by Roxie Ray
He nodded. “Yes, we are sure now. The twins confirmed it. They’re dragons.”
As much as I was dumbfounded and bewildered, things made so much more sense. Now I knew why the town had a cult, and this was probably why I had such an enigmatic personality. Everybody loved me.
Except my parents. They’d loved their addictions more.
Skye and Bri became a little more distant when they got serious with Anthony and Jace. Not to be mean or hurt people but because their secrets along with their men and families would be revealed if I dug too deep. It hurt, made me a little sad that they couldn’t trust me with their secrets, but I wanted to be understanding. I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone, either.
The mate thing was sticking with me. “Is the mate thing what happened with Skye and Bri?”
“I think so, yes. They would’ve had to distance themselves at least a little.”
“I suspect I’ll be wanting a more detailed chat with my ladies,” I said darkly. “I need specifics.”
Porter laughed. “I suspect you are correct.”
“One thing I know is that I’m completely safe. That you’d never allow anyone to hurt me. I feel that down to my bones.”
He leaned in, scooting to the edge of the chair and pressed his lips to mine. It was sweet and gentle and set my blood on fire. “I’ve waited a long time to do that. This wasn’t how I expected it to happen, but—”
I didn’t let him finish. Instead, I moved closer and kissed him back with everything I had. It reminded me that I wasn’t dreaming, and this was all very real.
When I finally came up for air, Porter stood, brushing his knuckles along my jawline. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”
He walked out and as soon as he opened the door, Skye and Bri rushed inside.
“You didn’t trust me,” I said accusingly before they could open their mouths. “And that hurts.”
“I’m so sorry,” Bri said.
At the same time, Skye’s face crumpled, and she began to cry. “We wanted to. So much.”
Skye’s likely hormonal reaction broke my heart. I jumped up and wrapped my arms around her. “No, you can’t cry. I’m not really mad. I just had to give you a hard time.”
She sniffled and wiped her eyes. “We really did want to tell you.”
Bri nodded in earnest.
“It’s okay. Forgiven. But I have one question.” I nodded toward the couch and they both sat. I pulled the chair close and crossed my legs to look them in the eyes. “What is sex with a dragon like?”
16
Porter
I wanted to know what those women were talking about so much that it made my neck hair stand on end. But I played the gentleman and kept my hearing muted, so I didn’t pick up on their private conversations.
That didn’t stop my lips from tingling with the memory of her kiss and my tattoo from burning like mad.
“How are you holding up?” Anthony asked. “This is a lot.”
“Uh, well, Kaylee is my chosen mate, which once chosen feels one hell of a lot like a fated mate, from what I can tell. She’s part pixie and part pure allure, so I’m…” I sucked in a calming breath. “I’m okay.”
“I figured this would happen once your head caught up with your heart about Kaylee.”
Jace chuckled along with Anthony. “You hadn’t realized you’d chosen her until today, had you?”
I shook my head. “No. But I want to do this right. She’s approached by men all the time, and I want to feel worthy of her choosing me back.”
We waited on the porch on the three women inside that we cared about most in the world while the rest of the clan enjoyed their flight.
A couple of hours later, the door opened and Skye, Bri, and Kaylee came out. “I miss my babies,” Skye said to Anthony. “Take me home.”
He grinned and stood, then walked down the porch steps.
Skye looked at Kaylee. “Don’t freak out.”
Kaylee didn’t have a chance to open her mouth before Anthony shifted into an enormous dragon. Skye beamed at us all before hurrying after him. He lowered himself so she could climb on his back.
“Enjoy!” Bri yelled. “You won’t be able to do that much longer.”
Skye waved. “It’s worth it,” she called as Anthony took to the air. He flew her out toward the water, going far out as we watched before he turned left toward his place and where the flight originated.
“Whoa,” Kaylee whispered behind us. “That looks fun.”
Bri and Jace chuckled. “Yes, it does,” Bri said. “Let’s go!” She ran out into the yard and waited for Jace to get up.
“That’s my cue,” he said with a lazy smile. “Time to fly.”
As he ran, he transformed. Bri, being not pregnant and rather athletic, took off after him and climbed him like a gymnast.
“Shit,” Kaylee hissed. “That’s amazing. They have to have been practicing.”
She stood beside me at the porch railing, watching the dragons frolicking in the distance. “You want to try?” I asked.
The tiny intake of breath told me she definitely wanted to go fly. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye, ready to transform and let her climb on, but she shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “Not yet.”
“Yet?” I asked. Turning, I took her hands and looked deep into her eyes. “Let me take you on a date. I know you do streams on the weekends, so choose a weekday, any of them. I’ll arrange my schedule.”
She shut me up by pressing her lips against mine and setting my body on fire. “I can upload some prerecorded videos. We can go on a weekend. Take me on a date.”
I couldn’t stop the grin that spread across my face as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “May I get your number, please?”
She took my phone in her long, slender fingers and typed quickly. “There you go. Text me later?”
I nodded silently as she walked down the steps and to her car. “Hey,” I called, grinning when Kaylee turned her long neck and looked at me over her shoulder. “Let me know you got home safe.”
