A Way to a Dragon’s Heart Read Free

anyway?”
    Xander paused. “Over two years now I guess. The conversations just kept getting longer and longer until I finally had to make her my last stop just to ensure everyone on the other floors I cover got fed.”
    He laughed, and Dominic laughed with him. Kryssa chewed in suspicion.
    “You’ve managed two years with her? It must be that ingenious combination of communications and women’s studies. If I knew you could go to university to learn how to talk to women, I’d have gone back to school years ago. How much do you think it’s helped you navigate my sister?”
    Kryssa was too interested in the answer to be offended by the question. Personally, she suspected it had helped Xander a great deal and would happily put every male she knew through the course load.
    “I couldn’t say how much it’s helped, if at all, but I have an A.A.S. that I know has made all the difference in our interactions,” he said with a sly grin that she answered with a laugh.
    Dominic arched a brow. “An associate of applied science degree that helped you more than communications? It has to be either Therian Sexual Development or Culinary Arts.”
    Kryssa smiled at the heat that crept into Xander’s face. She wanted to walk over and lick his cheek to taste the hot blood beneath his skin. Then again, she wanted to taste him every time she saw him. He had skin the color of rich peanut butter cookies and short wavy hair the exact hue of pecan pie. Darker lashes framed large bright irises of ground thyme that sparkled in the light thanks to that non-human fourth of his DNA.
    She didn’t need a shrink to let her know equating everything about him to food spoke of a different hunger altogether. She just wasn’t ready to go there again so soon. Her brother couldn’t believe she’d been single for two years, but it had been rather easy to stay that way. Once she’d focused in on work with the goal of moving her sabbatical up, there hadn’t been time to think about dating. Sex, yes, dating and the trouble of relationships, not so much.
    For someone never embarrassed about anything, it was embarrassing to be embarrassed about the cause of her last break-up. She’d let everyone except Dominic think she was simply too over the relationship to even talk about its demise. She couldn’t explain that she’d shifted in front of Landon for the first time, and from his reaction, all bets had been off. The last positive communication she’d given him was the flower arrangement she’d sent him in the hospital while he was recovering from their falling out.
    “It was Culinary Arts, sir. I went to Kendall College here in Chicago.”
    Dominic smiled, obviously impressed. Kryssa knew Pam, the commissary’s executive chef, had gone to Kendall, one of the many details Dominic had shared after his date with her.
    “Kryssa must adore you.”
    “Are you kidding, Nicky?” she chimed in. “He’s a pastry chef and a living incarnation of the Food Network.” She ticked off points on her fingers. “He’s handsome, socially educated, culinarily inclined and he brings me food every day. Not to mention he’s got a gorgeous boyfriend who has given permission to share details. With Caitlin out on maternity leave, he’s my favorite person in the entire building right now, and at least a six block radius. Not counting you of course.”
    *
    Xander chuckled and ran a hand over his neck. Suddenly the black short sleeve T-shirt and dark blue jeans seemed as stifling as a wool blanket. He felt entirely too warm and was thoroughly sure he failed to hide it from the two Shifters. He was used to Kryssa’s compliments and flirtations. Caitlin teased him mercilessly about them to his delight because it meant she saw the depth of attraction too. But with Dominic present, it felt different somehow. Each word seemed more important as the older man scrutinized him.
    “See?” He smiled to Dominic. “Better than communications, or at least just as good, since it