Dragon Proposing (Torch Lake Shifters Book 2) Read online

  He squinted down at the drink list again until he found and read the description for the Magic Bonfire. Then he looked back up at her with a frown. “That sounds really complicated. Can’t I just get some whiskey straight?”

  “You could, but what would the fun in that be? Try something new.”

  This admonition seemed to convince him, because he laid down the menu and put his hands up in surrender. “Alright. You’re the expert on this bar. Why don’t you order me the food and drink you think I’ll enjoy most, and we’ll see how the best of the Magic Cocktail holds up to the Winking Wizard.”

  He sat back and crossed his arms defiantly, as though he already knew that there was no way anything here could hold up to his beloved Winking Wizard. But Rachel just smiled. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

  She reached for the golden tassel hanging from the side of their booth and pulled it. Instantly, the thick, purple curtains that had enclosed their booth opened wide, bringing the rest of the distinctive décor into view. Jake shook his head in wonder, staring back and forth between the golden tassel cord and the rest of the lounge.

  “This place is something else,” he said.

  Rachel smiled. “Welcome to my world.”

  She was pleased that the décor, at least, had left an impression on him. He would have had to have been blind not to be impressed by it, really. The Magic Cocktail had set out to be the most unique cocktail lounge in downtown Torch Lake, and they just might have accomplished their goal. Even though it was late afternoon, it always felt like evening in here. The sparkling chandelier in the middle of the room was matched with identical mini-versions of the chandelier at each booth, filling the room with soft white light. The light from the chandeliers was augmented by dozens of elaborate torches, spaced evenly along every available wall space. The mood lighting here was the best of any cocktail lounge Rachel had ever been to.

  She hadn’t brought Jake here for the mood lighting, though. She’d brought him here for the privacy the place offered. The Magic Cocktail consisted of one small, square room. Along three walls of the room, booths stood waiting for customers. But these weren’t normal restaurant booths. Each one was enclosed with thick velvet curtains in varying shades of purple and silver. The curtains could be opened if you wanted to get the attention of a waitress, or if you just wanted to admire the rest of the beautiful decorations in the room. But they could also be closed completely, giving you absolute privacy from the rest of the restaurant. The curtains had been intended to make customers feel like ancient royalty, with their own private dining quarters. But they also made the perfect hideout when you wanted to plan a wedding without the rest of the world knowing what you were doing.

  Along the final, fourth wall of the room, doors led to the exit, the restrooms, and the kitchen. But the doors weren’t all that easy to see, because they blended into a beautiful mural that covered the entire wall. In swirling silver and purple paint, an artist had depicted his version of the last battle of the Dark War, where dark magic had been defeated. The painting was quite abstract, but Rachel loved it. It matched the silver and purple couches that sat in the middle of the room, where people could relax while they waited for a booth during the restaurant’s busy peak hours. Right now, though, the place was nearly empty. Across the room from Rachel and Jake’s booth, one other couple was hiding away in their booth, with their curtain completely closed. Other than that, the booths sat unused. That would all change within the next hour, as people started to get off work. The rich downtown professionals loved to come here to blow off steam after a long day at the office. Rachel herself hadn’t spent much time here, though. She wasn’t exactly rich right now, and neither were any of her coworkers. They fell more into the downtown grunt workers group, and usually chose a cheaper bar with two for one drink and food specials. Rachel was willing to splurge a bit today, though. She wanted the privacy this place offered, and besides, she did just get a marriage license. It wasn’t every day a girl did that, and even if the circumstances were a bit unusual, Rachel still felt she deserved to commemorate the occasion with a fancy cocktail.

  Rachel had watched Jake’s eyes widen when they first entered the room. He hadn’t said anything, though, so she wasn’t sure whether he’d been looking around with approval or annoyance. Not that it mattered much to her. She knew he thought she was a spoiled brat, but could he really get mad at her for not branching out much from her downtown cocktail lounges when he himself had just admitted that he only ever went to the Winking Wizard? It sounded to her like they had both spent a little too much time wrapped up in their own worlds. Maybe that would be one more good thing that came from their unusual marriage. Both of them might open up a little more.