Before she got in the driver’s seat, she turned and gave me a long, quiet look. Then she left.
Oh, man. I was way in over my head. And I couldn’t wait to figure out how to swim to the top.
As soon as Kaylee’s car was out of sight, I texted her my number and smiled when she didn’t reply. Not texting while driving. She was responsible.
She texted me that night and every night. We talked about little things like food and drinks, what night we should go out and have our date. How my work was going, how hers had gone when she filmed and edited. Everything about our week. Our favorite things. Our least favorite things. We finally opened up and got to know one another the way I wished we had that first night she approached me in Jace’s bar.
On Wednesday night, I had to see her without going onto her website, which I’d already admitted to her that I’d done. Thankfully, she’d thought it was funny.
We talked about our childhoods, and Kaylee opened up to me about hers. We stayed on the phone for hours, so late that I was wrecked at work the next day.
She was no stranger to hard work, and now that she did online streaming, even though it seemed like she was working or thinking about how to improve her work pretty much all the time, she felt like she had it on easy street now.
I pointed out that it sure seemed like she worked more hours now than she had when she was at a more traditional job.
She was so much more than I’d expected. Over the course of the week, I must’ve apologized a dozen times for judging her based on her career and not her character. She told me she forgave me, but I planned to continue trying to make it up to her until I felt the difference was made up and not a moment before that.
She wasn’t the only one to open up. I told her about our father, and what he did to Jace and me, as well as our mothers. I told her all about my clan and why it had been difficult giving them up.
All week I couldn’t resist sending
her things. I knew she was used to buying anything she wanted for herself, so I worked to find things that weren’t expensive but were still significant.
She’d told me how much she loved watching videos of screaming goats online, so I found a little figurine of a goat on a website that screamed when pressed and overnighted it to her apartment. The goat itself was less than ten bucks, and I specifically requested the amount of the shipping not be displayed on the package. No need for her to realize how much overnight shipping had cost me. I didn’t care about it, neither should she.
The next day, I had the local florist deliver their oldest, nearly dead bouquet of flowers because Kaylee loved to make her own fragrance using the petals. She’d mentioned that she didn’t like getting bouquets of fresh flowers and that she would often stop in for the cast-offs to turn into something beautiful.
Ugly duck flowers.
Kaylee was no ugly duck, not physically. The more I got to know her, the more I realized she was one inside, though, not learning her beautiful, immense worth until she grew up and let her parents’ betrayal go.
She mentioned that she had a personal chef and that he’d asked to miss a week for a short vacation. She’d been surviving on takeout all week.
I had a meal that I’d prepared myself, taken over to her, but I’d gone to the deli and bought all the stuff to make the meal seem like it was from a restaurant. Only after she’d eaten it and texted me asking where it had come from had I told her the truth.
In short, I did everything I could think of all week to make her think about me and smile.
I hoped it had worked.
One of the few subjects we hadn’t discussed in any depth was her career. It was a conversation we’d have to have, no doubt. I’d never make her quit doing what she loved, but I did have concerns about the long-term outlook of her job, including the possibility of pervs and stalkers. If we went long-term and started talking about children and marriage and the whole nine, I would prefer my mate to be in a less risky position.
I hoped she agreed.
When I parked in front of Kaylee’s building, I braced myself. I’d promised myself that we would broach this subject early before either of us was too far gone in our feelings.
Yeah, right. I was head over heels already. If this were a deal-breaker, I’d have to let her have her way. I didn’t want to give her up, that was sure.
I knocked on her door with resolve in my heart, but the moment she opened it, that all went flying out the window. Speaking became a chore. She was beyond gorgeous.
I’d never before been possessive or jealous, not with anyone I’d ever dated. But then, I’d never felt like this with anyone. I wanted to cover her up from head to toe and growl at any man who dared gaze upon her.
Damn it. I had to keep this shit under control. It wasn’t okay and would just make her run screaming. “You look amazing,” I said instead of pushing her inside and showing her what she’d done to me.
She batted her eyelashes demurely. “Let me grab my wrap.”
I helped her pull a silk wrap around her lace dress and held her hand down the steep stairs outside her apartment. She didn’t need my help, walking in heels looked like second nature for her.
We’d opted to drive into the city near my firm so I could take her to a restaurant that had been recommended to me there. It was supposed to be romantic and private and give us an opportunity for a lovely dinner.
Everything I wanted to talk about kept flying out of my head as we sat and ate. She captivated me utterly.
But then she said something about her long-term plans and if I’d been a dog, my ears would’ve swiveled. “What are your long-term plans?” I asked since she’d brought it up. Maybe I’d never even have to mention that I’d love for her to get out of the game eventually.
Kaylee blotted her plump lips with her napkin and smiled. “I’ve discovered, especially once I started helping Bee, that I love editing. And this new world of digital everything means that I have a real shot of getting into it. Hell, even if I edit porn, once I’m ready to go behind the screen full-time, it’s good work. Good money. I just need to get a few things in place financially so that I can be on more of a maintenance salary, you know?”
