Chapter 16
Agent Murphy
He was cute, smart, and adorably devious…and he’d found a wonderful way to distract his worrying Daddy.
“We’ll do our best to make sure my parents don’t think you’re a Florida Man, though.” That’d be funny to watch, but not helpful in the long run. “You just be yourself and they’ll love you.”
They loved me and I was a bigger pain in the ass than Klynn would ever be.
“What kind of human should I be?” Klynn took my hands to help me carefully step out of my clothes, which had me trying not to smile and tell him how cute he was. “I could be Canadian or…or I could learn about California. People always think they’re confusing too.”
He wasn’t exactly wrong but I went back to wondering what he’d been reading.
“I don’t sound funny, so I can’t be from Australia. But I could talk about big monster bugs.” Klynn shrugged. “We’re kind of like Australia.”
He wasn’t kidding.
They literally had dinosaurs.
“I was serious when I said you could be yourself, baby.” Picking up my clothes, I smoothed out my pants and draped them over the side of the chair by the door. “My parents have the clearance to know about you guys, so I don’t have to lie.”
“Oh.” Klynn was doing his best to check me out while pretending not to check me out, so I slowly walked back over to him to make sure he knew I was comfortable with him.
No matter how weird I looked when I needlessly worried.
“I didn’t think about just being me.” And for some reason that seemed strange to him. “Will they think I’m an alien or a dragon?”
Both?
“Neither. They’re going to think you’re a nice guy who’s a good fit for their son.” And they were going to find it funny that we were so much alike.
They’d always teased that I’d find someone bubbly and my complete opposite, and I had to admit I was glad they’d been wrong. Opposites attract might be good for some people but I was pretty sure it’d drive me insane.
“But I’m not just a nice guy.” Klynn frowned as he stepped closer, clearly wanting cuddles. “I’m a grumpy dragon.”
Technically.
“What are you worried about, baby?” Wrapping my arms around him, I stepped us back toward the bed and pulled back the covers. “Cuddle time.”
He didn’t give any pushback, clearly ready for snuggling and probably bedtime. “Lots. I can be worried about lots because that’s the rule.”
What rule?
“Littles have big feelings, so it’s your job to fix it.”
Ah.
Okay, yes.
“I’m going to start fixing it by cuddling with you and then we’re going to talk before you tell me a story.
” Huffing as we got under the comforter-like blanket that seemed to be on all the beds, I sat up against the pillows and pulled him close so his head was resting high on my chest. “I’m not going to let you distract me. I get a castle story.”
Klynn gave an adorably dramatic sigh. “That’s hard. They’re poems. Everything is poems.”
Oh.
“But I can do it.” Making a grumbly sound that was wonderfully human sounding, he let out a long breath. “Bedtime stories are stories. Not poems.”
Agreed.
But I could suffer through poetry if I had to.
“You have to go first, though.” Patting my chest, Klynn wiggled to find the perfect position. “Fix my worries.”
That wasn’t how fixing worries worked.
I wasn’t magic…he was.
“Are you worried that my parents won’t like you because you’re not a human from Earth?” I could almost hear him rolling his eyes but he technically just nodded against me. “Well, that would be a very reasonable worry if my family was just a normal American one who didn’t know about anything weird.”
“Is there lots weird?” Klynn sounded hopeful for that, so I was glad I could give him the answer he wanted.
“Oh yes.” Thank goodness. “When I was little, we were posted in a small European country. They had lots of fun stories about mythical creatures but we found out they were real when my friend from school accidentally shifted when she was playing over at my house.”
I’d been a know-it-all, so I remembered my first thought being that I had to look smart and not react to the girl who’d basically turned into a large cat-like creature when she’d fallen over my toys.
Looking back, her control had not been good enough for her parents to have allowed her to go to my house, much less a private school with lots of humans.
“Oh.” Wrapping himself around me, Klynn yawned as his fears seemed to fade. “That’s like a book.”
Laughing softly, I nodded. “Yeah, I guess so. At the time, I called my mother to my room and explained that my friend ripped her dress because she’d become a monster. Not polite, but I was a kid and a bit too blunt.”
I hadn’t really grown out of that but I had learned to bite my tongue.
“Kids do that.” Klynn rubbed my chest and gave it a pat. “It’s okay.”
“Thank you.” Kissing his head, I took his cue and started rubbing his back. “But that kind of opened the door into knowing more about the more interesting side of Earth and actually allowed my parents to have more opportunities in their work.”
Life was weird.
“Because they knew all the stuff and not just the human stuff.” Klynn thought it made perfect sense.
“That slowly led to them learning about different groups of people on Earth and not just the nonmagical variety.” The plain kind. My mother didn’t like that wording but it was accurate. “It actually explained some of the old family lore that they thought was just relatives who’d drunk too much.”
We’d all owed Great-Uncle Henry an apology if he’d been still alive at that point…he wasn’t nearly as nuts as everyone had thought he was.
“Now, I don’t think they know any dragons personally as friends, they’ve met a few over the years. They just don’t work closely with the government for the most part because our government made some questionable decisions in the past and they have long memories.”
Ridiculously long memories.
Governmental historians were still trying to figure out if the Hatfields and the McCoys were dragons or mages or just humans that made terrible decisions too.
