This was the fanciest house Candace had ever laid eyes on. Even the door knocker was a dragon head with a huge ring through its nose. Creepy and cool all at once.

Maybe she should’ve worn the purple sweater. That one was looser and more modest, if Torren was looking for something like that. But then he wouldn’t have sent his friend to find him some steady sex if he needed a girl to bring home to Momma Kong.

The red was fine, plus it matched her lipstick. Everything was good.

To steady herself, she blew out three quick breathes that froze in front of her face. With a shaking hand, she knocked three times with her mitten-clad knuckles. On the fourth, the door swung open, and one very pissed-off red-haired giant stood there, taking up the entire door frame.

“My house, my land, my mountains, my territory. Fuck off.”

He looked familiar. “Do…” She frowned and angled her face to take in his features better. “Do I know you?”

“No one does. Are you hard of hearing?”

“Enough,” a deep, rumbling voice sounded from behind the behemoth. But as the red-haired man stepped to the side, Candace blinked hard and arched her neck all the way back to look at the literal giant behind the first. Oh. My. God. Torren was the size of a redwood and was as broad as a building. He rested both giant hands on each side of the doorframe and resembled the sexiest letter T she’d ever laid eyes on. His shredded arms flexed with the motion. He wore a black T-shirt in the dead of winter like the cold didn’t bother him at all. Right across his muscular chest was the word HavoK with a skull logo in white. Damn. He was owning the name the public gave him. Interesting. Both his arms were covered in tattoos to his knuckles. More ink showed from under the collar of his shirt and up his neck. He had a short black scruff on his chiseled jaw, and his eyes were the color of spring grass. It was such a light color, and glowing slightly. Must’ve been his animal color, but why was he riled up? She only got gold eyes if she was really upset, and she had good control over her animal. She could keep her human eye color if she really wanted. His hair was shaved on the sides and longer on top. It was a mess, as if he’d run his hands through it back and forth, but it was a sexy mess. It looked like he’d just rolled out of bed and didn’t care about fixing it perfectly. Hotboy. Those glowing green eyes dipped down, down, down her body, pausing briefly at her little knockers and her slim hips, then with a single, slow blink, he lifted that sexy gaze back to hers. Her heart was hammering against her chest so hard he must’ve heard it. Bum-bum bum-bum bum-bum. Heat flooded her cheeks and her breath quickened. What was he doing to her?

When he parted those full lips, she felt like she just might pitch forward and melt against him. This man was pure seduction.

His eyes said, “Stay,” but his inhuman voice said, “Fuck off.”

“I…” The rest of that sentence got stuck in her throat, so Candace swallowed hard to get rid of the cotton mouth and tried again. “I was invited.”

“You ain’t a damn vampire. Invites don’t count for as much as you think they do.”

Rude man. She’d always been attracted to rude men though, so his surliness wasn’t going to work like he wanted.

“Move, you beastly man,” Nevada said, shoving him hard. The titan didn’t move a single inch, so Nevada had to duck under his arm. “You boys are being so horrid right now!”

“I’m not!” a man called from behind the two giants blocking the door. “BJ points! We could make that a thing you know. Good behavior gets points? We could make a star chart. I’m being good so I get like four thousand BJ points.”

“God dammit, Nox,” Vyr said. “Shut up!”

“You would get negative four thousand BJ points, Beer,” the man responded.

“If you call me Beer one more time—”

“Eat me!” Nox yelled.

Nevada was staring tiredly at Candace as though she disliked her life. “This. This is what I was trying to warn you about.”

Candace wrapped her arms around her chest and bounced to warm herself. The breeze was making the temperature feel ten degrees colder than it really was. “Can I come in?”

“Yes,” Nevada and Nox said at the exact same time Beer and Torren said, “No!”

Beer was a weird nickname, but okay.

Candace cleared her throat, exposed her neck, and avoided both dominant male’s angry gazes as she stepped under Torren’s massive arm. Whoo, he smelled like hotboy cologne.

“Did you just smell my armpit?” Torren asked in that deep, gravelly voice.

Chills. That’s what his voice did to her. Chills rippled up her forearms. “Maybe,” she muttered. “You smell good.”

“I showered today.”

“Congrats!” Nox said.

Candace could see him now, standing on a warn leather couch with a beer in his hand. He gave her a wicked smile and a two-fingered salute. “Good to see you again, Stripper Sally.”

“Cinnamon,” Torren growled from behind her.

“Actually, she goes by Candace in her real life,” Nevada explained. She didn’t seem shy at all anymore, and it was so strange to compare her to the girl she’d talked to in the library. They were two totally different people.

“Oh, I get it. Candy,” Nox said. “Cinnamon candy. Plus forty points for the BJ jar.”

“You don’t get points for everything you do, you moron,” Beer said.

“You just admitted we’re playing, though,” Nox said, his blond brows cocked.

“No. No, no, no, I was saying if we were, there would be rules—”

“Minus fifty points for Beer being boring.” Nox rolled his head back and made a snoring sound.

“I hate you,” Beer muttered.

“I L-word you,” Nevada told Nox.

