Page 6

6

Az’zae l

I rushed through the rest of my workday, lingering only over a question to Councilor Jasmine about changes to funding for the housing proposals if we switched them from ten percent affordable to twenty percent affordable.

Elle’s gently delivered criticism about ignoring residents with less income in favor of those with more had hit home.

By midafternoon, I could barely think straight, counting down the minutes until Elle arrived and replaying every interaction I’d had with her over and over. After she’d questioned my ability to manage Kilinis, I didn’t want to give her any more room to doubt my ability to take proper care of her.

I didn’t fault her for doubting me. We had just started courting, and it was sensible that she’d want to evaluate me with a critical eye, but it still stung. The more I saw her, the more I wanted her, and the idea that I might not measure up to her standards ate at me.

Perhaps I’d found the rare human who not only wasn’t afraid of me, but could discuss finances without using so many confusing euphemisms. I’d thought offering to cover her expenses would make her more comfortable—much of what I could find about humans emphasized their wanting a partner who could “cover their half of the bills” without ever disclosing how much that was, so I hadn’t known what to offer to show her I could more than meet that obligation.

When Elle had simply demanded the necessary number in a tone that most dragons spent years pounding into their young, delight had shot through me.

Then to negotiate for extra money, without making any concessions? She must have seen me as a worthwhile and serious suitor. One worthy of her time and attention, and capable of providing for her needs. Even humans knew that time was precious—“time equals money” was a mantra. Elle wouldn’t squander hers with someone worthless.

Now I just had to not fuck this up.

A knock sounded on my apartment door, and I opened it to let Niemrin into my lair. We quickly exchanged gifts—an ancient, leather-bound book for Niemrin and an embroidered pocket square for me. “Since you’ll need to look extra good to catch your human,” Niemrin said.

I won the exchange, as usual, but held on to the favor until later. It got annoying to think up forfeits on the spot, especially when I could just use them next time Niemrin and I had to negotiate.

“My jewelry room is a mess,” I said to Niemrin once we finished our exchange.

I needed to impress Elle tonight, and a disorganized jewelry room wouldn’t do it, no matter how well-stocked it was.

“You’ve reorganized your treasure rooms three times this month. Why do I need to help?” he grumbled, already examining the heap of necklaces, earrings, rings, and bracelets I’d pulled out while looking for something that might appeal to Elle.

I couldn’t stop imagining all her most delicate, vulnerable places protected by my gifts, and my dick twitched against my thigh .

“Elle is coming over tonight.” I should have given myself more time, but the temptation to have her in my lair tonight won out.

“You got the human to agree to come to your home ?” Niemrin’s wings flapped back in shock. Thank goodness I’d had this apartment built to dragon scale. High ceilings, large, open rooms. I couldn’t change into my four-legged form inside, but I was still quite comfortable in my two-legged one.

“Yes. It will be our second ‘date.’”

“ How? ”

“Just shut up and help me.”

“I was writing a research paper when you interrupted me.”

“No one cares about that boring shit,” I said. Niemrin was always writing papers and giving lectures. How he didn’t put himself to sleep, I’d never know.

“You are an embarrassment to all dragons everywhere,” he said, with no heat.

Niemrin always made fun of my lack of attention to knowledge acquisition. But libraries had so many titles, and they all blurred together after a few dozen. Things were so much easier than books. No one argued about the philosophical meaning of a necklace.

“Are you organizing by gem type or price? Or overall value?” Niemrin picked up a ruby bracelet with one green claw. The bracelet was one piece in a set that I’d spent a few hours tracking down and paid tens of thousands for.

It would look stunning on Elle.

I grabbed the bracelet out of his hands. “Price.” I couldn’t expect her to sense how much time I’d put into finding each piece, or the relative rarity of an item so she could calculate overall value, but I wanted her to see how large and varied my treasure hoard was .

Niemrin sighed. “You are the most single-minded dragon I’ve ever had the misfortune of knowing. Elle’s human . She won’t leave because you gave her your second most expensive necklace. She won’t even know the difference.”

“Elle might not know the difference, but I will.”

“And thus, it starts.” He shook his head. “Maybe I should write my next paper on you .”

