Chapter Eight

Brender

On my first night at Stellan’s house, I was stuck on the sofa. We hadn’t discussed it, but I knew it was happening as soon as he walked into the living room with his arms full of sheets and pillows. I might’ve begged him for five minutes alone with him if Saer hadn’t been coloring at the coffee table already in his pajamas with snowflakes on them.

We’d spent the day inside with Saer showing me around the house and asking questions about every facet of my life. I skipped over the more interesting, but not so kid friendly parts. I tried to keep him on the subject of my parents and brother and my current career. I wouldn’t talk about my exes saying that a gentleman never kisses and tells. I also couldn’t explain why I didn’t have a pet. There really wasn’t a reason behind it. It just never happened. When asked what I wanted for Yuletide I almost said five minutes alone with his dad, but I wasn’t that asshole. So, I lied and said I hadn’t thought about it yet, but I rather enjoyed Yuletide dinner. So maybe that was my wish this year.

Stellan disappeared upstairs with his hatchling and my dragon brought out his claws again. It wasn’t like I was going to jack off in Stellan’s living room, but my dragon wasn’t leaving anything up to chances. He usually wasn’t such a fucking prude, but he was sticking to his scales about not jacking off with our mate – gorgeous and breathtaking – not far from us.

Being inside Stellan’s home didn’t help the situation any. His scent was everywhere. It filled every nook and cranny of the house until I breathed him in with every breath I took. The magic of the true-mate response tugged at me – minute after minute and hour after hour but he was still out of my reach. Still too far away for comfort. Was this his idea of a punishment for me not waiting for him to answer my text the first day we met? Was it because he didn’t trust me to be a dad to Saer? To future hatchlings we might conceive together?

I couldn’t sleep with his scent surrounding me and my thoughts racing. I paced the living room keeping pace with my pounding heart. How did anyone do this? How did anyone fucking survive meeting their true-mate? Outside the snow fell temptingly. Maybe if I rolled around in the fluffy, purplish snow the fire burning inside me would chill the fuck out.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Stellan’s voice startled me from my pacing.

“You?” I turned the question back around on him.

“I don’t go to bed as early as you might think. I’m usually up later than the hatchling,” he chuckled. “He’s out cold. Figured I’d come down. It feels like we haven’t really had a moment alone since we met.”

We had but he spent it chewing me out because I took Saer to rescue the yuletide tree. I wasn’t about to point that out and start another fight, though.

“Want something to drink?”

“Sure,” I nodded.

“Brandy? Rum? Wine?”

“Oh! You’re pulling out the serious stuff.”

“Well, I’m saving the champagne in case we ever actually get a night alone,” he laughed.

“I’ll have whatever you’re having. I’m not that picky. Just honored to finally have a drink with you.”

Stellan paused midstride on this way to the kitchen.

“Saer keeps me busy, you know. He likes you, though. He told me tonight he hopes you don’t get lost at sea.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Well, eventually, back to work, but that’s easy enough. Not too far away.”

“On a whole other world,” he pointed out.

I met him in the kitchen doorway, and he let out a long, slow breath. Standing so close to him made his scent inescapable.

“One that I can commute to. You can’t get rid of me that easily,” I said, when my brain stopped swirling around. “Unless you don’t want me to work. Which I ---”

“Huh?”

“I can’t think of a single reason you’d want me to quit my job.”

“I never said I did.”

“You just pointed out that I work on a whole other world,” I said as we both stepped into the kitchen properly.

Stellan didn’t answer. Instead, he squatted down and pulled a key out from under the sink before unlocking a cabinet full of liquor.

“Don’t drink much anymore but still the key stays hidden and the door stays locked,” he said. “And you might get tired of commuting.”

“And?” I arched a brow and grabbed out a bottle of age whiskey.

“And yeah,” he nodded.

“Are you implying that I’d choose my job over you and Saer?” I asked.

“Or ask us to move.”

“No,” I shook my head. “Not unless you want to. The house is nice. The schools on 2 are fantastic even if I’m a little biased. It’s nice but his school is here. Kids need continuation and consistency. Can I promise that I won’t have to run after Oliver now and then? No, but he’s family.”

“It’s not about Oliver. He might be an overgrown manchild, but he seemed nice enough. I just need to make sure you know what you’re getting into. I know, I know. Star mates, true-mates, whatever you want to call this sort of connection and what it’s supposed to do is supposed to make all of that easy, but it doesn’t always.”

“Relationships take work even if they involve magic,” I said, taking the whiskey from him and filling the two shot glasses with mistletoe on them.

“I know that.”

“I know that too.”

“He has nightmares and crawls into my bed a lot. If we share a bed, you might never get a full night of sleep again and it’ll probably be years before you can sleep naked.”

