Page 22 of The Manny's Fiery Dragon Bond

“Right. Okay, thank you,” I said.

The man smiled, bowed slightly, and left. Malric had gotten one of his clan members to deliver me something. Okay. That was… odd. But also… sweet. Probably. I supposed what was in the box mattered as far as that was concerned.

“Pop-Pop!” Opaline said once I walked back into the house holding the box.

I smiled. “Yes, this is from Pop-Pop.”

How did she know that? The children must’ve been able to scent whatever this was. That was the only logical conclusion. That was unless he often sent men all dressed up to the house to deliver presents.

I took it to the living room. The children returned to their activities as if they had no interest in the box at all. Interesting. As a child, I’d have been all about what was in there.

My heart thundered in my chest and my palms grew sweaty at the anticipation. This felt big… Huge, even.

The box was a deep blue color, made of thick material, with a magnetic flip top. It was the kind of box that could be a present on its own. Malric wasn’t messing around.

I opened it slowly to reveal the item inside. A thin layer of blue tissue paper covered the item, and I moved it aside. Underneath was a first edition signed copy of the book that I was reading yesterday.A Gentle Heart Afloat: Letters from an Omega Abroadwas a collection of letters written by omegas who made the voyage across the ocean in the 1800’s. The book I had picked up at the library was one of my absolute favorite comfort reads. It was one of the few books I owned multiple copies of, but with every re-print or new cover, I had to have one. One copy I had was simply for displaying on the shelf, the others for reading. One I had even annotated in the margins—that copy I could never show to anyone.

But this… This was a first edition. I’d looked into picking up one before, but the prices were outside of a manny’s range, even when they were in bad condition. And this one? This one was pristine.

Oh, my. I didn’t know what to say… what to do. I almost didn’t want to touch it. It was so perfect. So glorious.

Dear Ollie,

Courtship begins by learning about one another. In my younger days, it was tradition to share a piece of your hoard with your potential mate, and so I share this—an item I procured from a small bookshop in London not long after the book had first been published. I gift it to you knowing that, as my mate, what is yours is mine, and what is mine is yours, and that this piece will remain a part of my hoard. I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday and sharing more about myself. Until then, I’ll be thinking of you.

-M

Tears filled my eyes and blocked my vision. Oh, goodness. That was sweet, sweeter than anything anyone had ever done for me before. If his intention had been to soften my hurt feelings, he’d succeeded. There was still work to do, and a serious conversation to have, but it was a start. A good one.

I reread the note again and again. Each time, I felt his words just as deeply. Possibly more so. He gave me something so precious, not only to me on a personal level, being the book it was, but because it was precious to him as well. There wasn’t a more perfect gift on this planet.

Did Malric hoard books? Or something else that books would fit into? Was I about to walk into a library? Was I allowed to ask what a dragon hoarded? I couldn’t recall. I’d never known a dragon well enough to learn about hoards before. It was all new to me.

Either way, I almost wished that I didn’t have plans this evening. My plans weren’t actual real plans, either. I needed to do laundry. That was it. That was my whole thing to do. And also, I wanted to read. I could have postponed both of those things and spent more time with Malric, but I supposed tomorrow would have to do.

Perhaps his grandchildren would like to put together some pieces of art for him in the meantime. Something, anything to keep me occupied. Part of me wanted to call him, ask him to come over. But this was better. Giving us both the time we needed to make sure we were doing this right.

“Who wants to play with stickers?” It was a universal favorite, and I knew I’d have instant buy-in.

All three of them loved to cover a paper with cute stickers. They would like to do the same to walls and furniture and doors, too, but I was quick enough to prevent that. I didn’t need to lose a job due to sticker overload, something I’d seen a manny mention a time or two on the manny boards.

I used a permanent marker to make a thick outline of a dragon on each of their papers and let them go to town. When all the stickers were put on there, I would cut out the dragons. They were hardly Pinterest-worthy, but cute and made the kids happy.

They would make Malric happy too, and I wanted that. I wanted that so badly, I’d nearly caved on the two of us slowing things down like this. But it was important that we didn’t rush in again, because the last time I did, he wasn’t ready, and it left us both hurt and miserable.

From there we played, we ate dinner, and I helped put them to bed. All that was left was laundry and a whole lot of it. They might’ve been small, but they knew how to fill a laundry hamper like a boss.

As I took the last load out of the washer and put it into the dryer, I couldn’t help but be sad that I’d scrubbed the house in a far-too-successful attempt to get rid of Malric’s scent. What I would do right then to be able to wrap myself in the sheets he’d slept in and inhale his scent.

But I couldn’t.

Next time I saw him, I was going to rub myself all around him and not wash my clothes. Then I could be enveloped by his deliciousness all of the time. Was that creepy? Possibly. Was I going to do it anyway? Absolutely.

Chapter 13

Malric

Iarrivedatmyson’s home bearing another small gift, ready to pick up Ollie for our date. Another wasn’t the right word, the first book had been huge. Not the actual book and its value. I honestly wasn’t sure what the monetary value was. But those words, I couldn’t remember a time when I’d opened up to someone so freely before. It had been at least a century, that was for sure.

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