"Ainsley," Dragan said as he caught up with her and gently grasped her arm to turn her to face him. "Why are you angry with me?"

"Because you didn't even try to contact me," she snapped and snatched her arm free. Ainsley was furious with him for allowing them both to suffer all of these years needlessly. The stubborn ass could have at least called her to demand to know why she left when he couldn't read the letter.

"After reading that I didn't think you wanted me to," he admitted. "Bren said that you were distraught and incoherent when you left, but he thought he'd heard you say something about all hope being lost. The logical conclusion was that you had seen me in the dungeon cutting my heart out and it had frightened you away."

She gaped at him in astonishment and asked, "That's what you were doing when I left?"

"Yes. I came up the stairs with my heart in my hand and received the news that you were gone," he admitted heavily and held up the ball of paper. "This was of no consolation."

"Then let me enlighten you," she said brokenly and began to quote every word from memory.

My beloved, Dragan,

Please forgive me for not saying goodbye, but I knew I would never have the strength to leave if I saw you. The love that I feel for you is so all-consuming that it frightens me. When I'm with you, you're all that I see. Everything that I could ever want or need. Nothing matters except being with you.

Though the thought of leaving you is ripping my heart to pieces, I need to be certain that your feelings for me are as deep as mine are for you. We've been living a wonderful fairy tale existence secluded atop your mountain aerie, but the possibility that you could change your mind about us is my greatest fear.

I will love you for as long as I live and I'm hoping the time spent apart will ensure that what you feel for me will last forever. So I'm asking you to give us a few weeks apart until the semester ends and I graduate. If you still love me then, come for me, Dragan. I'll be impatiently waiting for you to bring me home.

All of my love,

Your Ainsley

The last words escaped on a sob, and the tears were streaming down her cheeks just as they had been the day she wrote it. All of the pain and anguish of leaving him was just as fresh as if it had happened moments ago. The horrified expression on his face only served to magnify her misery.

"I didn't want to leave you permanently, Dragan," she imparted tearfully. "When you didn't come for me I thought you didn't love me. All these years of suffering could have been prevented if you had just tried to contact me." She never even saw him move, but Ainsley was suddenly swept into a possessive embrace and crushed against his chest.

"Ainsley. My Ainsley," his beautiful voice whispered brokenly. "I would have come for you. I would have camped on your doorstep if I'd known."

Lifting tear-filled eyes to meet his, she demanded, "Why, Dragan? Why didn't you come?"

"Because I was a coward," he confessed heavily. "The uncertainty was preferable to knowing that you didn't love me. That you feared me. That I repulsed you. Knowing that would have killed me."

Ainsley opened her mouth to refute his claim, but she couldn't force the words past her lips. Because he was right. Once she'd known what he was, she had feared him. And the thought of making love with a monster had repulsed her. Who knows how she would have reacted all those years ago if she'd known.

Lifting a hand, she gently caressed his bearded cheek and said softly, "I know now, Dragan. I'm not afraid or repulsed, and I'm not leaving because I…"

"Mom? You okay?" Her daughter asked from right behind her.

Since she wasn't suffocating inside a leather cocoon, Ainsley assumed that her daughter was in control of her dragon. Turning to face her, she was happy to see that Ember's eyes were not glowing red. At least they hadn't been until the girl got a look at her tear streaked face and red-rimmed eyes.

"You made mom cry," she accused her father in a warning growl.

Annnd there were the wings, wrapping her securely in the strong arms that had snatched her up. Ainsley sighed in resignation as the sweltering heat surrounded her and she felt the jagged scar on Dragan's chest beneath her palm. His severed heart beat strong and steady, a powerful reminder of the sacrifice that he had made for her.

Laying her head against his chest, she pressed her lips to his golden skin and felt him shudder in response. The arms holding her tightened and she smiled devilishly before lightly pinching his flat, male nipple. The growl that came from deep in his chest vibrated against her ear in warning.

Too bad it didn't frighten her in the least.

Ainsley licked his heated flesh before lightly sinking her teeth into it. Dragan's heart began to hammer beneath her palm; his breathing became labored. The wings disappeared as fast as they had appeared and she looked up into an expression filled with raw hunger as brown velvet eyes dark with need devoured her.

"M… Mom?"

The tremulous query snapped her out of the lustful stupor and back into maternal mode. Turning to look at her daughter's stricken expression, she gently admonished, "Ember, this is getting to be ridiculous."

"But you were crying," the child protested and shot an accusing look at the man still holding her possessively.

"Listen to me, baby," she said firmly, determined to put a stop to the girl's protective behavior once and for all. "Your father is not going to hurt me. Ever. For any reason. Whether he's a man or a dragon, he is not a threat to me. I'm not afraid of him, and I don't want you to be either. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," Ember agreed doubtfully after giving her father an assessing look. "But he looks like he's hungry and you're a bag of Cheetos."

