Yes. There was no tension between them. Nothing that hinted they were more than friends. And even if they were that is in the past. Shawn is our friend and he would never do anything to jeopardize our relationship with Amber.
With the conversation over, Kelos concentrated on the road ahead while his dragon took himself off to sleep. It was late and Kelos was also tired. But he doubted he would sleep much tonight. His head was too full of images of his mate and his body seemed to vibrate with excitement, each of his nerve endings tingling at the thought of her touch.
Maybe you should be thinking more about Amber’s reaction when she sees the state of the house. His dragon arched an eyebrow before he closed his eyes and slept.
When he’d offered to give Amber and Margie somewhere to stay, he had not thought about how she might react to his fixer-upper. He’d only owned the property for a couple of weeks and he’d barely begun the huge amount of work it needed before he would transform it into the cozy home. When he’d viewed the house and decided to buy it, he had not anticipated his mate arriving in his life so soon.
Why would he when he had waited so long for her already?
Too late to change his mind, unless he stopped the truck and offered to take them all to the nearest hotel, he figured he’d have to use his imagination and describe how the house would be when he’d finished renovating it.
Whenever that maybe. Kelos hadn’t exactly put any plans in place to finish the house in a hurry. He was enjoying the process of stripping the house back before making it all new.
But a stripped-back house would not appeal to his mate. Not when she had to think about the comfort and safety of her sister-in-law and her children.
There was no point worrying about things he could not change. No doubt, his mate would just be happy he could provide a dry, safe place for them to shelter from whatever they were running from.
But who was running? Amber or Margie?
As he turned off the road and drove along the bumpy trail that led to the house, the trees crowded on them. Approaching his house was like driving down a dark tunnel. The trees lining the trail leading to the house were one of the reasons he’d bought the property. They gave Kelos a sense of privacy, as if he could shut the world out and slip back in time to when life was a lot simpler.
His dragon huffed in his sleep. The arrival of their mate had complicated things more than he’d like. As a dragon shifter, he’d learned to live a secretive life, only telling those he trusted what he really was. He was one of the last of his kind and he had no wish to be hunted to extinction like many of the other dragons who had once roamed the skies.
As he approached the end of the tunnel of trees, the beam from his headlights lit up the open area in front of the house. It looked like a building site, with lumber stacked to one side and bricks to the other. He’d never looked at it critically, but he did now, and his heart sank.
Maybe they would be turning around and going to a hotel after all. He would offer to sleep outside the room and guard them from danger.
Kelos stopped the truck and got out as Amber’s car slid to a halt next to him. Standing back, he waited for Amber and Margie to get out of the car and pass judgment.
His suspicions were correct. Margie was looking at the house and then saying something to Amber. Kelos forced himself not to listen. But her expression, complete with arched eyebrow, told him the sister-in-law was displeased.
Amber got out of the car first and came toward him, her arms folded across her body as if she were hugging herself. “Thank you so much for doing this for us, Kelos.”
He resisted the urge to tell her he would do anything for her. “I know it doesn’t look like much.” He looked at the house he’d become fond of over the weeks he’d been working on it. “But it’s dry inside and there’s plenty of room for all of you.”
“For all of us,” she corrected him. “I don’t want to push you out of your home.”
“Home.” He glanced at the house with it’s rotted-out porch roof and gave a half-smile.
“You don’t see it as your home?” she asked as Margie opened her car door and got out. Her feet crunched on the gravel beneath her feet as she walked around the car to join her sister-in-law.
“I do.” He nodded. “I just hadn’t realized it until now.” He focused on his mate. “I haven’t had a place I’d call home since I was a child. I move around a lot.”
“That sounds like someone else I know.” Margie glanced sideways at Amber. Then she thrust her hand out toward Kelos. “I’m Margie, by the way.”
“Kelos.” He slipped his hand into hers and shook it firmly. Maybe a little too firmly. When he let go, Margie flexed her hand as if trying to restore the blood supply.
Amber hid a small smile. “Is there somewhere we can put the children to bed? They’re sound asleep. If we carry them carefully, they might stay that way. It’s been a long day.”
“Sure.” He nodded. “They can either sleep in my bed or take the sofas. There are two of them in the living room, but only one bed upstairs.”
“Maybe they could sleep in your bed and I can sleep with them,” Margie suggested hopefully. “That way you two can take the sofas.”
“Sure, I can always bunk on the floor otherwise.” Kelos looked up at the stars. “Or even sleep out here.”
“I think we should all sleep under one roof, don’t you?” Margie
