Chapter 30 - Lily
Landing effortlessly on my feet, Draco shifts at the same time before landing. I giggle when we find ourselves in my parent’s backyard, and Draco presses a finger to my lips.
“They’re gonna hear you,” he warns playfully as he tickles my sides, and I keel over into his arms.
“Well, they didn’t hear you when you came to kidnap me, Drake,” I drawl his human name with salacious intent.
Grabbing my waist, he pulls me upright, leaning in until his lips are a mere inch from mine. Tempted to succumb to a kiss, my lips part, and my eyelids flutter closed.
All it earns me is a chaste kiss on my lips before he releases me with a chuckle. “Come on,” he whispers as he takes my hand. “This time, we’re going through the front.”
I stifle the girlish giggle in my chest as Draco and I steal around the house toward the front. Ducking our heads under the windows, we creep up to the front entrance and hit the bell.
“Lily?” Violet appears at the door, eyes wide in surprise. I immediately step over the threshold and pull her into a hug.
“Violet! Oh, my God!” I melt into the hug as relief washes over me. “It’s so good to see you!”
When I draw back, Violet stares warily at the Draco. Clearing my throat, I step aside to introduce him.
“Vi, this is Drake.”
Violet glances at me before tersely slipping her hand into Draco’s outstretched one. “So…” she quips a brow. “... You’re the boyfriend?”
Draco lifts his chin and steps forward. “Yes, I’m the boyfriend,” he announces boldly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Violet.”
Violet eyes me suspiciously as she steps aside to let us in. Draco scans the inside of the house while Violet grabs my arm and pulls me aside.
“I get it now,” she says as she stares after Draco.
“Get what?” I ask with a frown.
“Why you disappeared again.” Violet rolls her eyes.
I open my mouth to defend myself and offer Violet a rehearsed excuse for my sudden disappearance when Mom comes out of her bedroom.
“Lily?”
“Hey, Mom,” I greet tentatively.
“Don’t worry,” Violet assures in a whisper. “I told her you were out of the country with the boyfriend you wouldn’t tell us about.”
I hug my mother before introductions are made. When Dad comes in, more introductions are made before we’re invited to the dining room.
Lunch is quite simple, but the air remains tense as my parents question Draco about everything, from what he does for a living to where we’d been over the past couple of weeks. Luckily for me, Draco is a natural, exuding charismatic charm that softens the tension until it finally fades. I find myself staring in amazement as he speaks to my parents as if he’s known them his whole life.
“... And when I stumbled on some of Lily’s work, I just knew that I had to have her writing our script,” he explains, making up the alibi of us meeting through his work as a movie director. “But when I met her, I fell in love at first sight.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Mom clutches her chest as her eyes sparkle with wonder. She’s as mesmerized as I am.
Dad chuckles as he places his fork down and rises from his chair. “Come on, Drake. Let me give you an official tour,” he offers, and I know that he approves of Draco.
“Of course,” Draco smiles as he gets up, throwing a wink at me. “You’ve gotta show me that Chevy you’re working on.”
When Draco and Dad leave the dining room, I feel my mom and sister’s eyes boring into me.
“What?” I shrug nonchalantly as I poke my fork into a pea.
“You seem so… Different,” Mom appraises as she props her chin on her hands, staring at me in wonder.
Blushing, I set my fork down and stared at my plate sheepishly. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys about him sooner.”
“That’s okay,” Violet assures me with a soothing hand on my shoulder. “It just makes me happy to see you happy.”
With my family’s approval, I feel relieved. Though I’m not sure what the future holds, it puts me at ease that they understand I won’t be around much.
After clearing the lunch table, I head to my bedroom to reminisce over my old life. The life I’m leaving behind in exchange for my immortal one. But when I enter my bedroom, I’m surprised to find Draco seated on the edge of my bed, untying the string around my diary.
“You aren’t supposed to read that!” I yelp as I snatch my diary out of his hands.
He looks up with a nervous chuckle. “Are we keeping secrets now?”
Sighing, I join him on the bed, crossing my legs while holding the leather-clad book on my lap. “I’m not hiding anything from you,” I murmur, drawing enough courage to hold the diary out to him. “Here… You’re allowed to read it.”
Draco presses the diary away gently, shaking his head with a warm smile. “No, sweetheart. I don’t mean to pry,” he says gently. “You don’t have to tell me everything. I was only teasing.”
“The thing is…” I take a deep breath. “... I want you to know. I’ve wanted to tell you about it for a while.”
“Yeah?” Draco shifts on the bed, twisting toward me with keen intent on his face. “What is it, my sweetheart?”
Placing the diary down, I reach for his hands and place them on my lap. “So… I used to dream about you long before we met.”
“Really?”
Blushing at the way he sounds genuinely surprised, I avert my eyes. That’s when he hooks a finger under my chin and tilts my face toward him. When I meet his eyes, his gaze is warm, the golden depths illuminated by how I touched his heart.
I nod sheepishly as I tuck my bottom lip between my teeth, noticing the way his eyes darken.
“Don’t do that,” he warns with a purr, eyes flitting to my lips as he hungrily devours them with his gaze.
“Don’t do what?” I tease, feeling goosebumps pebble my forearms long before he slides a hand over my arm. Settling on my chin, he strokes my moist bottom lip with his thumb. Awareness rushes through me and settles between my thighs, causing a whimper to escape my lips.