  Rachel chanced a glance over at Jake. He’d gone back to squinting at the menu, which gave her a moment to admire his handsome face. She had to admit that, as vain as it might sound, she was happy that she was at least getting a husband who was undeniably gorgeous. Jake’s face looked especially good in the soft light of their table’s mini-chandelier, and Rachel thought that she couldn’t really blame the legions of girls in Torch Lake who sighed every time he walked past. She almost giggled at the thought. Those poor girls were all going to be quite disappointed when they found out that Jake was officially off the market. It almost didn’t seem fair to marry a man as handsome as Jake for purely practical reasons, but that was the reality of the world they were living in now.

  The waitress had noticed now that the curtain in Rachel’s booth had opened, and she bounded over with a ridiculously huge smile on her face.

  “Ready to order?”

  Rachel nodded. “I’ll have the Wizard’s Kiss, and he’d like to try the Magic Bonfire. And do you guys still offer the Royal Fairy Sampler?”

  The waitress bobbed her head up and down. “We do. It’s not on the menu anymore, but we can definitely still do that for you.”

  “Great. We’ll do that then. Thanks.”

  The waitress bounced off, and Jake leaned back with a skeptically raised eyebrow. “The Royal Fairy Sampler?”

  “It’s good. You’ll see.”

  Jake shook his head. “This place is over the top.”

  “Yes, you’ve said that already. But give it a chance.”

  Jake grinned at her and shrugged, and when their food came soon after, he did give it a chance. Anyone who hated on such a delicious assortment of food would have had to have been a real grump. There was something for everyone. The Royal Fairy Sampler was actually brought out on three platters. One was filled with fruit, cheese, crackers, nuts, and cold cuts of meat. The second platter was filled with savory sandwiches and bread pies. The options included minced beef turnovers, mini chicken pot pies, and a half dozen fancy deli sandwiches. The third platter was full of treats. Mini cupcakes, tarts, cheesecakes, and brownies were piled high on every spare inch of the platter.

  “This doesn’t look too bad,” Jake said as he took in the spread before him, then winked at her. “It’s not a burger and fries from the Winking Wizard, but it might do.”

  Rachel rolled her eyes, mostly to hide how flustered she was by his wink. Then she held up her cocktail glass. “Cheers, to our marriage.”

  Jake grinned. “Cheers. I must say, I lucked out quite a bit with a bride like you. You’re drop-dead gorgeous. I bet a lot of other guys with marriages of convenience aren’t so lucky.”

  Rachel blushed as she took a sip of her drink. She was tempted to tell him that she was lucky as well, because he was gorgeous, too. But that felt too much like flirting, and Rachel had determined not to flirt with him. This marriage wasn’t about love or feelings. It was about the fact that both of them needed to be married to get something they wanted, and that was it. Jake might be good-looking, but he had already proven that he had a rude streak. Rachel had made herself clear when she agreed to this proposal: it was a marriage of paper only. She wasn’t going to start giving him mixed signals and make him think that it was more than that
. She took a deep breath and put on a businesslike tone.

  “We should start discussing all the details. We have a prenup to write, a ceremony to plan, and living arrangements to sort out.”

  Jake looked up at her and nodded. “Yeah. It’s a lot of stuff to think about. But first, can I just say that this cocktail isn’t half-bad?”

  Rachel couldn’t help but smile as he took another sip of his Magic Bonfire. She felt triumphant, as though she herself had invented the cocktail. All she’d done was suggest it, but still. It felt good to have proof that there were other drinks besides beer out there that Jake thought were worth drinking. A sudden image flashed across Rachel’s mind of Jake and her sitting here at this cocktail lounge to celebrate some big success in the future. Perhaps his victory in the People’s Governor election. Or maybe the grand opening day of her music store.

