Chapter Thirty-Six
Dela
“Hello?”
I peered out into the hallway, and my eyes landed on the destruction to one side.
Had that always been there? I’d been rather distracted on the journey to his quarters, so I couldn’t recall.
However, the heat still bleeding off it indicated it was fresh.
Had Ember done that? Some sort of victory celebration?
He finally conquered the human woman and cleared his head?
The house felt oddly quiet as I strode through its hallways. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to happen after locking myself in the bathroom, but now I was on my own and would have to find my way back to the city.
Assuming I could find my way out of the labyrinth of a house first! I reached a corridor that I knew I’d already passed through and hissed, frustrated. Why was it so confusing to navigate? Why couldn’t it have one of those mall maps with the little red dot labeled, “You are here?”
“Miss Brooks! Miss Brooks!”
I spun at the voice calling my name. A young man with long black hair and very short facial hair came jogging down the hall toward me.
He had blue eyes of the palest color, almost like fog.
A soft, silken shirt hung from his body, the red the only splash of color on him.
Black jeans and boots completed his ensemble.
Staring at his face, I couldn’t help but feel like I recognized him or had seen him before. That broad face, with its full lips and high cheekbones. That sharp jawline. Low eyebrows capturing blue eyes.
“You must be Ember’s other brother,” I said, taking a wild guess.
The man beamed, showing his youthfulness. “Ashe, at your service, Miss Brooks.”
“Please, call me Dela,” I said. “Miss Brooks is my mother.”
“Sure thing.” He beamed at me, then waited.
I frowned. “Can I help you, Ashe?”
“Ember called me. He asked me to take you home.”
I frowned harder. “Take me home? Does Ember not know that I came here in my own car? I don’t need a ride home, Ashe, but thank you very much for offering. Though if you want to show me to the front door, that would be helpful. I’m lost in this damn maze.”
“Miss Brooks. Dela,” Ashe said a bit more forcefully. “My brother is the Prince of Fire. Or will be. If he orders me to make sure you get home safely, it is up to me to ensure I get you home safely.”
I sighed, recognizing something in his tone. “You’re not going to give up, are you, Ashe?”
He shook his head. “The front door is this way, though.”
He gestured, and I followed.
“Your brother can’t even be bothered to do it himself?” I asked as we walked, trying to keep myself calm.
“He had to go.” It was all Ashe would say.
That was it, the only explanation I got. Ember “had to go.” The coward couldn’t even stick around to make sure I left okay. He’d gotten what he wanted, and I was nothing to him, once more just a human for him to dismiss into the care of someone else.
Well, I was tired of being dismissed. So, fuck Ember, and fuck the dragon he rode in as.
I was done with him, for good. I walked faster, recognizing the hallway.
I knew where to go. I didn’t bother memorizing it because I knew it would be the last time I came there.
The last time I ever saw Ember, Ashe, or any of the dragons.
I was done with them. It was time to move on with my life.
The time of Dela was finally starting.
“What’s your plan here?” I asked Ashe as I walked down the front steps.
“I will come in your vehicle if that is acceptable. Ember has provided me with your address. I will escort you there, then leave you.”
“Ember has …” I shook my head. Why was I not surprised that Ember knew where I lived? Of course he did. Whatever. “Fine. Get in.”
Ashe did as he said. Without a word, he sat in the passenger seat and remained quiet as I headed back to the city.
We spent the entire drive sitting in silence.
It was awkward, but at least I didn’t have to put up with small talk that would inevitably center around his brother, the asshole who’d discarded me after using me for sex.
God, I couldn’t believe I’d fallen for that! He’d been so genuine, so interested, and then boom, he got inside me, and that was that. The real Ember came out. I could just add gullible to my list of failures, it seemed.
The emotions whirling inside me built as the drive went on. My fingers tightened around the steering wheel until the knuckles were white. I leaned forward, my shoulders tense.
“Are you okay, Dela?” Ashe asked at one point. “Is something the matter?”
“I’m fine,” I said quietly. “Just thinking.”
I needed someone else right then. Being alone was a bad choice, and at that moment, I knew the one person I could turn to who would be there for me. She always was, even when I did stupid things like this.
Without warning, I took a right-hand turn, deviating from our course.
“Where are we going?”
“None of your business, Ashe,” I said. “Neither you, nor your brother, control me.”
“Ember told me to make sure you were safe.”
“Ember doesn’t get to have a say in my life,” I said harshly. “That spot is taken, thank you very much.”
I pulled up to the curb and killed the engine.
“Have we arrived?”
“Get out, Ashe. You’re kind, but this is my life. I’m going to live it the way I want, okay?”
He frowned.
“Don’t make me cause a scene. I’ll do it,” I said.
Nodding unhappily, Ashe got out. I did, too, then locked the car behind me. The young dragon was still standing on the sidewalk, watching me as I went up to the house and knocked on the door.
“It’s me!” I called, pushing it open, knowing it would be unlocked. It was a very safe neighborhood.
I cast one last glance back at Ashe and then went inside. Hopefully, that would be the last time I saw any dragon shifter ever again.
