by Celeste Raye
Gina, desperate to get as much pleasure as possible, hooked her ankles around his shoulders, giving him an angle of penetration that took him deep into her body and her wetness spilled from her, her juices coating his member as he plunged in out of her body with a near reckless abandon.
A hard climax washed through her, making her inner folds clench and loosen around the long and fat rod within her body. Her teeth ground together, and she clutched at him with real feeling as his seed splattered into her folds, soaking them yet again.
She lay there, trapped beneath his welcome weigh, for long seconds. Then he groaned out, “That was not how I saw this happening.”
She said, “Oh. So, I was not the only one who thought about it?”
They gathered themselves up and started getting dressed. Craig said, “Not going to lie to you: I think about that night all the time. I was not sure if you even remembered for a while there and then I decided that even if you did, you did not want to.”
She sighed, her slim body slumping a bit. “We work together. I have to trust you with my life. I do mean my life, out there in the field and on the streets. That is heavy, you know? I have heard horror stories about partners who got it on and then one of them got really hurt. Not just because they broke up either. You know what I mean.”
His finger lifted her chin. “I would hope you know, very well, that I am not that kind of guy.”
“I did hope so but again, it is my life we are talking about and…and I had a job to do. I did not want to be distracted by a personal life. I had this silly idea that even if we were good together, and we were, that even if we could trust each other with our lives, even on a day or night when we were fighting between ourselves, that I would somehow be less good at my job.”
“I see.”
His answer irritated her. “No, you do not see. You see, I am a woman.”
“I know that.” He faced her. “I mean, I do. Swear.”
Ugh. Guys. She rolled her eyes. “If you have not noticed, it is not easy for a woman in the ranks. We tend to get shunted off to car duty. Or desk duty. I had to claw my way up, and of course, when there is a promotion, and you know there are not many to be had, they usually only come around when someone gets promoted, retired, or killed, then it almost always goes to a man. No matter how good I am, I am never as good as the guy standing right beside me. And no matter how bad that guy might be, he is still better than me based solely on the fact that he has a penis instead of a pussy.”
His face registered a little ire. “Are you saying I did not deserve that promotion?”
“No!” Her foot scuffed the ground. “I am just saying that I already knew that you would get it. I knew that. That was why I was so sure…oh, Jesus, I screwed up on the Gripper case. I did. I kept thinking if I could just find those two, Christy and Heather, and prove that maybe he had killed other victims we did not find and somehow get a clue as to his methods or whatever that I would, finally, be the first in line for a promotion.”
She did not want to fight with him. She had never voiced her anger at the system in their police department before and that she just had left her feeling hopeless and pissed off.
Craig said, “Gina, I had no idea.”
Tears came up in her eyes. This whole thing was too much to take. She was in a place she had never been before and did not want to be in. She had just made love to him and that had been a huge mistake. She had so much anger at the system, and he was a part of it whether he meant to be or not and her voice was ripe with pain as she snapped out, “Do not be sorry. It is not your fault.
“It has always been that way. Half the women in the department have never even seen the inside of a file on the Gripper, and if they have, it was just because they somehow managed to get the file out of the file room. I am the only one who ever worked on it, and the only reason that happened is because Jack went to bat for me and insisted that I work on it. He totally believes in me and has since I got onto the force, but I let him down, and the victims too. I let everyone down because I was so busy trying to prove that I was good enough and it is really obvious that I am not.
“If I had any kind of cop sense at all, any kind of sense, period, I would have known you were trying to keep me out of that hellish house for a damn good reason. I should have known it was too risky even if it was not a portal to this bullshit world where dragons live. Dragons! Which you are one of, thanks for letting me know that like before I slept with you the first time. Maybe that is something you should have considered, by the way.”
Jesus Christ, she was attacking him from every single angle, and she knew it, but she could not stop. Her anger at herself for her mistakes in the Gripper case, her grief over the lost lives that might have been prevented had she just pulled her head out of her ass and stopped trying to find two women who had been gone for a long time because she had been so sure, so stupidly sure, that she had gone stubborn; that they were unmarked Gripper victims.
Tears ran down her face. Craig pulled her into an embrace, and she sobbed out, “Leave me alone.”
“No.”
She was ugly crying now. She went limp, unable to stand it at all. She was supposed to be tough, and she was, but there she was, crying like a baby and for every and no reason at all.
He said, “Listen, you are one hell of a cop. I say it all the time. You are. I am so sorry the system sucks for women. That is not fair. If I stood in the way of a promotion you deserved, I did not deserve it. It is that simple.”
She sobbed out, “You did. I mean, you are the best cop in the station. Even Jack says you are better than even him and everyone knows what a great cop he is. I just…I just...I am so damn pissed at myself for what I did wrong. I am mad because we could have saved a life if I had not been so stubborn and stupid. I should have focused on the dead we had on hand and not worried about those two—and oh, I could just kick them for being here and making me have to look for them too!”
