by Zoe Chant
Teddy gave her a baffled look, and Amy waved her hands helplessly. “All of this. Don’t lie about your family, or what your life is like, but try not to be really obvious about being...”
“A dragon?” Teddy said blankly.
“Obscenely wealthy,” Amy said. “Maybe—wear an untailored suit. And just—just try to seem like a guy who’s only worried about his daughter, okay?”
Teddy snuggled Sophia closer. “I am only worried about my daughter. And you.”
Amy smiled. “Well, eventually I’m going to need to work with Judge Maguire again, so don’t be an asshole.”
***
Teo understood what Amy had meant when he reached the twelfth-floor hallway that housed all the rooms for family court. There were a lot of people—all of them variously unhappy—crowding the halls. A few of them dressed as well as he usually did, and Teo disliked all of them on sight. He was suddenly glad for his slightly ill-fitting suit, even if it had obviously pained Daniel to let him walk out of Maison D’Or looking like this.
Besides, this would make it less upsetting if Sophia spit up or had a diaper leak all over him.
You wouldn’t do that to Daddy, though, would you? Not right before we go see a judge to make sure I can take you home?
Sophia was asleep, throwing off a vague glow of dragon-speech baby-mumbling that Teo interpreted to mean that she had liked that last bottle and he was holding her the right way.
We can do this, Teo told her. Just one little meeting with one judge, and then we can go back to Amy.
Sophia was as necessary as breath, and her warm weight and silent presence were a comfort, but Teo felt the absence of his mate acutely. He kept looking around for what he’d forgotten, but it was Amy, and she couldn’t be here. His heart ached with the need to be near her again, to know that she wanted what he wanted.
She did want him. He was sure of that now, even if they hadn’t talked it all the way out. When she’d told him she couldn’t come with him this morning, it was because the night had changed things. She wanted to be with him, and it was obvious that she already loved Sophia.
All Teo had to do was not screw up this one thing. Luckily, even if Amy couldn’t be here, he wasn’t completely on his own. He’d been standing in the hallway for only a few minutes when Patrick jogged up.
Patrick was a junior partner at the firm that had been representing the Gray family for about a hundred years. He was Teo’s favorite, and Teo knew that he was Patrick’s favorite too, even if Patrick was much too professional to ever admit it. Patrick still looked.
This time, Patrick’s familiar up-and-down look at Teo turned pained at the sight of Teo’s suit. Patrick wasn’t wearing bespoke or anything, but he was at least properly tailored.
“Teo,” Patrick started, but then Teo turned fully to face him, so he could see Sophia, and Patrick fell silent.
“Okay,” Patrick said. “So this is the other kind of paternity thing.”
Teo blinked. “Wait, you thought—”
“You were talking very fast,” Patrick said. “Okay, we can do this. You have a very supportive family—” Patrick stopped again, looking appalled. “Wait, you haven’t told Gus, have you.”
Teo shook his head. “After this. I’ll go home, do the whole thing, I just—I have to make sure this is settled first.”
“Okay,” Patrick said, turning his gaze up at the ceiling. “Okay, great, so I’m just going to have Gus Gray out for my blood if I screw this up and lose you custody of his niece. Okay.”
Teo grinned and spared a hand from holding Sophia to squeeze Patrick’s shoulder consolingly. “You won’t screw it up, Pat. And if you do, I promise it won’t be Gus you have to worry about.”
Patrick gave Teo a startled look. “Well, well. Teo’s all grown up all of a sudden.”
Teo shrugged and nodded, and then a woman in a suit even cheaper than Teddy’s, with a tired look that he remembered from Amy’s face last night, walked up. “Mr. Gray?”
Teo nodded. “Are you...”
“Marnie Kilmorgan. I’m taking over for Ms. McCullough.” Ms. Kilmorgan looked Teo up and down in an entirely different way from Patrick’s familiar, appreciative glance. Her attention fell mostly on Sophia; Teo tightened his grip instinctively.
Ms. Kilmorgan shifted her gaze to Patrick. “And this is...?”
