one
I am a dragon.
Warmth poured into the kitchen from the oven as I retrieved a third batch of blueberry crumble tartlets. I placed them on the cooling racks already in position, grimacing when I ran out of room. The goal hadn’t been three dozen bubbling treats. I had been itching for a distraction and fudged my measurements. But shifters never said no to food, so it wasn’t like the effort would go to waste.
A dragon. Me. Ana Sartori.
Besides, the gallon of berries Goldie had picked from the wild bush slowly devouring an empty lot across the street from Fayne’s house had been soft. Overripe. That fruitbeggedme to use it before fuzzy white mold crept in and spoiled the whole batch. I had done the berries a favor, really.
OhmygodIamafreakingdragon.
And, okay, marathon baking kept me too busy to yank out my shirt collar and stare and stare andstare.
Dragon. Dragon. Dragon.
“Your boobs are the same size as they were yesterday,” Liam informed me, swiping one of the tartlets.
Damn it. I was doing it again. I slapped my shirt flat against my chest. “You?—”
“You keep checking like you expect them to start performing tricks.” Liam sniffed his pilfered treat twice, checked the delicate bottom crust for doneness like he was a judge for that bake-off show, the British one, then took a hesitant nibble. Humming, he polished off the rest without so much as athank you. “Let me know if they do.” Mischief curled his stained lips, and he slid his gaze to a point behind me. “Then you can take your shirt off, and I can watch too.”
A growl poured into the kitchen as the owner of said kitchen joined me at the counter.
Bedhead. Ratty band tee. Joggers hanging low on his hips.
Rían had no right to roll out of bed looking that good when I woke up resembling a rabid koala.
He got in late last night. Not that I stayed up waiting on him to get home safe. That would be pathetic. I just felt like reading in a chair next to the window overlooking the driveway. And, the book I was reading just so happened to end on a chapter as he pulled in, allowing me to sprint to my room and dive into my bed before he reached the front door. Totally normal houseguest behavior.
“Rían.” I gulped hard and choked on air when he pursued me until my butt hit the sink. “I wasn’t?—”
“If he’s bothering you, I can have Fayne turn him into a decorative boulder for your garden.” Rían leaned in, his scent enveloping me as he reached around me, almost embracing me, and switched on the faucet. “Or maybe a gnome?” Water splashed, so, not a hug. Just a pressing need to wash his hands. “You could dress him in tiny seasonal outfits and keep him on the front porch at GSG.”
As much as Sloane would adore that, I couldn’t heap all the blame on him.
“No.” I fisted an oven mitt to occupy my hands. “He’s not wrong.”
Rían withdrew from me, holding a cloth he aimed in my direction, then tapped his right cheek.
“Ha.”Liam jabbed a finger at me. “So, you admit you’ve been staring at your boobs all morning?”
“Stop sayingboobs.” I peered around Rían to glare. “I’ve been checking on the scale, and you know it.”
On Da—no,Carmichael’sorders, Perry Nelson, alpha of the Springvale cougar pride, kidnapped the human employees from the pet resort and spa where I had apprenticed before opening GSG. That debacle resulted in me getting shot with a freaking arrow on their turf. Not fun. But, on the upside, a single pearly scale the size of a quarter had formed in lieu of a scab.
Hence my inability to focus on anything but the tangible proof I was an actualdragon.
A second tartlet halfway to his lips, Liam scrunched up his face. “Do I, though?”
Exhaling minty fresh breath that tickled my ear, Rían waited until my butt hit the counter again before wiping the wet cloth down my cheek. I balked at the sudden coldness then blushed when I realized he had been trying to tell me earlier I had smeared blueberry goo on myself. Yeah. That was why my cheeks stung. Not the soft brush of his fingers over my warming skin or his happy little smile as he cared for me.
“The kitchen smells so good.” Goldie skipped in with a small notebook and colored pencils. “Oh.” She sat at the bar, next to her cousin, and scanned the bounty before her. “Are those the berries I picked?”
“I hope you don’t mind.” I set my palm over Rían’s heart, and he took the hint, backing up so I could visit with his little sister. “I couldn’t resist baking with them.”
“I don’t mind, but...” She flipped to a fresh sheet of paper. “Youdiduse them without asking first.”
A smile threatened to overtake me as she drew a chart with a ruler and filled numbers in the columns.
