Page 58 of Kidnapped By The Messy Dragon

Then he reaches for the mic and starts unplugging it from the desktop.

I drop my wing in my lap and wince at the sauce soaking in. “No. Stop.”

He looks over his shoulder. “I got more nightgowns and new underwear from Brandy. Change after you finish.”

He goes back to the cord. I set the wing on the platter and grab a washcloth to scrub at my lap. “I bet this thing was expensive.”

He shrugs and keeps wrapping the mic cable. “Doesn’t matter. That’s not something you need to worry about.”

I climb off the bed and cross the room to him.

He sets the mic down and frowns at me. “Don’t be stubborn, angel. Go eat.”

“Stop,” I say.

He grins at me and reaches for the next piece of equipment, and he has it halfway off the stand when I close my hand around his arm. “I said stop.”

He keeps his arm down and looks at me. Up close, with the show turned off, his eyes look tired. I’ve never seen tired on him before.

“Stop,” I say again.

“I already announced it to the world,” he says. “They aren’t hearing from me again, and I meant it.”

I start to say something. He cuts me off with a wave at the whole rig. “Hoarding information, the messy podcast, all of it. It was something to pass the time.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I tell him. “You don’t just throw your passions away.”

“I’m not.” He points one finger at the center of my chest. “You’re my passion. I’ll get into hoarding money like my brothers.” He shrugs. “It’s my nature anyway.”

I keep my grip on his arm. “I don’t want you to give up who you are because of me.”

He shakes his head at me. “But you tried to leave me. My dragon is going nuts inside me, terrified we’re about to lose you. And so am I.”

My mouth falls open at that.

Then I close it, and I grab a fistful of his shirt and pull him down to me. I say the next part slow, so his nose can check every word. “I’m not going anywhere. And you’re not getting rid of your podcast.”

He opens his mouth. I keep talking, right past it. “We’re getting rid of this witch first. We’re making sure my friend Renee stays safe. And after that, you can have me however you want me.”

He searches my face, and I know his nose is working, hunting for the leaving in me. There’s none to find. I made sure of that before I opened my mouth.

The tired is gone from his eyes.

“Deal,” he says.

Then he seals it a better way. He takes my face in both hands and kisses me, slow and deep, and I keep my fists in his shirt and kiss him back. All the fear he’s been carrying comes out of him into it. His arms come around me and pull me in tight, until there’s no room left between us for anything else, and my toes leave the floor.

Right when it starts turning into more, he groans and pulls back.

He scoops me up into his arms. “Damn it, Zuri. You have me wrapped around your pretty little finger.”

He sets me down on the bed and points at the platter. “Now eat. Before I spend the night eating you.”

I smirk and grab another wing.

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JALEN