“Well… that's not strictly true.” Connie turned in his arms, stepping back a little so that she could meet his eyes properly. “Because I'm giving half of her to you.”
Chase's mouth dropped open. “Connie—”
She put a finger on his lips, silencing him. “I know you don't need the money. But I don't want to start off our lives together in debt to you, either. So I'm going to insist on this. She's half yours, and half mine, and that's that.”
His face went very still, his eyes wide and dark as he looked into hers. “Our lives together?”
Connie stretched up on her toes to kiss him in answer. His mouth was light and gentle on hers, as if he hardly dared to breathe.
Then his hands came up to softly frame her face. His long, agile fingers caressed her as he deepened the kiss. The sweetness of it sang through Connie's body, until she felt as if his hands were the only thing stopping her from floating up, up into the sky.
“In that case,” Chase murmured into her lips, “I have a question for you.”
Even though she should really have been used to it by now, Connie's heart still skipped a beat as he went down on one knee.
“Constance West.” He took her hand. “Will you be my mate?”
Connie blinked down at him. “Okay, I have to admit, that's not what I was expecting. I thought I already was your mate?”
“You are. But we aren't mated. It's… different.” He looked like he was struggling to find words to explain it. “There's a sort of ritual that we do. Afterwards, we'd be true, bonded mates.”
“Like Virginia and Dai?” Connie asked. She remembered the deep, powerful connection between the dragon shifter and his mate, so strong it was almost visible.
Chase nodded. “We'd be able to talk telepathically, like I do with other mythic shifters. We'd know what each other is feeling, share our deepest desires and needs. We'd be truly joined. Forever.”
Connie's breath caught. “Oh, yes. Yes. Let's do it.”
She could so clearly see Chase's joy shining in his eyes, it was like their souls were already joined. “Now?”
Connie laughed, feeling wonderfully wild and reckless. “Yes, now! Can we? What do we do?”
“There are a couple of steps, to bring us closer together.” Chase stood, taking both her hands in his. “First, we fly back to my nest.”
“I assume that's not flying in a plane.” Connie's pulse sped up at the prospect of riding the pegasus again—partly with excitement, but also with nervousness.
She'd never learned how to ride. As a kid, when most of her friends had been horse-mad, she'd been wallpapering her bedroom with posters of vintage warplanes.
Chase won't let me fall.
“What happens after we get back to your place?” she asked him.
A slow, wicked grin spread across Chase's face, kindling an answering heat low in Connie's belly. “To find that out, you'll have to ride me there.”
Rising, Chase retreated a few steps. His tall, strong form shimmered. Between one blink and the next, the black pegasus stood before her.
All the breath whooshed out of Connie's lungs. She hadn't had the chance to see him properly like this before. The elegant arch of his strong neck would have put the finest Arabian stallion to shame. But while he had the graceful, lean build of a thoroughbred racehorse, his back was higher than the top of her head. He was the biggest horse she'd ever seen.
Awestruck, she circled him. He stayed still to let her look at him, though his alert ears swiveled to follow her. The lights struck gleaming purple and blue highlights from his folded wings. His sleek black coat held the same iridescence, but subtler. He gleamed as if carved from black opal.
He knelt, stretching out one wing. Heart thudding, Connie scrambled up onto his back. She had to hike up her dress a little to straddle him, his hide warm and soft against her bare thighs. He stayed steady as she tucked her legs under his folded wi
ngs.
“Okay,” she said, when she felt as secure as she was going to get. Tentatively, she squeezed his sides a little with her legs. “I'm ready.”
Chase took a single delicate step forward, and stopped.
“I said I'm ready.” She nudged him again, a little harder. “Let's go!”