STORY EXCERPT

Adrian hesitated, then hooked his thumb behind his shoulder. “I asked if you wanted something to eat?”

Cody blinked. “I…what? Food?”

“Yeah, you were looking over there. I thought you might be hungry?”

Cody still wasn’t used to this, to being offered food when it wasn’t time for him to eat.

Well, there were no more human times for eating. They all ate at the same time as their new masters, but the food over there was just snacks for the dragons. Everyone knew dragons worked up big appetites. It wasn’t for Cody.

“I’m all right.” He glanced down at his hands, dirty, grime beneath his fingernails that would take forever to come out. “Don’t want to mess up your picnic with these,” he added, raising his hands and trying to smile, trying to show he wasn’t ungrateful for the gift that was on offer.

Turning down food was something he never did.

There were times when Ian, their former master and the dragon Cody was still mated to, would outright refuse to feed him.

He refused to feed all the humans here at some point or another, but he always loved denying Cody food for some reason.

Cody thought it was because of how dirty he always was, on his knees, in the gardens. He thought Ian was sickened by it.

Which was nice because it meant Cody wasn’t often called to his bed. In the years they had been mated, Cody had only been called to warm his bed three times.

Ian had other mates he preferred more for that sort of thing.

The downside was that he didn’t often get fed.

More than once, Cody had taken to digging through the trash for the leftovers Ian or Gregory, his right-hand dragon, had thrown away, and it was usually good. Cody did have some standards. He wouldn’t eat anything rotten or what the animals had got to first.

Or, if he was feeling a little extra adventurous, sneaking a tomato or some raspberries from the garden to tide him over.

So Cody didn’t turn down food lightly. Even with dirty hands.

Adrian didn’t look angry. He didn’t even seem annoyed.

He glanced down at Cody’s dirty hands, nodded, and walked away.

Cody was immediately disappointed, but he went back to what he was doing, weeding the garden. He could use gloves, he’d been given them since Ian had been thrown out of the house and the new dragon clan had taken over, but he was used to working with his bare hands, and he found that the dirt got into the gloves with how deep he dug his hands into the soil anyway, so there was no point.

Adrian had walked right up to him, made some small talk, and now he was gone. The guy barely knew Cody existed.

This was fine. Cody had feelings for a dragon. That was normal. Dragons were amazing.

It just sucked that the first dragon he was interested in was never going to look twice at him.

ADULT EXCERPT

Cody glanced around Adrian’s room. It was his first time in here since Ian had been thrown out. This room used to belong to one of the males who died in the fight to take over the property. A cruel bastard Cody would rather forget.

The guy had liked pain more than sex, that was for sure.

Cody thought he would feel a sense of dread being in here, but he didn’t. It smelled like Adrian. The blankets were different. The layout had changed, and it didn’t stink of beer and old potato chips either.

There were small tea candles lit on his dresser and nightstand, and a lavender scent of burning incense Adrian must have snuffed out before opening his door.

The shelf had books on it, neatly stacked, and not a cluster of dirty weapons.

It looked normal, and with the candles, romantic.

He spotted the two chocolate cake slices on the dresser between the candles, and there were yellow roses there as well.

Three of them, with a few daisies in the small bundle.

Adrian noted where Cody’s eye had gone to, and Adrian’s cheeks actually colored a little, moving to the flowers and bringing them over.

“I wanted to bring you something.” He handed them over, his face red, as though fearful his gift would be denied. “Didn’t feel right to not have…something.”

Cody took the flowers, but only because they were being held out to him. He felt too numb otherwise.

“Something?”

Adrian smiled a nervous smile, scratching at the back of his neck. “Yeah, I know it’s not much, but I…wanted to make an impression. I know you like flowers and all, so I, uh, fuck.”

Cody did like flowers. Of the many jobs he could have been saddled with when he was bought by Ian, working the gardens had been the most painful on his knees and back but the most rewarding. The flowers always soothed him, even when Ian was having a bad day and taking it out on everyone.

They always somehow made things better.

This modest bouquet did the same for him right now, and a wave of gratitude flushed through him.

“You lit candles for me and brought me flowers and cake, and you’re worried you’re not doing enough?” Cody could hardly believe it. “I didn’t bring you a damn thing.”

“You brought yourself.”

Cody stared up at him, shocked.

That had to be the cheesiest line he’d ever heard in his life, but Adrian delivered it with a sincerity that could only be genuine.

“And trust me, it wasn’t a lot,” Adrian said. “The candles and flowers came from a Walmart I flew to. They had a sign out front that said no humans were allowed in without a note or supervision from their dragons.”

His mouth twisted as if the very idea that he had to go into such a place repulsed him, but Cody knew that was just the way things were. He was so used to it that he couldn’t be angry by it.

He was just so happy.

“I can’t remember the last time anyone…” He held his roses closer, and he glanced back to the candles and the cake. Moist and thick, because of course, anything made by Tom and Ash would be perfection.

He still wasn’t feeling so hungry, but after a round with Adrian, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t mind eating that cake in bed with the man.

“Can I…can I kiss you again?”

Cody realized he needed it. He needed it so bad there were no words for how much he wanted it. “I just…I need…”

Adrian looked at him, letting Cody work through it, but he didn’t make Cody suffer through it either.

When Cody clearly couldn’t get with the program and voice what exactly it was he wanted, Adrian gently took the roses from his hands, setting them aside on his nightstand, and he leaned in, pressing his lips to Cody’s in a chaste, sweet kiss.

“Like this?” Adrian asked, his voice deep and rumbling, like the purring of an oversized cat.

“Deeper,” Cody begged. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think…I want you to be a little rough. Not like, hurting rough, but I want you to push your tongue into my mouth and, and throw me on the bed or something.” Cody’s hands went around Adrian’s waist.

He needed to prove to himself that Adrian was real, that he wasn’t dreaming this. It was too crazy. He couldn’t believe he was getting what he wanted after months of seeing Adrian and admiring him from afar.

He sneaked his hands beneath Adrian’s shirt, desperate to feel some of his skin.

Adrian shivered, and his eyes darkened with lust. He pulled Cody closer, so their bodies were flushed together, and through Adrian’s jeans, Cody could feel the heat of his cock, hard and pulsing.

With need for Cody.

“You want it, you got it, sweetheart.”

Adrian gave Cody what he wanted, kissing him deeply.

Cody moaned and melted against him, giving himself over to this good feeling for the first time in his life.