“Did you mean that literally? Was that a pun?”
“I mean that your needs will always be put before mine and that I’m going to make sure you climax every time we touch like this. More than once, if I have any say.” His voice vibrated her bones and filled her with the truth of his words.
She scowled, her lips twisting to the side. Though she thought she felt the truth of what he was saying, she’d been tricked before. No man had ever walked away from her unfinished. They always made sure that their needs were met. She’d spent too many nights feeling used and empty to not know this.
Dillon wasn’t…he was nothing like the men she’d known, but he was still a man. She wriggled in his arms, trying to turn around, but he held her tight.
“I don’t want to make you suffer,” she said softly.
“Suffer? I’m holding a pretty woman and thinking I could have a long and happy future with her. How is that suffering?” His breath warmed the back of her neck.
“If you think I’m pretty, then why don’t you want me to help you finish? Why won’t you let me turn around?” Her heart raced in an uneven rhythm. She wanted to calm it but had no idea how.
“I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. I also think you work too damn hard. That’s a fact I know because I also work too much. Let me give back to you now and show you that a man can be perfectly pleased just by holding a woman he made happy. Someday in the future, you can return the favor, but right now is all about you.”
She didn’t understand why he would say things like that, but she wasn’t about to argue with him. Dillon had made his declaration. She would see where it led them. If it led to moments like this, then who was she to argue?
***
Dillon fell asleep in her bed. Isabella carefully extracted herself and showered so she could head to the store to pick up some groceries. She texted Isabella and Nellie to meet at a café in town so she could tell them what happened.
The smell of coffee and tea comforted her. When she ordered her usual iced chai latte, she pulled out her credit card and hesitated. She’d called and cancelled the card, which meant this purchase had to go on her debit card. Her bank account had bills automatically withdrawn, which meant she didn’t know what was left in the account until she checked.
The last thing she needed was or the account to be overdrawn over a drink.
When someone nudged her out of the way, Isabella opened her mouth in shock. Nellie’s plump form stepped forward and handed over her card. She added an iced cold brew coffee and a flat white to the order, too.
“You beat me there!” Evangeline shouted as she burst through the door.
“Don’t be mad that a fat girl can run faster than you,” Nellie said as she tossed Isabella a wink.
“You’re wearing sneakers,” Evangeline pointed out before lifting her foot forward to emphasize her heavy leather combat boots.
Nellie shrugged, unaffected. “Maybe you should wear more reasonable shoes.”
Isabella put her hands up to stop both from arguing. “Are we going to ignore the fact that you raced here to pay for my drink? You didn’t have to do that!”
Evangeline hooked her arm with Isabella’s and led her to a table. “We were at the end of the road when we saw you enter the café. Besides, the shop is busier than ever. You don’t have to worry about the price of a single coffee.”
Nellie brought their orders over, somehow juggling all three at once. Isabella scowled, wondering if Nellie used witchcraft to aid her.
“Gavin is still obsessed with looking for you,” Isabella told Nellie.
Nellie’s nose wrinkled. While Nellie could be boisterous with her friends, she shrunk in the presence of strangers. The arrival of the dragon men had only made it worse. Nellie had an aversion to them that almost seemed like an allergy. If she got within even a hundred feet of them, she broke out in a nervous sweat.
It seemed that it had even interrupted Nellie’s sleep because the dark circles under her eyes nearly eclipsed her cheeks. Isabella didn’t think her concealer would match Nellie’s skin tone or she would have passed it over.
“He won’t find me. I’ve cast a strong cloaking spell over myself. Let him keep trying to find me.” Nellie took a long chug from her drink.
Isabella’s brows came together. “I think he just wants to thank you for what you did the night of the…fire.”
Nellie shook her head, apparently unconvinced. Isabella sighed. She wished she could show Nellie that the dragon men weren’t awful. Even Gavin could be nice from time to time.
“More importantly,” Evangeline said. “I need to know how you managed to wrap them all around your finger. Bel, you’ve worked your own kind of magic over those boys.”
Isabella shrugged, her cheeks warming. “I didn’t do anything. They appreciate it when I make food for them. That’s all.”
The conversation became about how men liked food almost as much as they liked women. Isabella pointed out that not all men liked women and how people needed food to survive. Evangeline and Nellie visibly held back their laughter at Isabella’s kind innocence.
She didn’t mind. When there was so much pain in this world, she wanted to spread some compassion. Even if it meant having her friends laugh at her, Isabella held a bit of pride in knowing she was making a small difference in the world.
To distract them from their laughter, she began to tell them about her morning. She lowered her voice and explained how Dillon had mistakenly entered her room. She was pretty sure he’d been so tired that he’d opened the wrong door, but she wasn’t mad about how it had ended. If anything, she felt better than she had in years.
Both Evangeline and Nellie looked about to burst. Their lips curled into smiles, the kind that shared an inside joke, but Isabella didn’t get it.
“What’s so funny?”
“I called it!” Evangeline shouted.
The whole café paused and turned to stare at them. Isabella ducked her head in embarrassment. Nellie elbowed Evangeline and held a finger to her lips to hush her.
“We took bets on what you wanted to tell us,” Nellie explained once the café patrons had gone back to their own business.
Evangeline’s grin nearly eclipsed her face. “I said you were going to tell us that you and Dillon finally hooked up. I saw the way you looked at him when the guys first came to town. Remember what you said?”
Isabella rolled her eyes. “If I wasn’t a taken woman, I would take one of them…or something to that effect.”
Nellie’s smile slowly stiffened. Her gaze lowered to her drink.
“What is it?” Isabella touched her friend’s arm, hoping she hadn’t offended Nellie.
Just then, the bell over the door chimed. All three girls turned toward the sound at once, as if they knew who they would find. Dillon raised his hand and waved. Isabella didn’t know why he wasn’t sleeping or why he was at the café.
Her heart slapped her sternum. She swallowed and tried to suppress her rising anxiety, but it continued to crackle behind her ribs. He wasn’t Tommy. Yet, when she told herself this, it had no effect on her heart.
When Dillon approached, she looked up at him and asked, “What are you doing here?”