Page 58 of Dragon’s Rebel

“I have this.” She patted her harness. “As long as a wandering hellhound doesn’t come along and slice my wire, I’m good.”

He looked super-hot, standing there in the sunshine with his messy hair blowing in the breeze, his biceps looking even bigger with his arms folded.

She unhooked her harness, went over and brushed the hair back from his forehead, giving him a light kiss. He looked surprised, then pleased.

He caught her around the waist and kissed her back, his lips warm and demanding. She snaked her arms around his neck and let herself go.

He smelled amazing, like warm cinnamon and hot man, and for someone who hadn’t gotten out in like, a hundred years, he was a damn good kisser. He sipped at her lips, running his tongue along her lower lip. One hand was on her back, and the other slipped down to her ass.

“Mmmm,” she said. “Nothing like a reward for a morning of hard work.”

“You’re getting another reward, too,” he said.

“What’s that? Is it dirty? Because I could maybe get behind something dirty.”

He grinned. “Nope. Well, yup, I could probably think of something dirty to do with you.” He kissed her again, just about curling her toes.

“But this isn’t it. The web crawlers are going to take a while to come back with anything, so tonight I’m taking you on a date.”

That took a second to compute.

“A what?”

He stepped back, putting some air between them, which allowed her to think more clearly. “A date. You know, like humans do.”

“A date. You and me?”

“All of us.”

“What?”

“You keep saying that.” Thorne looked uncertain. “Don’t human women like going on dates? I was sure dating was still a thing.”

A group date with a reclusive dragon and his friends? To who knew where? Not actually a thing, no.

“Um, depends on the date?” she said.

Thorne looked pleased with himself. “This is a good one. I talked it over with the other guys…”

Uh-oh.

“And we’re all going bowling.” He waited for her reaction.

Rebel had actually only been in a bowling alley once, when she was thirteen and her foster family had taken all the kids for somebody’s birthday.

She’d had a sucky time. She’d been better at bowling than the other kids, and so they’d dumped cigarette ashes in her nachos.

Then she’d punched one of them in the face—a guy named Joey—and had been given a time out and hadn’t been allowed to bowl anymore.

Thorne looked at her hopefully. “Bowling is a typical date, right?”

For some people, yes. For billionaire dragons, not so much. But she loved the hopeful look in his eyes.

And let’s face it, dragons bowling would be hilarious. Screaming kids and bowling shirts and stinky rental shoes. Bad pizza and too much beer.

“Sure,” she said, kissing him again. “It’s a perfect date.”

She couldn’t wait.