They exited the warship and flew over the sunset-filled sky of Portland, Oregon. But, instead of descending to her side of the Columbia River, Kyan flew north and east to an ordinary office building in the middle of a grassy field.

He angled for a hole in the roof. A glass shaft plunged through the building. He hovered in front of a curved glass door and entered a lush, serene office.

A mahogany desk ruled a room filled with a trickling fountain, Ming-style vases on restful museum pedestals, and endless green cascading ferns.

She stepped onto the thick blue carpet. “Where are we?”

He crossed the carpet soundlessly. “My office.”

She would never have guessed. It was the complete opposite of his spare stone fortress.

She followed him into the hall.

His office lined a corridor of similar offices. On the other side of the hallway existed a maze of cubicles. All were empty.

What time was it?

“Wait here.” He took the clear memory stick-thing the captain had given her and strode down the hall toward the elevator.

A diminutive redhead appeared in one office doorway. Kyan stopped and answered her murmured questions with short replies. The woman released Kyan, and he continued past the elevator into a secure room with tinted windows.

The woman minced to Laura. Her plaid skirt, maroon sweater, and matching tights looked quietly stylish. Deep and demure, like one of Neve’s philosophy undergrads.

“Are you Laura? I’m Kyan’s sister, Amber.”

Sister!

Kyan’s gruff brother had come to the hospital with Chrysoberyl. How exciting to meet a sister. “How many siblings does Kyan have?”

“He is one of seven.”

“Seven!”

Had they all been in orphan care? Neither the brother nor Amber bore any scars.

“Our parents were optimists,” Amber said. “They tried seven times to present a dragonlet to my grandmother for marriage validation. Most couples give up after the first rejection. Would you like coffee?”

“Uh, sure.”

Amber crossed Kyan’s office and removed ferns from a dusty espresso machine. “Latte? Cappuccino? We have all the flavorings.”

“Whatever you like is fine.” She was fascinated by the window into Kyan’s world. “So, a marriage isn’t validated until the grandmothers ‘recognize’ their grandchildren?”

“Grand dragonlets.” Amber inspected the ground beans and sniffed the container. “Only the matriarch of the mother’s family must approve.”

“And yours didn’t.”

“Seven times. That is why we are all low caste, like our father, while my mother is an aristocrat.”

“Curious.”

“Is it?” Amber primed the machine. “What, besides dragonlets, is the purpose of marriage?”

“Love, companionship, and a commitment to find each other’s misplaced dentures when you’re both old?”

“Those are human values. Not dragon.”

Huh.

“Did you see Kyan much as a child?” she asked, returning to her earlier question.

Amber shook her head. “We were separated. I saw Alex occasionally.”

“In different orphan cares?”

“No.” Amber tamped the espresso. A mild frown marred her demure calm. “Alex’s exotic coloration made my grandmother regret denying him. He was allowed to be raised by distant cousins. And females are raised by their mothers regardless of their caste.”

Another fascinating detail.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen any females on the warship. Military sexism? Or something more?

Amber squirted flavoring and poured three shots of espresso into two tall cups then added the steamed milk to each. She stirred, dusted them with cinnamon, and handed one to Laura.

Flecks of gold sparkled on the surface. She breathed in the scent. “Cinnamon?”

“Cinnamon Gold Car Bomb.”

Neat. She took a cautious sip. “Tasty.”

“Good.”

Amber led her to a small table next to the tinkling fountain. The feature watered more ferns with a pleasant, musical mist.

“This is nice,” Laura commented. “Very meditative.”

“Jasper built it. He wanted to remind Kyan there is more to life than security.”

“Kyan never uses this office,” Laura guessed.

Amber nodded. “He works in the secure operations center.”

They sipped their coffees.

After the events of the morning — flying across the glacier to rescue the pilot, nearly getting blown up, and then the confrontation on the warship and Kyan’s rescue — it was nice to sit and drink a coffee in peace.

