Maybe he went into the sun naked at times like she did.
"Gabriela?"
She resisted shaking her head and met his hazel eyes. "Call me Gaby. Everybody does."
"Well, Gaby, there's not a whole lot to tell. My brother—my identical twin brother—cheated on me with my wife, and about a year ago, they married and moved across the country."
Her gut said he didn't want apologies or pity. So Gaby merely blurted what came to mind. "Did he always have a thing for her?"
Ryan's dark brows came together. "I don't think so. He was serving in the army when I met her and married her. Of course, I don't know how long the affair went on. For all I know, it could've started on my wedding day since my brother had leave to attend it."
Even though Gaby had zero claim on the male, she wanted to find the female and challenge her to a boxing match. A match Gaby would easily win. "That's pretty fucked up, isn't it?"
He snorted. "That about sums it up." He studied her a second before adding, "And you know what? You're the first person who hasn't tried to give me some sort of life lesson spiel, about how things will get better and how she's not worth it."
She shrugged one shoulder. "Well, while I'm sorry for all the pain in your life, I'm pretty happy about you being here with me right now and not with her."
As they stared at one another, the room melted away, her heart rate kicked up, and the temperature rose several degrees.
She was lost in his eyes, an interesting mix of brown and green, and yearned to hear more of the laughs and smiles that he'd no doubt once had, given the lines around his eyes and mouth.
Oh, that mouth. Gaby bit her lip, imagining him doing it instead.
Her dragon growled. Do the boring human stuff so we can stop imagining that and start doing.
Ryan was the first to speak again. "You're an interesting woman, Gaby. Your honesty is refreshing, for sure."
She grinned. "You haven't even seen some of the most interesting parts of me yet."
He smiled slowly. "Like to keep a man on his toes, do you? Well, I'm not going to be complaining."
Then she imagined him meeting her family, not running for the hills at how forward they were, and she wondered if he would be more than a baby daddy in the end.
If she believed in fate, then maybe Gaby had saved herself for the male truly worth it.
That's such a human thing to think. Sex is sex. From our orgasms alone, you know it feels good. I don't understand why you avoid it.
I wasn't avoiding it, dragon. I just hadn't found the right guy.
I think now you have.
Her skin heated more. Damn it. At this rate, he's going to notice me blushing. I'm hot enough that my tanned skin won't save me
now.
Her beast merely laughed and went back to curling up inside her mind.
Forcing her gaze from Ryan's, Gaby took one of the binders and passed the other to him. "We need to get this done before the two hours are up."
"Considering how much effort went into this whole thing, I can't imagine them just saying, 'Nope, it's one minute past. Go home and see you next year.'"
She rolled her eyes. "Obviously you haven't had to deal with ADDA as much as I have."
"No, I haven't. Do you hate them then?"
Gaby met his eyes again. Many humans thought ADDA a necessary evil, or didn't think about them at all. A dragon could never forget. "Not usually. But it sucks to have to ask their permission for so many things. They don't usually like humans and dragons mixing, unless it's for some sort of benefit to humankind, like with my job."
"Ah, that's right. You're a forest firefighter. It's one of the few things they told us about ahead of time."