Page 80 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“Yes, we should wait, or yes, we should find the nearest bed in Paris?”she asked.“Or yes, your dad was right, and now you realize that you’re not going it alone?”
He smiled, a sudden memory coming to mind as he led her out of the garden, returning to the mortal world.“You are not alone in finding the First Dragon to be sometimes irritating.Once, when my eldest daughter was born, Iceni was admiring her and demanded the First Dragon pay respects to his first grandchild.He took one look at her, and prophesized that chaos would trail her footsteps.Iceni was most vocal in her dismay that he would say such a thing about an innocent babe.I believe she did pinch him on the arm.He was not pleased.”
“And was your daughter chaotic?”Becket asked as he consulted his phone device, adjusting his exit from the First Dragon’s life space into the mortal world.
“Very much so.Everything was a drama of the most magnificent proportion to her.She was exhausting, but she was also the smartest of all my children.”They emerged onto a tree-lined residential street in what was clearly an expensive arrondissement in Paris.A large three-story house in shades of cream and pale green stood next to them.
Becket looked around with obvious surprise when he turned her toward the door and proceeded up the three marble steps to the entry.“Is this your brother’s house?”
“No, he said he does not have a home in Paris.This belongs to the green wyvern.We have much to do if we wish to stop Kashi from destroying all.We must rally the dragons.”
“Now, that’s what I like to hear.Wait—I get to help, right?Because I’m feeling particularly creative when it comes to making up some glamours for your dill weed of a brother,” she said, her voice round with satisfaction.
He wanted to tell her no, that it wouldn’t be safe for her to be around Kashi now that he was in the mortal world, but mindful of his new insight, he simply said, “I couldn’t do it without you.”
The smile she gave him chased out the last of the shadows on his soul.“You remember when I said I thought I was falling in love with you?”
He paused in the act of ringing the bell, fear gripping him with steely claws.“You are no longer so?”emerged from his mouth before he realized how pathetic it sounded.
She kissed him again, a fleeting kiss, to be true, but it was enough that it warmed his heart.“Just the opposite.I love you, Yrian.I love the fact that you think it’s your job to protect everyone—although if you could do it without the martyrdom, that would be great—and how contradictory you are, and the fact that you love cats so much that just watching videos of them doing silly things brings you endless delight.I love seeing how much you enjoy the modern world.And I love seeing how much you care about your family.I just ...”She sighed, her eyes misty with passion and tears.“I just love you.”
“You are my mate,” he said, feeling as if he could conquer the world when she looked at him like that.“It is right and proper that you love—ow!”
“You big oaf!”she said, laughing at the same time she pinched his wrist.“This is the exact moment when you are supposed to tell me you love me, too.And don’t deny you do, because your eyes downright glow when you look at me, and that has to mean you love me.”Her voice faded away on the last couple of words, doubt flashing across her face.
“Wyverns,” he told her, still wanting to shout from the tallest part of Drake’s house the fact that he had a mate who loved him, “swear an oath to protect and honor their respective mates.I have done so for you.”
Her eyes narrowed on him at the same time her fingers started dancing in the air, drawing a glamour.“There had better be a second part to that statement, buster.”
“Yrian,” he corrected, then gave in to his inner joy and scooped her up against his chest, breathing in deeply of her scent, relishing the feeling of her pressed so tightly to him.His heart was overflowing with emotions that he hadn’t felt in so long, he wasn’t sure they were real.Becket had driven away all those doubts, however.“If I told you that you matter more to me than all the dancing cats in the world, would that suffice as a declaration of my emotions?”
“Not in the least,” she answered, relaxing despite her objection.“Tell me what you want, Yrian.”
“Other than Kashi’s destruction?”He smiled to himself when she growled again, slapping both her hands onto his chest.He pulled her up so he could plunder her mouth as it deserved to be plundered, stripping the breath from her lungs, saying when he had to stop lest he pass out, “You have my heart and soul, Becket.You are the mate I never thought to have, one who is brave, and clever, and enjoys dancing cats and bedsport.Not at the same time, though,” he qualified.
She burst into laughter at his declaration.“Definitely not at the same time.Are you going to say it?”
He had his hands on her hips, those delicious hips whose curves made him want to bury himself in her.“You are so sure that I reciprocate your feelings?”he teased.
“No,” she admitted, her smile fading a little.
That was all it took.He couldn’t stand for her to doubt the depths his emotions ran.“You fill my mind,” he murmured as he kissed the line of her lips, moving over to the spot near her ear that she’d told him drove her wild.“You are the air and sun and moon and everything.If you were not here to fill my life with happiness, I would retreat to the griefscape, there to stay until I took my last breath.”
“That is the sweetest thing anyone has said to me,” she answered, sliding her hands up his chest.
The door opened behind her as he gave in to her tugs on his shoulders and kissed her with all the love that shone so brightly inside him.
“Whoa, gettin’ it on right there on the front step,” a male voice said from behind Becket.Jim the demon gave them both an amused glance before a female green dragon holding a backpack hurried out after it.“Can you hold off doing anything really spicy until I get back from my visit to Cecile?”
“Jim!”The female dragon gave Yrian a little bow before sidling past them.“You should not speak so.It is disrespectful, and Aisling told you to mind your manners.”
“Yeah, yeah, but Eerie and Beckatude love me, right?Right?”
Yrian ignored the demon, escorting Becket into the house, his pleasure in being the focus of her love fading as he realized he had much work to do before he could enjoy a peaceful life with her.
It was time.He would gather the kin to him, and together, they would stop Kashi before he did any more harm.
There was simply no other option.
