Arch planted his hands on his hips, his suit, complete with silver ascot, gleaming under the lights of the kitchen. “Now, down to the business at hand. What must be done in order to ensure the health and well-being of the coming wee one.”
Tessa nodded. She was all in. She didn’t care if it meant she had to be skinned alive. She’d do it. “Whatever it takes.”
Nina snickered, rocking back on her heels. “Yeah. About that.”
Mick finally spoke up from his dark corner of the kitchen, coming out of the shadows to stare down at them. “What exactly will it take?”
Arch looked at Nina. She rolled her hand in a gesture that said the floor was his. “It is a delicate matter. May I speak openly?”
Wanda, who’d come to stand by Arch, winced.
Tessa’s heart began that fearful thump again. “Please. Go right ahead.”
“Sir Mick?”
Mick nodded his dark head, crossing his arms over his wide chest as though he were bracing for the worst. “Absolutely.”
Arch bounced his head with a curt nod. “Now, I speak only from legend, as dragons are quite rare, even from my era.”
“Your era?” Mick asked, his eyes unreadable.
Archibald’s smile was devilish. “Yes, Mick. I was born several hundred years ago. Now, mind you, there were no dragons to speak of then. However, I’m well schooled in the mythology of dragons. Which is what brought me here today. Miss Nina asked that I come here to share with you both what comes next.”
Tessa saw Mick’s eyes cloud over, more paranormal overload, no doubt. She slid off the chair and grabbed his hand, squeezing it, drawing him closer to Archibald. “What comes next?” he asked gruffly, his eyes fixed on Archibald.
Archibald remained silent for a moment before he steepled his hands under his chin. “May I be direct with such a sensitive issue?”
Panic was beginning to seize Tessa. “Please.”
“Fertilization.”
Huh? Like hens? “Say again?”
Archibald cleared his throat. “You and Sir Mick must fertilize the egg.”
Mick was quicker to react this time. He shot the question off at Archibald with rapid fire. “Meaning?”
“Meaning you gotta do the do, Gigantor. With your ‘she’s not my ladylove,’” Nina said, her eyes glittering with amusement.
Archibald stepped forward, placing a hand on Tessa’s arm. “Let me explain. Within the egg is a child, simply waiting to hatch. In order for the child to incubate and come to term, you and Sir Mick must fertilize it by becoming intimate. Otherwise, the egg will die.”
Oh boy.
“Hold the hell on,” Mick shouted. “We have to have sex? Like me and her?” He pointed in Tessa’s direction. “That’s just damn crazy, and there’s no way I’m doing it. You people are all nuts. Has anyone stopped to wonder how she got pregnant in the first place? How did I, when I never laid a single finger on her, impregnate her?”
Archibald shook his bald head. “I wish I had more of an explanation for you, sir. I can only tell you what I know. What I know is, Miss Tessa was neither a dragon nor pregnant before your accident. Correct?”
Mick’s jaw went tight and hard. “Correct.”
The manservant’s shoulders squared, as though he were going into battle. “So then, sir, are we to believe Miss Tessa found another dragon to create this child with? Did she happen upon another man in the last twenty-four hours we’re unaware of? Or are we to chalk it up to yet another mystery in the paranormal realm? Please, do tell me which you find most plausible. I shall wait.”
Mick’s lips tightened and a vein popped out in his forehead. “I don’t have an explanation.”
Archibald clapped his heels together. “Then, sir, you must accept mine. Please do so without the whine of a toddler. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said with prickly ice in his tone as he unplugged the incubator and whisked it off the counter, “I shall take the wee one elsewhere where he or she cannot hear the disparaging words of its father. Do keep in mind, Sir Mick, even in the womb . . . er, eggshell, a child can sense discontent, and I absolutely will not have this precious life marred by your incredible insensitivity. Carl! Come. We shall read baby dragon a story by the fire. What say you to Goodnight Moon this fine eve?” With that, Archibald turned on his heel and went to join Carl.
Nina popped her lips, looking up at Mick. “You’ve done it now, buddy. It ain’t easy to piss off Arch, but when it comes to the kids, he’s a ferocious mothereffer.”
