I did. I have lost everyone that’s ever mattered to me. I was so attached to you -- to the idea of you. When you actually started to open up to me, I realized that there were a lot of things... different between us. I never understood why you didn’t want to go to school -- well, I did a little. But things were happening quickly, I wanted you to have an education and I wanted you to be social again.”
“So,” she said slowly, trying not to notice the crack in her voice. “You gave my... what to my mother?” He’d said she’d split apart, and Jamie really had no clue what that meant.
He swallowed. “As soon as your skin...split apart, it was replaced. The power in you, the strength, gave you a new body. But then it also wiped you of anything you had before.”
“I didn’t remember...until I saw it, I didn’t know it had happened,” she said, dropping her gaze. “So you thought I was dead then?”
“No,” he said, voice thick. “I knew you were dead. I saw it happen, just as quickly as you turned into a long-haired Snow White. I sent you to your mother and she must have taken you to a hospital. Am I right?”
Jamie nodded. “Yeah, it was really...fast. I mean, I woke up and she was crying. And I hadn’t even known they sent me to live with you until I talked to Mike about it.”
“Mike?” he asked, staring at her. Jamie nodded, but didn’t explain. She couldn’t expect Zyn to know who she was talking about when the purple guy was practically a god. Actually, one of the Four Creators.
“Did you ever think that I might...not be?” she asked, twirling her fingers together. The kitten, named Sky, came racing into the room and slid into the wall. He shook his head, mewed, then went off again. She watched his tail leave the room and had to wonder what Zyn was thinking.
“No one has ever survived a fryst before. It’s virtually impossible. One touch from them and you’re screwed more than a nail.” He paused, and she thought they were done. That is, until he asked, “Why did you want to know?”
Jamie stared at him, and then looked away. At that second, Sky ran into the room and clawed at the chair, catching nothing. She reached down, picking him up and holding him to her chest.
“Jamie? Answer me.”
She flicked her eyes over him, raising a brow. “Ordering me around, are you?” Even though, a warmth came over her and suddenly, with her heart in her throat, she blurted, “I thought you didn’t want me. When I was told you just gave me back to my mother, I thought... yeah.”
“But now that I know you are, I’m here, aren’t I?” he asked, gesturing around them. Jamie nodded, closing her eyes against the tears. Sky, mewling in her arms, batted at a random strand of hair that swung down from her face. She pushed it back, scratching his neck before setting him down.
“Yeah, you are... But it doesn’t feel like it. Even Lucian has said more to me than you have, and he practically hates me.”
“I just never know what to say when I see you. I think about what I did to you, about how being your father has given you the most...fucked up fate anyone could have. I felt so guilty, like this shroud of... fog came over me.”
“Why do I feel as if you’re softer with me than you are with other people?” she asked drolly, trying to break the ice after he fell silent.
“You are my daughter. I can’t treat you like I’m going to rip your face off, nor can I treat you as if you are lesser than me, like I’m accustomed to. This whole entire thing with me... you, us, is just... overwhelming. Maybe later on, we can... start over?”
A car pulled up in the driveway, and he looked at the door before back at her. “I can hear his car. I better get going.”
She frowned. “You’re my father, not my lover. It’s okay if you stay for a bit, you know...”
Zyn did the first thing she had ever seen from him -- smiled. “I still have this fatherly feeling in me that’s telling me to rip Talon apart, no matter how much he’s done for me. Naturally, I’m supposed to hate my son-in-law till we bond over some football.”
Jamie burst into laughter, pushing the forgotten bowl of cereal away from her. “Alright, I’ll see you later.”
In less than a second, he was gone. She shivered, pushing herself back from the chair as Talon came through the door, shopping bags on his arms and a welcoming smile on his darkly handsome face.
“Zyn was here?” he asked, running his eyes over her.
She nodded, smiling at him.
“You guys had a good talk, then?”
Again, she nodded. It wasn’t like she could talk when he spoke to her, or when he looked at her like that. Jamie savored every bit of him, couldn’t even help herself.
She stepped into his chest, laying her head on his chest. “I missed you,” she said quietly, feeling his arms come around her. She felt his breath at her ear, knew that he was enjoying the moment just as she was.
“I missed you too, angel... We still have to put that pocket watch that Mike gave us to use. Tonight?” he asked, waving his brows. Jamie still remembered how much it had hurt to touch the thing the first time, and had even looking at it caused arguments between them that she hated.
Talon understood, though. So he let her chose the time and date, and she had yet to give him the answer.
She bit her lip. “We could just...save it. For when it’s really important that we need it...”
He glowered. “What do you expect to happen? I’m never letting you out of my site again, so any threat to you becomes null void.”
Jamie rolled her eyes. His eyes had darkened to a stark black again, not their normal silver. She touched his jaw, bringing his face down to hers. She threaded her hands in his hair and said, “On our wedding night. That’s when we’ll use it. Until then, all I need to live is you and nothing else.”
He stared into her eyes, desire swirling in his own depths.
“Kiss me,” she said, blushing sweetly.
Talon did just that for the rest of the night.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue