Six hundred years yearning to make her own decisions and come and go as she wished. Six hundred years of no one but herself for company. She had been shunned by her family during the entire imprisonment.
Shara blinked and focused on her plate of pasta. She couldn’t let anything ruin her mission, regardless of how handsome Kiril was or how interested he pretended to be.
“Family, Shara. It’s all you have. This is your last chance to prove yourself. Don’t muck this up. You won’t like the consequences.”
Farrell’s warning sounded through her mind again. She couldn’t screw up again. Farrell was expecting her to fail. He wanted her to so he could remove her as an embarrassment from the family.
No matter how appealing and attractive she found Kiril, he was a Dragon King, and the Dark needed him. And she would be the one to deliver him.
There were no excuses, no exemptions.
“Thank you for dinner,” she said. She watched his throat move as he swallowed the last of his wine.
His skin was deeply tanned and appeared to have a golden tone in the dim lights of the restaurant. Farrell had gone into detail about the type of women Kiril was seen with. None of them had been Fae. It was one of a long list of reasons that Shara used glamour. Kiril wouldn’t lower himself to associate with the Dark. No Dragon King would associate with any Fae, for that matter.
Oh, he might talk to her brother at the pub, but he would never take one to dinner. Or to his bed. She might wish he could see the real her, because he was the first in six centuries. But in the end it didn’t matter what he saw. The end justified the means.
“It was my pleasure.”
His voice, deep and seductive, made bumps rise over her skin. His accent, thick and stirring, made her legs weak. Damn him for affecting her this way, but then what did she expect after finally being free of her prison? Anyone would probably make her feel like this. Kiril was no one special.
The plan had been for her to tease him and walk away, but when he had asked her to dinner, she hadn’t been able to refuse. To share a nice dinner with a man like Kiril. Besides, it was time alone with him. Now it was time for her to walk away.
He threw down a wad of money on the table and stood. Shara looked at the hand he held out for her. She recalled his touch on her skin all too clearly. Holding his arm as he walked her to the restaurant was one thing, but did she dare take his hand? The warmth, the strength. It made her feel like her insides had turned to jelly.
If he could do that with a simple touch of his hand, what would it be like in his arms, his lips on hers? His skin gliding against hers? His cock filling her?
Shara slid her palm against his and felt a shock zing through her. She jerked her gaze to him, but he was looking away.
Her legs wobbled a bit as she stood. She was going to have to do something about her needs before she saw him again. Being so near his magnetism, the sheer masculine confidence that he exuded was heady. Yet it was his sex appeal, the virile enticement that stole her breath and made desire pool low in her belly.
His long, tapered fingers wrapped around her hand. He pulled her to him until their bodies were a hairsbreadth from touching. His gaze slid to her, sucking her in until she was drowning in his shamrock green eyes. The world gradually faded away.
It was just the two of them.
He wasn’t a Dragon King.
And she wasn’t a Dark Fae.
They were a man and a woman, desire thick between them.
Then she blinked and reality crashed around her. If she didn’t put some space between herself and Mr. Sexy she was going to do something really stupid. Again. All because her body was out of control.
Thankfully, he walked them to the door of the restaurant. When they stepped outside, she was grateful for the breeze off the water that cooled her heated skin and cleared her muddled head.
“It was nice to meet you, Kiril.”
He didn’t release her hand as she expected. Instead, he tightened his grip a fraction. “So you’ll walk away? Just like that?”
He had no idea how she wanted to melt against him and ask him to do as he pleased with her. For six centuries no one had touched her. He had no idea how desperately she wanted to feel more of him. Walk away? She couldn’t do it.
But she had to. Shara grasped the last shred of her control and held tight. “It’s been an amazing evening.”
“It has.” He seemed as surprised as she at her words. “It wouldna be very gallant of me no’ to walk you to where you want to go.”
This made her smile. Leave it to a Dragon King to think she needed his assistance. “I know these streets, but I appreciate the offer.”
“It appears I’ve no other recourse,” he said and lifted her hand to his mouth. “Good evening, Shara.”
Her stomach quivered when his warm lips touched the back of her hand. He lingered for just a moment, his eyes locked with hers, before he straightened and released his hold on her hand.
The hold he had on her mind and body, however, would remain for a long, long time.