Mick exhaled hard, leaning his hands on the counter, letting his head fall forward. “This is crazy.”
Tessa gulped. “So let me get this straight. We have to have sex in order to ensure the baby will live?”
“Yep,” Nina said.
“Like I said,” Mick mumbled. “Crazy.”
Well, hold on a second. What was the craziest part of it all for Mick? Okay, she’d give him that the events leading up to this immaculate conception were definitely outrageous. She’d give him that this had been sprung on him from out of nowhere. She’d even give him that the idea they had to fertilize an egg together was right out of some kooky writer’s imagination in some fantasy novel, but was it so crazy if it meant their child would live?
Call it hormones. Call it postpartum nutbaggery, but she lost it then. She was so angry that all Mick could think of was himself, her fury shot up her spine and right out of her mouth. “Archibald?” she yelled. “Cover the egg’s, um, baby’s ears because here comes some discontent!”
Then she rounded on Mick, standing on tiptoe, and waved a finger under his nose. “Here’s what’s crazy, Mick. It’s crazy that you won’t accept your part in this. If you didn’t knock me up, then who did? You took the dragon scales. You. You infected me with whatever the hell you’re infected with and now we have a baby. That’s right, a baby. So here’s a little something to chew on while you stew like a five-year-old who lost his fucking recess privileges—you didn’t just give birth to something the size of a damn T. rex. I did. It wasn’t you in there screaming like a damn teenager at a One Direction concert because you didn’t know what the hell was happening to you. That was me. But it was you who started this, and it damn well will be you who finishes it, because the hell I’m going to let this child die because the idea of doing me doesn’t suit your palate. So you’d better gear up for the fertilization of a lifetime, buddy, and you’d better do it fast. Not a chance in ten lifetimes am I going to let you screw with my kid’s life!”
With that, she turned on her heel and made a break for the bathroom, popping the door open and fighting the urge to slam it shut so hard the house would rattle.
But of course, there was baby dragon’s mental state and emotional well-being to think of, which prevented her from tearing the door from its hinges and lobbing it at Mick’s big fat head.
* * *
“I’M sorry, Archibald. All of this . . .” All of this. What was all of this?
Archibald closed the book, adjusting his shoulder so Carl, who’d fallen asleep during Goodnight Moon, was more comfortable. He sniffed, tipping his nose upward. “I’m certain you are, sir.”
Mick sighed. Jesus. He’d been an ass. A total ass. Not only with Arch, but with Tessa, too. But hell on fire, this was all a lot to take in. He was going to be a father, allegedly anyway, and he wanted to feel the things Tessa was clearly feeling—he just couldn’t summon up much emotion over an overgrown egg.
Was that wrong? Probably. But in all fairness, this had been thrust upon him, too, and he hadn’t given birth to it, either. He felt no attachment to it other than the fact that Tessa did, and he wanted her to be happy.
He shifted on the couch, facing Archibald. “No. I’m really sorry. I was rude to you, and that’s not like me. Not like me at all. I’m overwhelmed. I’m worried. I’m . . .” Trying to keep my promise to Noah.
Oh, stop, Mick. It wasn’t really a promise. It was a conversation you had where Noah expressed his displeasure.
Yeah. And the
n he died.
And now I have to sleep with his sister to fertilize her egg. I mean, our egg.
“Sir? May I be frank?”
“Absolutely.”
Archibald set the book down and scooped up the incubator, placing his hands over the egg as though to cover its ears. “Clearly, you’re distressed over this turn of unlikely events. Without a doubt, you have every right to question your circumstances—to question the outrageousness of this predicament. And make no mistake, I understand you don’t feel the way Miss Tessa does about your coming child. In the instant she knew that what had come from her body was a child, she felt a mother’s love. I saw it. Surely you did as well.”
“I did.” And he wanted to feel that kind of love, too. There’d been a million times he’d thought about him and Tessa in the long term. Wondered what it would be like to have her in his life as something more than an irritating replacement for her big brother.
