“Really? You’ve never had a girlfriend before?”
“No. The men in my family don’t have girlfriends or wives. We often have partners for occasional…fun. But we only mate for offspring to keep the line going.”
Lucy was quiet for a minute. He could practically feel her absorbing that information. “So your mother…”
He shrugged. It was an old absence that wasn’t nearly as ragged or hungry as when he’d been a boy. “A woman I’ve never met. My father only met her the night she became pregnant with me. My father raised me. That’s common with dragons.”
“They’re raised by their fathers?”
“Yes and no. Dragon shifter children are often raised as apprentices by the parent with the more important, more prestigious, occupation. The other parent gives up rights to that child. It’s… often complicated. But most people respect the cultural rules around it.”
“That’s really weird,” Lucy said. She sat up and looked at him. “There’s nothing wrong with single parent households. My mother raised me by herself. But to have two parents there and capable and for one of them to have absolutely no contact with the kid for no other reason than whose job is more important? I know we’re different species and we have different expectations, but that is really weird.”
He laughed a little, rubbing her back until she laid back down. “It’s not quite as bad as you think. Dragons are compelled by duty. We need jobs and missions. Human children need to play with and be nurtured by their parents. Dragon children need to be trained, taught, and given jobs by their parents. It registers as affection. I swear,” he added when he saw her skeptical expression.
She shrugged. “Okay. I guess I’ll believe it when I see it.”
His heart raced a little bit at that statement and he cleared his throat. He wondered what she meant. Did she mean it figuratively? Or did she mean when she had a dragon child herself? His? Suddenly the dragon custom of single parent raising seemed as weird to him as it did to her. If she were to have a child by him, he couldn’t imagine cutting her out of the equation. It would be one of the greatest joys of his life to see her with their child.
He cleared his throat again. That was utterly ridiculous. First of all, there was no chance of them raising a child together. Either he was going to succeed in getting her back through the portal and then he was going to be executed. Or he was going to fail at getting her through the portal and he’d be executed. Either way, the result was the same.
Second of all, things had become clear for him in dragon form. But that didn’t mean she felt the same way. His dragon heart was much more passionate than a typical human heart. From what he understood humans could date and be intimate with partners they weren’t even really that in to.
Take the absolute dickhead she’d just dumped. By all indications she’d spent a great deal of time with him before deciding he wasn’t her cup of tea.
Amos knew how he felt in his heart. But he didn’t know how Lucy felt. He guessed it was time to clear that up. He opened his mouth but she interrupted him.
“What’s the deal with this?” she asked, running her finger over the diamond stud in his earlobe.
“My earring?” he asked, confused.
“Yeah, it’s pretty nineties.”
“You mean it’s not in style on earth?”
“Not unless you’re a member of a boy band,” she said, grinning.
He hadn’t the slightest idea what a boy band was but he didn’t like the sound of it. “I’m not a boy. Maybe I’m part of man band.”
Lucy burst out laughing and fell backwards. “That’s definitely not a thing. But seriously, why do you and all your security goons wear them? It can’t be just a style choice.”
He ran his finger over it again, suddenly feeling like he had to defend it a little bit. “Most dragon men wear them. It’s not a style choice, it’s a dragon thing.”
She propped her head up on her hand. “Dragon thing?”
“Sure. Try and think about the things you’ve heard about dragons.”
Her eyes went to one side as she tried to remember. “Let’s see. What do I know about dragons. Oh! They really like treasure. Is that it?” she asked, beaming at her discovery.
He met her smile and nodded. “Yeah. Dragons all really have a thing for jewels. Everyone wears them or keeps them close at all times. It’s not an actual source of power for us, but it’s a kind of comfort. We feel naked without it.”
She ran her finger over the stud. He smiled when she impulsively leaned forward and kissed it.