Jade Park, graceful as a traditional painting and polite enough to make arrogance feel vulgar, was secretly buying her way into the sky while everyone admired her cars. There was something deeply dangerous about that kind of woman, and naturally Phei’s heart, being an irresponsible organ with theatrical taste, decided danger looked excellent on her.

A soft notification chimed from the side display while Jade gathered the final papers.

She glanced once, then reached over and typed a brief reply, her face serene and her posture unchanged. "The second-floor west bay needs two more attendants," she said into the office system. "No hovering around the Revuelto clients. They look overwhelmed, not undecided. Give them space, then send Mi’re after three minutes with water."

Phei watched her.

She had seen the customers from a screen, understood their emotional state, predicted staff behavior and adjusted the room without leaving her chair. Rich people loved calling that instinct. Phei knew better; that was practice sharpened into elegance.

Jade noticed his silence and looked at him. "What?"

Phei leaned back slightly, smiling. "You are dangerous."

Her brows lifted. "Because I sent water?"

"Because you saw the whole room breathe from one glance."

For a moment, Jade did not answer. Then her smile came, small and pleased, but not shy enough to hide how much the compliment touched her. "You make ordinary things sound more impressive than they are."

"No," Phei said. "You make impressive things look ordinary. That is worse."

Jade’s gaze held his a little longer than necessary, and the air between them warmed, not loudly, or greedily, but with quiet warmth that did not burn skin first but patience. Phei sat across from her desk, watching as she finished arranging the documents, and wondered again whether Jade Park was all goodness with no flaw.

But Phei cared only about what she made him feel and the kind of soul he glimpsed beneath the elegance.

And right now, his heart was beating in one shameless, honest rhythm.

Ask her out.

Unfortunately, Jade was not the kind of woman one rushed.

Phei signed the last document and placed the pen down. When Jade collected the papers, her fingertips brushed the corner of the stack with delicate precision, and even that small motion carried elegance.

Phei rose to his feet when she did, gathering his own envelopes and copies from the desk, and for a brief second Jade looked at him standing there under the soft office lights, tall, beautiful, otherworldly and calm. He had a godly presence when he stood, not loud or forced, but natural, as if the room had no choice except to arrange itself around him.

It would have been intimidating if his eyes had not carried that faint nervous softness whenever they returned to her.

"The remaining cars, except the ones you are taking tonight, will be delivered wherever and whenever it is convenient for you," Jade said, standing across from him with professional grace returning to her voice. "The ordered extra customizations will also be completed as discussed. Otherwise..." She extended her hand to him, smiling. "Thank you again for doing business with me, Phei."

Phei took her hand. "The honor was mine, Princess Jade."

Neither let go.

A second passed, then another.

The handshake became something quieter.

Phei looked at their joined hands, then back at her, and suddenly scratched the back of his head with his free hand, the movement so boyish and awkward that Jade laughed before she could stop herself.

The sound of her laugh was soft, elegant, and unexpectedly delighted.

Against all his divine beauty, his bloodline, his wealth, his impossible background and the storm of women and fate gathering around him, that small childish gesture reminded her of something strangely tender:

They were all still young.

Even if he was becoming something terrifying, even if she was being prepared for an empire, even if legacy names made their lives heavy with expectation, they were still young enough for a handshake to last too long and turn two composed people shy.

"It is probably out of place to ask," Phei began, and his voice had the rare unevenness of someone trying to remain graceful while his heart behaved like an amateur, "given how busy you are. And if it is too much, of course, only at your convenience, I was wondering if, uh..."

He paused, and the faintest smile touched Jade’s lips as she watched him fight language like it had personally betrayed him:

"If you have some free time, would you go out on a date with me?"

Jade’s smile softened, and though she held his gaze, a blush rose delicately across her face.

Her hand tightened around his, just enough for him to feel it: "Of course," she said. "I would love to spend..." She stopped, blinked, then corrected herself with a small, embarrassed laugh. "I mean, I would like to go on a date with you."

Surprise flickered openly across Phei’s face, and then he laughed, warm and relieved. "I was actually nervous you would say no. Or that it was out of place to ask."

"Nonsense," Jade said, her smile brightening. "Besides, I know you are not usually nervous about asking women out. It is cute to see it happen."

Phei’s laugh deepened, and he looked away for half a second before returning to her. "Still, I am surprised you said yes, given my... you know."

