Convince someone to fall in love with him? She frowned—he really meant this.
He leaned forward again, and another wave of that irrepressibly male scent washed over her. “I need a woman to love me, Arabella. I’m hoping you can help me find her. Unless, of course, you’re interested in the position?”
What? But he was drawing her in with those pale amber eyes. “Uh… No thanks.” Her lady parts threw a protest party in her pants.
“Could you never love a man like me? A dragon?”
“Sorry.” Strangely enough, it wasn’t the fact that he was a dragon that concerned her—it was that he was a man. And she had nothing but horror stories with those.
“Are you sure?” He leaned even closer and seemed to be staring into her soul. The gold was flashing in his eyes again. “You know, dragons are very hard to resist. Witches sell the sweat off my brow to give other men hard-ons.”
He was totally jerking her around. “You’re fucking with me now.”
“Not even close,” he deadpanned.
A bubble of laughter welled up inside her and worked its way out, ending in an ungracious snort. Then she reeled it in and looked at him, amazed. She was sitting next to a dragon prince, which should be the most amazing part about this whole encounter, but it wasn’t—it was the fact that he was making her laugh.
Lucian pulled back and gave her a soft smile. “It’s ridiculous. All of it is. Someday, maybe, I’ll tell you how dragons managed to get themselves in this sort of position. But for now, I truly do need your help. If I don’t accomplish this, well, the clock is ticking for me.”
The laughter died away inside her. Men lie. Men lie all the time about everything. And yet, for some reason, she felt like there was nothing but truth coming from this man.
Or she guessed, dragon. Was that the difference?
“It does seem like kind of a raw deal for you,” she said. “Whoever negotiated that contract—you need a better lawyer.”
He smiled in a way that lit her up inside. “I know. And it’s the kind of thing that really doesn’t work for someone like me.” His smile dimmed a little. “I’m a hard man to love, Arabella. You’re in no danger of falling in love with me, correct?” He gestured to her with open hands, like this was obvious.
She almost felt bad about saying no. But not bad enough. “Right.”
“Then please help me. Help me understand what would make a human female fall in love with a beast like me. I’ll pay you for your time. You have a noble project, a grand enterprise that you’re engaged in with your practice in the human world. I would love to see you returned to it with all the funding you need to expand. To keep your lights on. To help people. I’m somewhat of a guardian myself, so I understand the desire to protect others. And as a lawyer, you can probably appreciate that the rules of the mating process are fairly binding. It’s not like I have another option. I have to find someone who will genuinely fall in love with me… or my time on the planet is pretty much over.”
She just stared at him for a moment. Yes, he was a dragon. But he was also a gorgeous man. An insanely masculine man. She couldn’t imagine it would be any problem at all to find someone to fall in love with him. And if that was all she needed to win her release, especially given the fact that he had saved her life… well, that seemed like something she could do. Or at least try.
“Sounds like we should get started right away.”
Lucian dove into the pool like he was running for his life.
The cool water washed his naked body clean of her scent—Arabella’s scent—and as he came up on the other side of the large, circular cistern of water, he shifted and lifted straight out. A waterfall rained from his golden wings as he pumped them, working hard to lift to the top of his pool room. Three stories of windows opened to the glittering green of the trees below his lair, then gently curved toward the center of the room. At the top was a round window in the shape of a clock, its stout and lazy hands slowly ticking away the minutes of his life. They rattled as he swept past and dove back toward the three-story-deep pool, plunging once again into the cool redemption of the water. The vigor of it swept away some of the lust heat induced just by being around Arabella. Talking to her. Peering into those emerald green eyes.
He had her safely locked away in the guest room of his lair, taking a shower and changing into clothes he had conjured for her. He left some food in the kitchen as well, for when she was done, but the mere fact that she was getting undressed somewhere in his lair, water washing down her naked body, with the soothing relaxation that must cause her… he had to do something to distract himself.