Chapter 10 #2
“Maybe next time you and I can go together. Prove to everyone that you’re not a big scary monster.”
“Perhaps I am a big scary monster.”
“You?” Daniel dared to reach out underneath the table and stroke his knee. “I’m not frightened a bit.”
“Good.” Because he intended to keep Daniel and make him unbearably happy.
Mine Daniel, Jacks insisted.
Shh. Go to sleep. He’s home and safe. I told you everything was fine.
Mine Daniel.
Go. To. Sleep.
Maddening little dragon. Hayden adored him.
Daniel tilted his head, lips tight as if he was listening.
“Is everything all right?”
Daniel blinked up at him. “Yes. Yes, I thought I heard voices.”
He was going to have to be more careful. He was going to have to call Declan. He was going to have to have a long talk with Daniel. There were a lot of things he was going to have to do.
“I feel like that a lot,” he said. That was the truth and also not at the same time.
“Well, I suppose we should be grateful. He’s already learning how to talk, and I have the feeling once he can get his opinions out there, we’re going to be doing a lot of listening.
” Daniel grinned. “Because honestly, I think it’s going to be amazing.
I know we all tease—guardians and parents and caretakers—that we hate it when they start to talk, but I kind of love it.
I love communicating with little ones. It makes me happy.
I feel like Jacks is going to be a great communicator. ”
Hayden barely held his laughter in, but he managed. “That little boy is going to communicate his butt off.”
His words made them all crack up, the four of them laughing merrily.
Yeah, and he was going to have to ease Daniel into this whole dragon thing, and soon, because Jacks was going to communicate with fire. And possibly flying. And that could spell disaster if Daniel was unprepared.
Goddess help him.
Daniel glanced at him, head tilted. “You cool? You look worried.”
Oh. Dear. “No, I think I have a gas bubble, that’s all.”
Yeah, that was sexy.
“Oh. Well, I would say let it out, but we are at a table with mixed company, right?”
He blinked at Daniel. “Because the ladies have never ever belched.”
He knew for a fact that Denise could belch her ABC’s with the best of them. Rita was a little more classy.
“Nope. We are totally innocent old ladies. Innocent .” Denise grinned. “Daniel, I love that you think we are nice, though. I think that’s so sweet.”
Daniel chuckled. “I think this is one of the greatest families I’ve ever been a part of.
” He grinned at them. “So there’s going to be boxes coming from the store.
I wanted to get some games—board games, goofy things from Candyland up to cooperative board games, just so we have a basis of educational things, plus other stuff to do. I thought it would be fun.”
Hayden shook his head and smiled. Daniel didn’t need to spend his money. Anything Daniel wanted could be his.
But they would get to that. What was his was going to be Daniel’s, but he had to take it a little slower than he wanted to. Ease Daniel into it.
Denise looked at him, her eye shine very obvious for a moment. Then she winked.
Yeah, yeah. You hush.
So impatient you are. ‘I only want a human. Nothing complicated’.
I know that you and Declan organized this somehow. I’m very put out.
She lifted one eyebrow. Liar, you love him, he’s yours, and you’re going to keep him.
There’s no way he knows.
No, she agreed.
He knew dragon-human hybrids occurred. Hell, it happened in many non-human magical beings, but surely Declan would have checked before hiring him.
I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not. He’s perfect for you.
He is. Jacks knew from the very minute he showed up.
Denise nodded once in agreement. Jacks will need two strong dragons on his side.
Well, good thing he has plenty of strong creatures by his side. He looked up, suddenly worried that Daniel was watching him, but Rita, bless her heart, was distracting Daniel with a deep conversation about video games.
“Are we all done with first supper?” He dropped his spoon in his bowl. “I think I need to go take a swim in my hot tub. Get some exercise before tater tot second supper.”
Daniel shot him a quick little grin. “I bought swim trunks at the store. I didn’t know I’d need them before. So… if you wanted exercise buddies?”
“I would love an exercise buddy.” No questions.
Like Daniel needed a suit; that was nonsense.
Although tearing trunks off and fucking his mate in the bubbling water sounded fun.
Daniel’s cheeks were on fire, and Hayden knew he’d heard that, no question.
