Chapter Three
“Ha, ha, ha…” Kelly scoffed. “Wait, why aren’t you laughing?” She stared at him in alarm. He had to be messing with her. There was absolutely no way.
But Gabriel just favored her with a polite grin. “Oh, I’m dead serious about this. Dearly beloved.”
Kelly felt a wave of dizziness sweep over her, and she took several steps back. “It’s just a skit. It’s just one of the amusements at the fair. How could it lead to marriage?”
“You didn’t study up on the traditions of the fair before you staged this elaborate charade?” Several of Gabriel’s servants rushed up to him with clothing, and he started dressing as they spoke. Thank God for that, because it was hard to act professional when all her eyes wanted to do was focus on the region south of his navel. His cock, specifically. His huge, thick, erect cock.
In keeping with the fair’s theme, his servants were dressing him in the costume of a medieval nobleman; he stepped into a pair of lace-up breeches as Kelly frantically tried to remember what she’d read about the Fair Maiden skit.
“Apparently not enough,” she spluttered. “I mean, all I needed to do was get close enough to you that I could…” she paused “…interrogate you.” There was no need to tell him about the truthstone. Maybe, just maybe, if she got her purse back, there was still a chance of using it after all.
Gabriel pulled on a blousy shirt and let two of his servants lace up an embroidered doublet.
One of the manservants gave him a doleful look as he tightened the laces. He was tall and lean, a human, in his forties but with the pinched, prudish expression of someone several decades older. “Sir, I must remind you again that the breeches are of the fourteenth-century Venetian style and the doublet is of the early sixteenth-century French style. This attire is not historically accurate.”
“Thank you, Winthrop, duly noted. Since I look quite dashing, I believe I’ll stick with what I’ve got here.” Gabriel winked at Winthrop, who didn’t even bother to hide his look of disgusted disapproval.
“As you wish, sir,” he muttered.
Then Gabriel focused his attention on Kelly again. “It’s a local tradition intended to unite humans and dragons. The idea was, if a human female from a prominent local family was married to a dragon, then the dragons would be less likely to roast the humans alive. And the humans would be less likely to shoot cannons at us. Win-win all around. So, in Nevada, the name of one eligible male dragon and one eligible female human from the Tri-Valley area is selected each year, and they act out the Dragon and St. George Skit, and then they’re considered to be betrothed. Thirty days later, they marry.”
She thought of Pandora, passed out and nearly naked on the floor with the guy she’d been making out with all morning. When Kelly had entered their trailer earlier that day with the drugged beer, they hadn’t even stopped playing tonsil hockey long enough to acknowledge her presence; the guy had just vaguely waved at a table for her to set the pitcher down.
“But it’s not a love match,” she said.
“No. It’s a sacrifice that we have to be willing to make. Orsometimesit’s a sacrifice.” He grinned at her, his expression turned feral and hungry. “Sometimes we get lucky.”
Panic clutched at her throat, and she sucked in a breath and tried to unscramble her thoughts. This couldn’t be happening. “Surely you can’t intend to go through with this and marry me.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Can’t I? Dragon law requires it.”
She was in dragon territory. That meant that she was subject to dragon law. “But you should be marrying the Fair Maiden,” she said desperately. “She’s the one who was selected for you.”
He was fully dressed now, and he looked like medieval royalty. He strode over to her until he was so close that he was practically pressed up against her, and stared into her eyes with an expression of gentle amusement. Her heart was pounding so hard that she could feel each throb, and a sensual warmth swept through her, responding to Gabriel’s nearness and his spicy scent.
“I’ve got an excellent knowledge of dragon law as it applies to our clans.” He smiled gently. “What it specifically says is that the dragon marries the maiden from the skit.”
She was really getting lightheaded now; she was afraid she might pass out. This was the twenty-first century. Could something like this really happen? Could he insist on marrying her?
A treacherous voice from deep within whispered,Would that be so bad?
Yes, it would, she reminded herself firmly. Sure, he was handsome, sexy and charming, and he filled her with desire in a way no-one else ever had. He was also a thief, which meant two things. He hurt innocent people by stealing from them, and one day he’d end up in prison. She knew exactly what that did to a family – all too well.
The fact that he was so sexy made it even worse. Getting a taste of him and then having to give it up would be worse than never knowing what he tasted like. Or something like that. She was so panicked that her brain was having a hard time coming up with a decent working metaphor.
“You could get out of it!” she protested. “You could file a legal challenge. You could still marry Pandora.”
“Could I get out of it?” He shrugged. “Perhaps, if I tried really hard. Perhaps not. But I’m not going to try.”
“Oh, come on,” she scoffed. “Surely you aren’t going to pretend that you want to marry me? I’ve been trying to get you arrested for an entire year. And it’s not like you needme. I’ve seen you in action, remember? Everywhere you go, there are all these gorgeous women who worship the ground you walk on – women who would do everything you say and everything you want.”
He was still smiling, still gently amused. “Very true. How dull would that be?”
“But I can’t move here.” She hated the whining sound in her voice. “I live in Seattle. I’ve got a job. I’ve got a townhouse. I’ve got…plants.” Dear God, did her life sound pathetic.
He shrugged. “We’ll pay for you to break the lease. We’ll bring your plants here.”