Downplay it, Amy had said. “Patrick. He’s a family friend,” Teo said. “And a lawyer. This isn’t his area of specialty or anything, but I don’t want to mess this up.”
Ms. Kilmorgan’s gaze came back to him, studying him thoughtfully.
“I just want to make sure I can take care of my daughter,” Teo said, completely truthfully.
They hadn’t even stepped in front of the judge yet, but he knew he’d won when he saw Ms. Kilmorgan’s slight, approving nod. He managed to stay silent and calm on the outside, but he whooped so loudly in dragon speech that any dragons in a three-block radius probably heard him. Sophia startled awake and waved her arms, staring up at him.
Teo grinned. That’s my girl.
***
Walking back into her own apartment was like waking up from some beautiful but really bizarre dream. She could hear her downstairs neighbor’s TV through the floor, and her apartment was a disaster area. She wasn’t sure how it could get so messy when she was never home, but she’d been putting off cleaning, and everything else, for weeks. She told herself, going from bed to bathroom to kitchen, that she would have plenty of time to deal with it when she was on leave.
There was a pile of unopened mail on her coffee table, and a smell that meant she hadn’t taken the trash out in a while. Amy felt the weight of everything press down on her again. She felt all the long hours, all the cases that didn’t have magical happy endings. She put her hands over her face, remembering the family she’d been dealing with last night before she went to Jamila’s to snuggle Baby Jane Doe. Sophia. Because she had turned out to have a dad waiting for her, but the DiAngelo kids...
Amy took a deep breath. Marnie will do something. You did what you could. You need this break.
But if she had just hung on for another week, if she had just stayed...
Her eyes prickled with tears and a wave of tiredness went over her despite the glorious night’s sleep she had gotten. She tried to remember what she had meant to do, when she was back in the leather seats of the town car that brought her home from Teddy’s hotel, but she could hardly believe that she had ever been there.
She should change clothes—she was wearing yesterday’s work clothes, and even if they’d been cleaned it felt wrong. She should do laundry; she had hardly anything clean. But first she should take out the trash. She needed to look at the pile of mail, check what bills were in there—except that she hadn’t stopped to check her mail downstairs, so there was probably more.
She leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. She should find a pen and paper and make a list. That way she could look at it and figure out what she had to do first. There was a notepad in her briefcase—but no, she had dropped off her briefcase with all her files except Baby Jane—Sophia’s—last night before she went to Jamila’s.
Okay, well, she would have some pens in the junk drawer in the kitchen—oh, and batteries—
Just as she thought it, the smoke detector gave its maddeningly intermittent low-battery chirp, and even though it was a completely familiar sound Amy burst into tears. She put her hands over her face and let the sobs rush through her. It had been happening sometimes, just like getting the giggles, or hiccups. She let the sad helplessness wash over her, leaving her only more tired when she was done.
She got up eventually to wash her face and take some aspirin, and then she started sorting out laundry. She didn’t think about the laundromat—didn’t think about Teddy casually sending her clothes out to be cleaned and having them come back before she’d even had a cup of coffee, smelling fresh and perfectly pressed. She just sorted her clothes into piles on the floor. One pile was for the things
she would have to take down to the creepy basement laundry room. The rest could wait until she called the cheap-ish laundry service Marnie had recommended. It would take at least three or four days, maybe a week, for them to bring her clothes back, so she would have to do laundry in the meantime.
Amy heard the muffled buzz of her phone ringing. It was still in her bag in the living room, and she abandoned the laundry to run and grab it.
It was a shock all over again to see Teddy’s name pop up. Her hands shook as she picked up the call. “Teddy?”
“We won!” Teddy said cheerfully. “I waived the DNA test and they had me fill out the birth certificate application, so it’s official. Time for celebratory lunch, should I come pick you up or do you want to meet us somewhere?”
Amy looked around the apartment wildly as the reality of Teddy and this morning and last night hit her all over again, totally incongruous with the rest of her life. If Teddy came to pick her up, would he want to come upstairs? She couldn’t imagine Teddy here. She didn’t want to imagine Teddy here. What would he think of this? “Um... why don’t I meet you somewhere?”
