Page 29 of Dance with the Dragon Duke

Activity was beginning to pick up at the brothel, though only a few of the courtesans were currently working. Dark was glad to see Tomorrow eating well. She seemed more herself again. She sipped at her bowl of soup while Margot discussed her plan.

“Balder doesn’t like the Unseelie, rumor has it,” Margot warned. “And I’ve seen how immortals are about telling lies. Fae aren’t any good at it, especially when the questions are direct. Goes against your culture and all that.” She sat sideways in her chair, one leg crossed over the other under voluminous skirts. “I think I should go at this one alone.”

Dark’s brow furrowed. “Won’t you need our signatures?”

“If we up the price, I wager he’ll give me a signed document and let you put your names on later. I plan to tell him one of our courtesans is making faces with a regular and we need a quick and quiet fix before the babe is born. If all you’ve got is old wyvern coins, Susie and I can make a trade with you for gold crescents.”

Tomorrow set her spoon down midbite. “I’ll pay you back,” she said sheepishly.

“Of course,” Dark said, though he had absolutely no intention of taking any coin from her. He picked her spoon up and placed it back in her hand. The food was doing her good. “Tuck in, Sunshine.”

He fished out his purse, which he’d filled to bursting that morning after Susan’s visit. Tomorrow’s copper eyes went as round as her soup bowl when he opened the small leather fastening and fished out a handful of the old wyvern coins.

“That’s more than enough,” Margot said, tucking the coins down the front of her dress for safekeeping. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Thank you!” Tomorrow shot at her as an afterthought.

Margot responded with a mischievous wink, then shuffled off, catching a friendly pat on her generous ass from a patron on her way out of the parlor.

Tomorrow’s curious gaze bounced from the bursting purse to his boots which were worn and in need of replacing. They settled next on the faded blue trim of his jacket. “Couldn’t you at leastbuy yourself the comfort of good boots? You could have the best of everything with even a portion of what I’ve seen in your hoard. I don’t mean to judge you,” she added hurriedly. “Just curious why you won’t indulge at least a little.”

She’d abandoned her spoon again. He picked it up and handed it to her. “Keep eating and I’ll tell you.” He waited until she’d filled her mouth before continuing. “I wasted too many years of my life constantly battling to protect what was mine. I’m done with all that. And certain treasures aren’t meant to be spent, even if I was down on my luck. I’d never sell my favorite ones.”

She smacked him with one of her sparkling smiles. “Certain treasures that you hoard away from the world like a miserly hermit. What good is all that if you never pamper yourself?”

“Now, that sounded like judgement,” he said, his tone teasing. “Listen here, Sunshine, I won’t frown at you for insisting on following Seelie ways that won’t let me just kill a man that deserves it ten times over. Don’t you now judge me for being a dragon about my treasure. While we’re on that subject, Glen Freest will be getting a dagger in his thigh long before I’m through with him, and I don’t care what you or your Seelie tree-lovers have to say about that.”

Laughter pinkened her cheeks. “A dagger in his thigh seems more than fair at this point. Just keep him breathing, please. There needs to be something left to stuff in a jail cell.”

“What are we going to do today?” he asked as more patrons crowded the parlor. The room began to smell of homey woodsmoke and hops.

“We should probably be seen doing more romantic things, huh?” She chewed at her lower lip. “Things a courting pair would do.”

Dark took her hand in his and laced their fingers together. “We don’t have to go anywhere to do that,” he said, voice lowin her ear. It occurred to him as her fingers warmed between his that although he didn’t have a great deal of experience making connections emotionally with a mate, especially without the help of magical instincts, physical seduction would be as straightforward as breathing.

And incredibly fun.

* * *

Tomorrow

Tomorrow’s mind stopped working as Dark ran his thumb repeatedly over the back of her hand. As he regaled her with stories of the constellations, answering every single rambling question that popped into her head with patient attention, she had to remind herself twice that their relationship was a farce.

With the pad of his finger, he drew an invisible line between the freckles on the back of her hand, a star sign she didn’t recognize.

“Iden’s constellation is popular amongst romantics, but I’ve never understood the interest,” he said, his voice low and liquid. He’d pulled her so close his dragon heat was pleasantly balmy against her shoulder and side. His tail flicked playfully along the hem of her skirt. The motion made her stomach swoop.

Tomorrow had never felt so overwhelmingly distracted by the presence of another person. She forgot for a moment what they were even talking about.

“Stars,” she stuttered, then she shook her head to clear it. “Er, I mean, I don’t recall Iden’s story or her stars.”

The rough pad of his finger continued to stroke over the back of her hand, first the diamond shape for the goddess’s head, the curve of her horns, the length of her arms, then the wide bell shape that formed her dress.

“Her lover was a dragon.” His hard accent curled around her like smoke. “Like most dragons, he wished to possess the greatest treasure ever made. The treasure changes depending on who tells the story. Amongst the Lunar Court, it’s a book of rare spells; to the Seelie, it’s the powerful potion that promised multiple offspring; and in the mountains, it’s a monarch’s crown. To win the dragon’s heart, Iden traded her hands to a shadow god and was given this treasure.”

“That’s quite the sacrifice,” Tomorrow said, her lungs feeling full and her breaths turning shallow.

“I value precious things as much as any dragon, but a good lover can dosomuch with their hands,” he said as his thumb swept over each of her knuckles. “A lover with clever hands—that’s the real treasure.”

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