Page 41 of Dragon His Heels
Chapter 12
Her sister? The woman he screwed six years ago and created a child with was Talia’ssister?
She confirmed it, but he didn’t need her to. Despite the woman’s emaciated appearance, the similarities were there. The eye—the color as well as the shape. The high cheekbones, the lips, the heart-shaped face.
Hell, Ruby had a heart-shaped face too. It hadn’t occurred to him until now how similar his daughter looked to the woman she called Aunt Talia.
“Does Ruby know?”
Talia nodded. She looked utterly miserable, but he refused to feel anything resembling sympathy. His range of emotion at the moment wavered between wanting to hit something, wanting to fly away again, and wanting to grab Jasmine and drag her back here to get the real story. Because clearly Talia wasn’t very good at giving it to him.
“I had to tell her. When I found them and Jasmine was unconscious, Ruby wouldn’t come with me until I told her who I was.”
“Why didn’t you tellme?” Gods above, they were sleeping together. Maybe not technically having sex, but hell, their relationship was more significant than this, wasn’t it? He’d shown her his fucking treasures, for the gods’ sakes. This seemed like something one would share with their lover—with a dragon who shared his hoard with her.
“Uh-uh,” she said, shaking her head, her eyes darkening. “You don’t get to make accusations until you explain yourself. How long have you known you were immune to the curse?”
“Immune? What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been lying to me because you wanted to use me but not seal our fates as mates.” She paused and then said, “Are wereallyfated mates?”
She sounded dubious. Good, because damn it, even if it was Talia, he didn’t want to go down that road. Not after what had happened to his parents. To him. Connecting, having a relationship, expecting it to last forever—all it did was set the couple up for heartache. Not to mention the offspring they created and then walked away from.
“I wasn’t using you.” He clapped his hand onto the back of his neck. “I didn’t lie when I said I couldn’t stop thinking about you, didn’t want to sleep with anyone else.”
“Because you’re immune to the curse.”
“No. I don’t know. I don’t understand it either. I just know I want to be with you, but I’m not willing to take the chance that it’s real.”
She stood there blinking, her mouth hanging open, her chest rising and falling rapidly while the rest of her body froze in a state of stasis.
He slammed his fist onto the counter, causing the dishes in the sink to rattle. Another bolt of lightning lit up the room. He’d come back from his flight feeling a little better, maybe even willing to talk to Talia about this whole curse business, but now—now he didn’t know what the hell to do.
Because damn it, this complicated things to the nth degree. He’d slept with her sister six years ago and created a child, and now he was, well, not-quite sleeping with Talia. It felt…dirty. Wrong. To top it off, he still didn’t remember sleeping with Jasmine, even after seeing her in person. Not that it meant anything. Hell, he could line up the last twenty women he’d slept with and he wouldn’t be able to tell you their names, nor would he probably recall exactly what he’d done with half of them. Any of them.
Man, he was a piece of work, wasn’t he? Surprising Talia would even let him kiss her, frankly.
Thunder shook the house again, dragging out for long seconds.
That’s because she’s your mate. And she knows there’s more to you than even you know.
His damn dragon, always sticking his snout where it didn’t belong.
“Look,” Talia said, pulling herself out of her apparent shock over his admission, “I was worried you wouldn’t accept Ruby. I wanted you to take her in without any added influence. I wanted you to love her forher, not because of her connection to me.”
Another flash of lightning, another boom of thunder. It felt like Gabe’s brain was rattling around inside his head.
“I couldn’t leave her there. I had to save her. Bringing her to you was the only thing I could think to do.”
Gods, he felt like a heel, which wasn’t fair. He hadn’t asked for this. Any of it. Not an unexpected child, not a woman who may or may not be his fated mate, not the fucking curse,none of it.
“I can’t do this right now,” he said, and he stormed toward the back door. The wind whistled through the trees and there was a loud crack, like a branch had broken. Pushing against the screen, he stepped past it and let it slam shut, just as thunder exploded over his head. He jumped off the porch and the first fat drop hit his shoulder. Then another and another. It was coming down in sheets by the time he reached the lake, skirted around it, and headed toward the schoolhouse.
The only thing he could think to do right now was to see his daughter. No on else in this scenario could be trusted. Only her.
The walk to the schoolhouse was maybe a half mile, but he was soaked to the bones by the time he arrived. The temperature had cooled too. A reminder that summer was soon to end. Fall would be here before they knew it, then the cold, dark days of winter.
He sure as hell felt cold and dark right now. Especially when he stepped into the schoolhouse and the entire class full of children turned and gaped at him.