His chest rumbled beneath her wet cheek. “I would advise you not to. Dragons get really protective of their mates.”
“Oh great. So now I’ll get my ass roasted, like literally, for saying that.”
“I am the only one who heard you, and I am not going to tell anyone. Okay?”
She managed to get the tears to stop. She let out a watery sniffle. “Yeah. Jesus, I am a mess. What is wrong with me?”
His hands rested on the small of her back. “You care about people, and you are a good cop who just watched while a serial killer waltz off yet again. Do not keep blaming yourself, Gina. The guy was doing that and getting away with it for years before you came along. We can’t let ourselves get bogged down in that blame, not if we are going to stand a single chance of catching him.”
An idea came to her mind. “Hey, could he be…I mean, could he be someone from this world or the…the fairy world? I mean, could he be using portals to get away?”
Craig shook his head. “I thought about that too. But no. There’s a trace that evil leaves behind and the portal can sense it. It closes on it. To get through the portals, he would have to have a key, and even then, he might get lost in the portal.”
“So, he is just a run of the mill human monster.”
“We will catch him, Gina. We will.”
I love him. The words hit her brain and sizzled along the wiring up there. She stared at him, her whole heart suddenly realizing a truth she had not wanted to admit to herself. That was why she had not been willing to sleep with him again back in their world—her world. His adopted world. Because she had already had feelings for him and the more she was around him, the more dangerous that truth became.
She loved him. She loved him for his courage and his kindness and even his smart-ass ways. She loved that he would come waltzing into the station and dump a box of her favorite doughnuts on her desk without a word and walk away.
He did. He did that, and a lot. Not just doughnuts either. He knew all of her favorite things.
How had she not
noticed that?
He was always watching after her too. When she had gotten into trouble a few months ago, a perp she had been bringing in had suddenly bucked up on her. The perp had been on PCP and fighting, and the other cops had just sort of stood back and watched.
She could have been really hurt, would have been really harmed by that perp if Craig had not flown into the fray armed with a mop. He had literally used that mop as a weapon, sweeping the handle into the crazed man’s chest and throwing him across the room so she could get off her back and her breath back. He had asked, “You okay?” and then he had tazed that creep until he just went to sleep.
She looked away, ashamed of her outburst. She whispered, “Why didn’t I just talk to you about all this? About us? I mean, you are a great guy. The best guy. I have been so stupid, and I do not know why I was…” She was lying. She knew exactly why. Because she loved him, and she had been scared of that, scared to say those words even to herself. Everything about him called to her and said to her that he was the man she wanted to be with.
He said, “You know what? It is not just your fault. Not the Gripper, not us ever being together before this. I was…well, I got my feelings hurt a little bit when you gave me the brush off. I should have just asked you what was up with that. I mean if you had decided not to sleep with me again because you just did not want to that was your right, but I got a little snippy. Ego, you know.”
“You always bring me doughnuts. And fried rice. Never steamed. Always fried. With shrimp and carrots only.”
“You hate broccoli.”
That pain hit like a hammer. “You know all of that about me and I…I did not even know you are a dragon.”
“Broccoli is easier to bring up in casual conversation.”
Laughter escaped her mouth. She wiped her face with both hands. “Yeah, I guess so.”
He said, “Gina, I want to try with you. I mean, I want to try to have something with you. But I have to know if…if what I am is going to stand in the way of that. We will go back, you know. I have to know you can keep that secret and that, well, if you do not want to be with a dragon, I get it.”
She stared at him. “No. I mean no that is not a problem. Hell, it is kind of sexy. I mean…do you know you look like a pirate right now?”
“It’s the outfit.” He grimaced and looked down at himself. They both burst into laughter. He said, “We should get back inside. I really do have to make that meeting.”
She let his hand take hers and lead her along the moonlit path. The fruit sent out a heavenly fragrance that mingled with the scent of the flowers and herbs. She found herself wondering what it would be like to live there and shying away from the idea. It was too alien, not her style. She was from a world that pulled at her even now. No way would she ever want to live in the one she had landed in. Everyone seemed okay; it was just that they did not seem like anyone she knew or could ever get to know either.
Chapter Six
Craig glared at Max, and Blake then helped himself to a large glass of the wine and drank it down. It had little alcohol in it. It was created because when his ancestors had come to that world, they had been used to drinking water that was filthy and so they had gone around the dangers of that and started fermenting and boiling it into wine to make it potable.
He said, “No.”
Blake said, “I am so sorry, but we must insist.”
“I said no. I am an Exile, remember.”
“I do remember.”
It was the next day, and this was a continuation of the argument that he had the night before, and with these same two people. He glared at them. “I can’t stay here. I can’t. I have a whole city filled with humans who need my help. I can’t just leave them to whatever evil is going to happen to them next.”
“I know that is how you feel. Your line has always had more Exiles than any other.”
“Because my line never forgot that we, as a line, took an oath to protect!”
