Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

A sher sighed.

“We should get inside,” Talon said as the last rays of sunset faded. “Unless...”

“Unless?”

“Unless you still have plans to volunteer at the children’s hospital carnival tonight.” At her surprised look, he smiled.

“You want to help at a carnival?” Asher couldn’t quite hide her delight at the idea of the powerful CEO manning a ring toss booth.

“I want to be part of your world.” His simple honesty made her breath catch. “All of it.”

An hour later, Asher watched in amazement as Talon, feared dragon shifter CEO, carefully painted butterfly wings on a giggling six-year-old’s face. His large hands were surprisingly gentle with the brush, his usual intensity softened into something that made her heart squeeze.

“You’re staring,” he murmured without looking up from his work.

“You’re letting tiny humans put glitter in your hair.” She gestured to where several young patients had indeed decorated his dark hair with sparkles. “It’s adorable.”

His mock growl only made the children laugh harder. She loved his genuine joy at their happiness, so different from his usual carefully controlled demeanor.

“Perfect,” he declared, showing the little girl her butterfly wings in a mirror. “Though not as perfect as your doctor here.” He nodded toward Asher. “Did you know she’s helping develop medicine to make kids like you feel better?”

The child’s eyes widened. “Really? Can you do magic too?”

“Something like that.” Asher let a tiny spark dance between her fingers, carefully controlled. “Though your butterfly wings are much more impressive.”

Later, after the carnival wound down, they walked through Central Park under the stars. Talon’s hand found hers naturally, their fingers intertwining.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “For coming tonight. For being so good with them.”

“I’ve had practice.” At her questioning look, he smiled. “Eight hundred years gives you time to learn things. Did you know I once taught at a medieval monastery school? The children were terrified at first, but by the end of the term, they’d named me ‘Brother Dragon’ and kept trying to feed me their vegetables, convinced that’s what made me so tall.”

Asher laughed, delighted. “What else? Tell me everything.”

They found a quiet bench overlooking the lake, and Talon shared stories that brought history to life – how he’d helped Benjamin Franklin with his electricity experiments (“The man was brilliant but had no sense of self-preservation”), witnessed the first telescope observations of Saturn’s rings (“Though dragon vision had already shown us”), and accidentally inspired several renaissance paintings (“They got the wings all wrong”).

“Your turn,” he said finally. “Tell me about young Asher. Were you always determined to save the world through science?”

“More like determined to understand it.” She traced patterns on his palm as she spoke. “Everything was always so... confusing. Emotions, connections, the way other people just seemed to know how to feel things naturally. But science made sense. It had rules, patterns, clear cause and effect.”

His fingers tightened on hers. “And love?”

“That was the biggest mystery.” She stared at their joined hands. “I wanted to understand it so badly. To know what it felt like to have that kind of connection. To have someone look at me the way my dad looks at my mom like she’s his whole world.” She swallowed hard. “But I was always so scared I’d never get the chance. That I’d die without ever knowing what real love felt like.”

Talon turned to face her fully, his free hand cupping her cheek. She saw a depth of emotion that took her breath away.

“For shifters, especially dragons, love isn’t uncertain,” he said softly. “When we find our mate, we know. It’s not a question or a gradual realization. It’s absolute certainty.”

“That sounds...” She leaned into his touch. “Terrifying, actually. To feel something that strongly, that suddenly.”

His thumb brushed her cheek. “Are you terrified now?”

“No.” The answer came instantly, surprising her. “I’m... overwhelmed sometimes. By how much I feel. How natural this is. How right.” She gestured between them. “But not scared. Not of you. Not of us.”

“Good.” He pulled her closer, letting her feel his own certainty. “Because from the moment I met you, arguing about security protocols and making my dragon wake up for the first time in centuries, there was no going back.”

“Even when I kept challenging your projections in budget meetings?”

“Especially then.” His smile held a hint of mischief. “Do you know how attractive you are when you’re proving me wrong?”

She laughed but sobered quickly. “I used to watch my parents, you know. The way they just... understood each other. Moved in sync. Anticipated each other’s needs. I wanted that so badly, but I could never figure out how it worked.”

“And now?”