Page 6 of Under the Dragon's Spell
"It won't look professional."
"We'll do two pictures then. C'mon, it'll be fun. You don't want to get with someone who doesn't have a sense of humor, do you?"
I swallowed. "Okay, fine."
Little did I know that her sexy cop uniform didn't include a shirt, or anything else covering my chest area, for that matter. I bore it and smiled for the camera, thinking of a possible future I could only imagine in daydreams. No one could say I didn't give it my best shot.
Look at me, Mr. Dragon. I want to have your baby. Our baby.
"Mail for you," my brother said when he came home from work a few days later.
"Really?" I rarely ever got mail. Hell, most people didn't know I was bunking with my brother, which had made it even more of a rare thing recently.
"Yeah. I guess it's from that job thing you applied for."
"Oh." I took the red envelope he handed me with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. That couldn't be anything good. They couldn't possibly be considering me after the lackluster application I sent, although Luca kept reassuring me the pictures had turned out well. To hell with that. I'd only applied to shut my brother up, anyway.
"Aren't you going to open it?" he asked.
"Don't hurry me. Don't you want me to get dinner ready?" I longed to get back into the kitchen. I could always lose myself between pots and pans.
"No. Open it. I'm curious." A wide grin spread all over my brother's face. "I want to know if the dude wants to knock you up. I could be an uncle, you know?"
I made a face at him.
"Seriously," he went on. "I told Mom, and she's excited at the prospect of grandkids, too."
Oh for heaven's sake.
"I only filled out an application. Why did you have to tell Mom?" Really, this pissed me off a little. I'd told my mother when I'd been trying to conceive with Rory, and she'd been nothing but patronizing about it. If she was excited now, it was only because dragons were known to be rich. She wouldn't care that the money didn't matter to me in all of this.
Shaking my head, I ripped the envelope open. I let my eyes fly over the lines before they could get blurry.
We are happy to inform you that we are taking your application into serious consideration. Please call us at the number below to schedule a personal interview.
What? I almost dropped the piece of paper to the floor.
"What did they say?" my brother asked. "Did you get it?"
"They want to have an interview," I stammered, still staring at the letter. "They're taking me into consideration."
"That's great, isn't it? Just you wait, I'll be an uncle after all. Knew you had to be good for something, pretty boy." He patted me on the back. "Now go get dinner ready."
Dinner, right. I folded the letter away and tried to gather myself, not sure why I was suddenly feeling hopeful at the thought of having a strange man's baby. I'd always wanted to have babies as soon as I'd found out my body was capable of creating life, and it had been hard when nothing Rory and I tried actually made it happen. Maybe that was messing with my judgment. Or maybe I was simply getting desperate, but damn, I wanted a baby, and this was a chance. An actual chance. I had to take it.
After dinner, I called the number given in the letter. Some official from the Dragonfang family told me to be in a coffee shop tomorrow afternoon where I'd be able to make the dragon's—Tyrel's—acquaintance as he wanted to meet all his potential partners himself. I pretended like that thought didn't make me nervous and agreed to meet there.
And then I called Luca.
"I have an interview," I said as soon as she answered the phone.
"Oh God!" She squeed a little bit. "About the baby thing, right? Man, I can't wait for you to have your own little one. Mine's driving me crazy, though." She laughed, although her laughter sounded a bit tired.
"Yeah," I said. "But nothing's sure yet." Still, her genuine happiness for me warmed my heart. "Thanks again for your help taking the picture."
"I'm sure it knocked him out of his socks. You're a looker, Adrian, believe me. He'd be happy to have you."
"I don't know about that." I sighed. "I'm meeting him tomorrow. What if he hates me? What if he's an ass? I feel like I'm getting my hopes up way too high for a simple interview. I don't even know how many other people they're considering."
