"What is it?"
"If I tell you then it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?" Kai snorts again and I giggle. "I got it a few years ago, something just for me. If you're lucky you might get to see it one day."
We sit quietly for a few minutes, my body so relaxed, so right against Kai's. The incredible warmth of his skin soothing, the protective bubble his massive body creates while wrapped around mine, safe. We feel good together and I can't help but agree with my dad. Kai is special and it's going to be impossible to let him go.
"Posey," Kai says, his voice slightly muffled from the way he hasn't moved his face out of my hair. "May I ask you a question? One you do not have to answer if you don't wish to."
"You want to know what happened to my dad?"
He nods so I take a deep breath.
"Ashland is a pretty quiet town. Not very big, the crime rate is low. Mostly families and people with roots that run just as deep as the trees in the Siskiyou Forest. My dad was on the force from the time he graduated high school and never dealt with much more than petty theft, teenagers causing trouble, that sort of thing. Around the time he became a sergeant though, things changed."
I take a deep breath and wrap his arms around me. "There was a series of murders that had the whole town in a panic. Horrible acts of violence that no one could understand and turned the community on its head. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason, no pattern or consistency except for the way they died. My dad was so wrapped up in the case, so determined to put a stop to it and make our home safe again that he doubled the police presence and was out almost twenty four hours a day right along with them. Finally he got a break in the case when the perpetrator left his weapon at the scene. A dagger. Dad was able to pull trace evidence from it and it led him to an abandoned mine deep in the forest, close to the mountains. The unsub was there and my dad broke protocol to go after him. He left his back-up and went into the mine, fought with the horrible man responsible for so many deaths but he got away because he stabbed my dad in the spine."
I sigh as a tear rolls down my cheek. "Dad was instantly paralyzed from the waist down. Shortly after that he started having mini strokes, the doctors assumed it was from the damage to his spinal column and the way blood flows to his brain. He lost the ability to use the right side of his body, his brain no longer sends the right signals to make his vocal cords work. He was forced to retire early because of it and I've pretty much taken care of him ever since."
"I am so sorry, my beloved." Kai kisses my head and pulls me into his lap. "How old were you?"
"Twelve."
"Just a child." He kisses me again on my temple. "Can I ask where your mother was during all of this?"
"Gone." I laugh a little, an empty sound even to my ears. "She left us as soon as she found out my father would never walk again. 'He'll never be a man again, Posey, only a burden and if you're smart you'll leave with me.'"
"She said that to you?"
"She did."
"But you didn't leave."
"Hell no. I kicked that bitch out of our house and promised myself I would never abandon my dad the way she did. So for the last twenty years it's just been me and him against the world." I tilt my head and look into those beautiful deep red eyes. "That's why it can't work between us, Kai. You saw only a fraction of what I do for him. He needs me and between that and work, I just don't have time—"
He lifts his hand and cups my cheek, pressing a sweet kiss to my lips. "I would never ask you to choose between me and your responsibilities, your father, Josephine, but I will ask you to simply include me in them." Kai kisses me again and smoothes his thumb over my bottom lip. "Allow me to share your responsibilities, your load, your burden. Give me what little time you can and include me even when you can't. You no longer have to do this alone and I simply ask you to include me so that I can prove it to you."
"You'll regret saying that to me." He frowns but I smile. "I know it can't work, not really, but for the first time in my life I feel selfish enough to try to make it work. No matter how hard I try to fight it, ignore the electric current I feel when you're near, I can't, so for once in my life I'm going to choose to be selfish and try to have the best of both worlds."
A brilliant smile tugs at his lips. "You will not give me up?"
"No, Kai. I will not give you up." I lean up and press a kiss to his delicious lips. "I'm going to try to make this work despite the warning bells screaming it won't, just promise me that when things get hard you’ll tell me. Don't just disappear or make up some bullshit excuse. If you can't handle what it means to be with me then just tell me you want to end it and we will. It's just way better to know."
He shakes his head, rubs his nose against mine. "That, my beloved Josephine, is not going to happen."
God, I hope he's right.
Because Kai is special. And if he's not careful I will fall so deeply in love with him I won't ever be able to let him go.
Too Many Battles
Iscrub a hand over my face, my cheeks like sandpaper, eyes tired, body still a little stiff in places. My bones crack and muscles pull while I stretch.
I improperly scratch my bare chest, my mother's words echoing in my head about how the future king should have better manners than to scratch anything in front of females, especially while in the kitchen.
Goddamnit, I miss her. Miss the way she'd still scold us with a grin despite our size or the fact that the four of us were well on our way to four hundred years old. It never mattered to Dominika of the Dragovihk Clan, Queen and mother to us all, that her sons were grown, warriors in our own right. No, she'd still kiss us on the mouth, wipe dirt or dry blood from our faces with her spit, and insist on feeding us or doing our washing in spite of it.
My heart hurts when I think of her.
Or our father, Bozidar the Great, the warrior king who brought peace to our kingdom and taught us everything we know about being warriors, men, and dragons.