“Sure,” Teddy said promptly. “Do you want to go out somewhere nice? Wait, actually, Sophia’s probably been good for as long as she’s going to last. Maybe just meet me back at the hotel? They were getting some stuff together for taking Sophia on the road, and their room service is pretty great.”
Amy swallowed. Of course Teddy was taking Sophia away as soon as he could. To Pennsylvania, to his family. He had told her that last night. Amy closed her eyes and tucked her hands under her arms.
“Sure,” Amy said. “Sure, I’ll—I’ll be there soon.”
“Do you want me to have them send a car for you? They should be able to pick you up pretty quickly, or—when you’re ready?”
Amy hesitated. She knew that she should say she would handle it herself, take the subway or a cab, cling to some piece of independence, but...
“A car sounds really nice,” Amy said. “I just want to change clothes—” although she had no idea what she could change to, what was even left? “—so I’ll be ready when the car gets here.”
“Great! I’ll see you soon. We miss you already.”
Amy blinked and wiped away another little rush of tears. “I miss you too.”
I love you too, she wanted to say, but she couldn’t, could she? Not yet. Not over the phone.
“Soon,” Teddy repeated firmly, like he knew what she was thinking. He hung up before either of them could say more.
Amy headed back into the bedroom to check out her clothing situation, and she had to laugh. What was left were what she had optimistically named date clothes—the stuff too nice, or too revealing, to wear to work, too fancy or uncomfortable to wear on days off. Of course that stuff was clean; when did she have time to wear it? When did she go on dates?
“Well, today I do, apparently.” She pulled out the wrap dress in a vivid peacock blue that she hadn’t been able to resist buying on sale, even though the v-neck showed off way too much cleavage. She smiled to herself. Teddy wouldn’t mind that—after all, it would show off her necklaces at the same time.
***
Sophia had finished her bottle and fallen into a contented doze when Teo heard the soft knock at the door. He set her down carefully in her car seat, tucking her pink-and-gold blanket over her. Shh, sweetheart. Keep sleeping.
She wiggled a little but didn’t wake. Teo hurried over to the door to let Amy in.
He stopped dead in the doorway, vaguely aware of his mouth falling open. Last night’s conservative suit was gone, replaced by a soft dress in a very familiar brilliant blue, clinging to every generous curve and plunging between her breasts to reveal their creamy abundance. Amy’s curly blonde hair was caught in a soft knot, the blue of her eyes made even more vivid by the blue of her dress. She was wearing her necklaces plus dangling gold earrings and two gold bracelets on her left wrist.
Teo was abruptly, embarrassingly hard in his off-the-rack suit pants. He tried to summon words and couldn’t.
Amy let out a startled little laugh at his reaction. She twirled in front of him, making the skirt of her dress flare out, vivid and bright. It would be so easy to reach underneath and...
“You like it, then?” Even though she was smiling Teo could hear the sincerity of the question.
“I love it,” Teo said, so fervently that Amy’s eyes widened a little. Teo remembered that they were practically out in public. “Come in, please—did you choose that color on purpose?”
“Did I—oh.” Teo shut the door behind Amy, and she turned back to face him. “I didn’t even—it’s your color, isn’t it? When you shift?”
Teo nodded. “A little brighter when I was younger, darker now, but that’s—you’re wearing my presents and my colors, I just have to—”
Teo gathered her in for a kiss and Amy melted against his body, pressing close. Like she didn’t want to be anywhere else either. She kissed him like she’d felt their couple of hours of separation as keenly as he had.
“God, I want you,” he murmured, sliding his hand down to tug up the hem of the dress, getting his hand on her bare thigh. There were no nylons in the way. “Can I—please, Amy—”
She let out another laugh, this one sounding shakier. Teo had to kiss her again and again until she was rocking her hips against him, and he let his hand slide higher on her thigh. “Please, beautiful. Let me?”