“Don’t distract me like that,” he drawls, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he gulps. My eyes focus on the movement, imagining what it would be like to trace the tip of my tongue across the veins…
“Lily…?” Draco chuckles, snapping me from my fantasy. I pout when he stands up, wearing a salacious smirk as he offers me a hand. “We should get going,” he suggests as I take his hand and unfold my legs. “But I would like to hear all about your dreams on our way back.”
Nodding eagerly, I follow him out of my bedroom to bid my family goodbye. We have to steal away to the backyard without them noticing before Draco shifts and whisks us into the air to head back to Aurora Island.
I’d call it ‘home’ if home was a place. But as I recount my psychic dreams about him through our shared mind link, I realize Draco is my concept of ‘home.’
And wherever he is, that’s where home is for me.
***
“Wow!” I marvel at the view from up here. As the sun sets on the island, it casts an orange and purplish hue on the horizon. Shrouding the colorful meadow in a blanket of beauty I’ve never seen before.
I can imagine it now—drawing inspiration from the mountaintop to create the most heartfelt stories I could ever create. And when I glance at Draco, seeing how he watches the sunset with a relaxed jaw and sparkling eyes of amazement, I know I’m right where I need to be.
Beside the man who will forever serve as my greatest inspiration. My characters will be weaved with his personality between the pages. His strength, the magnitude of his Alpha aura.
He’s just… Perfect.
He sighed as he reached for my hand, our fingers interlaced, and he kissed my knuckles.
“I love you, Lily Turner.”
His admission takes me by surprise, and I gasp as I continue staring out at the view from the peak of the luscious mountain. I can feel him staring at me, but I’m too shocked to move.
Frozen to the spot, it’s only when Draco unlinks his fingers from mine that I’m jolted from my daze.
“Draco?” I whisper timidly as I reach for his wrist. “Wait.”
I can feel the sadness rolling off him in waves, and it squeezes my heart with all the regret I have within me. I didn’t mean to make him sad.
I just wasn’t expecting him to say those words to me.
“What is it, sweetheart?” he presses gently as he stares into my eyes. I can see that he’s trying to remain unbothered, but the sadness lurks in his eyes.
For the first time ever, the Alpha dragon doesn’t appear as mighty and powerful as he always is. Right now, he’s just a man who wears his heart on his sleeve. He opened up to the purest feeling he possesses. He admitted that his heart was bigger than he had permitted anyone to see.
But it’s mine to see. Mine to behold. And God knows I will hold it with all the tender love it deserves. Despite his tough outer shell, Draco is human at his core.
I reach out and cup his face, relishing in the way the stubble tickles my palm with familiarity. Gazing deeply into his eyes, I see his soul. Naked and vulnerable as he allows me to see right through him.
“There’s so much I want to say to you,” I begin earnestly, my heartbeat steadily picking up pace. It reaches my lips, forming a warm smile, compelling me to just go ahead and say everything hanging on the tip of my tongue.
“I love you, Draco,” I profess as my heart now threatens to beat out of my chest. Losing myself in his eyes is where I find the fearlessness to continue. “But most of all, I accept you for who you are as a man and a dragon. I loved you before I met you. And now that I am yours, you still continue to inspire me.”
“Y-you accept me?” he asks, to my surprise.
“Of course, I do,” I admit solemnly with a nod. “You think there’s something wrong with you being a dragon, being immortal. But the truth is, you stand above the rest, my love.”
Draco lovingly places a hand over the one I have, cradling his face. “Forgive me, my sweetheart.”
“What for?”
He sighs. “For bringing you here by force. For forcing you to take on the role of Lady Dragon without you deciding if that’s what you want.”
I shake my head sternly. “This is exactly what I would have chosen for myself,” I whisper as I take his hand and place it on my belly. My chest swells with love as he adoringly rubs my belly where his child grows. Our child.
The thought alone has me smiling unbiddenly.
“Are you certain?” he asks for confirmation again, like he can’t believe his ears.
“Yes,” I breathe with conviction as I lean in close and crush my lips to his. The kiss starts off slow but steadily increases in passion as his tongue delves into the cavity of my mouth. Moaning on the kiss, I push at his shoulders and climb him as wanton need takes over and dominates my movements.
When we break apart to catch our breaths, his hands grip me tightly on my waist. The prominent bulge of his erection presses on my belly with the promise of all the pleasure only he can administer.
Lifting my head, I squirm with the need for friction, captivated by the heady dark glow that tinges his eyes now. “And…” I purr, “ I’ve realized that because I love you so much, I would accept it if you had to make love to me in dragon form.”
As if in response to my overt declaration, Draco folds his arms around me. “Brace yourself,” he smirks as we ascend toward the air, his wings exploding out from behind him. But he doesn’t shift entirely—his human form remains as his dragons grand wings flap out behind him.
“Woah!” I exclaim, securing my arms around his neck as he flies us over the mountain peak, heading toward the castle. I stare at his human face in wonder. “I didn’t know you could do this!”
“I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve,” he winks, lips curling into a smirk.
Rolling my eyes playfully, I giggle. “Is that what this is?”
“Let’s just call this another one of your rewards,” he muses as we near the castle.
If only he knew that being in his arms was the most rewarding gift I could ever want.