“Why the hell do you smell like fire?”
I squeaked in surprise as Chelsea blindsided me with a huge hug, holding me tight.
“Long story,” I said as I recovered my breath after it was squeezed from my lungs.
Chelsea stepped back, giving me a long, appraising look. “What happened?”
I cringed at the unspoken this time. Chelsea knew me too well.
“I couldn’t resist him,” I said, letting myself be led into the kitchen, where a bottle of wine was soon cracked open and glasses set in front of us both. “I tried, Chels. I fucking tried. Yet I couldn’t do anything but think about him. Of … well, you know.”
“You wanted to hump his brains out.”
“More like I wanted him to hump mine out,” I admitted, both of us laughing. “And he did. Oh, my, did he ever.”
“That good?”
“The single best sexual partner I have ever had in my life,” I gushed, shivering as I recalled him sliding into me, pumping me full of his come, and me screaming my head off the entire time.
Even the memory of his lips tracing circles of fire across my body, the touch of his fingers on my sides, my breasts, my neck.
It was all so much, bringing fresh heat between my legs.
“Okay,” Chelsea said, leaning back slightly. “So you don’t regret the sex. Everything went smoothly to that point. So, what happened?”
“I misread it,” I said. “Like I always fucking do. I believed him, took him at face value when he said some things about me being his m—being someone he truly wanted in life.”
I almost said “mate,” but that wouldn’t make sense to Chelsea. Not that it made much sense to me either, but I didn’t want to get into any discussion about why that word was used.
“And he wasn’t serious?”
“Nope,” I said with a heavy sigh, pausing to drink a mouthful of wine. It was fruity and dry without being overpowering. Chelsea knew her stuff. “Afterward, he said emotional needs and physical desires aren’t always the same thing.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? That he thought you were an emotional desire, but it only turned out to be a physical one?”
I nodded. “Yup. Then after I retreated to the bathroom to get dressed, he left.”
“Left?”
“He fucking left,” I hissed, my rage inspiring me to drink another mouthful. “Just up and left. Got his little brother to get me and ‘make sure I got home okay.’ Can you fucking believe that? Who does that? Talk about a cowardly fucking dismissal, am I right?”
Chelsea worked her jaw and then took a hearty sip of her own wine. We were going to go through the bottle swiftly at that rate.
“That is unbelievable,” she said. “That’s beyond just using someone for sex.”
“I know,” I moaned into my glass. “That’s just my luck, though. I swear I’m done. Two weeks, minimum. No men. No texts, no apps, no flirting at a bar or on the street or at the grocery store. Nothing. I’m going cold turkey. I’m done with him and any of them.”
Chelsea stared at me.
“I hate him,” I said. “I do. But damn it, Chels, I want him as well. Why do I do this, go after the ones who don’t want me? I can’t stop thinking about him. Even though I know I should.”
It was hard not to have him on my mind when I was constantly reliving the mind-numbing orgasms he’d given me. Nothing in my life was likely to top that experience. Would I constantly compare every guy in my life to him going forward? That would suck.
“This is a rough one for you, isn’t it?” Chelsea asked sympathetically.
I nodded. She pursed her lips, then yelled over her shoulder toward the stairwell. “Mark, darling, this is going to take another bottle of wine.”
“Okay!” came the reply. “Love you, Dela!”
“Love you, too, Mark!” I shouted. “Sorry about stealing your wife, but thank you for giving her up, even if it was involuntary!”
“No, no, thank you! Now I can play video games all night!”
I laughed, the end turning into a hiccupping sob. Then the tears came. Just like that, they fell. Chelsea got me tissues and, just as importantly, refilled my glass.
“Mark will drive you home,” she said, squeezing my shoulders.
“You guys have such a strong relationship,” I remarked, my voice nasally thanks to the congestion from crying.
“It’s not easy. We work at it a lot. I force him to talk about things he doesn’t like to talk about. He makes sure I actually talk instead of using hints. It took a while to get to this level, where we both truly understood one another.”
“I’m happy for you. So happy.”
Chelsea smiled. “So no men for two weeks at a minimum. What’s your plan other than that?”
“Right now,” I said, “I’m going to drink another bottle of your wine.
Then I’m going to go home, take a shower, probably cry some more, hopefully remember to drink some water, and go to sleep, praying I don’t wake up with a hangover.
Otherwise, tomorrow is going to suck in a whole new way.
Then, after that, I’m going to go back to my life. ”
“Cheers to that,” Chelsea said, lifting her glass.
I clinked mine with hers and took a sip. Yep, it was time to go back to my life. Things with Ember had been a nice fantasy, but that’s all it was. A break from reality. Nothing permanent, and I had to be aware of that. It was time to move on.
Eventually, when I was ready, I would stick my toes back into the dating pool. Maybe I would even find someone who wanted the same things in life I did. A partner to love and create a family with.
Or was that just as much of a fantasy as living with a dragon? Maybe I was always destined to be alone.
I wasn’t sure. I had no clue what my future held other than to be certain that Ember wasn’t a part of it.