EXCITEMENT bubbled in Ember’s head along with the bubbles from the champagne she’d been drinking at the concert rehearsal. Wow, it was too easy to get tipsy on champagne.
“Talk?” she laughed, wiggling with Cai’s arms around her and grinning up at him. “I don’t want to talk.”
He lifted her chin with one knuckle. Even though he was smiling, his eyes seemed sad.
And it seemed like more darkness intruded on the flowing, electric green of his eyes.
“Cai?” she asked, examining the black tendrils in his eyes. “You okay?”
He said, “Ember, I want more than just to take you to bed tonight.”
The funniness of the situation dropped away. With some guys, you have to spell things out.
She said, “Um, look. I want you to be my first, but I am not up for the proverbial ‘fifth base,’ okay? I like my butt the way it is.”
Cai chuckled. “That’s not what I meant.”
She was serious. “Well, I mean it, and I’m telling you right now that I mean it.”
“I respect your butt virginity,” he said, chuckling more. “I promise that I will make no moves on your butt.”
“Well, okay then.” Ember was still suspicious.
“But there is something I want to ask you,” he said. “A very important thing.”
This was getting weird. Odd trembles started in her fingers. “Okay, as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with my butt.”
Cai sucked in a deep breath and said, all in a rush, “You are the sun in my sky and the air that I breathe.”
Oh, Ladies of Magic, what was he doing?
Ember told him, “You don’t have to do this. I am totally okay with tonight staying casual and fun. You’re a hot guy, and you obviously know what you’re doing in bed. We met. We flirted. We went on a really nice date tonight, and I had a really great time, an amazing time. I want to do this. You don’t have to pretend like you’re in love with me or anything.”
Because he couldn’t be, right?
Cai’s voice dropped lower, and he moved backward and lowered himself to one knee. “The second I saw you, I fell in love with you, and I’ve fallen further every minute I’ve known you.”
“You can’t be,” she whispered and tugged on his arm. “Cai, I just want to sleep with you. I don’t want the ‘boyfriend experience.’ You don’t have to pretend it’s like this when it’s not.”
“It’s true,” he said. “I don’t want to just sleep with you. I want to spend my life with you. I want to marry you. I want you to be my dragonmate for our whole lives. My dragon is enamored with you. I am drowning in you.”
Her voice grew sharper because she was scared out of her wits by his crazy change. “Cai, baby. This is too much. We’ve known each other less than a month, and I’ve gotten the feeling that you’ve been dodging me half the time.”
He was still so serious. “I was. I was trying to stay away from you.”
“You don’t have to lie to me,” she pleaded with him.
“I’m not kidding around. I mean every word. Marry me. Be my dragonmate.”
She shoved on his broad, strong chest, and he opened his arms so she could step away from him. “This is too weird.”
“Ember—”
She ducked away from him. “We should talk about this, slowly, and later, much later, and not rush into anything crazy. But this is too soon and too much, and I know that you don’t love me. Please don’t pretend that you do. Don’t break my heart like that.”
“I want to marry—”
“Don’t lie to me, and don’t ask me that again.”
“So—” Cai inhaled long and slow like the wind had been knocked out of him. “So, that’s a no.”
“Yes, that’s a no,” she told him. “We met and flirted, but you’ve ducked out on me at every opportunity! And now you’re like, ‘Hey, let’s get married.’ You’re obviously going to flee again at some point, even if I were to marry you.”
“I won’t,” he said. “I couldn’t.”
Ember kept talking. “Maybe we’d be going along just fine. Maybe we’d have a kid, and then one day, you’ll just walk out, leaving me with nothing but a,” she grabbed a folder off the coffee table, “a damn room service menu, and then I’ll get all crazy and go into religion and try to only do clear magic in some misguided, stupid attempt to deserve your love again.”
“Ember, I wouldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t.”
“Look, if it’s my black magic that keeps scaring you off, then you should know that I can’t change it. I’m an elemental witch. That’s what I do. That’s how I roll. That’s my shtick. You should know that right now.”
He leaned back on the couch, his head hanging. “Your magic isn’t a problem for me. I think your magic is wonderful. You’re amazing with the elementals. I have nothing but admiration for your magic.”
“And yet you keep running away!”
“I’m not running now. I admit, the intensity of the mating fever shocked me—”
“Mating fever! So this is just some sort of weird dragony crush-thing that you’ll get over and leave me someday?”
“No, not at all,” he told her, his voice more frantic.
Fear and loneliness rose up in Ember, and her hands were shaking so hard. “It’s exactly like that, isn’t it? You just called your feelings some kind of sickness.”
He stood and took a step toward her, his hands out and imploring. “It’s not a sickness. Well, it is—”
“Ah-hah!” She’d known it. She’d known that she wasn’t the right type for a dragon like this guy. He probably did have to marry a dragon duchess or something.
“I’m sorry that I made you mad—” He sat on the couch, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
“Yeah, well, elemental witches run hot, but jeez, Cai! You can’t dump something like that on me! I thought we just here for a night, and suddenly, you’re all, love and hearts and roses and marriage and stuff.”
“Surely, you understood my intent when I sent you jewelry and the other things. Didn’t Bethany and Willow explain about dragons and how we are when we fall in love with someone?”
“I thought it was weird. You can have it all back. Except I ate the desserts, and the flowers died. But you can have the jewelry back.”
He looked frantic. “No. I want you to have that jewelry. I want you to wear it. I want to see it on you. It’s a dragon thing.”
“You will not. You will not see me ever again. You can’t toy with people like this, Cai. You can’t dodge me, and yet text me. You can’t run away every time we’re together, and yet send me diamonds. You can’t take me out for an amazing date and then propose when I know you’re just going to ditch me again!”
“I’ve messed this up.” Cai stood. “I’m sorry. I’ve messed everything up. I’ll call you in a few days or something, all right? I’ll explain. Or I’ll text you and explain. Or something. And I’m sorry.”
Cai strode out, leaving her alone again in the damn penthouse.
“See? You’re walking out on me again!” Ember’s growl turned into a roar, and she slammed the throw pillows onto the coffee table and the floor and the walls. That must be why they were called throw pillows because when your damned date dumps you for the third time, you can throw the damned things across the room.
Ember sent a text to Willow and Bethany, Girls, my place for a midnight snack.
She picked up the hotel phone and said, “Hello, room service? I’d like to place an order to go, please, starting with another case of that champagne and three lobsters and all the trimmings.”
Two texts popped up on her phone.
I could eat.
I could eat, too. Bring another one of those chocolate cakes.