It was drawing her in more than she wanted to even think about.
She blinked and shook her head to try to free the fuzzy effect he had on her. “What can I do to assure you that I’ll keep your secret?” she asked, her lawyer side muscling its way through the lust fog he seemed to induce in her. “We can put it in writing if you wish.”
He gestured to the couch between them. “Please, won’t you sit down?” He stood with his hand outstretched toward the luxurious couch.
Good. Negotiations. This was something she understood. She gamely climbed over the back of the couch and settled in, giving him a cool look as he stood tall with his black, medieval gear and his large, hulking frame. A small smile played across his face and then disappeared. He eased to sitting next to her with a smooth, graceful power of movement that made her lady parts squeeze in response. God, how could he induce such a reaction in her just by sitting down? Or maybe it was the fact that he was close to her again, and that strange, overpowering sense of maleness sent her heart beating just a little faster.
He leaned forward and ducked his head. The amber of his eyes was haunting. “By our custom, I should keep you forever.” His smile ticked up a notch. “It wouldn’t be an unpleasant internment, I promise you. Dragons are very fond of their kept humans, especially the females, and I don’t hear complaints from the women about it.”
His words weren’t doing anything to settle down her heart. “I have no desire to be a kept human.”
“No. I would imagine not.” The smile gave even more power to the beauty of his face.
“All right. I’m glad we’re agreed on that.” She couldn’t help frowning. What was his asking price? There had to be something he wanted, and she certainly couldn’t offer him money. And she definitely wasn’t offering him her body, as tempting as that might be. “What do you want?” That was often the quickest way to get to an agreement—just come straight out and ask.
He nodded like he expected this from her. “I have a task in which I could use your assistance. If you help me, I can consider it a repayment of sorts for saving your life. Then I can accept your promises as sufficient, and you can return to your noble task of helping human females escape the monsters in their lives.”
This sounded entirely too reasonable. “What do you need help with?” She couldn’t begin to imagine what he would need from her.
“I need to find a mate.”
“A mate? As in…”
“As in someone to bond with and spawn a dragonling.”
“Riiight.” She’d heard of shifters taking mates before—it was some kind of lifelong bond between them. “I’m afraid I don’t know that many girl dragons. Assuming you’re into girl-type dragons?” What in the world was he asking with this?
His eyes widened a little, and then he laughed outright, a deep sonorous sound that sent her lady parts a-flutter. Then he stopped, the smile falling off his face, and his eyes blazing again. He leaned a little closer and stared into her eyes. “I am most definitely interested in females.”
Dear God in heaven… Her fingers twitched a little with the need to reach out and touch his gorgeous face.
She leaned back instead, clearing her throat. “Right. Glad we got that straight. But I still don’t understand how I’m supposed to find a lady dragon for you.”
He pulled back, but his stare was no less intense. “You misunderstand. I need to find a human female. Dragons are almost entirely born male. We need to mate with human females in order to reproduce our species. There are other… complications… but the important thing for you to know right now is that I am uninterested in forcing any female into mating with me. Not only is the idea itself loathsome, but it would be utterly beside the point. I need to spawn a dragonling, and that can only be accomplished with a female who has truly fallen in love with me.”
Her eyebrows hiked up. And her heart beat a little faster—maybe this was actually a way out. “In love? Are you serious?”
“Deadly serious.” And his face certainly seemed to have no humor in it. “I need to seduce someone, utterly and thoroughly, and I’m on a bit of a schedule.”
“Schedule?” Her mind was reeling with all this information.
“Dragons live a long time, Arabella Sharp. But not forever. I’m reaching the end of my natural lifespan at five hundred years.”
Five hundred years? Her mouth fell open, but no words came out.
“I’ll gain another five hundred if I mate and produce a dragonling. Which I can only do if I can convince a human female to fall love with me.”