Page 31 of A Savior for the Arrogant Dragon

“A little jealous, are we?” Mary Beth asked, a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. “That’s very telling.”

“Will you stop? He just kissed me once……well, maybe twice, that’s it,” she said. “I don’t have anything to be jealous of, we’re just friends.”

Mary Beth looked over at Simon who was almost to them, “I don’t have very many friends that look at me the way he looks at you,” she leaned over and whispered. “I’m going to go find Max and leave you two alone.”

“That’s not……” she started to argue, but Simon was standing in front of them.

“Hey, Simon, looking good,” Mary Beth said, grinning at him. “I was just going to go find Max. I’m sure we’ll run into each other later.”

“Thanks, Mary Beth,” Simon said. “Max is over by the crab pots getting in the way. Maybe you could go rescue those poor people so they can do their jobs.”

When Mary Beth was gone, Simon turned back to her and took a second to let his eyes roam over her, and to her horror, her body responded by starting to hum with desire. “You look amazing,” he finally said. “I know I shouldn’t stare at you like that, but I can’t help myself sometimes.”

She felt herself blushing, “I don’t mind as much as I used to,” she said, keeping her voice light. “You look pretty amazing tonight, too; that purple shirt is perfect with your eyes.”

“Why, thank you, sweetheart,” he said, then looked around at everyone on the beach. “Are you still planning on eating with that Corey guy?”

“I haven’t changed my mind, Simon,” she said, a little annoyed that he’d brought it up again. “I said I would, and I’m not backing out just because things between us have changed.”

“Relax, Kira, I wasn’t going to ask you to,” Simon said. “I just wanted to warn you that he and his friends have been drinking. Max is sure that they smuggled alcohol onto the island.”

She studied Simon for a second and decided he was telling the truth. Her annoyance evaporated. “Thanks forwarning me,” she said. “But all I agreed to was eating with him. I’ll find you as soon as we’re done.”

“That’s a deal,” he said, a smile spreading across his face. “Maybe we can take a walk on the beach or something.”

“That something sounds pretty good,” she said, enjoying the look on his face and the desire that blossomed in his eyes.

“Just promise me that you’ll be careful with that guy,” he said. “I don’t like the looks of him.”

“I’m sure he’s perfectly harmless,” she said, then realized there was genuine concern in his eyes. “But I’ll be careful.”

“That’s all I ask,” he said, then leaned down to kiss her but was interrupted by Corey calling her name.

“Hey, there you are,” he said, practically shoving Simon out of the way. “They’re about to start digging for clams. We have to go get our buckets. Let’s go.”

Before she knew what was happening, Corey had grabbed her hand and was pulling her away from Simon. “Hey, slow down,” she said, yanking her hand free. “I agreed to have dinner with you, not go clam digging. You should have asked instead of just assuming I wanted to go with you.”

“Oh, dang, Kira, I’m sorry, I was just excited,” Corey said. “I kind of lost my head for a second there. Will you be my partner for the clam digging?”

She hesitated for a second. She really didn’t want to be with Corey, but when she looked over where they’d been standing a few minutes before, Simon was gone. “Okay, I guess that would be okay,” she said. “Let’s go get our buckets.”

Armed with shovels and metal buckets, they headed down the beach with the rest of the crowd a few minutes later. “Come on, let’s go further down the beach, away from everyone else,” Corey said, taking off in front of her. We’ll have better luck if we have some space of our own, and I want to win the prize for the biggest clam.”

When she finally caught up to him, he wasalready on his hands and knees digging in the sand, “Come on, this is fun,” he said, grinning up at her. “Just like being a kid again.”

They dug in silence for a while. The only sound was the clams falling into their buckets, then Corey sat back on his heels, pulled a flask out of his pocket, took a long sip, then put it back. “This is boring,” he said, looking around. “I thought it would be more exciting. Let’s go do something else.”

“I guess we could head back,” she said, looking into her bucket. “I’ve got about a dozen. How many did you get?”

“It doesn’t matter, this is stupid,” Corey said, jumping to his feet. “This trip cost a fortune. We shouldn’t have to dig for our dinner.”

He pulled the flask out of his pocket and took another long drink, then looked over at her, “Oh, shit, I didn’t offer you any,” he said, holding out the flask. “Not very gentlemanly of me.”

She waved it off, “Max doesn’t like alcohol on the island,” she said. “You better hope he doesn’t catch you.”

“Then we’d better hide,” he said, grabbing her hand and dragging her into the trees. “And as long as we’re here, we could have a little fun.”

Before she could stop him, he pulled her into his arms, slammed his mouth down on hers, and started kissing her. She was too shocked to fight back for a second, and he instantly became bolder and started running his hands over her body. She started to fight, but Corey was holding her so tightly it wasn’t doing much good, and panic flooded her system. Forcing herself to calm down, she let her body go limp and managed to slip out of Corey’s arm, then turned and ran for the beach.

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