by Kyle, Celia
Their bodies burned from the inside out, all the tension they felt rushing toward their thighs, and they thrust at the same time. Burying all of his length deep inside her, he threw his head back and groaned, her inner walls tightening around his cock as hard as a vise. No more than a second later, he exploded, spilling all of his seed inside of her. He could feel the spasms of her inner walls, her entire body trembling with ecstasy, and he closed his eyes and embraced her.
Moments later, they collapsed in a heap, gasping in the darkness of the bedroom before they fumbled for each other. Pulling the covers over themselves, he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly and breathing her heady scent.
“That was…” Rylan started to say, but ended up trailing off.
“Amazing,” Thrett finished for her, smiling and cupping her breast. He felt sleep already trying to overtake him, but he fought it off, wanting to stay up a little longer with Rylan. He opened his mouth to speak…
… and the bedroom door burst open.
Something small and very fast darted into the room, and Thrett felt his adrenaline rush through his body. His dragon readied itself to burst out just before the little thing launched itself onto the bed with a delighted laugh.
“Hi, Mommy!” said Trystin.
Chapter Six
“Come on, sweetie. Get into bed and I’ll tuck you in, okay?” Rylan murmured as she led Trystin by the hand into his small, cozy bedroom.
The kid wore slightly oversized pajamas and dragged a little stuffed lizard with his other hand. He hopped into bed and wriggled down under the covers, beaming up at his concerned mother. She tried her hardest to keep her expression neutral and normal while in front of her son, even though her insides were in major turmoil. Thrett would figure things out now. There was no question about that. He had all the puzzle pieces together in one place, and it was only a matter of time before he laid eyes on the full image, if he hadn’t already.
She was mortified and full of regret, angry at herself for thinking she could sleep with Thrett without complicating the situation even further. How could she have let her desire for him override her duty to protect her son? What was it about Thrett that made her want to abandon all logic and throw caution to the wind?
What an idiot! How could she have let this happen? Her worst nightmare had just come true.
“I’m sorry, Mommy,” Trystin said with a big yawn.
“Whatever for, my love?” she said, tucking him in just how he liked.
“For asking Mr. Bradford to bring me home. I got scared. I’m sorry.”
Rylan kissed his forehead, brushing back the silky, strawberry blond curls that framed his sweet face. “Oh, sweetie, it’s okay to feel scared sometimes. It happens to grown-ups, too. What scared you?”
Trystin fidgeted with the tail of his stuffed lizard toy, looking embarrassed. “The bad men. They were coming for me,” he said, eyes drooping. The poor kid was exhausted.
Rylan’s stomach clenched. “The bad men?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What bad men?”
His eyes had fallen shut and his breathing was evening out. He was almost out. “Dunno,” he said, though it came out sounding more like Uhnuh.
So bad men hadn’t been literally chasing him. That was a relief, though it certainly would have shocked the hell out of her if that had been the case. Stark Bradford lived in an all-but-impenetrable compound in Malibu.
It probably just had to do with the heightened anxiety regarding the van situation. Trystin, ever the observer, had probably picked up on the nerves of the staff and fellow classmates about it and internalized that fear. Rylan had seen it before. Her son seemed to have a knack for taking on other people’s emotions.
“Oh, sweetie, don’t worry, okay? It was probably just a bad dream. You’re safe now. I promise.”
“Mmhmm,” he mumbled sleepily. “‘Specially now that Thrett’s here.”
She wasn’t sure how to feel about the fact that Thrett apparently made her son feel safer than she did. She was happy he was no longer frightened, but it was mixed with sadness and—no point denying it—jealousy that she wasn’t enough for her son.
Soft snores echoed in the room by the time she found the courage to return to her bedroom. Every step amped up the sense of dread building inside her heart. This talk was inevitable and long overdue, but that wasn’t going to make it any easier.
