“Barbarians,” Aegis muttered under his breath. But Kate could tell he was a bit pleased it had all turned out so well.
They walked a few steps from the others, and Liam took a moment to check her over. She shook her head. “I should be doing that for you. You’re the one who got hurt. They didn’t do anything to me. You got here in time. To be honest, I’m not sure they would have hurt me at all.”
“I’m sorry I even let them have the chance. I should have insisted you stay home where I could protect you.”
“No, it’s my fault for being so stubborn.” She looked up into his beautiful teal eyes, like the water at the deepest part of the ocean. There were little smudges all over his face, but they didn’t make him any less beautiful. If anything, they only made her love him more.
Even now, after she’d caused them so much trouble, he was sitting here patiently, covered with the evidence that he’d fought for her.
“I guess I just had a hard time accepting it all,” she said. “Things changed in a single moment. All of a sudden, there was sunshine in my life. And laughter.”
“And grass,” he said.
“And grass.” She agreed with a laugh, putting her arms around him again. It just felt so right to hold him. “As I was driving to work, worried only about losing my stupid day job, I realized I was putting something that never made me happy over something that did make me happy. I left the only truly good thing that ever came into my life because I was too scared it would be too good to be true and I needed to keep my backup plan.”
“I understood,” he said.
“But being with you, it’s like living in a dream. I don’t need my backup plan. You make me so happy my heart could burst if I just held on to it. But I’m scared. I’ve been scared for too long.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Not your fault. But I’m ready. I’m ready to start living now. Including being your mate.”
She felt him freeze against her, and then he pulled back with a look of shock on his handsome face. His masculine jaw was taut.
“Really?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Okay,” he said, taking his bracelet off. “But don’t be mad. I didn’t put this on you before because it was part of mating. I just felt deep inside that maybe it would protect you. Or maybe it just reassured me. But I promise you this means nothing unless you wear it and we seal the deal.”
“Seal the deal?”
His embarrassed, heated look said everything, and she flushed.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” he said. “You up for it?”
“I’m up for anything,” she said. “If it involves a life with you. I don’t want to waste another minute. Not when anything can happen.”
“But nothing like this can happen if we stay together. If you just stay by my side.”
“I can manage that.” She held out her hand and he put the bracelet on, and she felt a rush of energy this time. He leaned down to kiss her as his hands did up the clasp, and she wondered at how different it felt to have his bracelet on now that she did it willingly, knowing the meaning behind it.
She kissed him deeply, loving the idea of being his.
“So time to seal the deal?” he asked, his hands trailing over her waist and hips.
“Get a room,” Aegis said. “You really are Neanderthals, doing that out in the woods.”
“I meant we would go home first,” Liam said, letting out a laugh.
“Whatever,” Aegis grumbled, making the other dragons laugh. But when he thought no one was watching, Kate thought she saw a twinkle of pride in his mean green eyes that one of his dragons had found a mate.
And if he wasn’t a metal dragon, then what could he be?
Opal winked at her, and Kate thought she could guess.
“Can we fly back?” Kate asked, looking up at Liam.
“Hell yes,” Liam said.
Aegis cleared his throat. “No, you can drive like a normal human. You’re still mating a human and living in the human world. I don’t need video of a giant metal dragon on the news.”
“I can cloak,” Liam said.
“I don’t care,” Aegis said. “You’re still in my region. I still make the rules. Drive.”
Kate laughed, putting a hand on Liam’s arm as he made a move like he was going to challenge Aegis. “It doesn’t matter how we get there,” she said quietly. “It just matters that we’re together.”
“Fine,” Liam said, folding his arms. “I guess I don’t want to scare Tank either.”
She kept her hold on his warm, muscular arm all the way back to the cars, and Magnus reluctantly agreed to let them use his precious sports car as long as they didn’t have sex in the back.
He’d bring her car over when they were ready.
She climbed into the car, escorted by Liam, and a little thrill of electricity went through her. Nothing left but to take a leap toward happiness with her dragon.
18
Kate fed a worried Tank while Liam took a quick shower to wash off the dirt and ashes.
He’d come for her. Even when she’d been stupid and insisted on putting herself in the way of danger, he’d been there. And he’d fought magnificently. Seeing his dragon, fighting in the rubble with the gold dragon, she’d felt her breath catch in her throat, not from fear, but from awe.
She loved even that part of him. In fact, seeing all sides of him only made her love him more.
When he walked out of the bathroom, a towel around his waist, clean skin glowing, hair wet and dripping as he ran a towel over it to dry it,
he gave her a shy grin. She walked over to him and rubbed her hands over his powerful biceps.
“Thanks again for coming for me.”
“Every time,” he said. “I’ll always come for you.”
She grinned. “You gonna come for me now, then?”
His face froze in an expression of shock, and then he relaxed with a smile. “That was blunt, Kate.”
“Yeah, well, you’re becoming such a modern dragon now. I don’t think I have to take it easy with you anymore,” she said, tugging on his arm, pulling him toward the bedroom. He chuckled as he went with her.
When they got to the bedroom, she began changing out of her work clothes, unbuttoning her blazer as he sat on the bed watching, his beautiful teal eyes heating up.
She still felt a little awkward changing in front of him. In the rushed first time in the shower and the dark second time in the hot tub, there hadn’t been a lot of time to just look at one another. To hotly, slowly anticipate what was about to happen.
When she was down to just her panties, she saw him watching avidly, almost holding his breath he was so intensely focused.
She walked forward, standing between his legs and against the towel. “Breathe,” she said, and he exhaled.
She grabbed the towel, whipped it away, and came up against him. He let out a grunt and pulled her tight, wrapping his huge arms around her.
Then with a pull and a little jump, he jerked them both back onto the bed, in the middle of the silky covers. He brushed a hand through her hair, and she closed her eyes and smiled, enjoying the caress on her cheek. Even that gave her little tingles.