Page 45 of Guardian's Dilemma

Glimmer reached a hand across the centre console towards me, tentatively.

When I didn’t flinch away, he placed it gently on my knee.

It was warm and I noted in a distracted kind of way that my body calmed at the touch. My heartbeat was too fast and I was sweating.

This whole thing could get us killed.

“Kingsley? Nobody will see me unless I want them to.”

“They might.”

“You can’t convince your elder on your own. He’ll need proof.”

“I can bring him out.”

“He won’t come. Not if he’s smart. He’ll assume you’re leading him into a trap.”

The frustration was bubbling inside me. I shoved Glimmer’s hand off my knee and got out of the car, slamming the door.

I’d walk in.

Behind me, I heard Glimmer get out and then felt his presence.

“You’re underestimating us,” I ground out between clenched teeth.

“No, I’m not.”

Something in the way he said it made me pause. I wasn’t familiar enough with him to identify that lurking sound in his voice. So I had to ask.

I paused, barely a metre away from the point of no return.

“Tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“What you’re thinking. What you’re up to. Why you’re so insistent about this.”

He opened his mouth to reply but I cut him off.

“And I warn you not to lie to me. I don’t like being kept in the dark. If you think we’re mates, show me some respect.”

I wasnotgoing to examine the way I felt about that possibility. I’d shoved the whole concern aside while I focused on the next step. Whether I was or wasn’t mates with this dragon would be the subject for freaking out about another day.

He inclined his head.

“Very well. I do respect you. As a man, a fighter and aridire. You have promised me that you won’t harm me or capture me unless I attack your coven or innocents. I believe you.”

“But Douglas hasn’t made that promise, Glimmer. I can’t control what my coven do to you.”

“They won’t see me. Only you will.”

“So why do you need to be there?”

“Because I do not trustthem.”

It genuinely took me a moment to work out who he meant. I huffed out a laugh. “You mean my coven?”

“Yes.”

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