Nudging open the door, she found Thrett perched on the edge of the bed, fully clothed and cradling his face in his hands. The shock of the truth must have hit him hard, and her heart hurt for him. For all the time he’d lost with his son, for the changes this would surely mean in his life, for the sense of betrayal he undoubtedly felt that she hadn’t told him sooner.
Rylan was afraid to move, much less speak, so she waited. Slowly, he raised his head and the pain in his face nearly broke her.
“So…?” he asked, not needing to finish.
Trying to hold back a furious blush of shame, she tried on a sheepish smile. It felt more like a grimace.
“Um…surprise?”
Surprise! What an idiot.
He stared at her for a long, tense moment, like he was trying to decide if this was all some kind of cruel joke. “Surprise what? That you have a kid you’ve never mentioned or that you have a kid who also belongs to me?”
This time it was an outright grimace. “Both?”
He buried his face in his hands again, looking almost as though he was going to break down and cry. Rylan rushed to his side and sat next to him, laying a hand gently on his shoulder to comfort him. It must have taken a few seconds for him to really register her touch because he suddenly jerked away from her and leapt to his feet. Whirling on her, he fixed her with a fierce, accusatory glare.
“Say it, Rylan,” he demanded. “I need to hear it from your own mouth.”
Rylan sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Thrett—”
“Say it!”
Blinking back hot tears, she lifted her face and looked him in the eye. “Fine. Thrett, you’re the father of my son, Trystin. Happy?”
“Happy?” His face went purple with rage and his hazel eyes flashed an unnerving yellow color. “You think any of this makes me happy?”
“I’m sor—”
“No! You do not get to apologize right now. How could you hide this from me? Why didn’t you try to find me?”
“Find you?” she barked and then checked herself. Trystin was asleep, but loud shouting from his Mommy’s room would eventually wake him up. She took a deep breath and held it for five seconds before releasing it. Calmer now, she tried again, focusing on keeping her emotions under control.
“Thrett, what I told you earlier about becoming frightened when I realized what you were was true. I bolted. I hid out with my room for the rest of spring break and flew straight back to school, did not pass Go. As I’m sure you remember, we never exchanged last names or any other kind of contact information. I didn’t even know you were from LA. Besides, I never wanted to talk to you again.”
Thrett paced in front of her, not even glancing her way, but it appeared he was at least listening, so she pressed on.
“A couple of months later, I realized I was pregnant. There I was, getting ready to graduate and start my life, when I find out I’m carrying a freaking dragon baby! Alone, no less, because I certainly didn’t have any better idea of how to find you months after our fling.”
“It wasn’t a fling,” he growled, shooting a hot glare her way as a puff of smoke trickled from one nostril.
“Okay, sorry,” she said softly. “The bottom line was that I was terrified and alone and more than a little lost. Getting knocked up on spring break certainly wasn’t anywhere in my life plan, I can tell you that much. But it happened and I had no support system on the East Coast, so I moved back to here to live with my parents after graduation.”
He jerked to a halt and wheeled around to face her. “Wait, are you telling me you’ve been right
under my nose this entire time? Both of you?”
This seemed to fuel his anger even more.
“It seems so.”
“I can’t believe this!” He resumed his pacing, growing more and more agitated with every step. “You kept my own son hidden from me for all these years! I can’t… I mean… I missed so much.”
“Come on, Thrett. As if a rogue like you were back then would have wanted to settle down with a girl you just met and an accidental kid? Gimme a break.”
“I never got the chance. Did I?” he snarled, raking a hand through his blond hair before punching the air in frustration. “Dammit, Rylan. You should have looked for me. I had a right to know.”
Her patience was wearing thin. As much as he had the right to be shocked and maybe even upset, he didn’t have the right to put it all on her.
“You absolutely did, Thrett. And trust me, I tried to find you. But have you ever tried Googling yourself using only the things I knew about you at the time? Thrett sexy dragon doesn’t pull up what you think it might. Or maybe it does, but it wasn’t any help in tracking you down. I can tell you that much.”
