Sugar Dragon: A Kinship Cove Fun & Flirty Romance: Mates & Macarons, #2

By Ellis Leigh

The next delectable treat from the Cake-ily Ever After bakery in Kinship Cove will have your mouth watering. This recipe for happily ever after includes one feisty baker with a short attention span and a dragon who's been hunting her for decades. All of the fated yumminess, none of the guilt. 

 

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Try everything once. That's my rule in life, food, and dating. I never miss the opportunity to have a new adventure, play with the right flavor profiles, or spend an evening with the perfect guy. Who needs Mr. Right when there are a thousand Mr. Right Nows running around? So when a handsome man with heat in his eyes and a little silver in his hair comes waltzing into my bakery, I know I'm in trouble.

 

He's annoying.

 

He's rude.

 

He's demanding.

 

And he just might be the perfect match for me.

 

Too bad he's a dragon shifter, and dragons don't do the whole fated mate thing. But maybe rules—mine and his—are meant to be broken.

 

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Mates and Macarons is, without a doubt, one of the cutest, sweetest, funniest, most adorable, feel-good paranormal romance series I've read this year. ~Judy C. Lewis

 

SUGAR DRAGON is a paranormal romantic comedy from USA Today bestselling author Ellis Leigh. The story is a standalone PNR rom-com with wit, snark, shifters, and more than just flirting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kinship Press
• Release date: Feb 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781944336592

Ellis Leigh

A storyteller from the time she could talk, USA Today bestselling author Ellis Leigh grew up among family legends of hauntings, psychics, and love spanning decades. Those stories didn’t always have the happiest of endings, so they inspired her to write about real life, real love, and the difficulties therein. From farmers to werewolves, store clerks to witches—if there’s love to be found, she’ll write about it. Ellis lives in the Chicago area with her husband, daughters, and a German Shepherd that refuses to leave her side. Ellis can also be found writing tropey, erotic shorts with her bestie Brighton Walsh as London Hale or taking her suspense into the contemporary world as Kristin Harte.

Book preview

1

Ginger

Bakeries were total guy magnets. Like how dogs and babies attracted women to single men in parks? Sweets and coffee lured the males living in Kinship Cove in droves. Which was why owning and working at the only bakery in town—Cake-ily Ever After, a name that was totally my idea—was such a win in my book. I had my pick of the men in the area, or I’d had my pick. Pretty sure I’d already been through the list of all eligible men who weren’t either related to me, might-as-well-have-been related to me, or smelly.

Don’t judge my aversion to smelly—being a human in a town filled with shifters of various species, the smell factor became a good measuring stick for a man’s date-worthiness. Ever met a skunk shifter? How about a ferret? Yeah. My sheets cost too much to risk them to any sort of…lingering odor possibility.

The rest of the men? Dated them. Been there, likely done that. Maybe more than once, though I doubted it. I was a one-and-done gal at heart. I needed new blood, which was why the biggest wedding of the year for the shifter community happening right there in our little town was such a gift. New men from all over the country were showing up in droves, and our bakery was busy as all get-out. I basically had my pick of my favorite type of men—tall, dark, handsome, and only in town for a few days. They were all mine for the taking.

Except for one.

The handsome man returns. I gave the seriously hot silver fox who’d just walked in the door a grin as I slid a tray of my fan-favorite unicorn cupcakes into the display case. No unicorns were harmed in the making of said cupcakes—and yes, I had to put a sign under the name to keep shifters from worrying. What brings you back here? And if you say anything other than my sister, I might just castrate you.

I wasn’t kidding, even if I did make sure to keep my smile bright. Magnus had strolled into our bakery the day before and taken a liking to my sister Coco. Enough of one for the two of them to have spent an evening together. Just dinner, though, according to her. No sex. Pity that, because the man was fine with a capital F-I-N-E. And not available to me.

He was also a good sport. Thanks for the warning, but rest assured—I’m here for Coco.

Totally not available. Good. C’mon back—she’s working on the macarons for an event order.

I pulled a piece of waxed paper from the dispenser and grabbed a treat for him, one I knew from experience the men in the town appreciated. My sister could be racking up some serious mattress miles if she’d just put her skills to use. Baking skills. And…others. Both my sisters—the serious Coco and the quiet, slightly dreamy Madeleine—tended to be a little more reserved than me. Coco dated a little, but Madeleine didn’t. Me? I made up for both of them. In spades. Just not with the guy Coco seemed to have fallen hard for. Now they just needed to fall a little more…preferably into a bed together. Naked.

