Ravi suddenly laughed. “Did you just pet me?”
“I couldn’t help myself. Do you mind?”
A low rumbling hum moved up Ravi’s chest and out his throat. “I love when you touch me. When we land, you can scratch my belly if you like.”
Sora laughed in response at the mental image of a great blue dragon rolling onto its back just so he could rub his stomach.
A shout behind them had Sora looking around. Warin shot out a ring of fire and then flew through it, earning another excited shout from North as he thrust his arms into the air. Clearly, fire dragons had their own way of playing while flying.
“You want Warin to create one for us?”
“No! Definitely not!” Sora immediately replied. He was worried about catching his hair on fire as they zipped through it.
Ravi chuckled. Though the sound was mostly lost to the wind, Sora could feel the humor shaking the body beneath him.
Warin moved ahead of them and motioned for Ravi to follow. They were steadily descending toward a flat region in the forest on the mountains. Sora scanned the area. They had to be a good distance from the castle and the town. He couldn’t see any sign of roads or buildings. As they drew closer, the trees started to part, and he could see the sparkling water of a secluded lake.
Within moments, they were on the ground at the shore of the lake. Sora carefully hopped down from his perch and helped Ravi to remove the harness while North did the same with Warin.
Glancing around, it was clear they were the only ones there. A few cranes lingered at the distant shore, and there was the occasional plop of a fish, but nothing else.
“This is our secret spot. Only the dragons and mages know about it,” North explained.
“It’s beautiful,” Sora whispered, almost afraid to disturb the peace of the place.
A breeze gently stirred the leaves on the tree and the sky had grown darker, wrapping them in a warm, shadowy embrace. It really did feel like they were the only ones on earth.
“We know how hard it is to find a private moment when you’re trying to spend some time with your gefreogen,” Warin said.
“Gefreogen?” Sora repeated, looking over at Ravi.
“It means someone you are seeing seriously with the intention of claiming as your mate,” Ravi explained with a smile. He cocked his head to the side a little. “Do you not use that term in the Sodalicium?”
Sora shook his head. “No, we don’t have a term like that. So, I’m your gefreogen?”
Ravi nodded and stepped closer, wrapping his now human arms around Sora’s waist. “And I’m your gefreogen.”
“I like that,” Sora murmured. He leaned down and brushed a kiss to Ravi’s temple, reveling in his ability to do that so casually. For the moment, there were no eyes on them, no one speculating about their future. North and Warin were just as lost in each other as they…holy crap! They were stripping off their clothes. Sora quickly ripped his eyes away, turning his back to them.
North’s laughter rang out. “Oh, come on! You can’t tell me you’ve never been skinny dipping!”
“Oh!” Sora said, a blush still burning his cheeks. He looked down at Ravi to find a question in his eyes and a smile on his lips. Why not?
Sora ripped his shirt off and toed out of his shoes.
“Hot damn!” Ravi shouted and started dancing around, stripping his clothes off as fast as he could.
Sora was just getting to his jeans when he heard a loud splash and a shout behind him. He twisted to see North’s wet blond head swimming farther out into the water. A second later, Warin’s dark head popped above the surface next to North. He pulled his mate close, earning a squeal of delight from North.
“Hurry up, slow poke!” Ravi called before streaking naked across the shore to jump into the lake.
Sora shucked the last of his clothes and followed the wind dragon in, jumping into the water, only to immediately surface with a shout. Fuck! The water was cold.
“You could have warned me!” Sora shouted at his companion, earning a round of laughter.
As the sun steadily sank below the horizon, they swam and splashed in the water. Even swimming, Ravi was the fastest creature Sora had ever seen. He cut through the lake with the same ease that he zipped across the sky. Sora could only marvel at him. He looked stunning, too, the water only highlighting his golden skin, and doing little to disguise that lithe body. If it weren’t so damn cold, Sora would have reacted to the sight alone.
Everyone reverted back to childhood, splashing at each other, trying to dunk each other’s heads underwater. They played for a while before the cold got to North and he started snuggling with Warin, not willing to get out yet and enjoying the excuse of wrapping himself around his mate. That was how Sora read the situation.
Ravi, apparently, thought it a grand idea, as he promptly did the same to Sora, wrapping himself around the man and snuggling in, his wet, naked skin a delight in many senses. Sora held him close with a hand at the small of his back, stealing a kiss.
The couples drifted apart, the distance giving them some privacy as they enjoyed a little time with each other. Sora found himself talking in quiet tones with Ravi, speaking of important things and nonsensical things with equal ease. It was a perfect, pristine moment.
But they couldn’t stay too long. The water really was cold, and the fire dragon could only warm it so much without endangering the fish swimming around them. If he hadn’t been shivering, Sora would have argued that they should remain in the water a little longer. He’d not been skinny dipping since he was a teenager, and never with dragons.
More than that, he knew that once they got out, it would be time to head back to the castle. He didn’t want this momentary escape to end.
On the shore, North pulled four towels out of a bag and passed them out. They quickly dried off and put their clothes back on, but found themselves lingering, sitting on the soft grass along the shore.
“Are you liking it at Burkhard?” North suddenly asked.
“I am. Very much. Everyone is incredibly nice.”
North hummed his agreement, his eyes darting back toward the water, which had turned into a black pool in the growing darkness. “They are. When I went searching for dragons, I never expected anything like this.”
“You mentioned before that you didn’t grow up around magic, right?”
North shook his head. “No, not really. Definitely not like Tori or you. Only my Gramps believed in magic. He taught me a couple small spells, but that was it. When I started out, I didn’t even know if dragons really existed anymore. It was just sort of a wish or a dream.”
Warin wrapped his arms around his slender mage, pulling him back into the circle of his body.
“A very good dream,” he growled.
“Yes, the very best dream.”
“Do you miss your family?”
North gave a little laugh and shook his head. “My family never believed in magic, and I don’t think they’ve ever cared much for me. Well, except for my Gramps. He has always believed in magic.”
“And Earl loves you very much,” Warin added.
“I still talk to him every day, but I don’t really talk to the rest of my family. Burkhard has become my family. I always feel welcome and useful here. I belong here.”
A low rumble came from Warin, and Sora couldn’t decide if the man or the dragon had made the noise. It was warm and possessive.