Giada laughed delightedly. “Oh, really. Then what is Analise?”
“She’s a Fox, like her mom.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Red hair and all,” she said, getting in to it.
“Yep. Oh, and Daniel? He’s a Dragon.”
“A Dragon shifter?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah. A badass one, too.”
“I’m pretty sure any Dragon is bad ass.”
“You’re right. I’ll give you that one. But he’s especially bad ass,” Ronan said. “He breathes fire. Turns shit to ash as an afterthought.” He pulled one of the stuffed artichoke leaves through his teeth and dropped it on the edge of his appetizer plate.
Giada laughed again and visibly relaxed as they teased each other.
“Here, try some of my caramelized onions,” he said.
“Okay,” she said, leaning toward him and opening her mouth.
He gave her a bite of his steak, topped with onions, and dipped in butter.
She chewed, then moaned. “My God, that’s good.”
“It is. Want some more onions?”
“No, I’m good. But I am going to dip my steak in that butter.”
“Good. Then I can kiss you later and not worry about my garlicky onion breath.”
“You think I’m going to let you kiss me, huh?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah. I’m pretty. You already said so.”
Giada laughed again, then picked up the butter bowl and drizzled it across her steak and the crab meat sauce topping it.
“Oh! Now I wish I’d gotten that,” Ronan said.
“Want a bite?”
“So bad.”
She cut off a big piece of her steak, making sure to get crab meat and butter on the fork, too, then held it out to him.
Ronan accepted it, and actually hummed as he chewed and swallowed. “I might get one of those to go.”
“We’re going to have so much food leftover already.”
“No we won’t,” he said, shaking his head doubtfully.
Giada just laughed, relaxing after having confessed her truth to someone — finally. She felt a little lighter, not completely by any means, but at least she’d finally had someone to talk to.
And Ronan smiled and relaxed as he saw her able to let go a little. And she’d trusted him. She wasn’t completely ready to jump in with both feet like he was, but she’d trusted him, and that spoke volumes.
They laughed, talked, enjoyed each others’ company until there was not a scrap of food left on the table. That was when he signaled the waiter, who came instantly.
“Yes, sir. What can I get for you?”
