Chance gave a little satisfied nod. “You’re so smart, Daddy.”
I gave his bum a little tap for his cheekiness and then took his hand and led him to the bath. “Here, you get in and have a nice soak, and I’ll be right back with some breakfast. Do you need me to wash your hair for you?”
“I can do it all by myself, Daddy.”
“I know you can, my sweet boy.” I quickly made some eggs and toast, with a side of fruit, and then helped Chance get out of the tub and snuggled up in bed with his food. I gave myself a quick shower too, and by the time I was back, I found Chance all done his breakfast and his eyes were drifting shut.
“Are you sure you don’t need me again?” I asked, just to be sure.
“I’m sure. I just need some cuddles now.”
I laid down beside my mate and wrapped my arms around him, and soon enough, we were both fast asleep. Sated and oh so blissful.
25
Chance
Lying in Daddy’s bed, staring at the ceiling with my hands behind my head, I was a new man. A new omega. My dragon was content for the first time in forever, and the man beside me, snoring lightly, was my mate. My one and only.
Wishing I could have skipped the past few difficult years and gone straight to bliss and contentment, it struck me it wouldn’t have been possible. Not without Devlin. My daddy. I had to wait for love to find me.
He stirred, flung a hand over my chest, and his eyes fluttered open.
“Daddy, I have an idea.”
“Okay.” A smile crossed his lips. “Let’s hear it.”
I took a deep calming breath. This was a huge leap. Both in life and our relationship. “I want… I’d like to move out of the palace.” I scrutinized his expression, wondering what he was thinking.
A broad smile creased his face. “Me too.”
“You would?” I slammed my mouth on his, and he returned the favor by nibbling my bottom lip.
“You understand there’d be no one to wait on you hand and foot. No one to wash your clothes and tidy up after you. And no Cook preparing your favorite meals.”
I shrugged. “How hard can it be?”
“Hmmm. Let me think. If I poked my head into your room, what would I see?”
Twirling strands of hair in my fingers, I plastered what I hoped was an innocent expression on my face. “Ummm, a bed, a closet, and a mural on the ceiling.”
“And what else?” Devlin raised a bemused brow.
Damn that man, always paying attention to my clothes scattered over the floor, books piled beside my bed, shoes near the door and under the bed. One or two might be under the bedcovers. “I need to do better.”
“Mmmm.”
A desire stirring inside me had me wanting to try harder and make my surroundings tidy. Wow! Look at me! I’m maturing. Like cheese!
“It’s a huge step moving out of your childhood home. Are you sure you’re ready for that?” He waved his hand outside to the private terrace attached to his suite. “There are so many positives to living here.”
“True. But I’m living in my old nursery and I’m a grown man.” Sure, the sailor suit had been consigned to the dustbin. I was still a little upset at that, but Daddy had cut a piece of the fabric and put it in my old photo album. But sleeping with him in my former nanny’s bed was weird. “Maybe we could think about it.”
“Yeah. But in the meantime, I can teach you how to cook.”
I made a face. “You mean food doesn’t magically cook itself? Who knew?” He was right, I had to learn and couldn’t expect him to do it all.
“We’ll start easy,” he told me.
“Toast? Cereal?” I suggested as he dragged me into his kitchenette.
Daddy rolled his eyes. “Something a little more complicated. Scrambled eggs.” My dragon grumbled when he caught the word eggs. It was a sensitive topic, and I urged him to sleep. No chicks were harmed. The palace raised its free-range chickens without the presence of roosters. I giggled.
“Care to share what’s so amusing?” Devlin asked.
“The chickens that laid these eggs have never seen a cock. They have no idea what they’re missing.”
He rolled his eyes and slapped my ass. “My bratty boy!”
“Okay. How do I do this?” But as I put both hands on my hips, one elbow nudged the box of eggs and it hit the floor. Now they’re scrambled. No cooking required. “Sorry, Daddy.”
