Holden stretched and grinned without opening his eyes. That had by far been the most incredible thing he’d experienced since they’d come to Earth, other than being Finn’s father. Never had he imagined he would be able to find so much pleasure in a human woman. Her soft skin, the texture of her hair, the brilliance in her eyes. She was just amazing. And that thing she had done while on her knees…Well, Xander hadn’t told him about that during all his lectures about human behavior.

Everything about the way the night had gone had shown him that his instincts about Leah were on target. He had tried to deny it, feeling uncertain about taking on a human mate, but he couldn’t possibly deny it now. It started with the fact that she was the psychic he had contacted, and that had certainly made him wonder why the two of them were being pushed together so much.

Then she’d given him that reading. Poor Leah thought she’d done something wrong and seen something that made no sense, but it had made all the sense in the world to him. The scene she had laid out before his was a familiar one, with his own dragon brothers and sisters dying all around him. That was the way he remembered Charok, and it wasn’t pleasant, but it had shown him that Leah knew his truth. She didn’t understand it, but she had still seen it.

After that, he’d had no choice but to invite her to stay for dinner. He wanted to dine with her, to talk with her, to have a chance to accidentally touch her hand. It was such an odd sensation, because no other women had that effect on him. Holden understood what the typical standards of beauty were, but a woman simply having large breasts or a nice smile hadn’t been enough for him. Leah had both of those qualities, as well as several others, that drove him wild.

Once he had her in his home, he found that the wild, raging instincts that tried to take over him at the bar and the grocery store were eased. It was as though he had brought her home, and he no longer felt the unstoppable urge to protect her. He was eager for her, but calm. There was no need to shift form just to let out his energy.

Holden stretched, expanding his entire body and relishing the effect that deep sleep had on him. He was sure he’d always been sleeping with one eye open up until that point. Rolling over, he found that the sheets next to him were empty. Cold. Leah had been gone for quite some time.

That sense of panic set in instantly. If Leah was out there in the world, then he needed to go find her and bring her back to safety. He felt a shooting pain in his leg as his muscles fought with him, demanding that he change to his reptilian self in order to do a better job of guarding his woman.

But after a moment, he realized that she was still in the house. He couldn’t hear her, but he swore he could still smell her perfume. His mind seemed to have a built-in radar for her, and she hadn’t gone far. Sliding out of bed and dressing quickly in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, he headed down the stairs.

Leah was sitting at the dining table. She’d thrown her dress back on, but her hair laid in a tousled dark cloud around her head. Cards had been spread out on the wooden surface before her, and she snapped up her head as soon as he walked in the room.

“You ready for breakfast?” Holden asked. He’d already gotten her to stay for twelve hours, and he was determined to make it even longer than that.

But her eyes were on fire. “Do you have something you need to tell me?”

He had been about to cross the room and lay his hand on her shoulder, but he checked himself. “What do you mean?”

Leah took a deep breath and sat back. “I woke up early this morning, way earlier than I normally do. I couldn’t get back to sleep, and it wasn’t long before I realized why. The fog that had come down over my abilities and left me so closed off had finally lifted. Every door was open, and I could see everything.” She looked down at her hands. “I was really excited at first, but then I realized there was something going on that I needed to know about.”

Holden took a tentative step forward. “Just tell me.”

She gestured at the cards. “Every reading I do—every single one—tells me the same thing: that you aren’t who you say you are. I didn’t want to believe it. It was easier to think that I was still blocked and that my emotions were clouding my readings. But there’s a big difference in the way things feel when I’m closed off and when I’m completely on it.” Tears glistened in her eyes as she looked up at him, her fingertips shaking where they were poised over the cards on the table. “Please, Holden. Just tell me the truth right now and get it over with.”

He pressed his lips together. “I haven’t lied to you.” He might not have come right out and explained that he was a dragon from another world who had been transported here with the help of a magical spell in order to help raise the last of his kind, but he hadn’t denied it, either. He couldn’t explain to her what he really was, not yet. She wouldn’t believe him, and then he would lose his chance at ever being with her.

Leah picked up one of the cards and slammed it back down onto the table. “Then why do the cards tell me otherwise? And it’s not just the cards; it’s this thick feeling in the back of my skull that there’s far more going on than I understand. I don’t like that feeling, Holden. I can’t handle it, and as a psychic, I can’t just pretend everything is fine and move on.”

“I don’t know what to say.” Holden floundered for the right words. He nearly asked her if her powers truly had come back or if she was just hoping they would, but he bit down on them before he let them out. Insulting her wasn’t a good tactic.

“Then at least tell me what my vision about the dragons meant to you.” She scooped up the cards into a rough stack, tapping them sharply on the table to straighten them. “I know it has something to do with that. It’s the strangest symbolism I’ve ever seen, and probably the most real, and that just makes it even more disturbing.”

“It’s…private.” What more could he say? It was true that the vision had meant something to him, but he couldn’t possibly explain it. Being with a human was easy when he knew what he wanted, but it was much harder when she wanted something he couldn’t give.

“Fine.” Leah shoved the deck of cards into their box and chucked it into her bag. “I see how it is. You invite me to stay for dinner, get your tumble between the sheets, and then you’re done with me. Maybe that’s how you do things, Holden Reid, but I’m not interested in some shallow relationship where no one talks to each other.” The tears she had been holding back now streamed down her cheeks, and she swiped at them angrily. With her bag in hand, she turned toward the front of the house.

“Now, wait a minute,” he growled, moving ahead of her so that he was in the doorway of the dining room. He couldn’t let her leave. He just couldn’t. She was where she belonged. “That’s not how this is. That wasn’t just a tumble between the sheets.”

“But you won’t tell me what’s going on,” she challenged. “I know we haven’t shared a whole lot. I don’t know how long you’ve lived here, what you do for a living, or even what happened to Finn’s mother, but I was willing to let all the heavy stuff wait. I can’t now, not that I’ve seen what I’ve seen.” She glared up at him, her eyes flashing both with tears and anger.

“You have no reason not to trust me, Leah. I haven’t lied to you, and I would never hurt you. If you feel like I’m not who I say I am, then maybe it’s just because we don’t know each other very well yet. That makes perfect sense to me. And it doesn’t mean we can’t get to know each other. We have all the time in the world.” Just looking at her in this state and knowing he had put her there was unsettling his dragon tendencies once again. He reached out a finger to run it down her cheek, expecting it to become a claw at any moment.

But Leah batted his hand away. “Don’t touch me. I’ve seen it, and I know it.” She shoved her way past him.

“And what, exactly, did you see?” he called after her.

She turned, her face full of hurt. “It doesn’t matter, because I’m done. If you need a psychic, call someone else.” Leah was out the door and running to her car.

Holden knew he could catch her. He might be in human form, but he was still a dragon. He was stronger and faster than most humans, and his senses were far more finely tuned. It would be an easy thing to snatch her up and drag her back into the house. But then she would be his prisoner, and that wasn’t how this was supposed to be. He let her go.

Turning away from the window so he couldn’t see her car as it headed down the driveway, he sank his fist into the wall.