by Kayla Wolf
”Thanks for the heads-up, Elena,” Jasmine said sincerely. “And I’m really sorry he hassled you.”
”No problem. It’s not me he’s after, babe. Stay safe, alright?”
Jasmine bit her lip as she stared down at her phone. Suddenly, this beautiful peninsula felt a lot less safe.
Chapter 11 - Bryce
It had been a wonderful two weeks. For all Bryce’s lingering worries about having Jasmine here, he had to admit… her living with him had completely transformed his life, and entirely for the better. Just knowing she was there, lying on the bed tapping away on her laptop, or pottering around the living room, or tidying up the kitchen (she’d insisted on taking over the majority of the dishes, saying it was only fair given how much of the cooking he did)… it made his whole body feel warm. Every day at work, he looked forward to getting home to see her again. He had someone to talk to, someone to cook for, someone to care about.
And she seemed to be enjoying her time here, too. He’d been surprised by how readily she’d taken to the rather isolated little community. Every night, she’d regale him with stories of what she’d explored that day—she was quite the intrepid adventurer, trekking up and down the peninsula. Within a few days, she’d hiked the entire southern tip of the peninsula, seen the whole community—one afternoon, she even surprised him at work, stumbling across the construction site to the east of the community. He’d shown her around, talking her through the plans for the tourist site—she’d been full of questions, and even a few valuable suggestions that he’d passed on to Lachlan once she’d headed off.
And the nights they spent together… god. The sex was amazing, of course. He’d never felt so intimately connected to someone before, such a sense of closeness and ease in their lovemaking… but it was the other things, too. It was waking up in the morning to the sweet smell of her hair on his pillow, stirring in the night to feel her feet tangling with his under the covers, the weight of her body on the other side of the bed. Now that he’d spent this time with her, he couldn’t believe that he’d made it so many years living by himself, sleeping alone.
And on some level, he was terrified that when she found out what he was, he’d have to return to that life of loneliness again… but this time, he’d know what he was missing. He didn’t think he’d be able to handle that. So no matter how hard he tried, no matter how often he told himself that tonight was the night he was going to tell her about what he was… every time, he managed to find an excuse not to. Oh, she was tired from a long day of walking, another time would be better… oh, he was still filthy from the construction site, better take a long shower and forget about it… oh, they were about to have dinner with his friends, it could wait until after that…
The pressure was rising. Every time he saw Harvey, the guy looked more and more stressed. At this rate, his hair would turn white before the month was up. And though Emerson was generally a patient man, the meaningful looks he gave Bryce every time he had to say he hadn’t gotten around to telling Jasmine yet were getting old. Lachlan was fairly patient about the whole situation, but Bryce knew the guy pretty well and could tell he was worried. And Bryce was worried, too. That didn’t make it any easier to come clean—to look Jasmine in the eye and tell her…
Tell her what? Tell her he was a dragon? How did you even begin to have a conversation like that? Bryce had never had to tell anybody what he was. Shifters always knew, and every human he’d met didn’t know about shifters, so it had never come up. Even at the weird little commune where they’d stayed, it had been Daniel who’d told the humans that they were dragons, not Bryce. He had a worrying feeling that he was going to have to show her what he was… to shift in front of her. The idea made him apprehensive. What if, when she’d seen what he really was, she wasn’t attracted to him anymore? What if she was frightened that he was dangerous? What if she was worried they wouldn’t be able to have children together? It was possible, he knew that from Lachlan—his little daughter’s mother had been a human. But what if Jasmine didn’t want a half-dragon family?
The worry was starting to interfere with his sleep. He kept having stress dreams about telling Jasmine what he was. Something awful would always happen… sometimes she’d disappear into a puff of smoke, sometimes he’d realize he was in dragon form and his claws were tearing her to pieces, sometimes she’d just start screaming and never stop… she’d scream and scream until he sat bolt upright in bed, panting, waiting for the sound from his dream to stop...
But this time, it didn’t stop. Confused and still half-asleep, Bryce blinked down at the clock on his bedside table—it was four in the morning. He’d just dreamed about telling Jasmine he was a dragon, but the screams… they were real. She was wrapped awkwardly in the blankets, her face twisted, clearly still fast asleep and in the grips of an awful nightmare. In the dim light of the moon through the window, he could see tears on her face. His own fears forgotten, he moved over to her, pulling her body free from the blankets and easing her into his arms, murmuring her name over and over to draw her slowly from her sleep and back into the waking world.
Those bright hazel eyes opened, full of terror—but her breathing began to calm almost as soon as she saw his face. He held her tight, letting her bury her head in his shoulder as her body shook and trembled in his arms.
”You’re okay,” he said, over and over again, more interested in soothing her with the low rumble of his voice than he was in what he was actually saying. “You’re safe, my dear one, you’re safe and sound with me…”
Finally, she took a deep breath and lifted her face. Most of the fear was gone from her eyes, but she looked a little pale. Whatever the dream had been, it had clearly done a fair bit of damage. “God, what a terrible nightmare. Did I wake you up?”
