“You can’t be worse than me,” he said. “This will be my first.”
I gaped at him. “But you’re so fucking hot. How come?”
Archer tucked his hair behind his ear, a nervous movement I hadn’t seen from him before. “I’ve been too busy.”
Somehow, I didn’t think that was the whole story. My insides were clenching with worry. What would we talk about? What if I said the wrong thing or wasn’t interesting enough? I didn’t want to disappoint him. But under the panic, happiness was blossoming that he wantedto take me on a date.Me.
I just had to make sure everything went perfectly.
ARCHER
The village pub was as busy as it ever got, but we had no difficulty finding a table in a quiet corner of the restaurant area. It took Ollie ages to make up his mind—“Because I always choose something and when the food arrives, I wish I’d ordered what the other person has”—but once fish and chips were safely ordered, a slightly awkward silence fell.
“I realise I don’t know anything about your family,” I said. “What do you do when you’re not getting sent off to stay with strangers?”
“I work in a call centre.” Ollie took a sip of his beer.
“What line of business?”
He choked until his eyes watered. “Sorry,” he said eventually. “Just,no oneasks that. I don’t think my own brothers know. I work in pet insurance.”
“That must be tough when you have to decline Mitzi for an operation.”
“It is.” Ollie was the most serious I’d seen him. “But there are the people youcanhelp, the ones who know their beloved Fido is going to get their treatment. That makes up for the sad ones. And most people who love animals seem to be nice people. At least, we don’t get the level of abuse you hear about in other call centres.”
“Have they held your job open for you while you’re here?”
He laughed, though there wasn’t much mirth in it. “I’m a drone, not anyone important enough for them to do that. No, I’ll have to get another job when I get home.”
That was unfair. But a lot about dragon society wasn’tfair. “Are your brothers older or younger than you?”
“They’re both a lot older than me.” He paused, his shoulders slumping. Very unlike his usual state of being, and I realised family wasn’t a safe topic. “Ian’s a barrister—aKing’s Counsel.And Peter is a paediatric surgeon. Then there’s me. I bombed my A levels and work in a call centre.”
“A call centrehelpingpeople,” I reminded him swiftly.
“Yeah,” he said, but he didn’t sound as if he believed it. “Anyway, right now I seem to have a part-time job as your gardener.” His eyes gleamed suddenly. “Oh, does that make you Lady Chatterley? Bonking the virile, sexy gardener?”
“Wasn’t it the gamekeeper?” Mia had to study it for her English A level, and I’d become all too familiar with her views on the book. They weren’t flattering.
He waved a hand. “You’re missing the point—virile and sexy.”
“In that case, I’m definitely Lady Chatterley,” I agreed, just as Liv put a plate loaded with battered cod, golden chips and plump garden peas in front of me.
“If you say so, Archer,” she said, and placed an identical plate before Ollie, who was laughing like a drain. He’d obviously seen her coming, but for once, my dragon instincts hadn’t been on alert for danger. I’d been concentrating too hard on Ollie.
He squeezed his lemon slice over his fish with such enthusiasm that juice and pips spurted over the table, before he tucked in as if he hadn’t seen food for days.
“Those doves of yours are menaces,” he informed me after a while, his immediate hunger apparently satisfied. “I swear two of them dive-bombed me before I went into the maze. I thought they were supposed to be wary of dra—us.”
“They’ve probably grown accustomed over the centuries. Worst case scenario, they’ve adopted our traits.”
“With them and the ducks, whatisit with you and keeping birds?”
“They came with the Court,” I said. “I can’t exactly make them homeless, can I?”
“Can’t you? The ducks at least. I’m not getting aminute’ssleep.” A slow smile curved his mouth as he looked at me in a way that brought back all too clearly images of earlier. “Though from now on, that might not be the ducks’ fault.”
He was making me uncomfortable, sitting in my local pub with a growing erection, so I took my revenge by spearing a single fat chip with my fork and wrapping my lips around it before biting it cleanly in two. His eyes widened, and he looked determinedly back down at his plate. I couldn’t tell if he was aroused or terrified. Whichever it was, if it stopped him teasing me in public, I’d take it.
