Page 74 of The Dragon's Captured Heart
Belief in me. In what I was saying and what I’d done. For her.
“You do?” I asked, longing to hear it again anyway.
“I do,” she said, nodding, a half-smile tugging at her features. “Just look into my eyes and tell me everything. That’s all you ever have to do with me, Cal.”
So, I did that. I stared into her eyes, deep in them, past the surface layer and into the very depths of her soul, that part of people that was kept from everyone but that one special person.
It was like that day on the battlefield not so very long ago. A day that I’d once cursed but was now beyond grateful for because it had shown me a light, even if I hadn’t recognized it at the time.
The world around me fell away as I was transported to a new world, one full of hope and laughter. One filled with a love that burned brighter than anything I’d seen before.
“I was a fool,” I told her, embracing that warming light. “I didn’t know what I had in you, and so I wasn’t willing to be what you needed. But my eyes have been opened now, and I never want them to close again. Not when I have you on the other side. I want you to be the only thing I see. Ever.
“You were right to be suspicious at first,” I continued. “I wasn’t ready to love. I needed a swift kick in the ass for that. You can thank my mom. Now, though, I know the truth. I’ve loved before and that won’t change. But right here. Right now. And for the future, I chooseyou, Madison Page. You, and only you. I choose you now, and I will choose you every day going forward. If you’ll have me.”
There was no hesitation in her answer.
“I love you, Callum, my dragon,” she whispered.
I kissed her. Hard.
Seconds turned into minutes into eternity. We kissed and parted and kissed again. Tongues darted and danced, warm and erotic against one another as heat grew between us, billowing sheets of warmth that reached out to wrap themselves around us.
Light followed the heat. We barely noticed, too caught up in one another. Only when it began to burn the eyes, washing out the room around us, we realized it was real and not just in our minds.
“Cal?”
“Maddie?”
I could still feel her. Still touch her.
Then the light congealed into a spark in my chest, and I gasped as it extinguished itself with a snap.
“What the hell was that?” Maddie asked, looking around wildly.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I …”
I felt something move on my chest, and after reaching into my shirt, I froze.
“Cal? Is everything okay?”
I stared at her. “I think it’s better than okay.”
“What do you mean?”
I smiled at her as I pulled the object from beneath my shirt. “I think we’ve just been given a blessing by fate.”
Maddie stared in surprise at the emerald green scale in my hand, perfectly hard and formed as if it had never been melded to my skin.
I closed my eyes.
Thank you.
Sending the words out into the world, I smiled at Maddie.
She smiled back.
At some point, one of us laughed.
