Page 37 of Hungry Like A Dragon
He raised his head to peer at her over the top of the door.
“Sorry. That was a little aggressive.”
“Yeah, it sure was.”
She gave him a tight smile. “It’s just—I want to fix this on our own, okay?”
He straightened and closed the fridge. “You want to tell me what’s really going on?”
Not really. She dropped her gaze to the floor. When she looked up, he was still standing there, watching her.
“Um…I need to prove myself. To Talia.”
“Why do you think you need to do that?”
Her chest tightened like a vise. Finding Jasmine’s crumpled body, carrying her to Gabe’s mansion, begging Talia to forgive her—the memories were still so potent, it felt as though it all happened yesterday instead of more than a year ago. Blinking back tears, she said, “I screwed up. Bad. I need to prove to her that I’m worthy of her friendship.”
He walked over and dropped to his knees in front of her. Pressing his hands to the tops of her thighs, he said, “Baby, everybody screws up. We’re dragons. None of us are perfect. You’re worried for nothing. Talia doesn’t hate you. I suspect she’s looking forward to you coming home so you two can hang out again.”
A fat tear splashed onto his hand. “Stop being so damn nice to me.”
He chuckled. “Stop deserving it.”
If only. “That’s why I haven’t told them about the baby. Because I wanted to fix this. I wanted to finally do something right. Only-only I haven’t been able to figure anything out. And then I had Sadie and I had to put the assignment on the back burner, and all I want to do is finish this and go home.” She sniffled. It actually felt good to admit that to him.
Almost absently, she moved Sadie to the other breast.
“You know what I can’t wait for? To be able to get my hands on your breasts. And my mouth. I’m actually a little jealous of Sadie right now.”
Her gaze shot up to his. He grinned like a damn fool, but it was contagious, and her cheek muscles twitched with the desire to mirror his smile. “Stop it,” she said when her face finally gave in.
He patted her leg and stood, dropping a kiss on the top of her head before turning to the counter and the mountain of food he’d placed there. “We’re almost there. Hopefully, we can convince Gabe’s mother to lift the curse, and we can head home as early as tomorrow.”
As early as tomorrow. As much as she wanted to get back to their colony, all that really meant was she’d finally have to tell her family about Sadie. And resist their attempts to convince her to mate with Noah.
One problem at a time, Petra. One at a time.
She lifted Sadie onto her shoulder and adjusted her dress’s bodice. “I’m going to give her a bath.”
“I’m going to stuff my face,” Noah said around a mouthful of food. “Unless you want me to help?”
Had her dad, her uncle, her grandfather been this nice, this helpful, when they had young children? So far, there was little about Noah that wasn’t a check in the positive column, if one were looking for a mate. Which she wasn’t.
Still, if she were, he’d be a damn good catch. And he was the father of her child.
Exactly why you should consider him, her dragon said.
Exactly why I shouldn’t. The only way we could be positive it was going to work is if we’d fallen in love first, then had the baby. We did it backward. And now I’ll never know, which means it will never happen.
Fallen in love first?
Shut up.
“I’m good,” she said before heading down the hall to the bathroom.
***
Dressed in a pair of black leggings and a loose fitting, off-the-shoulder top, Petra greeted Rebecca at the door at 9:45. “Thanks for doing this. Hopefully, we won’t be too long.”
