Wreck swung his attention to Tammy. “You?”
Tammy’s throat had thickened with emotion, and she couldn’t squeak a word past her tightening vocal cords, so she nodded instead. The movement loosed twin tears that streaked down her cheeks.
Tawk caught her up in his arms, and in a gravelly demon’s voice, he said, “I need a minute.”
Instinctively, Tammy wrapped her legs around him and clung to him as tight as she could while he walked them toward the trees.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he gritted out as he hugged her up tight. His hand was cupping the back of her head, but he allowed her to ease back just enough so he could reach her lips.
He kissed all of her worries from her mind. God, the taste of him. The feel of him. His powerful body was a warm and comforting blanket. She barely even noticed the rain pelting down on them.
It wasn’t until they were under the shelter of the thick trees that he settled her onto her feet and cupped her cheeks, searched her eyes. “What do we do?”
“We?” she squeaked out.
“I can’t leave. I can’t. I tried. Fuck I tried a dozen times today, but my dragon won’t let me leave.”
“The territory?”
“You.”
She grabbed his wrists and lost herself in that glowing red gaze. “I think…I think I want you to take me on a date.”
He chuckled, and there it was—that stunning smile. His teeth were so white against the shadows of these night woods. “I want that too.”
“I have other wants.”
The smile slipped from his lips. “List them.”
“I don’t want to talk about what happened to your parents like that will happen to us. You aren’t your father. We learn from what they went through, and we do it better.”
His shoulders lifted and fell with his fast breath, and she pressed her palm against his chest. His heart was pounding so hard and so fast.
He nodded. “I won’t do that to you. I don’t think I could if I tried. My dragon attached.”
“Yeah, boy, we got a purple bond,” she whispered. “Jess said she could see it. I’m pretty sure that’s the best color. I’m probably biased, but I don’t care.”
He laughed again and straightened up, pulled her against his chest and held her.
“Tawk?” she asked suddenly.
“Yeah?”
She needed him to really hear this. Really absorb it and understand what she was saying. “I’m okay if we need to leave. I’ll go with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just graduated. I’m wanting to start my own company but it doesn’t have to be in Darby. If you can’t be near Jess, I can go with you.” She eased back and looked up at him. Rain caressed her cheeks. “I just want to be with you and see what this is. It feels big.”
His fingers were tender against her cheek, and his eyes had changed color to a deep bronze. “It is big. You would leave with me?”
She smiled and nodded. “I thought about it a lot over the last couple days. I was really sad when you weren’t at my graduation. I never felt like this before.” And she hoped he understood. Aaron had never touched her heart in all their years together as much as Tawk had touched her heart in such a short amount of time.
“I was there. I went to your graduation. I saw you walk the stage.”
“Wait, what?”
He grinned and pulled something from his pocket. It was some kind of lavender crystal. “There’s a gem store in town. I thought about getting you a rock shaped just like the one you gave me, but then I thought you needed sparkles for your graduation present.”