Rita and Denise started clearing, and Daniel stood, the scent of need in Hayden’s nose.
“I’ll go get a load from the car. Be right back.” Daniel all but ran away from him, fleeing out to the cars to unload whatever he had in there that was cold food and stuff that he wanted for right now. Swim trunks, some sort of flip-flop shoes, possibly a chastity belt.
No, that wasn’t fair. They had certainly had their share of hot sex already. Condoms, he said. He’d gotten condoms.
Hayden checked on Jacks, who was sleeping away, not even talking in his head anymore, and then decided it was time to go get changed. “Tell Daniel I’m heading for the hot tub, ladies.”
“Will do, boss.” Denise winked at him and Rita giggled.
“You two are awful,” he sang to them as he left the room. He probably needed to get everything changed and covered and even get on the hot tub before Daniel got there because he was hard as a rock and he had no idea when that was going to go down.
Daniel joined him in the pool house after, smiling and bundled up in a huge robe.
Hayden was already bubbling away in the hot tub, and he felt much calmer. His dick was still half-hard, but he seemed to be that way around Daniel most of the time. It had to be like a dragon mating thing.
“Hey.” Daniel dropped the towel that had been slung over his shoulder and then took off his fluffy robe, which Hayden thought was hysterical and so cute. It was like polar fleece or something like that, and it was printed with this crazy Scottish plaid.
“Hi. I like the swim trunks. I’m surprised they had them this time of year.”
“I stopped by the sporting goods store first. The big box store didn’t have any. They had these or performance speedos for super professional swimmers. I obviously chose these.”
“Oh, while I think seeing you in speedos would be inspirational, this is probably going to be more comfortable for you.” The loose trunks gave Daniel some space to move around in, and they wouldn’t crawl up his ass crack.
“That’s important—nothing tight and binding when you’re already in hot water.” Daniel beamed at him and crawled into the hot tub, and then, much to his surprise, floated over and plopped down on his lap.
Hayden moaned, wrapping his arms around Daniel and pulling him close for a kiss. He loved that Daniel just took the initiative and ended up on top of him. They rubbed together, the bare skin of their chests and their covered lower parts feeling so weirdly different and yet wonderful.
Daniel grinned against his mouth. “Everybody tells me hot tub sex is really not worth it. What do you think?”
Hayden chuckled. “Well, I think it can be a little hot and sweaty, but I told you I run hot. I kind of like it. I guess we’ll see how you feel about it. If it’s not good, then we won’t do it.”
“I like that. We keep our options open and we’re flexible.
” Daniel stroked his hair back off his forehead, then kissed his nose.
“I am sorry I worried you. By the way, I didn’t mean to.
I just wanted to get all of that errand running done before everything got deep snow-wise, and I wanted to make sure I got you Christmas presents. ”
“You’re good to me. Just remember, we have the opportunity to get an order up here at least once every two weeks, if not more often. So, I don’t want to worry about ending up hungry.”
“I’m not as much worried about being hungry as I am about just having a bunch of fun things for Jacks to do and for us too. And you know, it’s important to have a celebratory space, it’s important for me, anyway. I guess I should have asked if it was important to you, too.”
He was a dragon. Celebrations were important.
So were sparkly things.
“I think it’s wonderful that you thought about us. If there’s anything you don’t have that you need, tell me. Make a list, and we’ll arrange it.”
He had the enormous desire to spoil Daniel rotten, to shower him with gifts and gems and woo him, but he wasn’t sure Daniel was ready for full-on dragon woo.
Daniel snuggled right in. “I like woo. You and I are making some pretty good woo.”
Someone was listening hard.
“Why don’t you have any other tattoos?” he asked. “Besides the one on your back.”
Daniel shrugged. “It’s really not cool for a nanny in a lot of places, and at some point it just stopped being a thing that I wanted to do. I kind of grew out of the thought. How about you? How come you don’t have any?”
How was he supposed to explain that dragon scales like his didn’t take tattoo ink? Some dragons he knew had them, but his had never stayed. “Never found anything I wanted to have, and I’ve thought about it for a long time.”
