The Preacher's Daughter

by Valerie Reyes

  “Yeah. There is a sexual equivalent to just about every hetero act you can have, if you wanted to look at it that way. Really, with any sex, it’s just a matter of what two people want to do. Still, if that pleased you this much, I can’t wait to see how you feel once you start getting used to ass play and we can really explore each other. I haven’t even shown you the tip of the iceberg,” I said.

  “Well, for now, maybe you could show me the tip of something else again?” Miles asked.

  I gave him a long look. Here was another look I liked seeing on him. He was pleased, but also wanting. There was an allure and excitement that started in his eyes and radiated from his whole body.

  “Let’s try something different, even for me,” I said.

  “What’s that?” he said, sitting up eagerly.

  “I want you to fuck me. I’ve only been bottom with one other person. The first I was with. My only long-term relationship,” I said.

  I felt vulnerable now for even putting it on the table. Then Miles put me on the table. He was a fast learner.

  Chapter 13

  Miles

  On Monday, I wanted to do two things. One was with Tyler, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t allowed during office hours. The other was apologize to Marjorie. She actually took it pretty well.

  “Sometimes I come on a little strong, and guys have told me I get attached too quickly,” she said.

  “Yeah, I’ve never talked about fate on a first date,” I joked.

  She laughed a little, but I could tell she was disappointed.

  “Well, we can still see each other here at work and from time to time when everyone goes out,” she said, hoping.

  “We’ll see. I have to get to my floor, though. Lots to do before the meeting,” I said.

  “Yeah, see you at the meeting,” she replied.

  I got back on the elevator and found Chase inside, just arriving to work. He smiled at first. Then he grabbed each of my shoulders and spun me to face him. When the elevator opened, he dragged me to the office by my sleeve. He closed the door and drew his blinds once we were inside.

  “Tell Auntie Chase who the lucky man was who popped your gay cherry,” he said, giving a tiny round of applause.

  “What?” I asked.

  How could he tell?

  “Gays know these things. You’ve crossed over, Mr. I’m Straight. Who? Is it someone in the office?” he asked.

  “I’d rather not say. It’s all still so new,” I said.

  He sat back and looked at me for a moment. Then he shuffled a few things around on his desk and looked at me again.

  “Alright. You can keep your secret, for now. When you are ready, though, I want all the details, even the juicy ones you savor with morning coffee,” he said, smiling.

  “When I’m ready,” I said, returning his smile.

  I returned to my desk space and it took me a few minutes to focus. Just before lunch, I received a call from inside the building. Tina’s voice came over the line.

  “Tyler would like to invite you to join him for lunch today,” she said.

  I couldn’t tell, but there was something in her tone that made it seem she was holding in a joke I didn’t understand.

  When I reached Tyler’s office she saw me in with a knowing smile I didn’t quite understand.

  “You told her?” I asked Tyler once she returned to her desk.

  “No,” he said.

  The door opened again a moment later. Tina stepped in looking confused. A delivery boy was behind her.

  “Miles, I hope you are hungry. I ordered a lot of food for us. I want to talk to you about the meeting this afternoon. Tina, pay the delivery boy with petty cash. Then excuse us. Miles and I have a lot to discuss before the meeting this afternoon,” Tyler said.

  Once they were gone, he kissed me. Then we got to business – actual business.

  Chapter 14

  Tyler

  I enjoyed having actual lunch with Miles. It was a good change and gave me the opportunity to talk to him before the weekly meeting. When he went back to his office, I had a lot to pull together and set up in the conference room. I finished minutes before the meeting started, so I waited there for everyone to arrive.

  As they did, one by one they looked confused. Then, understanding began to slowly wash over them. When Claudia and Nicholas came in, I began the meeting discussing the project Claudia, Tina, and I had been working on before he could do too much observing on his own.

  “You will all see before you the business plan and first three years of expected projects for a new business venture. Several business ventures, in fact, all rolled into one. With the help of Claudia as silent stockholder and Tina as vice president. I will be branching out over the coming months as a new conglomerate, Pan Humanity,” I said.

