Grayson's Vow (27)

“They had all that back there.”

“Look,” I said, adjusting the strap of my purse and slowing to a normal paced walk. “I heard some women discussing you, and I felt like I was eavesdropping.” I paused. “It’s just…just that it was weird and uncomfortable.”

Grayson looked at me, and when I turned my head, he raised one brow. “Discussing me?”

I huffed out a breath. “I’m sure you’re aware that women find you…appealing for some unknown reason.”

“Appealing?”

“Hot, panty-melting,” I elaborated. “They think your ass is…” I waved my hand around, forcing myself to stop babbling.

Grayson stopped, and I did as well, turning to face him. The look on his face was filled with amusement. “No, please continue. I’m enjoying this discussion.”

I snorted and walked away. He caught up, turning around so that he was walking backward in front of me, his expression disgustingly smug. “Wait, were you uncomfortable because…you find me…appealing, little witch?”

You don’t have anything I haven’t seen before.

“No,” I said, possibly a bit more sharply than intended. “Not in the least. Here we are.” I moved around him and walked through the door of the lawyer’s office, Grayson’s annoying chuckle following me inside.

Scaly, winged creature.

The paperwork was straightforward and easy enough to understand. I ignored Grayson entirely while we signed it, although I still felt vaguely annoyed by his teasing outside. Mostly because it was true: I found him physically appealing, while he’d made it very clear I wasn’t his type. We both perused the paperwork carefully though, and signed our names, taking a copy with us. And it was done. The only thing left to do was to get married. Married. To a dragon. A completely annoying dragon. For money. I groaned internally. This was, by far, the craziest scheme I’d ever concocted.

Cons: Crazy, ridiculous, probably shameful…definitely shameful. Disrespectful to the sanctity of marriage. Disrespectful to my grandmother. Those were a lot of cons. But…but it was going to work. I’d be free of my father. Focus, Kira. Focus on that. It was an incredibly weighty pro.

I’d made a list about the Dragon the night before, after he’d come into the kitchen to eat dinner, had seen me sitting at the table, and had promptly informed Charlotte he’d be eating in town. I had been avoiding him too, so why that had stung, I wasn’t sure. The list had been made out of hurt pride, but it had helped, and the one I’d just made about our sham of a marriage helped too. At least a little.

“Our appointment is for two thirty tomorrow afternoon. Appointments, that is. We have one to get the license and one directly afterward to tie the knot.”

I nodded vigorously, as if this was all just fine and dandy. Married! Tomorrow. Two thirty. Tying the knot! That made it sound so casual. No big deal. Just tying the knot—if you tie it loosely enough, a knot can be untied just as easily. I had the sudden desire to laugh crazily, perhaps until I cried. Grayson’s mood seemed different too—more subdued.

“Are you going to tell your father before or after?” he asked.

“After. Once we’ve cashed the trust check.” My skin prickled at the mere thought of confronting my father.

I saw Grayson nod from my peripheral vision but didn’t look over at him. He seemed to be studying me. “If you…want to back out, I—”

I shook my head. We’d come too far. “No. I don’t.” I met his eyes. “Do you?”

“No.”

He drove us straight back to the house, and I followed him inside, planning on getting something to eat. In the dimness of the foyer, I removed my sunglasses and stuffed them in my overfilled purse, pushing them toward the bottom, where they were less likely to fall out.

“I’ll meet you here at two o’clock tomorrow then,” Grayson said, obviously intending on getting to work for the day, doing whatever it was he did down at the stone building.

“Okay,” I agreed, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Oh, here. You dropped this.” Grayson bent and picked up a piece of paper and began handing it to me.

I frowned at it. “I don’t think that’s—” And then I realized what it was by the color of the paper. It was the list I’d made about Grayson. The one I’d also scrawled “Kira Hawthorn” on several times in the margins, testing out my new signature. It must have fallen out of my purse. I felt heat rising in my face, and I grabbed for it. Grayson, eyeing me suspiciously, pulled the paper back. “Don’t you dare,” I breathed.

He looked down at the paper in his hand and back at me, obviously more interested now that I was making such a big deal over it. Stupid, Kira! It had just happened so quickly, and I hadn’t had time to mask my reaction.

“What do we have here?” Grayson asked.

“It’s personal,” I said. “Give it back.”

“Personal? We’re about to be married. We shouldn’t have any secrets between us,” he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

“Very funny. Let me have it.”

He unfolded half of it as I lunged. He sideswiped me gracefully, grinning as I let out a squeak and almost fell on the ground. He turned and walked briskly to the large living room to the right of the foyer. “I think I’ll pull up a reading chair and see what this is all about.”