Page 10

Story: Cullen

Orion would take that. “You know, I find you delicious.”

“You haven’t tasted me yet, so you don’t know,” Cullen shot back. “I might just be super pretty.”

Orion shook his head. “There’s no might about that; that’s just a fact.”

“Nice.” Cullen snorted. “You are something else. A unicorn, unique in all the world.”

“And you’re not?”

“No. I’m one of three.”

As if that mattered. “Yes, but, I bet you’re still pretty unique. And you don’t look alike. At least from the one I’ve seen. I’m assuming the other one, the big dragon. He’s not your brother.”

It wasn’t really a question.

“No, that’s Hawk. He’s Cosmo’s mate. You won’t be allowed to meet Cosmo, at least for a little while. I’m sure you understand.”

“He’s about to pop?”

“Not that close, but yeah. He’s pregnant.”

“Nice.” He opened the cans of tomatoes with the opener he’d found in the island drawers. “Congrats. I get the impression from your wee stump that you like being an uncle.” Family. Such a weird concept to him, but he thought he got it. He had a good many friends, who he loved.

Cullen shrugged, and the grin that split his face made him even more stunning. “He’s amazing. Believe me when I say that I would do anything to protect him from anyone.”

“I’m not here to hurt anyone. That’s not my job.” No, in fact, he was a protector of innocence.

Now that hooked Cullen’s attention. “What is your job? What do you do? Who is it you do it for? What’s your calling?”

His calling. Well, right now, his calling was jumping this beautiful lavender bit of lusciousness.

“Be good.”

“Sorry.” How should he put this? “I’m very good at looking for things, exceptional, even, especially lost things. So that’s what I do. Consider me a bit of a hunter, but I don’t have to carry a gun, and it’s very rare that I feel the need to be aggressive.”

“All right. I can sort of buy that almost. So you’re like a private investigator? A spy? One of those psychic finders who hunts for amulets and lost children and the periodic letter of intent that’s stuck in someone’s library?”

“Why do you ask? Do you have a library? I could look for something for you.” Orion felt as if following Cullen’s train of thought might lead to a total derailment at some point. But it was so worth it.

“I don’t. I don’t feel the need for one. It’s not personal. My brothers have both have libraries that are extensive.”

“Is that what they hoard?” Orion was desperately curious.

“You tell me that you’re a spy slash PI slash psychic, and you expect me to tell you anything about my brothers? Do I look stupid?”

“No.”

One purple eyebrow winged up. “And just imagine, I’m probably smarter than I even look.”

He could play with this dragonforever.Cullen would never fail to keep him on his toes, he was certain. “But I still want to know all about you. What do you hoard?”

Cullen grabbed the opener and went to the sink to open the cans and drain them. “What do you? Or do you?”

“Oh, I do. I mean, tucked away in a vault, I have all sorts of unicorn stuff. Tapestries. Scottish coins.”

“Wait, coins?”

“Yep. The unicorn is the symbol of Scotland, after all. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they had coins called unicorns and half unicorns.” He dumped the whole tomatoes in the pot, then set about breaking them up with a long wooden spoon.