But as he works the comb through my hair, both of us quiet, I find myself warming not just in my core, but in my heart. I’d been stiff before, desperately holding onto him, but as he combs my hair more gently than anyone ever has before—myself included—something in me settles.
“This is why the ice cream helped, isn’t it?” I finally break the silence. “It wasn’t literal sustenance you needed.”
“Care from my mate,” Zan agrees in a low voice.
Oh boy. His voice saying “my mate” is doing things to me that aren’t fair.
“Preparing food for your mate is part of the courtship, for dragons,” Zan says. “That you made it yourself signals that you would sustain me through your own effort, and then when I accepted—”
“Aha, soI’vebeen courtingyouin the dragon way, too.”
Thank goodness I was committed to learning how to make ice cream fast, then.
Ice cream really is bringing joy to my life.
I’m a little smug until I realize: “Oh, is that why you freaked out before? Because I was courting you not on purpose, and you felt like you were being dishonest?”
“Iwasbeing dishonest.”
I shrug. “Yes, but I’d have done it on purpose had I known.”
Zan lets out a breath. “I can’t believe, given all the things youdoget mad about, that somehowthisyou’re just fine with.”
“I mean, I am going to be mad if you don’t tell me more about what you need from dragon courtship? And you have all your fancy sex education, but I very much don’t, and I...” I let out a breath.Whatever you are, you aren’t a coward, Yora.“I’m worried I’m not going to know how to do this, and that you’re not going to help me learn how to be good foryou.”
“Yora—” Zan’s voice comes out halfway strangled. “You’re already enough. You can make me ignite without even touching me, for gods’ sake.”
I can?
“Since when do you curse the gods?”
“Since I realized that I needed to change my approach to reach a godly woman,” Zan says dryly.
Right.Not the time for semantic discussions, Yora.
Zan wraps an arm around my waist, then scoots us both back on the bed.
Unsure of what’s happening, I hold still as Zan rearranges us until I’m sitting between his legs, the shape of his cock pressing against my butt, which sends a jolt of heat through me.
“Lean back, Yora,” Zan tells me. His arms come around me, hugging me to him.
I hadn’t realized I’d tensed again—it’s the unsurety of my place. But I take a breath and relax into him, letting the feel of him all around me warm me again, the lull of him combing my hair and just takingcareof me washing over me.
We sit like that for a minute, just breathing, before Zan’s arms move. Before I can object to the loss of him around me, his hands move to just run up and down my arms. Which is soothing, I guess, but I liked the feeling of him all around me better.
“When dragons mate,” Zan says, “we begin in the sky. We come together as equals, our claws meeting and holding onto each other as we spiral through the world, attached to each other and holding on and not letting go. It’s harder than it sounds—to match each other’s pace, to know exactly how we both will move. It’s how we know we can trust each other for the next step. One flies beneath to be the brace while the other is the couple’s eyes to steer them, and both sets of wings beat in time to stay aloft together.”
He breaks off, and his movement slows too.
But if anything I feel more molten than before, because he’s doing it, I realize. I asked him to tell me about dragon courtship, and what he needs, and he’s doing it.
He’s trusting me to meet him, even if I’m not telepathic.
But maybe I don’t need to be. “You want to be beneath me?”
His cock twitches, which is its own answer.
I huff out a little relieved laugh. “I guess I won’t crush you, then?”
