by Anna Lowe
They continued up the driveway in silence.
Quit staring at her, he ordered his dragon.
You try not staring at a woman that beautiful, the beast shot back.
He was trying, but yes — mostly failing. The white T-shirt brought out the brilliant green of her eyes, and the colorful sarong she’d matched it with was tied in some complicated way that emphasized the perfect curve of her hips. Her hair bounced over her shoulders, glinting reddish-gold in the sun. More girl-next-door pretty than cover-girl gorgeous with her freckles and thin lips, but damn. She had more soul than a dozen hollow-eyed cover models put together. More spunk. More spark. He could see it in her eyes and in her quick, bouncy step.
“Nice necklace,” he said when she caught him looking her way yet again.
She caught the pendant and held it up for him. It looked a hell of a lot like an emerald — green exactly the color of her eyes. The stone’s shape seemed familiar in a way Kai couldn’t explain.
“It’s not a real emerald, but my grandmother gave it to me, so it means a lot to me,” she murmured. She smiled at the pendant — a bittersweet smile that made him yearn to find out more, though he didn’t dare ask — and then she tucked it away again.
“So, dragons can fly, right?” she asked.
Of course, I can fly, his dragon snorted.
“Yes.”
“So why all the cars?” she asked, waving her hand down the long, arched line of garages they’d finally reached.
“Oh. The owner of the estate collects them.”
“I see,” she said in a tone that indicated she didn’t understand at all. “Who is the owner?”
He grabbed a key from a set of hooks and continued walking — past the Jaguar he’d driven the previous night. Past the Ferrari, the Lamborghini, and the Jeep. “It’s complicated.”
“Try me.”
He hemmed and hawed because it wasn’t entirely clear to him, either. Silas had left the military a few months before the rest of them had, and by the time Kai and the others joined him on Maui, Silas had sealed the caretaking deal and made it clear not to ask questions about the owner.
“It’s a special deal. The owner is hardly ever here. We keep an eye on the place. Like caretakers.”
“Caretakers?” She raised an eyebrow. “What exactly do you take care of?”
Kai waved a hand vaguely. “You know. The estate.”
“Like what? Do you mow the lawns?”
He shook his head. Hell, no. The gardener did that.
“Fix plumbing?”
Well, no. But—
“Do you take care of all these cars?”
That, he had an answer for. “Hunter does. He’s the mechanic.”
“So, what do you do?”
There she went, turning the tables on him, asking a million questions.
“What are you — a private investigator?” he joked.
“No. Are you?”
He opened his mouth then closed it again, not quite sure whether to admit the truth.
“You’re kidding,” Tessa said.
He shook his head.
“Prove it.”
Now he remembered why Cruz disliked humans so much. Always prying. Though the way Tessa did it was so…cute.
“Prove it,” she insisted.
He sighed, drew out his wallet, and showed her his ID.
Tessa, of course, pulled it right out of his hands and inspected it closely. “Pilot’s license? Dragons need pilot’s licenses?”
“Oops. That’s for the helicopter,” he said, turning his wallet around in her hands and flipping to the next card.
“The helicopter. Of course,” she muttered then caught herself. “Whoa, wait. Why would a dragon need a helicopter?”
He shrugged. “Business.”
She didn’t seem convinced. “Do all the guys here have pilot’s licenses?”
Kai laughed outright. “Nah. Boone doesn’t mind flying, but try getting a bear or a tiger in a helicopter. The big boys get all white-knuckled.”
Tessa gaped as she read his next ID card. “State of Hawaii…” She trailed off and whistled. “You’re really a private eye?”
“You’re a private chef,” he tried, motioning her into the Land Rover with tinted windows.
“Minor difference,” she said, climbing in.
He eased the vehicle down the road, keeping his eyes ahead.
“You can actually make a living as a private eye?”
“Can you actually make a living as a private chef?”
