by Avery Duncan
“But now that I know you are, I’m here, aren’t I?” he asked, gesturing around them. Jamie nodded, closing her eyes against the tears. Sky, mewling in her arms, batted at a random strand of hair that swung down from her face. She pushed it back, scratching his neck before setting him down.
“Yeah, you are... But it doesn’t feel like it. Even Lucian has said more to me than you have, and he practically hates me.”
“I just never know what to say when I see you. I think about what I did to you, about how being your father has given you the most...fucked up fate anyone could have. I felt so guilty, like this shroud of... fog came over me.”
“Why do I feel as if you’re softer with me than you are with other people?” she asked drolly, trying to break the ice after he fell silent.
“You are my daughter. I can’t treat you like I’m going to rip your face off, nor can I treat you as if you are lesser than me, like I’m accustomed to. This whole entire thing with me... you, us, is just... overwhelming. Maybe later on, we can... start over?”
A car pulled up in the driveway, and he looked at the door before back at her. “I can hear his car. I better get going.”
She frowned. “You’re my father, not my lover. It’s okay if you stay for a bit, you know...”
Zyn did the first thing she had ever seen from him -- smiled. “I still have this fatherly feeling in me that’s telling me to rip Talon apart, no matter how much he’s done for me. Naturally, I’m supposed to hate my son-in-law till we bond over some football.”
Jamie burst into laughter, pushing the forgotten bowl of cereal away from her. “Alright, I’ll see you later.”
In less than a second, he was gone. She shivered, pushing herself back from the chair as Talon came through the door, shopping bags on his arms and a welcoming smile on his darkly handsome face.
“Zyn was here?” he asked, running his eyes over her.
She nodded, smiling at him.
“You guys had a good talk, then?”
Again, she nodded. It wasn’t like she could talk when he spoke to her, or when he looked at her like that. Jamie savored every bit of him, couldn’t even help herself.
She stepped into his chest, laying her head on his chest. “I missed you,” she said quietly, feeling his arms come around her. She felt his breath at her ear, knew that he was enjoying the moment just as she was.
“I missed you too, angel... We still have to put that pocket watch that Mike gave us to use. Tonight?” he asked, waving his brows. Jamie still remembered how much it had hurt to touch the thing the first time, and had even looking at it caused arguments between them that she hated.
Talon understood, though. So he let her chose the time and date, and she had yet to give him the answer.
She bit her lip. “We could just...save it. For when it’s really important that we need it...”
He glowered. “What do you expect to happen? I’m never letting you out of my site again, so any threat to you becomes null void.”
Jamie rolled her eyes. His eyes had darkened to a stark black again, not their normal silver. She touched his jaw, bringing his face down to hers. She threaded her hands in his hair and said, “On our wedding night. That’s when we’ll use it. Until then, all I need to live is you and nothing else.”
He stared into her eyes, desire swirling in his own depths.
“Kiss me,” she said, blushing sweetly.
Talon did just that for the rest of the night.