“No problem. You didn’t do it on purpose,” he replied, giving me a peck on the lips. I grabbed a dishcloth and cleaned up the mess. “Wow! Look at you being all domestic,” he noted. I puffed out my chest. I could do this! But yeah, I’d surprised myself.
“Let’s try pancakes. Luckily, I have two more eggs in the fridge.”
“Yum.” I smirked, remembering my honey antics on our picnic, and licked my lips. “Will there be syrup? Maple syrup?” I clarified.
Devlin was grabbing things out of the fridge and I brushed against his cute ass. “I know what you’re doing—on both counts,” he observed. “One, you’re distracting me by rubbing your dick over my butt. And two, you’re planning on coating your fingers with syrup and us having very slippery, sticky fragrant sex.”
“How did you know?” I gasped. Is he a mindreader? “Can we? Can we, Daddy?” I pictured us rolling around on his white linen sheets, our naked bodies covered in a sheen of aromatic syrup.
He stood up, milk in one hand, butter in the other. “I can read you like a book, Chance.” He kissed me again and I ground my hips against his crotch. “Let’s eat first.” He held up the milk. “Wait. I know what you’re going to say. We’ll cook our breakfast, consume it, and then I’ll fuck your brains out.”
“Promise?”
“The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can put syrup on you and lick it off every inch of your body.” That blew my mind, and my cock reacted. A tiny moan escaped my lips, and Daddy asked, “Are you hard?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He ran a finger over the ridge in my pants, and I shivered. “Now let’s cook.”
“You’re such a tease, Daddy.”
“I am. Get used to it.” He lined up ingredients on the counter. “Flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Our dry ingredients. We’re going to measure those into here.” He placed a bowl on the counter, handed me a cup and spoon, and pointed to the recipe.
“I can do that,” I said proudly. I dumped a cup of flour in the bowl and it blew back over my face.
Daddy took one look at me and burst out laughing. “Easy, sweet boy. We want the ingredients in the bowl, not on you or the floor.”
“Sorry. This is harder than I thought.”
“Now we’re going to make a well in the center.”
“Huh?” I studied him pushing the flour to the sides of the bowl. “Oh, a hole? Why didn’t you say that?”
“I think you know why.”
“Hmmm, let me think. Ponder. Ponder.” I smirked. “Oh wait. I’ve got it. That is a hole and I’ve got a hole.” I wriggled my ass. I was deep in teenage-boy mode, determined to get a rise out of him.
Daddy sighed, but I could tell he wasn’t annoyed, and as I peeked over his shoulder, I made note of the bulge at his crotch. “Now we add the… w… other ingredients,” he told me.
“Which ones are they, Daddy? You have to be clearer. I don’t get it.”
He shot me an exasperated glance. “Wet, Chance. They’re wet ingredients.”
I swayed my hips and rubbed a dish towel over my ass. “Just like me. My tight puckered hole is wet with slick. La la la.” Fisting my hand, I sang into a make-believe microphone.
Daddy mumbled something under his breath and then went into overdrive, tossing milk, eggs, and melted butter into the flour and stirring the mixture. The pancakes were made in record time, and we ate them standing up. Practically inhaled them.
With the syrup bottle in his hand, Daddy jerked his head toward the bedroom. “You. Me. Maple syrup. Now!”
But I hesitated, s
tudying the dirty dishes on the counter and in the sink. “We need to do the dishes first!” Devlin’s mouth gaped. What was wrong with me? I put one hand on my heart and the other on my brow. I’d become house proud all of a sudden, and despite wanting to give the moving-out idea some thought, I’d made my decision.
“Fine,” Devlin huffed. “But if we get our own place, we’re buying a dishwasher.”
26
Devlin
“I’d like to look for a place to live, Daddy.”
“You mean a house?” I asked.
“No.” Chance snuggled up to me. “A piece of land. No existing house could cater to our specific needs.
“Which are?”
He shrugged. “Space for our dragons. Privacy. Father will insist on security so we’d need a separate building for that. A garden. Among other things, like a hot tub.” He winked as he mentioned the last item.
