Page 15 of Hungry Like A Dragon
Chapter 4
As soon as Petra left the house, the door slamming shut and cutting off his view of her beautifully rounded ass, Noah let out the breath he’d been holding. The whoosh of air ruffled the dark hair on Sadie’s head, and her eyes widened. He did it again and she giggled.
Holy hell, the kid was cute. His kid. He had a kid. Never mind it was with a woman who clearly wanted nothing to do with him.
He still had a kid.
Not exactly part of his life plan, which included a distinct lack of family. No kid. No mate. No opportunity to turn into his father. That was what was supposed to happen.
He’d really screwed that up, hadn’t he?
“First things first,” he said to the child in his arm. “Shower.” He carried her down the hall to the bathroom. When he spotted the bouncy seat on the floor, it hit him again:I have a kid.
“What do you think?” he asked as he strapped Sadie into the contraption. “You gonna let me get clean?”
She gave him a gummy grin that melted his heart. As if the organ didn’t already belong to her. “I can’t believe you’re mine.” Shaking his head, he quickly stripped and climbed into the bathtub.
He sudsed up and massaged Petra’s strawberry-scented shampoo into his hair. Great, now he had a boner and he was gonna smell like a girl. Although it was better than barnyard animal.
Sadie started to whimper as he twisted off the water. He shoved the curtain aside and then cupped his hands over his engorged junk. Shit. He needed a towel.
Five minutes into this fatherhood gig and he was flashing his own daughter.
To make matters worse, all he had were the clothes on his back—or rather, in a heap on the floor. And they smelled like he’d slept in a barn last night.
After pulling on his boxer shorts, he rummaged through the drawers and cabinet in the bathroom, searching for a spare toothbrush. He found a packet of four, which he took as Petra liking to replace hers regularly instead of her having a stash on hand for overnight guests.
His phone vibrated with a text message, and a moment later, there was a knock on the front door, followed by the sound of the knob turning, and then a feminine voice called out, “Hey, Petra, I’m here.”
“Shit,” he said as he scrambled to tug his jeans over his hips. “Oops, sorry, Sadie.” Hopefully Petra was right that the kid didn’t understand what they were saying yet.
Foregoing the shirt, he scooped Sadie into his arm and hurried out to greet whoever the hell was friendly enough to walk into Petra’s apartment without waiting to be invited.
“Oh,” the young human woman said when he stepped into the living room. She had long blonde hair, wide-set blue eyes, and rose-colored lips. Those baby blues skimmed over his body and came to a stuttering halt on his bare chest. Crap, he should have grabbed his shirt.
“Hey.” Her voice flipped from surprised to come-hither in an instant.
“Uh…” His phone vibrated again and he pulled it out of his pocket. It was a text from Petra.
I forgot to tell you, Rebecca was supposed to babysit. I’ll text her, but if she doesn’t get it, just tell her I’m sorry I forgot to mention you. Thanks.
“Oh,” Rebecca, he presumed, said again. She was looking down at her own phone. “You’re Noah,” she said, lifting her gaze and focusing on his chest again. Was this what women felt like when they tried to have reasonable conversations with men?
“Yeah.”
“Aunt Pacey told me you were here. But I assumed since Petra was going out on a date that it would be with, well, you.”
It should be with us, his dragon whispered.You’re the father of her child.
That doesn’t matter, Noah reminded the beast.She clearly doesn’t want us. And I don’t want a family.
She doesn’t know what she wants. And you’re just afraid.
Gods, it was hard sharing a mind with his dragon sometimes.
“Yeah, well, we, uh, haven’t exactly been in touch much until recently.”
Rebecca nodded knowingly, which was funny, because she couldn’t be more than twenty. How much could she possibly know about interpersonal relationships?
