Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,48

been a struggle. There was a lot she wanted to say, but instead Gayle forced herself to remain quiet. To give Rann more time to speak his feelings.

“How do you feel about it?” he blurted out at last, speaking so fast she had to replay it several times in her head to figure it out.

“About what?” she asked curiously. “You meeting my parents?”

Rann shook his head.

Gayle frowned. What was he getting at? How did she feel about what? There was nothing that they’d done for him to be confused over. Did he mean about himself?

She stiffened in sudden understanding.

“You mean about you being a dragon,” she said quietly, the wind whipping the words away.

Rann’s arms tightened ever so imperceptibly around her, and she felt that sensation ripple through the rest of his body. She glanced up. His head moved a fraction up and down.

“I think…I think…” she said, then paused to do just that, to think.

“It’s okay,” Rann said, interpreting her silence for something else. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not for everyone.”

“I think everything has happened so fast,” she said, ignoring him. “That I haven’t really had a chance to think about it. I have a lot of questions. But it’s been what, two months now since your existence was revealed?”

“About that,” he replied.

“I admit, I never expected that I would ever meet one of you, let alone sleep with one. But other than some embarrassment—which is related to you, not the fact that you’re a dragon—I don’t think I have anything negative to say. You saved me earlier today from that mob.”

Rann snorted angrily. “I’m the reason that mob was after you in the first place,” he corrected hotly. “Without me, you’d have been perfectly fine. They’d never have noticed your existence.”

“Maybe,” she said, forced to agree. “But you never hesitated to help me, to save me. So thank you for that.”

“It doesn’t bother you that I’m not human?”

“Some humans dress up in animal costumes and find love just fine,” she said. “Your form happens to be real, not a costume. I don’t see why I should let that stop me from treating you like any other human. You certainly look the part most of the time. And act it.”

“You’re not scared of me?”

“Not unless we get stuck in a situation where we need to silently sneak out of a window,” she snickered, hoping to inject some levity into the conversation, to truly show Rann that she wasn’t bothered by the slightest at his revelation.

Rann pouted, but she saw his dragon-y lips quirk upward. “There was a rose bush! Those things hurt. You should have warned me.”

“Big bad dragon with scales, and he’s hurt by a little itsy bitsy plant?” she teased.

Rann glared at her, and despite him having yellowed eyes with very inhuman pupils, and a face covered in red scales, Gayle smiled broadly and laughed, completely at ease.

And she didn’t have to fake any of it.

“I really am sorry about what I said earlier,” she added, steering the conversation back to that. “It’s not that I’m ashamed of you to the point I don’t want you ever meeting my parents. That’s not it all, and I hope you know that. It’s more that it was all so soon. I wasn’t ready for it. I’ve been single for less than a week, and I had my heart broken. If I’m scared of anything, Rann, it’s not taking some time to myself to ensure I properly get over it.”

Rann nodded. “I understand.”

“Do you?” she asked, deciding that it would perhaps be best if he knew everything, if she opened up to him so he could understand what was going on in her mind. “Like fully, I mean. I know you’re aware of how I was dumped and the circumstances surrounding that, which are enough to mess anyone up. But are you aware that I quit my job this morning?”

“You what?” Rann barked.

“Yep. Haven’t told anyone yet. Gave them my two weeks, but I don’t expect them to keep me on for the entire thing. But Rann, ever since Mikey and Karen dropped that bomb on me, I’ve been feeling so lost. I applied to a paid position with Balance the Scales, but I don’t actually know what I’m going to do next. All I know is, it won’t be in a cubicle.”

The dragon-man nodded calmly. “That doesn’t seem like a good fit for you.”

“It’s not,” she agreed. “But I’m just lost. I don’t know where I am in