“You should have tried harder!”
That did it. The understanding, gentle kid gloves were off. If Ginny had been there, Rylan would have asked her to hold her rings.
“Listen to me, Thrett Lacerta,” she said, jumping to her feet and thrusting her fists onto her hips. “I’m just a human who didn’t even know dragons existed until I met you. I sure as hell didn’t have any connections in the shifter world, other than you. I did everything I could to find you. But let me ask you a question. Did you?”
He stopped pacing and scowled at her. “Did I what?”
“Did you do everything in your power to find me?”
Thrett balked. “Are you trying to make this my fault?”
“It’s as much yours as it is mine. After all, isn’t it your job? You hunt down kidnappers, murderers, thieves, and god knows what else, but you couldn’t find one measly human female who supposedly broke your heart?”
They glared at each other, neither wanting to relinquish the upper hand. They were at an impasse—both too stubborn and self-righteous to meet in the middle. They’d managed to keep their voices low enough to not wake Trystin, but the lack of volume did little soften the ferocity of their words.
With a snort of smoke, Thrett spun on his heel and stormed out. The slam of the front door made Rylan jump. Then the house was quiet, and tears stung her eyes, her heart breaking all over again.
* * *
Sleep? What was that?
Dawn seemed to ask that question as it cracked over the city. Thrett had been driving around all night, fuming, and hadn’t slept a wink. Processing such a bombshell took time and turning his mind off wasn’t an option.
A million things had sprung up on his radar at once, and he had no idea what to do about them. It was all around that one simple, heavy, stunning fact. He and Rylan had made a baby.
Over the hours, his anger had dulled, but it still smoldered. He had totally looked for her! Several times. Except he couldn’t ignore the truth of her words. He’d never used the resources at his disposal to their fullest extent.
But why would he? Her disappearance under the cover of darkness had driven home—quite painfully—that she’d wanted nothing to do with him. That had injured his heart, as well as his pride.
Thrett realized he was driving through Charlie’s neighborhood, and after a moment’s thought, he parked in front of his boss’ modest home. It was a cozy little older place, tucked between two more modern McMansions, but it had a certain charm that made it look more at home in the neighborhood than the actual neighbors.
Staring at the dark house in the gloom of dawn, he wondered how angry Charlie would be at an early morning visitor. But Thrett couldn’t think of anyone better to dump his problems on. Before he even knew he was doing it, his finger pressed the doorbell. No turning back now.
Footsteps padded toward him on the other side of the door. When it swung open, Thrett stared for a moment, not quite understanding what he was seeing. A woman dressed in an oversized, fluffy robe squinted up at him, her hair mussed from sleep. Only when she broke into a smile and greeted him by name did he realize who it was.
“Thrett,” said Alice Sinclair, the owner of the pet shop next door to Wildridge Security. “What a, um, unexpected surpr— Oh!”
She stooped to scoop up a small three-legged dog that tried to squeeze between her legs. Then she snatched up a one-eyed cat that attempted to use the distraction to slip past her mistress. Kissing them both on their very unamused faces, she smiled up at him.
“Escape artists. I’m fostering them, and they’re not used to me just yet.”
Thrett stood there dumbfounded, wondering if he’d passed out at the wheel and was having a coma-induced dream in a ditch somewhere. Then Charlie’s voice echoed down the stairwell.
“Everything okay, honeybug?”
“Fine, sweetums! One of your handsome young employees is here.”
Honeybug? Sweetums?
Thrett’s only reaction was blinking because he was frozen in place. How many surprises could a guy handle in the span of twelve hours? He’d never thought of Alice as anything more than the eccentric neighbor lady who was always losing her animals. Now this?
Charlie hurried downstairs to join them. “What’s wrong?”
“Now, sweetums, what makes you think anything’s wrong? Maybe this tall drink of water just came by for some coffee.”
