Page 32 of Burned By Love

Jonathan didn’t think it had been Sal any of those times, but it could’ve been.Thatwas what he hated, and he had no idea how to deal with it.

He hadn’t wanted to pull West into this, but what was he supposed to tell him?Thank you for bringing us breakfast, but you need to leave before my ex-boyfriend realizes you’re here and decides to attack you?West wouldn’t leave because of that.If anything, he’d cling even harder to Jonathan, which Jonathan wanted, but he was afraid for both of them.

He knew how to deal with Sal, but he was only human, and he wasn’t strong enough to truly defend himself if Sal attacked.West was strong enough, but he didn’t know Sal, and he wouldn’t know what to expect.

To be honest, Jonathan wasn’t sure what to expect, either.Sal wouldn’t out himself as a dragon shifter to the world, would he?He might be arrogant and spoiled, but he wasn’t stupid.He knew he couldn’t do that.That meant that if he was going to hurt Jonathan and West, he would do it in a more discreet way.There would be no dragon fight in the sky over the city.

That didn’t make Jonathan any less worried or scared.

He didn’t think anything could.He wanted to spend time with West, but having Sal’s ghost hovering over their heads the entire time made it complicated.Jonathan wished he could forget about Sal, but he didn’t feel safe.He hated that Sal had shown him how vulnerable he was at the shop because now he would never forget that he wasn’t safe.Sal could come in whenever he wanted.He could get to Jonathan.

“I can’t promise that everything will be all right, but I’ll do everything I can to protect you,” West murmured.

He’d been trying to reassure Jonathan, telling him that he wasn’t leaving and that he would support him.Jonathan wanted to believe him.Part of him did because if there was anyone who could kick Sal’s ass, it was a firefighter, but Sal would find a way to hurt West and Jonathan.

“I hate that I put you in this position,” Jonathan admitted.“This is a new relationship, and we should both be giddy and happy.Instead, I keep jumping at shadows, and you look ready to tear someone’s head off.”

West chuckled and kissed Jonathan again.“Only Sal’s.”

Jonathan wished it were that easy.Sal wasn’t a lone dragon, though.He had a clan and a father who would want revenge if anything were to happen to him.

Christy peeked back into the room and rolled her eyes when she saw them.“You’re still here?”

West looked nonplussed.“I can leave if you need me to.I just didn’t realize I had to.”

“I was talking about the two of you,” she explained as she stepped closer to the counter and poked around the bags that were still there.

Jonathan didn’t understand how she could still be hungry since she’d eaten as much as he had, but he wasn’t surprised.She was always hungry.If he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought she was a shifter.

“What are you talking about?”he asked.

“I checked, and you don’t have any more appointments today.I’m not even sure why you came in today.”

“I had a customer.”

“You could have moved her to one of us and stayed home.”

Jonathan had been tempted to do it, if anything so he wouldn’t have to worry about Sal, but he was glad he hadn’t.He would’ve missed out on West bringing everyone breakfast and on their first kiss.

Thinking about it still made his skin tingle.It had been nothing, but at the same time, to him, it had been everything.He’d been wanting to kiss West, but part of him had been afraid of what would happen if he did.He kept expecting West to become more like Sal the closer they got, but he hadn’t.Jonathan was starting to believe that he never would, and he hoped he wasn’t wrong.

“Go home,” Christy ordered.“Have fun, and please, try not to think about Sal.He wants you to obsess over him.He wants to ruin the relationship the two of you are building, and I don’t want him to get what he wants.”

“I’ll do everything in my power so he doesn’t,” West promised.

“Good.Now take Jonathan away and force him to have fun.”

“I know how to have fun,” Jonathan protested.

“You hid in the kitchen last night when we watched that series.”

“Watching zombies eat people isn’tfun.”

It really wasn’t, but Jonathan had been happy to spend an evening with his friends.He, Caleb, Ethan, and Daniela had gathered at Christy’s apartment with take-out.They were watching an older series about zombies that a few of them had already seen.Jonathan never had because it wasn’t his kind of thing, but he couldn’t regret being forced to watch gore when it meant spending time with his friends.He was always up for more of that.

“No zombies,” West promised.“Honestly, they kind of creep me out.”

“Thank you,” Jonathan said as he turned to him.“I knew I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.”

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