“Bold of you to assume I do. Until the flight passed the privacy act, I had wanna be smut journalists trying to take photos through my bedroom window.”

“Well, shit,” he frowned. “Just so you know, if they try that again, I’ll fucking eat their faces off. Just so you know.”

“By flight law you could. Well, maybe. If we were sharing bedrooms,” I smirked and knocked back the whiskey.

“Sooner or later,” he shrugged and kicked back his own, scrunching up his adorable nose as it burnt its way down his throat. A smoke ring drifted out of his nose, and I fanned it away.

“That really pissed you off.”

“Well, yeah. Everyone deserves privacy – even gladiators and you’re mine.”

“Well, you haven’t marked your territory, have you? So how is anyone supposed to know?” I shrugged.

Stellan’s face went red, not with embarrassment but from the fire of his dragon heating up down in his belly. He shot me a look that said he knew exactly what I was doing but he couldn’t resist the bait. His hand reached out for the shot glass and I gave it up. He placed both of them gently in the sink before turning to face me again. Both our ears strained listening for any hatchling sounds but the house was quiet except for Saer’s sleepy breathing.

Once he was sure the coast was as clear as it would ever be, Stellan’s eyes shifted to that of his dragon and my own inner beast followed suit. They wouldn’t be connected at the souls until we exchanged our claiming vows, but they stared each other down in Stellan’s kitchen where I’d baked boat cookies with Saer not that long ago. The kitchen was warmer than that day. My mate mumbled something, and the lights dimmed as he strode across the room, crashing into me. Our lips met like dying men who had just found an oasis in the desert. I kissed him hard, and his lips parted so willingly for me. When my tongue snaked into his mouth, his met mine, lashing out at me as if he meant to consume me whole.

My hands found the firm, round globes of his ass and he let out a little moan into the kiss. I almost asked him how long it’d been for him, but it was a rude question, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment.

“Too fucking long,” he murmured against my lips. “Didn’t know it was too long until now.”

I almost asked about Kevin but really didn’t want to know. So, I kissed him harder until any ex was impossible for either of us to think about. Stellan’s arms wrapped around my neck, pressing our naked torsos together. His heart pounded against his ribs, beating fast and hard.

“Do I make you that nervous?” I whispered against his lips.

“Nervous and excited feel the same when it comes to the heart,” he whispered back.

“Excited then?”

“A little of both. If you don’t like me once I take my clothes off, I’m screwed or I should say ‘unscrewed’ for the rest of my life,” he pulled back from the kiss as he spoke.

“That’s not something you have to worry about.”

“You’re going to find out sooner or later but I worry about a lot of things I probably don’t have to,” he chuckled.

“Did that one shot make you tipsy?” I asked, walking him backwards until he leaned back against the counter.

“Not so tipsy,” he shook his head. “I thought it would make me less nervous. Make me less prone to talk your head off instead of giving in to everything dirty going through my head right now.”

“How can we get you there?” I leaned in close and whispered in his ear. “You’re fucking gorgeous. I don’t need to see you naked to know that. So, no worries there, mate.”

“You’ve gotta promise me that you won’t scare me like that again. Part of me knew you’d never let anything happen to him but the other part of me --- well, I was fucking terrified.”

“Once our mating link is open everything will be easier. If either of us goes somewhere we’ll still be able to communicate even if all the cellphones on all three worlds explode.”

He nodded, his lips hanging parted awaiting another kiss.

“Anything else?”

“What if my life is too much for you? I like my life. I enjoy my life but it’s all kid-friendly.”

“Okay,” I nodded.

“What if you get tired of kid stuff? Kid movies? Kid shows? Books? Kid friendly words?”

“Then I’ll definitely have to quit my job, huh?” I laughed.

“I fucking love your laugh,” he said, his voice deep with yet to be fulfilled need.

I kissed up and down his throat, silently willing all the tension to flee from his body. Parents were always stressed out during the holiday season, but his muscles were knot over knot.

“Clothes off and on the table,” I said, nodded in the table’s direction.

“I don’t think—”

“I’m going to give you a massage.”

“I’ve heard that before,” he laughed.

“I’ll keep it clean, if that’s what you want.”

“Can we see where it goes? No promises either way?” he asked.

“I just want you – however you’re ready to be with me,” I nodded and gave him a soft kiss.

His lips lingered on mine, and he nodded. When I stepped away, he took off his pajamas bottoms and retrieved a tablecloth from one of his kitchen’s many drawers. I swallowed hard. He was fucking beautiful. So fucking beautiful. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he climbed onto the kitchen table and laid down gently on his stomach.