Page 31 of The White Dragon's Dilemma

“I’ve made things difficult for you though, haven’t I?”Caden grinned a little impishly.

“You’ve made thingsinteresting.And it has been a long time since I even wanted to be interested in the world,” Valerius confessed.

Caden twirled wet fingers in Valerius’ hair.“I remember when you were just an image on television or the net.Someone so far away from me.Untouchable.I can’t believe I could make such a difference to your life.”

“You’ve made me see the world a little differently.”

“And you’ve made me see the worlda lotdifferently.”Caden cracked a grin.

“We will keep being that different lens for one another,” Valerius promised.

Caden’s arms slid around his neck.“So we’re supposed to go down to dinner soon and watch heads explode as Jahara offers her suggestion of one large territory.”

Valerius couldn’t hide his grin.“Yes, I suppose.That will almost be amusing.”

“Only almost?”

“Since you took Mei and Illarion’s ability to shift away for the next 24 hours, you have reduced the amount of fun to be had unless they decide to have a cage match in their human forms on top of the dining room table,” Valerius replied dryly.

Caden guffawed.“I was worried that they were going to destroy this place with their big Dragon butts.Iolaire agrees that would have been disastrous for the grill and it really wants to have you feed us meat again.”

“By hand?”

“Absolutely.” Caden leaned in closer.

That would have been bad,Raziel muttered.Our place to feed would have been violated by the Green and Red Dragons!

Indeed.A terrible tragedy would have occurred.

You are not being serious!Raziel muttered.

I am very serious about our BBQ.

Raziel blew black smoke at him.But Valerius couldn’t quite care when Caden was looking at him as if he was far more interesting thanmeat.

“But right now I’m hungry for something else,” Caden teased.

“So am I.”

Valerius covered Caden’s mouth with his.The hot water from the shower sluiced around their lips and dribbled down their chins.It almost tickled.Caden’s hands drifted down to Valerius’ pants. Valerius felt him undo the button and then those clever hands tried to tug them down… except they wouldn’t go down.Caden tugged some more.Valerius decided to help him.Both of them were wrestling with his pants.Their kiss ended.

Caden asked with an amused glint in his eyes, “Valerius, how did you get into these?They’re likepaintedon you.”

Valerius frowned too.They had been loose earlier.He tipped his head back and groaned.“Leathershrinkswhen it gets wet.”

There was a moment’s silence from Caden then, “So we can’t get them off until they dry?”

“If we wished to get them off inone piecewe’d have to wait. But I am not a patient man,” Valerius said as he effortlessly ripped the pants apart at the seams. “These were one of my favorite pairs too.”

Caden let out a peal of laughter then.Considering that Valerius had his shirt and boots still on with strips of the black pants hanging on out of them, he doubted he looked sexy.The shirt was silk and could have been unbuttoned, but he simply ripped open the shirt, the buttons flying everywhere, before toeing off his soggy boots.He spread his arms wide.

“Better?”Valerius asked.

“Everything is always better with you.But I have to know.How can you have a favorite pair of leather pants when you’ve got like 100 pairs, which are exactly the same?”Caden’s lips were twitching as he asked that.Valerius expected more laughter to burst out of him in a second.

But he wanted a different sound from Caden. He stepped up to Caden and reached around him.He grasped one globe of Caden’s buttocks in each hand andsqueezed.Caden let out this hiccupy type sigh and the pupils in his eyes went wide.

“I can have a favorite pair of leather pants because,” he paused and squeezed Caden’s ass again, which had that wonderful sound escaping through the young man’s parted lips, “good things happened to me on the day I wore them.”

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