Every shred of self-control that might have been remaining evaporates with those words, and I come, groaning, exploding. Fireworks fill my head as I whisper her name. I hold her as the last waves of my orgasm wash over me, and then Natalie kisses me once more.
“You are so fucking sexy,” she whispers.
“I think we can all agree that you’re the sexy one here,” I tell her. Glancing down at her messy hand, she smiles.
“Come on, dragon man. Let’s go get cleaned up.”
*
If Audrey, Gabriel, and Anthony didn’t hear us fooling around, they can definitely smell the last lingering scents of our arousal when we come into the kitchen. Audrey is sitting on the counter and Gabriel is at the stove, stirring something. Anthony is leaning against the wall with his legs casually crossed at the ankles. They’re all chuckling as we enter the room and offer welcome smiles when we walk in.
“Oh, good, you got showers,” Audrey says, hopping off the counter. “Did you find everything okay?”
“Yeah, we did, thanks. You’ve really gone above and beyond making us feel welcome. I hope we aren’t imposing,” Natalie says nervously. Audrey just smiles.
“Hey, we humans have to look after each other, don’t we?”
“You’re human, too?” Natalie’s ears perk up at that.
“Born and raised,” Audrey smiles. “I grew up in a dragon clan, too. Anthony tells me
you’ve got a similar story. You’re from Fablestone, right?”
“Yep,” Natalie says, taking a seat. “I was adopted by shifters when I was young and grew up with the clan. It’s kind of a weird feeling, isn’t it? Like I’m dragon in almost every way that matters, but I can’t shift or fly.”
“Pfft, who needs to shift or fly when you’ve got a mate or two?” Audrey looks over at her men and I can see them beaming at her. Is this what it means to be mated? To have someone who is by your side all the time? To have someone who always looks after you? To have someone protect you?
I desperately want to be Natalie’s mate. I don’t know if she wants to be mine. Yeah, we’ve known each other forever, but we were also apart for a very long time. Maybe the last thing she wants is to be mine. Maybe the last thing she wants is a dragon causing her trouble.
The girls continue chatting and I half-listen, half-eat the food Gabriel sets in front of me.
“Thank you,” I tell him, and he smiles and takes a seat beside me.
“It’s not easy,” he says.
“What’s that?”
“Being mated,” he says. “It’s not easy.”
“No?” I raise an eyebrow. “You have an extra partner to help you, though. That must simplify things a little bit.”
“In some ways,” he agrees. “I have another set of eyes to watch over Audrey and the kids. I have someone who will always be here when I can’t be. If something were to happen to me, I’d know they would be well taken care of.”
“But in other ways?”
“We have three people in our relationship: not just two. That means three opinions on everything. It means three viewpoints to hear. It means extra time spent talking each day, making sure we’re all working together to keep on top of this relationship.”
“You do make it look easy,” I comment.
“Years of hard work tends to do that,” Gabriel chuckles. He pats me on the shoulder and we look over at the girls who are eagerly talking about how weird it was to see their teenage crushes shifting for the first time.
“A word of advice?” Anthony appears on my other side and lowers his voice.
“Of course,” I tell him.
“If you love her, don’t wait to tell her. Don’t wait for some big, dramatic gesture. Just let her know. Confessing your love is the hardest part of this whole thing. When I see the way she looks at you, though, something tells me you don’t have anything to worry about, my friend.”
Chapter Seventeen