And now, I was stuck thinking of the man naked. Of course.

Breton butter cake. I handed Magnus the buttery bun, sending all my get-my-sister-laid energy toward it. Couldn’t hurt, right? Coco trained with a French pastry chef after culinary school. Her éclairs are to die for, but these are a staple.

He might have groaned at his first bite. Not that I blamed him. This is delicious.

It is, and she makes them every day. If you’re lucky, she might even make them at home for you. I spun to back through the kitchen door, grinning widely. Hope you don’t mind working out.

His eye roll only made him that much more handsome. Graying hair, a body that screamed I work out louder than an LMFAO song, and a sense of humor? My sister had hit the jackpot with this one. The bitch.

Hey, cookie lady, I hollered as soon as I’d led Magnus into the realm of flour and butter and all things delicious. Also known as the kitchen. You’ve got a delivery.

My poor, harried sister didn’t even look up, focusing on a tray of pink macarons instead. Five minutes. I just need five minutes to put these together before the filling sets up too much and I can’t get them to stick right.

Magnus answered her before I could. I can wait.

Coco’s head shot up, her dark eyes looking right at the man behind me. That was likely my cue to…be anywhere other than in their way. I slipped through the kitchen to the hallway that led to our walk-in refrigerator. We used the space for storage mostly—we owned more aluminum than a…well, business that made things from aluminum—though my youngest sister liked to hide out back there as well. I found her just outside of the refrigerator, looking almost lost as she stared at a pegboard covered in icing tips.

Lost something?

Her frown deepened. I can’t get the lace drops right on the wedding cake, so I thought I’d try a different tip. Are those new shoes?

I turned my leg and lifted the heel of one foot. They are. Do you love them?

She shook her head, her eyes still not on the hand-painted red and brown clogs I’d spent the last three weeks tracking down. They’re beautiful. How long will they last?

As in how long would I wear them before I tossed them in the back of my closet, never to be thought about again. Until the next awesome pair comes along. Like always.

She shook her head. You’re never happy with what you’ve got. How’s the wolf?

As in the groom’s cake. The bride and groom were both shifters—wolf shifters, to be specific—so the couple had requested a wolf howling at the moon to be carved out of cake for their rehearsal dinner. Clichéd but doable. The bride-to-be, a woman named Fiona, had laughed when I’d told her the same thing.

Honey, we’re shifters. Being clichéd is simply part of the game.

And so, a three-dimensional, howling wolf it was.

I’d never tell Coco this, but I liked Fiona. She was strong and independent, sassy and a little wild. She was also saddled with Coco’s ex-boyfriend for the rest of her life due to some cosmic fate nonsense. Almost all shifters had to basically drop everything in their life the moment they met their so-called one true mate simply because the universe brainwashed them into thinking that person was perfect for them.

Such bullshit.

But I digress. The groom’s cake is done and tucked into its den for the night. I just need to finish a few dozen more of the cupcakes for the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Boozy cupcakes—rum and pineapple upside-down cupcakes, dark chocolate Rumchata cupcakes, angel food cake with strawberries soaked in vodka. Fiona knew how to throw a party, and I knew how to keep it going. Sugar and booze…perfect.

So many things to keep track of. Madeleine shook her head and grabbed a tiny silver tip from the massive collection of other shiny silver tips. I assume Coco’s almost done with the macarons.

The cookies my sister was famous for. Looked like it, though Magnus just showed up to distract her.

The older man from yesterday? Older—because he had a little gray at his temples and in his scruff. They’re cute together.

And sweet—he seemed like a nice guy. But… Too bad they’re destined for failure.

Madeleine swiveled on her heel in a slow-motion sort of way. Very horror-movie style. He can’t be that much older than her.

I blinked. Blinked again. I never said anything about the age difference.

A flood of pink rushed up her neck, staining her cheeks. Oh. I just assumed… Well, I was wrong. But still, why do you say they’re destined for failure? Maybe they’ll fall in love.

I hooked a thumb over my shoulder, pointing toward the kitchen on the other side of the wall. That right there? All the googly-eyed sweetness? That’s lust. And lust is fine—more than fine. It’s amazing and powerful and perfect for a night or two, but you can’t confuse it with love. You’ll get your little heart broken if you do.

Head cocked,