Chapter Eighteen

Levi

M y heart leaped into my throat as we locked gazes.

Frozen, unable to think or speak, I tried desperately to think about what to do. The last thing I wanted was to appear like I didn't know what I was doing. Calm, confident. Collected. Cool . That was how she knew me. It was what she would think. What she would expect.

And what she wanted.

I couldn't let her realize just what sort of effect she had on me—now that I saw her as more than the smoking-hot Secret Service agent I liked to fuck. She was the mother to our son. Whether Jakub knew it or not, we were his parents. And seeing Sarah as a mother had me in all kinds of fits.

The strongest of which was the growing urge to see her become a mother again. To give her another baby. My dragon rumbled about it incessantly in the background of my mind. Flooding me with images of Sarah as her stomach and breasts swelled with the signs of motherhood. The hormones and raw sexuality of knowing she was creating that most precious of things: Life .

Before I knew it, I was moving toward her. Watching her head, I leaned in.

Much as I wanted to simply just kiss her and do it, I watched for telltale signs that she would be okay with it. The parting of her lips. The flaring of pupils and, most importantly of all, the tilting back of her head, accepting my mouth as I pressed it to hers.

It was all there. Just as I'd expected— hoped for. I swayed that extra bit closer and touched my lips to hers, basking in the heat that radiated outward.

That was the last of the familiar parts. An instant after the kiss was sealed, my dragon erupted in my mind, howling triumphant clarion calls.

Something was different. Even as I parted her mouth, tongues dancing like flames in a fire, I knew that kiss was unlike one we'd ever shared before. It was stronger, deeper, forging a connection like metal bonded in flame, welded to one another. Practically unbreakable.

That kiss wasn't like the ones that had come before. Those had signaled raw, hard sex. Spinning Sarah around, thrusting deep into her from behind as she slammed her ass back against me, screaming into the sheets. Grabbing her legs as I stood at the edge of the bed, lifting her hips, and filling her tight little pussy as she creamed all over my cock until I filled her with my seed or covered her tits with the dripping hot liquid.

Those had been the "befores."

Now, it was so different and so much more intense in a way that staggered me mentally.

Mate .

And just like that, I understood the difference. I didn't understand what drew me to Sarah before. Perhaps because I wasn't ready for it. My dragon had known. It was why I'd gone back, over and over, several times a day sometimes, to see her. To be with her.

It was only now I was, perhaps, mature enough to realize what it all meant. That she was my mate. Seeing her as a mother had tripped a circuit in my head. I wanted her to see me as father material. For Jakub … and for another. Or two others.

A smile crept across my face as we kissed to the point she pulled back.

"What is it?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but we were interrupted from inside.

"Mommy? Are you coming? I'm hungry."

"Duty calls," she whispered …

But not before pulling the robe open slightly. Just enough to tease me with what still lay covered.

I grinned, then followed her down the stairs. The ice between us was thawing. All I had to do was continue to show her I could be a good father, that I wouldn't just leave her again. Which was easy because I wouldn't.

And in time, she would believe it as thoroughly as I did.

"Mommy," Jakub asked as we descended the stairs, once again scooped up to sit on her hip.

"Yes, dear?" she asked in that age-old tone that said she expected some ridiculous question.

"Is Mr. Levi my dad?"