The Dragon King's Destined Bride

Part 1 - A Chance Encounter with The Dragon King

Author's note: This chapter contains scenes of sexual content.

(Brianna's POV)

"9 o'clock, right on the button." I muttered under my breath, after a quick glance down at the lit screen of my cellphone. I looked up from the screen just as my Uber pulled to a stop in front of the restaurant where I was supposed to meet Michael for our date.

Exhaling out a small sigh of relief, I opened the car door and stepped out onto the curb. After telling the driver good evening and thanking him for the ride, I spun around on the spot and found myself staring up at the posh Italian restaurant before me with an overwhelming sense of wonder on my face.

"La Tavola." I uttered, reading the name that had been written over its doors in beautiful gold and red calligraphy. "I still can't believe Michael actually got us reservations here."

The restaurant, in question, was one of the best Italian restaurants to have opened in Manhattan, haven received a 5-star rating. Located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, right next to Central Park, it had been highly praised for its traditional family style meals and was also known to be frequented by the rich and the famous, those living in the city or just visiting.

Michael, the man I had been talking to via an online dating site for the past four months, had finally invited me out on a date. It had been his decision from the beginning to take things slow and not rush, which I found quite admirable. Michael was a couple years younger than me at the age of 35. He was approximately 6', had short dark brown hair, light brown eyes and worked for a corporate law firm in the city.

Michael and I would have met each other earlier in our online relationship, but it seemed that he was constantly having to change plans at the last minute due to either family or work-related obligations. The last time he had to postpone our date was about two weeks ago, when his mother got sick. His mother, who lived in Tallahassee, had gotten a very bad case of the flu. And due to her age, and the fact that she lived alone since his father's passing a couple years ago, Michael had no choice but to fly out to Florida to take care of her.

And now that he had finally returned, we were finally meeting, and I couldn't help but feel excited.

As I stood there staring through the restaurant's large, glass front paneled window, I could clearly see people dining within, waiters and waitresses darting around busing their assigned tables. By the expensive clothing worn by those I could see, I realized just how posh La Tavola really was. It was this realization that made me glance down at myself with a huge sigh of relief.

I was wearing a brand new, stylish black cocktail dress that I had purchased online from Neiman Marcus. On my feet were a pair of 4" black patented leather high heels I had purchased from Nordstroms' Rack, which I had paired with a black and silver colored Coach clutch bag. Draped across my shoulder, was a beautiful silver and black shawl that I had purchased at an outdoor bazaar near my home on Long Island.

The shawl was the only part of my outfit that was the least expensive, as the beautiful shawl had only costed me $10. The dress, bag and shoes, however, had costed me over $500 and were currently the most expensive articles of clothing that I had ever purchased before in my life. Literally. But, as I stared down at myself and back at the people mingling inside, I realized that it was money well spent.

During the normally 10-minute taxi ride from Penn Station to the restaurant that had increased to 20 minutes due to unexpected traffic caused by an accident, I received a text from Michael informing me that he was running a bit late. In his text, he told me to just go inside and let them know that our reservations were under his name. He then finished by giving me an ETA of 15 to 20 minutes, which was why I was currently standing outside of the restaurant alone.