  I paused to look around the room. Outside myself, Tina, and Claudia, only a handful of the staff knew what was going on, the handful we had invited to join us at the new company. Those who knew only learned of Pan Humanity Friday or today.

  The one I most wanted to join us, Miles, had only been told hours earlier at lunch, and needed to think about it.

  “Am I to understand this is mutiny? You and my wife are jumping ship?” Nicholas asked, raising his voice.

  “Well, not exactly. Claudia will continue working here. She is entering the venture with me as a silent financial backer. And don’t think of it as joining ship. Think of it as taking all that you have taught me and trying to walk in your footsteps. I see a market, and I want to dominate it from top to bottom as you have,” I said, hoping to win his consideration with flattery.

  He thumbed through the materials I had placed at everyone’s seat in the conference room. I took the opportunity to tell him some of the numbers highlights.

  “Nicholas, you don’t have to do a thing and Sir Name will still run smoothly. Top to bottom only one or two people per floor will be leaving initially. Others will be hired through an interview process. The overlap in market is minor, because Pan Human will target body types and styles of dress and interests that companies like ours often overlook,” Claudia said.

  “Pan Human. Live your life. We’ll help,” Tina said, doing her best Vanna White impersonation beside the display presentation.

  Nicholas Schmidt sat silently for what felt like an eternity. Finally, just as I was starting to feel doubt for the first time in years at work, he spoke.

  “Tyler, you have been a key player in this company for years. My company. You have been a son,” he said.

  “Yes, sir,” I said.

  We had been very close.

  “Well, I just think you should know, I have never been more proud than in this moment. It’s about time you step out and run something of your own. I was beginning to wonder if you were just waiting for me to retire or die,” he said, laughing now.

  The tension in the room dissipated into celebration, except for one thing. I still didn’t know if Miles was ready to join me, in business or otherwise.

  Chapter 15

  Miles

  As the meeting seemed to be ending, aside from those staying to talk about Pan Humanity, I decided to return to my desk. I had a lot of work to do and a lot on my mind.

  “So, it was Tyler,” Chase said, startling me.

  “I didn’t realize you left, too,” I said.

  He cleared his throat and folded his arms. He wanted an answer to his question. I looked around and no one was close by.

  “Yes, but it was one time, Friday night. Then he dropped the bomb on me today that not only is he leaving to start Pan Humanity, but he also wants me to leave a job I just started, and enjoy, to join him,” I said.

  It was good to have someone to talk to.

  “Well, you said yes, right?” Chase asked.

  “No, I told him I would think about it,” I said weakly.

  “What’s to think about? A rich top like him wants to whisk you away to romance, a promotion and raise, and a company that has more possibility t
han your current employer. Gasp, I’m appalled,” he said, feigning disgust.

  “It’s just really sudden, and what makes you so sure I wasn’t top?” I asked, unsure how I felt about being assumed to be bottom.

  I had done both, once.

  “Miles,” Chase said.

  I nodded and focused back on the bigger issues.

  “Did you know he was gay?” I asked Chase.

  “I told you, we can read these things. I don’t think many people here know. He is definitely discreet. I do know that most think he doesn’t even date. Sure, you can look at him and tell he gets laid when he wants to, but if he is actually making some sort of plans with you he really means whatever he is saying. He has had the same assistant since he was able to have an assistant. He also seems to value relationships, because he and the Schmidts have been close for years,” he said.

  “And, he thinks he may love you, but that you both need to take things slow for now,” another voice said, entering the room.

  “Tyler,” I said.

  “Sorry about springing so much on you the past few days. It’s all true, though. You have an effect on people that I want to carry to the new company. You also have an effect on me that I would like to continue as well,” he said, joining our conversation.

  Chase excused himself to his office, but left the door open so he could hear.

  “Well, I think I could come around to the job, but I’m still sorting out how I feel. I’m still processing. Do I come out now? There is so much slang, I already don’t know half of what Chase says to me,” I said.

