Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,51

find words, but Rann just winked at her, and then his blank-faced façade cracked and he smiled wide. She joined him, but only for a moment.

“Is it…are you going to be okay?” she asked nervously, suddenly worried about how dangerous it was going to be for him tonight. “What if you…if you don’t come back?”

Rann sobered. “I will,” he said sharply then relaxed as she jerked. “I promise, Gayle. I’ll come back. Six of us are going out tonight. They have nothing that can take us on, I swear to you.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding uncertainly, knowing how quickly things could go wrong.

“Besides,” he added, his eyes softening, twinkling ever so slightly. “I have a very good reason to come back.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “Yep.”

“What’s that?” she asked, recognizing a prompt when she heard it.

“You owe me a date,” Rann said, and grinned broadly. “And you can’t get out of it this time.”

Gayle sat back and smiled. “No,” she said slowly. “I guess I can’t, now can I?”

The truth was though, she didn’t want to avoid it. Or him. Not anymore. Rann had called her out on having feelings for him, and despite her best efforts not to, Gayle was mature enough to admit that he was right.

She liked a dragon. And he liked her back.

So what happens next?

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gayle

She paced back and forth, fighting back the terror that threatened to overwhelm her.

“Where are you?” she asked the empty little cabin for what had to be the thousandth time. “Why aren’t you back yet?”

Glancing at the wall, she noted that less than a minute had gone past since her last check. It still read the same: 3:29 a.m.

She’d kissed Rann at ten, when he and his team headed out. Over five hours ago, and they still weren’t back yet. How long did it take to burn down a nest of vampires? They should have been back already!

It’s taking too long. Something’s gone wrong.

Turning on a heel, she paced away from the door, fidgeting with her hands, shoulders hunched.

Should I go out there? Go try to find them? What if they need help? There are other dragons here. They could go find him, go help him! I should go find someone.

Decision made, she spun to the door—and came to an abrupt halt.

Standing in the open doorway was Rann. He looked fine. Completely unharmed.

“Oh, Rann!” she shouted and threw herself at him, overcome with relief that he was home alive and okay.

He wrapped her up in his arms, holding her tight, but she could immediately feel the tension and unease in him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, immediately worried. “Is everyone okay? Rann what happened?”

He sighed, and she heard the anger grating inside him. “It was empty. They were gone. We scoured the area, but there was nothing!”

Gayle frowned. “Well, crap.”

“Dammit,” he snapped in frustration. “I knew I should have done something about it the night before. I could have at least taken one of them out, if not more.”

“And probably hurt a bunch of humans in the process,” she reminded him. “Don’t forget about that.”

Rann glared, but it wasn’t directed at her. He was just frustrated that the bad guys had gotten away.

“You made the right decision, and you know it,” she said, rubbing his back. “You’ll get them again. It just won’t be tonight.”

“But in the meantime, they’ll keep hurting other people and creating more of their evil kind,” he grumped. “We’re not doing a very good job of protecting humanity if we let that happen.”

Gayle nodded. “Well, why don’t you go out hunting them during the day?”

“Sunlight kills them. They’ll be inside, resting. Nothing to help us find them. At night, at least, they’ll come out. We might get lucky, scent them, see them, something like that. During the day we’d find nothing.”

“So what you’re saying is that there’s nothing else you can do right now?” she asked.

Rann shook his head, missing the subtle shift in her tone. “Nothing. We’re useless.”

Gayle pulled her hands out from his back and cupped the sides of his face. “I know a way you can make yourself useful,” she purred.

This time Rann didn’t miss the hint. His head came up, eyes bright with green light.

“I missed you,” she pouted, shrugging her shoulders.

She was wearing one of his t-shirts, her thong, and nothing more. Gayle watched Rann’s eyes travel down her body, noting the exposed skin of her legs.

“I missed you too,” he said, kicking off his boots and pulling his shirt over his head even as he