Chapter 6 #2
“Seriously, I was at a bar. He bumped into me and spilled my beer, and I got grumpy. We got into a fight, and somehow in the middle of the fight we ended up fighting a bunch of other guys instead of each other, and by the end of the night we were drinking together.”
“Did you ever have sex?” The words popped out of his lips.
“What?” Talon’s eyes went wide.
“With Kami. Did you ever have sex?” He didn’t like the idea, but it made sense. There was no way Talon was a virgin, after all.
He wasn’t a virgin either.
“Ew, no. That’s gross.”
Mercury let his eyebrows raise in disbelief. “Okay…but he’s not ugly.”
“No, he’s my friend. I can’t imagine. There’s just nothing about Kami that reads that way to me. I just—ew…” Talon’s face screwed up just like he was smelling something awful—like rotten fish stuffed with onions.
Mercury started chuckling, the sound bubbling inside him before it broke free in a set of happy cackles. “Your face, Talon!”
“Well, I can’t help it.” Talon snorted. “So mean to me, giving me that image.”
Mercury couldn’t stop laughing, holding his belly when he had a hard time catching his breath.
“I do love your laugh, hailee.”
A knock came to their door, and Talon slid from the bed, “You wait here. I’ll bring the food. We’ll have breakfast in bed.”
“Is it breakfast time?”
“Breakfast, lunch, dinner—does it matter?”
He didn’t suppose so.
What they ordered wasn’t really traditional breakfast food, it wasn’t really breakfast time, but if they wanted to call it breakfast and eat in the bed, they could.
He forced himself to sit up, straighten the blankets and arrange the pillows a bit so that there was a comfortable place for Talon to sit with his back to the headboard.
He liked Talon’s bed. It was very soft, filled with blankets. Most of which he had the suspicion were there just for him.
Every day there seemed to be another fuzzy blanket that appeared for him to cuddle up with in their nest.
He sat there and looked at the bedroom window, which was covered in a heavy curtain that blocked out the sun for sleeping. The view from this window was gorgeous—the mountains filled the entire space, the snows above the tree lines, the crags so different from the rocky cliffs near the ocean.
He thought about sliding out of the bed, going over, and opening the curtains to see if he could see a hawk or a herd of elk, but it seemed like a lot of work when he could simply ask Talon to open them when he got back into the room.
He supposed this was why Talon wanted him to eat, so he could get the strength to do things like open the window shades on his own without bothering his mate.
“No, hailee. Mainly it’s because I want to make love.” Talon walked in and placed the tray down on the end of the bed. Then he went to open the curtains, proving that it was dusk. The sky was red, orange, and yellow with the sunset, and it stole Mercury’s breath for a moment.
“That’s so beautiful,” Mercury said, sitting up a little bit straighter to stare out the window. He gasped. “Is that an eagle I see flying over the lake?”
“It is, hailee. We have a mating pair, and they often fly with us as we go out and soar a little bit.”
As if summoned by Talon’s words, two dragons appeared in the sky, winging their way up from the ground to a prodigious height.
One was huge and red and mostly black, one smaller, and the color of that dragon blended a lot with the clouds.
The great big one dove right toward the lake, and Mercury put a hand to his chest, his heart racing, because what if he fell?
Talon chuckled. “What do you think of Reno out there playing with his mate?”
“That’s Reno?” He was impressed. Reno was huge.
“Indeed. If it was Triton, he’d be nearly half as big as that.”
He turned wide eyes on his mate. “You must be joking.”
“I don’t joke about Triton’s size because he and I are very close.” Talon sat with him, pulling the tray over to put it on the bed so they could both reach the food.
“Unreal.” He looked back out the window. His lips parting. They were playing now, Reno and Kami dipping and winging back up, twining tails for a moment, and then coming apart. It was stunning to watch, and he had to laugh and clap his hands.
“Have you ever been able to fly like that, love?”
Mercury glanced at Talon, who was watching him and not Kami and Reno. “No. I had flight training when I was young, and we would fly out over the ocean. But as an adult, I’ve never been able to spread my wings; they wouldn’t let me.”
Talon frowned, his scowl fierce. “Then we’ll do that soon. As soon as you’re strong enough, all dragons deserve to be able to fly.”
He felt a little hitch in his chest because Talon was just so perfect, offering him everything he could want. And he felt as though he had really let Talon down by just taking to bed and not getting up. His mate deserved a whole dragon, one who could give him everything he desired as well.
After all, he had worked hard to have his stone to live for Talon. It was not enough to be alive. He wanted to live, to thrive, to be here and happy with his mate.
He took one of the milkshakes and sipped at it. He liked the cold, the sweet. “It’s yummy. Would you like a sip?”
Talon swooped down, kissed him, and his lips parted on a gasp. Then Talon backed off, winked at him. “Was that not what you meant?”
He couldn’t fight his laughter, and so he just gave in to it, chuckling happily.
“Perhaps I should try another sip?” Talon asked, his eyes merry.
Mercury took a drink of the milkshake, making sure that a little of the cream remained upon his lips, and he lifted his face to Talon. “Perhaps you should.”
This time it wasn’t a swooping so much as a long leaning in. And then Talon’s tongue traced his lips, so gentle. “I know that you’re not well enough yet. But I do want you to know that when you are, I’m aching for you.”
“Well, I’ll have to have a lot of milkshakes because I don’t want you aching any more than you have to. And I’m very, very interested in exploring with you.”
“Good. Milkshakes are the gateway, then.” Talon grabbed another one off the tray. “Would you like to taste this one now?”
He nodded and waited for Talon to pick it up, then pushed it gently away from him and towards Talon’s mouth, kind of willing him to take a drink.
“Hailee?”
“Braaken, it’s your turn. I mean, it’s my turn. I mean, you drink now.”
This was new and different, but he was brave. And he was going to figure this out.
Talon’s eyes lit up, and he nodded, taking a big sloppy drink, making Mercury laugh.
He caught a drip on his finger, sucked it clean, and Talon’s eyes went bright, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip.
Mercury wiggled a little, his belly heating. “Now that’s mine.”
“Is it, hailee?” Talon leaned back and quirked his finger in a come get me motion. “Take it, then.”
He groaned and leaned in, tongue sliding over Talon’s lips, cleaning him up.
Talon made a deep noise that was like someone rolling a stone away from a cave, and it made him shivery, nose to toes. “Careful, sweet hailee. You need your sustenance.”
“I think you’re my sustenance, braaken.” Mercury was weak and thin, yes, but he was alive and living both.
“I like the sound of that.” Talon fed him a bit of milkshake with a spoon, though. Not pushing, just encouraging him to try them all, to eat a little at a time.
The cold cream soothed his dry throat, making it easy to take more in.
Finally he had to stop. His stomach was small and he was tired. “Can you stay here with me? I’m not going to hide, but we could watch the birds?”
Talon nodded to him, leaning in close. “We can watch outside and we can watch a movie. There’s plenty of here for us to snack on.”
“That sounds like fun.” It worked for him. At this point, anything that Talon wanted, for the most part, worked for him. “Thank you for the milkshakes, braaken.”
“Anytime, hailee.” Talon put the tray aside and he settled against the broad chest.
He was asleep before Talon got the television on.