Midlife Dragon Daddy (Midlife Shifters Book 10) Page 4

  It disturbed him how quickly he had fallen back into the habit of needing Haley. He had spent months after she’d left focusing on destroying that bond. He had thought all traces of it were gone from his mind. From his heart.

  But that didn’t seem to be true at all. He had felt a part of himself come to life when she’d walked into the room.

  No, not to life.

  It was something in him that had always been alive. It had just been deeply asleep. He had thought he had killed his bond with Haley, but he had really sent it into hibernation. Now it was waking up.

  It made sense. They had so much history, after all. You couldn’t be married to somebody for ten years, could you, without having a mark left on you? Of course seeing her again was powerful.

  Fuck, I hope she calls.

  What if she doesn’t call?

  He wished he had gotten her number instead of just giving her his.

  Then again, she might not have a phone number of her own. Maybe she was planning to call him from a pay phone. Even wealthy shifters didn’t always choose to own cell phones. And Haley definitely wasn’t wealthy.

  What if she had known all along that she wouldn’t be able to call him? What if she’d already made her decision by the time she had left the interview yesterday?

  Maybe Barty was right. Maybe I shouldn’t have let myself get sucked back into this...

  The phone rang.

  Ryker jumped a foot in the air. His heart was pounding. He grabbed the phone and accepted the call. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Ryker.”

  It was her. He forced himself to calm down. “Haley. I trust you’ve been thinking about my offer?”

  “Sure,” she said. “I’ve thought about it.”

  “And?”

  “And I want more money.”

  Ryker was stunned. This wasn’t the Haley he knew at all. When they’d been married, it had been easy to get her to accept what was available. She had never asked him for new clothes or new shoes or new gadgets. It wasn’t that he’d ever been withholding—he didn’t think he had—but he had always been the one who had decided what she would get and when she would get it.

  Now she was asking him for something. Something he hadn’t offered. Something he hadn’t even considered offering.

  “The pay is five hundred thousand dollars,” he reminded her. “That’s a terrific amount, given what you’re being asked to do.”

  “It’s not enough,” she said.

  “For six months’ work—”

  “It’s not six months’ work, Ryker,” she said. “Any other job would be forty hours a week, tops. I’d be able to go back home at the end of the day. This job is going to require me to move in with you. I’m going to be on the job every moment of every day, waking and sleeping. I need more money to make this worth my while.”

  The audacity of it. He was half outraged and half in awe. “I would have thought you’d be jumping at the chance to get out of that reject town,” he said. “Living with me should be a part of the perks for you. You should consider it a benefit of the job, not an additional hardship.”

  “Should I?” Haley said. There was a sudden bitterness in her tone. “Do you think I want to go back, Ryker? Do you think I want to be back there, living among people who threw me out?”

  “It’ll be different, Haley,” Ryker said. “I’m going to tell them I was wrong to say you were infertile. I’m going to say I was wrong to throw you out. We’re going to tell everyone you’re pregnant—”

  “Pregnant!” Haley barked out a laugh. “Well, now I definitely want more money. I hope you’re not expecting me to get pregnant.”

  “I’m not. This is short term, like we talked about. We just need to maintain the lie long enough to get Shane out of power.”

  Haley was quiet, but Ryker could hear her breathing on the other end of the phone.

  “Haley, I need you,” Ryker said. “I need you to help me with this.”

  “And I need money,” Haley said. “Seven hundred thousand. In advance.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Take it or leave it.”

  He should leave it. He knew that. He should walk away from this right now and find someone else, someone with whom he didn’t share such a complicated past.

  “All right,” he heard himself say. “I’ll take it.”

  “I want to be clear with you about something, if we’re doing this,” Haley said. “So there’s not any confusion.”

  “Okay,” Ryker agreed. “What?”

  “We’re not getting back together,” Haley said. “No matter what happens, no matter how we might feel when we’re together in close quarters for six months, we aren’t getting back together. Our marriage is over. You’re not my mate anymore.”

  Ryker felt stung. “I’m not here to try to get you back, Haley,” he said, even though he’d never intended to say such a harsh thing to her. “Our marriage ended for a reason. I don’t want it back.”

  “Good,” Haley said. “Just remember that. I don’t want to get a few months into this and fall into old habits.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “Just keep it in mind. People make mistakes.”

  “I’m not going to make any mistakes.” Ryker was starting to feel annoyed now. Just who did she think she was? “I don’t want you back, Haley. You don’t have to worry about it.”

  He regretted the words as soon as they’d left his mouth. He was sure he would have hurt her feelings.

  But all she said was, “Okay then.”

  The line disconnected.

  Chapter Eleven

  HALEY

  “I don’t know how you can do it,” Valerie said. “After everything he’s done to you?”

  Haley glanced over at the kids to make sure they weren’t listening. They didn’t seem to be. Danny was drawing patterns on his fast-food hamburger with ketchup, and Sarah was picking the onions off of hers and delicately arranging them in a pile at the edge of her plate.

