Page 45 of Liar For Hire (For Hire 1)

“She did.”

The man had no shame. She sighed. “I don’t know what to think or do. I wanted to escape but you stopped me. Now you’re talking about us staying here. They must have slipped you something. Did you forget that we left our lives back there? I haven’t even finished dissolving the business. We have apartments with all our stuff still in them.”

“I’ll make arrangements.”

“Declan!” Tears filled her eyes. She was so confused and afraid. “You’re talking like you’re the big man on campus.”

“I needed time.”

“Time for what?”

Rather than answer, he turned his back to her. His wings sprang out and tumbled toward the floor. Before they touched, he flexed them both, and they spread, reaching both side walls of the cabin. Her breath left her lungs in a whoosh.

“Declan…your wing…the hurt one…”

“It’s because of you,” he said. “It’s because you’re my mate.”

She left the bed, trembling a little. Her head spun in confusion. Regardless, she was thrilled that his wing seemed to have healed. In fact, both seemed to be stronger and more brilliant. They shimmered like they hadn’t that night in the barn. Then again, it could be because of the sun.

No, Declan gave off an air of coming into his own. He seemed far more self-assured and just happy. He smiled a genuine smile she had rarely seen on his face. There was a light of mischief in his beautiful silver eyes that made her belly do flip-flops. If Declan was truly happy as he looked now, everything they suffered was worth seeing it.

“You’re not making much sense, Declan, but I’m so happy that you’re healed. Wow, for it to take so long—twenty years—and then mend overnight. Maybe it’s because you reconnected with your people. We should thank that fool Patrick, despite all his plotting.”

Declan moved toward her and took her into his arms. She stood on tiptoe to peek over his shoulder and stare in wonder at his wings. Running a hand over them, she thrilled at the cool smooth feeling. The silver and gray color shifted and shimmered under her fingertips, as if responding to her touch.

Something occurred to her all of a sudden and she drew back to look in his face. “You’re always cool because you’re cold-blooded!”

He chuckled. “Bingo. Cold-blooded animals can’t regulate their own body temperature. They rely on the sun to warm them and get sluggish in its absence.”

“Oh my Lord, that’s why you’re a lazy bum in the winter.”

“Hey!”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You know it’s true. Plus you whine when I don’t have the heat turned high enough at my place.”

“I do not whine.”

She laughed, liking to tease him.

He pressed a fingertip to her lips to shush her when she would have continued to rib him. “Janessa, I’ve been in denial of what you are to me since I met you. I honestly thought I could never have anyone, least of all you. I saw in you the woman who completes me.”

“Declan, don’t be sappy.” Her voice came out husky, and she blushed. Good thing he couldn’t see it.

He raised her chin, casting her a knowing look. “I mean that literally. It’s sappy when you talk about it in regard to humans, but a dragon shifter’s mate is a necessity to their full existence. You’ve always warmed me in many ways. You rescued me from sinking into despair. Because I left my people behind at a young age, I didn’t learn or remember the importance of one’s mate.”

Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them away. The last thing she needed was emotion to choke her up so badly she couldn’t concentrate.

“I thought I didn’t deserve you, that I couldn’t care for you the way a man must care for his mate. That’s instinct with my people, and I resisted it because I thought I was too broken to fulfill the duty properly.”

“You were broken.”

He nodded. “But you healed me.”

“Whoa. I’m not a healer.”

“I am.”

He was serious when he said it, which blew her mind.

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