Jasper Moffatt kept his head low as he walked into the Winking Wizard Pub. He knew the exact number of steps it took to get to his usual table, and exactly where he needed to turn to avoid running into the magic swivel ball table. He could have done this with his eyes closed.

But the pub was already filled to near capacity, and Jasper had to actually watch where he was going to avoid running into anyone. He should have anticipated the crowds, and left his house earlier so that he would have already been safely sitting down with his buddies by the time the masses arrived. Now, all he could do was hope he could make it to his table without being endlessly stalled by wizards and shifters who wanted a chance to talk to him. Everyone knew better than to bother him when he was sitting down with a beer. But when he was up and walking around, all bets were off.

“Jasper? That you man? So good to see you! I’ve been hoping for a chance to say hello. I wanted to thank you for coming to our city and protecting us. We’re so lucky to have you.”

Jasper stifled back a sigh as he turned to face the man speaking to him, a bear shifter. He politely shook the man’s hand and nodded. “No problem. Happy to be part of Torch Lake. It’s a great city.”

The bear shifter opened his mouth to say something else, but Jasper quickly waved across the room, acting like he’d just seen someone he knew. “Sorry, gotta run. Nice meeting you.”

The bear shifter didn’t have time to react before Jasper was gone again, trying to make his way through the crowd even faster. He didn’t want to be rude, but he didn’t come out to the Winking Wizard on a Friday night to be treated like a celebrity. He came to hang out with his buddies.

Less than thirty seconds later, Jasper slid into a chair at the table where those buddies were already sitting. Three of his fellow dragon shifters—Jake, Clint, and Evan—were already hanging out.

“Where are the girls?” Jasper asked as he flagged down a server several yards away. The server mouthed “The usual?” and Jasper nodded. The server gave him a thumbs up and rushed off to fulfill Jasper’s order. Jasper loved being a regular here, and having all the staff know that he always ordered a Dragon’s Breath lager and a plate of chicken wings and fries.

“The girls are all up at the bar,” Clint said, and rolled his eyes. “They said they wanted to gossip and have girl talk without us interrupting them every two seconds to mansplain things.”

Jasper blinked at Clint. “What does that even mean?”

Jake laughed. “It means they want to gossip about whether a guy their friend works with is into her without us giving them all the practical reasons that they’re overanalyzing the situation.”

Jasper peered in the direction of the bar, trying to spot his friends’ lifemates. After a moment of searching, he saw the familiar profiles of Rachel, Sunny, and Megan. The three of them were all holding Charmed Star ales, a smoking purple beer that all the female wizards seemed to love. They were laughing and gesturing wildly at a fourth woman whom Jasper didn’t recognize. Even from across the room, though, he was startled by how gorgeous the mystery woman appeared. He didn’t think he’d seen her in this bar before, and he was sure he wouldn’t have forgotten her wild, curly red hair. Jasper loved a good head of wild hair on a woman, and he forced himself to look away before his interest became too obvious on his face. His friends loved to give him a hard time about the fact that he needed a woman.

He was the only one of the Torch Lake dragon shifters who didn’t have a girlfriend right now, but with good reason. He’d just moved to Torch Lake a few months ago, and he’d been kept so busy by the High Council here that he’d hardly had time to meet any women, let alone date. He’d been given the official job title of “Peacekeeper,” which he was pretty sure was a position the High Council had made up for him—but he wasn’t complaining. The job description called for him to defend the citizens of Torch Lake, doing whatever he deemed necessary to maintain peace and safety. Jasper’s only request had been that he never be required to join an army. He hated war, and hated battles. Since the High Council had given him a job where he was only required to defend, not go on the offensive, he was happy. In order to make sure he was familiar with every aspect of life in Torch Lake, Jasper’s new job had begun with a series of mini-internships in each major Torch Lake government department. He’d started out in the Dragon Utilization Department and spent a month there, followed by a month with the Dragon Recovery Bureau. On Monday, he’d start a month-long gig at the Advocacy Bureau, where some of the smartest wizards around worked. He was looking forward to that, even though he knew it would be a busy month. He hadn’t had much interaction with wizards yet, and magic fascinated him.

But even with his demanding schedule, he was pretty sure he could make time for a woman as beautiful as the one at the bar right now. Of course, he wasn’t even sure if she was available. From what Jake had said a moment ago, it sounded like she might already be interested in someone else, and the other women were trying to convince her to go for it. Jasper felt an unexpected twinge of jealousy, but again, he did his best to hide his feelings. His Dragon’s Breath lager had just arrived, and he took a long sip from it while trying to look nonchalant, before glancing over at Jake.

“Who’s the new girl?”

