Chapter Eight

OLLIE

"Dad, please. You know I'd do anything for this family, but Lisa's seven months along. I can't leave her to go and stay with a strange family for three months."

I'd known Jack my whole life, but I'd never seen him as desperate as this. He spun around to point at me. "Ollie can do it instead. He'd be brilliant—everyone likes him."

"I have work—" I started.

"The family can pay you the same as your wages, can't we, Dad? Please?"

"Give me a minute." Mr Shaw nodded towards the door of his hotel room and we obediently left him and Mrs Shaw together.

"Fuck." Jack leaned back against the wall, raking his hands through his hair. "You understand, don't you, Ollie?"

I understood. I also knew how unlikely it was that the Shaws would trust their family's reputation to me, of all dragons. Mr Shaw would be bound to understand why Jack couldn't do it, especially since Mrs Shaw had made comments about not missing the birth of her first grandchild. They could send another dragon in Jack's place once we got home.

I was glad my reputation would save me from the most awkward situation I could imagine. No way did I want to go and live with a strange dragon family for a few months because a whole bunch of them had voted that it was a good thing to do.

"It'll work out," I told Jack.

* * *

It did work out, but not in the way I'd expected. Mr Shaw decided not sending one of his delegation in accordance with the moot's decision would make him look weak. He gave me a whole load of instructions about how to behave and warned me fiercely not to say anything about our family other than information that was public knowledge. Then he clapped me on the shoulder.

"You'll be okay, Ollie. Don't worry about your job—it's only a call centre, after all. You can find another job when you get back."

Alright for him to say. And ‘only' a call centre? I liked it there. I had friends, and I liked helping people.

If the situation were different, I might be excited at the prospect of meeting a whole new dragon family, but I was going to lose my job and Mr Shaw was only sending me because there was no one else. I wasn't feeling this. "So who am I going to stay with?"

"The Talbots. Winchester."

I stared at him, vaguely aware of Jack in the background mouthing something at me. "I'm sorry, did you say the Talbots? Archer Talbot?"

"You know him?"

If almost crashing into him then babbling half-baked Avebury theories counted as knowing him, then I guessed I did. "Oh my God." How the hell was I supposed to live with Archer Talbot without falling at his feet every day and begging him to fuck me?

Mr Shaw had finished with me, and Jack dragged me away while I was still dazed at what lay ahead of me. "For the love of God, don't bang Talbot. Or anyone else, for that matter—I know what you're like."

Ever since he'd got married, Jack had been different. I wouldn't say he slut-shamed me, but he disapproved. It had to be Lisa's influence, because before he met her, he'd been like me, going through partners like dragon-fire through paper.

I couldn't see how any of Archer Talbot's family could possibly compare with him, so at least Jack wouldn't have to worry about me sleeping my way through the family.

"What if he wants to bang?" I asked. A forlorn hope, but if I could get out of a vow of celibacy on a technicality, I'd take it.

"Really? That's your get-out clause?" Jack shook his head, but his eyes were laughing at me. "No, Ollie. No banging the guy you're supposed to be impressing on our behalf, no matter what ."

It had been worth a try. "Okay," I said reluctantly. "But you so owe me for this. Celibacy sucks."

"How would you know?" Jack was grinning as he dragged me into a hug. "Thanks, mate. I owe you one."

When Mr Shaw presented me to Archer Talbot as his family's representative, the dismay on Archer's face instantly shattered any fantasies I had of him being so overcome by lust that he'd drag me off to his bed, leaving me no choice and so not breaking my promise to Jack. I didn't know why he didn't like me, but it was pretty clear I didn't rank on his acceptable persons list.

He drew a long, deep breath and turned away. "Bring your bag out to the car."

I trotted behind him as he strode briskly to the car park, determinedly not noticing how much I liked him ordering me around. And my ‘bag' singular—that was going to be a problem. I'd only packed enough clothes for a couple of days. Whoever had come up with this idea hadn't thought it through.

Or maybe they had. If the families had been allowed to go home and back into their usual environments, this would likely never have happened.

Mia and I had a brief squabble over the front seat. She thought I should have it as the guest, but there was no way I was going to spend an hour sitting that close to a glowering Archer Talbot without something to put in my lap and disguise the problem I just knew I'd have. I won, by dint of Archer ordering Mia to get in.

As we pulled out of the hotel car park, I glanced back to see Jack watching with an odd expression on his face—a mixture of guilt and envy. The timing sucked for him because I knew how much he'd have loved to represent his family and how good he'd be at all the political stuff. Me, I was along for the ride, yet again, and hoping I didn't mess up too badly.

I turned away, and for the first time, nerves struck. I would be completely alone with a strange dragon family, the head of which didn't want me there. So much for hoping I wouldn't mess up—I should be more worried about whether I'd survive.

ARCHER

I slowed almost to walking pace through Avebury village. The stones were less mysterious in the daylight, but just as breathtaking—alien, yet intensely familiar.

Glancing in the mirror, I saw Ollie pressed against the window as he drank them in. Once we were past, he sat up straight again. He opened his mouth, then closed it, repeating that twice before I remembered I should be watching the road. He looked as if he was bursting to say something but for some reason—perhaps a belated sense of respect for the head of a family—didn't like to.

Sadly, his silence didn't last long. Mia and he started a conversation about films that lasted the entire hour-and-a-quarter drive home. By the time I turned through familiar wrought-iron gates, propped open the way they usually were, I was developing a headache. Ollie was as giddy as Mia about various films and actors, yet occasionally he'd make an observation in passing that showed an analytical brain. I couldn't decide if an intelligent man was hiding under an exterior that screamed superficiality, or if he was like a broken clock and accidentally got things right occasionally.

Whichever it was, there was no doubt that Mia was enjoying his company. After observing them at length, it had become clear to me there was no sexual attraction between them, so I could let her entertain him for the interminable three months he was due to stay with us.

I didn't know how I was going to survive this with my sanity intact. My dragon had crooned happily as Ollie had climbed into my car, knowing he was coming home with us. Not to stay, I'd reminded him, but he'd blown a dragon raspberry at me before settling down again.

Thinking of the next three months, I remembered Ollie's small overnight bag. Was I supposed to clothe as well as feed him while he was here? He'd never fit into my clothes even if I'd felt inclined to lend any to him—he was four inches shorter than me, and definitely more lithe. Slender, not lithe . God, what was wrong with my brain?

"Oh my God."

I glanced in my mirror to see Ollie sitting up straight and staring through the windscreen.

"You live here ?"

Talbot Court was a Tudor manor house. Although modest in size, it had one thing few other country houses had.

"Is that an actual moat?"

"I hope so, otherwise it means the house flooded while we've been gone."

Mia glanced sharply at me and I damned myself for letting Ollie draw me into one of his silly conversations. "You'll be less impressed when the ducks wake you at dawn every day," I warned him, and swung the car into its usual space at the back of the house. Tim's motorbike was there. At least that meant he was home rather than out God knew where.

As I led the way to the house, I could hear Ollie quizzing Mia. "Do you have, like, butlers and maids and things? And a drawbridge? Oh my God, please tell me you have a drawbridge."

I crossed the small, stone bridge to the front door and gritted my teeth. The next three months were going to be exhausting.