My sweet darling boy was craving the normality he’d missed out on growing up in a palace. And while so far the cooking lessons hadn’t been a success, perhaps digging his hands in the dirt and tending vegetables and flowers might be more his thing.
“I’ve got no engagements for today.” He leaned in close. “But no car. Much as I like Jack, I’d prefer to share this moment only with you.”
“Wings it is.” We climbed up one of the towers and removed our clothes. Chance folded them neatly. He’d been much more house proud lately. Was that something which accompanied mating? I’d never heard of it before. But Chance was a prince so perhaps there were different rules for royalty.
I breathed in the cool fragrant air. The sun was out and there was a gentle breeze. Perfect flying weather.
“Ready?” Chance asked.
“Are we flying the whole time? Because if not, we’ll need clothes.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got that covered.”
I nodded and he released his dragon. Scales rippled over his body while his wings extended and protruded from his back. My boy was a fine-looking dragon.
His pale underbelly contrasted with the gold scales covering the rest of him. But the spikes on his back, which could pierce a man’s heart, were tinged with red. The color of his hair. When the sun alighted on the tips, they shimmered and announced him as the prince he was.
His wings unfolded and spanned not the 75 feet of mine, but 70, I guessed. Thin veins ran through the golden leathery skin, and as I allowed my dragon to take hold of me, Chance’s magnificent wings flapped and he rose into the air.
No matter how many privileges Chance was afforded being a prince of the realm, nothing could compare to the freedom of flying. And we were the masters of the sky. We had no enemies, except our own kind.
Chance led the way, turning away from the palace and in the opposite direction of the coast. Inland. Our wings were so graceful as we glided through the air. We passed our picnic spot by the river. Mountains reared up in the distance, covered in tall trees, and when we got closer, my sweet golden dragon swooped down, hovering above a ledge overlooking the kingdom.
We landed and his wings folded, scales reverted to skin, and the razor-sharp spikes and talons withdrew. “Beautiful,” he said.
I glanced around. “I agree. You can see forever.” I shaded my eyes. “Even as far as the ocean.”
“Not talking about the panoramic view, though that is amazing. You, Daddy. Your dragon’s emerald-green scales match your eyes.” It wasn’t surprising. Each dragon had a hint of their human’s appearance.
Being high up, the wind had me shivering and goosebumps spiked over my bare skin. “You’re cold, Daddy.” Chance headed for a pile of rocks and unearthed a dusty bag. He pulled out jeans, sweaters, and briefs which were a little musty. “Before I met you, I used to fly out here every week, and I dared hope that one day I’d bring a special someone with me. That’s why there are two of everything.”
“And you did.” I shoved a hand in his back pocket and nuzzled his scalp with my chin.
Chance hugged himself. “This is the place.”
“You want to live here?”
He frowned and disappointment was etched on his youthful face. “You don’t like it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
He grabbed my arm. “This is my mountain.”
“It’s named after you?”
“No, silly,” he giggled. “When my family flew out from the palace, we’d be in formation, and me being a child and the smallest, my dragon was much smaller than the rest of the family. And I lagged behind and got tired. So much flapping. I’d rest here on the ledge and Dad would stay with me while Father and my brothers flew off beyond the horizon.”
I pictured him as the child he was in those old photos.
“I’d tell Dad my vision of the future when I’d live in this very place, something I could never share with my brothers because they’d tease me.”
“Those dreams didn’t involve you wearing a sailor suit, did they?” I winked at him.
“Daddy,” he wailed. “You’re teasing me.”
I put a hand on my chest. “I swear I’m not. The pics of you wearing that are adorable.”
He walked two fingers up my arm. “You still haven’t made me walk the plank. He saluted and yelled, “Ahoy, matey!”
Gods, I loved him when he was being his bratty self. The wind picked up and twisted the tall grass so it bent over backwards. I hooked my arm in his and waded through the grass. “Tell me about this place and what it means to you.”
He rested his head on my shoulder. “It’s on our land.”
