We walked through the streets, eating steaming hot pasties as I told him all the reasons he needed to visit Cornwall. I covered everything except one thing, which was how much I’d like him there with me, swimming in the wild seas and exploring long-lost shipwrecks on the sea floor before ending up in my bed.
My monologue trailed off as I realised, damn it, this was what Ialwaysdid. I met someone I liked, and almost before we’d said hello, I’d fallen for them. Most of the guys I met were holidaymakers, so anything we started was guaranteed not to last. I’d been fifteen the first time I’d fallen in love. Ben had been visiting with his family from Leicester, and we’d spent every minute we could together. He swore he’d stay in touch when he returned home, and I’d believed him. Right up until he blocked my number.
No matter how many times it had happened after that, Istillhadn’t learned. I kept giving my heart away, and it seemed that each time I got it back, there was another piece missing.
The worst part of thinking like this about Nate was that I knew upfront what he was. What he undoubtedly thought of me and my family. Yet Istillwanted to spend time with him. I’d enjoyed our morning together.
“What should our next move be?” Nate’s question roused me from my thoughts. “I doubt we’ll be lucky enough to get into the study again.”
Little did he know. “Margaret’s getting the others out of the house this afternoon so we’ll have a clear run. She’s taking them to an organ recital at the abbey.”
Nate laughed. “I’m sure they’ll love having to sit on hard pews in silence instead of flirting or testing sexual compatibility.”
“And yet they’ll still enjoy it more than Margaret. She’s tone deaf.”
He grinned as he screwed up his grease-sodden paper bag and chucked it in the bin we were passing.
“Your verdict on the pasty?”
“I liked it,” he said. “It was quite different from the one I had before. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage lunch, though.”
“Oh, that’s ages off,” I said. Plenty of time left to work up an appetite. “This afternoon, will you stand guard if I search the study? I want to get into that desk and find out why it’s locked.”
“Of course.” His response was a welcome change to his suspicion of just the day before. “But how are you going to get into the desk?”
“Pick the locks.”
Nate stared at me. “How do you know how to do that? Are you a professional spy, and this story about King Arthur is a ruse?”
Laughter shook me so that I couldn’t speak for a moment. Me, a professional anything? “I wish. At least MI5 would pay well. Didn’t you learn how to pick locks when you were growing up? I thought every kid did.”
“Not in my family,” he said.
His sunniness had suddenly clouded, and I wondered what his family was like. The Mortimers existed in a different world to mine. They practically ran dragon society, and Nate’s grandfather, Abimelech Mortimer, was one of the richest men on the planet.No onecrossed him, whether they were human or dragon. But Nate, despite being a Mortimer, wasn’t like the Fortescues. Okay, so he had the same posh accent as them, and something about the way he carried himself screamed privilege, but there was an ease between us, as if he was the same as me. Just a bit richer.
“Maybe it’s only those of us who live in the back of beyond who learn to pick locks—we have to fill the time somehow,” I said. “I should buy a blocking case for my phone on the way back to the house, and then I can take photos of everything for you to look at later.”
“You’re not just a pretty face, are you?” he said teasingly, before his lips tightened as if he regretted saying that. “We’d better head back.”
NATE
The first time I’d seen Alex, I’d thought he was hot. I was finding out that was nothing to how he looked when he laughed. I hadn’t been able to stop myself from flirting with him, and then I’d remembered why that was a stunningly bad idea.
It was becoming more difficult to remember that whenever he looked at me with laughter in his eyes. I was glad to get back to thehouse and gain a little distance from him so I could control this ridiculous level of attraction I felt.
I’d hoped to have the opportunity to catch up with Mrs Fortescue over lunch, but she was already deep in conversation. Instead, I turned my attention to the Teagues who were beside me. Enyon was withdrawn at first, though he opened up when I asked him about Cornwall, using what Alex had told me as a hook. Fiona, seated on my other side, certainly wasn’t shy. She was acerbic, though she didn’t turn it on Enyon. I wondered if she was kinder than her sharp tongue made her seem.
As well as talking to them, I found myself watching Alex across the table. Our pasty expedition didn’t seem to have affected his appetite. Although he made swift work of his meal, he was also speaking to the dragons around him. It was achingly clear that he had little in common with the Fortescue cousin on his right, but he was trying. She, however, wasn’t. She couldn’t have made it more insultingly obvious that he was beneath her notice.
“Alex, how would you feel about another research trip tomorrow? I thought we could visit the fashion museum.”
No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I wanted to beat my head against the table. Another museum was bad enough. One aboutfashion?What thehellhad I been thinking? Oh, yes. I’d been thinking that he was being made to feel uncomfortable by a conceited dragon who’d been born into money and thought that was the only measure of a person.
“You want to look at old clothes?” Alex’s voice was full of laughter. “Really?”
“I have to find out how breeches unfasten,” I pointed out. “For research,” I added swiftly as Fiona’s eyes narrowed at me. “For my book. Which Alex is helping me research.”
“Would you like a spade to help you dig that hole?” Alex asked.
