Chapter 16

SIXTEEN

A s her friends set up the guest room for an impromptu sleepover (“Because your hot dragon mate will actually combust if we leave you alone tonight”), Asher curled up on her window seat, letting her senses extend into the night. She could feel Talon’s presence like a steady flame in her mind, and beneath that, the subtle shifts of her security detail—including Levi, who’d refused to leave despite three shift changes.

Her phone lit up with one final message for the night: Just checking that you’re safe. Sleep well, mate.

The simple text shouldn’t have made her heart flutter, but her dragon practically purred at his concern. She typed back: Safe. Though my dragon’s still pouting about the separate sleeping arrangements.

His response came immediately: Mine too.

“That’s either a very inappropriate text or a very smitten dragon,” Kaylee observed, returning with extra blankets. “Given your face, I’m betting both.”

“I’m not smitten.” But Asher couldn’t stop smiling at her phone. “I’m just... appreciating certain aspects of my new reality.”

“Aspects like how your mate’s muscles look in those suits?” Lori dropped onto the window seat beside her. “Because I distinctly remember several rants about that before all this happened.”

“Those rants were purely scientific observations about human anatomy.”

“Sure, they were.” Kaylee settled on her other side. “Just like how you accidentally memorized his schedule to maximize meeting time.”

“That was professional interest!”

“Honey.” Lori patted her knee. “You color-coded your calendar to track his coffee breaks.”

Asher buried her face in a pillow. “You’re both pains in my ass.”

“You love us.” Kaylee tugged the pillow away. “Almost as much as you love your hot dragon CEO.”

“I don’t...” But the denial felt hollow, even to her. She felt Talon’s immediate response to her emotional spike—warm and steady and absolutely certain. “I don’t know what love feels like,” she said instead. “But this? This feels... right. Like everything I’ve been missing without even knowing I was missing it.”

Her friends’ expressions softened.

“That’s kind of what love is,” Kaylee said gently. “Finding pieces of yourself you didn’t even know were missing.”

“Even if those pieces come with scales and a concerning attraction to business attire?” Asher tried to joke, but her voice wavered.

“Especially then.” Lori squeezed her hand. “Now, come on. Bed. Before your mate actually does break down the door because your emotional wavelengths are making his dragon anxious.”

As they settled in for the night, Asher sent one last pulse of emotion to Talon. Warmth and gratitude and something deeper she wasn’t quite ready to name. The response she got back nearly took her breath away: protection, devotion, and a bone-deep certainty that somehow, against all logic, they belonged together.