I followed up the next kiss by biting down on Llewellyn's lower lip and arching up into him.
Llewellyn made a soft sound. He pressed closer, then released my wrists to lift my sweatshirt.
"We should really go," I said against his mouth, not getting up, though. My hands found his hair.
"Mmh." Llewellyn kissed me again. "The meat's in the kitchen."
"And we're in the bedroom."
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
I tugged his hair and he groaned.
His mouth moved to my jaw. "Ten more minutes," he said, and slid a hand inside my jeans.
***
The meat situation was honestly ridiculous.
Llewellyn had gone overboard—the fridge was stacked like we were feeding an army, not one dragon. Beef ribs, pork belly, whole chickens, even what looked like an entire side of salmon.
"Did you buy out the whole butcher shop?" I asked, staring.
"I wasn't sure how much he'd eat," Llewellyn said.
Penguin chirped from my shoulder, clearly excited about the feast.
I looked down at Lumos who was circling our legs, hopeful.
"Shall we bring him along?" I asked. I felt bad about leaving him behind when we were just going to eat and have fun.
Llewellyn looked hesitant for a moment.
"Penguin will keep an eye on him if we get distracted, making sure he doesn't wander off. Right, Penguin?"
Penguin chirped enthusiastically, clearly ready to keep Lumos safe.
We started teleporting everything to the temple—the meat, bags of charcoal, boxes of vegetables, and somehow Llewellyn had even managed to procure metal grilling racks and tongs. He'd also bought an absurd amount of spices in little glass jars, all carefully labeled.
When we materialized outside the temple with the first load, Gléonwon poked his head out as if he'd sensed us, then came swishing his tail in awe.
"Is that—" His tail started swishing madly. "You brought meat!"
"That's not even half of it," I said, grinning. "We have at least two more trips though—wait. Can you keep an eye on it? We'll be right back."
"Yes!" Gléonwon said.
We teleported again.
"We'll need wood for the fire," Llewellyn said, once we'd set everything down properly and he started unpacking things. "There should be some around here."
"I'll get it!" Gléonwon said, bounding forward. He paused, looking back. "Don't start without me."
"Of course not," I said. "We brought this for you."
Gléonwon's tail swished happily then he flew away.
Penguin chirped.
The moment he was gone, I yanked Llewellyn into a kiss. Then I slipped past him to go and find where he'd put the spices.
Or… Well, that was my intention.
Llewellyn hauled me back, my back to his chest. He mouthed at my throat, just above the collar of my sweatshirt.
"Later," he said, before releasing me.
Uh. Damn.
I swayed a bit. My face was very hot.
Gléonwon came crashing back, somehow balancing an enormous pile of branches and logs, the shard floating alongside him.
"Will this work?" he asked eagerly, dumping everything in front of us.
"Perfect," Llewellyn said, arranging the wood into a proper formation.
Then Gléonwon noticed Lumos and leaned down to look at him.
Lumos barked a few of times then flopped on his back, tail wagging.
"That's Lumos," Llewellyn said. "He's not for eating."
I snorted.
I helped stack the larger logs while Gléonwon watched, vibrating with anticipation. Even Penguin helped, carrying smaller kindling.
Once we had a decent pile, Gléonwon looked at it expectantly.
"Should I?" he asked.
"Go ahead," I said, stepping back.
Gléonwon breathed a stream of fire onto the wood. It caught immediately, flames crackling to life. Penguin chirped while Lumos started barking again. Looked like the sudden fire coming out of Gléonwon's mouth had startled him. He hid behind Llewellyn, barking more.
The smell of woodsmoke filled the air as Llewellyn started laying out the first batch of meat—which distracted Lumos immediately. The pork belly sizzled, fat rendering and dripping into the fire with little flares.
Penguin turned into a fire fox briefly to breathe into the fire too, adding his touches.
"Good idea," I told him, patting his head. "You're the best chef I know, after all."
