Page 20 of The Gold Dragon Prince
“I do,” I agreed. “And I have one, but it will have to wait a moment longer.”
We walked on through the doorway and into the entirely different world on the other side of the wall of Saoirse’s estate. The area of the villages was nice enough, but the gardens inside of the wall wereas magnificent as the ones around my mother’s castle. Flowers of every size, shape, and description were planted in borders around the walls, and the vast land of her inner estate was divided into rose gardens, herb gardens, and flower gardens with hedges and topiary.
Selle’s indignation at everything he’d just been put through eased as he glanced around in wonder. “This is all incredible,” he said quietly.
“Thank you,” I said with a grin, proud of my work.
Selle snapped his eyes to me. “You planted all this?”
I shrugged with false modesty. “I had to ingratiate myself to Saoirse somehow,” I replied.
Selle frowned again, but before he could take me to task, Saoirse stopped on the path as it reached the terraced garden leading to the back of her grand estate and turned to me.
“Truly, you have no idea how relieved I am that you are here at last,” she said, back to smiling and flirting with me. She swept close and clung to my arm again. “I looked and looked for you this morning, but you were not in your house.”
I cleared my throat. “I was up early, working in the peach garden,” I lied.
“Oh, yes. The peach garden,” Saoirse said, lowering her voice and thrusting her breasts at me.
I wasn’t necessarily immune to female charms, but I found other charms far more alluring. Those of my fated mate, for example.
My fated mate who had his arms crossed over our egg as he cuddled it close and scowled at me.
“Never mind the peach garden for now,” Saoirse said, backing away with a wave of her hand. “My allies will be here in less than an hour. I need everything perfect so that Ican prove to them they should give me their support, and more importantly, their armies and riches.”
I felt Selle’s surprise through our bond.
“They need to see that I am the most powerful ruler in the land,” she went on. “That I and I alone deserve their worship.”
She stood tall and tipped her chin up, smiling at her words. It had been clear to me from the moment Mother had sent me to monitor her that Saoirse worshipped herself more than anyone else. There was only one thing she valued equally to her own vanity.
Her smile grew, and she batted her eyelashes as she looked at me. “I need you, Gildur. I need your skills and your expertise to become the high queen.”
“If you say so, my lady,” I said with a slight bow.
Selle bristled.
“Now, I must go and prepare for the party,” Saoirse said. “Make certain that the gardens are in perfect order for my guests’ arrival.”
She didn’t wait for me to agree, she merely assumed I would. With a flourish of her skirts, a final, sultry look, and a wink, she walked away.
“How could you?—”
Selle surged forward, but I stopped him by putting a hand to his chest as he stepped forward. I kept my eyes on Saoirse until she was all the way at the top of the path, her guards flanking her.
Once I was confident she wouldn’t hear, I turned to Selle and swept one arm around him to usher him off to the hedge maze a few yards away.
“Unhand me!” Selle hissed. “You lied to me. You’re not the man or the dragon I thought you were.”
“Rail at me all you need to, my darling,” I said, keeping my voice calm and sending reassurance through our bond.
It was clear Selle wanted to remain frustrated and upset, but my calm affected him as we ducked into the concealment of the hedge maze.
By the time we made a few turns and I conjured a bit of silencing magic so we wouldn’t be overheard, he had given up his initial ire and was left only with confusion as he asked, “What is going on here?”
I began my explanation by pulling my darling mate into my arms and hugging him. I needed to hold him for a moment as the tangle of the situation we’d found ourselves in washed through me.
“Gildur, tell me what’s going on,” Selle said once he’d calmed enough to sink into me.
