Page 52 of Always Say Yes to a Dragon

“You probably shouldn’t. I’ve heard it’s difficult to court grieving women.”

“Iknow. And I’ve tried everything to get over my fixation but—”

“You want her,” I said.

“So don’t end up like me.”

The full weight of Niemrin’s nightmare hit me. I wanted to avoid that at all costs, to figure things out with Elle. But I didn’t know how. With another dragon, I’d show up with a gift, but that was obviously the wrong thing to do.

“Okay, okay, I get it,” I said.

Niemrin hung out for a few more minutes before making an excuse to leave. He hadn’t been gone five minutes when another knock sounded.It better not be Udar, come to be a nosy asshole.I flung open the door.

“Elle?” I sucked in a breath and stepped aside to let her in.

Her hair hung limp, and dark circles framed her eyes. An oversized T-shirt hung off her frame, and some kind of stretchy pants hugged her legs. She inched inside, holding a wicker basket with something poking out of it. “Um, yeah. Can we talk?”

“Sure.” Was this good or bad? Was she here to break the news that Udar had won her over in a single conversation?

“So, uh.” She bit her lip, her knuckles white where they gripped the basket. “I don’t want to leave things like we did last night.”

“I don’t either. That was terrible.” My stomach twisted.

“Agreed. I get we come from very different cultures, but I don’t think I really understood how different, especially around dating and gifts.”

“Obviously.” My throat tightened.

“And, um, now that I’ve had some time to think about things, I can see how hard you tried to respect human dating standards. You were trying to give me space and not pressure me while still showing interest. I think I put some pressure on myself instead.” She swung the basket in front of her.

A small sliver of hope crept inside my chest.

“It’s been really hard for me to figure out anything about dragon dating because you guys are such recluses, but, well, your brother dropped by this morning.” Her eyebrows drew together. “How the hell did he even find me?” she asked, almost to herself.

My fingers flexed into a fist. “Humans have way too much of their private information available publicly. It likely only took him a few hours of digging.” And Udar had always been good at turning up whatever knowledge he wanted.

Elle shivered. “That’ssocreepy.”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t do it again.” Or punch him. Whichever was most convenient at the time. I really didn’t like knowing he had tracked down my prospective mate.

“But hedidclear some stuff up, even if I don’t think he meant to.”

I zeroed in on her face. “What did he say?”

She grimaced. “I get what you said before, at coffee, about him doing whatever he could to be an asshole. I kind of took what he was saying with a grain of salt.”

My heartbeat thudded in my ears. “He said he went by to apologize.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, for someone else’s behavior, but not his own. And before you showed up last night, he egged Tika on.”

The corners of my mouth turned up involuntarily. Peoplealwaysbought whatever Udar was selling. Not Elle.

“So, like I said, I didn’t take his word as gospel. But he seemed really hung up on us going out in public together, and I kind of figured out it was a bigger deal to dragons than to humans. He also echoed a lot of what you said about time, and gifts, so that, um.” She blushed. “That was good to hear. I’d obviously been pretty confused about that.”

“Yeah, going out in public is one step before mating.”

“I think I get that now. About how serious you are about me. I did some thinking and, um, well, I didn’t want a relationship because I always end up with people who take more than they give. And the last few days, it sort of feels like I’ve been on the other end of that equation. It’s a weird feeling, and I don’t think I like it. That’s not how I want to have a relationship.”

“You stillwantto have a relationship?”

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