I nodded. “I get that completely.” I couldn’t say what I wanted, that my job as an attorney would provide more than we’d ever need financially. She was the type of person who would always want to contribute.
She gave me a sarcastic look. “I would’ve been a lot closer to that goal if somebody hadn’t waylaid my plans to buy a house.”
Blanching, I changed the subject away from that fiasco. If I’d known then what I knew now, I would’ve given it to her. “Hey, maybe if I branch into my own office one day, you could help me put together advertisements.”
She sat up and her face brightened. “I would love that!”
“So, you’re only staying on-screen long enough to meet certain financial goals?” I asked. “Then on to what you really love?”
She nodded, but then narrowed her eyes. “Does that matter to you?”
I set my fork down and met her gaze. She deserved my honesty. “I’ve seen what you do. It’s beautiful, and not only because you are beautiful. It’s helpful and honest, and you put a lot of yourself into doing it.”
She beamed at me. “I’m so glad you see it that way.”
Time for the other shoe. “But you also aren’t quiet about who you are and what you do. It’s potentially dangerous. You’ve been so lucky thus far, but I can’t help but worry what the future might bring. What psycho or stalker might find you? I would want you to stop when you’re ready, but not because I don’t want you to do what you do. I want you to be safe, and my, uh…” I looked around and lowered my voice. “Inner demon, so to speak, is insistent that you always be safe. It’s almost a primal urge and extremely hard to control.”
She chewed thoughtfully before nodding. “Okay. I agree with everything you said. It’s not about what I do, but the inevitable dangers that come along with it.”
I wanted to pull her into my arms and jump for joy that she’d understood. Instead, I sat still and smiled at her.
“The show is helping me reach my goals quicker than I could have imagined so I don’t at all regret starting it. But no, it isn’t my passion, I’m simply good at it.” She chuckled. “Everyone’s gotta be good at something, right?”
“I imagine you’re good at a great many things,” I said, thinking about the videos of her I’d watched. “But yes, you are particularly adept at your chosen career.”
Her eyes burned like fire and so did my arm. “For the future, as long as you come home to me, that’s all I care about.” I shrugged. “And that you’re safe.”
“You want to be the person I come home to?” Kaylee asked quietly.
“There’s no use denying it,” I told her. Unbuttoning my shirt sleeve, I showed her the tattoo. “It’s darker than ever, and still burns like mad.”
Dinner was hard to focus on after that because the tension between us was thick. I didn’t want to make assumptions and rush things, but I wanted her, and unless my instincts were totally off base, she wanted me, too.
Later, I didn’t remember paying the tab or walking her to the car or even driving her home. I walked her to the door and kissed her lips politely, ignoring the inferno of lust inside me.
“What are you doing?” Kaylee asked when I turned to walk down the stairs. “Aren’t you coming in?”
“Kaylee… if I step into that apartment, I won’t be able to be a gentleman,” I warned her.
Her eyes darkened and she stepped back, holding the door open. “Get in here.”
17
Kaylee
Something about this man made me forget about good girl things, not that I usually worried about good girl things, about more than wanting and needing. Oh, God, the needing. I waited for him to walk in, to step across the threshold. Maybe he’d forgotten some things, too, like walking, forward motio
n, or that for us to fuck, he was going to have to practice both of the aforementioned acts.
When he opted to do neither, I pulled him inside by his tie then dropped it as he made it through the door. “I wasn’t kidding.”
He chuckled and wrapped his arms around my waist. “You have two beds.”
I nodded and reached down to slip off my heels, letting his arms steady me and using my body to rub against him. No way was he getting out of that promise. “Two beds, fourteen vibrators, a few pairs of handcuffs—one is pink fur, if you’re interested.” I didn’t want him to be interested. “A virgin riding crop,”—it was the virgin not me— “a wax melter, a paddle.” He hadn’t asked for my inventory, but I was happy to give it. Wanted him to know I didn’t have a lot of hard limits. “Anal beads, ball gag and a mask, too.” Though those were all still in boxes, untouched and unused so far. For now.
He kissed me slowly, sensually, with his entire body and his hands. Fuck, his hands were like a separate being. And they were everywhere. In my hair. On my ass. Under the skirt and on my thigh. And somehow, hot. Not like sexy hot, though he was that in all ways. But his temperature ran hotter than any guy I’d ever been with. A dragon thing?
From somewhere low in his chest, he growled, and it rumbled straight to my pussy. “Oh, God.” He dragged his lips down my throat, teeth grazing, palm cupping my breast. Only a thin layer of fabric separated us, and I ached for the skin-to-skin contact. Burned.
We hadn’t removed a single stitch of clothing, and I was already perilously close to the edge. Desperate for more. For as much as I could get.
I couldn’t wait for him to undress either of us. I pushed him back, so he was against the wall, his back the one pressed into the space between the door and the window.
In my life, I’d had a lot of orgasms. More than my fair share, probably, but none I wanted more than this one. I closed my eyes and moved by instinct, let the primal need and raw passion take over where desire and desperation left off.