Jake looked at him in confusion for a moment, then laughed. “Oh, the redhead? I guess I don’t think of her as a new girl, but you’ve probably never seen her before. That’s Julia. She’s a pretty good friend of Rachel’s. They worked together, back when Rachel had that customer service job to pay the bills.

Jasper frowned. That meant that Julia must work at one of those low-level customer service jobs, which presented a bit of a problem for him. He didn’t care where the women he dated worked, but the last couple of girls he’d tried dating had made a big deal about the difference between their incomes and his. Jasper was independently wealthy at this point, thanks to the fact that he’d singlehandedly saved his entire clan during the Great Dark War. This had made him rather famous, which had given him a chance to earn quite a bit of endorsement money before he’d gone into hiding to escape the famous life. It just hadn’t been for him. But the dragons in Torch Lake had found him and convinced him to move here, and, so far at least, life in this city had been far better than life anywhere else he’d lived.

Jasper turned away from the bar to look at his friends again, his decision made. He wasn’t going to risk the good life he had right now on a woman he didn’t know, no matter how beautiful she was. He’d been burned too many times by women who couldn’t handle his fame, or his money. Julia might be nice to look at, but he had looked, and now it was time to move on.

But as the night wore on, and he and his friends downed pint after pint of Dragon’s Breath lager, Jasper had a harder time getting Julia out of his head than he wanted to admit. He did not allow himself to look over at her, but a mental image of her beauty had been burned into his mind. He knew forgetting about her was a lost cause when she eventually came to sit at their table, along with his friends’ lifemates.

“So, did you girls come to a conclusion on the lucky guy?” Jake teased.

Rachel, Jake’s lifemate, glared at him. “What we decided is none of your business, Mister.”

The table wasn’t that crowded, since half of the usual crew wasn’t here tonight. But somehow Julia still ended up sitting in a chair right next to Jasper. He could smell the faint floral notes of her perfume, and his heart tightened in his chest as he chanced a glance at her. She was even more stunning up close. Her green eyes and sun-freckled face both seemed to glow, and her snug-fitting, deep purple sweater dress showed off every curve. Jasper swallowed hard and willed himself to look away, but he couldn’t stop staring. She was perfection.

And she was fired up.

“It doesn’t matter what they decided,” she insisted. “I’m not interested in that pompous panther shifter.”

“Oh, come on. He’s a little rough around the edges, but he’s so freaking hot. And he’s funny, and the smartest of Advocate Support Specialists.”

“Doesn’t matter. He’s an ass.”

Rachel sighed dramatically and launched into another long description of the panther shifter’s good qualities, but Julia wasn’t having it. She threatened to leave the Winking Wizard if Rachel didn’t give it a rest, then turned her back on her friends and extended her hand to Jasper.

“I don’t think we’ve met? Perhaps you’ll turn out to be cooler than the rest of the loonies at this table. I’m Julia.”

Jasper stared at Julia’s hand in a panic. How was he supposed to touch her without betraying the fact that every nerve ending in his body was on fire right now because of her? Yet he knew that the only thing worse than being obviously excited to shake her hand was to be obviously terrified of shaking it. So he put on as neutral of a smile as he could muster, and reached out to join his palm with hers. “I’m Jasper.”

As he’d expected, he felt a jolt of an electric-like current when their hands met. But she didn’t seem to notice that. Instead, her eyes widened at the mention of his name. “Oh! Jasper Moffatt? You’re Jasper Moffatt?”

Jasper cringed. Here it came. She was going to get all googly-eyed over meeting a famous dragon. He’d hoped she would have been above that, but he should have known better. Every time he met a pretty girl that he was attracted to, there always turned out to be something annoying about her. There was always a deal-breaker of some sort.

But then, Julia surprised him. She threw back her head and laughed so loudly that everyone at the table stopped talking and stared at her as though she’d gone slightly crazy.

“What’s so funny?” Rachel finally asked.

“Oh, nothing much,” Julia said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. “It’s just that Jasper is going to get to meet our friend the panther shifter live and in person tomorrow. He’ll be able to tell all of you what a jerk that guy really is.”

Jasper frowned. “Huh? Why would I be meeting the panther shifter tomorrow?”

“Because he’s the Advocacy Support Specialist that’s been assigned to work with you during your internship at the Advocacy Bureau. I had no idea that you were Jasper. I would have told you from the beginning that you’d be meeting the jerk these gals think I should start dating.”

“He’s not a jerk!” Rachel insisted. “He just doesn’t have the best social skills. But I’m sure he has a good heart.”

Julia only laughed again, and Rachel threw her hands up in the air. “Fine, I give up. If you don’t want to acknowledge that there’s an amazing man right in front of you, who is clearly interested in you, then don’t come crying to me when you’re a lonely old maid.”

