Page 1 of Dragon His Heels
Chapter 1
His kid?
Gabriel Wilde stared at the child clutching his PR manager’s hand. The little girl gazed right back, unblinking, green eyes wide in a heart-shaped face. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail sitting high on her head, ringlets framing her cheeks.
The kid looked nothing like him. Not the shape of her face, not her green eyes, not her tiny lips or high cheekbones or any damn feature. The only thing they had in common was dark hair, but hell, two-thirds of the dragon population had brown locks.
“How old is she?”
“Five,” Talia responded.
Five plus nine months … where the hell had he been almost six years ago? And with whom? The child didn’t strike a chord, didn’t remind him of any of the dozens of flings he’d had with nameless, faceless women who served a singular purpose. Not exactly the way a reeve was supposed to act, but then again, he hadn’t asked to be reeve for a bunch of unruly dragons, either.
“Are you sure she’s mine?”
Talia pursed her lips and crossed her arms. His PR manager was one of a precious few in this colony who wasn’t at least somewhat intimidated by him. Hell, half the time, he was afraid of her. If she had been shoved into the role of reeve with no warning and no training and no desire to play the part, she wouldn’t have needed a PR manager. She would have flourished all on her own.
She probably deserved a raise. And speaking of, how the fuck was she going to smooth this one over?
“Are you questioning my ability to do my job?”
He wasn’t sure what finding his illegitimate child had to do with her responsibilities as his PR manager, but even so, Talia Tatsuya wouldn’t lie to him. She’d also check every available source. Hell, Gabe wouldn’t be surprised if she’d run a paternity test.
Yeah, the kid was definitely his.
Fuck.
The little girl shuffled her feet and adjusted the pack on her back. “Does she have a name?” he asked Talia. His kid. The words didn’t even sound right. First, an unwanted position as reeve. Now, an unwanted kid. Next, he was going to find himself stuck with an unwanted mate.
Exactly where he planned for his life to never, ever go. He’d never been one for long-term goals, and yet he was stuck with these for… how long did it take to raise a dragon offspring?
Too damn long.
“Ruby,” the kid said, speaking for the first time since she and Talia showed up on his front porch this morning. Too freaking early in the morning, frankly. It was entirely possible he was still drunk from last night. Probably shouldn’t mention that to Talia, who would scold him like a schoolteacher.
Wouldn’t be the first time, unfortunately.
“My name is Ruby. My mommy told me you promised to buy her a ruby, but you gave her me instead, so that’s what she named me.”
“Your mom sounds like a piece of work,” Gabe muttered. Even with that little clue, he couldn’t place the kid’s mother. If he’d offered to buy a woman a ruby, he’d been hella drunk at the time. “What’s her name? Your mom, I mean.”
“Jasmine.”
Talia arched her brows, and he was willing to bet they were thinking the same thing. Sounded like a stripper name.
Shaking her head, Talia said, “You never fail to disappoint me, Gabriel Wilde.”
“And you never fail to act like my goddamn mother,” he snapped back, even though he usually accepted her jibes for the truths they were.
In that cool way she had, Talia replied, “Don’t you meanamother?”
Damn it, she was right. Gabe didn’t have a mother, or at least not one he remembered.
“So you’re five, your mom is a strip—”
“Gabe.”
He clamped his mouth shut. Gritting his teeth, he blew out a breath and tried again.
