“Trapped him,” Tammy murmured, setting her frosted cupcake down.
“I wasn’t planned by either of them. He took it out on my mother in the end. When he was leaving, I was sitting on the stairs, staring down at them through the railing, and I heard what he told her. I’ll never forget it. He said she’d trapped him into a life he could never accept. That his unhappiness was because of me. He wasn’t meant to be an Alpha. She’d said he wasn’t an Alpha, he was just her mate, but he’d thrown it in her face that she was human. He said she was beneath him. He was drinking again and just said all the things to destroy her. Said he’d never loved her. That he’d just tried to stay because it had felt like the right thing to do, but that he had no feelings for her, or for me.”
“Jesus,” she whispered, unable to look up at him. What a horrible thing to hear as a child.
“It’s not all his fault. He’s a Sentry dragon. He’d bought a home in the territory of a powerful coven of witches, looked over them, was fed by them. Probably fucked half of them. He’d build the life he’d wanted, and that made sense to a shifter like him. We don’t feel deeply for people, Tammy,” he said sternly as he cast her a quick glance and picked up another cupcake to frost. “My father had no business pretending to be a family like that. My mother just got chewed up in the process. I’ll never do that to anyone.”
Tammy frowned and busied herself with setting cupcakes into the containers she’d lined up on the kitchen island. “It seems lonely to never have feelings for anyone.”
“Lonely to you. For me, it feels safe and comfortable.”
And then Tammy lost her mind. She lost her mind and made the offer she’d been thinking about since he’d told her there was value in a woman moving forward.
“Do you want to fuck?”
Tawk’s eyes flashed a deep bronze as he looked over at her. “What?”
“Do you want to fuck me?”
He dragged his attention up and down her curves, and then squared up to her and leaned his hip on the counter. “This is a trap.”
“Nope. It’s an honest question.”
“You got angry with me earlier for mentioning this very thing.”
“Well, that was before I was comfortable with you.”
He narrowed his eyes to slits. “So, I tell you I don’t have feelings, and will never connect with a woman, and you take that as the cue to grow comfortable with me? I’m just making sure I have this right.”
“Yep. I just learned there will really be no strings attached. Plus, I’ve never had a one-night stand. Have you?”
“Yes.”
Okay, well ouch. She had mixed feelings about that. Part of her didn’t like the thought of him with other women, and part of her really appreciated his blatant honestly. That was a rare thing nowadays.
She inhaled deep, held her breath for three seconds, and then peeled her shirt over her head, and waited. “You could be my first one-night stand. I am spinning out. I would like a ho-night.”
“You aren’t a ho,” he gritted out. “Is this because of Aaron?”
“It’s because of a lot of things.”
“You feel dangerous right now.”
Tammy lifted her chin higher into the air. “Big bad Sentry dragon, scared of a little human?”
His eyes sparked with intensity as he held her gaze, unblinking. “You’re going to piss me off,” he growled out in a gritty voice.
“Do you have a mate?”
“No.”
“A girlfriend?”
“No.”
“And you can’t grow feelings for me, right?”
He didn’t answer, but that was answer enough. He couldn’t. He didn’t have them.
