Liam shouldn’t have been so attracted to Cadence, but he couldn’t help himself. The dragon female was beautiful, kind, sweet, and compassionate. She was everything he wanted in a mate, and Liam realized with a frown that he wanted her.
Needed her.
He was a human: not a dragon. He shouldn’t feel a mating call. He shouldn’t be thinking of asking her to be his. That wasn’t how these things worked. He’d seen enough dragons fall in love to know exactly how this entire ordeal was supposed to play out.
The dragons were the ones who felt they’d found a mate. That was their job: their thing.
Him?
He was human.
He was all man.
So why did he feel drawn to Cadence in a way he’d never felt before?
He opened the door to Dragon’s Inn and they walked inside. Cadence smiled as she looked around, and a young woman showed them to a table.
“This is incredible,” she said once they were seated. “And everything smells so good.”
“My friend Victoria runs it,” he explained. “She moved here long ago after her mother passed away, and she really revived the place. She made it the incredible restaurant it is today.”
Dragons Inn had been through some changes over the years, but Victoria had been true to her mother’s memory and had left many things the same. Namely, she had kept the décor style and the original paintings that hung on the walls. Victoria had recently remodeled the bar area, though, and some of the furniture was new.
Liam loved this place.
Everyone loved this place.
“Can I start you off with something to drink?” Their server appeared and grinned as she looked from Cadence to Liam and back again. He knew exactly what the teenager was thinking. She wanted to know if Old Liam had finally found someone to marry him. He could see it in her mischievous dragon eyes.
“Water,” he told Lucy. “Just water.”
“Suit yourself,” Lucy rolled her eyes. “And for you?” She said sweetly to Cadence.
“Hmm, I’m not sure,” Cadence scanned the menu quickly. “But I have a feeling I’m going to need something with alcohol.”
“No problem,” Lucy winked. “I’ll surprise you.”
Lucy headed off and Cadence looked back down at the menu.
“There are too many choices,” she said.
“There’s only one, as far as I can see,” Liam said, and when Cadence caught his gaze, he knew she’d understood what he was saying. She licked her lips, and his eyes shifted to her mouth. She had full, soft lips, and he wanted to touch them.
He shouldn’t.
He knew this.
She was off limits.
First of all, Cadence was Willie’s daughter. Oh, she could play the adoption card all she wanted, but Liam knew the old man had loved Cadence. What would he think about his little girl and Liam getting together?
Liam hadn’t forgotten where he’d come from.
He hadn’t forgotten his roots.
He knew he was no good for a sweet girl like Cadence.
He knew he was broken in so many ways.
Before Cadence could say anything, Lucy returned with their drinks.
“That was fast,” Cadence said.
Lucy leaned in, like she was whispering a secret, and said, “Dragon speed.”
Cadence’s eyes went wide. “Is that a thing?”
Lucy burst out laughing and shook her head. “Sorry, love. I just had to. What’ll it be?”
They both ordered and Lucy left, whistling a song as she moved through the restaurant.
“You come here a lot,” Cadence observed.
“Pretty regularly. I’m surprised they aren’t sick of me yet.”
“How could anyone get sick of you?” She asked, and then Cadence blushed, as if she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Liam smiled, and his heart swelled. Cadence made him feel like he was interesting, and fun, and exciting. These were feelings he hadn’t felt for a very long time. The problem with Liam was that he was such a normal, run-of-the-mill human. His friends were all dragons, of course, which made him all the more boring.
They could shift and fly and hunt and explore any part of Dragon Isle they wanted to.
What could Liam do?
Steer a boat?
“So tell me more about realizing you were a dragon,” Liam said. He was curious about Cadence’s past. She had been gone for so long that Liam wondered how much she really knew about shifters. Had she been able to shift on her own? Had she ever gotten stuck in her dragon form? Was she scared about who she was?
“I guess I didn’t. Not until my mom – my adoptive mom – died. When I found her journal, and I read it, everything just sort of clicked into place. I’ve always felt a little strange and out of place. This kind of explains it.”
“I’m guessing you wondered why you had super-smell abilities,” Liam smiled, and Cadence laughed loudly.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Liam. For a little while, I thought I might be a secret superhero. Wouldn’t that be cool?”
“Well, for what it’s worth, your dad thought you were a hero.”
“What was he like?”
“Willie?”
“Yeah.” She leaned forward eagerly. “I mean, I have so many great memories of him, but it’s been years since I last saw him, and now…” Her voice trailed off, and Liam knew she was internally plowing through her life’s regrets. He didn’t want her to do that. He didn’t want this sweet, precious woman to be wondering what she could have done differently.
Thinking that way wouldn’t bring back Willie.
It wouldn’t change the past.
The truth was that Cadence had been dealt a crappy hand. Her mother had schemed to keep her from Willie, and it had worked. The one person who could have helped her deal with the dragon side of herself was gone, and now it was all up to Liam.
He had mighty big shoes to fill, but he owed Willie.
He owed him big time.
“He was funny,” Liam says. “And kind. When I first started working with him, I didn’t know the first thing about boats.”
“I find that so hard to imagine.”
“It’s true. I didn’t know the difference between a rowboat and a speedboat. That’s how little I knew,” Liam laughed. “I must have made such a sight, but your dad was patient with me. He guided me, showed me everything I needed to know. First he taught me how to handle the harbor. He showed me how to track who came and who went. He helped me learn discretion when it came to the dragons, and then he taught me to sail.”
“You like it, don’t you?”
“I love being on the ocean. Willie loved it so much and he really passed that love on to me. There’s something to be said for feeling the wind in your face and the spray of the water on your skin.”
“It sounds magical.”
“It is,” Liam said, but he wasn’t talking about the water anymore. He looked at Cadence, and he wanted to reach for her hand. He wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay. He wanted to promise her that no matter what happened with her mother, she would be loved, and cared for, and protected.
He had been waiting for Cadence to return to Dragon Isle for a very long time, and she had finally come.