Page 140 of Nobody Told Me Thrift Shops Sell Stolen Dragon Heirlooms

I opened the door and stepped inside, then reached for the coat to shrug it off.

“Keep it,” Rafe said.

I looked back. “Rafe.”

“You’re still cold.”

“This coat costs more than six months’ rent.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Do not fact-check my panic.”

His mouth softened. “Keep it.”

It should have sounded like an order or a rich man’s carelessness. Instead, it sounded like he needed to leave something warm with me because he had to leave himself.

I pulled the coat tighter around me. “Okay.”

The air changed again.

We were standing at my door, just inside the apartment, with Max asleep nearby and the city still humming beyond the window. Rafe looked at me, and I looked back, and all the reasons this was a bad idea stood around us like silent witnesses.

His jaw clenched.

I saw the decision before he even made it.

“Thank you,” he said. “For a wonderful day.”

The words were formal. Too formal for what had happened. Too careful for a man who had just flown me over the city and shown me the dragon’s-eye view of his life.

But his hand lifted and touched my shoulder once, over the coat. Lightly. Just enough pressure to make me feel how much he wasn’t doing.

Then he turned.

He was already in the hallway when my heart rebelled.

“Rafe.”

He stopped.

I stepped to the threshold, one hand braced on the doorframe. The hallway light made him look even more severe, even more unreachable, and I hated that I had asked him to stop without knowing what I was allowed to ask for next.

So, I told the truth I could survive.

“This was one of the best days of my life,” I said.

His face changed.

There was no smile. No easy answer. Just stillness, and then something in his eyes that made my throat ache.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome, Quinn.”

My name in his voice was going to be a problem. Likely a permanent one.

He inclined his head, turned, and walked down the hall.