He darted in front of me and tried to stop me.
“Move,” I bit out.
“No, please, wait,” he begged. “I wasn’t being mean. I wasn’t—I’ll give you whatever you want freely, Sagan. You don’t have tomake deals with me. It came out harsher than I meant because I—please wait.”
I took a step back but crossed my arms over my chest, unable to meet his gaze. I wanted to let it go but couldn’t. “You end up apologizing a lot. It’s hard to trust you’re ever really sorry then.”
His body went tense. I wasn’t looking at his face, but I could see that. “I mess up a lot, but I try not to make the same mistakes twice. Please keep that in mind at least.”
I gave a slight nod. That was probably fair.
“What did you need—why did you come to find me?” he asked quietly when the silence dragged out. “Please? Can we just sit and talk? I’ll help—whatever you need, baby girl.”
I really liked hearing him call me that more than I should and it wasn’t something I wanted him to know. I sighed and pushed my hair over my shoulder. “Don’t agree so fast because it’s something I shouldn’t ask.”
He moved closer and lowered his voice. “I’d still do it for you. Give me the chance to show that. Don’t—let me show I value you and not because I want access to the De la Rosa libraries.”
I slowly looked up at him. “I looked at your resume and bio.”
He nodded. “Of course, you are for all of the candidates and…” He trailed off because I felt my cheeks heat dragon fire hot. He chuffed and moved in closer, backing me up until I hit the end of one of the huge bookshelves. “Baby girl, thank you for giving me hope again. I promise I’ll show you I deserve it. I promise you—ask me anything and I’ll get it done for you.”
I licked my lips as my body reacted to him being so close, but it backfired—or maybe that wasn’t the right way to put it—because heat filled his eyes. “Protesia has a mountain that they—it’s bad. Rockslides. Mudslides. They’ve sent their specialists out, but no one can ever seem to get an answer.”
He lost the lust and seemed to put on his professional hat. “I’ve heard about that. Nothing recent though, right? They asked your father for help a few years ago.”
My eyes went wide, but then I relaxed. “You must have been on the dig. There was a huge issue, but they weren’t even releasing full details outside of their media because it’s getting embarrassing the king can’t handle something like that. He and Father—they didn’t have the trust and he was too demanding like we owed everyone help with our talents.”
“And knowing your father, he wanted to help, but the optics were so bad that it could hurt dragons in the long run if it seemed the tigers could push us around.”
I nodded.
“What do you get out of it?” he hedged.
“You’ve seen how much Myriam can sense. An investigator of that level at court and on my side would be huge, but he’d ask too much and try to put in a spy.”
“Not if he got a win out of the deal and it looked like a trade of royals helping royals,” he surmised, nodding when I smiled. “He wouldn’t risk that future help.”
“Only if he was stupid, and he’s not. He’s smart and cunning, but—this should work.”
“Done.” He nodded but then froze. “If my queen gives me a kiss.”
I couldn’t even hide my disappointment. “I should give sexual favors for—”
“No,” he groaned, scrubbing his hands over his face. “I didn’t mean it like that. I mean more like for being your knight in shining armor or—no, of course not.”
“Oh, sorry.” That was actually kind of sweet, but I’d overreacted.
“Can I take you out to dinner when I get back and tell you all about it firsthand?” he asked, trying again.
“Like out in Nerthus? One of the nice restaurants?” I cleared my throat when I realized there was a bit too much enthusiasm in my tone.
But he caught it. “Yes, I’ll arrange everything. Private room. Tasting menu—something fun for you.” He leaned in again and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Let me give you something fun, baby girl.”
“Okay,” I breathed, my hormones going wild.
Which was crazy when I’d just been burned by Thorn.
“I can use one of your planes so I get—”
