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Which had led her to asking him to play her silly speed dating idea. And surprisingly, he'd agreed, making her think there were more layers to the dragonman than he let on.
So she pressed the button for the countdown timer and asked a light question first. "What's your favorite food?"
He scowled a little. "Is that what you really want to waste your question on?" She raised her brows, nodded, and he answered, "Any type of pasta. Can you cook pasta?"
"Somewhat. Although if all else fails, there's always the sauce jars." He scrunched his nose and she laughed. "Well, then you can do the cooking, if it comes to that."
He smiled. "I can cook fairly well, actually, so that's not a problem."
Just as she was about to ask more, the timer went off. Blake raised his brows and she reset it. She motioned toward him. "Okay, I'll start it as soon as you start talking."
He didn't hesitate. "What do you like to do for yourself? Not for Daisy or as a mother, but for yourself?"
Dawn had to think about that for a second. Her life had been consumed with her daughter—how to take care of her, earning enough to keep them in their home, and even acting as both mother and father to her—for years.
But sometimes, when she had a spare minute, Dawn did do a few things for herself. She answered, "I like to draw and occasionally paint."
"Draw what?"
She shrugged. "Flowers, mostly. And sometimes birds or other small animals. Maybe if I get the chance, I could try my hand at a dragon."
"I'd love to see something of yours, later, when there's not a bloody buzzer about to go off."
And right on cue, it did.
She chuckled. "I won't apologize for the buzzer. This is quite fun, more than I thought it would be. Now, my turn." She reset it again and decided to ask a slightly more serious question this time. Hopefully Blake wouldn't shut down. "Why do you live apart from everyone else? Sasha showed me where your cabin is, and it's just along the boundary of the clan's land."
He paused for a second, and she wondered if he'd refuse to answer
Apparently, Blake didn't reveal much to people, according to Sasha. And her new friend had warned against asking about his dragon until they were more comfortable with each other.
Which, of course, had made Dawn all the more curious.
So asking about his remote home was the closest she could do right now.
He finally said, "I like privacy. I did try living closer to ever
yone else, but the attention distracted me from my work."
It was hard not to ask why—but she had a feeling it dealt with his dragon—so she asked instead, "What are you working on right now? You made it sound important last night."
"That is a very long answer. But the short version is that it's to help protect the clan from one of our enemies."
The bloody timer went off again before she could ask for more details. But Blake didn't so much as blink and pointed toward it, wanting his turn. With a sigh, she reset it, and he asked, "Tell me what your perfect day would be."
"Hmm, I'm not sure. I suppose sunny and warm, and somewhere either along a lake, the sea, or even a wide-open valley. Somewhere with few people and an abundance of nature. I live in Manchester proper, and you can't really find that in the city. A park isn't quite the same."
"I imagine not."
She studied him. "Have you never been to Manchester?"
He shook his head. "I've never been to a human city, ever. I've only visited a few villages in the Lake District, and that was back when I was a teenager."
Dawn wished she knew more about all the laws and rules concerning dragon-shifters. But at the risk of sounding stupid, she asked, "Because you can't?"
He shrugged. "I could visit them sometimes, provided I follow all the laws. However, I hate large crowds. And the smells are overwhelming, not to mention all the noise. Some dragon-shifters like it, or at least tolerate it, but both my beast and I can't stand it. It's hard enough to do so in a village or a human restaurant so a proper city is out of the question."
She was about to ask if it was more to do with how the humans viewed him since he was a dragon-shifter. Even if he covered up the tattoo on his bicep, his usual flashing pupils would still give him away. However, the timer beeped again. She muttered, "This is really starting to irritate me. Just when we get to the good bits, it goes off."