When he’d let himself really dig deep into his fantasies about her, yeah, they’d included children. They’d also included making the children the old-fashioned way. She didn’t even like him at this point, and somehow, they’d created a life.
“Then let me compare this to a surprise pregnancy, if you will. Unexpected, yes, but no less meaningful to the woman who carries the child. Now, let me take that a step further. As the woman carries the child, she becomes attached in a way you, as the cocreator, cannot. You may think you can, but you can never know what it’s like to have a child grow inside of you.”
“Are you sure?” Mick joked. “Because the rules don’t seem to apply to the paranormal.”
Archibald finally smiled. “The truth, certainly, sir. However, my point is this: Let this sit with you for a time. Adjust to the idea that you will, indeed, be a father. I know you’ve been blindsided, but hiding those feelings, making Tessa and this child feel supported, can only benefit the two of them. You mustn’t let your feelings of hesitation seep into your interaction with them both—or you’ll only create resentment. Resentment I suspect you do not wish from Miss Tessa.”
“No. I don’t want her or the . . .”
“Baby,” Archibald finished for him.
“Right, baby, to feel unwanted.”
“Good, sir. Now, another thing we must address. Might I again be frank?”
“Please.”
“You must fertilize this egg, and you must do it soon. It’s my understanding that there are unresolved feelings between you and the fair Miss Tessa. Am I correct?”
He swallowed hard, fisting his hands together. “There are.” So many unresolved feelings he’d lost count.
“But I’m not wrong when I suggest you’re in love with her, am I?”
Shit. Shit. Shit. “No. No, you’re not.” For almost as long as he could remember. Since he’d come back from college and realized she wasn’t twelve anymore. Then when he came back from living in New York to help his parents move and decided to stay here in Vermont.
And again a million times over the last ten years.
“Then I suggest this. I suggest whatever is between you, you hash out. I don’t know what keeps you from making Miss Tessa yours, but for a man such as yourself, I expect it runs rather deep. However, all bets are now off, sir. There is a child to consider. A child Miss Tessa would certainly wrestle demons for—literally. Nothing will stop her from saving this child. Certainly not you.”
This was tearing him up. Eating him from the inside out. “But I made a promise—”
“I care little for your past promises, sir,” Archibald spat, cupping the egg. “I won’t have you tell me this person you made the promise to would be so callous as to keep a child from its life. If that’s the case, this person isn’t worthy of your promises.”
Mitch closed his eyes. “That’s fair.”
“Give me your hand, McAllister.” Arch held out his wrinkled palm, waiting.
Mick hesitated for a moment, his head swirling with visions of Tessa and Noah, but he took a deep breath and placed his hand in Arch’s in good faith.
The manservant scooped the golden egg up, placing it in Mick’s palm, covering the top of the shell with his free hand. “Listen in the silence, Sir Mick. Please. Just listen.”
Mick did as he was instructed, closing his eyes, breathing, thinking.
The egg stirred, made that sound all the girls had thought was so cute—one he couldn’t hear over all their fussing.
Until now.
It was a coo. A sweet inhale of breath, a slurpy gurgle of contentment.
The egg grew warm, as if it was curling into his palm, as though it was snuggling into the shelter of his hand to ward off the cold night.
And it brought him to his knees, slashing at his heart, bringing the sting of tears to his eyes, leveling him so well, so instantly, he stopped breathing.
That was when he understood.
That was when he felt.
Wanda rubbed Tessa’s back while Marty and Nina scooped up the last bit of ashes from her decimated closet. Grateful for their help, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“How do you feel, Tessa?”
She turned to Wanda, rolling her head on her neck to ease the tension. “Aside from the fact that the very idea of fertilization makes Mick want to jump off a tall building, and that I spit an egg that felt like it was the size of a bowling ball out of my body, I’m good. It’s like nothing ever happened.” It was the strangest thing. She felt just like the old Tessa again—pre-body split in two by baby-dragon.
“Bet dragons self-heal,” Marty said.
Self-heal? She couldn’t even touch that right now.