Charlie wrapped an arm around Alice’s shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Nothing shy of an emergency would bring any of my team to my door at this hour.” He turned to face Thrett. “Isn’t that right?”
“I…” Thrett started, but there was too much to say. Too many details, too many thoughts. Best to just get it out there. “I’m a father.”
Charlie and Alice exchanged a look. Then Alice gave Thrett a sympathetic smile and headed back upstairs, leaving them to talk alone. The next thing he knew, Thrett was sitting at a wooden kitchen table while Charlie fussed over the coffee maker. The early morning light filtered in through the back door, casting surreal shadows everywhere.
Once the java was brewing, Charlie settled across from him and leaned back, getting comfortable. “Tell me—
“It happened eight years ago,” Thrett started, unable to wait any longer. Now that he had someone to listen to him, he was ready to talk. “I was in Florida, visiting friends, and she was a human co-ed on spring break. We met at a party and…well, one thing led to another.”
“So you had a fling that produced a child,” Charlie said so matter-of-factly it felt like a knife to the heart.
“No! It was… It wasn’t a fling. At least not for me. I imagined so much more with her, Charlie. It was weird. I hate to sound like a new-age wacko, but our connection was soul-deep. I’ve never felt anything like it.”
Charlie arched an eyebrow at him. “Perhaps she was…”
He let the implication hang in the air between them. Thrett shook his head.
“Have you ever heard of a human being the fated mate of a dragon?”
Charlie’s gaze dropped to his hands. “Well, no. But that doesn’t mean—”
“Anyway…” Thrett couldn’t go there. It already hurt too much that she’d ghosted him way back when, but to even consider his fated mate would do that was too much to bear. “She was gone by the time I woke up and all I knew about her was her first name and that she went to school back east. All these years, I thought she just didn’t feel the same way about me, but I learned last night that she’d panicked when she realized I was a dragon.”
Charlie frowned. “You didn’t tell her before…you know?”
Almost none of the world’s human population knew shifters existed, so it wasn’t really an easy conversation to have. Especially when every cell in his body screamed to take the woman standing before him and make her his own. Humans generally needed s
ome time to wrap their heads around their new reality, and he couldn’t wait.
“I didn’t think…” he started and then realized that was the full answer. “Charlie, I didn’t think.”
His boss clucked at him as he stood to pour them big mugs of hazelnut coffee. On a normal day, Thrett would have breathed deeply and asked for some cayenne to shake on it, but taste meant nothing to him at the moment. He might as well have been drinking battery acid for all he cared.
“Fast forward eight years, and apparently I’m a dad,” Thrett said, running his finger around the rim of his mug thoughtfully. “I don’t even like kids, Charlie, but this kid. He’s special.”
A smile ticked at the corner of Charlie’s mouth. “You’ve met?”
Thrett couldn’t stop a broad smile from lighting his face. “Yeah. He’s smart and kind and just a great kid. Rylan has done a great job of raising him on her own.”
The hint of a smile turned into a frown. “Rylan? Rylan Wilson, the principal at Benningford?”
Uh oh. Thrett never considered how that might impact his assignment. “I guess I should have led with that. Is that a problem?”
“Is it for you?”
Thrett thought about it for a moment. “No. If anything, knowing my own kid goes there makes me want to find these assholes even more.”
With a satisfied nod, Charlie said, “That’s all I needed to hear. So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that I went from being a single man about town to a dad in the space of a few words. She never even tried to track me down, and she’s been in LA for years. Years!”
“Now don’t go laying this all at her feet,” Alice said, poking her head around the corner into the kitchen. “Sounds to me as if every part of that story was just as much of a surprise to her as it was to you.”
Thrett glared at Alice for eavesdropping as she sauntered over to the coffee maker to pour herself a cup, but he dropped his gaze when he noticed Charlie watching him.
“I suppose,” he mumbled, hating to admit it. “But why didn’t she tell me when we first saw each other again at the school the other day? There’s no excuse for keeping it from me like that.”