Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
“Yeah.” Ravi had the sound of a man perfectly blissed out and content.
Sora pulled out far more carefully than normal, an eagle eye on Ravi, but he’d apparently not been so rough with the man as to make him flinch. Good. They stepped into the shower, the water now at the perfect temperature, and took turns soaping each other up.
With insistent hands, Ravi turned him so he could wash Sora’s hair, his fingers gentle as they worked through the dark locks. It made him smile and tease even as he tipped his head back to rinse the shampoo out.
“You love my hair.”
There was no immediate response.
Hmm?
Sora tipped his head down again, blinking water droplets from his eyes so he could see Ravi properly. For once, the little dragon wasn’t at all in a joking mood as he looked back at Sora.
“I love you.”
Sora’s breath caught in his throat. He had no doubt Ravi meant it. “Ravi—”
“God, that felt good to say.” Ravi blew out an explosive breath. “I’ve been wanting to say that for days. I love you. I’m sorry if it’s too soon for you.”
Sora framed his face with both hands, looking into those brown eyes full of love and worry. The first was acceptable, the latter not.
“I love you, too.”
Joy exploded over Ravi’s face. “You do?”
“I do.” Sora kissed him gently, reveling in the freedom of these shared feelings, so glad their hearts were one. “Aishiteru.”
“You know, I watch a lot of anime, I know what that means.”
Snickering, he kissed him again. “I’m glad you do.”
Wrapping both arms around him, Ravi hugged Sora tightly, that rumbling noise dragons made when perfectly happy pouring out of him.
Sora held him back just as strongly, just as happy. Upset he couldn’t purr, too, because for the first time in his life, he wanted to. “You are the blessing I always wished for and was worried I’d never find.”
“I’d mostly given up on finding you, to be honest. It wasn’t until this past year that I allowed myself to hope that maybe I’d find someone to love, after all.”
“I’m glad our hopes came true. It pains me that you hesitated in telling me, though. I want you to be honest with your feelings. I don’t want you to censure yourself like this again.”
Ravi pulled back enough to look up into his eyes. “I know mages sometimes struggle to realize they’re with the right person. You don’t have a dragon in your ear telling you that you’ve found your mate. I didn’t want to scare you by rushing.”
“I understand why you hesitated, but please, don’t do it again. Even if I don’t feel the same way about something, I don’t want you suffering in silence.”
Nodding, Ravi looked down and away for a second. “Then let me say this. Sora, what are we going to do? We’re from two different clans. We’ve got multiple countries between us.”
It was something Sora had asked himself several times. He still had no ready answer. “I can’t take you from this clan.”
“Well, technically, you can. Alric already said he’d release me from my duties if I felt I should go with you. It’s just…” Ravi trailed off, biting at his lower lip.
This felt like the wrong decision. Sora shook his head slowly. “Burkhard is shorthanded as it is. Even with my clan coming to help you, that wouldn’t be my first choice. But I think this is something we need to thoroughly weigh out and discuss before coming to a conclusion. Either way, I promise you, we’ll come up with the right answer. We might end up living here, or with my clan, or on Mars—”
Ravi startled, then grinned. “Mars? Really?”
“We’ll be the first mage and dragon in outer space. But regardless of what we decide, I’m not separating from you. That is what I’m standing firm on.”
Ravi’s eyes flashed gold for a moment. “No. I won’t lose you. We’ll figure this out.”
With both of them determined, Sora had faith they would.
“Can’t believe you two,” Sora’s mother fussed as she sat at the small table. “Leaving me out like that. I fully intended to examine King Alric myself, you know. I just hadn’t gotten to it, yet.”
“You were slow,” her husband teased, then dodged her as she reached over to smack him.
Sora rolled his eyes. They were meeting in his sitting room, ostensibly to discuss how many healers the Burkhard Clan needed, who would be a good choice to send here, and for how long. It was supposed to be a serious conversation, but, of course, his father couldn’t resist getting a dig in, and his mother, predictably, was irritated that she hadn’t been invited to join the party.
“We’ll need to leave someone here who has excellent surgical skills,” Ryu informed his wife. “It will take multiple surgeries to correct the damage.”