Jade laughed at the vague phrase, and the blush on her face deepened. "Your ’you know’?"

"My situation."

"Your women?"

"Among other beautiful disasters, yes."

She smiled beautifully. "I was actually looking forward to you asking."

Phei’s eyes widened again, but this time mischief rose too fast behind them, and Jade saw it before he could speak.

She lifted one finger, her expression graceful but firm. "If you say anything teasing right now, I will never go out with you."

Phei closed his mouth at once.

Jade looked pleased.

"Wise," she said.

Phei nodded solemnly. "I am a very wise man."

"No," Jade said, gathering the documents into a folder with a smile. "You are learning."

He accepted that insult with dignity, mostly because the date had been secured and survival, for once, mattered less than victory.

Still, at the door, he could not help himself entirely. He paused with one hand on the frame, glanced back, and said, with the gravity of a man swearing an oath:

"For the record, I intend to be unbearably charming on this date. You have been warned." Jade did not look up from her folder.

"I will bring documents to sign," she said serenely. "In case I get bored."

Phei left grinning, and Jade, alone now, allowed the composed mask to slip just enough to press two cool fingertips to a cheek that had refused to stop being warm since the handshake.

When Phei returned to where he had left the others, only Nastya remained inside the quiet showroom, sitting atop Cassiopeia’s Cullinan like a princess waiting in the dim gold and shadow.

The others were elsewhere, and from beyond the wide glass walls came distant engine roars, sharp laughter and the unmistakable sound of rich girls treating hypercars like toys fate had foolishly left unattended. Somewhere in that chaos a voice that was unmistakably Maddie’s shrieked something about a corner, and a voice that was unmistakably Sierra’s shrieked back something about Maddie’s relationship with physics, and then both were swallowed by an engine note that suggested neither of them had listened to the other.

Nastya sat with one leg folded beneath her and the other hanging down the side of the hood, her dress arranged with elegant care that was already beginning to fail under the weight of her bashfulness. The thin fabric had ridden high on her thighs, the hem teasing the soft, smooth skin there, and every small shift of her body caused the silk to cling tighter to the full curve of her breasts, the material now slightly damp with the warm night air and the heat rising from the engine beneath her.

"Princess Nastya," Phei greeted, his voice warm

She looked at him with a small frown. "You know you do not have to add that. You can just call me Nastya."

"Can I?"

"The title adds distance between us."

Phei slowed near her, the paper envelopes in his hand. "It cannot be helped. It is hard to address a woman as beautiful, proud, graceful and dangerously elegant as you without calling her a princess. Even if you were not one, I would still find it difficult not to call you that."

Her cheeks colored at once, a flush that spread down her neck.

Nastya lifted her leg slightly and settled it more fully onto the hood of the Rolls, the fabric of her dress slipped just a little further than she seemed to realize; the movement caused the hem to ride higher up her smooth thighs, revealing the soft, warm skin there and the faint shadow between them.

It was not an attempt at seduction, not really.

More a movement born of bashfulness, one of those unconscious adjustments prideful women made when flustered and pretending they were not.

But the effect was devastating.

The silk clung to the full, heavy swell of her breasts, her nipples visibly stiff against the thin material, and her dress had ridden up almost to her hips now, exposing the lace edge of her panties.

But he’d already looked away rather than looking at her like that.

"Flattery will not get you anywhere," she stuttered, though the stutter ruined the sentence’s authority so thoroughly that even the silence seemed amused.

Phei came closer and set the paper envelopes aside near her. The soft sound of them touching the hood seemed to reverberate through the quiet space, small and intimate, and Nastya’s heart thumped wildly as he stepped into her space and took her hand in his.

He inclined his head with old-fashioned courtesy and pressed his lips to the back of her hand.

The kiss lingered, warm and deliberate, his breath ghosting over her skin.

The gesture made her sigh before she could stop it.

Here was the godly dragon, so handsome and otherworldly he had been making her heart thump since they were young, since the reckless childhood days when she had made him promise he would marry her.

Now he stood grown before her, wanted by women across Paradise and beyond, admired by princesses, matriarchs and dangerous beauties alike, and yet against all reason, against all hope, he was kissing her hand after complimenting her in a way that left her heart running wild. She and Victoria had spent so long cooking plans for him to notice them without freezing them again, without letting the ugly past swallow the present.

Yet here he was, close enough for her to feel the warmth of him, gentle enough to make her pride tremble.