Page 47 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

Muttering something about it had better not become a weekly occurrence, I got out of bed. I didn’t bother showering that time. Nor did I put on a glani. Instead, I simply pulled on a pair of pants and walked out of the room in that and the t-shirt I’d worn to bed.

The last time Damon had woken me a week before, it had been much later in the day. Today, I noted grumpily, the sun was barely peaking over the horizon to shine through the windows. It was earlier. Much earlier.

“What is that racket?” I said, doing my best dragon-growl imitation as I walked around the corner—

And banged my toe on an unexpected obstacle.

“Ow!” I howled, leaping backward in surprise and pain, hopping on one foot as I cursed wildly at the object blocking my path. “What the hell? Damon!”

“Oh, shit.”

Normally, I might have smiled at the worry in his tone, but the hurt in my big toe put a stop to that before it even started.

“Hey,” he said, peaking his head around the corner from the common room. “Sorry about that. Watch your step.”

I crossed my arms, resting my left foot on my right, toes in the air.

“Can you please explain to me why the hell there’s a baby gate blocking the hallway?” I growled.

“Because we don’t want the baby wandering down the wrong way,” he said cheerfully, pointing to his left. “There’s one here for the stairs down. Another at the stairs going up. One on either side of the kitchen. Same with the front door. The back door, too. I made sure to block it all off.”

I groaned. “I told you this last week. With all your furniture and decorations. We don’t need to make any changes yet.”

He shrugged. “If it’s done now, we don’t have to worry about it later.”

I sighed. “Damon. It’s too early for this. I can’t. Not today. I slept like crap.”

He wilted. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to make it ready for the baby.”

Fuck. I’d hurt him.

“No,” I said, stepping cautiously through the opening and going over to him, wrapping my arms around him in a hug. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have taken your head off there. It’s obvious your heart is in the right space. A year too early. But still in the right place. There was no need for me to snap at you.”

“Thank you,” he said, cautiously returning the hug, unsure of what our first physical contact since the aborted heavy-petting session of a week ago. “I guess I’m rushing things a bit. I’m just nervous. And excited.”

“Me, too,” I said, rubbing my stomach, though there wasn’t much, if any, curve to it just yet. “What was all that banging?”

He brightened immediately. “Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “I’ll show you.”

Guiding me around the corner, he proudly showed off the creation he was in the process of building.

“You’re building a crib?” I asked, shocked. My eyes then drifted upward. “What the hell is this?”

The living room was filled with boxes. Lots and lots of boxes.

“Uh, I got some stuff for the baby,” he said, shrugging.

“Some?” I managed to get out. “Damon … how did you even buy all this? You’ve barely left me alone for five minutes.”

“I got up early the past few mornings and went and picked some stuff out based on things you’d been saying. I hope they work. We don’t have quite the breadth of selection you humans do, but I think I got most of it.”

“I …”

“So, this is the crib here,” he said, pointing at several boxes nearby, including the partially opened one he was working on. “That over there is the dragon seat. A couple of rockers, here and here. Highchair for feeding time. Some toys there. And over there is a stroller, and then …” He went on, excitedly pointing out all the things he’d got and how they either met, or almost met, my demands.

Demands I hadn’t even realized I’d had because I hadn’t gotten that far yet. I was still working on accepting my condition. Not Damon. He’d been listening intently, making notes of things I’d said, and he’d put them to use when buying all that stuff, which he—

“Dragon seat?” I yelped as my brain finally processed what he’d said.

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