She shrugged one shoulder. "I may be your true mate, I may not, but if it does prove true, then I hear your dragon becomes quite the handful."
He snorted. "Let me worry about my dragon." He moved to whisper into her ear, "Let's hurry and get you home because I'm dying to see you out of this dress."
"Zain," she said on a hitched breath.
His beast spoke up. Imagine her saying our name repeatedly, right before she orgasms.
Not helping, dragon.
Zain moved to stand at her side and guided her out the back entrance of the surgery.
He hadn't picked the route because he was afraid of someone attacking, but rather he suspected Daisy and Freddie were keeping an eye out for Ivy. While normally he didn't mind the pair's interest in befriending Ivy, today he wanted his human all to himself. Which meant trying to outsmart a pair of determined eleven-year-olds.
Once they hit the fresh air, Zain looked around to ensure the kids weren't lurking and then turned them toward a less-traveled path. "Come on, this way. It should be fairly deserted."
She raised a ginger eyebrow. "I thought Bram's plan going forward was to have me interact more with the clan."
"And you will, after I claim you, but not before."
"Oh."
Her breathlessness shot straight to his cock. He could just imagine her hot lips on his skin before her breath tickled and cooled his flesh.
His dragon chuckled. Now who's the randy one?
Ignoring his beast, he said to Ivy, "Don't worry, I'll be gentle, love. Dragons love sex, but we aren't the mindless, animalistic lot the Dragon Knights say we are."
"Of course you're not. And no, I'm not worried. If anything, I'm trying to think of anything else but what happens once we finally reach our cottage. I blush easily, and I'm trying not to be splotchy for our first time."
He smiled. "None of that matters to me, Ivy. You're the most beautiful female in the world to me."
Her cheeks turned pink, but her lips smiled wider. "Sometimes it's hard for me to reconcile this nice, romantic side of you with the first growly, rude dragonman I spotted when I woke up from my coma."
"This side of me is for you, and only you. Well, and I go soft a bit sometimes for my nephews. But no one else."
She leaned into his side. "You're good with those kids. And I think you'll make a wonderful father."
Zain missed a step but quickly righted himself. "Pardon?"
Ivy stared ahead, the wind blowing strands of her ginger hair across her
face. "Seeing as I've had a lot of time confined to a bed in recent months, I've thought about what my future should look like." She met his gaze. "And even though Dr. Sid said I'm compatible with dragon-shifters and can have their children, even if I'm not a true mate, if you don't want them, that's okay. All I need is you, Zain. You are my future."
He stopped, hauled Ivy up against his front, and cupped her cheek with one hand. "I love you, Ivy Passmore, and if we have a child, I'll love them, too. But if you are all I have for the next fifty or more years, I'll be a happy male."
"Zain," she breathed.
He stroked her warm, soft cheek, wishing he could kiss her and show her just how much he wanted her. But he couldn't risk it out in the open.
So he nuzzled her other cheek and whispered, "I know I said I'd let you walk, but I can't wait any longer, love. So I'm carrying you."
Zain scooped Ivy into his arms and ran toward their cottage. When she settled against him, looping her arms behind his neck, he knew she was just as anxious as him to claim one another.
He picked up his pace even faster, never wanting anything in his life as much as he wanted to claim the female in his arms.
Snuggled in Zain's arms, Ivy listened to his breathing and heartbeat as their cottage came into view.
Even though she'd done a pretty good job of not blushing—or, at least she thought so—her heart thumped so fast she didn't know how every dragon-shifter in a mile radius couldn't hear it.