Nox grinned. “I’m hungry for—”

“Noooo,” both Torren and Beer groused.

Nox gave a Grinch smile and finished his joke with, “Nevada.”

Candace giggled. She couldn’t help it. These boys were a mess, but they were interesting and kind of funny. When she looked up at Torren, he was watching her lips.

“Nice laugh,” he said, “for a stripper.”

“Whatever that means,” Candace popped off. “Rude.”

Torren frowned, his dark eyebrows drawing down deeply, like she’d confused him. Perhaps he wasn’t used to someone calling him out on his bad manners.

“You don’t smell that sad,” he said, crossing his arms over his massive chest.

“Because I’m not.”

“I thought you would be all sickly and pathetic.”

“Again. Rude. I dance at night. I do what I have to do to make money. You’re hiring a girl to have sex with you, so you can’t judge. You aren’t a saint either, Torren.”

When she said his name, he flinched as though he’d been slapped, and his eyes went round.

“Buuuuuurn,” Nox murmured. “Called out by some five-foot-two wildcat, meow.” He clawed up his fingers and hissed, and in the kitchen, Nevada laughed.

Torren jammed a meaty middle finger at Nox, his eyes never leaving Candace. “I didn’t hire you, nor am I interested.”

“Lie,” Nox said, jumping in the air and landing on his butt on the couch cushion.

Torren huffed an animalistic breath and glanced at Nox with the meanest frown before he gave his attention to Candace again. “I wouldn’t hire you for sex if you were the last—”

“Also lie,” Nox said. “You’re lying right now. I can hear it.”

“And furthermore, you couldn’t handle a man like me in the bedroom—”

“Also probably a lie because she’s a stripper.”

“Shut up, Nox!” Torren bellowed. In a flurry of blurred movement, Torren made it all the way across the room and blasted Nox in the jaw. The speed and accuracy and power behind that hit made Candace jump. Nox wasn’t defenseless, though. It was as if the grizzly shifter had been ready, because he was already up, blasting Torren in the face right back. There was a crack of a broken nose and then both monster men went to the floor, all locked up.

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” Candace yelled at Beer, who stood by the fireplace with his hands on his hips, looking at them in disgust.

“They do this all the time,” Nevada explained, ignoring the fight as she chopped up a tomato. “We’re having hamburgers and hotdogs today,” she said, lifting her voice over the splintering sound of the end table they’d just smashed through. “That probably sounds weird because it’s cold and snowy outside and not hamburger weather, but the boys are really good at grilling, and we don’t have a lot of money between us.”

Torren took a hit to the ribs and grunted in pain. And then something horrifying happened. The red-haired man inhaled and parted his lips, then blew a tiny sphere of fire, no bigger than a golf ball, at Torren, who was going to town on Nox’s face. When it hit him in the back of the neck, the man yelled in pain and pulled off Nox, his hand gripping the burn like that would make it better.

And it hit her.

Beer.

Vyr.

This was the Red Dragon.

Holy. Shit.

Candace backed slowly to the door. She was in the lair of the mother-freaking out-of-control dragon shifter who was wanted for shifter prison. Who had burned all of Covington just six months ago. Who had burned half the damn fox den here. How had she been so dumb? Of course, this was Vyr. She’d been so focused and nervous about Torren, she hadn’t paid enough attention to the real danger.

“Where are you going?” Nox asked, blood streaming from his nose.

“Uh, I just remembered I already have dinner plans.”

Vyr narrowed his eyes, but now they were terrifying. They were churning silver with elongated pupils. Dragon, dragon, dragon, shit, shit, shit.

Pain behind her eyes nearly blinded her, and she doubled over.

“Whoa,” Vyr said. “What do we have here? Wildcat, indeed. Pretty kitty. Bad kitty. What got you into stripping?” He was approaching slowly, hunting her, stalking her. Candace’s back hit the door. She’d convinced herself over the last few days that she wasn’t scared of anything, but in this moment, she knew she’d been wrong to be so careless. To think she was safe from anything.

“Stop,” she pleaded.

“You haven’t done this long. Not long enough to smell sad yet, huh, pretty kitty? Two years.” Vyr angled his head from side to side, keeping her trapped in his gaze. The pain was so bad in her head she went to her knees.

“Stop,” Torren rumbled.

“Dead.”

“Please stop,” she begged, her eyes burning with tears.

“Your dad.”

A sob wrenched from her. Dad. Dad, Dad, Dad, I miss you, Dad.

Torren blasted Vyr across the face with a closed fist, and the pain faded instantly as the gorilla shifter picked him up by the shirt and ran him into the wall. He slammed the dragon shifter against it so hard the wood splintered around his body.

“You want to die?” Vyr yelled.

“Do you? You’re being a dick. She’s crying, man. Save your evil bullshit for someone who deserves it. Stay out of her fuckin’ head!”

Tears streaming down her face, Candace stumbled upward and yanked open the door. She fled down the stairs and to her car as fast as she could. Vyr was a monster. The Red Dragon could read minds. He could pull her memories right from her. And without her consent.

