Chapter Twenty-one

OLLIE

I stretched luxuriously in Archer's bed, feeling the fantastic ache in my body from where he'd fucked me again last night. It had been different from the first time—less urgent, with us taking time to explore one another, yet even more intense.

His getting up to go to work had woken me, and he'd kissed me and told me to go back to sleep. I hadn't intended to, but I was asleep before he'd even left the room.

And now, I was alone and had a chance to look around me. Presumably, Archer's room was the master bedroom of the house as it was about three times the size of mine. There wasn't much in it, though—a big carved wooden chest at the foot of the bed, huge wardrobes, and a dressing table with a mirror and a solitary comb. No skin-care products, no photos, no knick-knacks. Not even any books. Then I remembered they had an entire room downstairs just for books.

The canopy and curtains on the bed were made from a William Morris print and looked too new to be harbouring spiders from Tudor times. His mother's work, I theorised, before I realised I was gender stereotyping. I still hadn't heard a word about her, and it wasn't something I could ask.

I took a photo to send to Jack and realised at the last second that I'd already sent him a pic of my room. Shit, that was close.

Got the wrong Disney princess when I said I was Rapunzel. Yesterday was Sleeping Beauty getting trapped in a thicket , I messaged instead, with great strength of will not adding anything about having been rescued by a handsome prince.

We had a few back and forths and I told him I was going into Winchester again to meet more of the family.

Good. Let me know what you find out .

Will do. I still wasn't sure what Jack and his father thought I was here for. I thought it was to make friends and get the family used to having a strange dragon around so they could see they didn't need to get too territorial, but Jack seemed to think I was here to spy on the Talbots.

As I was wondering how best to handle Jack's expectations without getting into trouble with his dad, he sent another message. You've banged him, haven't you? Mr Rochester.

How the hell did Jack know? Why would you think that ?

Because you haven't mentioned him yet .

Shit. I'm not all about Mr R, you know. I have a life. And there are donkeys. Mini ones .

You forget how well I know you .

There was only one thing for it—I broke the habit of a lifetime and called him.

"You have, haven't you?"

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you, Jack. How're you? Great. Thanks for asking."

"You've bloody well gone and banged Archer Talbot when you're meant to be there to represent us."

"I haven't just banged him—"

"Oh my fucking God, don't tell me you've banged his brother as well. In under a week? Even for you, Ollie—"

"I mean, it's not just banging. We went out on a date last night."

"A date? You ?"

Jack's incredulity hurt, though I wouldn't let him know that. "I can do dates."

"Yeah, but you don't." I heard a door close on his end, and when he spoke, his tone was softer, more like the Jack who swapped confidences with me before he got married. "You're serious about him?"

"I like him, Jack. I wouldn't have done this if it had been anyone else, honest—I know what you told me. But he's so…"I trailed off, unable to put into words the mixture of commanding and protective and gentle that Archer was. And the fact he was hot like burning.

"Okay, Ollie. But for the love of God, don't tell Dad. When you need to get out of there, let me know, and we'll work out a story for him."

"What if I don't need to get out?" I could barely speak through a throat that was suddenly thick.

"In that case, I expect to be your best man."

But he didn't believe that, I could hear it in his voice. He was saying what I wanted to hear. What was it about me that no one thought I could be serious about anything?

"Better go. I have stuff to do," I told him, and ended the call.

ARCHER

Try as I might, I couldn't get my head straight, so I started to tidy the workshop. I knew too well the dangers of working with hot metal, and doing it when distracted would be inviting disaster.

Tidying gave me the opportunity for a stock check, so at least I wasn't wasting too much time. Though as my thoughts skittered away from iron bars and back to memories of last night, I wasn't so sure about that.

Ollie had said he wanted me from the moment he'd seen me. That wasn't anything new—a lot of people seemed to pick up on my dragon's primal nature and put themselves in my way, hoping I'd fuck them—but he'd come to know me and he still wanted me. I didn't know if that meant this was a relationship or not.

I'd missed out on the years when everyone else was learning how to date. I hadn't been able to leave the kids or afford a babysitter just so I could go and indulge myself. Once things got easier, and I could finally carve out an occasional evening to myself, I'd headed to the Brighton clubs simply because I didn't know what my other options were. I'd met some good guys there, guys who had patiently tutored me through my first, fumbling attempts. Now, I had no doubts about my ability to please a partner in bed, but I'd resigned myself to having nothing more than that. No one would want to share the life I had to lead as head of my family.

Being with Ollie had been unlike anything I'd known. He was beautiful beyond belief—and flexible, remembering the ease with which his legs had gone over my shoulders—and he was always so ready to smile. When I was with him, laughter was never far away, and I was beginning to wonder if he possessed supernatural powers because, before Ollie, I hadn't laughed for a long time.

After I finished inside him last night, I'd had to bite back the word that had wanted to come out. Mine. I wanted to possess him, to hoard him. But I couldn't keep him in my life of duty without changing him. I didn't want him to lose the joy that made him Ollie.

We'd talked deep into the night, Ollie sharing happily the random thoughts that came into his head.

