Gifted To The Dragon: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance (The Gifted Series Book 2)

by Amira Rain

  Jaw dropping, he feigned shock and outrage, but not a second later, he couldn't hold back a long, loud chuckle.

  "Just 'decent?' Just 'decent,' she says."

  I laughed, deciding not to further tease him.

  "Okay. Okay, I'll admit that the level of physical pleasure you give me is...I'll just say it's an amazing, mind-blowing sort of level. It's the kind of level a girl could get very used to."

  Desmond smiled. "Well, I'm glad to hear that. 'Decent' would never do...not for a creature as exquisite as yourself."

  I smiled in return, twining my fingers with his, and fell silent, my thoughts turning to things a bit more serious.

  After a few moments just spent looking into my eyes in the dim light, stroking my hair with his free hand, Desmond asked me what I was thinking. "You suddenly look as if you've got something on your mind...or maybe you're just tired."

  "Well, I am getting a bit sleepy, but...."

  "But, what?"

  "I just want to know if you're really still going to be here when I wake up. I want to know if that was something you just said in the heat of the moment before we...before we started our 'activities.'"

  In my gut, I felt like I wasn't going to wake up alone again like I had after the night we'd met, but I just wanted to know for sure. A look of sincerity in Desmond's eyes, however, told me all I needed to know before he even said a word.

  "I'll still be here when you wake up. I'm not going anywhere."

  Heart soaring but heavy eyelids closing, I nodded with a little smile, and Desmond spoke again.

  "Now just try to get some sleep. I'm going to hold you through the night."

  I loved the sound of that, and I closed my eyes, giving Desmond's large, strong hand a gentle squeeze. Soon I was sleeping hard, enjoying the deep rest of the profoundly satisfied. All my dreams were hazy and pleasant, and throughout them, some tiny little part of my brain was still able to register the feel of Desmond's strong arms wrapping me in safety and warmth.

  However, sometime not too long after dawn, I awoke to my own personal nightmare. I wasn't in Desmond's arms anymore. My bed was empty. He was gone.

  I sat up, heart racing, experiencing a wave of dizziness and nausea, as well as one of extreme hunger, even in my horror. As my pregnancy progressed, it seemed my body was becoming more and more demanding about a regular eating schedule, though at present, I didn't care. I just wanted to know what had made Desmond leave. Yet again.

  Hardly able to even believe it, I swung my legs over the side of the bed, wondering if it were possible that maybe he'd been called away on some Angel-related emergency. I realized I'd thought this the last time I'd woken up alone, and that hadn't been the case, or if it had been, he hadn't told me, but I was wanting to grasp at any straws available to me right then.

  The thought that he'd bolted on me for the second time, and without so much as a hasty goodbye was almost more than I could bear. It just simply couldn't be true. I wasn't sure if I'd survive it again with my sanity intact, not to mention my heart.

  However, while I waited a few seconds for my dizziness and nausea to lessen before getting out of bed, I noticed an aroma that suddenly made everything okay. It was the aroma of cooking bacon, and I breathed it in deeply, getting a little whiff of cooking eggs, too.

  Desmond was just out of bed making breakfast. I actually quietly laughed out loud, chastising myself for so instantly jumping to conclusions, not that I'd really much been able to help it after the previous experience.

  After slowly getting up and out of bed, trying not to make my slight dizziness and nausea worse, I used the restroom, brushed my teeth, and washed my face before getting back into bed the same time as Desmond appeared, coming through the doorway carrying a breakfast tray loaded with two plates, steaming mugs of coffee, and glasses of orange juice.

  He was shirtless, wearing only his jeans, and his dark hair was clearly still damp, indicating that he'd already taken a shower.

  Smiling, he came over and set the tray on my lap.

  "Sleeping beauty awakens...and I thought she might be hungry."

  I smiled in return, stomach growling as if on cue.

  "I am...though having a little touch of morning sickness at the same time. It seems a little counter-intuitive to eat when you feel sick, but usually, it makes me feel better."

  "Then, let's dig right in. I should tell you, though, I'm really not the world's greatest cook...but I can usually handle eggs and bacon, and I tried my best not to burn them."

  As he climbed into bed beside me, being careful not to jostle the tray, I smiled.

  "I'm sure everything will taste great."

  Whether it was because I was so hungry from only having had a sandwich and a bowl of cereal for dinner the night before, or whether it was because Desmond was a better cook than he thought he was, the breakfast actually tasted beyond great, really bordering on heavenly.

  The scrambled eggs were thoroughly cooked, yet fluffy and still just a bit soft, just the way I liked them, and the thick-cut bacon was perfectly crisp yet not burned in the least. The two slices of toast on my plate were also perfectly crisp without being burned, and Desmond had even made a delectable fresh fruit salad with sliced kiwifruit, strawberries, and orange segments.

