Page 78 of Dragon in Boots

“Don’t you have anything in your car?”

“Just a harpoon. It’s in case the Russian mafia comes for me,” he said.

Jac gave him a strange look.

“Long story.”

“Go get it!” she barked.

He sighed, not at all in the mood for this drama.

He left through a side exit, grumbling bitterly. Just as he stepped outside, the little dragon swooped over his head, disappearing into the sky.

Mmmm. That can’t be good.

“Oh no.” Jac came up beside him. “He’s loose!”

“It appears so.”

Suddenly, there was an explosion inside.

“Shit!” Jac turned to go back in, but Damien grabbed her. The flames were blocking the door.

“It’s too late, Jac. I’m sorry.”

She collapsed, bawling facedown in the dirt.

Damien genuinely had true pity for the woman, but he felt jealous, too. He would never know what it was like to love someone so deeply, would he?

“Come. Let me buy you some pancakes,” he said.

She glanced up at him. “Pancakes?” She returned to bawling.

Women are so very strange.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Just after two in the morning, Jac dropped her suitcase in the middle of her living room and went to her bedroom, plunking down on her bed without bothering to change her clothes, which smelled like smoke. The woman on the plane next to her had actually complained, but then she saw Jac’s eyes and shut her mouth.

Fire eyes.Jac still didn’t know anything about her half-dragon body, and frankly, it didn’t matter. All she cared about was the ache in her heart.

Even if she and Dash had barely known each other, her life would never be the same without him. Whatever had been between them was powerful. A force of nature.Magical…She hadn’t even realized it until it was too late, and he was dead.

Looking back, she saw everything so clearly now—why she’d really been drawn to work at the strip club, the jealousy she’d felt that night, knowing other women would see him fully naked, and the rage she’d experienced after Heebie decided to get rid of Dash.The rage I feel now.

All along, there’d been a connection, but everything had happened so fast. Their relationship hadn’t been given a chance to breathe or go anywhere. Now, all she had left were thoughts of what could’ve been and of Dash’s tormented soul floating around in the cosmos.

If only she could talk to him again. Just one more time to know he was okay. He needed to know she’d tried to help him and wouldn’t stop until she did.

Wait!Jac sat up, suddenly remembering what Damien’s little tan Chihuahua had said to him at the shop. She grabbed her purse and keys and rushed to her truck.

“Let’s hope this works.” Jac lit the last candle on the stage at the Pink Pit of Pleasure. In front of her, pinned to the pink glittery curtain, was a shirtless poster of Dash wearing jeans, a toolbelt, and boots.

It was funny how when they’d first met, she saw him as almost godlike. Then she saw a jerk-faced asshole. Now she saw the one that got away.

She pressed her hand over her heart, summoning her deepest feelings of desire, admiration, and longing. According to Damien’s Chihuahua, Jac could draw Dash’s soul by appealing to his vanity, so that was what she would do.Lots of compliments. Here we go.

“Eh-hem. Dash, if you can hear me, you have the most incredible ass I’ve ever seen. It’s like someone took two halves of a big coconut and then gave them a ridiculously smooth tan.” He really did have a magnificent butt.

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