Page 74 of The Dragon 1

Was that what the woman in the book had felt, too?

Was she swooning inside, the way I was now?

Because if I was being honest, my knees had already turned to jelly just imagining Kenji’s voice again. The way he’d looked at me back at his office. The raw edge of danger he wore as a second skin.

Was that what the woman had seen in Korin? Not just a monster but a god? Something massive and mythic that maybe—just maybe—she wanted to touch even as she fought it?

I couldn’t tell.

I only knew that I wished I could be her.

Unshaken.

Grounded.

Magic in my bones.

Cold steel in my gaze.

Right now, I did not feel like her.

Not at all.

Right now, I just felt soft and breathless, drowning in leather seats and luxury, aching over a man I barely knew but my body already burned for.

A man I was bringing gifts to.

A man I was letting court me in a way no one ever had.

I wondered about the heroine again from that book.

Could I be like her?

I imagined myself raising my hands in front of Kenji but this wouldn’t be to defend myself. This would be to not give in.

Because it was one thing to stand before a dragon and be afraid.

It was another to suddenly. . .and desperately want him. To want all that danger, all that fire—and still refuse to kneel.

Maybe that was what Kenji wanted me to understand by sending this car.

But why the hell did he send that book?

It wasn’t just a story.

Perhaps, it was a mirror of this situation.

He was the dragon after all.

Was he watching me to see if I would stand my ground. . .or surrender?

I pressed my fingers to my lips, still tingling from the champagne.

The video screen flickered again, showing a new set of dancers, their bodies painted in red light.

I barely noticed.

This date is going to be intense.