“Except...except for this demon thing. I couldn't control it. And now I can't change back. Of course I was able to scare Chris off. I scared him by how ugly I am."He shook his head. "Princess, there's nothing ugly about you.”

“I glanced at George half naked in his towel, then at Barkley, completely naked in his . . . nothing. A vampire and a werewolf. I shook my head. It was obvious. I was having one of my Anita Blake dreams again. ”

“Is your future faery bride too ugly for you?”Rhys leaned back against the head rest and studied the seatback in front of him. “That’s not it.”“Too old or too young?”“No.”I rolled my eyes, but smiled. This was why he was upset. Hehadn’t landed the perfect bride-to-be. “Her pretty faery wingsaren’t the right shade of sparkly lavender and pink?”His eyes flashed with anger. “Actually, she doesn’t have faerywings.”“She doesn’t?”“No. As a matter of fact, the dragon oracle tells me the girl I’msupposed to marry, the one destined to someday become the queenof the faery realm, isn’t a faery at all.”Okay, that was surprising. Not a faery?“She isn’t?” I said. “Then who is she?”His expression was severe as he turned to look me right in theeye.“You,” he said”

“But I'd done what I could to warm the place up. I'd started with a welcome mat. It had a happy face on it and was bright and colorful. It didn't say "Welcome." It said "!!!WELCOME!!!"I knew he wouldn't like it. I considered it more of an amusing test to see how open he was to change. He'd let me move in with him, but how flexible was he really willing to be?It disappeared the day after I placed it by the front door. It was just--poof!--gone. When I imagined the shocked look on his face when he would have first seen it, a spot of wacky and whimsical color in his otherwise monochromatic world, I started to laugh hysterically.”

“I'm a half-demon princess. Sure. What's so hard to grasp about that?”

“I really hate you sometimes.""There's a fine line between love and hate."I glared at him. "Dream on.”

“I stared blankly at Rhys for what felt like about three days.“Me?” I finally sputtered.He nodded.“You’re kidding, right?”“Not kidding.”I laughed then, and it sounded slightly hysterical. “I’m notgoing to marry you.”“I’m not asking you to.”“Good.”He eyed me. “And you can wipe that horrified look off yourface because it’s obviously not true.”“Do I look horrified?”“Yes, you do.”I grimaced. “Nothing personal, Rhys, but—”He held up a hand. “Say nothing else. I shouldn’t have evenmentioned it to you. I’ll find another dragon to help me.”“Second opinions are really important,” I said.He just glowered at that.We rode the rest of the way back to Erin Heights in silence.Now I had even more information crowding my already full brain.Maybe that Irena chick should go see a shrink, herself. She wasone crazy dragon lady.”