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“Guess I’m just a kissing dragon.” I smacked a bunch of loud kisses against my daughter’s cheek.
“Daaaaaad,” she drew out with a giggle and shriek, and I was chuckling as I edged back and carefully loaded another marshmallow onto her rod before I helped her place it back into the flames.
That time, I made sure to keep watch, then helped her build a s’more when it was ready.
“Be careful, it might be a little hot,” I told her as she went to take a bite.
She blew on it for a second before she nibbled the edge, chewed, then just dove in and took a giant bite.
“What do you think?” I asked.
She turned to look at me, her precious face a mess of chocolate and marshmallow. “Ifinkit’s my most very favorite.”
Tenderness pulled and lashed, and Emery curled her hand into the crook of my elbow and rested her cheek on my shoulder.
I glanced between them.
Love swelled.
Powerful.
Unshakable.
Absolute.
And I murmured, “Well, I definitely know what’s mine.”
Emery
A giggle rolled out of me as Kane hauled me up the steep incline behind him. The night was all around us. The moon just enough to light our path.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I kept my voice hushed against the bewitching silence that surrounded us. The only sound the low drone of bugs and the soft lapping of the lake hitting the shore in the distance below. “Won’t like a bear eat us or something? Raven hasn’t stopped talking about them since we got here.”
Maci had fallen asleep three hours ago in River and Charleigh’s tent next to Nolan since the two of them couldn’t be separated for a second, and once everyone else had gone to sleep, Kane had insisted he and I go for a walk.
He had something he wanted to show me.
Something he promised would be worth it.
Lightness drifted between us, this sweet contentment that I never thought I would find.
My home had become this place.
With him.
With Maci.
He sent me a cocky glance from over his shoulder. His smirk slipped through me on a fit of greed.
God, I would never get enough of this man.
“You really think I’d let a bear get to you? Besides, I think my Little Warrior can handle herself. Wrangle that bear right to its knees.” A playful tease filled his words.
“Hmm…I’m thinking dragon wrangling is more my specialty.”
“Is that so?” That magic gaze glinted as he glanced back while wetrudged farther up the path. Our breaths coming short as we climbed our way up the side of the mountain.
“You did say I have you on yours.” It was so freeing that I could flirt with him and feel confident in it. Every emotion I experienced was so different when he looked at me.