Page 27 of Billionaire Dragon King’s Rejected Mate

The heat that flared between them was exactly the problem. He pulled back abruptly, like he’d just realized the ground beneath him wasn’t stable.

Her eyes were wide, her lips parted. For a second he almost lost the fight and stayed.

Her fingers flew to her lips as he spun around and didn’t stop walking until he was alone.

His control had slipped. His hands clenched at his sides and tension coiled tight through his shoulders as the heat he had barely contained surged higher and demanded release in a way that logic could not immediately override.

He made it to his office and slammed the door before his mind supplied an image so clear it was almost tangible.

Fire.

A sweeping, consuming blaze that reduced everything unnecessary to ash and left only what mattered standing in its wake. He needed something to burn, something to destroy.

The urge flickered, bright and dangerous, before he forced it back and dragged it under with the same ruthless discipline he applied to everything else that threatened to get out of control.

He exhaled slowly. He shouldn’t have kissed her, and he fought against the strong desire for more. This was what he wanted. He repeated it, not as a question, not even as reassurance, but as fact, something solid he could anchor to while the rest of his thoughts threatened to spiral into territory he refused to entertain.

Distance was necessary, attachment was a risk, and complication was weakness. Randi was all three.

He picked up the phone and dialed Eddie’s number. He needed someone with a calm head to talk to.

“This can’t be good,” Eddie answered. “Usually you text me when you want to meet for a drink.”

Without preamble, Chance spilled the whole story. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Sounds like you have it bad for this girl.”

It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but the words caught Chance off guard. Even though his dragon constantly claimed her, he wasn’t sure when his heart had gotten involved.

“I’ll be damned. I actually shut you up for once,” Eddie teased.

“Don’t think it’s going to become a habit.”

“My advice to you, my friend, is that if you want her, you’d better figure something out pretty quick before she gets tied down with this other guy.”

“There’s something else.” Chance told him about the letters from the Northlands.

“Seems like you’re going to be making a trip soon. I’d like to go with you.”

“I’m not going anywhere near there.” He wanted to take Eddie to see the sights, but not when war was so close between the royal factions, especially when there was the potential of dragons.

“Sounds like you may not have a choice.”

Chance hung up feeling worse than ever. His father’s problems were not his own, and yet they were. He was the next in line, not voluntarily but nonetheless, and he was letting the people down.

He strolled to look out over the city. His once tightly controlled environment was getting lost in the crazy. Just like he was going to lose Randi.

If she chose to go to dinner with Josh, if she chose something easy and safe, then that was exactly the outcome he had been working toward. He was removed from the equation. No blurred lines and no expectation.

As he stood there in front of his tall, plate glass windows, the echo of how it felt with her returning his kiss replayed with irritating clarity.

He may have wanted it this way, but it still sucked.

Chapter 12

Randi

Randi did not make impulsive decisions, not the kind that unraveled entire chapters of her life in one reckless move. But there was something deeply satisfying in opening her laptop that afternoon and quietly searching for positions that existed entirely outside the reach of TimeOff and outside the orbit of a man who had proven with brutal efficiency that proximity to him came at a cost she had not fully calculated.