“They’re going to see you as their son’s partner first and someone who’s from an interesting place second.
But you won’t have to hide who you are or edit how you explain where you’re from.
” Not from them. “And we’ll figure out a reasonable backstory for anyone who doesn’t need to know those details. ”
Letting out a long breath, Klynn settled against me and I could feel the stress leaving his body. “I’d make a good Florida Man, Daddy, but I’m glad I can be me as long as they like that.”
“They will.” Giving him a tight hug, I dropped my voice to a growl. “I’ll show them what an angry dragon looks like if they don’t.”
He giggled, shaking his head. “No, Daddy. We gotta be nice.”
Huffing, I rolled my eyes. “I’m going to be a dragon. That means I get to do whatever I want and then eat people who make me angry.”
Giggling again, he gave a very human-sounding groan and hid his face against my chest. “No, Daddy. We’re nice dragons here. We’re not the crazy kind.”
Oh, they had their moments.
“I’ll try to remember that.” My sighed-out response got another snicker from him but he patted my chest and even gave me a kiss.
“Good boy, Daddy.” He thought that was hilarious. “Naughty naked Daddy.”
Yep.
But since that seemed to be interesting more than sexual, I did my best to ignore it. “Your naughty naked Daddy.”
He seemed to like that response and I got another peck before he settled back down, basically on top of me at that point. “Story time, Daddy?”
Yes, before he fell asleep.
“My turn.” Doing a happy wiggle like an excited little got another silly giggle from him, but he was starting to relax even more with every breath, so I didn’t distract him too much. “Tell me about the castles.”
Because that’d been a European fucking castle.
There were a few pieces that were different but the modifications looked like logical ones if it’d been designed for a society where half were dragons.
“Once upon a time. Because that’s how stories need to start, Daddy. Once upon a time a great mage king knew…he knew a big…what’s that bad thing word…a terrible catastrophe was coming. The best mages had seen it coming and the seers knew the world was ending.”
Klynn’s yawns were distracting him and breaking up my bedtime story, but I was getting the gist of it.
“So the king ordered a new castle built. It…it would protect the people and…and save them from the world being torn apart.” Every word got harder for Klynn and I knew we’d have to come back to this story when he was more awake, but for the time being it was doing a wonderful job at putting him to sleep.
“He tried…he tried to warn…someone…but he moved his people into the special castle and kept…he kept them safe.” Another jaw-cracking yawn had Klynn slipping closer to oblivion, but he wasn’t quite done yet. “His dragon…he kept them safe and…and then the new world…it…it started…”
And he was out.
I was pretty sure I could be frustrated if my bedtime story stopped on a cliffhanger.
It didn’t stop me from following him, though, but it seemed to push my imagination in odd directions because as I woke up, I remembered dreaming about explosions and earthquakes and it’d felt like the world was ending.
None of that mattered when I woke up to a very quiet and very still Klynn.
Was he panicking?
Overthinking?
Wondering what to make me for breakfast?
I wiggled and pretended to stretch to make it obvious that it was awake, but that didn’t prompt any response from him.
So I sighed.
“I’m not going to overthink this or start to worry because you told me that I don’t need to do it constantly. You even reminded me that you know your colors and you’ll tell me if we run into a problem.” Ha.
That got an adorably human-sounding sigh from him.
Clearly parents here didn’t use nearly enough guilt.
“I think I need to reread the book about the Daddy who uses language carefully to get his way.” Finally lifting his head from where it’d been using my chest as a pillow, he was nearly frowning. “I think that was what the other dragons would call cheating.”
Yep.
“You told me that I don’t need to worry, though.” Shrugging, I made sure to look innocent and slightly confused. “So I wasn’t going to worry. I was going to steal a kiss.”
I kept it innocent and pecked his cheek but that got an actual frown from him. “I’m not little.”
So?
Oh.
“The cheek kiss?” When he gave a decisive nod, I realized how it might’ve been portrayed in his books. “I was thinking how cute you were and that I wanted to make you less stressed. So I was aiming to look cute too.”
His expression was back to being fairly blank but I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. “I will admit to believing that you find little me cute. I’m not sure I like it, but I have seen it repeatedly mentioned in my stories.”
He was wonderfully fucking cute no matter what he was doing.
“Yes, I find little you cute for a variety of reasons, but even when you’re regular Klynn, I find you cute.
” Taking a chance, I rolled him over so I had him pinned against the bed.
He was still glaring at me in a neutral way, but I was pretty sure he was smiling inside.
“I have to remind myself that kissing you in public and telling you that you’re adorable when you glare at people isn’t appropriate. ”
He sighed.
That was cute too.
“Humans are very strange.” He seemed to have accepted that because he frowned again. “I am aware of what humans call morning breath and I will let you kiss my cheeks at times where it is good manners.”
Because he had good manners and followed the rules.
“Thank you, but I will brave morning breath for you any day.” I was going to remember his clear distinction between little and grown-up, though. “And before I show you how brave I am, I’m going to remind you that you know your safewords.”
Yep.
He nodded.
There were little words and big words.
“Yes, I know my safewords and we both understand how important they are.”
He was insane.
I loved it.
So to make that clear, I slowly inched down and brushed my lips against his, nibbling and licking until I’d made it obvious…and I made how sexy I found him obvious too.