Why am I not surprised? Despite the king giving away huge chunks of land, the family was one of the biggest landowners in the hemisphere. “And I used to tell Dad it was my mountain and make him pinky promise he wouldn’t tell Aiden or Brenton.”
I took a deep breath, inhaling my prince, the earthy odor of the red dirt I kicked, the sweet aroma of grass, and the crisp scent from the pine trees whose branches were swaying in the wind. “You’re right. Your scent is part of this place.”
He clapped and got on tiptoes and kissed my brow. “Thank you, Devlin.”
I took both his hands and brought them together. “You didn’t need to ask permission. If this is what you want, you shall have it.”
Chance jumped up and down. “So we can build a house here?”
“Sweet boy.” I picked up a handful of dirt in my fist and then loosened my grip so it trickled to the ground, the wind blowing some of it on both of us.
“It’s perfect.”
“Then we’ll make it happen,” I assured him.
“But we have to name it.”
“Dragon Peak?”
He screwed up his adorable nose. “I’m sorry but that’s just…”
“Lame?” I suggested.
“Mmmm. Sorry.”
“Mount Dominant?”
Chance burst out laughing. “No, Daddy. That sounds like cock!”
“Nothing wrong with that,” I sassed. “I’m guessing Jagged Tip is also a nonstarter?” I was thinking of his spikes, but his mind again went to dick!
“Oh no!”
The wind ruffled my hair. “Something with wind in it?”
“Makes me think of gas!”
“Naked Pinnacle?” I was running out of ideas.
Chance bent over and guffawed. “Father would disown me if I called it that.”
I glanced round us. “Something drew you here as a kid, so in a way it’s a beacon.”
His eyes lit up. “I like that. Go on.”
“No, you choose. What does it mean to you?” I asked.
“It’s where both me and my dragon need to be. A place we can call our own. Where we are safe and you’re with us.” He ran his hand over the grass tips. “Fiery. Fiery Beacon.”
“Don’t tell me. Tell the mountain.” I jerked my head toward the peaks that towered over us.
“I hereby dub you Fiery Beacon.” He glanced at me. “It needs to be written.”
“I agree.”
<
br /> “You do one word and I’ll do the other?”
I squeezed his hand and we undressed and returned the clothes to the bag under the stone. Chance brought forth his dragon and I did the same. Flames curled out from his mouth, and he burnt the word Fiery on a huge rock wall. I followed, scorching Beacon beside it.
And it was done.
27
Chance
Shit! I slammed the door behind me and pressed my back up against it just as Devlin walked through the front door. He halted and narrowed his eyes, assessing me. Yeah, he wasn’t fooled even a little bit.
“What are you up to, my naughty boy?”
I leapt at the distraction. “Yes! I’ve been very naughty. You should punish me!” I quickly spun around and bared my ass for him. “A spanking is most definitely in order.”
I couldn’t see his reaction behind me, but there was no mistaking his chuckle. “As much as I would love to have you over my knee, and then bury myself in that delectable ass of yours, I feel as though the workers would much prefer we save those extracurricular activities until after they’ve left.”
“Aww, more workers? Aren’t they done yet?” Yes, I was aware that I was whining, but really, I just wanted some privacy with my daddy. “Make them go away.”
“Now, Chance… do you want this cabin to be finished on schedule?”
I harrumphed. “Yes,” I said with a pout.
Devlin leaned in and gave my stuck-out lip a nibble. “And does my boy want it to be perfect?”
“Obviously,” I scoffed. “Could you imagine if we went to all this trouble to have the cabin built, only to screw up the finishing touches?”
“Exactly. So, we need to work on our patience so that the workers can bring in the furniture you ordered.”
Dammit, he was right. Of course he was, Daddy always knew best. “Fine. But only if we can kick them out early and you have your way with me.”
Devlin gave me a shrewd look. “Okay, but only 15 minutes early. Otherwise, they’ll have to come early in the morning to make up for lost time. And I know how you feel about mornings.”
The Dragon Prince’s Daddy: An M/M MPreg Shifter Romance (Royal Heat Book 1) Page 12