Page 42 of Hera

Augustine laughed bitterly. “I can take care of myself. Besides, I have a date tonight. I’ll be out late. Do not wait for me to come home before you get your beauty sleep.”

“It’s Hera again, isn’t it?” Finley worried at his bottom lip. “Have you told her, yet?”

“No.” Augustine shook his head, calming down. His dragonish attributes melted away. “I am planning to tell her tonight.”

“That’s just great!” Jaden scoffed. “And what if she decides that we’re too dangerous to live? A Goddess with powers is nothing to sneeze at! Plus, she’s friends with the lord’s wife. Who knows whathemay do when he finds out what we are!”

“I think you are blowing this out of proportion, brothers,” Augustine said. “Hera is not like that. Even so, you cannot change my mind about tonight.”

“You haven’t fucked her, yet, either?” Jaden asked bluntly.

“Thatis none of your business,” Augustine said coolly. “I told her about my job a couple weeks ago. She took it well.”

Finley cuffed Jaden upside the head. “A job isn’t the same thing as your dragon.”

Jaden stuck his tongue out and walked out into the hallway with the parting shot of, “If she’s a bitch about your dragon, I’m not going to wipe your tears away, big boy.”

Augustine growled deep in his chest, his tail reappearing and lashing angrily between the bed frame and the desk chair.

“He’s just being an asshole,” Finley told him. “Get yourself under control.”

“I am under control,” Augustine grumped, sitting in the desk chair after pushing his tail out of existence once more. “He does not get to insult my love—”

“You love her?” Finley asked quietly, interrupting Augustine’s rant.

Augustine opened and closed his mouth a couple times. “I guess so,” he said sheepishly, rubbing a hand through his hair, messing it up more than his sleep had. “I knew I was falling in love with her, but I did not...” He swallowed hard and raised his gaze imploringly to his brother. “What if she reacts poorly to my dragon?”

“Then, she’s not the one for you,” Finley said, shrugging. “I know that sounds callous, but you don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t love you completely.All of you.”

“Exactly. That is the reason why I have not... We have not...” Augustine sighed. “It does not feel right to progress on a physical level when I have not bared my soul to her.”

Finley grinned. “So, you haven’t fucked her.”

Augustine growled low and Finley raised his hands in a peace offering.

“Sorry. Not your point. You feel as though your secret, that you’re a dragon, is holding you back from being with Hera intimately. Once you tell her, provided she’s all right with it, you’ll be able to go all the way?”

“It is beyond just the secret of who I am,” Augustine said, throwing his arms dramatically in the air. “I do not enter into intimacy lightly. I want the woman I make love with to be the only woman for me. She must accept my mating bite, be mine forever.”

“Whoa.” Finley sat on the edge of the bed. “Sorry, still reeling from the fact that you’re a virgin. Do you think Hera is the one for you?”

“If she is not, I will be alone for the rest of my life. I cannot imagine any woman more perfect for me than Hera,” Augustine said passionately.

“Whoa,” Finley said again, staring at Augustine. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this. Is there anything I can do?”

“Keep Jaden off my back,” Augustine said with a snort. “Hopefully, I will not need anything beyond that.”

“I’ll do my best. He’s fighting tonight, so he’s a bit on edge. You know how he gets.”

“I do,” Augustine confirmed. He stood. “I need to do my workout and then, get ready for my date.”

“Good luck,” Finley said, standing as well and closing the door behind him as he left.

I do not need luck.

I need a healthy dose of courage.

He changed into his running clothes—loose black shorts and a royal blue muscle tank—and left by the front door. Augustine took his time to stretch, working each muscle carefully until the soreness from the previous night’s fight had left them. Bouncing a little on the balls of his feet, he took a deep breath of fresh air, grateful, yet again, for the cleaning up in Purgatory that Lucifer had done once he’d met his mate, Chloe.

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