  She kept her voice low as she answered her friend. “I know what he’s done,” she said. “I haven’t forgotten.”

  “But you’re going back to him anyway?”

  “I’m not going back to him,” Haley said. “It’s not like that.”

  “You’re going to be living in his house,” Valerie said. “Right?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “You’re going to be living among the people who threw you out?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “And pretending that you’re still in love with him, in spite of the way he treated you right in front of them?”

  “Yes,” Haley said. “But you just said it yourself, Val. It’s pretend. None of it is real.”

  “It’s going to feel pretty real when you’re standing in front of those people and acting like you deserved the way he treated you,” Valerie said. “Do you really think you’re going to be able to act that role out for six months straight without starting to feel it? By the time you get back home, you’re going to be hurting, Haley. It’s going to be like it was when those people first threw you out.”

  “No, it won’t,” Haley said. “I’m not the same person now, Valerie. I don’t want to belong to their clan anymore. They can’t do anything to me because I don’t care about any of them.”

  “They’re going to treat you like shit,” Valerie said. “You must realize that.”

  “I do,” Haley said. “Believe me; I get it. It’ll be six months straight of people mocking me and telling me I’m unworthy.”

  “And you’re fine with that?”

  “Seven hundred thousand dollars,” Haley said. “Think about what money like that would do. We could buy our own house, Valerie. Our kids could have bedrooms. We could feed them real food instead of seventy-five-cent burgers for dinner every night. They’d grow up strong and healthy.”

  Valerie shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said.

  “You don’t think that’s worth it? I think th
at’s worth anything,” Haley said. “You were the one who encouraged me to look into this job in the first place. Now you’ve changed your mind?”

  “I just don’t want you to put yourself in a bad situation for my sake,” Valerie said quietly.

  “It’s not just for you,” Haley told her. “We really can’t stay here. The grizzlies are already trying to recruit Danny. That’s only going to get worse as he grows into a teenager. We’re dealing with it now—barely—but what if he has a rebellious phase? What if he decides he’d rather turn away from me and toward whoever else is offering him a place in the world? Even if I can fight the grizzlies off for the next couple of years, there might come a time when he makes the wrong choice.” She shook her head. “I can’t keep raising him in this place. We need to get out of Shifter Town.”

  “Then you’re sure?” Valerie said. “You’re definitely going to do this, no matter what I say?”

  “Definitely,” Haley said. “And I do want you to come with us when I have the money, Valerie. He’s going to pay me in advance.”

  “He is? He must really be desperate.”

  “Yeah, I think so,” Haley said. “That part’s kind of fun to watch, to be honest. Ryker being desperate, I mean. I don’t mind that at all.” She grinned. “So listen, when he pays me, I’ll give you the money, and you can move into a house somewhere away from Shifter Town. Take the kids with you.” She paused. “Both of them, if you don’t mind.”

  “Danny?”

  “I was hoping you would be willing to take care of him while I do this,” Haley said. “I don’t want him having anything to do with the clan, or with Ryker. I don’t want Ryker to know he exists.”

  Valerie nodded. “That makes sense,” she said. “And of course I’ll take him. Sarah will be glad to have a playmate for a few months.”

  “It feels awful to be leaving him,” Haley murmured. “That’s the worst part of all this. But I think it’s the best thing I can do. Don’t you think so?”

  “Yes,” Valerie said. “I’m sorry if my words made you doubt. The truth is that I do think you’re making the right decision. You’re doing so much to help us both. I just feel bad that I can’t be a part of it. I want to help.”

  “You’re helping by protecting my son,” Haley said. “There’s no way I could do this without knowing that he was in safe hands, Valerie; you know that. I wouldn’t be able to leave him with anybody else but you.”

  Valerie nodded.

  “We can’t let Ryker see you or come near you at all,” Haley said. “If he does, he’ll probably figure out that Danny’s a dragon. He’ll be able to sense it. So I won’t be able to come around. I can’t risk leading him to you.”

  “What do you think he would do if he knew about Danny?” Valerie asked.

  “I don’t know,” Haley said. “But I don’t want to find out. He gave up his right to know his son when he exiled me from the clan. He doesn’t get any part of this life we’ve built together.”

  “I hope you can stick to that,” Valerie said. “For your own sake.”

  “Oh, I can, believe me,” Haley said. “The last thing in the world I want is for Ryker to have any kind of place in Danny’s life. I’m not going to allow it. This is just a job, Valerie. Before long, it’ll all be behind us.”

  Chapter Twelve

  HALEY

  “I’m not wild about meeting you in a hotel room, you know,” Haley said.

  “You wouldn’t give me your home address,” Ryker reminded her. “It was this or a fucking diner, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be discussing our business so publicly.”

  “What about the place we met before?” Haley asked.

  Ryker shook his head. “I’d only rented it for the day,” he said. “That’s not going to work. It’s here or nothing, really.”

  Haley sighed and sat down at the little circular table in the corner in the room. He was dreaming if he thought she was going to sit down on the bed with him.

  “All right,” Ryker said. “Let’s discuss the plan.”