She slipped on the way to her car, almost fell, but righted herself and pulled open the door. Crying so hard, she jammed her key into the ignition with shaking hands and turned it over. Nothing. Shit! She tried again and again and again. Of course, her car would break down now when she needed a quick getaway.

Of course!

This was so perfect. The perfect comment on her life. Anytime she needed anything, actually needed something, everything fell apart even worse.

She rested her forehead against the steering wheel and wrapped her arms around her stomach. And then she just…broke down.

The door opened, and the car rocked with a great weight as someone sat in the passenger’s seat. She didn’t even care if Vyr was here to finish her off. “If you’re going to eat me, make it fast,” she said with a pathetic sniffle.

“Eating out girls isn’t as fun when they’re crying. Or so I assume,” Torren said.

Relief flooded her body, and she sagged against the wheel. Rolling her head, she angled her face to him.

“Your make-up is shot, woman. You look like a raccoon.” Torren was squished into the passenger’s seat of her tiny Volvo, and his knees were nearly up to his chest.

“Well, you look like you’re in a clown car.”

He stared at her blankly for a three-count, but then his lips curved up into a smile. He chuckled.

Which made her giggle.

His chuckle got a little louder.

And she laughed.

“God,” he muttered, running his hand through his dark hair and shaking his head at whatever he was staring at out the window.

When she followed his gaze, Nox was pelvic thrusting against the big picture window of the mansion.

Torren sighed. “Are you okay?”

“No. My life is circling the toilet, and I came to see about having sex with a man for money. And then I met the Red Dragon and he took memories from me. I feel violated.”

“Yeah, he shouldn’t have done that. He forgets sometimes.”

“Forgets what?”

Torren arched his blazing bright green gaze to hers. “He forgets to feel. He’s cold. It wasn’t always like that, but he’s complicated.”

“Um…thank you.”

“For what?”

“For making him stop. That was a huge risk you took.” She gripped the wheel and stared out at the snowflakes that had slowly started falling. The idea of how powerful all three men were was intimidating. “Because he blew a fireball. In his human form. That’s fucked up.”

“You have a filthy mouth.”

“It’s not going to change with you complaining.”

“Didn’t say I was complaining. Were you really going to sleep with me for money?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I had a plan.”

“Tell me the plan.”

She frowned at the sexy stranger beside her. “Okay. I wasn’t just going to jump into bed with you. I was going to negotiate. I was going to make you take me out on dates. At least three so we could see if we could be friends with…you know.”

“Benefits?”

“Yeah. Um…I’m a tiger.”

“In the sack?” he asked with a hopeful tone to his voice.

“No,” she said with a giggle. “I mean I’m a tiger shifter. Not a pretty white one, though. I’m an orange one. My stripes are thin so I look solid orange from a distance other than my white points. I look like my dad. He was mostly orange, too. My mom was a white tiger, but I don’t remember her much. She left when I was three, so it was just me and my dad. I always liked looking like him and not her.” She shook her head and laughed nervously. “I don’t know why I just told you that.”

“He died?”

She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Last year. Still feels new sometimes, though.”

“Pretty kitty. Broken kitty.”

“Not broken. You just met me during a hard chapter of my story.”

Torren smiled sadly. “Same.”

“At least you have a crew,” she said, because positivity had always been her thing. Look for the bright sides. There was always at least one.

“You’re alone?”

She nodded. “It was part of the appeal of trying to be your friend.”

“With benefits.”

“Yeah. That was just a bonus. You’re kind of hot.”

Torren looked surprised and then belted out a single laugh. Was he blushing now? She definitely was.

“I got a problem with my animal, but sex won’t fix me. Nox shouldn’t have asked you. Nothing is gonna fix me.”

“Because you’re HavoK?”

He jerked his gaze to hers. “You researched me?”

“Hell, yeah. I want to know the type of man I’m prostituting myself for.” She cracked a smile so he would know she was joking, but he only frowned deeper.

“You would hate being friends with me, and I would terrorize you in the bedroom. I’m not a man you want to make a deal with. But your car probably has a dozen things that need to be worked on, it’s cold, and Vyr has the burgers on the grill by now. This ain’t a date because, trust me when I say, you don’t want that with me. But how about you spend the evening with a few fuck-ups and the Red Dragon?”

“Will Vyr hurt me?”

Torren shook his head somberly. “I won’t let him.” Torren shoved open his door with a creeeaaak and got out. Then he strode around the front of her car, pulled open her door, and offered his hand. “I promise you, Wildcat. You’re safe.”

You’re safe. That was the best combination of words in the whole wide world. And she’d listened to his voice when he uttered them. He’d been telling the truth. She was safe with him. He was a beast and could be swift with violence as she’d seen when he’d fought Nox and Vyr. But with her? He was being careful. He was being gentle. He would make sure she survived the night.

And she trusted him—this stranger. He’d gone after the Red Dragon to keep him out of her head. He’d earned that trust in just seconds.

“What do you say? You want to have a non-date with me? You want to pretend to be friends without benefits just for the night?”

She slid her hand against Torren’s palm and allowed him to help her out of her car. “Yeah. That sounds like just the kind of adventure I was looking for.”