“That never bothered you before,” Sever said, sitting back, cocking his head in thought. He folded his arms slowly. “What do you think that means, Adrien?”
“I’m not sure, Sever. What do you think it means?”
“Dammit,” Dante said. “All it means is that I need to apologize.” He stood, clenching and unclenching his fists. He didn’t know what it was about the frank little human that caught him off guard. He was a dragon. A noble. And he never lost his cool or his charm.
Yet having her interact with the other dragons, look too long at the other males, and talk down to them about the job they were currently doing had gotten under his skin in a way nothing ever had.
“Interesting, though, don’t you think?” Adrien asked dryly. “Something that interesting is worth keeping around perhaps?”
“Adrien saying that about a woman is a first,” Sever said, nodding. “Go chase her down, Dante.”
Dante shook his head as he strode away from them, hands in his pockets. “I was going to anyway. I don’t need you dolts to tell me.”
To be honest, he felt awful. At first, when she’d looked at him in shock, he’d felt smug to have her attention wholly on him.
But then he’d seen pain in her eyes, just a flash of it before she’d tried to hide it, and he’d felt terrible.
He hadn’t even known he was capable of feeling guilt like that over someone else’s feelings.
He sighed as he opened the door and looked down an empty hall. Had she already taken one of the elevators?
His question was answered when the door to Citrine’s office opened and Citrine came out, clearly trying to talk Ella down as she shook her head and walked away from him, looking overwhelmed.
A wave of protectiveness came over him as he saw Citrine reach out to take her elbow and she jerked away.
In the flash of her eyes, he could see pain disguised by the anger. He felt his whole body go slack as his gaze rested on her face, and he realized he wanted to keep any pain from her.
Wanted to shield her from everything.
Wanted to get to know her, beyond her sharp words and her suits and the walls she put around herself.
As he looked at her face, which was actually cute when she wasn’t purposely hiding it behind a tight smirk, he felt something like a shockwave go through him, emanating from his heart.
He realized now why he was so irritable around her. Why he couldn’t resist looking at her despite her trying to hide any of her beauty. Why he was oversensitive to her insults and jealous of other men for looking at her.
Somehow, in the midst of this ridiculous Date-A-Dragon situation, Dante had found his mate.
Based on the look she gave him before heading toward the elevators, she absolutely hated him.
He needed to fix this and quick.
Three
Ella felt annoyance wash over her as she saw Dante come out of the club room toward her and Citrine. She quickly made her exit, not wanting to talk to the arrogant jerk.
She was almost to the elevator when she heard him call out.
“Wait!”
Damn, even his voice was attractive. Why did attractive guys always have to be so rude?
She ignored him and pushed the button on the elevator to go down.
He caught up to her, leaning on his knees to catch his breath, as he’d sprinted down a whole hallway to her in just seconds. “Hold on. Can we talk a minute?”
She cocked a hip, letting her impatience overwhelm her hurt. Keeping herself from being vulnerable again. It was sort of validating to see a huge, beautiful man run down a hallway for you.
Even if he was probably just trying to save his job.
“What’s there to talk about? I could help the business, but I no longer want to if it means working with you.” She took out a business card and handed it to him with a sigh.
“What is this?”
“Give it to Citrine,” she said. “I’m still willing to help, but I’m not willing to be all hands on with you and the guys. I hate to see a business like this go down. And honestly, you have a beautiful product. But there is more to winning over women than looks.” She put her hands in her suit pockets and shrugged.
“Wait,” Dante said, sliding the card into his pocket without question. “Just talk to me for a minute. I know you must have come here needing something. Why don’t we talk about that?”
“You aren’t suitable for it.”
“Why don’t you let me decide that?” he asked.
“Look,” she said. “I’ve read the reviews. You were supposed to be the nice one. You’ve been cold to me from the moment I walked in. I think you can understand why I don’t want to sit in a room alone with you and talk.”