I narrowed my eyes as I sat down across from her. “You aren’t having any romantic inclinations toward him, are you?”
Jade’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “No. Why would I?”
“Just checking!” Feeling infinitely more gracious with that cleared up, I gave her one of my charming smiles. “He’s intelligent and sly—as expected of a fae. Shockingly, he lacks the typical fae pettiness I’d expect from his kind. I’ve pulled his proverbial wings. While he gets exasperated, he doesn’t appear to get angry.”
“I’ve noticed that too,” Jade said. “Since being taken into custody, he’s been emotionally stable when usually I’d expect a fae to act more demanding.”
“Working for a dragon shifter is an odd background for a fae. Particularly for a noble,” I said. “You don’t find fae with hispowers and pedigree too far from their Courts. Working for a dragon shifter means he inherently traveled a lot.”
“I wondered before if he was working for her voluntarily, or if he was somehow being forced,” Jade said.
I shrugged. “If anyone could trick a fae—or even care enough to trick a fae—it would be a dragon shifter.”
Jade nodded and glanced at Landon, who was adding whipped cream to her drink and topping it with red and green sprinkles.
I studied her during her distraction, my eyes lingering on her beautiful dusting of freckles and the way they set off her captivating jade-green eyes.
Wow, I have it bad. I can’t believe I thought that unironically.
I was not prone to romanticize things—it was dangerous for a vampire of my age. Which reminded me…
I pulled out my cellphone, swapped to the camera app, and held it in selfie mode. “Smile for the camera,” I said.
“What?” Jade glanced at my phone, then automatically smiled.
I took the picture before she could think it over, then opened my gallery app to make sure I was satisfied with the result.
“You’ve been taking a lot of pictures recently,” Jade said.
“I have,” I confirmed before I put my phone away. (It was a perfect photo that captured the sweetness of her smile.)
“You didn’t do that before,” Jade said.
“That’s because there was nothing I cared about remembering.” I was tempted to smile and reach for her hand, but there was a piece of news I needed to tell her about, or Killian would beat me to the punch and make things difficult.Again.
Jade abruptly leaned closer. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I lied.
Jade shook her head. “It’s in your eyes. There’s something you’re not happy about.”
While it genuinely surprised me how well she could read me, I knew better than to take it as a sign of hope. As a vampire slayer, she was likely keyed intoallvampires, and I wouldn’t take hope where there was none.
Still, that didn’t mean I couldn’t have a bit of fun.
“Jade.” I planted a hand over my heart. “You know me so well. I’m touched!”
Jade didn’t react and patiently stared at me.
I gave in. “Fine. Killian Drake is going to be hosting a gala at Drake Hall for the elite of the Midwest vampires.”
I paused, trying to gauge her reaction, but her pulse was as steady as her neutral expression.Sometimes it’s very inconvenient she was taught to subvert vampire abilities.
“If possible,” I continued, “I would like it if you attended it with me.”
Jade smoothed her hands over the tabletop. “Do you expect a fight?”
“No.”
