Page 3 of Flight Risk

Actually, Kier would handle the travel arrangements, but I didn’t correct him. I just counted that as a win.

I might be young by dragon standards, but I was reaching the point where I wanted to settle down. And in my heart of hearts, I knew Kier was mine. He didn’t know it. Hell, the two of us had barely had conversations together, but Iknew.

Now the question was: how did I make him see?

“Thanks, Father.”

“Make sure he understands this is a work trip, but that, like the rest of us, he can have fun and unwind. Maybe you and your friends can take him out with you all.”

Oh, I would take him out—but it would be with me, and there would be no one else around.

“Of course,” I said, keeping my tone measured.

I resisted the urge to pump my fist in triumph. Such an action would have been unbecoming of me, but it was exactly what I wanted to do. Especially when I made my way out to the lobby and saw Kier sitting behind his desk.

After a few moments, his friend—Roy, who knew all the details about the trip—started chatting away with him. I tried to catch Kier’s eye, but every time he looked at me, he quickly averted his gaze.

There had to be a way I could spend some time with him, get to know him better. I had tried in the past, but to no avail.

“Just walk over there and ask him out,” my friend Thorne said, standing at my side. We were apart from everyone else, so they wouldn’t overhear. I wasn’t ashamed of my attraction to Kier, but it wasn’t anyone’s business but mine.

“I’ve done that. It didn’t work.”

He rolled his eyes. “You went up to him and literally said the words,Can I take you on a date?And he said no?”

I sighed. That was not what had happened, and Thorne damn well knew it. “I asked him if he wanted to try the Italian deli place down the street. He thought I meant for catering the board meeting that week, so we got to try it.” Kier hadn’t tried it, though. He ate his same packed lunch he had every day. It was rare for him to go out to lunch, and if he did, it was with Roy.

Thorne laughed. “Strike one.”

“Then there was the time I asked him if he wanted to see that new show on Broadway. I told him I was looking forward to seeing it, and he made sure my father’s box seats were available to me. Of course, he had not been available to go.”

He had laughed when I had suggested it, telling me he didn’t own a tuxedo and they didn’t let you in without one. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was asking him out on a date. Being rejected quite so many times in one sitting was not my favorite.

“Sounds like you’ve got one more chance, buddy. After that, it’s three strikes, you’re out.”

“I don’t play baseball,” I muttered.

“It doesn’t sound like you’re playing at all—at least not in the major leagues. These are rookie mistakes.”

Perhaps he was right. Maybe the direct approach was the best option. Even though Kier was a wolf, I suspected his reaction to me walking up and asking him directly on a date would be to turn around and run like a scared deer.

Why he held such fear inside him, I didn’t know. I longed to find out. And when I did, I would tear apart whatever wolf pack had done this to him.

Chapter 3

Kier

Ten days of travel for fifteen people—fourteen dragon shifters and one wolf shifter—and not a glitch. Not a double booking, not a missed block of rooms, not a single reservation out of place. It was all perfect.

Too perfect.

Of course, it was the last day of the trip when things went south. I knew better than to think there wouldn’t be some crisis, yet I’d let myself relax.

First, my alarm didn’t go off, which was absolute insanity. I had never missed an alarm in my life. I blamed the jet lag, which I was still experiencing since I was several hours and several time zones away from my regular schedule. Plus, I had gone out to dinner with the entire group the night before. Late nights were not my specialty. I would much rather be in bed by nine. Call me lame, but that was the way I’d always been.

I had sat at the end of the table, as usual. I wasn’t part of the clan—not really—even if, in my heart, I felt like I was. Tavian had been at the far end of the table, sitting near his father, looking annoyed all night. I thought maybe something had gone wrong with his room or the schedule or something. Hoping there was something I could help with, I’d asked him about it, but he just gave me a tight smile and said everything was fine.

Everyone else, including the Lord himself, seemed to enjoy the evening. Perhaps there was a different reason, one out of my control, that Tavian was unhappy. I didn’t like it. Tav was an easygoing guy, and I hated when he wasn’t in a good mood.

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