Page 80 of Love Bites Extra Hard

“I didn’t think you would be giving me much of a choice.”

“Of course you’ll have a choice.”

“So if I want to sleep alone in my room…”

“No.”

“If I want to go back to living in Vamp Manor…”

“No.”

“If I want to end our arrangement and find someone else…”

“Not a fucking chance.” He snarled the words.

“Then obviously, we don’t need rules. You just want me to agree to do everything you want.”

“That’s not true.”

I scoffed. “Then tell me what rules you were thinking about.”

He opened his mouth to start explaining one. No words came out. And slowly, he closed it.

“It’s not a relationship if you call all of the shots any more than it was when I did. We were fuck buddies, and now we’re just two individuals who happen to be fated mates. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Like hell it doesn’t.”

I took a bite of my food, done talking about it. He wasn’t going to see things my way, and I wasn’t going to see them his way. There was nothing else to be said or done.

Obviously, I couldn’t flirt with anyone else. Our conversation about throwing someone who flirted with his mate out a window was clear in my memories. He wasn’t going to budge on that.

And honestly?

I didn’twantto flirt with anyone else.

He was a pain in my ass, and he’d both hurt me and pissed me off, but he was still mine.

Even more than I’d ever imagined.

And I didn’t know how or what to feel about that, so I was just going to ignore it. Thoroughly.

fourteen

AVERY

After we ate,I managed to doze a little on the couch. I was only half asleep when Talon adjusted my position a little, taking the pressure off my neck and lifting my legs up so they wouldn’t go numb. It didn’t wake me up. It just made me feel warmer.

He woke me gently when it was time to go, and I rubbed my eyes before letting him guide me out to the balcony of his room. There was a beautiful dragon whose colors were nearly the same as Talon’s, but far more pink than red, already waiting for us in the sky.

Talon nodded at her—it had to be Stella—before he lifted me smoothly onto his back. He was holding more of my weight than he had been when he shifted, and he waited until I was steady before he changed.

I held tightly to his back as he grew, a monstrous dragon replacing the man. I carefully touched the edge of one of his scales. Even though he’d told me they were smooth, I was still surprised that they didn’t cut me.

I pressed harder, trying to find any sharp edge at all, but everything was rounded.

He hadn’t been kidding.

I realized he was waiting for me to tell him I was ready, so I leaned up and pressed my cheek to his scales without resting my sore torso against him.

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