"If the Avebury stones are bearing witness to our lives, do you think they're judging us? It's kind of a weird feeling, being judged by a lump of rock."

"I don't get that from them," I reassured him.

"Okay, good. Where do you think we came from? Dragons, I mean. We've obviously been around since forever because there are all those old legends about dragons, but how did we evolve to look like humans and yet be so different?"

I hoped he didn't expect me to answer the question that had unsuccessfully consumed the minds of far brighter dragons than me. "No idea," I said, stretching comfortably, and loving the way he snuggled closer after I'd settled once more. "I don't think it matters. What matters is that we're here."

"That sounds like the sort of motivational poster they had in the break room at work. I wonder if they miss me?"

I pressed a kiss to his temple. "Doubt it."

As he raised his head to look at me, indignation in his face, I grinned. "Of course they do. Their lives are going to be a lot more boring without you around."

"At least they might let people use the microwave again," he said, and yawned. "Did I tell you I blew up the old one? I forgot my pie was in a foil case."

I was making a mental note to keep Ollie away from our microwave when his next words grabbed my attention. "Do you think we should tell Mia and Tim about us?"

I hesitated. "I'm not sure how they'd take it," I said at last. "You're Mia's friend, and Tim is—well, he's Tim. You're right, though. I don't want to be sneaking around behind the kids' backs. I'll tell them tomorrow."

"Okay," Ollie agreed, easy as ever. "Do you notice how often you call them the kids?"

What a weird question. Except, as I turned it over in my head, it wasn't weird and it wasn't random. He was making a point. "I hadn't," I confessed. I wasn't ready to let go of them yet, but they weren't kids anymore. Not really.

That was something useful I could do this morning while I was too distracted to work. I'd find the kids—I'd find Tim and Mia, and tell them about me and Ollie.

I didn't know how to answer if they asked whether it was serious between us. I'd hoped our date would clarify things, but it hadn't, not really. Ollie might see this as nothing more than a bit of fun to pass the time while he stayed with us. I didn't even know what exactly I wanted from him, other than that I didn't want him to leave.

OLLIE

I waited for the Winchester bus at the stop a few yards from the Court's gates. June had invited me to a garden party, and I hadn't been able to think of an excuse quickly enough. As I had to go to Winchester for it, I'd decided to head into the city beforehand and have a look around while picking up a few more things I'd need for my three-month stay.

The bus was ten minutes late, and I was beginning to wonder if both Mia and the internet were mistaken about the times when it arrived. It was stuffed full of pensioners taking advantage of their bus passes, and I couldn't see a free seat.

"Here you go, my love."A woman with permed grey hair moved her bag and patted the seat beside her.

"Thanks."

"So you're from the big house? Are you one of the family?" She gestured at the gates as the bus pulled away.

"I'm just staying there."

"You can tell me all about it then. I hear they have a moat and peacocks."

"No peacocks, sadly," I said. "But there is a moat and a maze. Oh, and a folly, too."

"No peacocks? They should have peacocks."

"That's what I said!"

By the time the bus reached the centre of Winchester, I had become fast friends with Anne, along with Robin and Neria in the seat in front of us. In fact, it seemed as if half the bus were listening to our conversation. I hadn't realised that staying at Talbot Court made me some sort of local celebrity.

Once I got away from my fan club, it didn't take me long to stock up on what I needed, including a diversion to a chemist's to pick up an industrial quantity of condoms and lube—better to have too much than not enough. That left a couple of hours to fill before I was due at June's. I wandered around the outside of the cathedral, but the entrance fee was pretty steep, so I headed for the cheaper Great Hall. I wanted to see the Round Table, even though Archer had said it was fake.

I wished he'd been able to come with me. It would be much more fun exploring with him and comparing notes on what we were looking at. Which, in my case, would have been him. Even a thirteenth century Round Table couldn't compare to Archer. But he'd said he had to work, so there was only me to enjoy the soaring gothic interior of the hall and the enormous tabletop hanging on the wall.

I supposed, when I thought about it, a table that all the knights could sit around would have to be pretty big, but I was taken aback by the sheer size of the thing. It was painted in green and white sections and had a different knight's name at each place.

I'd thought there were twelve Knights of the Round Table, but looking at this table, it seated twenty-four. I thought perhaps I was getting confused with the apostles. Google told me, unhelpfully, that no one knew how many knights there'd been, with estimates ranging from twelve (I'd been right after all) to more than a thousand. I paused briefly over a French source that claimed there'd been sixty. Now that the Berstows had been discovered, there were sixty-one dragon families—the same number as the knights if King Arthur was added to the total. Given how the legend of King Arthur was entwined with tales of dragons, the coincidence pleased me.

Outside the Great Hall was a garden, which the visitor guide said was designed and planted as a replica of a mediaeval garden. I wondered how the gardens at Talbot Court would look if they could be restored, although none of the family had the time or the money to do that. Still, I'd help Tim as much as I could while I was staying with them. For however long that was. I didn't want to think about going home, not now Archer and I were—whatever we were.

Our date didn't seem to have put him off. He'd held me as I'd fallen asleep last night, not sent me back to my cold bedroom. Somehow, he liked me. I hoped I could keep it that way.