“Yep,” she said with a note of pride. “It’s a good business once you make a name for yourself.” She frowned. “Except for dragons, of course.”
“Not all dragons are bad,” he said.
She looked at him for a long, hard minute, clearly undecided. But she’d gotten in the car with him, right?
“Quit changing the subject,” she said. “Tell me what you guys do for work.”
“We don’t need much to get by. A little PI work. I take tourists on scenic flights from time to time, too.”
She gaped at him.
“In the helicopter,” he hastened to clarify. “Not in dragon form. And we all do a little bodyguarding when the occasion arises.”
She snorted. “Now, that, I can believe.”
He wondered what she meant, but he didn’t push the point lest she pry further. He, Silas, and the others did a range of work that called for their specialized skill set. Some intelligence work, some investigating. Plus, a variety of private contract work he’d rather not share the details of.
“Have you investigated me?” Tessa asked.
He nodded slowly. Carefully. “A little. Last night. Just trying to figure out why Damien Morgan targeted you.”
“And what did you find?”
“Nothing. Not yet. No missing persons report filed yet, either. When is your family likely to get worried?” He’d found the records on her, her parents — divorced for decades, according to public records — and a sister on the East Coast.
She didn’t answer for a long time. Too long, really.
“Not for a while,” she whispered. “We’re not that close.”
He wanted to follow up with more questions, but her face was stony. She might as well have stuck up a No Trespassing sign, so he relented and changed the subject.
“So, private chef, huh? You like it?”
She nodded. “I do. Cooking for restaurants got a little boring. I like playing with recipes, seeing what clients like best.”
He chuckled. “Ever think of writing a cookbook?”
He’d asked the first thing that came to his mind, but apparently, he’d struck a chord, because Tessa sighed and murmured, “Someday.”
Kai wished he had the power to grab someday and hand it to her right there and then. She seemed so wistful, so full of hope, that his inner dragon started plotting away.
Maybe if she stayed with us a while…
“What kind of cookbook?” he asked, coaxing her along. “Do you have a specialty?”
Tessa gazed out at the sea with dreamy eyes. “Grilling. A cookbook about grilling. Something like Gourmet Grill or All Fired Up, I was thinking.”
He looked at her. Whoa. She wasn’t kidding.
A second later, her shoulders drooped a little. “Kind of dumb, huh?”
“Not dumb. It sounds great.”
She flashed him a grin so grateful, so bright, he couldn’t help smiling just as wide.
He slowed down for another turn, continued down the private road, and pulled onto the Honoapi’ilani Highway, mulling the idea over the whole time.
She can try out her recipes on the guys, his dragon said, and before he knew it, his mind filled with images of upgrading the kitchen, fetching things for her…
Whatever she needs, his dragon agreed. We can make her happy.
He caught himself there. His job wasn’t to make Tessa happy. It was to subtly investigate her. Why did he keep drifting off task?
“Officer Meli,” he murmured out of sheer habit.
“Officer who?”
He pointed left to the police car hidden at the curve.
“She’s always trying to catch us speeding.”
Tessa leaned forward, and he wondered how much she could see. He could picture Office Meli perfectly. Dark sunglasses. Dark hair whirled in a bun and a face that made most guys wish they could be pulled over. According to Hunter, Officer Dawn Meli’s blend of Asian, Caucasian, and Polynesian features made her the most beautiful woman in the world. Kai glanced at the redhead beside him. The cop might catch Hunter’s eye, but red-haired, green-eyed Tessa was more his type.
Not that he’d ever had a type, really. But the second he’d laid eyes on Tessa…
Mine, his dragon murmured.
But she was human. The closer he got to her, the more danger he put her in.
“Has she succeeded?” Tessa waved to the policewoman. “In catching anyone speeding, I mean?”
He laughed. “She gets Boone every time. I think he likes it. She catches the rest of us every once in a while. Except Hunter. He never speeds.”
“Never?”
He waved a hand. “Never. Bears — you know how they can be.”
