A scoff tore out of me before I could stop it. “Dragons love the water. Zarek is literally a hydrologist. The man’s entire career revolves around water systems.”
Her eyebrow lifted. “He studies water for a living?”
“Obsessively.” I grinned. “When do you have a day off?”
“Today and tomorrow.” She started walking toward the truck again. “You work, though.”
“I basically set my own schedule.”
She shot me a look loaded with skepticism. “You were doing so well with your honesty.”
I reached the passenger door and opened it for her. “Tomorrow afternoon? I’ll get some kayaks from Atlas Adventures.”
She climbed into the truck and settled into the seat. Her hand lingered on the door frame, fingers tapping once against the metal. “Fine. Tomorrow afternoon.” She pulled the door from my grip and swung it shut.
Tomorrow afternoon. I had a date that wasn’t a date with my mate who wasn’t ready to be my mate.
I’d take it.
Chapter 17
Liz
The truck bounced over a root in the road, and the clearing shrank in the side mirror until the trees swallowed it whole.
I pressed my back against the seat and stared through the windshield. My chest hummed with a strange, persistent tug, and my hands trembled in my lap. I curled them into fists and shoved them under my thighs.
A dragon. The man sitting three feet from me turned into a dragon. A massive, deep-purple, smoke-from-his-nostrils kind of dragon. And apparently, I was his mate.
The truck dipped into a rut, and reality lurched back into focus.
My car was still dead on the side of the road.
I pulled my phone from my purse and opened the browser. The signal flickered at one bar, enough for the search page from the night before to reload if I held the phone at the right angle.
Besides the towing cost, there was the repair itself. I knew nothing about cars, but dying in the middle of a drive couldn’t be good. Not to mention I needed new brakes and tires, especially with the winter weather coming up.
Reese had delayed my rent, but that would be due in nine days. My phone bill would be auto-drafted soon. I needed groceries, gas, and the bare minimum of toiletries that kept me from looking like a cave troll.
The knife sat in the RV, but selling it wasn’t as easy as just popping into a pawn shop. They would give me half of its value, and I didn't like that.
But there was still Lucan.
I glanced at him. His eyes stayed fixed on the narrow road, one hand draped over the top of the steering wheel while the other rested on his thigh. Sunlight fell across his face, and for a half-second, my brain lost the thread of financial triage entirely.
I yanked it back.
Selling the knife to Lucan would solve the immediate crisis. It would also mean handing my dragon mate’s courting gift back to him in exchange for cash, which felt like returning a love letter with a price tag stapled to it. The thought made my stomach clench in a way that had nothing to do with money.
I set my phone on my thigh. “Who’s the best mechanic around here? Preferably one that doesn’t charge resort-town prices.”
Lucan’s gaze flicked toward me and then returned to the road. “For your car?”
I stared at the side of his face. “No, for the spaceship I keep parked behind my trailer.” I let the silence settle. “Yes, for my car.”
A flush crept up the side of his neck. He scratched his jaw and kept his eyes deliberately on the road ahead. “I had it towed already.”
I blinked rapidly. “You had it towed.”