  For supposedly not being very handy in the kitchen, he'd really done a wonderful job with the whole breakfast, and after thanking him for it, I told him so.

  "This is the kind of breakfast a girl could get used to...especially being served in bed by an incredibly handsome dragon shifter."

  This was exactly what I'd been wanting to happen following the first night we'd shared together.

  Desmond smiled, but before he could respond to what I'd said, his phone began going off, and he pulled it from his pocket with a frown. To my surprise, though, he didn't answer it.

  Instead, he just silenced it and set it on the ornately-carved cherry wood nightstand closest to him.

  “I’ve already called Eric and told him that I'm not going to be leading morning patrol around the city this morning, so we're just going to ignore that. If there's some emergency, he knows to call repeatedly, but until then...I plan on fully enjoying our morning together."

  We soon set about doing just that, digging into our food and sipping our coffee. We talked about somewhat "safe" subjects, like how I'd been doing at Gifted practice, and how I intended to try to get Emma to give things another go. From there, we moved on to talking about Jake, and how he was set to stop having to wear his leg braces very soon.

  I set my coffee cup down, recalling how the day before, Emma had been sharing her joy about it with Eloise at the care home, positively glowing as she talked about how he was going to be able to learn to walk.

  "Emma is just about as excited as a mom can be, and I don't blame her."

  Desmond smiled, setting his own mug down.

  "I know Eric is going to want to be there the very first time little Jake stands without his braces on."

  I smiled in return. "I bet. I know it'll be an amazing, special moment, for sure." I picked up my fork and speared a slice of strawberry, but then paused in lifting it to my mouth. "You know...not to get all into their personal business, although Emma has shared a few things with me, but...what exactly are Eric's feelings for Emma? Do you know?"

  Desmond finished chewing a bite of toast and swallowed with a faint sigh.

  "Well...I'll just say that his feelings for her are profound."

  I was pretty sure he was about to say something else, but before he could, his phone went off again.

  Now, instead of just frowning, he openly glared at it. "I told Eric that it had better be some code red-level emergency...."

  "But you said he'd call repeatedly if something major was up...so, don't you think you should answer it? I don't mind."

  Rather, I didn't, but then again, I did.

  Desmond reached for his phone, still glaring at it.

  "Let me just send a text, here. One second." O
nce he'd tapped out a quick text and had sent it, he turned to look at me again. "One of the reasons I skipped morning patrol today is because I want to talk to you about a few fairly serious things. I owe you some explanations."

  CHAPTER 14

  We'd both finished with our food, so Desmond took the tray away out to the kitchen, leaving me with just my half-finished coffee. Eating breakfast had made my nausea and dizziness completely disappear, although now I developed a different kind of stomach issue, more of a vague churning feeling, like I'd often developed throughout my life as a result of general nerves.

  Whatever Desmond was going to tell me, I just hoped it was something positive, like that he'd decided that he did want to be a part of our baby's life, and maybe mine, too. And I hoped that whatever explanation he gave me for his behavior since I'd arrived in Chicago, was something that made sense, and was something that I could understand. I wanted desperately for it to make sense, just as I wanted desperately to begin a new chapter with Desmond, one where we not only both cared about our baby, but about each other as well.

  When he returned to my bedroom, the bright spring sunshine filtering through the curtains had filled the room with a soft golden glow that bathed Desmond's lightly tanned skin, too, making him even more handsome than usual, which was saying a lot, and his body looked even more inviting.

  As he climbed into bed beside me, I found I couldn't keep my gaze off his bare chest and sculpted abs, but I forced myself to lift my focus to his face. If he was ready to give me explanations about a few things, I was more than ready to hear them.

  He first took one of my hands in his and just looked into my eyes for a moment.

  "I'm sorry, Madison. I'm sorry for leaving you without even saying goodbye the first night we spent together."

  "But why did you? Was it something I said, or did, or didn't do?"

  Sighing, he shifted his gaze downward, to our clasped hands, for a moment.

  "No. It was absolutely nothing you did. Well...it was, rather, but it wasn't your fault. You were simply too sweet, and I couldn't handle it. I had to run."

  "What do you mean? How was I 'too sweet?'"

  Again, Desmond sighed. "I noticed it almost right away. I chased you out of the bar because I thought you were so beautiful, but then very soon, I noticed a charming sweetness about you that I find incredibly attractive. When you said that you didn't normally pick up men in bars, I completely believed you. You just didn't strike me as the type of woman who brought home a new man every night after having a few beers.

  “You struck me as the kind of woman much happier sitting under the stars enjoying some good conversation and a treat as sweet as you are. I really liked that. I also liked how it was somehow clear to me that you weren't the type to bring strange men home, and yet, once you made up your mind that you wanted to take me home, you just kind of went for it. It was very surprising, and sexy, and sweet all at once. And then when we enjoyed our time in your bed...."

