“I’m a lot cocky.”
“Wait…” She glanced at him, and saw the smirk on his face, and started laughing. “You jackass.”
“Dragon. I am not a jackass shifter.”
“Could have fooled me.”
He leveled a smoldering gaze on her. “Do you want me to take you home?”
“No.” The word jumped off her lips before she could really think about it, and before she could hesitate, she popped the door open and climbed out. Max appeared from behind the car a moment later, carrying two bags.
He offered his free arm to her. “We have an hour or so before the sunset. There’s an amazing view from the one room. I have wine cooling and there’s a Jacuzzi downstairs on the deck.” Pulling out the keys, he pushed the front door open and held it for her. He dropped the bags in the bedroom near the front door, and she walked ahead to explore.
She didn’t have to walk far to find the view he was talking about. It was an enclosed sunporch overlooking an amazing view of the mountains, and they were living up to their name at that moment: the Smoky Mountains.
The sun was a bright yellow spot as it slid down the sky to the distance, and she just stood, looking. It was probably going to disappear into the thunderheads that loomed at the horizon before it could actually slide behind the Smokys.
Max was suddenly behind her, looking out at the view as well. “No thinking, mój cenny. We’ve done enough serious talking for a while. I know how you feel, and you know how I feel. I didn’t come here to talk out a future for us. I came here because it’s beautiful and I want us to just get to know each other.”
“How?”
His lips dropped to the soft, sensitive spot at her shoulder. “Carnally.”
She was liquid in his arms again and spun to face him. “Is that Jacuzzi clothing optional?”
His eyebrow shot up. “It can be, if you like.”
“Mm, I think I’d like that. Meet me there in five minutes?”
“It’s going take you that long to get naked?”
“Maybe.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll wait for you down there.”
Amy slipped away from him and walked to the bedroom.
Had she really just proposed naked hot tubbing?
Sorting through the bag he had brought in, she knew instantly her mother had packed it. It was too neat and had everything she could need in it, including toiletries and, for the love of God, lingerie.
She had no idea Patricia was this forward thinking.
The tiny silk robe was also in there. It was exactly what she was looking for and slipped out of her clothes, pulling it on. There was a hair clip as well as some hair bands. It was perfect, and she was able to tie her blonde hair up away from what she was sure was going to be a hot tub full of chlorine. It would turn her natural blonde to a green, and she didn’t want that look.
The stairs were on the left of where they had walked in, and Amy slipped down them to find a rec room and a floor-to-ceiling window that showed the Jacuzzi and Max already waiting in the water.
His use of the five minutes was also impressive. There was a pedestal bucket with a bottle of wine waiting, two glasses and a privacy screen on the far side where there was a small chance the neighbors might be able to see over to them. He’d laid out two massive towels on a chair next to the stairs into the tub.
Trotting outside, she walked to the stairs and took a deep breath. She’d really never done this before, so she had no idea where this had come from. Max watched her every move like a hawk and sat up a little straighter when she was on the stairs. Pulling the tie to unfasten it, she let the robe fall open, revealing her naked form to him. She slipped the robe down her arms, dropped it on the chair with the towel, and sat down on the edge.
Max’s eyes had a bit of white-blue glow to them as he watched her swing her feet over the edge and drop them in the tub with him. The water was nearly too hot, but she slid in the rest of the way and moved over smoothly to sit next to him.
He watched her breasts the whole time.
“Excuse me, Mister Czerkanowicz. My eyes are up here.” She tipped his head up.
His eyes were burning, white hot with desire, and his mouth crashed down on hers before she could even gasp at the look there. He completely possessed her and pulled her around to sit on his lap.
“Fuck, you’re perfect,” he breathed, one hand finding her breast and the other palming her ass to pull her even closer.
He was rock-hard in the water and nestled right into the cleft of her pussy, hot and ready. She could barely breathe for the onslaught of him. His desire was overwhelming, and she had never felt this much want rolling through her.
“Max… Christ,” she managed, throwing her head back as he traced a scorching path down her neck with his lips. She held on to his shoulders and moaned as his hand lifted her breast out of the water, his lips finding the peak. Her body was already hot from the water, but his hands on her, his lips, pushed her to feverish.
The same tongue and lips that had kissed her senseless went to work on her breast and she was squirming from the ministrations and attention he gave her. His teeth grazed her, making the taut peak even harder and rushing the sexual desire to her pussy.
“I need you, Max,” she breathed, reaching down to find his hard cock and wrapping her hand around it.
He pulled off her tit for a moment. “I can’t get you pregnant, mój cenny. There’s a magic ritual for that. I want to come inside you, but if you—”
“Inside me, please. Please.” She held him against her cleft and rode him slowly for a moment, delighted by his very large size. A moment later, as his lips found her nipple again, she lifted just a little more and pushed the tip of him inside her, lowering herself with a satisfied moan.
“Oh, shit,” Max breathed. “Move on me, baby. Take what you want.”
