Ana hits her with a sarcastic smirk. “Kidnapping?”
Dae reluctantly answers on an uncomfortable grimace. “Yeah.”
“Seeing a dragon, which can’t possibly be real, turn into a person?”
“I actually saw it in reverse my first night, but yeah.”
“Fired from your job thanks to the asshole destroying your place of business?”
Wincing from me is unconsciously done.
And the list of shit for me to fix continues to grow.
“Not quite fired, but work issues? Definitely.”
I let my stare flicker over to where Z’s expression is growing guiltier by the second.
Huh.
Maybe this is simply how the whole thing works?
Maybe no one gets a perfect first meeting?
Maybe this is how Fate gets her laughs in?
Ana’s eyebrows lift in surprise, yet Dae sweetly smiles. “Honestly? As crazy and messy and bizarre as everything was, I wouldn’t change a single moment of it for anything.” Her hand gives her stomach a loving pat prior to beaming at my brother. “Come on, Z. Let’s get inside.”
He winds an arm protectively around her waist as he offers me a piece of unsolicited advice. “Listen to your dragon, A.D. He’ll help guide you through this shit more than you think.”
The two of them wander off towards the house leaving us alone in the uncomfortable silence they initially interrupted. I swing my stare to where Ana is still clutching her tiny bottle of poison with one hand while using the other to shovel tiny round objects into her mouth. Curiosity has me shifting around on the hood, anxious to know what she’s eating.
Thinking.
Wanting.
Talk.
What?
Talk.
To?
Her.
No.
Yes.
No.
Now.
I can’t just talk to her! She’s not just some random siren I picked up at the strip club. She’s…Well, she’s…different.
Mate.
I don’t think so.
Mate.
Fine. I don’t want so.
Talk.
I lift the vegetable to my lips to silence him the best way I know how yet find myself quietly inquiring, “What um…,” my food-holding hand flails around, accidentally losing the grip on the object during the process, sending it soaring. It hits the ground on a disgraceful thud that has my entire face burning in embarrassment – again. My now empty palm gives the side of my scruff-covered cheek a nervous rub prior to me pushing past the awkwardness I keep unconsciously creating. “What are you eating?”
“M&M’s.”
Her lack of reluctance to respond instills an inkling of relief.
“I like the crunch. It’s…kind of…soothing.”
It’s impossible to hold in the purr Gold gives over the statements.
What the fuck is that sound?!
Happy.
I’m not happy, I’m irritated!
Happy.
There’s no reason to be happy here! She’s not sucking my cock, she’s eating candy.
Better.
It is not better!
“What were you eating?” Ana unexpectedly asks between bites. “You know before your shitty magician trick where you made it disappear.”
Her laughter instantly sparks my own alongside a headshake. “I’m not usually that clumsy.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’m typically pretty smooth.”
“Like chunky peanut butter?”
Additional chuckles are followed by me playfully proclaiming. “It’s been a rough fucking day.”
She tilts her head in a sardonic fashion. “Has it?”
Guilt grabs me roughly by the throat, choking out what is meant to be an apology, “You shouldn’t have been there.”
The poor phrasing causes Ana to quirk her pierced eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“I mean I should’ve never let you be there.”
“Try again.”
“I mean,” my words jumble together in an incoherent mess leaving me to verbally flounder until the best I can do is release another defeated sigh. Z’s suggestion nudges me into listening to the part of myself I keep trying to muzzle, an action that I can’t fathom is going to end well for me. “I mean…I never want anything to happen to you.”
To my surprise, the declaration results in Ana lowering her mace-like weapon.
More.
“I wanna be the one to protect you even though it’s evident as fuck that you can protect yourself.”
She pushes her lips together to suppress what I hope is a smile.
“And I get it. It doesn’t make any fucking sense because I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, and there is no logical reason for it since we’re basically strangers – not even cordial ones at that – but there’s this instinctual shit that I need to explain, shit that once you hear it, will either have you reaching for more M&M’s or asking me to get you a shot of whiskey.”
“Vodka.”
It’s my turn for my brow to lift in shock.
“My mom was Russian. Kind of one of the culture musts she passed down to us.”
Need to learn more about her family, her background, her upbringing, her favorite things, has me mindlessly creeping closer.
Ana takes me off guard again when she flashes me the package of candy. “Want one?”
“Yeah.” Hiding my excitement is impossible. “I’d love one.”
She goes to open the car door only to be met by failure.
I anxiously watch from where I’m sitting – not wanting to risk pissing her off or getting sprayed in the face again for implying she can’t take care of herself. Her slamming her shoulder repeatedly against the body of the vehicle causes me to cringe each time she collides with it and Gold to grumble loudly in unhappiness over our struggling mate. “Can I try?”
After blowing a dry wavy strand away from her forehead, Ana gives me a half-hearted shrug. “Fuck it, why not?”
Relocating to the driver’s door occurs immediately, and opening it is almost instantaneous.
An impressed expression briefly flashes itself across her face.