Page 1 of Never Feed a Dragon

one

VI

The spaghetti on my front seat smelled like defeat.

On a normal day, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near that scent. I wasn’t the kind of person who gave up on anything. Especially a grudge against a complete asshole.

But said asshole happened to be the brother of Jasper, the dragon shifter my twin sister was marrying.

They’d been mated long enough that marriage seemed pointless to me, but Randa was excited.

So, it was time to be the bigger person and accept my loss.

Eli was more stubborn than me.

I would’ve thought it was an impossibility, but he wasn’t backing down. And I’d promised Randa that I’d get over my issues with him.

Hence the peace offering.

Our detestation of each other had begun with spaghetti, so a bowl of it was the logical sign of me throwing in the towel on my hatred.

Then again, hatred wasn’t the right word.

I didn’t hate Eli.

He just drove me insane. And liked to get me riled up.

But the man was as gorgeous as he was infuriating.

I actually kind of enjoyed our arguments. And the way a little dimple appeared in one of his cheeks when he grinned wide enough. And the way he didn’t back down.

Shaking my head, I focused on the spaghetti.

It was defeat, dammit.

I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about how attractive the bastard was.

The headshaking didn’t dispel my mental image of Eli’s stupidly-gorgeous face, so I turned my rock music up louder.

It didn’t drown out my thoughts as thoroughly as I hoped. Thankfully, the drive was a short one.

I’d had to leave halfway through Randa and Jasper’s reception to grab the spaghetti in time, without missing anything important, but I made it back just fine.

The bowl was cradled against my ribs as I strode back into the huge, elegant building my parents had rented out for the party. It was catered, so I got multiple strange looks from the place’s staff as I walked in with dinner, but no one called me out.

My floor-length, dark blue dress flowed around my legs as I walked, driving me crazy with the amount of fabric. I’d be glad when the party was over, and I could finally rip the dress off my body.

The music was tastefully loud, which was too quiet for my liking. But, the lower volume in the ballroom made it easier for me to search for Eli when I was finally back inside.

Multiple women laughed loudly to my left, and I turned in that direction without hesitation.

Where there were women laughing, a person would find Eli.

Unless the woman was me.

And Randa told me most dragon shifter guys avoided human women, so I had no idea why he was so damn flirty.

It was fine, though.

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