The Dragon Billionaire's Secret Mate(27)

"I love you, too," Theresa said. The feeling was like a fire inside her chest, raw and overwhelming.

Samuel shifted until she could use one of his arms as a pillow, his other arm wrapped tightly around her. She fell asleep like that, Samuel curled around her, held safe and warm in her dragon's embrace.



***



"Theresa!" Carolyn cried, her face lighting up in surprised pleasure. She pulled Theresa into a tight hug. "Are you back from your conference? I know you said you were going to be busy, but you could have sent a text or something. I feel like I haven't heard from you in ages."

"I'm sorry," Theresa said, wincing. It was true, they hardly ever spent more than a few days without at least exchanging a few texts. Two weeks was a long time for radio silence between them."Things got… pretty crazy for a bit."

She'd never lied to her sister before, and she didn't much like doing it now. She'd told Carolyn she had to go to a conference when she'd been preparing for her ten days with Samuel, back when she'd still been dreading those days, bracing herself. It felt like an eternity had passed since then, instead of not even two weeks. So much had changed.

She'd had no idea, back then, what she was going to tell Carolyn about where the money was coming from; and now, with everything that happened, she knew even less what to say.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

Carolyn looked exhausted, her eyes tight with strain at the corners, even as she covered it up with a smile. "Oh, you know. Still working on figuring something out. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

The look in her eyes said she didn't believe her own words.

"Anyway, sit down, take your coat off. Pie's gonna be done in a couple minutes," Carolyn said.

Carolyn's warm, homey kitchen was filled with delicious smells, fresh-baked pie and a stew already simmering on the oven for dinner.

Carolyn put a big slice of apple pie on a plate for her, still steaming from the oven, a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.

"Joey, pie! And your Auntie Theresa's here!" she yelled.

"Coming, mom!" Joey yelled back from upstairs.

"Wash your hands first!"

Carolyn put a slice of pie on her own plate.

"So how was your weirdo top-secret last-minute librarian conference? Don't think I haven't noticed you being all secretive, sis. What, did you all get taken over by the CIA and had to go into spy training or something?"

"Um," Theresa said. Great. Apparently she was even worse at lying than she'd realized. She'd thought the conference was a pretty believable excuse for her sudden absence. She had to tell Theresa something, she knew; but what?

"Well. I brought you something back," she said, stalling. She handed Carolyn the envelope with the check, the fifty thousand dollars Samuel had given her.

Once she'd told him what she needed the money for, Samuel had immediately offered to make all of Carolyn's debts go away, mortgage and all. "She won't accept that," Theresa had told him. She'd be lucky if Carolyn accepted the fifty thousand dollars she'd need to get the dangerous loan sharks off her back. She was pretty sure Samuel was already working on stealthily buying up Carolyn's mortgage, though, and wouldn't be surprised at all if a "clerical error" suddenly made the debts go away in some none-too-distant future.

Carolyn opened up the envelope and froze. "Holy—Theresa, what did you do? Where did you get this?"

"It's a gift," Theresa said vaguely, but she'd known Carolyn wouldn't let her get away with that.

"Resa, tell me you didn't do anything illegal. Or, or dangerous. If you get in trouble because of me…"

"I'm not in any trouble," Theresa said quickly.

"So tell me where this money's coming from, then," Carolyn said sharply. Theresa could hear the rising worry in her voice.

Steps thundering down the stairs interrupted them.

"Auntie Resa!" Joey came flying through the kitchen door and threw himself straight at Theresa without slowing down. Theresa laughed, gasping, all the breath knocked out of her. She just barely managed to save her slice of pie from imminent disaster.

"Missed you, Auntie Resa!" Joey said.

"I've missed you, too." Theresa hugged him firmly. She reached out with her new-found powers, red light spilling from her hands where the table hid them from view—looking, searching… But there wasn't a bit of illness left in Joey, none of the slow, creeping darkness of disease she'd learned to recognize with her new senses. The treatment really had worked. He was a strong, healthy kid.

Theresa let out a slow, shaky breath. He was going to be alright.

"Joey, I need you to go up to your room now, okay? Your Auntie Resa and me need to talk," Carolyn said tightly.