He holds his hands up, confused. But still smiling.
There’s no one that close to us, but she lowers her voice anyway. “I’ve never ever been a touchy person in public. It would be more suspicious if I started it now. All you need to do is be seen coming home with me at the end of the night. Okay?”
He nods, contemplative. “Easy enough.”
“Princess here is the one who needs to be wooed.” She nods her head at me.
In that moment, I decide to scrounge up whatever confidence I can, stop blushing so much, and start playing into it more. I stick my chin up, prop my elbows on the table, and interlace my hands. “That’s right, I do,” I say with a nod and a haughty air. “I’m not going to run away with just any asshole from Torrynth.”
I glance at Daegan, whose lips are pulled into a tight line, like he can’t quite decide if he wants to let himself smile or not. “Noted,” he says with a nod, finally letting his grin shine through.
“How were the training grounds?” I ask them.
“About the same as the last time. A bunch of macho idiots thought it would be a good idea to challenge us, and we made them look like fools.”
“Good,” Meela says. “I can’t be seen with some scoundrel who can’t even hold his own in a battle.”
“I feel like we’re being insulted this morning, Daegan. What about you?”
He shrugs, side-eyeing me. “As long as she wears a dress like that, she can insult me however she wants.” I’m wearing a low-cut dark purple one today.
I laugh, holding my composure on the outside. But inside, I’m melting.
“Excuse me,” Daegan rises from the table, and my eyes track him all the way to the refreshments, where he makes a cup of tea. When he returns, he sets it in front of me, setting two hardened sap cubes beside it.
I shift my gaze from the cup in front of me to him.
“What? You take it with two cubes, right?”
“Right…”
I look around the room, feeling a tingling in my neck, and then my eyes fall on Adrian. I know he’s been watching. For how long, I don’t know. But he looks angry.
“The lovesick captain has not been happy with my presence all morning,” Daegan murmurs.
I look over and find him following my gaze. “Did he challenge you again?”
“No. He’d be stupid to do that.”
When we finish, Meela announces that she needs a bath to wipe all the dirt away before we practice more. She looks at Raef with flirty eyes. “Care for an afternoon tangle in the sheets, lover?”
“What?” Raef asks, caught off guard.
She rolls her eyes. “Not really, but… just come on.” She grabs his wrist—not his hand—and leads him away.
“Bye,” he calls back at us.
Daegan and I walk side-by-side out of the dining hall. Adrian’s seething eyes track us on the way out, but I ignore it. Perhaps things between us feel unresolved on his end, but that chapter is over for me.
The tall, muscular dragon clad in all black stops ahead of me, turning to face me. “Do you also need a bath before training and most likely getting dirty all over again?”
I chuckle. “No.”
He folds his arms, his gaze searching my eyes for something. I cannot guess what.
“Do you want to come see what we’ve been working on?”
“Yes,” he answers without hesitation.
