Page 62 of Chase Me

She shook her head. She didn’t have children and probably never would.

Dread overwhelmed her, pricking at her heart, making it skip beats to keep up with the pace the adrenaline required of her body.

Something very dark was coming. No, it wasn’t coming here. It was in America. Home.

She needed to go home. Not that she had anyone or anything to go home to. Yes, her job had been important toher, it had been her life. The one thing that had made her mother, not exactly proud of her, more like tolerating of her.

And Wes? How could she have ever thought her crush on him was anything like love?

Funny how a few days with Jakob had changed everything. She would never get over him. But she could not see any way their relationship would work out in the long term.

He’d needed her to find the relic, and she’d needed him to fill a whole host of unmet needs. That’s all this was. One hell of a whirlwind fling born out of a dangerous adventure.

Once it was over and he had the relic back, where would they be? They didn’t have anything in common, or any idea if they even did.

Deep inside her heart, where she hid her insecurities and self-loathing, she doubted a powerful, handsome man like him would ever want anything more from a fat girl besides sex.

This mating thing he insisted had happened to him…she wanted to believe it existed. One man, made especially for her—hell yeah, she wanted that to be true.

She’d seen a lot of people who married believing the same thing. Almost as many ended up bitter and alone. A soul mate was a convenient lie.

One she’d used on plenty of brides and grooms in the past.

Real marriage was hard work, not magic.

Not everyone got to find a special someone and at least half of the ones who thought they did were wrong. She was a fool for thinking she was one of the ones who would.

Jakob didn’t love her. How could he?

He needed her and had gotten caught up in all of this as much as she had. The trial, ritual and pseudo wedding proved that.

The dread pushed at her again until she scrambled to get out of bed. She slipped out from under Jakob’s arms and put her feet on the floor.

She wanted to run, get as far away from him as possible.

Lines wracked his face, worried, even in his sleep. With his wings out like that, he looked like a beautiful fallen angel.

No. Don’t think of him now. If she did, she might not have the strength to leave him. She couldn’t stay.

The villa sat quiet and Ciara wondered if the other dragons had already left for the States. It was dark outside, so she supposed they could all be sleeping. She had been out for a long time.

She crept through the house, just in case they were about and tried to stop her. She really needed to find some different clothes. This dress was not very good for staying inconspicuous. She didn't even have any shoes.

The last time she tried to escape she tore her feet to shreds. But they'd healed when Jakob blew that green mist over the bite he'd given her in her shoulder.

She placed her hand over the spot. But that made her feel even worse.

She'd be buying a whole set of turtlenecks when she got home.

Her stomach growled, and she decided that grabbing a snack for the road was probably a good idea. She had barely eaten in the past three days, but she couldn't recommend the dragon diet for losing five pounds. Especially because she would definitely gain anything she'd lost back when she got home and spent her evenings with banana splits.

The loaf of bread Jakob had found for her when she'd made breakfast was still on the counter. She grabbed it and found a chunk of cheese and some slices of meat in the refrigerator.Now if she only had a stick and a handkerchief, she could be a well-dressed hobo on her journey to God knows where.

The front door would probably make too much noise, but the hole Jakob and Match had created in the side of the house when they'd fought about her still gaped open. She picked her way through the debris in what looked like the remnants of an office. A suit jacket hung on the back of an executive type chair shoved into one corner. She grabbed it and slipped her arms into it.

It smelled of fresh hay and good and plenty candies. It smelled of Jakob.

She held the jacket to her nose and fought back a killer wave of anxiety.

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