Dago watched Hera’s reaction, satisfied. When he took the green volume titled Alternative Spells Developing from his bag, her hazel eyes widened and her raspberry lips parted slightly. As he moved the tube with the papyrus scroll toward her, she asked in a voice trembling with surprise, “You’re lending it to me?”

She was as deliciously surprised as he’d imagined.

“I’m giving it to you,” he said, pretending he didn’t hear the roar of his draconic instinct which, given this difficult choice, preferred the word “borrow” over “give.”

She tore her gaze from the book and looked at him with such disbelief that he almost flinched. “You’re giving it to me?” she repeated. She frowned, her disbelief turning into burning suspicion. “For free?”

Dago didn’t understand the feelings that shook him. It was natural for a woman to suspect him of ulterior motives. Considering he actually had ulterior motives, he should admire her insight. So why did he feel offended?

“Is it so strange that I give a gift to the woman I want to marry?”

His voice was more emotional than he would have liked, and he felt his irritation increase. Nyx Nemesis, what was wrong with him?

Galenos’s eyes became as big as coins again. Then her cheeks flushed.

“Your order,” announced the red-eyed swan, emerging from behind the balustrade with a tray levitating in front of them.

The tray moved in the air and landed gently right before Hera. At the sight of the bowls with the fancy ice cream compositions, her blush deepened.

“Thank you, Mxes. Ainone,” Dago said. His irritation vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “That would be all for now.”

“Then I wish you a blissful experience.”

The swan flew away but Hera remained still, her eyes fixed on the desserts in front of her.

“Ice cream is meant to be eaten, not admired,” Dago noted, not trying to hide the irony in his voice.

He knew she felt even more embarrassed because though she tried to act normal, after she reached for her portion, she gave him the dessert ordered by her, not him. He refrained from commenting and tasted the lemon-chocolate dream as if nothing had happened. When the woman finally realized her mistake and stared at him, filled with shame, the heavenly pleasure he felt in his mouth mingled with a deep satisfaction.

“Sorry,” she said.

“I’ll forgive you if you tell me your biggest fantasy.”

She was speechless for a while. Then her gaze dropped to the dessert in front of her, and soon to the bustling maze of stalls below.

“Do we really need to talk about this here?” she finally asked, clearly struggling to meet his eyes.

“Do you really think that talking about fantasies in this place is more inappropriate than appropriating someone else’s dessert in the same place?”

A frustrated note sounded in her voice. “You sometimes speak like a morpheus.”

Without taking his gaze off her, Dago put the spoon in his mouth, scooped up the portion of ice cream on it with his tongue, and put the licked cutlery back into the bowl.

“So?” he asked when he’d swallowed the sweet-and-sour chill. “What does a dessert thief think about most often before falling asleep?”

Her irritation must have finally outweighed her shame because she plunged her spoon into the caramel-nut composition and began to eat, imitating his provocative behavior.

“Did you feel good back then?” he asked, lowering his voice to a sensual murmur.

The blush didn’t leave her cheeks, but she replied rebelliously, “You know I did.”

“Do I? After you refused to have dinner with me on the last day of our trip and flew home, leaving me to carry the castle alone, I began to think you didn’t enjoy it as much as I suspected.”

“You weren’t alone,” she replied, though he was certain the remark teased her sensitive conscience. “Dorian would help you with levitation if you ran out of strength.”

“Are you suggesting that I could shift the responsibility for your decisions on a barely tamed imp?”

Hera lowered her gaze and focused solely on the food, which seemed with each bite to cool her anger and melt her shame. When she finished, the pink on her cheeks had faded, and her eyes glinted with defiance.

“I want you to do it again.”

Taken off guard, Dago couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his lips. “Do what, exactly?”

Hera rested her elbows on the table and leaned in as if she wanted to tell him a secret. “I want you to kneel before me.”

Seeing his expression, she smiled as perfidiously as he had a moment earlier. When she leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest, his eyes narrowed. Usually this authoritarian side of her personality irritated him, but in this context, he didn’t find it unappealing. He wasn’t sure what to think.

But he knew one thing.

“When you make demands, you must be ready to fulfill them herself.”

Hera didn’t stop smiling. “I’ll think about it.”

Despite years of experience in business negotiations and hiding his feelings before his opponents, Dago felt his eyelid twitch. Did that woman think she could dominate him?

He smiled. The sweet little harpy didn’t know what she was getting herself into, but he saw no reason to stop her from trying.

“If you’re satiated with my dessert, I’ll invite you for a walk,” he said. “There’s one thing I need to settle on the way, but we can go somewhere more private after that.”

Her smile wavered and faded away. “I didn’t mean today…” she stammered, and then, apparently irritated by her own reaction, added in an artificially confident voice, “No.”

Dago raised his eyebrow to avoid clenching his jaw. He didn’t like hearing “no.”

“What do you mean, ‘no?’” he asked as politely as he could. “You don’t want to go for a walk, you don’t want me to settle anything on the way, or you don’t want me to caress you with my tongue?”

Judging from the glances thrown in their direction by the people sitting at the nearest table, he must have spoken a little louder than he intended, but the blush that spread over Hera’s cheeks did not allow him to regret the slight loss of self-control.

“Could you lower your voice?” she asked through gritted teeth.

“No.”

The vengeful satisfaction accrued from this answer helped him control his predatory instincts, and instead of dragging Galenos to a dark place and making her beg for his forgiveness, he patiently waited for her opinion.

“We can go for a walk,” she said, her face red, “if you would behave properly. I don’t want a scandal, Dago.”

Just like she’d done earlier, he leaned against the table and lowered his voice so that only she could hear. “I don’t want a scandal either, Hera. I just want you to spread your legs and practice your self-control. You didn’t do too well last time, but I think you’ll do better with teaching aids.”

She was speechless. She seemed shocked.

Shocked, not indignant.

Interesting reaction.

“You want…” The woman eventually found her voice.

“In a public place, yes.”

Hera swallowed. “Where?”

Very, very interesting reaction.

“I have an order to pick up in Rea Smaragdus’s store.”

Rea Smaragdus was one of the most famous seamstresses in Olympus. There was always someone buzzing around her store, which was spacious enough that it didn’t feel crowded… unless all the customers decided to go to the changing rooms at the same time.

“We shouldn’t… We can’t do it.”

It seemed that Hera had shaken off her shock. The hesitation in her voice was barely audible, and the glint of curiosity in her gaze could be considered an illusion. To the untrained eye, the appearances she created would be believable enough to be mistaken for a sincere refusal.

Dago leaned back. The pressure wouldn’t help him now. To get what he wanted, he had to rely on a suggestion. If the most virtuous woman in Olympus didn’t find the offer of oral sex in a public place so unvirtuous that she would deny it on the spot, then he wasn’t going to pass up his chance. Hera Galenos embarking on the path of debauchery? He had to see it.

Closely.