She clutched at her lapels in self-defense. “I dare you to try it.”

He sighed. “Dara, my love, you should know by now I’m only teasing.” He brought her one of the snifters he’d poured and held it out until she took it, then he raised his own in a quick toast. “To us.”

He sipped his brandy and she frowned, watching him walk over to one of the leather sofas where he sat down heavily. He beckoned her by patting the seat beside him, but she stayed right where she was.

“Why exactly did you drag me here, Ji?”

“What better time is there? It’s the second anniversary of our marriage arrangement.”

“Is it?” she choked. She tabulated the date in her head like a run down of store figures. “Are you sure?”

“I’m positive. I received the official blessings from the council two years ago to the day. That same night, I tried to contact you, but you were with friends in Japan, going to—”

“—a candle convention.” She’d totally forgotten, but now that she thought about it, he was right. “And you just decided to bring me here so we could throw back a few cocktails and reminisce?”

“No need to be crass, sweet. I’ve tried calling you, but you never answer your phone.”

True, she avoided the phone. She left her cell purposely on voicemail, and almost never checked her answering machine. What was the point? Half the time it was her mother calling to ruffle her feathers, to ask her why she hadn’t settled down yet, and when she planned start popping out grandchildren, as if that were some spontaneous thing she could control by the wave of a hand.

Rubbing her forehead in a bid for patience, she started to sip her drink, but stopped short and looked into the snifter, dubious. “What’s in this, anyway?”

“Cognac,” he said, and gestured toward the cantinas in on the sidebar.

“Cognac and nothing else? No potions or draughts?”

His brows lifted. “I see your opinion of me hasn’t changed.”

“A politician with magical ability—what’s not to trust?”

He let out a bark of laughter. “Touché.”

She took a small sip of brandy, watching him carefully over the rim. Hearing him laugh curled her insides, made her skin break out in goose bumps. Already that electric attraction seemed to be working on her, that unexplained magnetism, damn him. Jiyong had always been too smooth for his own good—and for her sanity.

After that maddening initial chase he’d put her through, and remembering how in awe she’d been of him those first few blazing-hot weeks after they’d met, she felt incredibly self conscious standing in his presence now.

************

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