”I was half-awake already,” he said softly, not wanting to get into his own stress dreams. “I must have sensed your nightmare.”
”Sorry. Ugh, it’s so late. You should get back to sleep—”
”What were you dreaming about?”
She sighed. “Just my stupid boss again. I dreamed he was here, in a tank for some stupid reason, and that he came into the house and was dragging me back to work with him by the hair...”
”That’s awful,” Bryce said, squeezing her against him and smiling at the way she wiggled herself contentedly into his arms. “Where was I?”
”Nowhere.”
”Well, that’s not very realistic. If he turned up here, I’d beat the hell out of him before you even realized he’d turned up.”
She giggled. “Yeah. He’s a pretty big guy, but I bet you could take him.”
Bryce chuckled. She didn’t know the half of it. Yes, his human form was pretty strong and good in a fight… but that was absolutely nothing compared to his dragon. Even a big human paled in comparison to a fifteen-foot, scaly, spiky dragon.
”What’re you laughing at?”
He took a deep breath. Was this the time to tell her? The middle of the night, wrapped tightly in each other’s arms, her worried about her horrible, controlling boss… he could feel the secret on the tip of his tongue, fighting to get out. Her hazel eyes were on him, a sharp expression on her face… could she sense that he was about to tell her something important? He took a deep breath—but somehow, he just couldn’t bring himself to speak, no matter how much he willed himself to say something.
“Nothing,” he said finally, feeling like a coward. And the look of disappointment on her face cut him to the core.
They drifted back to sleep after that, but it was an uneasy sleep. In the morning, she was uncharacteristically quiet, her eyes on her phone even when he tried a few times to make light conversation over breakfast. And when he headed to the construction site, she barely said goodbye. He was losing her—he could tell. She knew he was hiding something from her. And it seemed her patience was beginning to run out. And fair enough, too. She’d come all this way, trusted him this much… and he couldn’t even tell her what he was?
/> And it wasn’t just that. It was killing him not to be able to share more of himself with her. For the first time in his life, he’d met someone he actually wanted to talk to. She brought out an extroverted, talkative side of him that he’d never even known existed… but he couldn’t tell her anything with this enormous secret standing in the way. How could he tell her about a childhood he’d spent half of in his dragon shape? How could he describe his youth when he’d grown up in the earlier part of last century? He had so many stories he wanted to share with her, but he couldn’t tell about three-quarters of them because they were set before she’d been born, and telling them would arouse her suspicion.
This was standing in the way of their relationship—standing in the way, like Emerson had said, of Jasmine truly knowing him. And how could he ask her to be his wife if she didn’t know everything about him, the way he was coming to know everything about her? Bryce was acutely aware of the looming date of their official wedding—it was two weeks away now, and every day that passed was bringing it closer and closer.
He had to tell her. There was no other way. Yes, it was going to be risky. There was a chance she’d leave… or worse, a chance she’d try to tell the rest of the world about their existence like Harvey was so worried about. But Bryce knew that he had to trust her. He’d never felt this way about anyone else. How could he keep this secret from her—keep lying to her about who he was—when he was pretty sure that with every passing day, he was falling deeper and deeper in love with her?
It was a long, exhausting day on the work site, but his determination didn’t fade away. Tonight was the night. He was going to go straight home, he was going to sit her down, and he was going to tell her everything about what he was. Every single detail, no matter how hard. If he had to, he’d take her down to the beach and show her his dragon form. And whatever happened after that—if she decided she couldn’t stay married to him, if she panicked, if she was repulsed by him… at least he’d know that he’d been honest. Even if risking losing her was the hardest thing he could do, he could find the courage he needed. For Jasmine.
He drove faster than he usually did on the way home. Not that there was ever any traffic to speak of—he knew every single car in the settlement on sight—but still, there was a recklessness to the way he steered his car that spoke to his commitment to having this conversation with Jasmine. He’d already left it too late, he could tell—she was already angry with him. That much was obvious from the frosty silence he’d endured this morning, and from the fact that she hadn’t sent him a single message all day. Usually, he’d check his phone to receive a couple of messages or pictures from her, keeping him up to date with how she was spending her day. He’d come to look forward to them more than he even looked forward to his lunch on these long days of construction, and he’d felt their absence sorely that day.
Well, one way or another, all of that would be resolved soon enough. Besides, he had a surprise for her that might make her feel a little better. He’d been tossing up all day about whether he should give her the present before or after he told her what he was. Before might soften her up a little and put her in a more receptive mood for the news… but at the same time, he didn’t want to delay telling her any longer than he had to, just in case he lost his nerve again.
No. Not this time, he told himself sternly. This time, he was going to tell her even if it killed him.
She was watering the garden when he got home—a task she’d taken over from him after a few days, noticing that he always did it as soon as he got back from work. It was lovely, the way she’d done that… quietly taken over her share of the household tasks. But the look on her face made his heart ache. She looked so troubled, so worried. Bryce resolved that once he’d come clean about this secret, he was never going to let her look like that again.
