Eva dismissed Syen and he left without argument? After coming all the way here in the rain? Without a single explanation or justification?

Something was wrong here.

“Wait,” she said.

He stopped. The awning poured torrents of rain on his head. He didn’t move. He didn’t seem to feel it.

And he didn’t seem to be a jerk bent on hurting her. He almost seemed as confused and hurt as she was. It didn’t make any sense.

She closed her app without ordering the car. “Why don’t you say anything?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“The truth.”

He swallowed. Like he didn’t know where to start.

Was she being unfair? He’d made her wait forever in the freezing rain instead of taking her number, texting her like a normal person, and agreeing to meet some other time. And he was clearly lying about where he’d been and what he’d been doing. She wasn’t out of line. Was she?

Her ankles ached in her stupid sensible shoes. She lifted one and rotated her foot, then the other. Her turquoise boots were far more comfortable but Chloe had gone shopping with her. Black was sexy, she’d promised. Grown up. No longer living in dreamland.

Because apparently waiting for him to spit out the truth was a sparkly, childish, stupid dream.

Ksssht. A dangerous voice growled in her right ear. “Syen!”

She jumped.

Syen touched his left ear where he had the matching earbud. “Boss.”

“It’s a crisis. We’ve just received a priority one message from your former sister-in-law. You’re not at your desk!”

He stiffened. “I’ll be right—”

“Where are… Ah. Why did you go back to the bar?”

He glanced at her. “Evalina was waiting for me.”

“The dramatically colored female? Waiting for you? Why?”

He looked down. “I asked her.”

From a certain angle, it almost looked like he was hanging his head. And his already soft voice had an unusual roughness. Shame?

“And she waited? In the cold rain? For you?”

Syen didn’t speak.

A weight lifted off Eva’s shoulders. Syen hadn’t been lying. Somehow he had gone to his office and back again.

“Stay there,” his boss ordered with a sharp bark.

His head jerked up again. “No, I am returning.”

“Stay! Convince the female to claim you.”

Claim?

His jaw dropped. “But I have disappointed her.”

“Un-disappoint her. I’ll contact you tomorrow. Be ready.” The earbuds hissed again and went silent.

Eva pulled the earbud out of her right ear. “He’s demanding.”

“But a good boss.”

“I think you mean ‘strict.’ So, how did you get to Longview and back so fast?”

“I flew.”

Huh. A rational explanation. He had a helicopter stashed in the city. Voila.

Evalina studied the earbud. The sound quality was amazing. Syen’s boss had been breathing down her neck, and not in a good way.

She held it out.

He did not take it. “It’s yours.”

“Oh! I couldn’t. Your boss might call again.” And she did not want to be on the receiving end.

He opened his hand. She dropped it. The earbud landed in the middle of his wide, empty palm. It looked tiny. He placed the bud in his ear.

The rain suddenly sounded louder.

“Did your boss really expect you to be at your desk after one in the morning?”

“It’s where I usually am.”

What kind of clothing job did Syen have? Working those hours, no wonder he was rich.

A new thought struck her.

Maybe she was the one judging appearances. Yes, he looked like a god poured into a suit, complete with the “wet look” supplied by the Portland weather. That didn’t mean he was a jerk who enjoyed playing with women because he had so many of them. It would be hard to play around if he spent every night at his desk.

Dramatically colored female. Indeed.

And he wasn’t a smooth talker. He was more shy and quiet…and hard to approach.

Oh. Wait.

What if he was actually like her? What if he didn’t know how to be expressive because he spent all his hours working an impossible job? What if he was reaching out, as best he could, and hoping for someone — for Eva — to reach back?

Eva hugged her elbows. The street was wet and cold and she’d spent over an hour on it alone. She sucked in a huge breath and held it.

He waited. In the rain. Not complaining.

Although the rain seemed to be letting up. It had soaked him thoroughly — again — and was done with its punishment.

She let out her breath in a rush. “Are you sure you don’t need to get back for that priority one message from your sister-in-law?”

“Former.” His jaw tightened. “I know the content of her message. My family owed her a great debt. I completed the last payment today.”

“You borrowed money?”

“It was a punishment fee. My elder brother concealed several things before and during her marriage. Our family was fined and lost our position.”

Lost its position? Like, their job positions? She must have been the boss’s daughter. “I guess the moral is don’t hide anything.”

He stiffened.

Or was it her imagination?

She returned to the question she most cared about. “Did you actually expect me to wait for an hour?”

“No.”

She blinked. “But you came back to the bar.”

“There are tracking devices in the earbuds.”

Wait a minute. That’s how he knew to find her? “You knew I was here all along?”

“When the meeting was called, I thought you would leave. I did not expect you to stay. My order to wait was arrogant. Your anger is what I deserve.” His shoulder slumped. “And so is your disappointment.”

He was serious.

I’m always serious.

Her heart thumped.

