Page 56 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

I needed a moment to collect myself as we walked across the grassy plain toward the river. I didn’t question how he knew. It was his home. That was what he knew best.

“Oh, Damon,” I said softly, wishing I could reach out and touch him without coating myself in the dead dragon’s blood. “Did you truly think I wouldn’t?”

He shrugged.

“It’s not even forgiveness, really, is it?” I asked. “More like understanding. Of you and your world. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about dragons, it’s that you’re different from humans. In so many ways. Some of them, I’m learning, are darker and less pleasant. To most of us.”

Damon cocked his head in silent question.

I mimicked his earlier shrug. “Do you really think there aren’t any humans trained to deal out death and destruction? Such as, oh, I don’t know, every single branch of every country’s special operations forces? That’s just for starters. Then there are the spies and assassins of the world. Trust me, we’re just as bad. And there are a lot more of us who can be killed. Some people got really good at it. I’ve known all that intellectually. I’ve just never been exposed to it.”

“Then thank you for accepting me,” he said, holding his head just a little higher. “I appreciate it. Even if it’s going to take work for me to accept it.”

“Are you used to being rejected?” I asked.

He snorted, face twisting into a semblance of a smile. “People would have to know for that to happen. I don’t normally, well … You’re kind of the first I, uhhh, you know—”

I bit back a smile at his sudden discomfort. It wouldn’t do to have him thinking I was laughing at him. Not when he was being so open.

“I know I’m not the first woman you’ve been with,” I said. “Not even dragons are naturally that good in bed.”

He opened his mouth, but I held up a hand to forestall any excuses or explanations.

“Listen, I’m not saying I’m complaining. At all. You’re, uh, well, gorgeous. When you aren’t covered in blood, I mean.”

“Thanks,” he said.

“My point is, I don’t care about your past sex life. I wasn’t a virgin either. But have you ever had a relationship with another woman? Something that didn’t revolve around sex?”

His glum silence answered my question.

“So, what you were trying to say is you’ve never opened up to anyone before. Never told anyone the truth about your thoughts, your fears. That sort of thing?”

“Yes,” he said, nodding graciously, probably relieved I was spoon-feeding him answers.

Perhaps I should’ve been forcing him to say it himself, but he’d already told me the worst of it. Sharing his fears about fatherhood and his ability to be one was more important than confessing he was a relationship newbie.

I missed a step as I realized I was discussing us as the ones in a relationship. Together. The uneven ground betrayed me as I sought a place to place my stumbling feet, and I cried out, rolling an ankle as I fell.

“Gotcha,” Damon said, scooping me up in a flash before I hit the ground.

“Thank you. I think I tripped over a rock or something.”

Damon glanced behind us, his eyes noticing the ground and quickly seeing through my little white lie. “Right,” he said slowly.

“Uh, Damon?” I said, unwrapping myself from his arms.

“Crap,” he said, looking at the bloodstains on my arms and across my torso from where he’d held me in tight. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I just saw you starting to go down, and I reacted.”

I grimaced, revulsion stirring some nausea in my stomach.

You will not puke in front of him. You will not puke!

“Walk,” he said. “Right now. Keep walking. We’re not far.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. “Carry me.”

“What?”

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