Amelia
Amelia was getting desperate. She had knocked three times, but it was evident that her mate wasn’t at home. Was he always out this early in the morning? Another thought occurred to her, swirling uncomfortably in her gut. Had he gone back out last night after he came home? What if he had gone to meet a woman and hadn’t come back yet? A burst of white-hot jealousy ripped through her, followed by an overwhelming sense of sadness. Was that why he’d rejected her? Was there someone else in his life—someone special? Someone he’d already chosen over her.
Amelia’s despair was all-consuming. Her shoulders slumped and she turned around, ready to make her way back home again. But her path was blocked, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when she came face to face with the man whose image had run through her mind’s eye all night long. She put her hand over her heart, her pulse racing, although she wasn’t sure if that was on account of the scare that he’d given her or for an altogether different reason entirely.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said, his voice as deep and as sexy as she remembered.
He was as handsome, too, damn him.
But the sight of him confirmed one thing, at least. He hadn’t been out all night with another woman, he’d been running, judging by the athletic clothes he was wearing which were soaked in sweat. Seemed like he had a talent for that.
“You’d better come in,” he said.
She nodded, moving aside slightly to let him get to the door and as he brushed passed her, she got a whiff of his incredible scent and she gasped, then had to reach a hand out to the wall to steady herself. She was elated that her mate was inviting her in, but one glance at the expression on his face was enough to tell her that what she was about to hear from him wasn’t the good news she hoped for. She followed him anyway, drawn on by an instinct she didn’t know how to resist.
Inside the house, his scent was even stronger, and it was all she could do not to moan in delight. When they got into the living room, he turned to face her. “What’s your name?”
“Amelia.”
“Amelia,” he repeated, making the name sound like a benediction. “Do you know who I am?”
She shook her head. “No.”
That was a weird question. How on earth would she know who he was? They’d only met the night before and he hadn’t introduced himself. It wasn’t like she’d gone full-on stalker. She’d just followed his scent. Any dragon shifter would have done the same. Except one who ran from his mate.
“I’m Wyatt,” he said. “Can you wait a few minutes while I grab a shower? I won’t be long.”
Abruptly, the image of him in the shower was the only thing she could think of. Shit. Get a grip, Amelia, you’re not a damned kid, she chided herself. And this asshole hadrunfrom her last night rather than pushing her up against the wall and… Well, he left. And now he was staring at her, expecting her to say something. Shit.
“Sure, of course,” she mumbled, feeling the flush spread across her cheeks.
He nodded then gestured to the couch. “Make yourself at home.”
Then he turned and strode from the room without another word.
Amelia closed her eyes and shook her head wearily. She felt suddenly much older than her twenty-five years. Their reunion wasn’t going nearly as well as she’d hoped. She had figured he would be pleased to see her and get a second chance after running away from her so abruptly the night before, but if anything, he seemed pained by the fact that she had sought him out. Why? What sort of shifter didn’t want to be with their mate? It didn’t make any sense. Maybe her first assumption had been right, and there was already someone in his life. But, looking around her, she couldn’t help but feel the house hadn’t seen a female’s touch. She closed her eyes then breathed in deeply, relieved that she couldn’t scent that any women had been in the space recently, either. But if there wasn’t someone else, then why had he run from her?
She needed answers, but she was starting to get the feeling that she wouldn’t like them when she heard them.
She glanced around the room as she waited for her mate to return from his shower. The living room was well decorated with furnishings that looked far more expensive than anything she had in her small condo, which was nothing she wouldn’t have expected for a dragon. Their reputation for hoarding didn’t come from nowhere, and she got the distinct impression that this lavish collection was just the tip of his hoard.
Mate must be very powerful,her dragon said, and she could feel the beast’s approval.And mate has good taste.
Yet despite that, the space was completely impersonal. There was nothing that gave her any indication of the type of man her mate was.
Eventually, she took a seat before she started pacing and wore a hole in his perfectly polished hardwood floor.
True to his word, Wyatt wasn’t long in the shower and when he came back into the living room, still slightly damp, he was dressed casually in sweats and a t-shirt, but he looked better than ever. He smelled good too—a combination of spicy cologne, herbal shampoo, and something that was all man.
“Look, before I say anything else, I just want you to know how sorry I am for running away from you like that last night. It was uncalled for.”
It took all her will to tear her eyes from his perfect lips as they formed each word precisely, and focus on the words themselves.
“I figured it would be better to leave before either of us acknowledged the bond, but when I replayed it over in my head, I realized how incredibly immature and spineless it had been of me. I should have explained everything last night, you deserved that. If I could go back, I would do things differently.”
“But the outcome would be the same,” she surmised, searching his face closely as her heart stuttered in her chest.
“Yes. I’m sorry, but it would.”
