back. “You what ?”

I fiddled with my stupidly expensive necklace. “It was kind of spur of the moment. I know I should have told you, but, um, well. You heard what Dwayne did to Mama. It’s really scary for me to hand that kind of control over to someone.”

“You don’t think I’d …?” His jaw dropped.

“I don’t think it’d even occur to you,” I said slowly. “You have always been generous and—” I squinted, thinking over everything. “You made sure everything you gave me was mine instead of making me feel like it was on loan until I’d fulfilled an obligation.” The exact opposite of what I’d been afraid of.

Az’s forehead wrinkled. “What’s the point of a gift if it isn’t yours ?”

“Yeah, uh, that seems obvious.” To dragons, maybe .

“You really quit? All your time is mine?” His shoulders, his face, his entire body relaxed. I should have done this days ago.

“I haven’t figured out what I want to do with all my time.” Maybe go back to school for something. “But yeah, a lot more of it is yours.”

He pulled me into his arms for a ferocious embrace.

I wiggled a little, and he released me. “We still need to talk, though.” My anger had cooled, but I wouldn’t sweep anything under the rug. That would only cause problems down the road.

“Tell me what will make you happy, and you can have it.”

My heart sank. “Are you trying to buy my happiness?”

“Is it working? I mean.” He gulped. “You’re honest and protective and assertive, and you make everything inside me fit perfectly, and I want to stay with you forever, so that means I have to make you happy.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Just tell me how.”

Everything screeched to a halt in my brain. “Az.” I ran a hand down his arm. He leaned into my touch. “You made me feel like an object in there. I didn’t like it. And when you transformed and brawled , I was scared. You could have crushed me.”

“I’m sorry I scared you. I’m not sorry I gave Udar the pounding he deserved, but I should have done it without shifting.”

I squinted. Was that an apology?

“I thought you were working on your jealousy.”

His face scrunched up. “When it’s irrational, yes. But Udar always tries to take anything I have, and he usually succeeds. The only reason he was at that bank party in the first place was because he was trying to steal Kilinis from me.”

I crossed my arms. “But he can’t really steal me. I’d have to want to go with him. ”

“I know, I know.” His breath heaved out. “The fact that you chose to stay is way better than any other gift you could have given me. You are choosing to stay, right? None of Udar’s showing off worked?”

My lip curled. “Ew, no, never. He’s a pompous asshole.”

“You don’t want a nice big library like his? You studied books in college.”

I made a face. “Everyone studied books in college, in a way.”

I took in his stricken look, the way he seemed genuinely worried that I’d go for his douchey brother, every snide comment his parents had made, his siblings’ ribbing.

Dragons revered knowledge and wealth, and I’d noticed that Az’zael was maybe not the most complicated being I’d ever met, for all that he was generous, thoughtful, and surprisingly intuitive. “Did you think I’d leave you over a library?”

And was he so insecure over something so silly because I’d held myself back? He’d bent and bent and bent for me, trying to respect human customs. When would he break?

He fidgeted. “Maybe? My treasure hoard is way bigger than Udar’s. A dragon would want both, but you aren’t a dragon, so I wasn’t sure. I thought it would be fine, but you obviously like books…”

“You told me you’d give me whatever I wanted. If I want a library, I’ll ask you for one.” I curled into him, knowing he needed the physical touch along with the words.

Az blew out a breath and clutched me closer. “Okay, good. I’d hate for that to be the last gift I ever gave you.” He jerked his chin at a stack of papers on the coffee table.

I blinked at them. I didn’t know if I could process a gift that required paperwork right now, or possibly ever. “Um, yeah. You can show me tomorrow, okay? ”

I tilted my head at those papers, rearranging everything he and everyone else had said about worth and value and time. “You know you can’t buy my love, right?”

He rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, I know. It’s just, we’ve only got one life, right? Eighty, maybe a hundred years at best, no refunds. I don’t want to waste that time. I want to spend it with someone I love, who loves me back. Money ensures I get as much of your time as possible.”

I melted into a puddle of Elle-shaped goo. “Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.”

His scales darkened. “Shit. I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you that I love you so soon.”

“I love you, too.”

He buried his face in my neck. “Thank fuck.”

The last of my doubts, fears, and anxieties floated away. I tilted my head up so I could look him in the eye. “I…” I swallowed. This was harder to say than telling him I loved him. “I trust you to take care of me. Mate me, please.”

His hands tightened on my hips. “If you mate me, it’s for life.” His forked tongue snaked out to lick his lips. “Divorce isn’t something dragons do.”

“The permanent bite mark clued me in.” I could see how badly he wanted this, but he was holding back because he wanted what was best for me. It just solidified that this was the right decision.

“I don’t want you to regret it.”

“I won’t. You won’t regret mating a penniless, libraryless human?” Dragons placed such emphasis on those things.

“I love giving you those things, but you give me so much more.”

Warmth radiated through me, and I knew. I just knew . “Do it.”