Her Dragon King (Her Dragon King Duet 2)

His master’s appearance also rattled him. He wore shorts and a loose tank top, two items of clothing Maxwell Colby knew firsthand could not be found in any of the closets or drawers in the master bedroom suite of Damianos Drákon’s Greek island estate. Maxwell Colby also noticed that his master’s feet were webbed…and bare, as if he’d just come from a place so warm, neither shoes nor sleeves were required. On top of that, his eyes were no longer light brown, but gold and glowing brightly as if illuminated by a fire within.

But did any of that matter? Apparently it did not. Maxwell Colby wordlessly handed this much changed Damianos Drákon his clothes. He then watched the large male put on the cold weather attire with his face perfectly composed, just as his master preferred it to remain at all times.

However, the oddest thing happened when his master was finished dressing. Instead of handing his original clothes back with a command to wash them, he looked at Maxwell Colby. Looked at him directly for the very first time.

“Sssshe would not want me to keep you.”

His master’s voice sounded strange. It was still resonant and deep but now held an underlying hiss.

“Master, what do you mean?” Maxwell Colby asked. Then he gasped and clapped a hand over his mouth.

A question! He had just asked his master a question! But how? He hadn’t been able to ask Damianos Drákon a question since the night he arrived at his Greek estate.

A deep groove appeared between his master’s large brows, then he said, “Your services are no longer needed, Colby. You are dismissed.”

And just like that Colby was Maxwell again. Max to his friends and family. Maxie to Dyana.

Dismissed?

Max could barely believe it. But then a few hours later, he found himself buying a one-way ticket to London. Back to Dyana. And then after several hours of flying, she was in his arms.

Max wouldn’t exactly call it a happy ever after. He could only half-explain his sudden disappearance to Dyana as a top-secret job with Damianos Drákon that had been offered unexpectedly and last minute.

That was a believable claim. There was very little information to be had about the mysterious Greek trillionaire, and no MBA grad in his right mind would turn down the opportunity to work with him. It also helped that Max had made high-six figures for his relatively short time away. That meant he had enough credits to back pay the rent he’d promised to Dyana before he’d gone missing, and even front pay it for the rest of the year.

In fact, he’d offered to do just that, but Dyana had said, “Let’s take it month-by-month for now, Max.”

Max, not Maxie.

Dyana had forgiven him but regaining her trust…that would take a while.

Their Sunday dinner visit with his mum, Fiona, a few weeks after his return didn’t help matters much in that regard.

Max hadn’t wanted to bring up his months-long absence. But his sisters kept asking about why he hadn’t returned any of their biomessages, while Fiona made several surly references to the “disappearing Kreft men,” while getting deeper and deeper into her cups.

And Dyana, perhaps thinking that Fiona would be impressed with the “real” story had told them about Max’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with Damianos Drákon.

His sisters and Oli, his mother’s boyfriend were right impressed and began asking a lot of questions Max could only half-answer.

But then Fiona interrupted their friendly Q&A with a slurred observation lobbed directly at Max. “You know, your father had a big gap of life between his graduation from that Abernathy boarding school you both went to and when he met me. Had quite a lot of money in the bank as well. When my parents asked him how he’d acquired so much sterling, his answers were vague. Lot like yours. He also said he’d worked for some mysterious billionaire.”

“Damianos Drákon is a trillionaire actually,” Dyana pointed out.

At the same time, Max’s oldest sister begged, “Mum, please don’t,”.

“Yes, not tonight, please,” his other sister pleaded.

This wasn’t the first time they’d made this request when their mom was too far into her cups. She’d never liked Max. She said it was because he looked exactly like his father.

Colby Kreft had left without a word directly after Max’s birth and had never answered any of Fiona’s emails. But he had continued to post payments into their joint account, which was why she had never opted to get divorced from him on the grounds of abandonment as most women in her situation would have.

However, the payments, which had most likely stopped a few months ago with his father’s death, had made Fiona no less bitter as years turned into decades without a word of contact from the husband who abandoned her. And though Fiona hadn’t brought up the missing money yet, that night her eyes burned with even more acrimony than usual as she turned to tell Dyana, “Don’t trust he’s yours just because he’s come back. He’s likely to disappear again. Just like his father. And his father before that. Did Max ever tell you about that lot?”