Page 17 of Kidnapped Plus-Size Mate

“Hello? Who is this?”

Smirking with satisfaction, the relief that washes over me soothes my tension, and I lean my elbows on the balcony rails.“Hello, Camilla. It’s… S—” I’m about to slip up again but catch myself this time.

I feel much calmer than I was in the museum this morning. Back then, I’d been full of unwarranted nerves.

Right now, the cellular connection serves as a bind that’s enough to ease my tension and have me go through this the way the Council expects me to, even if my inner dragon stirs with something more primal than the self-control I’m trying to exercise.

“... It’s Sterling, from earlier,” I remind her.

“Oh, yes, of course,” she says quickly, almost breathlessly, and I wonder if she was busy with something else before I called.

Something more important.

“How can I help you?”

Woah.

I shoot upright, my spine turning ramrod straight as the wind is knocked out of me.

She’s being so… formal.

Does she have no idea who she is to me?

Of course, not.

Gathering my thoughts and reminding myself that she’s unaware of the existence of my species, I say, “I’d like to take you up on that offer to prove that dragons exist.”

“Oh,” she says with a pause. “Do you wanna send me some articles or—”

“No, Camilla,” I interject sternly, caught off-guard by my inner dragon’s sudden intervention when my voice grows darker. “I want to take you out to dinner. Tonight.”

My inner dragon slips away before I can question its bluntness.

I’m not sure if I just succeeded in putting the woman off when she took too long to respond.

“Er—” comes her hesitation, and my heart skips a beat. “Okay…?”

Mentally, I’m doing cartwheels, and my inner dragon returns to give me a moment to celebrate.

“Send me your address. I’ll pick you up at eight.”

When the call ends and I’m left staring at my phone, my inner dragon retreats again, leaving me wondering when our two entities became separate. Perhaps it’s because Camilla does something to disarm me so much that my inner dragon has no choice but to take the reins.

Or, perhaps I’m just meant to feel what it’s like to be bewitched by a human without my inner dragon forcing me to make the wrong moves.

Either way, when a text beeps on my cell phone, I do another set of mental cartwheels before rushing to clean up for our dinner date.

~*~

Stepping out of the limo I’d hired for tonight, I wait on the curbside outside Camilla’s apartment building with a racing heart.

I’ve really gone all-out in my attempt to woo her. When I finally break the news that I’m not an ordinary man but a dragon shifter who’s meant to take her to a hidden island to be my mate, she’ll gladly agree and go with me willingly.

I’ll make the Council and my father proud, being the last hope for the Vulkan brothers to do the right thing in their eyes.

The door to the entrance of the apartment building screeches as it opens, and I straighten up. But the moment Camilla steps out onto the pavement, my breath is snatched, and my jaw drops.

The black dress that hugs her like a second skin only serves to magnify her gorgeous, overflowing curves. Shaped like a goddess of perfect proportions, I can’t take my eyes off her as she walks toward me.

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