I blew a playful puff of smoke at him. “What would you call it? Best Practices for Winning over Humans ?”

“ Previously Sane Dragon Loses Mind When He Finds a Mate: A Case Study. ” He picked up another necklace, which I immediately grabbed out of his hands.

I scoffed. Even the most well-behaved dragon could succumb to instinct while wooing a mate.

“Maybe you should do a case study on yourself: Dragon Drags Feet on Courting for the First Time in History: No Reasonable Explanation Found .” Niemrin had yet to give the librarian he was obsessed with a single courting gift in the entire seven months he’d known her.

“I told you, I have my reasons.” The smoke streaming from his nostrils was less friendly than the puff I’d sent him.

“Whatever. And you call me an idiot. At least I’m going after what I want. I even looked up human mating traditions.” Or at least watched some romantic shows and movies. Niemrin was always accusing me of jumping into things with no forethought.

I carefully placed the bracelet with the matching necklace and earrings in its case. It was less expensive than the emerald set but more expensive than the diamonds.

“Oh?” He eyed me skeptically. “And what did you find?”

“They approach things a little differently, that’s all. They like to ‘maintain an air of mystery’ and rarely have sex on the first few ‘ dates.’ But they still value gifts and a mate who can provide for them.” So letting her pick a gift from my jewelry collection would be an excellent second date activity. Thousands of jewelry commercials couldn’t be wrong.

“What is an ‘air of mystery’?” Niemrin asked.

I shrugged. I’d found references to that and not appearing too “thirsty” everywhere. Figuring out that “thirsty” wasn’t a reference to needing a drink hadn’t cleared up anything. “I think they don’t want to appear too eager. I can’t figure out why, though. How are they supposed to figure out if they’re compatible if they’re always mysterious?”

“And you know you’re compatible from the twelve and a half seconds you’ve spent with her?”

I held up a claw to list off all the things I’d learned about Elle over our short acquaintance. “She took the time to learn how to pronounce my name correctly, which means she’s thoughtful and meticulous.”

Niemrin nodded. Every human I’d encountered had trouble with the pronunciation. I’d been tempted not to give her permission to use my nickname just to hear the evidence of her time and dedication, but I wanted the intimacy of a nickname more.

“She offered me a special dish that wasn’t on the menu yet and paid lots of attention to me the last time I visited her at work, which means she wanted me to enjoy myself and see her again.” I ticked off another claw. “When we met for coffee, she asked about me before demanding her gift, so she’s interested in me, too.

“She’s forthright with what she wants, unlike most humans. She will defend both herself and others, so she won’t just nod and agree, which is important for good communication.” Two more claws. I triumphantly held up my hand and waved it, all five claws ticked off .

I held up my other hand and ticked off another finger. “She looked past my blunder of asking her to meet at my home first and still agreed to coffee. She was open to compromise during our negotiation and appreciates that I am as well.” I assumed Elle had refused to see me every night because she didn’t want to appear “thirsty,” but she’d bent a little and agreed to see me tonight instead of making me wait even longer for our second “date.”

Niemrin waved a hand. “Fine. You’re not completely hopeless. But maybe showing her your entire hoard the first time she comes over is a bit much? You know humans don’t even have hoards.”

“Yes, it’s very sad. I assume that’s why humans who are mated to dragons are so happy.”

I returned to cleaning a string of diamonds, imagining it bouncing against Elle’s breasts while I fucked her, gems glinting as she screamed.

The diamond set was the most valuable thing in my collection, but not the most expensive. I reluctantly placed it in one of the pedestal display cases, but not the most prominent one.

Niemrin seemed to think this over. “They are, aren’t they?”

“So, obviously, she should understand that I am a good potential mate.”

“Oh, you’re still thinking of ‘potentials’?” Niemrin said with a smirk. He stopped trying to touch my jewelry and instead examined my organization system.

I grunted. “She’s human. She probably hasn’t made up her mind yet.”

Much of the advice I’d read about human intimacy referenced allowing women to control the pace of sex. None of that made sense to me—what if both people were women? Or neither?—but since I had no interest in pressuring her into anything she wasn’t ready for, it didn’t matter .

