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CHAPTER FOUR
Zoey knew she could still be mistaken and that the handsome and broodingly charismatic man whose car had broken down nearby could just be what he said he was: a random stranger asking to use the telephone to call for help.
If he was, then he must now be thinking she was the one who was different, and in an odd way rather than a special one.
Okay, she admitted talking about vampires had been a little out there, but she knew she wasn’t imagining the powerful aura that surrounded this man and the two men she had met in the Highlands who she still believed were his brothers.
Nor had she imagined seeing that silver flame in the depths of this man’s dark eyes a few minutes ago.
She was also convinced there was more to him, whether he was Hunter Drake or otherwise, than was visible to the naked eye. Something dark and primal Zoey could feel lurking beneath all that raw masculinity.
Something that called to Zoey on a visceral level she hadn’t even realized she possessed until now.
He was a little old for her, being in his early thirties to her twenty. His clothing, although casual, looked expensive and probably designer label—it might even have been made specifically for him, considering his size—whereas Zoey could only afford to dress like the student she was.
Despite those differences, Zoey knew that a part of her recognized this man as somehow being an important part of her future.
Quite what that meant, she had no idea.
Or maybe she was just allowing her imagination—that artistic temperament—to run away with her after all.
“I can, however, confirm there is no such thing as vampires,” he dismissed.
She gave a self-conscious laugh. She really did feel silly for having said something so outlandish out loud. Imagination was one thing, but that had been a paranormal fantasy. “Well, that’s a relief,” she said, making light of the subject.
“Yes.”
Zoey decided she had probably made enough of a fool of herself for one day.
“Would you like to use the landline or my cell phone to call the garage? We have nothing in the nearby village, but there’s a repair shop in the town ten miles away.
But it might take a while for someone to come out to help. ”
“No, thank you.”
“No…?” she echoed uncertainly.
He shrugged those massive shoulders. “I don’t own a car.”
“But you said… If you don’t own a car, how on earth did you get here?” Tregarthen House was far too remote to be serviced by any of the forms of public transport. “Ah. Did you come on the train and have a cab drop you off here, or maybe you hired a car and drove yourself?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t understand…?”
“I flew here.”
She frowned. “But the nearest airport is also ten miles away, near to the town, so you would still have needed to take a cab or hire a car to get the rest of the way here.”
“And yet I didn’t.”
“Ah.” The frown lifted from her brow as a thought occurred to her.
“You came by helicopter and used Uncle Edgar’s helipad to land.
” She chuckled. “He isn’t going to be happy when he hears about that.
Uncle Edgar is a typical only child,” she explained.
“Which means he doesn’t share or like anyone else touching his things. ”
“I didn’t use your uncle’s helipad, nor do I own a helicopter.”
Zoey huffed her frustration. “Then I don’t understand. You said you weren’t dropped off by cab. That you didn’t hire a car to drive yourself here. Nor do you own a helicopter.”
“That’s correct.”
“Then why did you lie about your car having broken down nearby?” she demanded to know. “And how could you have flown here if not on a flight into the local airport or by a private helicopter?”
Hunter knew they were all valid questions, given the circumstances.
But he would prefer not to answer any of them in the home of the man he suspected of having murdered Ben McGregor so he could take possession of the journal stolen from Belle. All those things having been done because of Wallis’s obsessive quest to discover if dragons had really existed.
“Is there somewhere more private we could talk together?” Now that Hunter had met Zoey and he knew who and what she was to him, he felt uneasy discussing those recent events in Wallis’s home.
The other man didn’t have Hunter’s heightened senses, so he wouldn’t be able to overhear their conversation, but that didn’t exclude the man from having other means of doing so. Tregarthen House wasn’t just a house. Its isolation and the walled grounds around it turned it almost into a fortress.
It was Zoey’s home too, of course, although Hunter could see little evidence that a second person had ever lived here, let alone a child and now a young adult.
There were none of the obligatory drawings or badly made pieces of pottery in the house usually associated with a child being in residence. Nor was there a worn swing or slide or any other apparatus outside that a child might have played with.
He was also, Hunter admitted, becoming more than a little lightheaded from breathing in Zoey’s scent.
“We could step outside,” she suggested.
Hunter nodded. “Then let’s do that.”
He could sense Wallis was in his study several doors down the hallway, the scratching of a pen nib on paper—he was using a fountain pen, in this day and age?—possibly evidence the other man was studying and making notes from the journal he had stolen.
