Page 32 of Under the Dragon's Spell
Tyrel laughed softly. "Because you fascinate me."
That again… "Because I can resist your magic."
"Because you should be walking out of here, but you're not. Because you insist on being an equal partner, a parent rather than—" He stopped himself, as if he'd said something he hadn't wanted to say.
"Why did I upset your mother so much by bringing that up?" I asked. There was something there, some family secret, and I wanted to know. I wanted to understand Tyrel.
"Don't worry about it. Mother might not have liked it, but I did."
"I remember you saying you don't want a child." Another one of my concerns. I didn't want an unwilling parent for my baby. I didn't want my child to grow up the way my brother and I did.
"I'm indifferent to that," Tyrel said, which wasn't much better. "I didn't much appreciate the idea of procreating with a mate I never wanted in the first place."
"You shouldn't have a child if you don't want to."
"I have to."
"Why's that?"
"I have to prove that I can continue the family line by the day I turn thirty. If I don't, my inheritance is going to my brother. I can't let that happen."
So he was going to have a baby no matter what. Even if I said no. In that case, he would just have it with someone else. That thought was enough to make my toe nails want to crawl inward. I had to focus on something else.
"You have a brother?" I asked, hanging on to the last part of what he'd said.
"About a year younger than me. Not much family resemblance, thankfully. He doesn't even have my powers." The tone of his voice let me know there wasn't much love lost between him and this brother.
"What happened between you two?"
He remained silent for so long that I was beginning to fear he wasn't going to answer at all. Then he said: "Make you a deal?"
"What kind of deal are you talking about?" I asked, intrigued.
"If I tell you about my brother and my family history, you're going to tell me what you didn't want to tell me on our first date."
I swallowed. Was it too late to back out yet? That was something I definitely didn't want to tell him about. Not aboutRory, not about the baby we never conceived… This was supposed to be my restart, my second chance. I didn't want to spoil any of that by talking about my mess of a past relationship.
"Take it or leave it," Tyrel prompted. "If you want me to tell you something personal, you're going to have to return the favor."
He had a point there. And I did want to take this chance to get to know him. We had precious little opportunity to do that as it was.
"Okay," I said slowly. "I'll tell you."
He picked the bottle up from the ground. I'd thought it empty, but one sip remained. He offered it to me. I took it gratefully. I wasn't much of a drinker, but nothing about the situation I found myself in was normal for me, so I embraced the experience of sitting outside with a hot guy, looking at the moon, sharing secrets and a bottle of something that burned as it went down my throat.
"It's nice to know I can still persuade you to do things without my magic," Tyrel said.
I laughed. "I'm not the most difficult person to persuade."
"Is that so?"
I simply nodded. "The man I don't want to tell you about—he did it all the time. And there's certainly nothing magical about him, although I believed it for a long time." For a much too long time. I'd given Rory years of my life that I'd never get back.
"Your ex-boyfriend?"
I nodded. "His name's Rory."
"I seem to remember you saying the break-up was recent." It sounded a bit like a question.
