Page 3

And thirty minutes later, I crawled along an isolated road. The house I was looking for was surrounded by a stone wall. The gate was open, so maybe they were expecting me.

Wow. Like the wall, the two-story house was built of gray stone with a squat second building off to the side that was surrounded by a dust haze and an old barn behind that.

I’d barely killed the engine when the front door opened and three girls tumbled out. Oh, Meara, Meara, you forgot one tiny detail. You sneaky so-and-so. The girls were identical. I’d have to figure out a way to tell them apart, but maybe their father couldn’t either because they were all wearing bracelets, each one with a different-colored charm.

But my attention was drawn from the triplets to the father whose dark hair with silver at the temples gave him a distinguished look. But instead of being dressed formally which would suit the hair, he wore baggy pants with a hole at the knee and an oversized shirt with a tear on the pocket.

He put out a hand, and I shook it. It was almost as warm as mine after the drive. I noted the stains and put together this man and the small building out the back.

“Sinclair.”

Oh gods, his name matched the hair, but a man with such a distinguished name should have been wearing a tux and sipping a martini.

“I’m Poppy.” The triplet closest to me tugged my shirt and giggled as she glanced at her sisters.

“She’s fibbing. I’m P-Poppy.” The second one was sporting an impish grin, and I waited for the third to declare herself Poppy, which she did in a bored tone as she rolled her eyes at the other two.

I shook triplet number three’s hand. Her sisters had tried too hard to convince me, but I was onto her. “Nice to meet you, Poppy. I’m River.”

Three, no, four mouths gaped.

“How did you know?” the real Poppy asked.

“That’s my secret.”

I caught Sinclair’s gaze. He was mesmerized by something over my shoulder, but I had no time to wonder what he was doing because the girls dragged me inside, leaving my boss in the driveway still staring into space.

TWO

SINCLAIR

His hand was almost as warm as mine.

What I should have been doing was trailing after the girls and the new manny and showing him around before my children played another trick on him. But instead, I couldn’t get past that this omega was human and humans didn’t have raised internal temperature like dragons.

Maybe he’s part dragon, my beast suggested.

That was before the wind had changed and his scent washed over me. I’d tried to act like the man of the house and the father of three girls, one who ran a successful business from the back garden. But I hadn’t moved since River walked past me, giving me more than a hint of his scent.

Memories of a warm kitchen on a wintry day filled my head and of hands kneading dough as I stood on a stool and watched. It was the scent of love, home, and family bundled into one human omega who’d waltzed into my life.

You know who he is. My dragon was purring, reminding me of the stray cat Wren insisted on feeding and who slept in the old barn at the back of the property.

Pfft. He hated being compared to a feline, and a small one at that.

I needed to get inside before the girls removed their bracelets and competed to see who could light up and destroy the new outdoor furniture first. Oh, and the added bonus of that competition would be scaring the crap out of the human manny.

That thought had me glancing over my shoulder at the wide-open front door. One, two, three… I counted. River was still inside and hadn’t raced out with singed brows and yelling, “What the heck was that?” Or more likely spitting out a string of curses as he sprinted to his car.

And what was Meara thinking sending me a human? If I could get the phone out of my pocket, I’d call her, but my arms weren’t cooperating.

I stared at my hand where he’d shaken it. It didn’t look any different than it had before he arrived, but ten minutes ago, I hadn’t had a mate. And now I did, but the universe had tricked me. It’d given me one but yanked him away with the other hand. I wanted to lie on the ground, pummel my heels on the grass, and yell, “It’s not fair. Why me?”

He is your mate. My dragon shrugged. The universe has spoken.

Not true, and the universe has a sick sense of humor. I could turf the guy out saying he wasn’t a good fit for my girls. But when he said goodbye, a tiny piece of my heart would break off and I’d never be whole again. I blinked away tears. The girls should be enough, that was what I always told myself. But River’s arrival had exposed the lie.

River was temporary and only in my house and my life while Aiden was on paternity leave. Three months tops. I could grin and bear it for twelve weeks. I checked my watch and calculated how many seconds were left. 7,257,600 to be exact.