Page 37 of Reindeer Flames
He smiled through fresh tears. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. You don't have to say it back yet. I know it's soon, but?—"
He leaned down and kissed me like the leading man in all those Christmas movies, with one hand behind my head and his arm supporting my back. I swooned, and he caught me, holding me in place while he plundered my mouth with his tongue.
"I love you, too," he whispered against my lips. "Everything happened so quickly, and I worried you would think I trapped you, so I didn't say anything."
"Trapped me?" I shook my head, and a tear slid down my cheek. "You didn't know you were in heat. There's no shame in that."
"But I knew you were my mate," he said. "My dragon had been crowing about you for months."
"My reindeer, too." I shrugged. "Our beasts know better than we do sometimes."
"It takes a while for our human brains to catch up." Silver grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the kitchen. "Let's swap stories while we bake more cookies."
CHAPTER 19
SILVER
Goldand I closed the bakery for the first week in January. She said it was for my move, but she planned to spend most of that time with a certain spider fae.
I loved cooking and baking for Hart and stroking my fingers through his growing beard whenever we crossed paths. Every chance I got, I whispered those three words to him, unable to contain it when we passed in the hallway or when I caught him falling asleep in front of the television. I loved him so much.
I was satisfied with words, but my dragon wanted more."Mark? Claim?"He was usually more confident, and I felt awful that I couldn't reassure him. I believed Hart would eventually claim me with a mark, but I didn't want to bring it up. What if I was wrong?
After that first week of bliss, I returned to my schedule at the bakery. The subway rides were shorter, but the hours away from Hart stretched, making me grumpy. My belly bulged with our eggs, hindering my ability to tend the ovens. My head hurt from the increased hormones, and my back ached after standing on my feet all day.
Gold offered to take over baking and put a stool behind the cash register for me, but that only made me grumpier. I had nopatience for our customers, and only a little more for my sweet sister.
It was even worse that night when I went home. Nothing went right. I stepped in a puddle on the sidewalk, soaking my shoes and socks. Then, I found a gigantic mess in the kitchen before I found my mate. I spent forty minutes scrubbing pots and pans, loading the dishwasher, and putting things away, slamming cupboard doors as I went.
I heard Hart's bare footsteps in the hallway before I saw him and turned to give him a piece of my mind. Instead, he stood completely naked in the doorway, one hand curled around his cock, the other tossing his hair back from his forehead.
"Hey, sorry for the mess," he said, his voice thick with sleep. "I made us dinner in the slow cooker."
I hadn't even noticed the delicious smells coming from the far counter, I'd been so frustrated. Inhaling deeply, I let the pleasing aroma soothe me. "I can't wait."
"Well, I was hoping you would." The hand not wrapped around his cock dropped to his pecs and rubbed his already perky nipples. "My reindeer doesn't want to wait any longer to claim you, if that's all right with you."
My dragon charged to the surface, ready to answer him with a roar. Instead, I croaked, "Yes, please." I strode toward him, careful of his feet, since I still wore my wet and gross shoes. I glanced down at my mud-splattered pants. "I should shower first."
"Dinner will keep," he said. "Let's get you cleaned up."
Thirty minutes later, I lay in bed facing my gorgeous mate as he lazily stroked his cock and stared at me through half-lidded eyes.
"How do reindeer mark their mates?" I asked. "Bite? Hoof?"
"Bite," he said. "Dragons?"
"Depends on the size of our mate. Two dragons bite each other, but a scratch from a wing claw works for smaller shifters and humans."
Hart scoffed. "I'm no small shifter."
"Your reindeer is nowhere near the size of my dragon." I caressed his cheek, loving the way his beard rasped against my fingertips. He'd trimmed it shorter today, and I liked it.
I traced the line of his jaw, down his throat, to rest on his left pec above his heart. "Here."
He rubbed his fingers along the left side of my neck and pinched the tendon that connected it to my shoulder. "Here, after my knot locks us together."
