by Roxie Ray
“What are you?” he asked, still staring at me as if he had stripped me bare and saw me for exactly who I was.
“What?” I whispered. “I don’t understand. I’m nothing. Just Kaylee.”
“No, you’re more. I just don’t know what it is yet.”
The twins slammed into my knees then, bringing me back to the party with a gasp.
Porter nodded once at me and then stood, walking over to Jace and Anthony to talk. We didn’t get a chance to talk again until it was time to go. I’d had a wonderful time and my gifts had been a hit, which was a gift for me. I loved buying things for other people. As I put on my coat, he grabbed his. “Can I walk you out?”
I’d said goodbye to my friends, so I waved as Porter held the door open. He took my basket out of my hands, full of presents my friends had gotten for me. “Did you have a good time?” he asked.
“I did,” I said softly as I dug my keys out of my purse. “Did you?”
“Yep. You know,” he stopped and tried that stare again. “Your face transforms when you smile. You should do it more often.”
The pleasant camaraderie between us flattened in an instant. “Did you just tell me to smile more?”
He widened his eyes. “Yes?”
“Do you understand that’s something men tell women all the time? Like… all the time? As if smiling and being pleasant and pretty is some responsibility of those with a vagina in order to keep the males of our species happy.”
He gaped at me for a split second, and I could've sworn I saw the lightbulb go off behind his eyes. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Nobody wants to smile all the time.”
I accepted his apology. He hadn’t meant anything bad, but damn, if I was able to get one man to never ever say that again, I called it a win. “Thank you for saying that.”
The energy between us flowed as we stood outside my car, igniting me again. What was this thing we had? It was electric, but almost literally.
“Kaylee, what are you?” He leaned close and stared at me intently.
“Why do you keep asking that? Is it your pickup line?”
He shook his head and narrowed his eyes, but not like he was aggravated. Just studying me. “No, I want to know. I feel like you put a spell on me.”
Good lord, he meant it. A laugh bubbled out of my mouth and I clutched his bicep as I chortled. He flexed his arm under my hand, so I jerked it back like he’d scalded me. “I assure you,” I said through my laughter. “I have no power to cast a spell on anyone.”
Porter made a sound a lot like a growl, which shut my laughter down completely. I stared at him, trying to figure out if he’d actually just growled at me. But he sucked in a deep breath. “Well, I should go.”
I arched an eyebrow and nodded. “I think that’s best.”
“Get home safe.” When he turned and rushed back into the house, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.
What in the absolute hell was wrong with that man? And why was I so intrigued by him that I wanted to dig into it and find out?
12
Porter
The door shut the cold night air out but not the buzzing on my skin that directly linked to Kaylee.
Something strange was going on. Even for a chosen mate, these feelings weren’t normal. Especially given that she was human. I walked back into the living room where Skye and Anthony were busy putting gloves and warm woolen caps on their sleepy toddlers and waited for them to say their goodbyes.
When it was just Bri’s family and Jace and me, I nodded to him.
“Care if we talk?” I asked when he walked over.
“Sure,” he muttered, then raised his voice. “We’re going to get some air. Be right back.”
Neither of us bothered with a coat, not truly affected by the cold. We weren’t generally considered to be fire-breathing dragons, but still, it was difficult for us to get truly cold.
“What do you know about Kaylee’s history?” I just jumped right into the deep end. “Is her family magical in some way?”
He pursed his lips and hopped up on the porch railing. “I’m not sure. Not as far as I know. Why do you ask?”
I sighed and finally came clean. “I’ve been having a problem for a while. It started when Kaylee and I argued and she…” I shifted where I stood, hyperaware of my penis, resting between my legs.
Not hard.
“She what?” Jace gave me a crazy look and his eyebrows scrunched together.
“She cursed me.” A weight lifted off my shoulders, admitting that. Maybe I could get to the bottom of things now.
“Cursed you how?”
Great. He hadn’t gotten the point.
“She said she hoped I’d never get it…” I mumbled the last of her curse. “Hard again.”
He put his hand behind his ear and leaned forward. “She hoped you’d never get what?”
“An erection!” I said in a loud voice. “She said she hoped I’d never get another erection.”
Thank goodness everyone inside had normal human hearing.
“Okay, so? Don’t tell me it worked.” He stared at me for a minute, then when I didn’t answer and wouldn’t meet his gaze, he burst out laughing. “You didn’t let her get in your head? Surely not.”
“It’s not in my head. That’s why I went to Doc. It’s not funny. I haven’t had a single erection since she cursed me.” I didn’t fault him for laughing. If it wasn’t me and wasn’t so recent, I’d be laughing, too. But he could’ve laughed at least a little bit less. “It’s not funny.”
“I don’t know what to do with this information.” To his credit, his eyes watered from the effort of trying not to laugh. “Have you consulted Sammy? She’d know if there was anyone else magical in our area.”
As I opened my mouth to say I didn’t have her number, the front door opened, and she walked out of the house like she’d been there the whole time. Jace and I both gaped at her in shock.
“I’ll never get used to you doing that,” Jace said.
Sammy giggled quietly and waved her hand. “Kaylee isn’t a witch, nor did she put a spell on you.”
