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I’d trusted him. I thought I could, because he was my mate, because of the bond we shared, even if it wasn’t fully consummated. But apparently he didn’t feel it the same way I did. I was just a means to an end, not a person he caredabout.

Aaron put his hands on my shoulders and rubbed them up and down. His touch brought me back to the present. He didn’t ask again what was wrong, even though he could probably tell I was thinking about itagain.

At least I had him. He cared about me. He believed in me. I could lean on him while I figured out where the hell things were going with the rest of mymates.

“You want to help?” I asked, letting a little heat creep into myvoice.

Aaron raised his eyebrows, an answering spark lighting in his eyes. “Now that’s an invitation I can’t imagine turning down,” hemurmured.

I lifted my arms, and he tugged my T-shirt off me. His hands settled on my bare waist. He leaned over my shoulder, his breath tickling over my collarbone. “So, which one should we startwith?”

My nipples had pebbled inside my bra. I squashed the urge to forget the dresses and just have him on me. Instead, I studied the ones I’d pickedout.

Now that I was considering them together, the black gown seemed overly stuffy. I didn’t want to look like I thought I was attending a funeral. I picked up the silky lavender one that had caught my eye. “How aboutthis?”

“I think it’ll be lovely onyou.”

Aaron reached around to undo the button on my jeans. He tugged them down, and I stepped out of them. The tracing of his fingers over my skin left me a littlebreathless.

I eased up the dress over my body and waited as he zipped up the back. He came with me to the full-length mirror hanging on the wall between two of the wardrobes. The silver frame was almost as shiny as theglass.

I definitely didn’t look like some girl off the streets now. That was a woman gazing back at me. The silk hugged my slim frame, rippling like water around my legs. The lavender did look lovely with my dark brown hair. But something about it didn’t feel quiteright.

I ambled back to the bed and shrugged that dress off. My hands fell on the gold one in the middle. The embroidered leaf pattern around the shoulders and bodice gave it a little more structure, and I liked the faint coordinating pattern marked into the satinfabric.

“Another excellent choice,” Aaron said with asmile.

That dress had its zipper on the side, but he helped me with it anyway. As the fabric settled into place against my skin, a sense of certainty was already rising over me. I headed back to the mirror, the gown’s small train whispering across the floor behindme.

My breath caught when I saw my reflection. The gold fabric brought out the amber in my eyes, making them look like little flames. The cut hugged my hips slightly before flowing over my thighs, giving my figure a little more curve. I looked regal.Powerful.

I didn’t just look like a princess. I looked like aqueen. Woe betide anyone who messes with this dragonshifter.

My chin rose instinctively. Aaron’s smile grew. “This one?” hesaid.

I didn’t need to try any of the others. “This one,” Iagreed.

He pulled me closer to him. The press of his hands over the soft, smooth fabric felt amazing. And so did the press of his lips when he brought them tomine.

We kissed long and deep. My arms rose to loop behind his neck. He angled his head to kiss me harder, and I hummed encouragingly against his mouth. With a groan, he slid his hands up my sides to skim the curve of mybreasts.

“You look fantastic with this on,” he muttered. “But the only thing I want to do now is take it offyou.”

“I’m not really seeing any problem with thatplan.”

He grimaced against my cheek. “I’m supposed to meet with my advisors in a few minutes, to talk over the latest developments before the dinner starts. And to come up with a plan for our parlaytomorrow.”

Our parlay with the fae monarch. My desire cooled at that thought. I stepped back to peer into his eyes. “How dangerous do you think it’s going to be, meeting them face toface?”

He cupped my cheek, teasing his thumb over my temple in a reassuring caress. “They didn’t outright attack us on the mountain. We can’t trust them, but they’re bound by the word they’ve given, the treaties they’ve agreed to uphold—in a magical sense. We just have to watch that they don’t find some loophole like they did by using the rogues to their benefit. The entire shifter community will know we went to the neutral ground to talk with them. They can’t hurt us without bringing an awful lot of pain onthemselves.”

He didn’t sound overly worried. And with the fae monarch’s domain right next door, he should know just how much trouble they were likely to stirup.

I dragged in a breath, not sure whether I was more nervous about meeting these bigwig shifters tonight or about meeting the faetomorrow.

“You’ve got this,” Aaron added. “And we’ll be right there with you, just likealways.”

I nodded, suddenly too choked up on emotion to speak. He drew me to him again. This kiss felt softer and somehow more passionate at the same time. As if he were offering up all the devotion he felt in the brush of his lips against mine. I kissed him back hungrily, wanting that feeling. Needing it. Needing to give the same back tohim.

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