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“All will be well, Sebastian,” he whispered, and laid a hand delicately atop Sebastian’s thigh. “Life always has a way of going in directions we never imagined possible. Perhaps now is one of those times.”
“Therein lies the problem—now is one of those times.”
Perry frowned. “Have faith, my love.”
“I have it.” Sebastian pressed a kiss to the top of Perry’s head and spoke into his curls. “I believe that no matter what happens, the choices I make to protect you and our children will be correct.”
Before Perry could respond, a young voice distracted him.
“Papa! Papa! Look!” Hadrian shouted from the monkey bars. To Perry’s immense displeasure, he was hanging from them upside down by his legs. “I’m a bat!”
“Yes, darling! And what a bat you are. Kian, please see to it that our adorable bewinged mammal doesn’t take a tumble… or decide to try his hand at making guano.”
“I will,” Kian vowed. “All will be well.”
Sebastian blew air through his nose. “Say what you’d like, but resemble me as they might on the outside, the boys take after you.”
Perry arched a brow and pushed back from Sebastian’s chest to look him in the eyes. “Are you calling me a bat, darling?”
“No.” Sebastian drew Perry effortlessly onto his lap. “I’m saying that you are the reason our grown sons are kind, compassionate, giving young men who have made, and will continue to make, an impact on our world.”
“Funny.” Perry carded his fingers through Sebastian’s hair, a hint of a smile perking his lips. “Those are exactly the reasons I’d say they take after you.”
Sebastian, eyes aflame with unmet desire, cupped Perry’s face with both hands and drew him into a passionate kiss.
“Gross!” one of the younger boys shouted.
A chorus of agreement followed, which devolved into the younger boys running at top speed across the playground, gagging, while their older brothers ran after them in a fruitless quest to get them to stop.
“I suppose we should be more mindful,” Perry conceded as he slipped from Sebastian’s lap back onto the park bench. “We are in public, after all, and while our brood has chased off everyone with common sense, there could still be a passerby who spots us and causes a fuss, sure to the very fiber of their being that you, you very naughty dragon, are getting ready to be inappropriate with the teenage babysitter.”
Sebastian snorted. “What a day that was.”
“I’ll never forget the look the police gave you when you told them I’d fathered every boy in the park.”
Sebastian laced their fingers together. It was about as close to a smile as he’d come while in public, and while it was a small act, it made Perry’s heart race madly. Sebastian, his handsome, stoic dragon, had chosen him, and continued to choose him every day. In five hundred years, that hadn’t changed. Through tremendous loss and gain, he remained true.
“One day,” Sebastian said quietly, “there will come a time when you and I can come here again without having to call our sons in from across the land. When that time comes, all will return to normal. I vow it.”
“I know.” Perry rested his head on Sebastian’s shoulder, eyes on the playground, where Hadrian and Maximus were digging a brother-sized hole in the sand. Cornelius, clueless, supervised. “I don’t like to have my freedom taken from me, but I’m aware you wouldn’t do it if it weren’t absolutely necessary. But will you promise me just one thing?”
“Speak it and we’ll see.”
“Will you please, please keep me informed as to the situation? I know you fear I won’t fare well in my delicate state, but I’m stronger than you think. I’d much rather be nervous and well-prepared than unaware and at risk.”
Sebastian’s grip tightened. It wasn’t painful, but it was a near thing.
“Please, Sebastian?” Perry whispered. “It’s all I ask.”
For a long while, Perry received no reply. When it got to the point where a response seemed unlikely, he frowned, but before he could voice his displeasure, Sebastian lifted his hand to his lips and kissed it. “Very well. Should anything happen, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“Thank you.”
“Anything for you, Perry.” Sebastian lowered their hands to rest in the scant space between their bodies. “You’ve given me everything. I can only dream that one day I’ll be able to pass back a fraction of the happiness you’ve brought me. If this is what makes you happy, so be it.”
“Papa?” a new voice asked. It came not from Sebastian, but from the young boy who’d bounded up to the bench while Perry hadn’t been looking.
It was Elian, whose trousers were grass-stained and whose palms were dirty. He looked as apprehensive as he sounded, which was never a good thing. The boys, by virtue of their father, were not the timid sort.
