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He leaned over the railing. “Hey, I’m out of the shower up here.”
“It’s okay,” Thunder yelled back. “Gina is doing her hair in the bedroom, so I’m hopping into the one down here. Meet you at the elevator in ten minutes.”
“Any chance Gina will be ready, too?”
Her peal of laughter answered that. He supposed it made sense. A model had to look her best anytime she was in public. People would be taking pictures with their phones and posting them on social media. They probably had done that last night.
Dressed, he ran a comb through his damp hair, attempting to make it behave then gave up.
He’d just mess it up again after brunch. One way or another.
Thunder waited by the elevator. Walter, he reminded himself. Their private names did not need to be revealed to everyone. Sure, their families had heard it but had always laughed at the childhood nicknames.
But not now. Thunder had a wizardly reputation and, as part of his hoarding, Sky dealt in antiques, documents a specialty. He had copies of things nobody knew there were more copies of. The Magna Carta…the Declaration of Independence. Spanish land grants. Dignity was required in his dealings.
“Ready?” he asked.
“You bet. It will be fun.” Thunder winked one sparkling green eye.
He shook his head. “Really? How about we agree it will be filling. Food is necessary, after all. And if we hang around and make small talk for”—the elevator came and they stepped aboard and stood shoulder to shoulder while the doors slid closed—“maybe an hour…”
“Then we can head back upstairs and take that ‘nap.’”
Sky slapped the stop button. “Define nap.” The buzz that came from the elevator in protest of his action overlaid the moment. They turned to face one another. “Because, Thunder, we’ve wasted a lot of time and I’m starting to wonder why.”
The other man stood so straight, he seemed to add inches to his height. Sky could almost see the wings at his back. But he didn’t say anything.
If he freaked out and shifted, as Gina had, they’d end up with a smashed elevator and probably some wing damage. Not to mention harm to anyone who might be below. They couldn’t afford the damage to property or people. Sky watched him carefully.
Thunder rotated his shoulders, lifted his head, and his eyes narrowed, staring straight ahead. Sky remained as he was, arms hanging loose at his sides. It wouldn’t take much to push the situation over the edge. And them into a mess of glass and steel.
They had history making messes of things.
“Thunder. We don’t have to talk about this now if you don’t want to.”
At long last, the other man drew a shuddering sigh, and his shoulders slumped. “No, I think we need to. It’s been too long, my friend.”
“Too long since we were even friends. But, with Gina in the picture, I think we need to get past the juvenile crap and reclaim what we tossed away.”
“We were idiots.”
Sky smiled and bumped his shoulder with his. “We were young, unsure, and under pressure to find our mates. And with so few dragons, at least my parents implied it should be a female. If possible.”
“Mine, too. Think Gina will make a difference when we go home for the holidays?”
“Depends on if she’s pregnant at the time.”
Thunder’s eyes danced. “Who’s going to tell her she needs to get pregnant right away?”
“Well we haven’t been using protection… But who’s going to tell her about us?”
“I think she might already know. Better than we do.”
The buzz grew louder and a voice came over the speaker. “Is there a problem with the elevator?”
“Crap, we probably broke a law or something,” Sky muttered. “No, everything is fine here.” He slapped the button. “I want to try again.”
“You mean…try…us?”
“Thunder, we were kids who had no idea what we were doing, back then. We got scared. Too easily.”
They descended toward the lobby, seconds from landing when Thunder grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him. Hard. A kiss of homecoming, of memories, of reconnection. Sky’s arms closed around him, squeezing him tight, and they clung together until the doors opened and then moved apart and strolled out of the elevator, side by side. Sky wasn’t sure if everything would be okay, and they had a lot more talking to do. But the future was looking pretty bright, from where he was standing.
Next to his mate, while waiting for his other mate to finish getting even more gorgeous—if that was possible—and join them for brunch.
