“Because a dragon shifter’s hearing is enhanced too,” Zoey acknowledged.
“Exactly.” He smiled before sobering. “In the meantime, we have a little under ten minutes before luncheon is due to be served. I suggest we use that time to search Wallis’s study for any clues as to whether or not he really is off chasing dragons and, more accurately, their treasure.”
Zoey inwardly admitted this plan sounded far lesschaoticthan her own proposal as to what they should do next. Besides, Mrs. Chenoweth’s cottage pie really was delicious.
She chewed briefly on her bottom lip. “How are we going to get to Scotland?” Hunter had a severe problem fitting into her car, so she couldn’t see them driving all that way. She also couldn’t imagine those wide shoulders fitting into the seat on any of the trains or planes used for domestic travel.
“Guess.” Hunter’s answer was voiced as a challenge.
The longer Zoey stared at him, the more convinced she became that she could once again see those flames flaring and dipping in the dark depths of his eyes.
She swallowed. “We never did finish that conversation… When you said earlier that youflewhere, did you mean as a dragon?”
Hunter grinned. “I did.”
“And are you expecting the two of us to fly back there the same way?”
“I am.”
“Will we get there before Edgar?”
His jaw tightened. “Well before.”
“How would that even work?” It boggled her mind even trying to envisage herself perched precariously on the back of a dragon as it flew them both to Scotland. “And don’t laugh at me,” she warned when she saw the humor in his eyes.
Hunter dampened that amusement when Zoey continued to glare at him. “Your car will be safe if left here?”
“Yes.” Her glare didn’t lessen in the slightest.
He nodded. “Then we ensure you are warmly dressed, I pick you up in my arms and cradle you against the warmth of my dragon chest, and then I fly us both to my home.”
Zoey liked the idea of being snuggled against his dragon chest. “Won’t someone see us… You have the ability to shield our presence from the people below or in planes flying nearby,” she guessed when she saw his raised eyebrows.
“I do,” he confirmed mildly.
It was impossible. Insane. And yet…
A yearning had begun to grow inside Zoey. It increased and grew at the idea of Hunter flyingbothof them, as his dragon, up to the Highlands of Scotland.
How amazing would that be!
Scary too, but amazement easily won out over any negative emotion.
Instead of looking overwhelmed,as Hunter had expected Zoey to be, her eyes had begun to glow and there was an excited flush to her cheeks. Because she was excited to fly back to Scotland with him in his dragon form?
Hunter really hoped that was the case!
“We have limited time,” he reminded briskly. “We should search Wallis’s study now that he is no longer here to stop us.”
“Of course.” Zoey shook her head as she broke eye contact with him. As if, for several moments, she had become lost in the flames Hunter knew were dancing in the darkness of his eyes. “It’s this way.”
Hunter allowed Zoey to lead the way down a hallway to Wallis’s study. Although, after watching the house for two days and nights, Hunter already knew exactly where that room was.
The book-lined study held the aroma of pipe tobacco and the musty smell of old books. The desktop was completely bare, andwhen they tried to open the drawers beneath it, they found they were all locked.
It took Hunter a matter of seconds to establish that the top two drawers were for ornamental purposes only. He easily opened the remaining six.
“I’m not even going to ask how you did that,” Zoey dismissed wryly.
