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“There will be other days.” Perry looked pointedly at Sebastian. “Isn’t that right, darling?”
Sebastian did not like what he was inferring one bit, but he agreed for the sake of the boys. “Yes. Quite.”
“Very good.” Perry winked at him salaciously, then, with some effort, climbed to his feet. “Since Pake is sleeping, why don’t we all go play on the jungle gym your father built for you instead?”
“Can we go to the park?” Octavius asked.
Perry shook his head. “I’m afraid not, darling. Not today. The jungle gym will have to suffice.”
There was a little bit of grumbling, but nothing unreasonable. Sebastian felt a bit like grumbling, too, but he held back. His tryst with Perry would have to wait, but it would happen. All he had to do was be patient.
Before leaving with the boys, Perry turned so he was facing Sebastian and rested one hand on his belly. He smiled. “Will you come out with us, darling? I do feel terribly about having to interrupt what should have been a lovely afternoon of you spiriting me away, but needs must. Regardless, I would very much like to have you with us, and I’m sure the boys agree.”
Sebastian grunted in response and stood, and Perry, never one to be discouraged, circled round to tuck himself under Sebastian’s arm. How magical it was that even after all the centuries they’d been together, he still made Sebastian’s heart trip within his chest.
“Come, now,” Perry said, guiding Sebastian forward. “I’m a trifle worried what mischief the boys will get up to if left unattended. The jungle gym is sturdy, but it is not infallible, and I doubt it was constructed with young dragons in mind.”
It was certainly not, but it did not stop their boys from having a good time. They swung and climbed and chased each other, and their laughter was exactly what Sebastian needed to remember why it was so important to do what he was doing. If anything should happen to them, he would never forgive himself, and should anything happen to Perry… well, if he survived, his heart would never recover.
* * *
That night, Perry sat in the middle of their hoard bed working on a crossword puzzle. He wore a pale pink silk robe and nothing else. Sebastian, meanwhile, perused the hoard’s pathways looking for just the right trinket. It didn’t take long before one caught his eye. It was a long strand of marble-sized pearls with a clasp that held a large sapphire. The stone, however, was of an unusual shade of blue that was nearly purple. Perfect.
Sebastian brought the necklace to his mate, then adorned him with it. The pearls were just a shade lighter than Perry’s skin.
“I take it you aren’t interested in a quiet night in?” Perry asked, raising a brow.
“A night in, certainly.” Sebastian slid the silken robe down Perry’s shoulder then kissed the warm skin he’d revealed. “Quiet? I think not.”
Perry’s lips curved into one of the special smiles he reserved only for Sebastian. “So we meet again, Sir Dragon. I thought I might have lost you forever after we were forced to part ways in the atrium, but here you are. In bed with me. Pushing down my robe. Whatever should I do?” Perry held the back of his hand to his forehead in imitation of a swoon. “If I don’t act promptly, I’ll be ravaged, no doubt, but alas, I seem unable to move. It must be the doing of this lovely necklace. Gold is nothing if not my undoing. Your fiendish machinations will be the end of me.”
Sebastian’s cock twitched at the game his mate was setting up for him, and off he went to find more treasure to give to Perry. And not just any treasure. What he needed was finery befitting a prince.
Prowling about the hoard, Sebastian looked for just the right pieces. He found an arm cuff made from gold and studded with pearls and diamonds, a smooth platinum collar, several rings encrusted with a rainbow of stones, and something else he’d had commissioned for Perry centuries ago and forgotten existed. Loaded down with treasure, he made his way back to their bed.
Perry had set his puzzle aside and removed his robe, enterprising omega that he was. His eyes were closed and his hands gently stroked his small belly. Sebastian let his treasures fall onto the bed, for the moment unheeded, as he leaned forward to join his hands with Perry’s.
Under his hands, he felt a flutter of movement. Something else, as well. It was a little like an egg bond, but infinitely fainter. The mere suggestion of a connection, but Sebastian swore he felt it.
“The babe quickens,” he said.
Perry’s eyes shone with tears. “You feel it, too? Our baby. I’d half-convinced myself I was imagining it. Making up phantom movement.”
“No, I felt him. He’s very strong. He’s a fighter, just like his Papa.”
A dreamy smile slid over Perry’s face. “Her. She’s a fighter.”
Sebastian wasn’t sure what to do with that information, but Perry was intuitive in the extreme, and he was very seldom wrong. So they would be having a girl, then. A daughter. Boys were all he knew, and alpha boys at that. But, slow and stolid as he was, Sebastian would learn.
“I love you,” Sebastian said. “You, the babe, and all our children.” He cupped his beloved’s cheek. “But most of all, you. Always and forever, you.”
21
Perry
Present Day
Sebastian Drake was not known to be a gentle dragon, but the care he afforded Perry’s belly suggested otherwise. Though his fingers were calloused and leathery and his hands designed to crush rather than cradle, he was delicate in his affections. And so it was that when Sebastian cupped Perry’s cheek and vowed his love, Perry didn’t doubt it any more now than he had five hundred years ago.