“Jasmine,” he called across the backyard. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
”Hi,” she said, voice guarded. “Surprise?”
”Come this way.” He led her through the garden, ignoring her reluctance, determined to give her the present he’d been working on before they got into the conversation about what he was. At the back of the yard, behind the tomato plants, stood a woodshed. It had actually been the first thing he’d built, back when they’d settled here… Daniel had made fun of him for living in a tent while he worked on his shed and not his home, but he’d known what his priorities were. It was the space where he felt the happiest in the world—the clean smell of sawdust, all his woodworking tools, meticulously arranged, his bench, built to his exact specifications… it was heaven on earth.
And in it stood his most recent project. He’d started it the day Jasmine had moved in—he’d had the timber left over from making his table, just waiting for a worthy project. He’d built it over the first week, and spent the last few days sanding and polishing it to be just as smooth and soft as his table… and he was rewarded by a look of awe in Jasmine’s face as she looked up at it.
”You—you built me a wardrobe!”
”Now you don’t have to fold your dresses.”
”This is…” She was opening the doors, running her hands over the wood, marveling at his work. “This is beautiful, Bryce. Thank you.” But there was still a shadow on her face as she looked up at him. “But… I have a feeling this isn’t the only thing you’ve been keeping secret from me. And I think we need to talk about that.”
Bryce took a deep breath. This was it. ”I know it hasn’t been easy,” he said, steeling himself a little. He’d been practicing this all day as he hammered away at the cottage he was building on the other side of the peninsula, but it was a lot harder to say it to Jasmine. “Living with me, I mean. I can be… closed off. Communication has never been my strong suit.”
She was listening intently, her sharp hazel eyes on his face as she nodded, not disagreeing with him that it had been difficult, that he’d been closed off—but also not interrupting him, which he appreciated.
”There are some things I haven’t told you about myself. My past, my childhood… things I’ve never shared with…” He hesitated. He couldn’t call her a human, could he? “With anyone I wasn’t related to,” he finished, a little lamely. “But I’ve wanted to.”
”I understand,” she said softly. “We only just met. It’s hard to be completely open with someone who’s… well, barely more than a stranger, in the grand scheme of things.” She took a deep breath. She’d clearly been thinking about this conversation too. “But I can’t keep living with someone who doesn’t trust me, Bryce. Whatever it is, whatever you’re not telling me… I need you to be honest with me. Or I don’t think we can get married in two weeks. Not for real.”
He nodded, feeling a cold weight settle into his stomach. “You’re right,” he said simply. “Let’s go inside and talk.”
Well, this was it. Crunch time. One way or another, he was about to find out if Jasmine could live with a dragon.
Chapter 12 – Jasmine
Jasmine’s heart was pounding as they headed into the house. She felt a strange sense of elation that Bryce had confirmed her suspicions—there was something he wasn’t telling her, some secret he was keeping from her. She wasn’t crazy. It had been a long, frustrating day… she’d been so angry with him for shutting down again, just when he’d seemed to be on the verge of telling her something. Yes, the beautiful present had swayed her for a moment—it was a truly magnificent wardrobe and the fact that he’d made it for her with his own hands… well, if his intention had been to soften her up, it had worked wonders. But she still wanted to know the truth. No amount of beautiful hand-carved personalized furniture was going to change that.
They sat down together at the dining table, a pot of tea steaming between them, and Jasmine fixed Bryce with a beady-eyed stare. Her mother had always had a way of worming the truth out of her children by simply sitting quietly and waiting for them to fill the uncomfortable silence with a confession. But Jasmine had never been much good at that… a
nd Bryce, the strong, silent type that he was, didn’t tend to fall for the silent treatment trick the way she always had as a child.
“Is it something about me?” she said finally, wanting to prompt him to start speaking. Jasmine had learned long ago to own her insecurities, and this was a big one that had been troubling her. “I’ve been worrying that it’s something to do with me—that I haven’t measured up to what you want in a woman.” She took a deep breath. It was difficult, being so candid with someone like Bryce. It was hard to show someone you cared about and admired so much your weaker side—the fear was always that they’d dislike what they saw. But if she was going to be married to this man, he needed to know who she was at her worst, as well as at her best. “Is it my size? Be honest, please.”
But he was staring at her as though she’d just started speaking another language. “Your size?”
”I’m a big woman, I know that. I love my body, but I know not everyone does. So if you have a problem with my weight, it’s better to tell me now—because I’m not ever going to change my body for you.”
“I wouldn’t want you to.” He looked as though he’d been shocked, and she felt a prickle of surprise—and hope—dawning on her. “Jasmine, I love your body. Every inch of you is… perfect. God, I wouldn’t change a thing about you.” He reached across the wide table and grabbed her hands with his, squeezing them. “I’m so sorry you’ve been thinking that.”
”I’m glad I was wrong,” she smiled, feeling genuine relief wash over her. If that had been the problem… god, that would have hurt. She really liked this guy, but there was no way she’d be changing herself. Not for any man—or woman, for that matter. “But… there is something, isn’t there? Something else?”