Page 43 of Meet Me in the Stars

“Babe,” I sighed, pushing myself upright and grabbing my pants. “I’m not going to make you into dinner.”

“Even if I lied?”

“Did you?” I asked.

“No,” he shook his head.

“I don’t know that I’d ever forgive you for lying about meeting Lotus or how we became true-mates too, but we’d work around it. Maybe not in a romantic relationship, but I couldn’t hurt you.”

“Not what you said that first night,” Elio shrugged.

“Things change.”

“That quickly?”

“Eh, ask me that in a hundred years,” I shrugged back at him. “You’ll realize how quickly the world moves, but also how quickly everything about our lives changed once we met. I’m sorry you’re nervous. I’m sorry you had a nightmare too.”

“Thanks,” Elio said, handing me the water bottle while he got dressed. “I know it’s just a nightmare, but it wasn’t you hurting me that was scary. It was you not wanting me – not wanting this,” he motioned to the empty air between us.

“I didn’t at first,” I admitted. “There’s no denying that.”

“And now?” he asked again for reassurance.

“I want you, Elio. I want whatever this is. I also want my little flower back. I want to hear her laugh and wake up to her ripping into a bag of beef jerky at two in the morning because her fox is insistent on a late-night protein snack. Both things are true.”

“I miss her too,” Elio nodded.

“Good. Let’s go get this settled then. Wait. Did we sleep through the Star Room closing?” I asked, glancing up at the mountain. Lights burnt in the building’s windows, casting a golden hue over the world, but that didn’t mean it was still open to the public.

“The Star Room never closes,” Elio grinned, slipping his hand into mine. “Let’s go face the past. Then we can figure out what comes nest, I mean next.”

Out of habit, I glanced down at his stomach. It was still bare and flat with its thin lines carving out his muscles. Still, we’d gone at it without any thoughts of birth control. I hadn’t been that lost to safe sex since I first responded to Lotus.

“I don’t think it was that sort of slip up,” Elio teased, picking up on my thoughts over our mating link.

“We should’ve had that talk before you rode me in bondage,” I teased.

“I didn’t tie you up,” Elio laughed.

“You didn’t mind me tied up.”

“I was surprised you didn’t mind it.”

“I didn’t mind it because I could get out whenever I wanted to,” I shrugged. “Though, have you thought about hatchlings.”

“I have. A lot. Before you. After meeting you. I want children. I’m not against the whole build a nest and settle down thing. I just want my children to have the option of finding their true-mates too. I don’t want them to live cut off from most of the possibilities like dragons here have for generations.”

“We will figure that out.”

“What about your Earthside children?” Elio asked when we reached the steps of the Star Room.

“I’ve been in contact with them. I talked to all three of them on video call before we set out.”

“Will you want to move back?”

“I don’t know. Hell, two of them may want to move over here. Not my eldest. He’s mated off with kids. Hell, Lotus died. I took a nap and woke up a great grandfather. Like how in the name of Frost’s swinging balls does that happen?”

“Was he mad at you? Were any of them?”

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