Maya frowned. “I didn’t know she went to school for cooking.”
“Not for long. She dropped out after—”
“Don’t. Please.” Her face twisted. “I know what it’s like to be prime gossip material. I don’t need to find out anything about my neighbors here that they don’t let me know themselves.”
He’d touched a sore point. Time to back off.
“I see there’s a local ice-cream parlor, as well. Should we schedule in some dessert?”
Maya sank back into the food talk, clearly relieved. “I expect Caro packed some in the chiller. She and Tess have been doing a lot of work together lately, by which I mean Tess has finally gathered her courage to go pick Caro’s brains. YouTube clips can only take you so far, apparently. And … I guess Caro has had formal training. Maybe Tess wants to do the same.”
It was no different to the hundreds of times she’d peppered her conversation about his upcoming meetings or social events with details about the other attendees. Except she’d never had this light in her eyes when discussing his corporate rivals.
This place isn’t just a convenience for her, he thought, a strange feeling twisting inside him.She likes it here. She likes the people here.
In a way she’d never liked his world. The human side of it, anyway.
He’d never let her see the draconic side of it.
Her phone buzzed, and she checked it. “That’s Jacqueline. The kids are having a great time.”
“What does that mean for our twenty-minute deadline?”
“That we can stretch things out a little longer.” She looked at the hamper and bit her lower lip.
“What do you have planned?”
“Let’s head up past the lighthouse. There’s a beach under the cliffs where we can talk without being overheard.”
She pointed towards the hill at the far end of the bay, but Corin wasn’t falling for that. Instead of following the line of her arm, he kept his attention on her face.
Her mouth went small. That was never a good sign.
His scales prickled against the inside of his skin.
“Is there a way around the beach, or do we climb all the way up the hill and back down again?” he asked as though he hadn’t noticed anything. “I’ll call the car—”
Just as he’d expected, a small line of irritation formed between Maya’s eyebrows. “If the hill’s too much of a challenge for you, we can climb around the bottom, over the rocks.”
He glanced down. She was wearing leggings and sneakers. He … was not. His leather-soled shoes were more suited to the office than anything that might be described as ‘rocks’.
He was still acting as though he was in the office, sitting behind his desk like a king at his throne, snarling orders to his underlings. Forcing them all to stay in line.
Losing everything.
Maybe it was time to be something different. While he still could.
“I have a better idea,” he said.
It was the work of a moment to shuck off his jacket, close his eyes and search inside himself for his dragon.Time to stretch your wings,he told it.Let’s show our mate what’s on offer.
Nothing happened.
You have approximately three quarters of a second before this becomes embarrassing for both of us,he told it.
Shadows rustled in the depths of his soul. His dragon had never been this reluctant to shift before.
Half a second.Maya’s eyebrows were already going up.One quarter—no. I’m done waiting.