Julia rolled her eyes, but Rachel did seem to actually be done with the conversation about the panther shifter this time. Rachel had turned to Jake and started asking him about something, and Julia turned to Jasper.

“So, have you ever worked with an Advocacy Bureau before?”

Jasper shook his head no. Most shifters hadn’t. Advocacy Bureaus were a wizard invention, and it was only recently that wizards and shifters had started working and living together.

“Oh, you’re in for a treat! Elliot—that’s the panther shifter you’ll be working with—is kind of annoying. But he is smart, and so are most of the Advocates. They’re a fascinating group to work with.”

Julia’s eyes lit up as she spoke, and Jasper was surprised to find his heart pounding. He couldn’t help it. She seemed to ooze life and beauty. And it looked like maybe he had mistaken her initial reaction. She hadn’t been so excited to meet him because he was famous. She’d just thought it was a funny coincidence that he was going to be working with the panther shifter that all the women at the table were fighting over.

“You work at the Advocacy Bureau, then?” he asked her.

She nodded. “Guilty as charged.”

Jasper gave Julia a genuine smile, then, and gestured toward her empty glass. “Care for another drink? I’ll buy a round if you’ll give me the inside scoop on the Advocacy Bureau.”

Julia grinned. “Deal.”

And so, Jasper spent the next two hours talking, laughing, and drinking with Julia—but they hardly mentioned the Advocacy Bureau. Julia proved witty and smart, and she seemed to have a lot in common with Jasper. He became so engrossed in their conversation that he barely noticed the questioning glances from his friends. He was talking to Julia much longer than he usually talked to a woman, but that was because Julia was much more interesting than most of the women he’d met. There was just something about her. Which is why, when she got up to leave, he offered to walk her out. He wanted a minute alone with her, where he could ask her on a date without the rest of the crew looking on and teasing him. She insisted that she could get to her car herself, and he insisted that he wanted to stretch his legs, anyway.

The bar had cleared out quite a bit, and Jasper and Julia easily made their way toward the front door. Jasper waited until he was standing with Julia in front of her little green sedan to make his move.

“I had a great time tonight,” he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets the way he did when he was unsure of himself. Even dragon shifters could get a little nervous around a woman as beautiful as Julia. She smiled at him, and her whole face seemed to light up again. He’d never known a woman who glowed as much as she did, and he had to resist the urge to reach over and run his finger across her face.

“I had a great time, too. Maybe I’ll see you around at the Advocacy Bureau.” She gave a small wave, and turned to open her car door. Jasper took a deep breath. It was now or never, and he definitely wasn’t letting a woman like Julia slip through his fingers. He reached out and grabbed her upper arm.

“Wait.”

She paused, turning to look at him with an arched eyebrow. “What’s up?”

“Look, I know this might sound crazy, because I just met you tonight, but I think you’re really great. I’d love to see you again. Maybe for dinner at a nice restaurant?”

Her eyebrow arched further. “I had a great time, too, Jasper. And I’m flattered that you’d think enough of me to ask me on a date. But I’m not interested in a man right now.”

Jasper had the odd sensation of being punched in the gut. Perhaps he should have known better, but despite the fact that he’d been so nervous to ask Julia out, he’d never actually expected her to say no. He was a dragon, after all. Usually, women were falling all over him, begging for the chance to date him. He’d never been in the uncomfortable position of being turned down himself.

“Um…” he said. It was all he could manage, and he felt ridiculous. This was not the impression he wanted to make on Julia. Her lips twitched up in a smile, then, and it was almost as if she could read his mind.

“I know you’re probably not used to being turned down. You’re a dragon, after all. And a famous one. But I’m not the type to fall for hype. Tonight was fun, but, like I said, I’m not looking for a man. So let’s just shake hands and part ways and leave it at that.”

She extended her hand to Jasper, and he instinctively reached for it. But instead of shaking it, he held it tightly. For his own pride’s sake, he should have just taken the handshake she’d offered and left. But something about her pulled him in like a magnet, and he couldn’t just turn and walk away. “Julia, I’m more than just a famous name. Give me a chance to show you, and I promise you won’t be disappointed.”

She tilted her head at him, causing her wild red mane to bounce to one side. She smiled sweetly, but shook her head. “I’m not looking for a man right now. No one seems to understand that. Rachel is determined to set me up with every half-decent single guy around. But I’m happy on my own. Besides, it takes a lot to impress me. Good night, Jasper.”

She pulled her hand away and turned to climb into her car. Jasper stood there watching her, his arms folded across his chest, until she’d driven out of sight. He frowned slightly as he replayed her last words in his head. She thought he couldn’t impress her? She had no idea who she was dealing with.

“Challenge accepted,” he said to the spot on the road where her car had disappeared a few moments before.