“Then what did she do?” I asked. “This isn’t me doing this.”
She smirked. “I thought you needed a cooling-off period, so I did a little spell of my own after you were being such a judgmental dick.”
“This was you?” Jace asked, then died laughing again. “You are pure, hilarious evil, Sammy.”
While he had his eyes closed and was distracted with his laughter at my misfortune, I stepped quickly over and shoved him off the porch.
He hit the ground with a thud and kept laughing, but at least I didn’t have to look at him.
Sammy waved her hand and it felt like another weight came off of me, this time not metaphysical.
It was definitely physical this time. My body felt lighter and freer than it had moments before. I hadn’t realized how much the block had affected me until it was gone. “You’re finally seeing what’s right in front of you instead of letting your judgmental brain lead you. I’ll remove my curse.”
“You’re an evil little pixie,” Jace yelled from the space in front of the porch. He jumped to his feet and dusted the mulch off of his back.
“Mind your business, Jace, or I’ll make your dick leak pus. Don’t compare me to those tiny twits with wings again.”
Jace blanched and apparently decided not to come back up on the porch and risk it. He stood on the walkway and watched us with raised eyebrows.
Sammy gave Jace a long, steady look, then turned back to me. “Stay on the path you’re on and you’ll reap great benefits from it.”
I didn’t have the foggiest clue what she was talking about, but I smiled at her as if I did.
With a slow head shake, Sammy winked. “Go home and test out the spell being gone. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
She poofed out, disappearing so quickly I had to blink to get my mind to function again.
Jace shook his head and walked
slowly back up the porch steps. “She’s always so cryptic. But we love her, and she loves us. Believe it or not, she’s got your best interests at heart.”
I believed it, but it was getting late. We went in and I said my goodbyes, thanking Bri’s parents profusely and saying goodbye to Bri’s little sister, Bee, and Hayden.
All the way home, all I could think about were Kaylee’s big blue eyes with Sammy’s voice telling me to go home and basically take my libido for a test drive.
I had no intention of doing as she’d said, but after a shower, I climbed into bed and didn’t want to let my mind drift onto sadder things. The next thing I knew, I had Kaylee’s website pulled up on my phone.
Why not? She wouldn’t stay out of my mind anyway. I might as well have a visual aid.
She was live. At home, right at that moment, just a few buildings down from me, naked and I could see her.
Was it an invasion of privacy?
No. She did this for a living.
I clicked on the button to take me to her live broadcast but hit a fucking paywall.
Of course.
Reaching back, I used one of my old emails that had a generic name and couldn’t be tied to me on the off chance she even paid any attention to that sort of thing.
I had an old gift card that I used to use for online purchases before I got a PayFriend account to secure my online transactions. Typing the number quickly in, I was pleased when it went through for a $19.99 one-month subscription.
Awesome. There’d been enough on it. Before I clicked the button again, I thought long and hard about whether or not I should be doing this. I could just go to her place and knock on the door.
But she wouldn’t answer when she was in the middle of a live stream, would she? No.
If I wanted to test out my newly freed penile abilities, I had to click the button.
Kaylee wore a different outfit but still Christmas themed with her Santa hat on her head. Her skin was shiny and polished as if she’d put oil all over herself. I was absolutely captivated.
And so was my dick.
Hot damn. She wasn’t even doing anything yet, and I was aroused. Men asked questions in the comments and she answered, talking about her Christmas plans while being vague about the details so as to not give up too much.
She was a master.
For the most part, the stream seemed innocent enough until the cash started to flow in, and the streamers started requesting more action, which was exactly what Kaylee seemed to be waiting for. She put on a peep show without exposing her full body and tantalized me and all the other viewers, of course. The tease was hotter than her exposing her full body and the next thing I knew, I’d reached into my bedside table for some lube.
I slowly stroked myself as Kaylee looked at the camera and pressed a vibrator against her clit. Her blue eyes disappeared as they rolled back in her head and she made the most natural-sounding moan I’d ever heard in porn.
There was no way I was going to make it through the entire stream. She was just getting started and already my balls tingled like they wanted to release the pent-up orgasm I’d been working on since she’d cursed me.
Why was she so alluring?
I made it almost all the way through, but as she orgasmed, as her cries crescendoed, I’d had all I could take. I grabbed a tissue with my free hand just in time to catch my seed as it fell. My gaze stayed glued to Kaylee through her entire orgasm.
More than anything, I wanted to watch her face fall apart underneath me, and then I wanted to build her up and let her fall apart all over again.
After finally having an orgasm, I slept like a baby.
Christmas morning sucked.
It didn’t just suck. It was about the worst I’d ever had. I spent the morning in bed, trying to go back to sleep.
It didn’t work. I finally got up and made a cup of half cocoa/half coffee, just like my mom and I would’ve made. The tree I’d put up was sad looking, but I’d dug out a few of our ornaments. As I sipped the drink and stared at the ornaments, I thought about my mom.
No kids. No wife. For the longest time, I thought I didn’t need either. Women came in for a day or two, a couple weeks tops. They weren’t mate material anyway. Nobody wanted to settle down.