  Rachel felt her stomach twisting into funny knots. Did she really want to do this? Marry a man whom she didn’t think she’d ever love? There were so many parts of life that were better shared with someone you truly cared about, and who truly cared about you. Forever was a long time to spend with someone who didn’t make you come alive. The thought weighed heavily on Rachel, making her feel as though she were being crushed beneath its weight.

  And yet, if Rachel didn’t marry Jake, what would she have left to celebrate, anyway? There would be no music school. All there would be were endless days of slaving away at her thankless job, underpaid and overworked. She would be in a constant state of worry over money, which probably meant she wouldn’t find time to search for true love, anyway. Better to take Jake’s offer and live a comfortable life with a man she could tolerate.

  She knew her mother would be ashamed of her for thinking along these lines. Her mother would have told her to live her life to the fullest, and that there were more important things in life than money. That was all true enough, but her mother had never actually dealt with the reality of life with no backup plan. Her mother had never faced the possibility of losing every memento she had of every person she’d ever loved.

  Rachel was doing what she had to do. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but a lot of people had things a lot worse, didn’t they? A lot of people were about to lose everything for real, with no kind dragon shifter swooping in to save the day. Of course, Jake wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He was doing it because he stood to gain from the arrangement, too. But at least they had the option of each other, as unromantic as that option was.

  Rachel gritted her teeth together and reached to close the thick curtain on their booth. Time to get down to business.

  “So, first we should talk about the wedding ceremony itself. We’ll need a location, an officiant, and two witnesses. Any suggestions?”

  “Why not do it at the Winking Wizard?”

  Rachel gave Jake a deadpan stare. “Are you trying to make this as unromantic as humanly possible?”

  He looked confused by her reaction. “Well, no. I was trying to think of a convenient, fun place. And a cheap place. Joe would probably let us hold the damn ceremony for free at the Winking Wizard. I wasn’t thinking much about romance, to be honest. Should I have been?”

  Rachel felt her cheeks burning again. He had a point. They weren’t supposed to be making this a romantic thing. She had insisted on that even more than him. So why was she still disappointed that his suggestion for a wedding venue hadn’t been a swoon-worthy one?

  “No, it doesn’t need to be romantic,” she stammered out. “Of course not. It’s just that…I think we should at least put up a good show of this being a real wedding. We don’t want people accusing us of gaming the system to our advantage.”

  Jake seemed to find that amusing, because he laughed. “But we are kind of gaming the system.”

  Damn it. He had a point again.

  “Right, well, it’s not like we’re intending to just get married and then divorced. We’re at least going to sort of live like a husband and wife.”

  “Are we?”

  His dark brown eyes were staring through her now. His gaze had intensified and Rachel found herself uncomfortably averting her eyes. How far were they going to take things with each other? How much of a “show” were they going to put up for people? These were the details they needed to figure out.

  And for the next two hours, they did their best to figure things out. They hashed out every tiny question that each of them had, stopping only to open the curtains and request another cocktail when either one of them had a glass that ran dry. Rachel hadn’t realized just how many things went into a marriage, and especially a marriage of convenience. By the time the Magic Cocktail started to really fill up from the after-work rush, she had more questions than answers. But at least some progress had been made. They would live together in Rachel’s house, at least initially. Her place was certainly modest by her family’s standards, but it was still twice the size of Jake’s apartment. They could each have their own bedroom and bathroom, but they would be in the same house. Jake had come to the conclusion that it was important that they live together to let everyone know that they took their marriage contract seriously. Rachel thought that was a bit unnecessary, but she had decided that she actually didn’t mind the idea of having someone else living in her house. She had plenty of space, and she had always been in a full house before the war had wiped out her family. It might be nice to have another human being around, especially when that human being was a strong man and a dragon shifter to boot. It would be almost like having her own private security service.