She nodded into the kiss, pulling back only to whisper, “Where—”
Teo groaned but pulled himself together long enough to hurry with her to the next doorway. He shut it and turned them around, pressing Amy up against it so he could keep kissing her. He held her there while he ducked lower, kissing over the gold-touched curves of her breasts. He tucked his fingers down inside, under her bra as well, to tease her nipples until Amy had her hands in his hair and pushed. He slid down to his knees, nuzzling at the curve of her belly in brilliant blue while his hands stroked up her thighs.
He pushed her skirt up and curled down until he was nuzzling at the front of a very different pair of panties than Amy had been wearing that morning. These were black and sheer. He pressed his face against them, and Amy moaned and pushed against his mouth. He could feel the heat of her against his lips. He could taste and smell how ready she was.
“God, Amy, I need you.”
“Yes.” Amy’s thighs parted to give him access. Teo raised a hand to cup her pussy through her panties, feeling the damp heat of her. He nosed in against her mound, and she cut off a little cry, trembling all around him, as he got just the right pressure on her clit. “Teddy, I need you inside me, I need you—”
“Anything you want,” Teddy whispered, peeling her panties down and helping her kick them off so she was bare under that perfect blue dress. He undid his pants—that was all he needed—and then straightened up with his hands under her thighs, pulling her right off her feet. She gasped and threw her arms around his shoulders, but she obviously had no objections. She let Teddy lean her against the door, wrapped her legs around his hips so that he could guide himself inside, where she was so wet and hot, a perfect fit for his cock.
She sank down onto him, letting out a shuddering breath that matched his own. “God, Teddy.”
“Amy.” Teo kissed her throat, her breasts, glimmering with gold that was nothing to what he would give her when she was ready to let him. “Amy, Amy I—”
He couldn’t say it, not like this; she would never believe it if he said it like this. He pressed his mouth to her skin and slid one hand between them, rubbing just over her clit as he rocked her on his cock. She felt like she was made for him; he never wanted anything but this. Her.
He was determined not to come before she did, and luckily she seemed to be as worked up as he was; he felt the first tremors of orgasm inside and out, her thighs tightening around him.
“Oh God, oh God,” she was gasping in his ear, squeezing tight around him as he thrust into her a last few tim
es. Pleasure ignited all through him. It was all he could do not to roar in satisfaction as he came inside his mate.
He stayed there, holding her up, while they both caught their breath. When she squirmed he pulled back, slipping free of her and letting her get her feet under her. He only realized as he did it that he hadn’t even thought about a condom.
“Oh,” he said, stepping back. The skirt of her dress fell down to cover her, while he still had his dick hanging out of his pants, obviously bare. “Hell, Amy, I’m sorry—”
“It’s okay,” Amy said, reaching up to put her hand to his cheek as she looked up into his eyes. “Teddy—it’s okay. Isn’t it?”
Teo nodded. “I know it’s too fast, but I love you, Amy. I don’t want to be without you, not today, not ever.”
Amy bit her lip, her eyes going a little shiny. She nodded quickly. “I love you too.”
Teo grinned helplessly, so wide his face ached with it. He had to kiss her then, slow but thorough. She was clinging to him when he lifted his head. “Amy, come home with me. With us. Not just because I hate being apart from you. I want you with me. I want to introduce my family to my mate as well as my daughter.”
Amy made a helpless sound and shook her head, but Teo saw the longing in her eyes.
“Come on,” he coaxed. “I know you didn’t pack, but there’s a drawer full of stuff here that the concierge got for you, we can toss it in a bag and go. If you need more you can borrow stuff from Cara, or she’ll take you shopping.”
Amy closed her eyes. “Teddy...”
“You don’t want me taking a road trip with Sophia all by myself, do you? And wouldn’t it be great to see Gray’s Hollow again? I bet your grandmother misses you. Nice quiet little town, wouldn’t that be a good change from the city?”
Amy let out a long breath and looked up at him again. “Are you sure? You really want me with you?”
“Never been more sure of anything in my life,” Teo promised. “Please, beautiful, please come home with me. With us.”