Page 37 of Destined By Dragonblood
I nodded my acceptance of his apology. “Tell me about yourself, Dolyn. Who you are and why you’ve been following me for over a week.” My voice didn’t shake, nor did I leave space for him to brush me off. I would know this man who’d been stalking me, who’d gifted me the ability to experience arousal without the bite of pain.
Regardless of the safe sense of having his attention, awareness of something strange going on shivered in my belly.
Was he both the heat and cold I’d been feeling? Did some sort of bipolar or psychological issue cause him to have two distinctive sides that affected me in this way?
It was time for answers.
Chapter 11
Dolyn
Ashley didn’t trust me, and although that was to be expected, I couldn’t help the disappointment pinging through my chest.
Force.
Clearing my throat and slamming the muzzle closed over my beast’s sneaky mouth, I attempted another smile at the tiny woman sitting ramrod straight in her chair across the table from me. Purple-blue eyes hinted at unease, as did the tension in her shoulders, and I wished more than anything to erase both.
She’d been hurt by someone in her past, and I would eventually root out that truth and make them pay. For now, I would answer her questions about who I was as truthfully as possible and hopefully set her at ease as to my intentions for watching her.
“I’m simply a man from Lower Manhattan who enjoys traveling, investing, and supporting dog shelters.” None of that was a lie, but there was much more to me.
Blood Born.
Dragon shifter.
Her fated alpha.
My inner beast hissed at the third truth ringing in my head, but I ignored him.
Ashley would need time to grow comfortable with my human half before I revealed all of who I was and how we were forever tied to each other.
“Dog shelters?” she asked, blinking some of the wariness from her beautiful eyes.
I sucked in a lungful of vanilla and her underlying musk that hinted of desire. My cock had been hard since I’d first seen her exit her house, and the length trapped inside my jeans continued to throb over her nearness. I eyed her hand wrapped around the steaming cup of chocolate wishing to touch her again, my beast side whimpering his agreement.
A mere brush of fingertips had cemented the fact of who she was to me the second we’d come into contact. I’d been sure she also felt the connection destined by fate ignite between our bodies, the beginnings of the bond we would one day complete.
After we found our beta.
Alpha.
My jaw clenched as I attempted to muffle the voice whose opinion I did not need. Touching Ashley’s skin had somehow strengthened his part of our dichotomous nature.
Focusing on our female, I offered what knowledge I could. While not actually forcing her hand, perhaps I could sway her toward assurance of my intentions.
“I’m a very rich man,” I stated since women tended to swoon over that fact.
Ashley’s face didn’t so much as twitch at my revelation of being her possible sugar daddy. Perhaps she didn’t care about wealth, or the status riches awarded one in society.
Truth.
Yes, I had ways of appealing to her softer nature, the compassionate side I witnessed through a brush of fingertips, but I hadn’t ever shared that part of me with anyone—Elijah included.
She is ours and will one day know our every thought.
My inner dragon didn’t lie about the bond that would eventually link us together with Ashley, but fear of rejection tied my tongue.
Our fated female will never turn her back on us.
