Page 45 of The Ruby Dragon's Unconventional Mate

“We’ll use birth control.” This was the worst conversation ever.

“You’re not going to knot him, until the point in time when you think that I’m okay?”

It had just gotten worse. Bryant stared at his brother. “We are not discussing this. We are not that close.”

“We’re pretty close.”

“We’re not that close, trust me, not that close. Christ.” He rolled his eyes. He could not believe this.

“What? I’m just trying to look out for you like you look out for me. You have to think about these things, if you have a mate. Seriously, what if you have babies? If you’re going to stay separated, are you going to raise the babies over here, or is he going to raise the babies by himself over there? It’s important to have a plan.”

“My current plan is to finish eating this sandwich, check my emails, move some money around, and then go to sleep by myself in my bed in my house. Tomorrow, I’m going to do some work. I’m going to do my rounds, and I may or I may not see Lars.”

He was absolutely going to see Lars. He might go see Lars tonight, once Lachlan was asleep. In fact, that sounded like the best idea ever. He’d just sneak out and go hang out with Lars, come back, get changed, check his email, make sure Lachlan had breakfast, and then sneak back out and go hang out with Lars. It could totally work.

Lachlan stared at him.

“Also, I’m going to have coffee and a pastry for breakfast. What are your plans?” He made his eyes very wide. Hopefully, that was clear enough that Lachlan was in big trouble.

“Maybe I’ll take Lars out, and he and I will go exploring.”

Exploring. He didn’t love this idea. Which was stupid, because he knew Lachlan, and he knew Lars, and he knew that neither one of them would do anything inappropriate.

But still, the mate bond was really, really,reallyjust needing to be naked together for like a few weeks, and the idea of his brother taking Lars who knew where to do who knew what, while he was supposed to be sneaking out to see his mate, was problematic.

“That’s mean, Lach.”

“Why? If you have no plans to see him…”

“I want to go see him, okay? I just don’t want?—”

“To leave me alone? Let me call Bea. I bet she and her mate will come play cribbage.”

“Cribbage.” He pondered that. “Really?”

“Yes, really. I find it meditative.”

“Okay.” He’d never seen Lachlan play a board game. But then, he had to admit, in some ways, he wasn’t lying when he said they weren’t that close. They were twins. He knew Lachlan better than anyone, and vice versa. But for the last dozen years, they had both been so busy with their businesses and their places in the wing that they had lost track of each other. “I could—I could ask Lars to come over to play cards.”

And they could have a nice hard loving too.

“Yeah?” Lach’s face lit up, and he felt like a total dick for not thinking of something like this before. “Yeah. I would love that. To be able to spend time with you both.”

“Okay. Should I ask him to come back in time for supper, then?”

“That sounds great. And without the girls, he can just fly over.” Lachlan said it without flinching, and Bryant was proud of him. His body wasn’t working like it should, and they had no idea if Lach would ever work out his magical imbalance.

“Have we asked about a healer here?”

“Mmm. No. I know they have a midwife, but I haven’t looked into it.”

“Okay.” Shit. Was he always this stupid? He would ask Lars when he called.

“Mmm. I think I’m going to go grab a nap. Those girls wore me out.” Lachlan polished off his sandwich and slowly made his way out of the room.

God, that tore at his heart.

He called Lars right away instead of waiting.

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