A quick glance at Dragan's face had her stifling a laugh because the assessment was completely accurate. He schooled his expression, but the heat in his eyes did not dissipate in the least as he reluctantly lowered her to her feet and murmured, "A chocolate covered strawberry is more apt."

Heat flooded her nether regions as Ainsley recalled the night he had hand fed her the delicious delicacies before making passionate love to her. Dragan had said that they had been his favorite treat before he'd tasted her. And oh, good Lord, how he had feasted on her. Just the memory had her flushed with desire.

"Mom, now you're looking at dad like he's Cheetos too," her daughter pointed out with a frown of confusion.

"That's because I'm starving," she replied honestly since she was starved for Dragan, and his eyes blazed hot enough to singe her. Her stomach rumbled, breaking through the haze of desire swirling between them and Ainsley said, "I guess I shouldn't have skipped dinner."

"Want me to have Bren fix you something?" Ember asked.

"Yes," Dragan answered for her. "Tell him to serve us in the rose garden."

"Yes, sir," she agreed.

After the sound of her footsteps died away, he demanded in a low, husky growl, "Did you mean it? You're not afraid of me?"

"Of course I'm not," she denied honestly. "How can I fear the man I love?"

 

***

 

His soul took wing and soared higher than his dragon had ever flown. Dragan pulled his beautiful mate into his arms and held her close to his heart. "You don't know what that means to me, my Ainsley," he admitted and laid his cheek atop her head, his hand gently caressing her back as she trembled in his embrace.

"I think I have a pretty good idea," Ainsley admitted and returned the hug.

The sound of her stomach rumbling again reminded him that he needed to take proper care of his mate and feed her before he devoured her. "Come, my Ainsley. Let us dine amongst the roses with a canopy of stars twinkling overhead," he suggested as he released his hold on her and took her hand in his.

By the time they arrived in the rose garden, Brendyn had already worked his magic. Thousand of candles were flickering on every surface; some even floated in the fountain untouched by the spray of water. Ainsley gasped in surprise and exclaimed, "It looks like something out of a fairy tale."

"I told you once that fairy tales come true," Dragan murmured against her ear as he seated her at the table adorned in crisp linen, fine china, pure silver and sparkling crystal. Lifting the single long stem white rose placed next to her plate, he offered it to her and added, "I promise that ours will have a happily ever after."

"Can it really, Dragan?" She asked hopefully as she caught his hand in hers. "Can we go back to the way things were even after all the misunderstandings and time that’s passed?"

"We can and we will," he vowed and raised her hand to his lips to press a kiss to it. "Making your every wish come true will be my greatest joy."

"All I want is to love you and be your mate, for all the days of my life," she confessed, and his heart filled to overflowing.

"Ainsley. My Ainsley," he breathed in reverence and dropped to one knee to wrap his arms around her and bury his face in her neck. Dragan was so overcome with emotion that it was all he could do to resist the urge to carry her off to his bed and perform the mating ritual immediately.

But the ceremony was a sacred union and not to be rushed, so he restrained the overwhelming need and placed a tender kiss on her chest where she would wear his heart. Raising tear-filled eyes to hers, he gently kissed her lips before releasing his mate and taking his seat.

Dinner could have been dirt covered in ash for all that he noticed. Dragan ate and drank without conscious thought. Every particle of his being was completely focused on his mate and the ancient rites they would perform. Before the rising sun broke the horizon, Ainsley would be his, forevermore.

"Can I ask you something?" She queried and seemed hesitant to ask.

"Anything," he assured her and meant it. She could ask anything of him, and he would do it. Whatever she wanted, was hers.

"Why did you stop performing?" Ainsley asked curiously.

It was a question that had been asked for over a decade, and he had never once explained his reasons. His bandmates and Bren knew the truth, but loyal friends that they were, they had never uttered a word either. The breakup of Dragon's Fire was reputed to be the biggest mystery in the history of rock and roll.

"I lost the will to go on when you left me," he admitted solemnly and saw tears well in her beautiful eyes. Reaching across the table, Dragan took her hand in his and squeezed gently. "Losing you almost killed me, Ainsley. I was dead inside until you walked into the courtyard yesterday and breathed life back into me.

"Oh, Dragan," she said tremulously as a lone tear slid down her cheek. "I'm so sorry."

"You're home now, and that’s all that matters," he assured her and leaned forward to wipe the tear away. "Are you willing to accept my heart and make me whole?"

"Yes," she breathed fervently.

A smile of absolute delight lit his face before he rose and extended his hand to say, "Then come fly with me, my Ainsley. Let me show you the stars."