Page 17 of Dragon's Honor

She needed to go home, pack a bag, grab her camera, and find an adventure. Maybe she should’ve flitted off to Milan. It would’ve been better than staying in Miami and having a quarter life crisis.

“Don’t you think?”

Finley blinked at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Finley.” The deep baritone startled her out of her daze. She looked over to find Ash standing at their table.

He nearly took her breath away and he was only in a pair of faded blue jeans, white tank top, and flip flops. What the hell was wrong with her?

“Is this a friend of yours?” Tad asked.

“I, uh, I’m not sure.”

Ash glanced at Tad with a sneer. “Are you on a date?”

She pinched her thigh just to make sure she was actually awake. “Ow,” she muttered under her breath.

Okay, awake. But what the heck was Ash doing here?

“I, uh, am. What do you want?”

His glower intensified. “We need to talk.”

Her brow furrowed. “About what?”

He grunted and pointed at her wrist.

Finley automatically wrapped her other hand around the tourmaline, covering it, and pulling it to her torso. “What about it? You had your chance.”

“My chance expired?”

“It did, in fact, yesterday.”

Ash’s lips twitched. “How’s the date going?” He pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards.

She forced a smile on her lips. “It’s going great,” she replied, glancing over at Tad, who just looked confused.

“She’s being nice,” Tad said. “I’m pretty sure I was boring her.”

Ash leaned forward on the back of the chair, his green eyes fixated on her. “Is that true? Were you getting bored?”

Finley sighed. “I was not bored. Tad, I’m sorry you got that impression.”

Tad chuckled, tossing his napkin on the table. “There’s no need to be polite, Finley. I was bored too. We’re just not clicking. You should head out with your friend. I think I’ll call my friend to kill the rest of my night.”

Finley blinked at him. “I don’t know what to say.”

Tad smiled. “Have a good evening, Finley. Maybe I’ll see you around.” He dropped cash on the table to cover the bill and walked away.

With that, he was gone.

“What just happened?” Finley put her own cloth napkin on the table.

Ash moved closer to her. “You and I need to talk.”

Finley stared into his eyes. She could feel the pull to him. Something she never got an ounce of with Tad, but it was strong with Ash. She wanted to crawl into his lap and curl into him. Which was the most preposterous thing in the world. She grabbed her clutch and stood up. “Nope.”

The restaurant was filled to the brim, the lobby crammed with people waiting to get a table and her fast and ferocious getaway was diminished by trying to get through the crowd. By the time she made it out of the restaurant, Ash was on her ass.

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