She muttered something sardonic, reminding him that she’d only been thrown into the world of shifters a short time ago.
Most humans would run screaming for the hills if they learned what she had. But Tessa had an instinct for shifters, it seemed. She’d handled meeting everyone at Koa Point without batting an eye. Well, barely.
See? She can handle it. She belongs, his dragon whispered.
“And how do you know Ella?” Tessa asked.
He pinched his lips, speeding up now that the police cruiser was past. “She’s a friend.”
“A friend,” Tessa echoed, clearly not appeased.
He shrugged. How much to say? How much to explain? Because talking about Ella meant talking about his own messed-up past.
Come on. If you can’t tell Tessa, who can you tell? his dragon demanded.
No one was his preferred answer. Why tell anyone?
But Tessa looked at him with those big, green eyes, and he couldn’t help but open up a bit.
“We grew up together. Not far from here.” He pointed south, toward the Hana side of Maui.
“You and Ella?”
“Me, Ella, and Hunter.”
“What, like a shifter commune?” Tessa joked.
He laughed, but it came out forced. “More like a home for wayward shifters. Our parents died when we were young.”
Died or took off to avenge the death of a mate, as his father had done, but Kai decided to leave that part out.
Tessa’s face fell. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”
He shrugged. “We were the lucky ones. Georgia Mae took care of us. We had all the love we could want. Not a lot of money, maybe, but she made ends meet.”
“So, not on an estate like that?” Tessa jerked her thumb in the direction of Koa Point.
“I wish,” he laughed.
“Is Georgia Mae a shifter, too?”
He nodded. “Was. She was an owl. She used to joke that it helped her keep an eye on us at night.”
Thankfully, Tessa didn’t push for more, so he didn’t have to explain the details of how hard it had been to lay Georgia Mae to rest, or other things, like which of them remembered their parents — or didn’t — and all the other ugly particulars of their early lives.
His dragon grew somber. Mom. I remember Mom.
Yeah, he remembered too. All the more reason to guard his heart now.
But that grew more difficult with every passing hour, especially with Tessa so close. Her scent wrapped around him like a silk scarf. Her voice worked its way deep into his soul, making his dragon want to hum along. The sun glinted off her hair, reminding him just how rich that color was.
Beautiful, his dragon murmured. So beautiful.
He fished his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her, trying to focus. First, they had to check on her luggage. Second, they had to buy food. And third, he had to collect any information on Tessa he could to try to figure out why Morgan attacked her.
Probably because she smells so good, his dragon murmured. Because she’s perfect.
He glanced right and saw the sun glinting off her pendant. Had that attracted Morgan? It had caught his eye several times already, and Silas’s, too — he’d seen his cousin peek at it then dismiss it just as he had. It was a striking stone, but obviously not the real thing. So Morgan had to have been after Tessa, not the pendant.
Tessa spoke into the phone, paused, then spoke again. “Will it be on the next flight?”
So much for her luggage, his dragon sighed.
She looked glum, but when a sign flashed by on the right, she perked up. “A farmer’s market! Perfect.”
He wanted to protest that the grocery store was closer and quicker, but shit. How could he take that little bit of happiness away from her?
“Farmer’s market it is,” he sighed, heading for the center of town.
“Wow. This is beautiful,” Tessa said, swiveling her head left and right once they’d parked and started walking down the street.
Kai looked, too. Normally, he didn’t take much notice of downtown Lahaina. But, yeah. The old buildings were pretty nice, he supposed. Red roofs, white trim, shaded balconies. Dozens of old-fashioned shop signs hung over the sidewalks, and pastel colors covered the walls. The town was a little touristy, but vibrant and cheery, too — much like Tessa.
“Used to be a whaler’s port,” he murmured, wishing he had more to tell her just to see her eyes sparkle with wonder and joy.
“Beautiful. And wow.” She pulled up short, gawking at the banyan tree.
