Page 27 of Meet Me in the Stars

“Do you want the claiming vows, Elio?” I asked.

“More than I’ve wanted anything in a long time,” he whispered just before I kissed him.

Chapter Fourteen

Elio

Fred wasn’t my first kiss. He was my second. The first one sucked. It was teenage and awkward. It was before I knew what I was reminded of what I sent ahead of me when I came of age. Kissing Fred was nothing like that awkward kiss beside our lockers. Kissing him might’ve been the closest I’ve ever been to this so-called heaven he talked about. The scale over my heart scorched warmer with each flick of his tongue inside my mouth. I could’ve kissed the guy all day. He was tied up. So it wasn’t like he was going anywhere any time soon.

Sliding my hips back toward his crotch, I rubbed my ass against him. Reveling in the warmth radiating between our bodies. While our tongues danced between our hungry mouths, I traced the star over his heart again and again, willing it to harden up into scale and come to life. I needed him to see that I was everything I claimed to be. I needed him to know I was his too. That we decided this together. No amount of rubbing was going to turn skin to scale on any time frame except nature’s.

I kissed down Fred’s throat and he let out a low, husky moan. He was all tied up and I could kiss and bite him wherever I wanted. I kissed and licked my way down his skin to where the star was trying to form. Okay, I was obsessed, but what was there to do about it? My dragon wanted his dragon’s star scale to grow in. Once it did our lives could really start. Well, my life could start. My fingers trembled against his chest, and he asked if I was okay.

“Thinking about stuff,” I said, because I didn’t want to lie.

“What stuff?” he arched a brow at me.

“It’s hard to explain. It’s hard to think about that or anything.”

“You thought about it enough to tremble,” he said.

“Even if I prove everything to you, every person in your life is ---” I started, but Fred shook his head.

What? Was he going to keep me his dirty little secret? I couldn’t live like that.

“If you prove to me this is for Lotus or you were sent by her, none of them get to have a Frost-damn opinion. I don’t know how much you know about me, but I’ve never given a damn what anyone thought of me. Well, except maybe her. They can say what they want. Think what they want. If you’re telling the truth, the kids will come around eventually and they’re the important ones.”

I nodded and kissed his chest again. I was too close to him not to drag my lips over his skin. He still tasted like the ice the ship’s healer used to cool him down. My dragon purred and the mechanical vibration wiggled up my throat. A smile pulled at one side of Fred’s mouth as if he was trying not to be happy that I was happy. I almost stopped dragging my tongue over his chest. Almost. Sure, to him it was a test, but there was no denying the true-mate response unfolding between us. I burnt for him.

“Why does the scale grow in if you already have claiming glands?” Fred asked.

“How are you able to string all these words together so easily while I’m licking your nipple?” I glanced up at him.

“Practice.”

“And disbelief, huh? If you don’t believe it’s true, it doesn’t affect you as much?”

He bucked his hips up under me and his hard cock brushed against my ass cheek.

“I’m affected. I just have a poker face, dude.”

“Don’t call me dude while I’m licking your nipple, it’s weird.”

“How?” he laughed, low and throaty. The sound wrapped around me and I had to fight off the urge to bite him again. This time I’d be nicer about it. Well, maybe. He was excelling at being a bigger dick than he carried around in his pants.

“Because it has nothing to do with true-mates,” I shrugged and kissed lower on his body. Between kisses I spoke to him. Maybe he’d remember the quick lesson if I tied it up with the memory of me kissing my way down to his big, hard cock. “It’s about the flight. The star scale is just that – it’s for the flight. It means you’re one of us. As soon as we responded, you became one of us. Your kids too. We don’t have that whole ritual or paperwork to join us thing. Fate is enough for us. I don’t know if the magic will reach your Earthside kids until we get a gateway, but the one here, it’ll hit. Maybe after yours comes in. Maybe before. I’m not a biologist.”

“Then why do I need it for you to show me what’s up?” Fred asked, arching his back to my lips as I twirled my tongue around his navel.

“Because then we have a new way of communicating. Then we have a place to go where I can prove what I’m saying can and does happen.”

“Then why do you keep rubbing the thing like it’s involved in everything?”

I reached the waistband of his boxers and looked up at him. I was about to suck his cock and he wanted a crash course in culture clash? I heaved out a sigh and smoke rings drifted out of my nose. My dragon wasn’t any more patient that I was, but I was taught not to talk with my mouthful. So, I needed to answer his questions, because I’d do zero talking once I filled my mouth up with him.

“It picks up on our emotions. It picks up if we’re affected by magic. It starts to overheat when we meet our true-mates. It’s linked to us. Almost like a heart chakra on the outside.”

He glanced down at his chest. The outline had strengthened, but it was still skin. I had the tiny urge to go check and see if Teddy’s had come in yet or if he was just as hardheaded as his sire.

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