And neither had I. But the bottom of the tree was so lonely without any Santa gifts underneath it.
Maybe a mate and a houseful of kids wasn’t the worst idea in the world.
Staying in the loft wasn’t a possibility. It was too lonely here, too sad. After brushing my teeth and throwing on jeans and a sweater, I walked down the stairs outside and looked around downtown.
There were a few people out and about. The town had been decorated for weeks, but all the shopkeepers had left their lights on. A couple of speakers dotted around Main street blared Christmas carols.
Strolling along, I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked at shop windows, businesses, and nodded at the few people walking around.
At the end of the street was a corkboard behind glass. It advertised town events, had a lost dog notice, and other small notices. In the middle was an advertisement for a light show happening tonight to celebrate the holiday.
Sounded fun.
I ambled away from Main, toward the coast. A hot chocolate cart was set up on the boardwalk, and a surprising number of people milled around, looking at the water, sitting together, being together. I found a bench to sit on and sipped on a surprisingly delicious hot chocolate from the cart.
Being around the people, even though I wasn’t with them, made me just a little less lonely. Enough to sit here and make it through the morning all by myself.
The back of my neck tingled before she sat down. I closed my eyes because even though I’d been denying it, the truth was becoming infinitely harder to ignore. My dragon was reacting to Kaylee because my feelings for her had been changing. The potential of something more was there, and I’d been denying it. But the more I learned about Kaylee, the more I realized I had no reason to deny it. And the potential of a chosen mate had my dragon itching.
She plopped down next to me and crossed her legs with a drink in her hand. “What’s got you out and about?”
“Probably the same reason you’re here. Not wanting to be home alone.” I tapped my hot chocolate cup to hers. “Cheers.”
“I’m not a fan of holidays. My parents were…” She sighed. “Addicts. Are addicts still, as far as I know. Holidays were just another day of me cleaning up vomit and helping them off the floor before working whatever part-time job I had at the time.” She took a long drink then laughed. “I’m sorry. I get a bit melancholy this time of year. I’ll be going to my grandfather’s later, but nothing fills up all the hours.”
Nothing but a real family. A spouse and children. Or parents. “It’s okay. I like hearing you talk. And I like learning more about you.” I watched the water as I talked. “Christmas was my mom’s favorite holiday.”
“You should go see her,” she said and put her hand on my knee. “Take flowers to her grave. Spend some time with her. I know it may seem hard, but it might make you feel better.”
She squeezed my knee where her hand still rested on it, then stood. “Merry Christmas, Porter. I hope you get through it as painlessly as possible.”
I looked deep into her eyes as she smiled at me. She meant it. She wanted me to have a nice day, if that was even possible.
As she walked away, my gaze stayed glued to her backside. No way I could resist that.
And she was right. I was going to go see my mom. It would be emotional, but I was grateful to Kaylee for suggesting it. It was what I needed.
Too bad I’d miss the light show. But I needed to be close to my mother tonight, on the holiday. Maybe I’d catch it next year.
13
Kaylee
“Come in!” I called. Bee was coming over to edit a few more videos she’d made. She was convinced she wasn’t ready to branch out on her own yet, though I thought she could do it. She h
ad a knack for it.
Bee bustled in with her arms full of makeup and outfits. “Thank you, a million times,” she said breathlessly. “What would I do without you?”
“Ah,” I brushed her thanks away. “You’d figure it out.” Taking an armload of the clothes from her, I piled it all up on the bed. “We’re good to go, except my chef is going to stop by and drop off some meals since he didn’t make it by on Christmas. He usually spreads out all over the island, so we should be fine to use the kitchen table.”
In the middle of sorting through the outfits, Bee froze and stared at me. “You have a chef?”
Laughing, I grabbed her makeup case and set it up on my kitchen table to give her room to spread out. Plus, there was a window over the sink, so the kitchen half of the apartment had good natural lighting. “Well, I hate to cook. What else should I do but hire someone?”
“Maybe I’m going into the wrong field.” She continued to good-naturedly grumble as she sorted out all her stuff for reshoots. “Tell me about your chef?”
“His name is Wayne. He comes twice a week and sometimes cooks stuff here but usually, he makes meals he prepared at home and froze, so all I have to do is reheat.”
She wiggled her eyebrows. “And here I expected you to say he was a naked chef. You know those guys they get to come to cater, like, bachelorette parties and stuff?”
I blinked at Bee several times, processing what it would be like to have Wayne moving around my kitchen in nothing but a black apron. “That would be nice.”
“Why, is he hot?” She giggled and began unpacking her makeup.
I moved to my computer desk and opened my laptop. “He’s beyond hot.”
“Why haven’t you gone for it, then?” Pausing in the act of setting out several different pots and brushes, she raised her eyebrows. “He gay?”
My computer dinged its welcome song as I laughed. “No, I don’t think so. Wayne and I are buddies, and that feels good. Neither of us really clicks with the other, I don’t think. He’s sweet, for sure, and I consider him a friend and care about him a lot, actually. And though he is really delicious, I’m just… not into him.” I shrugged. “Don’t really know specifically why.”