He slipped into her depths and she felt wonderfully full. He played with her breasts as she slowly started to rock on him. Pulling him all the way out, she pressed him deep again, filling her all the way, nudging against her very top and causing the smallest of spasms through her sex. A pressure that sent the signals of a small, welcome pain through her body. She closed her eyes and rode over him in smooth, even strokes as his mouth and fingers played with her tits.
“Max…”
“Mmm. Amy…”
She rode him, feeling their skin sliding together, feeling his cock deep inside her, claiming her. They just existed, as he had done with the kiss days before. There was no demand, no begging. They possessed each other and enjoyed the shivers and tremors as she just simply moved.
Suddenly, her body went frantic. It was as if someone had thrown a switch. The smooth, careful motions weren’t enough. Her body started to crave an outlet, to crave a climax. Max thrust his hips up with each push and pull of her pussy on him. He drew his hand around her hip to the juncture of her thighs, where his cock worked frantically in and out of her, and trailed a finger up to her clit.
“Oh, shit, shit.” She gasped. “Max, make me come. Please, please. Make me come!”
His fingers on her heated, eager clit were just as talented there as everywhere else he had touched her so far. She couldn’t help but dig her fingers into his shoulders to hold on. A moment later, his hand was on her hip and he held her just over him. “Kneel there. Let me.”
Amy was about to ask him let him what?, but his hips started pistoning his cock, driving deep and fast into her channel as his fingers still played at her bundle of hot nerves. She savored the sensation of his big body just taking control and giving her exactly what she needed, what her body was craving.
Leaning forward, onto Max, she pressed her chest to his, but he ducked his head and snagged her nipple in his mouth. The sharp press of his teeth on the excited nipple sent her reeling. “Oh, fuck, Max! Max, yes!”
“Come for me, baby. Come on my cock.” He slammed his dick hard into her, and she was sure he was almost there with her. P
ressing her clit hard and dragging circles over it, Amy felt her whole body violently shake.
He moved his finger off her clit, and the blood rushed back, causing a little thrill of pain, and she tripped over the threshold, her orgasm roaring through. “Oh, fuck!”
Max’s body slammed into hers just a few more times as she tried to watch him through the fog of climax, and she could feel him spill himself deep, grunting and thrashing against her. He dropped back to the seat and pulled her close against his body, his cock still twitching from his release.
She laid her head on his chest and just stayed there. They could see the sun being swallowed by the incoming storms, and it cast a bright gold color on the clouds and the sky. Amy just smiled, listening to his breath and his galloping heartbeat as he calmed from the orgasm.
Looking up, she found that Max was grinning and had found a lock of her hair that had escaped. He was twirling in his fingers.
“Good?” he asked.
Amy took a breath to answer him and stopped. She had been about to compare him to Brent. Max’s grin spread.
“It’s okay. I’m not jealous of him. Or anyone else you’ve been with.”
She kissed his jaw. “You’re better than all of them. It took me months to teach Brent how to make me come, and you figured it out in one shot.”
“Advantage, dragon shifter.”
Chuckling, she nestled against him again, just as his shaft finally relaxed enough to withdraw from her. “I don’t usually suggest things like this.”
“Getting naked?”
“Having sex in a hot tub.”
“Mmm. I don’t mind it at all.” He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “I think sex with you anywhere would be amazing.”
“Well, we have a few more options, like three bedrooms. A couch. A shower stall or two.”
“I plan to use all of them.” He glanced down at her. “What happened to your dad? I know you said he’s not around anymore.”
“He died, about seven years ago. He was killed.” Amy paused, reluctant to open a wound, but also wanting to share with Max. “He was murdered by one of his clients just before he was supposed to report to the prison. He said my dad had loused up the whole defense and that’s why he was going to jail. Nothing to do with the fact he had actually stolen the car, was running a chop shop, and my dad had gotten him a drastically reduced sentence. Brody James Bowers. He was given life, to start after his grand theft sentences. No chance of parole.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You didn’t kill him. Bowers is in jail. I am not one for the death penalty even if he did kill my dad.” She shrugged. “He’s never slept a peaceful night anyway.”
Max gave her a sidelong glance. “You…”
“Dreamwalked. I can literally give you nightmares every night of your life without anything more than one visit. I was taught not to be that kind of vindictive person, but watching him suffer after killing someone who tried to help him makes me…warm and fuzzy.”
“And here I thought you were all kinds of innocent.”
“I have never laid a finger on another human being. You may take that to the bank.”
“Their dreams, on the other hand…”
Nodding lightly, Amy sniffled. “Their dreams are mine. We are one of the strongest dreamwalking families. Dad and I could do all sorts of things that would make other people freak out, or go insane. I could drive a man mad if I so chose. I don’t find that useful, though. It’s more useful to talk in dreams, to explore the memories.”
“Have you ever…?” He tapped his skull.
Laughing, Amy sat back on his lap. “No. Never. Not without permission. The only people I do any exploration on are the pro bono cases that aren’t cut and dry.”
“Isn’t that influencing the law?”
“No, not really. Because if I find something I or Carl don’t agree with, we can recuse ourselves and let another lawyer take it on. And we use things like conflict with other clients, or something along those lines. Never the real reason. Can you imagine us trying to recuse ourselves from a case citing dreamwalking?”
