by Zoe Chant
“You have the time,” Reese said. “And ... I'll be with you, for what it's worth.”
She smiled a little at that.
“Will you?”
She thought he would be playfully indignant, but he reached over to brush her hair out of her eyes. It occurred to her that since he had gotten the sunstone, there was a hint of gold to his eyes that hadn't been there before, something less human, hotter...
“As long as you will have me, wherever you will have me.”
As he said the words, she felt the reality of it sink into her, like a living heat, like gold in her blood and the sun in her bones. This was real, this was forever, and she was his just as much as he was hers.
Tara took his face in her hands, and leaned in for a deep kiss. There was something new about it and familiar all at once. She would have a lifetime to kiss him, and she couldn't wait to get started.
“What do you want?” he breathed against her lips, his hand coming up to slide up her back. “Tell me.”
“Kiss me,” Tara whispered. “Make love to me tonight. Take me to meet your family. Marry me, I don't care how, and show me everything that matters to you. Love me for the rest of our lives, and I will love you the same way.”
Reese's eyes lit up, and she couldn't tell if it was the fire that lived inside him or if it was simply the desire between them.
“Please,” he murmured, and then he was kissing her, his mouth warm on hers.
Tara clung to him as he bore her to the bed, and she knew that whatever else happened, whatever surprises were waiting for them, this desire, this passion, would never end.
Epilogue
The night sky over Reese's home in Cornwall was studded with stars, shining cold and glorious high over Tara's head. The moon had just begun to sink from its zenith, and Tara tugged the silk wrap Gwen, Reese's mother had given her around her shoulders. It was the same color as Reese's eyes, and his mother's, a bright new-penny copper, and Gwen had smiled to see her wear it.
“That's right,” she said in her abrupt way. “That's pretty. Dragon-blooded as you are, you may never need more.”
In front of her was the sea, which Gwen had called An Mor Keltek, its waters black and the soft shushing of its waves lulling her into a meditative quiet. Behind her...
“There you are. Morgan said he saw you coming this way. Are you all right?”
Tara was already smiling as she turned to Reese, and then she was in his arms, held against his chest. She let him nuzzle the top of her head until he was content that she was safe and sound, and then he pulled back a little.
“I looked up from talking with my cousins, and you were gone. I'm sorry, was I ignoring you?”
“Oh no, not at all,” Tara said with a laugh. “No, you've been just fine, and your family's been friendly. So very friendly...”
Reese returned her grin.
“They are that,” he agreed. “They can also be a little overwhelming if you meet them all en masse like this. Are you all right? Would you like to go back to the house?”
“No. I don't want to take you away from your family so soon, and anyway, I don't want to leave either. Will they care if I'm a little clingy, though?'
He grinned, tucking her against his side as they started to walk back towards the bonfire.
“Not at all. It's a good look for a newly-bonded couple. Morgan was just saying that you had already gotten tired of me and had gone to walk back to America.”
Tara snorted.
“I watched Morgan try and fail to corral your baby cousins earlier, I do not accept any criticism from Morgan.”
“My baby cousins are wily, and he hasn't been around long enough these last few years to know how very vicious they are. They took advantage of that,” Reese said solemnly.
There was a story there, both in the way the family conversation seemed to ebb around Reese's cousin sometimes, and in the man's own silences. With dark hair and a lean build, he was enough like Reese that she had gotten startled once or twice in the two weeks she had been in Cornwall, but there was no mistaking him for Reese once she got a good look at the face. While Morgan had a relentless restless quality to him, there was something calm and settled about Reese, a smile lurking in the corner of his mouth, his copper eyes beautifully bright.
“I like your family,” she said as they approached the fires. “They're wonderful.”
“They adore you,” Reese said, and indeed as they approached a small pack of barefoot children thundered towards them, already shouting for her to listen to their American movie accents and to listen to the traditional Cornish songs they wanted to share with her.
Morgan might have been unprepared for the wiliness of the Marrak children, but Reese certainly wasn't. He grinned, inhaled, and then sent out a bright plume of orange flame, just enough to send the children into shrieking laughter. One or two, Tara saw, blew little puffs of steam back, still too young to do anything as impressive as their uncle could.
Reese glanced down at Tara's grin with a raised eyebrow.
“So pleased to see me turning monster and abusing little children?”
“No. You didn't bother to pull me back before you did that. You've realized that you're not going to french fry me.”
“I've always known how tough you were,” Reese said, his eyes glowing in the reflected light from the bonfires. “I have never doubted that — ”
Before he could finish, another shout pierced the roar of the party, and a plume of flame shot up into the sky. It was answered by another, and then another, and Reese's family, all of the ones who could, were throwing fire as high into the sky as they could, laughing and shouting with pleasure at being where they were and what they were.
Reese laughed and shrugged, waving a hand to encompass the lot of them as if to say, Welcome. You have taken on the whole lot of them by accepting my hand in marriage. I hope you like them.
“They're wonderful,” Tara said, and Reese grinned in pure delight, catching her up in his arms for a passionate kiss.
“You're wonderful,” he said extravgantly between kisses. “You're beautiful, you are exciting, I love you so much I can barely stand it, I want to see you in my bed ever night, and I want to wake up next to you every day.”
Tara giggled, kissing him back.
“I love you,” she whispered, still a little shy, but Reese only grinned.
“My lady,” he said. “Would you like to show these peasants what real fire looks like?”
He waited for her nod, and a moment later, as Reese stretched wide black wings over the gathering, she found herself scooped up in gentle claws and held close to Rhy's scaled chest. With a great sweep of his wings that sent the bonfires flickering, they were aloft, and shrieks and cheers came up from the crowd.
Reese arched through the air, as graceful in the sky as he was on land, and then a column of blue-white flame curled from his mouth, bright enough to illuminate the faces below, the fields and the houses beyond. Tara knew that his dragon form was meant to protect his family, but right now, she could only see it as a gift, the heat and the warmth and the wonder of it curling around all of them and keeping them together.
“I love you,” she said, and then as she started to laugh, she shouted it.
The black dragon roared his response across the sea cliffs, and the sky echoed with his love for her.
A Note From Zoe Chant
Thank you so much for reading Dragon's Theif! I hope you enjoyed your time with Reese and Tara! They're wonderful and very near and dear to my heart.
If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. You can also visit my webpage, or join my VIP Readers Group on Facebook!
Please consider reviewing this book, even if you only write a line or two. Hearing from readers like you is what keeps me writing!
Also by Zoe Chant
Shifter Dads: The Red Dragon's Baby
The Midnight Dragon's Mate
T
he Golden Griffin's Baby
The Dragon's Pregnant Mate
Gray's Hollow Dragon Shifters
The Billionaire Dragon Shifter's Mate
Beauty and the Billionaire Dragon Shifter
The Billionaire Dragon Shifter's Christmas
Choosing the Billionaire Dragon Shifters
The Billionaire Dragon Shifter's Baby
The Billionaire Dragon Shifter Meets His Match
See Zoe Chant’s complete list of books here!
