He blinked once, then nodded, eyes shining.
“And do you want me?” I asked, praying that our answers aligned.
“Desperately,” he said solemnly.
“Then there’s only one thing I need to know, Skylar Larkspur of the fae. Are you mine?”
He stared up at me with wide, trusting eyes. “I’d like to be yours, Hiero, if you’ll have me?”
“I’ll have you a hundred times over, baby boy. And if you’re mine, then the child is ours. I don’t need this piece of paper to tell me what my heart already knows. Do you?”
He swallowed and shook his head slowly. “No, I suppose not.”
I grabbed a packet of matches from behind the bar and lit one, setting the envelope aflame and burning it down to nothing but the wax seal, which I tossed into the sink.
“Dramatic,” he said with a small smile.
“You know I like a little drama. Now, come here, my darling.”
He came to me willingly, softly, and melted into my arms. I dipped my nose into his raven hair and breathed him in, smelling honeysuckle and springtime.
“Goddess, I missed you,” he said, which reminded me there was still another matter we must discuss.
“Why did you think you had to run from me?” I asked. Hadn’t I made it known at every turn that I wanted to be his safe haven? His partner and his lifeline? Had I failed him in that way?
“It all happened so fast and I wasn’t sure what you would say.And I’ve made such a terrible mess of your life already.”
“Not a mess. Not at all. The day I met you, my life changed for the better. I’m no longer lonely or searching for my other half. You’re exactly what I’ve always wanted, in a boy and in a partner. I’ve finally found you and what a blessing it is.”
He pulled back to give me a sobering look. “You say that now, but I’ll be moody and irritable and I’ll probably cry all the time.”
“Is that much different from how you already are?” I teased and this at least won me a dimpled smile. “But you have to confide in me, Skylar. Don’t hide or run away from me because you’re scared of how I might react. I’m here to help you, always.”
“I’m going to make your life messy, Daddy.”
“Bring it.”
“And you’ll have to correct me at every turn.”
“I look forward to doing so. Come now, sweetheart, did you miss the part where I told you that you were my dream come true?”
“I’ll need many, many reminders,” he said, turning coy. “And I still want you to use me for your pleasure. Even with child, I still crave your touch.”
“Aunt Mabel said I was cleared for strenuous activity. Is sucking my cock going to make you gag now that you’re in the throes of morning sickness?”
Skylar smiled and said with a twinkle in his eyes, “How about we go to the alleyway and find out?”
“There’s my sweet, slutty boy.”
Chapter twenty-five
Skylar
Isoon learned thatHierophant Wolfsbane was a man of his word. Unlike my parents and previous lovers, on every single promise my minotaur Daddy made to me, he delivered.
Within a week of my return to the Dragonback Mountains, Hiero proposed to me in a field of wildflowers on the same mountain’s peak where we’d stop to gaze out upon all the realms during our very first date.
“In all my years of searching, I’ve never found a heart as true as yours,” he told me, then he got down on one knee and presented me with a smaller, more elegant version of his clan’s signet ring. “Skylar Larkspur, will you spend the rest of your life with me?”