“There’s a reason why Pine Valley is a thing.” Max smiled. “I know that one of our county judges is a dryad, and he would totally want the real reason, even if he couldn’t enter it into record.”
“The Honorable Milford B. Villalobos, judge, Oak Creek County.”
Nodding, Max laughed. “That’s him. You’re good that you remember that.”
“We only started using computers to track magicals recently. Everything before 2010 was memorized and written in journals. We had to remember it. Now we have a damn app.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Totally not, there’s a Sectorum App that you download at the headquarters. You have to be on the Wi-Fi there to get it, but you can use it anywhere.”
Max moved his hands to the sides of her breasts and stroked the skin there softly. “Magic joins the digital age.”
“It wasn’t that we didn’t want to join the modern age,” Amy answered, enjoying his hands, “but we didn’t trust anyone to create this database. You can’t store bear, wolf, and lion shifters identities in the cloud. It had to be on a locked server with no other purpose and very little chance of hacking. The firewalls and encryption on this is amazing. If you don’t have a fingerprint scanner on your phone, you can’t even open the app.”
“Nice,” Max said with a nod. He ran his hands over the top of her plump breast. “I’m totally going with what my dick is telling me here. Shower?”
“That’s one way to change the subject.” Amy moved her finger to circle one of his nipples. “I wouldn’t be opposed to a nice shower.”
“A nice”—he kissed her nose—“long”—this time the side of her mouth—“hot”—a peck on the lips—“shower.” He caught her full on the mouth.
Late August
Pine Valley
“So the magnitudes of the stars are inverse to what you think they ought to be. A magnitude negative four star is a very bright star in the sky, whereas an M three point five would be hard to see with the human eye.”
Max walked to another board. “Now, that’s strict magnitude. There’s also apmag, which is apparent, observable magnitude. A white star will appear brighter than a yellow one, which will appear brighter than an orange one, generally. A supermassive orange giant may appear brighter than a standard yellow.”
A hand shot up from the back of the classroom.
“Yes?”
“Professor, do you know where the bathroom is?”
Max wanted to hurl the eraser at the student. “Name a star. Any star that isn’t our sun.”
“I—”
He folded his arms and leaned up from his desk. “I know where the bathroom is. And I will impart that to you once you name a damn star in the sky.”
“Alderaan.”
He cringed. “Try again.”
“That’s a star!”
“Not in our universe. Try again. There are six thousand stars visible to the naked eyes any night. I’m asking for one. Just one.”
“Alderaan is totally—”
“The Death Star destroyed Alderaan. And the name of the star you’re looking for in our non-film universe is Alderbaran. Any star. Name me a star.”
The student stared at him, looking desperate. “I…don’t know. Sirius?”
“Bingo! Thank you, Harry Potter. Down the hall, make a left at the first hallway, and it’s down on the right.”
The student took off like a bat out of hell, and Max leaned against the desk. “Look. I know this is your first solid science in college. But you all have to read the required work. If you want to go into science, this is your life. Reading. Learning facts. Understanding them. Spitting them back out appropriately. Science is trying to understand the world around us. Apmag, like I was explaining, may not seem helpful right now, but if you learn about physics of light, you’ll see what I’m talking about how things work. How scien
ces are related. What the hell has magnitude got to do with the Krebs cycle? You’ll find out when you have to do chemical analysis of photosynthesis.”
Glancing at the clock, he shook his head. “Homework is on your syllabus. Due next class. Remember I take points off for each class it’s late. Be prepared for weird questions from me at all times!”
The students packed up their bags and computers and headed out of the lecture hall as Niko made his way down the stairs to his desk.
“You’re still a jerk.” Niko grinned.
“Is there any other way to be? I’ll still have four ass-kissers and two flirters by the end of the semester.” He sighed. “Going to North Carolina this weekend?”
“Yup. You know, your girl is a wonderful facilitator. She sets up dreamdates for me and Betsy on the regular. I think that if it weren’t for that I would have lost my mind already.”
Gathering his lecture notes and putting them back in the binder, Max sighed. “She’s not my girl.”
“Still?”
He shook his head. “She really thinks I can just up and move to North Carolina and get a job at one of the physics departments nearby.”
Niko folded his arms. “You haven’t told her about the hoard.”
“You know damn well I can’t. I can’t even imagine, first, giving up my scope, and two, attempting to transport my entire fucking hoard to some terribly insecure cave in the mountains there. Ow!” He put a hand to his head. “See? The dragon just basically skull punched me.”
Patting him on the back, Niko snickered. “I get it. Believe me.”
“You told Betsy straight out about your hoard.”
“Yeah, don’t use me as an example. We were a totally different situation. My little thief needed some motivation to stop stealing and start being honest.”
“So, what brings you here, Puff?”
“Ugh. Really? You too?” Niko shook his head. “So, Keni is asking for there to be a little locked meeting out at the ley lines. She said there’s something going on and it’s not good. She, Sia, and Poppy are all kind of acting weird, and I think something is really up. Rijn left me a cryptic message too.”
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