She swallowed. He was going to make her fall for him. If she wasn’t careful, he would just sweep her right off her feet.

“Well, why don’t you make it up to me?”

He looked up.

Oh. She was talking to a guy who wore sunglasses at night. It was a little weird.

“First, can you take off your sunglasses for a second?”

He froze. His hand jerked toward the plastic and stopped. His mouth flattened.

“You really don’t want to,” she said. “Okay. Can you actually see with them in the dark?”

“Yes.” His fingers flexed. Still twitchy. “They are tactical. Like the earbuds.”

Ah. A security technology thing. Taking them off outdoors must make him uncomfortable.

She’d ask inside.

“You forgive my arrogance?” he asked in disbelief.

“I will if you make it up to me.” She was super curious about the helicopter. “You can make this up to me if you fly me home.”

He captured her hand and pulled her out from under the awning. Cold droplets fell on her and she squeaked. He drew her tight against his rock-hard abdomen as if they were dancing. “Put your arms around me.”

A pool of hot awareness flooded her center. She squeezed her thighs together. “What are you doing?”

“Flying you home.”

“Like this?” Eva dropped her phone in her purse, hiked the strap up on her shoulder, and put her arms around him. His jacket squeezed out on her like a sponge. She gasped and laughed. “You’re so wet. Are you—?”

He rocketed her into the air like he was connected to an invisible bungie cord.

She screamed.

Her feet dangled and her weight pooled in her toes. They zoomed for the top of the buildings. His grip tightened like a seatbelt.

“Oh my god!” She started laughing hysterically. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”

He hovered somewhere around the fortieth floor of the local skyscrapers. “Are you all right?”

“Yes! Oh my god. We’re flying! Why didn’t you give me a warning?”

“You asked me to do this.”

Of course she had.

“So?” She laughed harder. Pure hysteria. “I didn’t know you were a dragon!”

His lips parted. Shocked. “How could you not?”

“You look completely human! How was I supposed to know?”

Which meant his boss was probably a dragon too. Not a mobster or a pro wrestler. And she was a “dramatically colored female” rather than a loud woman who dyed her hair too bright and drowned herself in childish sparkles.

It explained everything.

Her over-sized wedges slipped off her feet and dropped into an empty parking lot.

“Your shoes.” He descended.

Her belly rose to her throat.

“No!” She gripped him harder. “Never mind them. This is amazing! But, uh, fly easy. It’s my first time.”

He floated her over the mist-shrouded city like gravity no longer applied. Normally she’d be worried about a guy so much as trying to lift her princess-style. But Syen was so large, so powerful, and so clearly at ease that he made her feel like she was nothing in his arms. He could lift her to the moon and back.

There were like a hundred dragon aliens living on Earth. “I thought your office was outside Vancouver!”

His lip curled. “The Onyx Corporation.”

“Not yours?”

“Low caste siblings who dare to call themselves our rivals. They employ local natives.”

“How dare they! You know, I’m a ‘local native.’”

His expression froze.

She laughed again. Less hysterical this time. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

“No.” But his tone was troubled. “But when we speak of their business practices, I don’t think of their employees as being like you.”

“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

“Because.”

He descended in front of her white bungalow, overgrown with plants and fresh-smelling trees, and released her on her front porch. Her tights squished in puddles.

“Because?” she prompted.

“You are so beautiful.”

Her heart squeezed. “Really?”

“Yes.”

I am always serious.

Her heart squeezed again.

She fumbled with the key and let them into the covered area, locked the outside door, and then fumbled the inner door. “Well, it’s sweet of you to say.”

The key slipped from her hands and fell to the whitewashed planks.

He scooped it up, unlocked the inner door, and held it open for her.

Chivalry wasn’t dead. Her knight was a dragon from another planet.

Speaking of which, what was she going to do? Invite him in?

Did he want her to?

He watched her behind those reflective sunglasses. Unreadable.

The rain picked up and pounded on the porch eaves. It sounded like stones. Water slid down her forehead and dripped off her nose.

The night seemed to stretch out.

Okay. The problem was clearly Eva.

Tonight, she’d decided not to wait for her prince any longer. She’d taken matters into her own hands. And she’d immediately hooked up with this huge, gorgeous, sexy dragon shifter. They had to work on their communication. Every couple had problems.

If she waited for him force the issue, they’d still be here at sunrise. Probably longer. He looked like he had stamina.

The question wasn’t whether he wanted to come in. The question was did she want to invite him in? Or did she want to say “Thanks for the drink and the dance” and never see him again?

What did she want?

She opened her hand. He set the keys gently on her palm and curled her fingers over the warm metal.

He looked away. Stealing himself for a dismissal? Or hoping for it?

Too bad. “Did you want to come in?”

He riveted on her. “Yes.”

The porch warmed to about a hundred degrees.

“Great.” Her voice broke. She cleared her throat and turned. “Come on in.”