Hunter could hear two ladies upstairs tidying the bedrooms, perhaps preparing Zoey’s room for her overnight stay.
The cook, her assistant, and the butler and footman were all in the kitchen.
Even so, Hunter felt uneasy discussing Ben’s death, the theft of the journal, and Edgar Wallis’s involvement in both those things while they were inside the other man’s house.
“Won’t you be cold?” Zoey eyed his T-shirt and leather jacket. “You aren’t exactly dressed for winter weather, and the wind can be cold up on this cliffside.”
“I’ll be fine.” Hunter and his brothers didn’t feel the cold like humans. In fact, being snow dragons, they preferred it.
Hunter waited in the hallway for Zoey to join him once she had collected her coat and wrapped it around herself to keep out the icy cold wind she had mentioned.
A wind that slightly dissipated, thank goodness, her mating scent.
Hunter would hate to lose control and have his dragon appear in front of Zoey without warning, frightening her beyond redemption.
“Why did we need to talk privately?” Zoey prompted cautiously once they were standing outside.
Hunter drew in a deep breath before slowly releasing it. “Because I know how Ben McGregor really died and also the reason he did.”
Zoey gave a shocked gasp, her eyes wide. “Ben fell down a mountain while he was part of a search party looking for a mutual friend.”
“Belle Brown.”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
Hunter shook his head. “Ben fell to his death on the mountain after being pushed out of a helicopter.”
“What!” Zoey looked horrified, her cheeks paling at the horror his words evoked.
He nodded. “For the sake of Ben’s family, my brother made it look as if Ben had fallen down the mountain, but the truth is that someone murdered him.”
She swallowed, her cheeks now deathly white. “Why?”
“Because he had something they wanted.” Hunter deliberately kept his tone even, knowing this news would be hard enough for Zoey to understand without him allowing his own anger over the tragedy to make the situation worse.
She eyed him suspiciously. “Did you or one of your brothers push Ben out of your helicopter?”
“No.”
Zoey stared at him for several long seconds before stating firmly, “I believe it’s time for you to leave, Mr. Drake.”
Hunter’s towering height made him very aware of the difference in their sizes. The top of Zoey’s head barely reached his shoulder, and her frame was so tiny, he was sure his hands could easily circumvent the slenderness of her waist, and his fingers would still be able to interlink.
All of which meant he could easily pick her up and forcibly remove her if he wanted to.
He wasn’t going to do that.
Yes, Zoey was tiny, but the fire in her glittering green eyes warned him never to underestimate her because of that physical fragility.
She is perfect , his dragon purred.
She really was, Hunter agreed, his senses drowning in the look and scent of her, to a degree he found it difficult to stop staring at her.
Which, on top of sensing he was somehow more , was probably why she wanted him to leave.
He forced his expression to soften slightly. “I know this is a lot for you to take in, but there are some other things I still need to tell you?—”
“And you can do that while I drive you into town,” she cut in decisively, her auburn brows high above her challenging gaze as she took the keys to the Mini from the pocket of her coat.
Hunter tilted his head guardedly. “You’re leaving with me?”
She nodded. “If that’s acceptable to you?”
“God, yes,” he assured, totally relieved after thinking she was just going to ask him to leave with the intention of never seeing him again. “Although I might have a little difficulty getting into your car,” he added with a glance at the small red-and-white vehicle.
Zoey grimaced. “It’s going to be fun watching you try!”
Hunter eyed her appreciatively. “You have a weird idea of what’s fun, Zoey—” He broke off with a frown. “What is your surname if it isn’t Wallis?”
“Ashworth,” she provided.
“Then, Zoey Ashworth…” Hunter trailed off, making a mental note to look more fully into her parents.
Their deaths occurred twelve years ago, if Zoey had been eight at the time.
The fact his mate was only aged twenty in human years was a little difficult to comprehend, but Belle was the same age as Zoey, and she was the perfect mate for Lachlan.
Maybe both women, because of their pasts and present circumstances, were old souls, and so those souls melded with those of a twelve-hundred-year-old dragon.
Not that their respective ages would matter, because once the two of them were mated, Zoey’s lifespan would be linked to his own. She would also, and Belle had been thrilled by this, be able to shift into a dragon and fly at his side.
Once the two of them were mated.
Hunter bared his teeth in a smile. “Then, Zoey, it will be my pleasure and my greatest honor to accompany you anywhere you wish to go,” he finished his earlier sentence.
Her brows rose. “Anywhere?”
His gaze continued to meet hers. “Anywhere,” he confirmed huskily.