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She hoped he wouldn’t arrive home like he had the other night. She hadn’t seen him since their interlude in the garden, so hopefully that meant he was going to college as well as doing his drawings.
But no, this dragon was heading toward the house, and he was bigger and more buffed than Beau.
It was Ethan, she realized, her breath hitching. Bare-chested, his wings beating in slow, powerful strokes, his face intent and focused on his goal, which was clearly the middle of the lawn.
Min watched him come in to land, totally mesmerized.
His chest, so buffed and human, his pecs and six pack accentuated by his green and golden shimmering skin. His human arms moved gracefully in sync with his wings, like he was swimming, not flying, and his tail moved to the same rhythmic beat. He was the picture of beauty and harmony as he soared and circled.
Peering over the veranda, she watched him glide elegantly onto the lawn, knees bent, his feet taking one, two, three long strides before furling up his wings and brushing them down casually. Already a uniformed lizard was running toward him with a bathrobe. Ethan shrugged it over his shoulders, his wings poking through the slits in the back of the gown as he strolled nonchalantly toward the house.
Min stood completely still, her heart beating hard in her chest. Watching him fly had completely taken her breath away.
She was just about to take out a diamond on a white gold chain and pair it with the diamond droplets that hung from her ears when there was a soft knock at the door.
She flicked her hair over her shoulders, clasped her hands in front of her and then called out primly, “Come in.”
Ethan’s head poked round the door. “Hi—all fine to enter?” Then he saw her, and she noticed the scales around his horns stand to attention, then flatten. Something hot and sexy flared in his eyes.
“Wow! You look incredible.”
“Thank you,” she said, color chasing across her cheeks.
He entered the room in his robe.
“Nice work outfit,” she quipped, eager to take the limelight off herself.
“I flew home. This is what the staff gave me so I wouldn’t be bare-chested.”
“I know. I watched you land.”
“Oh.” He grimaced. “It was a bit clumsy, I got caught in a wind gust.”
“No, on the contrary, you were very elegant.”
He gave a self-deprecating laugh and strolled across the room, little glimpses of his chest shimmering from the gap in his robe. Min gulped hard.
“Well, thank you, but you’re being kind. I’m pretty rusty. Not like Beau, who flies all the time despite knowing he shouldn’t.”
“Is there a law against it?”
“Not exactly, but there are regulations we’ve agreed to with the gargoyles from Tower Security. Besides, it’s not a great look if the family who own all the aircraft in Motham City fly everywhere on their own wings. Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.” He sighed. “But, heck, I sure miss flying.”
“But if Beau does… surely you can?”
“Beau does not represent this family,” he said, almost fiercely. “I’m constantly being made aware of how I need to compensate for his rash behavior.”
Min pinned her lips. Now was clearly not the time to go into bat for his little brother. What right had she to interfere anyway? She was, after all, nothing to this family. And at the end of this arrangement they’d all forget about her. Ethan would find a suitable monster partner, probably a dragon, and… and… why did that thought make her feel so sad suddenly?
Min blinked away the moisture in her eyes. Her usually steady emotions were all over the place. Was it because she had no family of her own? Or perhaps it was the idea of kissing Ethan when really it was all a sham, however much she’d like to pretend otherwise.
“I’ve finished in the bathroom if you need to get ready,” she said stiffly, and turned toward the window. Suddenly she felt less like a princess in her finery, and more like a kid playing dress-ups.
She heard him mutter something and disappear into the bathroom.
Who was she kidding? She wasn’t a princess with her prince. This wasn’t a fairy tale with a happy ever after. She was a human woman down on her luck, fake dating a dragon for economic gain.
She looked down at the beautiful necklace Cressida had lent her, and shut the box with a snap.
