In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,53
visible steeled himself. “I’m nervous.”
Laura’s jaw fell open for the second time that day. “You’re nervous?”
This was yet again not the answer she’d expected. Ever since he’d appeared at her hospital bedside, Rakell had been the picture of calm. He always had everything under control, he knew what to do. He was always several steps ahead of everything. Nothing fazed him.
“How is that possible?” she continued when he just shrugged. “What makes you nervous?”
“You do,” he blurted out.
“Why do I make you nervous?” she pushed, trying to get him to open up and be straight and frank with her. It wasn’t easy for the big shifter, discussing his emotions unless they were anger or frustration wasn’t something he seemed used to doing. Probably not something the stoic dragon shifters were prone to encouraging.
Well too bad. With me, you need to talk about them. Discuss them. Tell me how you feel, and why. If I’m worth it, you’ll find a way…
Laura leaned forward, on the edge of the couch, watching him struggle internally. The admission of nervousness must have been extra hard. That was, in some cultures, a sign of weakness, of vulnerability. To admit to her, of all people…
He must really want this.
“Is it something I’m doing?” she asked, taking pity on him, giving him more of a leading question to answer.
“No,” he said immediately. “It’s, it’s something you might do. If I mess things up.”
Laura frowned. What could she possibly do to him?
“You humans,” Rak continued, surprising her as he found his voice. “Things move slowly with you. So very slowly. You need to take time, analyze, ensure that things are the right fit for you. Women more so.”
He held up a hand. “I mean that not as an insult, simply as a fact. Dragons aren’t like that. We’re bound much more strongly to fate and what it has in store for us. Perhaps it’s part of what makes us who we are. I do not know. I suspect nobody does. Nonetheless, it is true.”
“What does that mean?” she wanted to know, eager for a deeper glimpse into what it was like to be a dragon shifter.
Grandpa had never experienced them like this, that was for sure. She was entering new territory with this discussion. With Rak.
We’re entering new territory, she corrected herself after a moment. This talk was about them, after all. About whatever ‘this’ was between them.
“It means, that when you know something, you know it,” he said quietly. “It doesn’t take time. Fate shows you something, and once that becomes clear, there is no wavering, no uncertainty. It just ‘is’.”
He frowned. “Does that make any sense?”
“Yes, of course,” she said. “Except, in what context you’re referring to it. And you’ve still not answered what it is about me that makes you nervous.”
“I am nervous about screwing things up with you,” he said quietly. “Of saying the wrong thing, of doing the wrong thing, and then you…deciding you don’t want to stay.”
“Rejection,” she said, filling in the blanks at last. “You’re scared of rejection.”
He shrugged. “I’ve never been interested in someone like I am you. Not with…emotions. Until you it was only ever physical and—”
“And I doubt you ever suffered much rejection on that front,” she said with a smirk. “Not that I blame you or anyone.”
Rak shrugged helplessly, looking chagrined. Laura didn’t care. Not one bit. Her history had a few skeletons in it as well. That was the way life went. Like Rak had told her earlier, he was glad that she’d had that experience, glad that she had lived. He didn’t want someone without any past.
She felt the same.
Besides, I get to reap all the benefits of that…
“So far,” she said, reminding herself that she needed to address his point head on. “So far Rak, you haven’t done anything like that. You just need to keep being yourself.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m trying. It’s hard, trying to keep what I know, what I feel, while giving you time and space, because that’s what humans need.”
“I’m hardly any normal human,” she pointed out, scooting closer on the couch. “You can trust me.”
“I do,” he said, suddenly pinning her with an intense gaze. “Completely, now that I know everything. I’m an open book to you. I just…know that that’s right. Like I know other things.”
“What other things?”
“Just how you are. What you are. You weren’t, now you are. It’s just like that. I know it is. I can’t explain it, okay? I just know.”
“Rak,” she said,