Corin was on edge as Maya took him down the road. What would her house be like? She’d lived in an apartment while she was working for him. He’d never seen inside it, of course. He had been so careful to ensure their relationship had remained strictly professional.
The old Maya had a polished, neutral style, and he’d always assumed her home would be the same. But the Maya walking next to him now was all simmering fire and wariness. Had this been hiding beneath that polished surface all this time?
Secretly, he hoped that whatever accommodations she had found for herself here would not be up to standard, whether that standard was cool professionalism or wild freedom. Then he would have an excuse to step in. Whatever she lacked, he could provide.
“Here we are,” she said, stopping in front of a building on the waterfront.
His heart sank.
The house was perfect. Small—an annex to the bed-and-breakfast next door. But ideally situated in front of the water, and perfectly maintained, with strong shutters on the downstairs windows to keep out the winter storms and a steep roof above the gabled attic windows perfect for a young dragon to practice launching himself off.
There were flowers on the front step.Flowers.
Maya glanced at him. “It’s actually very nice,” she said defensively, and he frowned. Had something on his face given away his displeasure? “There’s plenty of space for the two of us.”
“I hadn’t suggested otherwise.”
“Yes, but you—never mind.” She pressed her lips together. “I don’t even know why I’m bringing you here.”
“To discover whether Tomás has more treasure up his sleeve than he’s let you see.”
“I told you, it’s all in there.” She nodded at Tomás’s bag. She was carrying him tucked against one hip, slightly overbalanced. Corin repressed a sudden vision of himself carting the child on his shoulders. “He ran for it the moment he sensed you were in town.”
“I carry part of my own hoard with me, when I know I am going to encounter other dragons,” he told her. “But notall.”
“He doesn’thaveanything else,” she retorted, but there was a hint of unease in her voice.
Because if Tomás did have a larger, hidden hoard—where would he have gotten it?
She jerked her head. “Come inside.”
The inside of her perfect house was even worse than the outside. An eclectic collection of furniture, all well-loved and clearly given by friends who wished only good things for her. The air smelled of delicious baking. A hint of chaotically strewn toys and misplaced items suggested a bustling life ready to be taken up again the moment the current crisis was over.
The moment he was out of her life again.
Corin’s chest tightened. Maya was right. There was plenty of space for her little family of two here—and none for him.
He had been careful to give no indication that he wanted to be in her life. He couldn’t risk showing any weakness; and wanting something he could not have was the greatest weakness of all.
All he could offer her was his protection.
But once he’d dealt with the threat, what else could he offer her?
His dragon grumbled inside him—and then the presence of gold struck him like a gong.
Maya’s eyes were on him at once. “What is it?”
“I’m afraid I was right,” he said, his mouth dry. “Tomás’s hoard is greater than the baubles he’s shown you so far.”
Her face tensed. “His room’s upstairs.”
Tomás’s room was small. Corin noted the reinforced locks on the window with approval—very little could keep a dragon from going wherever it wanted to go, but those would at least slow the boy down—but nothing else about the room registered. The presence of gold was a hum against his skin.
Tomás transformed into his dragon form. He was a blazing ember of a dragonlet, a white-hot belly and wings cheerful flame-red with yellow and orange scales in between. A cluster of translucent spikes sprouted from his skull and along the length of his wings. Corin had never seen anything like it.
He’d never seenanydragon shifter in their dragon form this young. Maya’s child was a marvel.
The little dragonlet leaped in front of the closet. “Chh-ree!” he declared. His emotions flooded out, a telepathic wave of excitement and pride and possessiveness.
