Tangled Innocence Read Online Free

throat dry.
    Dante moved, pushing Jace a step back then stood by her car
door. “Come on into the bar, Nadie. We have a lot to talk about.”
    She shook her head. “Tell me here. What’s going on?” There
was something off about this, something she didn’t understand. It wasn’t fear
running through her right then—no, it was something much warmer, something
filled with undeniable promise. She needed to put a stop to it before it went
anywhere…especially since it seemed Dante and Jace were an item—or something
much more.
    And once again, Nadie had been left on the outside looking
in.
    “Nadie, please,” Dante begged. “Come inside. For me?”
    At that last word, she nodded. She’d never seen her dragon
beg, and she didn’t want to see it again. He wasn’t the type to do so, and that
meant something far greater than she could imagine was going on here.
    “Fine, but you need to tell me what’s going on when we get
in there.”
    Dante nodded. “Yes, I’ll tell you everything. Finally.”
    She got out of the car and swallowed hard. She looked at
Jace and blinked. The feeling of being by his side was strangely just as
intimate and heated as being by Dante’s. That didn’t make any sense, and yet
she wasn’t sure she wanted it to. For some reason she wanted to move closer to
them both, hold them and never let them go. The warmth in her belly wasn’t a
mere attraction, no, it was something far greater.
    Something tugged at her heart, her breath, her…everything.
    She had a feeling she’d just taken a step toward a future
she hadn’t thought possible, but this time, she wasn’t turning back.

Chapter Two
     
     
    Dante Bell had to take a deep breath and get a grip, or he’d
lose it. As it was, he could practically feel his talons scraping his
fingertips, so he fisted his hands and fought for the control he’d had for
thousands of years. It wouldn’t be good to go dragon in the middle of his bar
in front of the woman—and man—he was trying to soothe.
    Not good at all.
    He’d let Nadie walk out to the parking lot herself, despite
the fact he’d told Faith he’d go out with her to make sure she was okay,
because he’d known Jace was out there getting off his bike. The man had texted
and let Dante know he was there, and Dante had wanted Jace to meet Nadie, or at
least see her and keep her safe. Dante had told Jace who Nadie was, what she
looked like. Even if it took a moment for the bear to understand, deep down,
Jace would have felt that pull, would have known that Nadie was important to
them. He hadn’t known her car would break down, and he’d end up in his bar
alone with them.
    Not that it was a bad thing.
    Oh, not at all.
    He stepped into his bar, Nadie and Jace right behind him,
and inhaled. He loved his bar. He’d built it from the ground up and had changed
it over the years to make it blend in with society. With his magic, the humans
had never caught on that he never aged and was still the same
black-and-blue-haired man he’d been for decades. He’d only added his
adornments—the piercings and the like—in the past ten years or so when they
came back in style, and he quite liked them.
    He knew Nadie liked them too.
    Not that he’d done anything about it.
    Not that he could have done anything about it.
    He’d watched Nadie from the first time she’d walked into the
bar and had never stopped. Just seeing those wide eyes and plump lips had sent
his dragon into overdrive. He’d known from the start who she was, what she
could be, and would be with him and Jace, and subsequently had known that he
could do nothing about it until the time was right.
    Considering his age, he hated not being able to do as he
wanted. Those actions had left both of them in pain, and now Dante was ready to
face the brunt of her anger at what he was about to tell her. He would deserve
it, as would Jace, but damn, he was so fucking happy they were both here.
    This moment, this time, was theirs, and it had been