Page 28 of Sugar & Dragon Act I: Temptation

After she put him through a nightmarish test.

Sweet dream, how could she pretend to agree with his idea just to check his level of greed and sensitivity to illogical arguments? At the same time he was learning to trust other people? She behaved with such calculation…

…like him.

You turn a few bags of sugar into gold and we’ll be even.

It’s Dago Midais, she told herself, looking at the black door across from the bathroom on the first floor.Dago Midais will always be Dago Midais.

So if Dago Midais said that Hera could tour his castle, why shouldn’t she?

She crossed the corridor.

After five minutes, she convinced herself, silently promising that she would just take a look.

After ten minutes she touched the doorknob…

…which of course was gold and of course turned into sugar because, of course, Hera touched it with her left hand because,of course, she was left-handed.

“Bad dream,” she swore under her breath. Annoyed, she put the doorknob in place and waited for her cursed right hand to glue it to the door again.

Maybe it’s a sign I shouldn’t do it?she wondered for the next five minutes.

Midais said he didn’t mind, she contemplated for another five.

Then she remembered he’d poured water on her.

Ogre, she thought, reaching for the doorknob with her right hand.

She cracked the door open and peeked inside. From the white shelves filled with tools, boxes, and jars, she guessed that it was some kind of workshop…

She couldn’t hold any longer. She closed the door, feeling heat on her cheeks. She’d never snooped around someone’s house. Maybe if Dago had shown her this place himself, she wouldn’t have felt like a peeper, but in this situation…

She returned to the edge of the island. She took off her dress and used a fixed ladder to enter the cool water. She swam until her thoughts froze and then lay peacefully on a sunbed.

“Having fun, sweetpearl?”

Her eyes flew open. Next to the ladder stood Dago Midais. He was dripping water and smiling cheekily.

He was naked.

She turned away.

“This isn’t the greeting a fiancé would expect from his future wife,” Dago said, amused. “I think we need to work on your reactions. After all, we don’t want people to think I’m forcing you to do something, right… Hera?”

She knew from his voice he was approaching. She ignored the trembling weight in her chest and rose to a sitting position. He was right.

And now he was also wearing a tunic.

He cocked his eyebrow, apparently noticing her surprise. “I can undress again if you want.”

“There’s no need,” she said hastily.

He moved his gaze over her naked skin and the underwear that covered the rest. “The sun doesn’t burn your skin?” he asked curiously.

“No,” she replied, shifting as he sat on the edge of the sunbed.

“Then maybe I should call you sweetsun instead of sweetpearl.”

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