Page 4 of Never Flirt with a Dragon

My eyes widened when he grabbed my cup. Pink lipstick stain and all.

He lifted it to his mouth without noticing, and put his lips halfway over where I’d been drinking.

His chest rumbled, and he paused before he tipped it back.

My forehead creased.

Why was he growling?

Jasper inhaled deeply.

It made his chest swell even bigger, somehow.

How were his shoulders so thick?

“Are you okay?” I checked.

He inhaled again.

Then he dragged his tongue slowly over the rim of the glass just where I drank from it. He narrowly avoided the lipstick marks.

My eyes widened.

Jasper set the glass down on the table, and finally turned toward me.

His eyes were blue. So blue.

And the way he looked at me was intense.

A moment of silence passed.

Then another.

He hadn’t answered my question, but I didn’t bring it up again.

Finally, he set his hand on my knee.

My gaze jerked down to it as a wave of something painfully hot rolled over my skin and into my leg.

I sucked in a breath.

The heat of it surged through my veins, burning through my entire body.

Jasper rumbled again, and my attention lifted back to his face.

When I saw his eyes, I gasped.

The blue was gone.

There was fire in its place.

And I knew what the fire meant…

It meant a tentative mate bond had started between us. Like the one between August and Elodie all those months ago.

Jasper’s hand remained on my thigh as he pushed my leg to move it. I didn’t know what he was doing, but didn’t fight him on it.

When my left leg collided with my right, I looked down and realized my dress had ridden up yet again, and barely covered the lace panties I had on beneath it.

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