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I nodded in thanks.

“Come on, kiddo, let’s help Mia with lunch,” Hawk said. “Wanna see a different kind of dragon riding?”

“Huh?” Dylan asked.

“Like this.” Hawk swooped down, grabbed Dylan, and lifted him up and onto his shoulders. Dylan laughed wildly as Hawk marched across the backyard and up the stairs back to the house.

Harley laughed as she watched him go into the house, then she turned those blue eyes back to me, her expression softening. She walked toward me, and I caught her scent—sweat and musk with a slightly sweet edge. I lowered my head to her level, so I was close enough to touch.

She ran her hand over my snout, then my forehead. “I always thought your dragon was so pretty,” she murmured as if she was speaking to herself.

I huffed and narrowed my eyes.

She laughed. “Sorry, sorry. I meant handsome.”

I pushed my head into her hand, and she giggled at the gesture. I wondered if she was remembering the same thing I was—how she used to call me a big cat. A low rumbling sound escaped my throat. It wasn’t a purr—definitely not—but I never minded when Harley called it that.

“Thanks for taking him flying,” she said. “You’re really good with him.”

Pride swelled within me. That’s all I wanted. To make her happy. To do right by our son. I lifted my head up and nodded toward the lake, then flapped my wings once.

“Do I want to go?” Harley asked.

I nodded. Even after all this time, she could still read my body language as easy as anything.

“I don’t think so,” she said, laughing. “Let’s not take the spotlight off Dylan. Mia’s making lunch, are you joining us?”

With some reluctance, I pulled away from her touch. I exhaled and began to draw my dragon back. Shifting back into my human form felt different, like I was compressing instead of expanding. My wings pulled back in, then my scales retreated, and my muscles tightened and pulled in.

When I opened my eyes, I was in front of Harley, shirtless and in my jeans. Thank God, dragon shifter magic didn’t shred clothes like those unlucky wolf shifters.

“Ah.” Harley sucked her lower lip between her teeth as she stared at my naked chest.

I hooked my thumbs into my belt loops. I loved the sensation of her gaze on me. I’d let her stare as long as she wanted. “See something you like?”

Her eyes snapped up to me, widened, then she took a step back. “What? No! There’s… Lunch is being made. We should go back inside.”

“Right.” I took a step forward to close the distance between us, drawn toward her like a magnet, always. “We should.”

This time, she didn’t step away.

After a shift, my dragon was closer to the surface. He was still lively and excited from the flight, from the rush of the wind, from being so close to our son and our mate. She tilted her face up and met my gaze, her lips parting slightly. I reached out without thinking and tucked her auburn hair behind her ear. The touch made her tremble slightly, like she couldn’t help it. My dragon purred. I had the same effect on her as she had on me. It’d be so easy to lean forward, to grasp that familiar-unfamiliar curve of her waist. My fingers touched her neck. She inhaled. She smelled so good, so sweet…

“Ace!”

Harley stumbled backward like a spell had been broken—and in a way, it had been. Her face turned bright pink. She whipped around toward the deck. Hawk was standing by the railing. He was probably out here to give me a hard time after disrupting our moment on purpose. I was about to shout something at him, but his expression made the words die on my tongue.

His brow was deeply furrowed, and he’d gone pale despite the bright sun. “Striker called. It’s about work.”

Harley swallowed hard. “I’ll go help with lunch.”

“Harley—”

She waved half-heartedly at me, then hurried back into the house. The door slammed behind her. I climbed the stairs to the deck at a slower pace. Every time I got close to Harley, got close to reigniting that old flame between us, my work—no, mylife—got in the way.

It was a sobering reminder. No wonder Harley had run inside.

“What’s going on?”