Page 7 of Dragon Detective

I’d set up the rest of the wicker furniture I’d purchased when I was closer to receiving guests.

Speaking of Max. He took this moment to saunter out of the overgrown bushes on our right—another upcoming project.

“Hey, kitty.” Reylor squatted down and held out his hand toward my lion-in-a-housecat’s body.

“Watch out.” I scooted between them. “Max is picky about people.” Me too. Everything, actually.

“Animals love me.”

Max paused with his spiked tail twitching, his attention focused on Reylor, who continued to hold his hand out like bait.

“Truly,” I said. “He’s been known to bite and scratch when he—"

Max swished around me, smacking me with his tail as he passed. He leaped onto Reylor’s bent legs and proceeded to place his front paws on Reylor’s chest. Then he bumped his nose on Reylor’s chin and started purring.

“Like I said.” Reylor gazed up at me with humor sparkling in his eyes. “Animals like me. Cute B&B owners too.”

If he could win Max over that easily, my heart was in grave danger.

Should I chide him for saying something like that? Tell him I was in town to start a business, not a relationship? Shout that once-bitten, I was at least three times shy?

“Aren’t you a cutie?” Reylor crooned.

If only I wasn’t picturing us lounging in my bed while he said the same thing to me.

Max purred louder and rubbed his face on Reylor’s, his tail doing a lazy sway that said he’d found a new human to adore.

“He’s—”

On cue, Max’s head snapped up along with his tail. He hissed and leaped off Reylor’s legs and snarled his way back into the bushes.

“Well.” Reylor straightened.

“There you are,” someone called out from the side of the building. “I hear voices. You won’t be avoiding me now.”

Please,couldI avoid her?

Evelyn’s gaze met mine from the end of the path, and the woman about five years older than my thirty hurried over to stand in front of me—tower in front of me, actually, since she was five-ten or so even without her boots and me only five-fourinheels. “You didn’t return my text messages,” she said with a huff, her fists spiking into her hips. “I’m quite put-out, I’ll have you know. It’s rude.”

“I’m busy.”

“Never too busy for me.”

“Reylor Crandish?” I struggled to keep a pleasant expression on my face. “This is Evelyn Blakemore. Reylor is Monsters, PI’s latest hire.”

Her breath caught, and her face paled. “PI?”

“Former detective,” Reylor said with a suave bow. “You could say I’m semi-retired.”

He appeared to be only a few years older than me. Kinda early for retirement, but what did I know?

“I’m Evelyn Blakemore of the Blakemore Inn Group, I might add,” she said with a sniff. Her lavender eyes slid toward Reylor and widened when she got over her snit long enough to actually check him out. “Oh,” she breathed. “Aren’t you the very devil himself.”

Yes, he was cute. He also wasn’t wearing a wedding band, something I’d noticed quite quickly. But that didn’t mean he was available.

She continued to gape at him, me forgotten.

Reylor coughed, and his lips twitched before smoothing. “Dragon shifter, actually. No demon blood unless you know something I don’t.”

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