Conspiracy of Dragons (Here Be Dragons Book 4) by Louisa Masters

Author:Louisa Masters [Masters, Louisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

I scrape up the last of my pasta and sigh. It’s been such a long day, and there’s so much going on right now… all I want is to snuggle on the couch with Stef and switch my brain off. But we both brought work home, and even if I decided to blow it off, my conscience would bug me. Until we figure out who’s behind all this and what they really want, my mind won’t rest.

Definitely Steffen’s won’t.

“I have a surprise for you,” he says out of nowhere, drawing my gaze to him.

“You do?”

He nods smugly and pulls something out of his pocket. “Here.”

I take the surprisingly heavy pouch and immediately know what it is. “For my hoard?” As always when he does this, I get warm inside. Ever since I showed him my hoard that first time, back when he was still trying to discover what he wanted to hoard for himself, he’s been searching out mechanical puzzles for me to add to it. He’s picky about it, too—where I’ll happily hoard any I come across, even if I solve them easily, he’ll only give me ones that are tricky and very well made.

“For your hoard.”

I open the pouch and slide out the puzzle. It’s a void lock, and the cool metal warms to my touch. There’s a small slip of paper in with it that tells me five hundred moves are needed to unlock it. The craftsmanship is exquisite, and I’m going to have hours of fun with this.

“Thank you.” I lean over and kiss him. “This is perfect.”

“Go and get started with it,” he orders. “I’ll do the washing up.”

I should say no, we’ll clean up together, but… “Just for a little while. Where’d you get this? And when did you even have time?”

He stands and starts clearing our plates. “Alistair has a friend who makes them. I’m on his waitlist, but one of his customers didn’t want to pay for this one, so he sent it.”

Maybe it’s not going to take as much effort as I thought to expand Stef’s social circle. I didn’t even know Alistair had a puzzle-making friend. “Look at you, making friends and contacts,” I tease. My fingers are already probing the puzzle, working out which of the bolts is the first move.

“Does anyone have a choice about being friends with Alistair? My paranoia is convinced he’s on a mission to take over the world by squirming into everyone’s life. Then when he declares himself supreme overlord or whatever, everyone will be so relieved he’s found a hobby that they’ll go along with it.”

I laugh. “What’s the actual likelihood of that being true?”

Steffen smirks. “Higher than most people would think.”

Putting the puzzle down, I slide off my stool and go around the counter to hug him and lay a kiss on his cheek. “You’re so amazing.”

He turns his head to kiss me, and for long moments, we forget the dishes, my puzzle, and everything outside the condo. There’s just us and kisses so familiar, I could set music to them.

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