Scorch: M/M Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance (Dragon's Destiny: Fated Mates Book 2) by Wolf Specter, Angel Knots

forever. Instead, I got an hour—eating lunch and holding hands and finding out a hundred little details about the man who, someday, I would find a way to make my own.

8
    ~ Devin ~
    W hen I got home from work, I heard a man’s voice that I didn’t recognize coming from the living room, talking with Sarah. I headed in to join them.
    “Hi, honey,” Sarah said, a squirming Holly in her arms. “Do you remember Ty? He’s Elise’s uncle.”
    “Holly play! Down , mama!” Holly insisted, reaching for the other little girl who stood shakily by the couch, clutching her uncle’s knee for support.
    “No, Holly. Elise has to go bye-bye,” Sarah said to her daughter. “And you need a nap, missy.”
    “Noooooo! No! NOOOOOO!”
    I bit back a smile. My step-daughter definitely had a set of lungs on her, but I could see that Sarah was right. Holly was struggling to keep her eyes open.
    “Ty, I’m sorry, do you mind if I leave you and go put Holly down? I don’t mean to rush out, but she’s not going to last much longer,” Sarah said.
    “No prob. The girls wore themselves out. I’m sure Elise will be out like a light once we start driving.”
    “Dev, would you mind showing Ty out, honey?” Sarah threw over her shoulder as she headed out of the room with an unhappy Holly still protesting loudly in her arms.
    “The girls were having so much fun that I think we let it go too long,” Ty said after they left. He rubbed the back of his neck with a rueful grin. “I’m not very good at saying no to Ellie.”
    “You’re babysitting today?” I asked.
    “Yeah. Dane wanted to take Wes away for the weekend, so I’m it.” He shook his head as he said his brother’s name. “Those two still act like they can’t keep their hands off each other. You’d think their whole fated— er, that by now the honeymoon would have worn off.”
    Ty seemed to stumble over his words, and he stood up abruptly and started fumbling with Elise’s diaper bag. He pushed some of his niece’s things into it without meeting my eyes. It was odd.
    “Has your brother been married long?” I asked him, trying to figure out what had put the other man on edge.
    “A little more than a year.”
    “Oh! So they adopted Elise right away? Or is one of them her biological father?”
    “Uh, yeah. Something like that,” Ty mumbled.
    It was obvious that the conversation was making him uncomfortable, but for some reason I didn’t want to let it go. I settled on the arm of the couch, subtly blocking the exit.
    “Tell me about it,” I invited Ty.
    He stopped fussing with Elise’s jacket and looked up at me intently. “Tell me about this ,” he said instead, waving a hand around the room. “This marriage thing. No offense, dude, but I think we both know this isn’t the real deal.”
    I sucked in a sharp breath, my stomach suddenly cramping with nerves as he turned the tables on me. “What do you mean?” I asked tightly. What had Sarah told him?
    “Look,” Ty said. “I know it’s not my business, but you should be with Maks. Sarah and Holly are great, but you’re his… uh, you’re—” He stopped, clearly floundering. “You and Maks could be like Dane and Wes,” he finally said. “You’re like, meant to be. I would think that you’d be able to feel it.”
    I swallowed, trying to will away the ache I felt at hearing Ty’s words. They were an echo of what Maks had said to me the first time he’d come over. I had no idea what made Ty think it was true, too, but I did feel it.
    Maks had been courting me, for lack of a better word, for the last couple of weeks, and it was a heady feeling. He seemed to understand that I wasn’t going to do anything to break my marriage vows, and for all the time that we’d spent together, he hadn’t touched me… much. Certainly nothing that wasn’t innocent—no matter how hot the looks he gave me were.
    Or what my traitorous body wanted him to do.
    But even without that, it had without a doubt been the