Page 14 of Fastlander Phoenix

“You were healing! I…Fuck!” He slammed his open palm against the steering wheel a few times, hard enough to rattle the truck on the road.

She went quiet and still at the outburst.

“I touched you and it did something bad, Timber. Please.” He swung his gaze to her and ripped off his sunglasses, and she gasped at what he’d been hiding.

His irises were bright gold, and there were flames dancing violently in his eyes.

“That handprint on you is awful. It has ruined your life and mine, Timber. Hide it. For the love of everything, I’m asking you for something simple. Put it away.”

“Okay,” she murmured softly. He was right. She didn’t understand. He was trying to control something she didn’t understand, and right now she was terrified by the heaviness and heat of the power she felt. Only a few feet separated them, and he was fighting something big inside of himself.

He had flames in his eyes. Flames.

“I thought dragons had elongated pupils—”

“I told you, I’m not a dragon.”

“What are you?” she whispered.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know. Where is your house?”

“Just on the right there,” she said low, pointing to the little green two-bedroom with the small yard and one-car driveway that currently housed exactly zero cars, because hers had been wrapped around a tree, and then caught fire, and then this man…this creature…had absorbed the fire.

What the hell could do that?

Her hands were shaking. She had trouble gathering her candy and flowers, and had to settle for leaving her nearly-empty drink in the cupholder. Trembling, she closed the door and backed away from the truck, unable to take her eyes from the fiery-eyed man in the driver’s seat.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

Wreck ran his hand through his hair and leveled her with a fire-filled glare. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You were in the right place at the right time. If my tire had blown earlier or later, you wouldn’t have been there, and where would I be?”

He took in a long, steadying breath. “It was nice to meet you, Timber.”

That was the goodbye. She would never see him again after this, and would never talk to him again either. They hadn’t exchanged numbers.

She didn’t want this separation. She didn’t want him to leave. Something about him was so interesting, and she’d been uninterested in everything for a while now. He was dangerous, of that she had no doubt, but he also made her feel…alive.

“My parents are local. Three years ago, I was contacted by a woman who claimed to be genetically linked to my immediate family. She asked for my parents’ contact information, and within a few days we figured out she was my aunt’s biological child who had been adopted out. I was having problems with myparents then.” She swallowed hard, and corrected herself. “I was always having problems with my parents. They couldn’t figure out how to be nice to me, or supportive, like they were with my sister. I was always kept on the outside, and my life had revolved around trying to fit what they wanted so they would love me. When my parents were connected with my aunt’s biological child, my mother explained to me that my aunt had been young when she’d had her, and that my parents had been set to adopt her. She was the child they’d prepared for and wanted so badly. Last minute, my aunt decided to adopt outside of the family so she didn’t have to deal with the back-and-forth dilemma of giving up the child as she watched her grow up. My parents were over the moon to meet this woman, who they’d wanted to be their daughter so badly. It was explained to me that they had only had me to fill the hole that girl had made in their hearts. The resentment made sense. It got bigger as they brought the woman into our family and replaced me in every single conceivable way.”

“What about your sister?” Wreck asked, eyes consumed with flames. “The nurse.”

“She hates what was done and how I was treated, and she calls them all out, but I’m not really invited to the family gatherings anymore. Everyone seems to be happier for it, except for Sasha. So yeah, when I got hurt, my parents weren’t going to stop their plans with my replacement to check on me. They’re on a family vacation. The woman has kids, and my parents are grandparents now. Not technically, but in their hearts, that is their family. And before you pity me, know I don’t want it. I’m a therapist. Licensed. I deal and cope, and I do it in a healthy way. I’ve gone through the hurt part and the angry part, and I’m to the part where I have accepted it. I know that someday, when I have a child of my own, he or she will never feel uncared for a day in their life. There’s the answer to your questions.” She movedto walk away, but swung back around. “You should also know I don’t go preaching my sob story to people. I think it’s rude that you pushed me, and I think I’m rude for saying all of this, and this isn’t appropriate for people who just met. It’s too deep, too fast. It muddies things.”

“I like it,” he said.

“What?”

“I would rather hear something real, than something fake-happy.”

“I’m not fake-happy,” she argued.

“Woman, not everything is an insult. You have a man telling you your real story is more interesting than your shallow discussion about not liking yellow candies. Come here.”

Normally she would tell a man exactly where he could fuck off to if he gave her a command like that, but the way Wreck was looking at her and the tone he had when he softly told her what to do had her scuffling her feet to do his bidding.

She slowly walked around his truck, made her way to his window, and looked up at his face. He was resting his elbow on the open window, and the flames in his eyes had shrunk to almost nothing. God, he was handsome, but not in a traditional way. He was handsome in a dangerous, otherworldly way.

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