  “Money first,” Haley said.

  “No, talk first,” Ryker said. “I agreed to pay you in advance, and I’ll stick to it, but we need to agree on every aspect of what this is going to look like before I hand you a huge sum of money. For all I know, you’ll take it and walk away.”

  “Right,” Haley said. “Because I’m the unreliable one.”

  Ryker shook his head. “Are the next six months going to be like this?”

  “Like what?”

  “You arguing with everything I say.”

  “I’ll argue with you when you’re wrong,” Haley said. “And it’s nuts to act like, of the two of us, I’m the one who can’t be trusted.”

  “I get it, okay?” Ryker said. “I get that I threw you out of the clan.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Good, then. I’m glad you get it.”

  “Come on, Haley, don’t be like this. Let’s just talk about what we’re going to do here.”

  She crossed her arms. “You want me to lie and say that I’m pregnant.”

  “Yeah. You’ll have to, for this plan to work.”

  “And what are the other members of the clan going to say to that? You don’t really think they’re just going to take it at face value after all this time? After the way you pushed me out all those years ago?”

  “If anything, I think that might make them believe it more,” Ryker said. “I was so determined to get rid of you back then, and the reason why was so obvious. It’s hard to imagine a reason why I’d be bringing you back, if not because I’d realized I was wrong to think you were infertile.”

  “Still, if anyone challenges it, they’re going to do their best to make my life hell,” Haley said. “I’m a joke to those people, Ryker. You know that.”

  “You won’t be after this,” he promised.

  “That’s not really what I’m concerned about. I don’t need them to think well of me. I stopped caring about them a long time ago,” she said.

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “I just don’t want to be around it, that’s all. All that judgment and criticism!”

  “You agreed to do this,” he said.

  “Fuck’s sake, Ryker. I know I agreed to do it. Don’t be such a child. I’m just expressing my concerns about it. Is that not allowed?”

  He frowned. “Don’t speak to me that way.”

  “I can speak to you however I want.”

  “I’m the rightful alpha of the clan, Haley.” His voice was dark now. He got to his feet, and she could see that he was angry. “Shane may be in charge for now, but I’m still the alpha by birthright.”

  There was a time when anger like this would have scared Haley, but right now, it didn’t bother her at all. What could he possibly do to her that he hadn’t done already?

  “You’re not my alpha,” she said. “I don’t belong to your clan. You saw to that. And when you sent me away, you gave me the freedom to do and say whatever I wanted. Now you have to live with the consequences of that.”

  “Look.” He strode over to her. “If you’re going to live with me within clan boundaries, you’re going to have to at least act normal for the next six months.”

  “Normal?” she laughed. “What the fuck does normal even mean in a situation like this?”

  “It means you’re going to have to act like you have some respect for me and for my position.”

  “You want me to kiss your ass in front of the rest of the clan so you can feel like a big man,” she said. “I get it. Of course, if you were really so tough, you’d just fight Shane for the alpha position instead of jumping through all these hoops, but we’ll do it your way. I’m sure everyone’s going to be super impressed with you.”

  “Who the hell are you?” He stared at her. “I feel like I don’t know you anymore, Haley. You’re not the woman you were ten years ago.”

  “No, I’m fucking not!” she said. She couldn’t believe she was losing her co
ol like this, but he’d pushed her too far. It wasn’t that she hadn’t known what she was getting into here—she had—but he should have been gentler with her, given the circumstances. And he certainly shouldn’t have shown up expecting the same woman he’d said goodbye to ten years ago. That was just insane.

  “I can’t be that person anymore,” she said. “How do you not get that, Ryker? Are you stupid or something?”

  “Watch your mouth.” He was so close to her now. It had been years since a man had been this close to her. Adrenaline was bussing through her, and suddenly she was overwhelmed with confusion. The anger was still there—still prevalent—but as she looked into his eyes, she felt something else, too.

  Something that had been repressed for a very long time.

  The hotel room around them seemed to fade into the background. Haley could hear her pulse in her ears. She thought she might hit him. Maybe he was going to hit her.

  Instead, he grabbed her and kissed her more fiercely than she had ever been kissed before in her life.

  Chapter Thirteen

  HALEY

  The kiss crackled between them as if their lips were lightning struck. Haley shuddered with it. All the power she’d felt a moment ago, talking back to Ryker for the first time in her life, seemed to seep out of her body.

  She was no longer free of the person she had been the last time they’d been together, the person who had been so submissive in his presence. That part of her came rushing back with full force, and she remembered exactly what it felt like to give in to him.

  She wasn’t fearful of him. Not really. But then, she hadn’t been fearful of him most of the time back then either. She had simply recognized his authority. He was in charge.

  And he was in charge right now. She stood no chance against him, and she had no desire to.

  His hands were already working on her clothes. Fleetingly, she felt glad that she had chosen a button-down shirt—he didn’t have to stop kissing her to undo it and push it back over her shoulders. One hand found its way behind her back and she felt the band of her bra snap free, exposing her breasts.