“Oh,” she said, flushing. “He told you?”
Magnus opened one eye and then the other, sitting up slightly. He pushed his hair off his forehead, revealing his pale blue-green eyes in sharp relief. Creamy, bright jade. “Why would he be doing this otherwise?”
“What do you mean?”
“Dragons work extra hard for their mates.” He gestured to the yard. “He’s taking care of this home because it’s yours.”
“But I’m paying you,” she said.
“Are you?” Magnus said. “I mean, that’s the idea, right? We can’t just say, ‘Hey, we’re dragons, but we’re pretending to be handymen to get access to human women.’ That wouldn’t work.”
Her jaw dropped.
Magnus just went on, oblivious. “I mean, I’m not supposed to be saying it now, but since Liam has obviously claimed you, it’s not a problem anymore. Welcome to the family.”
She felt frozen all over. What family? What welcome? What ‘pretending to be handymen?’ She felt as if the world were falling apart around her, to the extent that she actually felt dizzy.
She stood up and stumbled toward the house. She had to ask Liam what Magnus meant.
Magnus stood, catching her by the wrist. “Wait,” he said. “Did I upset you? I’m sorry if I did.”
Liam appeared at the door, his ocean-blue eyes narrowing on Magnus’s hand on her wrist. “Release her.”
Magnus dropped her hand, stepping back and scratching the back of his head. “Uh, brother, I may have. Uh…”
“He was saying… He was saying the craziest things,” she said, stamping a foot as she came up to glare into Liam’s eyes. “About dragons pretending to be landscapers. About me being part of the family. Like it’s all settled. What the hell is settled? Someone explain what’s going on, right now.”
Magnus looked at Liam with a guilty expression, but as he didn’t look like someone who held on to guilt long, he just shrugged and took a few steps away, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I didn’t think you would… mate her without telling her about us. My bad.” He gave Liam a wry grin. “See you at home.”
Liam made an angry move, as if to go after him, but Kate stepped in front of him.
“This is about us now,” she said, grabbing the front of his shirt. “What’s going on? What was he talking about? He’s crazy, right? You guys don’t really believe you’re dragons? He was yanking my chain.”
“Chain?” he asked, running his hand over a small, chain bracelet she hadn’t noticed before. It was dull, made of some darkish metal, unpolished and antique-looking.
But she had other things to focus on now.
“You know what I mean. Was he teasing me?”
Liam rubbed his hand over the short hair at the base of his head. “No. Magnus isn’t like that. Well, he can tease, but he doesn’t lie. In fact, he is honest to a fault.”
She sat down on the step with a huff, feeling overwhelmed. He sat across from her, leaning on the pillar on the other side of the steps. “I need you to explain it to me. Right now.”
“Does it change things?” he asked. “It felt right last night. We’ve been having fun together. Does anything else matter?”
“If you think you’re a legendary, mythological creature, yes, that matters.” She set her jaw. “In fact, I think I would want you off my property.”
A muscle ticked in his cheek. “You must be the one joking now. You can’t mean that.”
“I mean it,” she said. “I already accepted there was a super-hot handyman who wants me. How much craziness am I supposed to put up with?”
“You think too little of yourself,” he said. “I don’t like it.”
“And I don’t like that you’re dodging the subject. What was your friend talking about?”
He sighed. “I don’t want to lie to you, but I don’t want you to throw me away.”
“I’m not throwing you away,” she said. “You aren’t some object I decide what to do with. You shouldn’t give me that much power over you.”
He scooted forward until they were eye to eye, and he took her hand and held it over his chest. “Too late. You have that power over me. You always will. That’s what mates are.”
She jerked back from him, scooting away until her back hit the pillar behind her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why are you ruining everything? It was fine before.”
“When you didn’t know who I was?”
“When I didn’t think you were out of your mind!” she said. “Say it. You can’t honestly believe you are a dragon.”
“I am a dragon,” he said. “I’m sorry if it’s hard for you to hear it. I wasn’t going to tell you until I had to.”
“I sort of think it’s something you should have brought up before we slept together,” she screeched, knowing she was starting to sound hysterical.
This had to be some kind of dream. Everything had been going so well. She would just wake up and be back in that world where Liam was just a sweet, sexy guy she was getting to know. Someone totally sane, from a normal company.
A company where they all lived in a castle…
Good heavens, they were all insane. She should have seen it sooner. They called themselves dragons.
“You’re just a landscaper,” she said, feeling like her heart was frozen. “A handyman. A nice guy named Liam who happens to look like a model.”
“Dragons are known for being handsome.”
She put her hands up to her head. “Stop saying dragons. Please.”
He looked hurt, and for a moment, she regretted stopping him. But what was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to react? It felt like everything was falling apart in the worst way.
“What did Magnus mean about being part of the family?”
“I suppose he thought that since we’d been… intimate, we were mated. He misunderstood. I’ve marked you just by being with you, but what we did is by no means permanent. My plan was to court you like a normal human.”
She stood, backing toward the door. “Which means you don’t consider yourself to be a normal human.”
“I’m not,” he said, standing and following her slowly, hands outstretched at his sides, showing he was harmless. “But is it so bad that I’m a dragon?” He looked around the yard. “I can do this for you. I look better. I’m stronger. Isn’t it better than being a human after all?”
She shook her head and hid behind her door, slamming it before he could come in.
What the hell? How could she have had sex with someone who actually thought he was a dragon?
“Kate, let me in. I can explain. We can talk.”
“Tell the truth,” she said. “Were you really going to let me pay for the work out there, or was it all just a part of winning me over?”
His silence said everything.
“And you really only started handiwork to get access to human women?”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “To meet them. To find our mates.”
Oh gosh, she’d attracted a crazy person. Not only that, he was all over her yard, doing work for free because he thought she belonged to him or something.