Penguin transformed back and chirped, nuzzling at me, before looking around alarmed until he zeroed in on Lumos. He waddled toward him.
Ah, it looked like he'd taken his job seriously.
"That smells amazing already," Gléonwon said, happily sitting down on his paws to watch the meat cook and swishing his tail.
We sprinkled more salt and spices, then I started preparing some of the vegetables—pumpkin, peppers, onions—threading them onto skewers.
"Want to cook these ones?" I asked Penguin, laying them down in a big pan we'd brought with us, away from the fire. "You are the best with vegetables."
Penguin chirped enthusiastically and turned into a fire fox again to start roasting them.
I tried one. Yeah, still amazing. He was really the best.
"First batch is ready," Llewellyn announced, transferring the perfectly grilled pork belly onto a large plate.
Gléonwon's entire body quivered with restraint. "Can I—"
"Go ahead," I laughed. "It's for you."
He picked up a large piece with his paws and chomped on it.
"This is the best thing I've ever eaten," he said, tail swishing madly. "Can I have more?"
"There's plenty," Llewellyn said, already putting more meat on the grill, then starting to dice some unseasoned chicken breast for Lumos. "We brought enough for you to eat your fill. Just take whatever you want."
Gléonwon cheered. In the next few minutes, he demolished the pork belly, then the beef ribs, making happy rumbling sounds. Even the vegetables disappeared at an alarming rate, though he kept insisting the meat was better.
Llewellyn and I sat behind the fire with our own plates—chicken thighs, some ribs, salmon, and Penguin's amazing vegetables.
It was all amazing. The company, too.
As the meat supplies dwindled, Gléonwon finally flopped onto his side with a contented sigh, belly round with food.
"I'm so full," he said happily. "This was the best barbecue ever."
Ah, I was glad. I reached out with a hand, patting his head.
"We'll do it again, sometime," I said. "In the meantime, we can leave you the spices if you want to cook your fish with them."
"Ooh," Gléonwon said. "Yes, please!"
"We'll leave you everything," Llewellyn said. "You might like to use the rest, too. I have no use for the grilling racks, anyway."
Gléonwon's tail swished lazily, clearly happy.
Llewellyn settled next to me, close enough that our shoulders touched.
"Thank you," Gléonwon said sleepily. "This was amazing."
His eyes were starting to droop, the floating shard settling gently on his nose.
Penguin had curled up on my lap, also food-drunk and content, hiccupping occasionally, while Lumos' head was on Llewellyn's thigh, looking up at him.
"Time for bed," Llewellyn said, scratching behind his ear.
"Happy to stay with him tonight as well?" I asked Penguin. Better to check.
Penguin chirped and nuzzled at my hand, before moving closer to Lumos and climbing on top of him.
At Llewellyn's request, they were both moved into Llewellyn's Core Partition.
We looked at each other. I was going to jump him here if we didn't leave at once.
We finished putting everything away while Gléonwon snoozed, setting the leftovers aside for him for tomorrow.
Then Llewellyn's hand found my wrist and he teleported us both away.
***
We landed on the beach, like last time. Llewellyn immediately went for my coat and shirt and took them off, throwing them aside.
"Do you just want me walking around the city naked? Is that it?"
"Yes," Llewellyn said, and kissed me.
Uh. Um.
Well. There was no one here, so…
I could do that, if he liked.
"Where would you like to go?" Llewellyn asked, thumbing at the button of my jeans.
I shivered.
Why was he asking me?! He knew this place better than me by a mile! And anyway, I'd probably do whatever he wanted, so. He could just go ahead and do it, as far as I was concerned. In fact, he could probably just lay me down here and—
"Where would you like to be sucked off?" I countered instead.
Llewellyn went scarlet. He tugged me up the path, pushed me against the first building we found, and kissed me hard, unbuttoning my trousers and sliding a hand inside.
"There's this one place," he said.