Wanda chuckled. “No one’s jumping off a tall building. Mick doesn’t feel that way, and I think somewhere deep down, you know it. But you use your quips as your defense mechanism as a just-in-case. It’s a buffer for your real emotions. A protective shell.”
“It’s bullshit,” Nina said as she held up one of Tessa’s melted shoes, dropping it into a Hefty bag. “Remember what I told you about kids and adults? This—you and Gigantor—is exactly what I mean.”
Marty blew her long blond hair from her face. “Did she give you the censor speech?”
Tessa laughed on a nod. “She did.”
“I wish she wouldn’t include me and Wanda in that speech. We’re most certainly not afraid to tell her how we feel about her.”
Nina flicked Marty’s hair, fixing her eyes on Tessa. “All I’m sayin’ is, whatever this stupid shit is between you two—fix it. Because if you let my baby dragon die, I gotta kick your ass. Then I’ll suck your soul right the fuck out of you. Then I’ll dip your delicate little fingers into my O neg and eat them. Maybe I might even hold the two of you down and make you do the wicky-wonk. I’d close my eyes, because the idea of the two of you slapping uglies almost breaks me, but the hell I’m gonna let your arguing hurt the kid. So figure it out.”
Easier said than done. If she knew what they had to talk about, she might talk about it. But Mick had never budged. And now, out of all the crazy in crazy town, she had to have sex with him.
And have sex with him she would. It might not be the ravishing she’d fantasized about, but it would happen.
Tonight.
Tessa shivered. Clearly, it wasn’t going to be the seduction of her dreams, with soft music and wine and a feast of cheese and crackers. Likely, it would be in her bedroom, smelling of smoke, on sheets wrinkled from a sleepless night, and maybe, if things got really hot, some Pandora on the laptop.
But let the seduction begin.
A sharp rap of knuckles at her door made her rise and pop it open to find Mick on the other side, his eyes softer than they’d been earlier, his gorgeous face lighter. “Can I come in?”
She just wasn’t ready to let her resentment go—puppy-dog eyes or not. “To do what? Shit on something else?”
“Please?”
Wanda was up and off the bed in a shot. “Girls, let’s give them some privacy.”
; Nina popped Mick on the shoulder on her way out. “Let the dragon baby fertilization begin.”
Marty shoved Nina from behind. “Get out, mouth. Make them do the wicky-wonk?” she mocked. “What kind of crazy threat is that, Elvira? And don’t you say a word. Move along. We need to Skype the kids.”
Laughter followed the three women out of the bedroom as Nina protested and Wanda ordered Archibald to fire up her laptop.
Alone in the room with Mick, everything was too big, too much, too awkward.
“Wanna take a walk?”
“Off a cliff?”
“Work with me here, would you?”
“Where?”
“Down to the barn. You know, where you used to go play dolls all the time when you were little?”
The barn down by the creek. That big, red, musty place held so many great memories for her. She used to run behind Mick and Noah like some homeless puppy when they went to skip rocks at the creek. Where she’d followed them on her stupid pink bike, trying to keep up while they tried to ditch her.
The huge oak tree just outside the barn was where Mick had kissed Marianne Loomis for the first time while Tessa had watched from the loft full of hay. It was where she’d cried and cried because he wasn’t kissing her.
It was where she’d wrapped herself in her mother’s sweater and her father’s gloves and sat on a bale of hay, sobbing, when she’d lost them.
Why would Mick want to go to the barn? “It’s pretty cold,” she hedged, looking down at her toes, covered in the gel socks Nina had found for her.
“But you love nights like this. When it’s so cold your bones ache and the sky is so clear the stars look like they’re winking. When we all complained about how damn cold it was, you always said the snow looked like frosting when it’s like this, and who could complain about frosting? So, c’mon. Wear a warm jacket, put on some boots.”
He remembered her saying that? “But the baby . . .”
“Archibald has it covered, and the girls are here. It’ll be fine. Promise.”
Her heart began to pound, and her throat got tight. But she relented. It was probably better to have mercy fertilization sex if they were at least nice to each other. “Okay. Let me change and I’ll be right out.”
The Accidental Dragon Page 12
