Page 59 of Always Say Yes to a Dragon

Fuck. “Arum, I’m jealous ofeveryone. I want to lock you in the bedroom and fuck you until you beg to mate me. But I’m notthatstupid; I know that’s not a good idea.”

Elle studied me for a long moment. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, I’m going to…I’m going to have to think about that.”

My stomach dropped. “Okay.” I swallowed. Should I have lied? But what was the point? She was supposed to be evaluating me for a lifelong commitment. Lying now would only buy us both misery later.

I changed the subject to something slightly less uncomfortable. Slightly. “Don’t worry about my parents. I’ll tell them you aren’t ready yet.” It should be simple, since they hadn’t actually issued an invitation.

“Doyouwant me to meet your parents?” She bit her lip. “You talked about it at coffee.”

“I’dloveto show you off to my parents.” Not five minutes ago, Elle had placed herself between two arguing dragons. Tika would have already bragged to my parents about her bravery. But I’d feel much better about bringing her around my brother if my claiming mark was on her neck. “When you’re ready.”

“Then yeah, I’ll go to the dinner party.” She swallowed. “But I don’t want to cause any issues with them like I did with Tika.”

I frowned. “You didn’t cause any issues with Tika.”

“You had to force her to apologize after a ten-minute conversation.”

“Because she’s high-strung and nosy, but she gets over it quickly.” I reached for the buttons on Elle’s shirt, done with this conversation.

She stopped me with a hand over mine. “I thought we might go to the park this afternoon?” Her cheeks went pink.

Her date idea. My wings flared out in delight. “Today? Yes.”

“Great!” Her smile dimmed. “I need some clothes…”

Because I’d shredded hers this morning. I suppressed a grin. “I’ll send someone for them. And the rest of your things.” The sooner I got her moved into my building, the better.

“Thanks.”

“Would you show me?” Elle’s eyes fixed on my wings. I could get addicted to her rapt attention.

“It won’t scare you?” I’d never shown anyone up close. The last person I wanted to scare was Elle.

“There’s no one around.”

She was right. We were in a quiet part of the park and hadn’t seen anyone else for nearly an hour.

And I wanted her to seeallof me.

“It’ll be fun.” Elle’s brown eyes were huge and pleading. “I mean, how big do you really get?”

“Pretty big.” With one last glance around at the clearing, I said, “Okay.”

I stripped.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, her face going red.

“Shifting shreds my clothes.” I was naked, and with a single breath of pain, I was in my four-legged form.

In this form, I was over a dozen feet tall at the shoulder. My neck and head stretched even higher. She looked like a doll from this height.

But I could still see the shock on her face, and the way it morphed into wonder.

She approached me slowly. “Can you hear me?”

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