He was rightfully pissed off. His line, the Morgans, had never forgotten the oath that had seen his grandfather and uncle and father all turned into dragons. The oath to protect humankind. The story behind that curse was nice, but it was also not the whole truth. The mage that had turned them into dragons had been determined to conquer the world, with a crown firmly on his head and an army at his back.
And he had not cared who had to die for him to taste that dangerous amount of power.
It was true that his line tended to be Exiles. They had not been content to just stay in that world. He had watched his family march into the world he lived in and then come back again, suffering through the disapproval of those who stayed behind, all in the name of protecting the humans.
They had to come back to keep their magic and their longevity. They had to touch the stones and grass and soil of this world to stay alive, and they had dealt with that anger of the elders and the disapproval all in the name of keeping an oath that most here had forgotten.
Blake said, “We have humans here, you know.”
“I do know. I also know that you have dragons here to watch over them and if you would stop pretending that they are the only humans that matter, we would all be better off. They are dying by the thousands every single day over there.”
He thought again of the Gripper. Dammit, he had wanted so badly to put a stop to that serial killer this year! He had been thinking about that case all year long, sifting through old files, sure that there was one small thing that he was missing, one thing that could show him the face of the man behind those killings. And he had gotten nowhere.
He was not the only one. Gina too had been working all year long, in addition to all the other cases that were shoved into her lap. He had known she often got the shittiest work; what he had not known until the night before, was that she had been given the worst details because she was a woman.
He supposed he should have known that. Human men were often intimidated by strong women. In this world, they were cherished and revered. There they were seen as competition and intimidating, something to be regarded with real suspicion.
He tapped a foot on the floor. “You do not understand. I have every reason to be there and little to be here.”
“Fly across our lands.” Blake shifted in his chair. His eyes rested on Craig’s face. “You will see plenty of reasons. Thousands of them. The Orcs are multiplying at record speed. We have no idea why, but we think, well, we think the evil from that world is somehow seeping in. Like maybe it is coming through the portal. Perhaps those who come here bring it in on their clothes, or maybe it’s just so dark it can creep through without a body. Once here, it becomes Orcs. God knows how long it will be before we start seeing trolls again, and if that happens, we, in the words of that world, are royally screwed.”
He groaned. “I can’t leave that world right now.”
“I do not think you have a choice. You already have, and we are going to make sure the portals stay closed from now on out to keep whatever evil may be coming from there out, at least until we can get a grip on the Orc problem.”
Craig asked, “Is there no other way?”
“We used the dragon fire.”
The words staggered Craig. He looked from Blake to Max. His mouth hung open. “That should have done it. I mean, it is supposed to kill Orcs all across our world.”
“It did, but not all of them. They keep coming. They attack almost daily. We have lost ten changelings this year, and a few humans as well. At the rate we are going, we will have no young when the elders finally die.”
“Oh shit.” Craig knew then he had no choice. He had to stay there, and he had to help his kind. No matter what his oath was to the humans, his truest loyalty lay within his world and the dragons who were his family.
He said, “Fine, but you have to keep the portal open until I can get Gina back through. She can’t stay here.” Shit again. The world in which she moved was equally dangerous, especially since she was a cop in a crime-riddled city, a city tha
t was home to a serial killer who could not be caught, a skid row that was legendary, and a large population of drug addicts and the people who served them.
But all those were less lethal to Gina than the Orcs. The Orcs were mindless, just bone and blood driven by sheer and unalterable genius. They ate. They slept. They drank. They killed. Sometimes they killed and ate the people they ran up against.
He stood. “I am going to take a flight.”
He strode through the castle, Gina weighing heavily on his mind. He had to tell her what was happening but what would this mean for them? She had to go back, and he had to stay. He had no idea what that would look like if he stayed. Would she go back and chalk whatever might be between them off as good and gone and forget all about him and this strange world she had found herself in for such a short time?
He found Gina in conversation with Heather and Christy. He stood there for a moment, just watching her. She was laughing and talking in an animated way, her hands flying in a way that said whatever she was talking about, she cared about it.
He knew everything about her. He watched her constantly. He had fallen in love with her over a drink one night long before that night they had tumbled into bed. She was smart, so damn smart, and funny and dedicated to her job. She loved that job, loved bringing order to a world always teetering on the edge of chaos, something he could understand because he loved it too. Lived for that, in fact.
He was not stupid enough to believe that he or anyone could ever stop the humans from killing each other and doing all the things that brought death into their world and lives. But he could stop the evil ones, some of them anyway. Enough to take some darkness out of the world, and was that not what good people did?
She looked up at him and smiled. She stood and walked toward him, and his heart practically stood still. He said, “Do you want to go with me?”
Her eyes, so rich with life, held his gaze. “Yes.”
He said, “Would you be willing to ride on my back while I fly?”
She started a bit. Then she nodded. “Will you catch me if I fall?”