Exchanging gifts was just as important as sex, and I was a master at that.

Niemrin laughed. “But you have.”

I shrugged. He knew how it was. Dragons didn’t do things by half measures. I’d seen enough of Elle to know that she was a good match for me. Little would change that.

But talking to Niemrin had helped me get my head around the situation. I always felt more settled after a conversation.

“Have you mentioned Elle to your family yet?”

“No.” I moved on to the shelves, which held my less expensive jewelry. Incomplete sets and single pieces, mostly.

“They’ll want to meet her.”

The shelf would look more balanced if I put the onyx crown there , but its price meant I had to place it one shelf lower. I frowned.

“I’ll introduce her in a month or two.” No way would I take her around my parents, or, worse, my brother, until I was sure I had her locked down. The fact that courting provided a convenient excuse to avoid family functions was a bonus.

Niemrin grunted. “If you take her out in public before introducing her to your family, they might get offended.”

For dragons, being seen together in public—like at dinner or a party—meant a couple was seriously courting rather than engaging in a casual, private affair. Having our first date in a public location had been disconcerting when I knew Elle was still undecided.

My parents would react like I’d burned down half their house and rolled around in the ashes if they’d heard about my coffee date before I introduced them to Elle. My sister Tikalass would complain about how everyone still treated her like a baby even though she’d been a legal adult for a full year .

Udar, my brother, would be the only one who wouldn’t act pissed. He’d be all suave and charming and probably use the situation to cozy up to Elle and try to take her for himself. He did things like that—or tried to—all the time.

If he learned I was hunting a specific piece of treasure, he’d swoop in on it first. My diamond set was so valuable because I’d had to fight him for it, sneaking around, bribing the auctioneer, feeling like I was smuggling it back to my lair while he watched with greedy eyes.

I’d done all my preparations to claim Kilinis in secret so he didn’t take that, too.

And the worst thing was, no one else seemed to notice. They thought Udar was charming, ambitious, smart . That he so often ended up with what I wanted was considered a coincidence. Our parents always claimed that of course we had similar tastes. We were brothers.

Even Niemrin didn’t see it. The one time he’d met Udar, he’d called him engaging . Now he was looking at me expectantly, wanting an explanation for my otherwise rude behavior.

“What if I introduce Elle to my family, and she changes her mind?” Udar would recognize her worth straight away—a pretty human with dragon fire—and want her even if he didn’t love taking things from me.

If he succeeded, my parents would switch from endless calls and texts about running Kilinis—something I could silence—to showing up on my doorstep so they could subject me to an endless stream of humiliating lectures on why I was too inadequate to hold on to a mate, all with a heaping side of just be more like your brother.

“Come on, Az. You’re rich. You’ll treat her like gold. Why would she change her mind?” Niemrin clapped me on the shoulder. “If she’s everything you say she is, she’ll know that you’re the best.”

She would be here any minute. I wiped down one last counter, making sure everything sparkled for her.

When a knock sounded, I scrambled for the door and pulled it open. Elle stood on the other side, clutching her purse.

“Elle. Hi. Hello.” Fuck, she was beautiful. Hair the color of gold curled around her face, and she’d done something to her eyes to make them look deep and dark. I suddenly appreciated humans’ interest in looking “mysterious.”

Her dress, though. I stifled a wince. Just like earlier, she wore an off-the-rack, low-end brand. Cheap materials, poor construction. I’d need to take her shopping at the earliest opportunity. I couldn’t allow my future mate to walk around in this insult.

“Hi, Az.” She smiled, but her eyes darted around the hallway and past my wings, into my apartment.

Right. She’d want to know what my home looked like. I stepped back and ushered her inside. “Dinner will be here soon.”

“Great. Thanks,” Elle answered, eyes wide as she took in my penthouse, examining the pieces of treasure I’d chosen to display in the entrance, seeming mesmerized. Watching her eyes run over everything made all the agony of dealing with Niemrin’s ribbing worth it.

I couldn’t wait to watch her pick through my things and choose something to keep. Something I’d provided for her to wear on her wrist or next to her throat, covering her heartbeat. My chest puffed out, and my wings wanted to expand.