  Desmond suddenly cracked a smile, running his free hand over his face.

  I smiled as well, recalling that night.

  "Yes, I enjoyed our first night together more than a bit as well."

  Still smiling a little, Desmond gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

  "For me, it was incredible. I'd been waiting quite a while to share a night of passion like that with a woman just like you. But then after...immediately after...I began to think I'd made a mistake."

  "Why?"

  "Well...for a few years, I've had somewhat of a policy to not get too close to any one particular woman. I've had a policy of guarding my heart. It hasn't been extraordinarily hard, considering I'm used to being around a lot of women who want status, and power, and prestige, and will go to any lengths to get it...but you were the opposite of that. And then after we made love, I realized that I'd kind of allowed my 'guarded heart' policy to blow right out the window.

  “My heart was already tipping toward you, and then you made the comment about needing to get up early to help your grandma and the other residents of the care home...and that's when I knew I had to run, before I became even further enamored of you. You'd become too sweet...dangerously sweet...and I knew I'd be in serious trouble if I didn't just get out of your apartment and try to forget about you."

  "But why, exactly, did you have to, though? What happened in your past that made you feel like you couldn't let me into your heart?"

  Now I knew we were getting into the territory that Emma had told me to try to get Desmond to open up about.

  I'd set my coffee mug on the cherry wood nightstand closest to me, and Desmond now took my free hand to hold both of my hands in his own.

  "First, and this doesn't have anything to do with my heart-guarding, but I'll say that after you came to town, Madison, I had a look in your government Gifted file, and I was very sorry to learn that you lost both your parents during the Angels' failed Takeover. I was especially sorry because I know the same pain, unfortunately, which was the reason for my heart-guarding. I lost both my parents during the Takeover, as well as a woman I loved."

  Now things were making a bit more sense, as I'd hoped they would.

  "Her name was Alison, and though we weren't engaged quite yet, we definitely planned to have a future together. I truly loved her with my heart and soul, and...to be honest, I think a part of me will always love her. She was very, very special."

  I was beginning to understand why Emma thought that Eric might have reservations about becoming closer to her on a romantic level. Even though Desmond hadn't been married to Alison, it was hard not to feel like I might be competing with a ghost on some level if he and I ever entered into a serious relationship.

  However, more than anything else at the moment, I was just thinking of his pain in losing her. I could tell just by the look in his eyes that he still felt the loss deeply and probably always would. And I understood how a tragic, sudden loss of a serious romantic partner could make a person vow to never become close to another person on a romantic level again, so as to not ever be hurt like that again. When he continued speaking, it was as if Desmond had read my mind, or I'd read his.

  "After Alison was killed in an Angel attack while visiting her parents in Indiana, I blamed myself for a number of things, thinking I should have never let her go on her own, especially since everything was in such chaos in those first days post-Takeover. I hadn't even become a shifter yet, which is why I wasn't successful at defending my parents from the Angels ten days before Alison was killed.

  “But, then, once I did become a shifter and was properly trained, I was dispatched here to Chicago to lead, because of my previous military training. And that's when I decided to put the past in the past, and never speak about it to anyone but my very closest friends. At the same time, I vowed to never again put myself in a position to where I could be hurt as badly as I was when I lost Alison.

  “I just never, ever wanted to experience that level of pain again, and I still don't. It still nearly makes me ill just thinking about how completely heartbroken I felt during those early days.

  “And that's why, Madison, I fled from your apartment as soon as you were soundly sleeping. And that's why I initially wanted you as far away from me as possible once I learned you were pregnant. It was because I knew you were a woman I could very, very easily fall in love with, and I just couldn't have that.

  “I didn't want to grow to love our baby, either, just on the same principle. I loved deeply at one point, and it just hurt far too badly to lose it. Essentially, I just decided that the old adage about it being better to love and lose than never love at all was wrong."

  "And now you feel differently?"

  I was hoping. Hoping with all my heart, actually.

  After picking up my hands and kissing each of them, Desmond said that yes, he did feel differently. "I'm at least going to try to feel differently. I at least want to give things a chance."

  "And what made you change your mind?"

  I had
to admit, I was pretty curious. Not complaining in the least, elated actually, but still pretty curious.

  With warm sunlight bathing his handsome face, making his eyes bluer than usual, Desmond looked down at our clasped hands for a long moment before meeting my gaze again.

  "I guess something just changed in me last night, and I'm not even exactly sure what. I just felt like I wanted to allow myself to open my heart and feel something again, even for just a little while.

  “And then once I did, it felt too good to stop, and I started considering the possibilities...you and me in love, and you, me, and our child as a happy family...and then I held you as you slept, just doing a lot of thinking. And I decided that I want to try. I just want to try to see if I can give us a chance without once again becoming too scared of growing to love you and then losing you."