The car bomb caffeine jagged in her veins like crinkly wires.

Amber crossed her legs and smoothed her plaid skirt. “Did you want a job with us?”

Well, that was out of nowhere.

Laura rolled with it. “I just got offered one on the Gnashing Teeth.”

“Will you take it?”

The nice things the captain of the warship had said set Laura’s mind to racing.

She’d wanted to join the Peace Corps to challenge herself, do good work, and have an amazing adventure in a foreign culture. Becoming a travel nurse for the Dragon Empire, flying spaceship to spaceship with a basic first aid kit to heal the injuries deemed too minor to be cured by their advanced technology, would accomplish all that and more.

Clearly, these dragons needed her help.

But, in reality? Rather than in the fantasy where she was brave and did whatever she dared?

“I don’t know.” She sighed. “I still have to finish my clinical and pass my exam. Besides, Kyan is here.”

“Then you are in love with Kyan?”

For the second time today Laura was being asked to put a label on a relationship she wanted to be important, but wasn’t sure how Kyan felt.

She went with the label the captain had jumped to. “We’re kind of, I guess you call it … mates?”

Amber’s eyes flew wide, and she almost dropped her coffee. The liquid sloshed. She fumbled it onto the table to keep it from pouring out. “You are?”

This was different from the captain’s reaction. Laura jumped up and grabbed napkins. They sopped the mess. Amber couldn’t stop staring at her.

Laura finally asked. “Is that okay?”

“Yes. No. I’m not sure.” Amber clutched the napkins with a deep frown. “I asked him earlier today. He denied it.”

Her heart sank.

“Maybe I used the wrong word.” She scrubbed the dry table. “I’d say we’re dating, but we haven’t exactly discussed it.”

What would she call it on Facebook? It’s complicated?

Sleeping with someone meant a lot to her. She’d never gotten fully naked with anyone before. Had Kyan? He was compelling. No classical heart throb, his charisma was impossible to refuse. When his hot gaze rested on them, women must melt.

And he possessed such control. He’d made love to her like he knew what he was doing. Everything she’d wanted, he’d known almost before she did. Stop, start, harder, more. Weren’t they attuned to each other? Like, they magically knew each other’s wishes and desires because they had a special connection.

He probably didn’t believe in soul mates.

Amber chewed her lower lip. “You think you’re mates…”

“No, I’m just repeating words.” Laura held up her hand. “Sorry. This might be too much information, but we did actually mate, so to speak, so I probably misunderstood.”

“You mated in the human way or the dragon way?”

Aha. “There’s a difference?”

“In the dragon way, you must both…” Amber translated a phrase from a different language. “‘Unite with your eyes open.’ This means to bare your naked bodies in a brightly lit place. No accessories or jewelry. No rings or socks. Then, you are mated in the dragon way.”

Oh. “No, we didn’t exactly get around to that.”

“Who stopped? You or Kyan?”

“Kyan never took off his shirt…”

Actually, he had been undressing her and then she’d gotten nervous and made him stop.

“He didn’t say anything.” Her tone whined, accusatory.

“Does Kyan often say something?”

“Yes. To me. And this is important!”

Amber set her mug aside and rested both hands on Laura’s. The manicured nails shone with clear polish. Her small hands were warm.

“Please become Kyan’s mate,” Amber said.

“Maybe he doesn’t want me.” And Laura wasn’t just saying that because she felt grumbly he had let her stop. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to get naked with her in the first place.

“You are the only female he has ever taken under his protection.”

“He’s hasn’t been on Earth long.”

“Not the only human. The only female. You are special to him. He has broken all his rules for you.”

“Oh?”

That was different. Warmth glowed in her chest.

“If you care for him at all, please mate him now. You are the only one who can save him from returning to Draconis and marrying the Empress.”

The office tilted.

“Marry?” Laura repeated stupidly. “The Empress?”