“It’s some kind of historic…” he started, but she was already darting ahead, reading the plaque.
“‘Planted on April 24, 1873.’ Wow. Over a hundred years old.”
It was a funny old tree with branches that arched up and out, then tapped back down to the ground, creating a latticework of trunks and roots like something out of a fantasy book.
“Like a cathedral,” Tessa murmured, squinting at the sunlight filtering through the leaves.
Kai had never thought of it like that, but yeah. He could see the similarity. He glanced around, taking in the familiar surroundings with fresh eyes. It was pretty nice. A hell of a lot nicer than most places in the world, he supposed.
“This is great,” Tessa said, leading him into the market sheltered under the canopy of branches and leaves.
Tables and stalls were set up like a maze, all of them exploding with color and scents. The sweet fragrance of papaya. The rough green tufts of fresh pineapple. The rich purple of cabbage. Out of nowhere, a memory jumped out at him. Georgia Mae had kept a garden, and all the kids had had to help. They’d complained at the time, but looking back, all he remembered was the smell of ripe tomatoes, the taste of fresh mango. The foresty scent of herbs and the warmth of the sun on his face.
“Can you hold this, please?” Tessa asked, breaking his reverie.
He blinked and took a deep breath. Maybe he should come to the market more often. Maybe the next time a nightmare from his active-duty days haunted him, he’d swing by here.
“Sure,” he mumbled, taking the bag she thrust into his hands.
Tessa was a pro, homing right in on the pick of the crop, exchanging friendly banter with the salespeople, and complimenting them on their goods. All he had to do was follow her around like a puppy at the heels of its master. An all too apt comparison, it seemed, because his mind switched off and his senses faded until all he saw, smelled, and tasted was her.
“Excuse me.” A guy backing into a stall with a wheelbarrow full of breadfruit bumped Tessa, and Kai growled. A real dragon growl he swallowed as quickly as he could
.
“Did you say something?” she turned.
“Nothing. Nothing.”
It was heaven, but it was torture at the same time. Having her so close — doubly close in the narrow aisles. Every time someone passed, he and Tessa had to crowd together, and their bodies kept brushing up against each other. When her shoulder touched his chest, his dragon sighed. When her hand brushed his, it was all he could do not to grasp it again. And when her rear nudged his hip, he just about groaned.
“I am going to cook you guys a dinner to remember,” she murmured like she’d been reading his mind. She licked her lips, too.
Tessa’s scent mixed with that of the market, and all he could think of was a different kind of feast.
She checked every aisle — twice — and once they were back in the car, she made him detour miles to the grass-fed beef butcher shop someone had tipped her off about.
“But—” he tried.
She frowned, and he threw up his hands. The woman might not be a dragon, but she sure knew how to give orders at times.
It was five before they returned to the estate where he had intended to report to Silas right away. Not that he had much to report about Tessa — other than the fact that her smile lit up his soul and her laughter was like seeing a light turn on in a tunnel and finding out it wasn’t a tunnel at all, just a cage of his own making. Of course, Tessa needed help carrying the groceries first, and he tagged along just like he’d been doing all day.
“What do you call this place?” she asked when they approached the open-sided meeting house.
“Akule hale. It means meeting place.”
“Akule hale,” she murmured, letting the syllables flow off her tongue.
He figured he’d drop her off and let her do her thing, but damn. Tessa might have been in her element in the market, but she was an absolute queen in the kitchen, and before long, all five shifters who lived on the estate — even grim-faced Silas and that recluse of a tiger they all managed to put up with — gathered around and watched in awe.
“Wow. Someone who actually likes cooking,” Boone murmured.
Kai wondered what else Tessa did with such gusto. How else he might help unleash the magic inside her soul.
“She’s a pro,” Hunter agreed.
Before long, Tessa had delegated jobs to each of them. Kai insisted on washing the vegetables because that put him closest to her. Hunter sharpened the knives, and Boone…