Dragon's Second Chance Romance - Riley Storm Page 0,15

wanting to feel that tantalizing comfort blanket of his presence in close to her.

It was a longing that she’d not realized she possessed, but Pietro was awakening it within her, and Claire was having a hard time handling it. A taste wasn’t enough. She wanted more, no matter how wrong the timing.

I’m not even interested in him like that, she said, trying to convince herself. I just want to feel safe, for once. Protected. To not have to worry about ex-boyfriends, or ugly vampires who are after me.

All at once, the thought wriggled free from her mind, the one that had been bothering her the entire way home.

“Pietro,” she said quietly, curious about his answer.

“Yes?” he replied, his face relaxed, calm.

Claire snared his gaze so that he couldn’t look away as she asked the question she should have asked from the start. “Why is it that when the vampire read your mind, it was me that it saw?”

Chapter Nine

Pietro

“Uhhhhh.”

The single sound dragged on as his brain refused to come up with some sort of suitable excuse.

How am I supposed to tell her that I can’t get her off my mind? That somehow, after a single, solitary glimpse across the bar, she had somehow imprinted herself upon my mind, in a way that I cannot ignore? That my dragon has been throwing a fit ever since I sat down next to her at the bar today, angry that I haven’t simply taken her home and claimed her?

Simply put, there wasn’t a way for him to say that. Not without coming off as some sort of psycho stalker, that was for sure. The last thing Pietro wanted was for Claire to become afraid of him. She had enough going on in her life right now that she didn’t need him to add to it.

Claire shied away from him when he didn’t answer. He could see the tension growing in her shoulders and around the corners of her lovely eyes, the golden-brown circles moving just a little more rapidly as they wished for him to leave.

“Really?” she said nervously, seeming to understand what his hesitation inferred. “But it’s been several weeks.”

Pietro sighed. There was simply no way of getting around it now. No way of him pushing this to the side and distracting her. He was going to have to tell her everything that she wanted to know and hope against all hope that it wasn’t too much.

“I know,” he said helplessly. “Trust me, I know. I’m not sure why I can’t seem to get you off my mind either.”

That was a lie. Or at least, he had a suspicion enough to make it feel like a lie. Either way, he didn’t have a complete, concrete truth. Now wasn’t the time for it either. If what he suspected was true, that was near the very bottom of things that Claire needed to hear tonight.

The least Pietro could do was spare her that.

“This has never happened to me before,” he added lamely, regretting the line even as he said it. It made him sound pathetic.

Anger welled up inside him. Not at Claire, but at himself. Why was it that around her he lost his composure, his control? Why couldn’t he string together sentences properly half the time?

“Oh.”

That was the only response he got from Claire. The result was both of them standing awkwardly a few feet apart, looking everywhere but at one another as they sought to figure out what to do next.

Do something, he urged himself. Anything, except this standing around. Where is your backbone? Why are you acting like a teenage boy around her?

His temper spiked again, and he caught her eyes. “Are you saying you never thought about me?”

The sheer boldness of the line caught him off guard, but it seemed to leave Claire flabbergasted. Her mouth dropped open, and she worked to close it, while her face went red in the cheeks, a sure sign that she had been thinking of him, at least on one occasion.

“I knew it,” he said, a grin playing over his face. “You have.”

Claire shrugged. “Um.”

The smile faded. “What? Um what?”

He suddenly didn’t feel so confident.

“Well, you did come up once, besides when Lilly told me what you were. We, um, we talked about you.” She grimaced.

“Oh.” Now it was Pietro’s turn to give the single word answer. He understood what Claire was saying now, the point she was getting across to him.

“It wasn’t very nice,” she said quietly. “And I feel kind of bad