Page 67 of Always Say Yes to a Dragon

“I know!” Sweat broke out on my skin. “He was soconfusedwhen I tried to explain that I thought our relationship was temporary.” I’d felt like shit about the mistake, but what was I supposed to do? Lie? Promise to marry him after a week’s acquaintance? Go back in time and do everything differently?

“Like, I still don’t think he gets that offering to pay me for my time isn’t how humans date.” Just this morning, he’d offered me anything I wanted if I would spend the night with him. Half of why I’d agreed to get drinks with Jen was because I was hoping to sort my head out before I saw him again.

Jen shut her mouth with a click. “So you’re dating for real. He’s respectful of you. He wants to marry you, and this is somehow still a bad thing?”

“He thinks four months is a reasonable timeline to decide if I want to marry him.” I scrunched up my nose, trying to recall that blur of a conversation. “Actually, he offered me extra time when he saw how panicked I got. But he said that’sseveral timeslonger than dragons usually take to decide something as permanent as marriage.”

“Yeah, okay, four months isrealquick.”

“Every time I moved too fast with a guy, it went terribly.” I snorted. “I moved in with my last ex, Adrian, in less than a year, and right afterward he lost his job and ‘couldn’t find’ a new one.” My meager savings had disappeared in three months, and my credit cards were maxed out in six. “It’s not like I have to worry about that with Az, but it’s sofast.” Mama moved in with Dwayne after fivemonths because both their leases were up and two can live almost as cheaply as one, and look where that got her.

Jen made a face. “Yeah. I got married right out of high school and left his ass within a year. We were both too young to have any business getting married.”

I hadn’t known Jen was divorced. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”

“When I found out he was cheating? Yeah. The divorce itself? I don’t know. We hadn’t been married long, so that part was pretty easy.” Jen thought for a moment. “Is Az’zael the kind to cheat?”

I recalled his vehement demand for exclusivity, and disgust at the suggestion that he might seek out someone else. That made a lot more sense now. “I don’tthinkso. But they never seem like it at first, right?”

Jen shrugged. “That’s just love. You gotta trust sometime, right? I don’t know about you, but I won’t let a few assholes destroy my ability to trust someone else. That’s not how I want to live.”

“I don’t want to live like that either.” And I was trying not to, I really was, but he couldruinme. Doubly so, if I handed over my heart.

But he made me feel like…like maybe if I wasn’t always so in my head about doing what he expected, like maybe if I gave him a chance, he’d appreciate me for what I was. He’d appreciated every glimpse I’d shown him of myself so far.

I finished up with Jen, and since I was already downtown, I walked to Az’s—and my—apartment complex. Although it was dark, there were still a fair number of people out, mostly college students and young professionals barhopping. The streets were well-lit—one of the least controversial improvements Az’zael had implemented in Kilinis.

I pulled out my phone to call my mom and blinked at it. I had two new messages from an unknown number.

Heard you’re coming to our next family dinner.

If Az doesn’t buy you something nice to wear, let me know and I’ll send something over.

Fuck. That was definitely Udar, and that was definitely a bad sign. If Az was jealous of his baby sister, he’d flip if he knew his brother was offering me gifts. Especially if they were things Az would be expected to get me.

I should tell him. If his brother was a total fucking creep, Az deserved to know, right? I mean, how did Udar even get my number?

I bit my lip and shoved the phone back in my pocket. Az already knew his brother was an asshole. He’d promised to talk to Udar about dropping by my apartment, but obviously Udar didn’t give a shit.

What would telling Az about some text messages really achieve? I’d just be throwing another bomb into what was obviously an already complicated family dynamic.

And Udar was hisbrother. I was an only child, but I’d been on the outside looking in on friends with siblings plenty of times, and it was always,Oh, he’s such a dickhead. What’d you say about my brother? OnlyIcan say that shit.

Az wasn’t trying to make me and Udar be best friends or anything, right? I just had to ignore this asshole, and he’d get the picture.

Decision made, I called my mom. I needed to get my own complicated family stuff dealt with.

“Why did Miss Anne have to be the one to tell me you were mixed up with some dragon?” Mama skipped any pretense of a greeting when she picked up. Miss Anne was an elderly Black woman who livedacross the hall. She and my mom became friends when they realized they both fed the same stray cats.

“Oh. Um.” I started walking faster, dodging other pedestrians. “I didn’t want to tell you until it was serious.”

“Serious enough to get photographed at some fancy-pants event is serious enough to tell your mother.”

I winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that would happen.”

“What the hell, Elle?” A door shut in the background, then her voice lowered. Right. It was past eleven at night. Dwayne was asleep.

“Is this how you’ve been able to send me all that money?”

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