  As for the ceremony, Rachel reluctantly agreed to hold it at the Winking Wizard. She thought it was somewhat strange to hold a wedding ceremony at a divey beer bar, but Jake loved the place and he had a good point—it would be the cheapest place to hold the ceremony. Rachel would have plenty of money after the marriage took place and her inheritance was legally transferred to her, but before that she was flat broke. Joe the bartender was apparently licensed to officiate weddings, and Jake assured Rachel that they’d have plenty of witnesses. She felt a pang of sadness when she realized that she didn’t have many friends of her own to invite to the wedding. Sure, she was friendly with her coworkers, but she hadn’t known them very long, and she hadn’t really clicked with any of them. They were nice enough people to hang out with on evenings and weekends, but none of them were people she would have considered more than casual acquaintances. All of Rachel’s good friends had died in the Dark War, along with her family.

  The realization that she didn’t have anyone to invite to her own wedding cut Rachel to her core. Perhaps it was a good thing that this marriage was only a technicality and didn’t mean much to her. What was the point in a big fancy wedding when you had no one to celebrate with you?

  Rachel and Jake had also discussed a prenup. Jake had brought up the issue, which Rachel appreciated. He was going out of his way to make sure that Rachel knew he wasn’t after her money. She supposed it would have been pretty disingenuous of him to criticize her for caring too much about money only to turn around and grab at her fortune himself. But he seemed completely uninterested in taking a single penny from her. He reminded her that he was happy to sign whatever prenup she and her lawyer prepared. Then he asked her what he should contribute toward living expenses. He wanted to pay her monthly rent to live in her house, as well as to cover half the cost of utilities and food. Rachel hadn’t even thought about this, and her initial instinct was to tell him that rental payments would be unnecessary. But before she could say this to him, she’d realized that if she didn’t accept rent from him she might come across as wanting too much of an intimate relationship, so she reluctantly agreed. She still wasn’t sure if that had been the right thing to do.

  This whole situation was so confusing. As far as Rachel knew, no manual existed for how to handle a marriage like this. She felt like she was in well over her head, but she had no choice other than to keep swimming. If she wanted to keep her family’s fortune, she had to fig
ure out a way to make this work.

  By the time they’d finished their discussion of the prenup, Rachel felt like she’d had about all she could handle for the day. Jake had too, it seemed, because he reached for the tassel cord to open their booth’s curtain and started flagging down their waitress without even asking Rachel first.

  “I’m sorry, but I need a break from fancy cocktails,” he said to Rachel as their waitress started hurrying over. Jake handed the girl a credit card, surprising Rachel. She had no idea how he’d gotten the card out of his wallet so quickly, or without her seeing it. “We’re ready to pay out,” he said. “Put the whole tab on this card, please.”

  The waitress nodded and bounced away, and Rachel felt the need to protest. “Jake, at least let me get half. This place was my idea, after all.”

  Jake shrugged and gave her a lopsided grin. “Now what kind of man would I be if I let my fiancée pay for her own celebratory engagement cocktails, huh?”

  Rachel bit her lip, unsure of how to reply. There he went again, borderline flirting with her. Did he mean something by it, or was he like this with all his female friends? Something told her that he wasn’t a crazy flirt. She’d seen him from afar before, with women falling all over him. He’d always been polite as far as she could tell, but he’d never seemed to be overly flirty. So why was he joking around with her so much now? Was it just because she was about to be his wife? Even if it wasn’t a love based marriage, it was still a marriage. They might as well be comfortable with each other.

  But as Rachel watched Jake sign his credit card receipt and thank the waitress, she got the feeling that Jake’s joking wasn’t entirely innocent. Confused thoughts swirled in her mind, and she was grateful to step out into the fresh, outside air and away from the dim mood lighting of the Magic Cocktail.

  She was about to turn to Jake and wish him goodnight when he spoke up first.

  “I was serious about going to the Winking Wizard. Do you want to come, too?”