“Ah. Well, maybe you and Jacks can get matching ones when he turns eighteen,” Daniel teased, his blue eyes alight, his freckles scrunching up when he grinned.
He pinched Daniel’s hip gently. “Nope. Jacks is never going to be anything but a joyful baby. No terrible teens.”
“Oh, I like it. So are you putting him in cryo sleep when he’s three then?”
“Yeah.” He hooted. “Something like that.”
“Oh dear. Yes, three is hard. Two is tough, three is hard. Four is almost pleasant. I always like four, and then five through eight is an amazing time, because they’re gaining so much personality and they have so much imagination. It will really dictate how that tougher tween and teen years come.”
He met Daniel’s gaze, smiled, his heartbeat speeding. “You really do love children, don’t you?”
Daniel nodded, the motion immediate. “I do.”
“Did you ever think about having any of your own?” Because Hayden was thinking about it.
More and more every day.
“Well, to be honest, I haven’t had a lot of partners.
Like I think I told you, I have a certain odor to my body, and I mean, I’m clean and I deodorize, but it’s been tough.
” Daniel’s cheeks were bright red, and he could feel the heat pouring off them.
“Being a parent is a dream of mine, but on the other hand, I’m getting older, and I have a very long time to take care of a certain young man right here.
He won’t ever remember not having me around. ”
Hayden reached out and stroked Daniel’s belly, soothing his mate, a subvocal rumbling filling the air. “No, and he is your Jacks for sure. He adores you.”
Daniel nodded and smiled. “I’m glad. I mean, can you imagine how awful it would be if he just hated me?”
“Have you ever had a child who did?”
Daniel shook his head. “Oh no, I’ve had a couple of times where the child was in crisis, and so it took more time for us to find a common ground. But that was a very specific situation.”
“Well, I don’t think you have to worry about that with Jacks.”
Daniel chuckled softly and said, “No, I don’t think I do either. And when he decides he hates me when he’s a teenager, by then I’ll be so entwined in everybody’s life that it’ll just be like when he hates you. We’ll all just go, ‘Yep, you’re a teenager’.”
That sounded so amazing, and he wanted to tell Daniel that that was the perfect thing to say, as long as Daniel meant he would be Hayden’s partner by then. But he didn’t think Daniel was thinking that far ahead or in those terms.
So he just smiled and nodded. “Yep, we’ll have to face that challenge together.”
Daniel put a hand over his, holding it against his skin. “Do you think we’ll still want to do this at that point?”
“’This’ being make love to each other?” He bent down to kiss the side of Daniel’s neck.
“Yeah, I want to believe that that’s how it’s going to happen.” Daniel’s little smile was equal parts wry and hopeful.
“Then believe it. I’m not going to give you up, Daniel.
I promise. Let me tell you something. I think you smell perfect—just your skin without all the stuff on it.
” He stuck his nose against Daniel’s skin and breathed deeply.
He knew Daniel had put on all that crap this morning but being in the water for such a short amount of time, it was starting to come off.
Daniel moaned, leaning in closer, hands sliding into his hair. “Promise?”
“I do. You are beautiful and desirable and perfect for me.” Because he could tell by the way little smatterings of scales were coming up under his fingers as he stroked Daniel’s shoulders that Daniel was definitely some sort of dragon hybrid, or maybe a dragon who had been told all his life that he was human.
Adept at hiding, and that was what he wanted for Jacks, so he had picked the right horse to back, even if he was kind of pissed at Declan and the service for sending him a dragon.
Which was maybe stupid, but really he had intended to focus on work and Jacks, and that was it. Now all of his best-laid plans were up in the air. And he was going to have to learn how to be flexible because that was one of Hayden’s difficulties. He was kind of set in his ways.
“Thank you.” Daniel kissed his jaw then licked a spot under his ear. “You sound so serious about it, and I believe you feel that way. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand it, though.”
“I’ll work on that.” He slid his hands down Daniel’s back and grabbed his ass, squeezing and pulling them together. “Let’s start right now, okay?”
Okay, Daniel took another kiss, and he felt that smile against his lips. Daniel needed to believe that he was beautiful and that he was wanted. He was loved, and Hayden was going to show him that every day from now on.