Page 12 of Surge of Heat

It takes her mouth a long time to close, and then she says, “How long have you felt this way?”

I don’t hesitate. “Forever.”

She laughs.

The sound sends a stab of pain right through my chest. I start to get up.I can’t handle this. She can’t laugh at me right now. She can’t tell me I’m just a friend, but she’ll be fucking some dragon dude while I watch.

She’s on her feet in an instant, grabbing my arm. “Sit down!”

I keep walking, trying my best to ignore her until I can get far enough away from her to have a breakdown.

“It’s been forever for me too.”

I freeze. As I look down at her in surprise, some part of me feels like I misheard her. “Forever for what?”

She gives a tiny shrug. “Forever that I’ve liked you. Forever that I wanted to be something more than friends, but you never seemed interested. You always treated me like a kid sister. You couldn’t even accept that guys found me attractive.”

She likes me? She wants me the way I want her?The vice around my heart releases, and it’s like I can breathe pure air for the first time in my life. This woman is everything to me. My very soul.And she actually feels the same way about me?

I struggle to find the words. “I could accept guys were interested in you, and I beat the shit out of them for it because I only wanted you to be with me.”

She laughs, looking shocked. “Really? That’s what it was about?”

“Pure and utter jealousy,” I confirm, a need for her humming through me. “One thing you’ll have to know about me is that I’m the possessive type.”

I pull her closer. All I want to do is kiss her, but she stops me. Her face is unreadable. “You have no idea how happy this would’ve made me even a couple days ago, but I don’t want to hurt you, Aydan.”

Is she telling me no? No, after everything?

“Why would you hurt me?” I ask, running a hand along her cheek, trying to read her mind.

There’s pain in her face. “Evander.” I flinch, hating his name on her lips. “The dragon stuff. This isn’t simple anymore. It’s not like I can just take your hand, be your girlfriend, and forget all of this. Evander and I are something to each other.”

It’s like a knife twisting in my heart, but I can’t show her how much that asshole being in her life hurts me. “I know. I don’t like it. Not at all. But I get it.”

She pulls away from me, looking small and vulnerable. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t hurt you. Hurting you is like hurting myself.”

My mind starts to work. Logically, I understand that she needs things from this dragon-man that I can’t give her. It’s not just this weird bond between them. He offers protection in the sky against the green dragon. If he’s still around, I’m going to have to accept that he’s going to be in her orbit. Even if I’m still going to want to break his face for it.

But can I actually accept him?

I can’t. For now. But she doesn’t need to know that. The fucker could be dead for all I know, solving the problem of him completely.

“We don’t have to talk about him,” I tell her angrily.

“Don’t we?” she asks, pleading with her eyes.

“He could be dead, so why waste our breath?”

She starts to leave. I snag her wrist, drawing her back. “Sorry. But you’ve said what you need to say. I heard you. Okay. We don’t have to discuss him further.”

She hesitates, but continues, “The thing is, when he comes back, I know it’ll be hard for you to see us together. I can’t even imagine being in your shoes, and I–”

“I can handle it. It’ll be fine. Let’s be done talking about this.” The words come rushing out. It’s painful, but I try not to show it.

Her expression is reluctant, but she says, “Okay.”

I release a slow breath. A bird flies overhead, and she flinches, staring up at the sky in a panic. My stomach does a little flip when I think of how close Granger and I had come to being eaten by that green dragon in the car. It’d stalked closer and closer, only stopping feet from us and going in another direction, following a scent. Her scent.

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