Amber explained that dragons viewed marriage as functional rather than for love, their mother wanted grand dragonlets, and the Empress of the Dragon Empire was so old everyone thought she’d gone senile for trying to marry the low caste Onyx family.

But all Laura could hear was that Kyan didn’t want to mate her and he was nearly engaged to another woman. Not just any other woman. Royalty. And not just any royalty. The highest ruler of his Empire.

It was a little hard to compete.

Kyan entered his office.

He’d slimmed from the thick tactical gear bristling with weapons to his usual yummy, form-fitting black shirt, thigh-bulging black jeans that strained against his barely contained muscles, and the heavy steel-toed boots that only he could wear and still move silently.

She rose. “Is it true you’re returning to Draconis and marrying the Empress?”

He stopped. His glance landed on Amber, then back to Laura. “It is.”

No flicker of regret crossed his face. No uncertainty. Just a basic acknowledgment of the facts.

Amber moved to his side. “You won’t last a day in the Palace. They might chain you in the dungeon for arriving.”

“I have no choice.”

“But you do.” Amber looked at Laura standing numbly at the table, then gave Kyan’s elbow a little shake. “You’re not alone.”

His brow smoothed. He removed Amber’s hand from his elbow and moved past her. “I am always alone.”

Amber’s gaze seemed to crackle, and her nails extended into long dragon claws.

He stopped in front of Laura. So close, but not touching. “Are you ready to go?”

“Go where?”

“Somewhere safe.”

Again. Keeping everything to himself. Shutting out not only Laura but also his own sister.

Why was she hurt? Or even surprised?

She hugged one elbow to her side. “I’m not sure.”

“You are upset.”

“Yes.” She rubbed her forehead. “I thought what happened between us was serious.”

“Serious?”

“I don’t sleep with people. Ever. So I thought sleeping with you was important. I thought it meant something special to you the same way.”

A divot formed between his brows. Confusion or worry? “It did.”

“Then how can you marry some other woman? You only do that when this,” she gestured between the two of them, “means nothing. And if it means nothing, then don’t worry about me. The police will work out a protection plan. You can marry your Empress and we’ll forget any of this — any of my one-sided feelings ever existed.”

“Your feelings aren’t one-sided.”

Hope curled in her chest. “But you told Amber we weren’t mates. Which is like dragon-speak for steady dating.”

“It’s dragon marriage,” he corrected tersely.

Marriage? Oh. So, wait. The only way to save Kyan from marrying the Empress was to marry her himself?

He watched the realization cross her face. Knowing filled his. Like, he’d been expecting her shock and rejection.

But she felt more drawn in. “How was I supposed to know?”

“You weren’t.”

His words thunked into her chest like heavy blocks only deepening her confusion. “So you didn’t ever intend to propose?”

His normally guarded blankness slipped. True surprise — shock — stunned him. “Would you want me to?”

“Maybe.” But that wasn’t honest. It was just safe. She stepped closer, closing the distance between them, and cupped his jaw.

He started to jerk away and then held himself still.

Oh.

Maybe what she’d taken to be rejection was really muscle memory. Protect his face. And that made her heart squeeze.

She stroked his scarred jaw gently. “I’m sorry, Kyan. I like you and I don’t want you to go away.”

She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and tugged him down to her level so she could nuzzle his cheek, his nose, his lips.

He held his breath

It made her smile, even as it made her sad. He was so cautious, so careful, so concerned about her that he couldn’t bear to breathe out.

She needed him to relax, accept her feelings, and, someday, feel comfortable with them. He hadn’t been loved enough in his life. She wanted to spend the rest of her life filling the deficit.

“Amber said I shouldn’t have kept my clothes on. I didn’t realize because we don’t have that rule.”

He swallowed. “I know.”

Behind them, Amber clicked the lock, exited, and pulled the door closed behind her.

“I want to try it out now.” She kissed the corner of his mouth and stared deeply into his clear, smoldering blue eyes. “Please.”