Page 53 of The Accidental Dragon Baby

Then he froze.Crap!

Ace raised an eyebrow, his warm breath rushing over Ivo’s hand. His mouth was sosoft.

“Sorry!” Ivo snatched his finger back. “You, uh. You had something on your mouth.”

Ace snorted. “I can hear your heartbeat, you know. It skips when you lie.”

“Oh, gods.” Ivo hid his face in his hands. When Mary wriggled, Ivo peeked out through a crack in his fingers.

Ace was still watching him. “You’re a very lovely person, Ivo.”

You too,Ivo meant to say.

What came out of his mouth was, “I think so too.”

Ace gave a belly laugh. Ivo groaned, trying to disappear into the couch.

“I hate my mouth! That was not what I meant!” Ivo lifted Mary so he could hide his face in her belly.

“I happen to like your mouth.”

Ivo blushed harder. He blew a raspberry into Mary’s belly and hid in her laughter, eventually scraping up enough courage to pull himself away.

Ace was watching him more fondly than anyone should. With the rain pattering on the window panes and the fire crackling in the hearth, everything felt so much more intimate between them.

“I have a crib for when Mary falls asleep,” Ace murmured.

Shewasstarting to grow sleepy. Ivo wrinkled his nose when he realized she needed a diaper change; Ace wrinkled his nose too. “Do you have somewhere I could...?”

“Yeah, there’s space in the hallway bathroom. I had Harvey leave some supplies there. C’mon, I’ll show you where it is.”

Ace stood first, offering his hand to pull Ivo to his feet. He stayed by Ivo’s side and led him to the bathroom, folding up a towel so Mary could lie on the counter. In fact, he handed Ivo the wet wipes and held out the trash can, and made faces at Mary to distract her.

Ivo had never known diaper-changing could be this nice.

Secretly, he wanted more of it.

He washed his hands and scooped Mary up when they were done, rocking her in his arms.

“Does she need a lullaby?” Ace asked.

“Are you volunteering?”

“Sing the terrible ones,” came Harvey’s voice from elsewhere in the mansion.

“Maybe when Mary’s asleep,” Ace said dryly. Ivo laughed. “I’ll show you where the nursery is.”

“You have a nursery?” Ivo asked.

Ace’s ears turned pink. “When I built the mansion, I’d thought... maybe I should be prepared.”

Ivo swallowed hard, needing to burrow into Ace’s arms. Instead, he followed Ace up the elegant stairs to a room with cartoon animals painted on the pastel walls. There was a crib in the middle of the room, and a mobile with tiny dragons attached to it.

It was all incrediblyadorable.

“It’s all fireproof,” Ace said softly. “I want to hear the lullabies you sing to her.”

So Ivo did. He cradled Mary in his arms and hummed the melodies from his childhood. He sang the ones he’d begged his parents to sing on repeat—about minks in rivers catching fish, and the stars in the night sky twinkling over the forest.

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