  My nervous side was showing, and Tyler was staring at me again.

  “Some things you just know, others you learn. I know that I have been living a quiet personal life and focusing on work. Now I know that I want to build something more that bridges the gap with someone important,” he said, stepping closer to me.

  “What if things don’t work out?” I asked.

  “Then I’m sure you can always get hired here again,” he said.

  “I mean you and me,” I said.

  “Oh, well, love is a lot like sex. Your heart will guide itself to pleasure,” he said.

  He stepped forward and kissed me without looking around to see who was there. I felt my heart beat a little faster and kissed him back deeply.

  “Well, I’ll have to speak with HR about interviewing for a new assistant again,” Chase said.

  Deep Dragon Desires

  Chapter 1

  Time was a thing that Rasenth rarely concerned himself with. To a being over one thousand years old, time was an impermanent and arbitrary concept for the most part. However, now that two hatchlings were added to his tribe, and food was becoming scarcer than ever in the Madrigal mountains, the clock was ticking.

  Ice capped mountains were a paradise for ice dragons in theory. Challenging an ice dragon in their home environment was akin to committing suicide, and only wind dragons could manage to fly sufficiently alongside an ice dragon in the perilous icy gusts, and so ice dragons were completely protected from enemy barrage when in their icy fortress. However, they couldn’t feed on the ice that protected them, and mountain goats were becoming ever rarer, as were human caravans passing through.

  Rasenth felt the desperation of the situation ever growing, and he increasingly started to look towards the fertile fjord to the south. Sometimes he’d spend hours looking at it--surveying it. He had to find a way to overtake it for his clan.

  On such a night when he took to looking out from his icy cave to the fertile land of the south, he heard a strong female voice come from behind him. “What are you thinking, Rasenth?”

  It was Lyshara, the second most powerful dragon in the clan, and the “big sister” of the lot. She took care of the domestic affairs, and was the chief aid for Rasenth in procuring food for everyone. She was also the only one brave enough to approach him while he was so obviously lost in thought.

  “That I should kick you out of the cluster of caves my chambers reside,” Rasenth replied bitterly, growling lowly. When he got no response, a silence fell upon them for a time, but if he were to tell his plan to anyone, Lyshara was a good candidate. “I was thinking about the history of the clan.”

  “Oh?” Lyshara asked, taking tentative steps towards him. Her hair was cropped and spiked up, the whiteness of her locks making it seem as if frost was growing from her head. She certainly wasn’t the most beautiful, but she was strong enough to earn her keep, and even Rasenth’s respect.

  “When I was only a few hundred years old, just finished growing really, the clan occupied the valley. No one had to go hungry there,” Raseth said. “Unfortunately, we had three elders in our clan, and disputes broke out about who belonged as the alpha. Then, during a sweltering summer, the Inferno clan drove us out to the mountains, and the clan split up in all different ways.”

  Lyshara took a few steps closer to Rasenth, so she could look down on the fjord as well. For her, she felt safe in the mountains. Even an ice dragon on an empty stomach could fend off any attackers without issue here, but she could tell that Rasenth wasn’t of the same mind as she was on that issue.

  “That fjord is indefensible, and the summers are too warm for us. We’re safer here,” Lyshara said.

  “We can be safe from enemy claws, perhaps, but when we’re nothing but scales and bones, safety won’t seem as important,” Rasenth said, making Lyshara wonder what exactly they should do. Winter was upon the fjord, so overtaking it from the fire dragons would be possible, but maintaining it would be a different question altogether, and that’s what gave Rasenth pause. “The question is how we can take the fjord’s resources without having to defend it come summer,” Rasenth said, half to himself and half to Lyshara.

  “Maybe we don’t take the fjord at all, but we work out a trade with the Inferno tribe?” Lyshara proposed. The Frost clan was a very wealthy clan, and if the Infernos wanted to trade or barter, it was possible for a relationship to prosper between them. The only problem was that most of the Frost’s wealth was holdovers from Rasenth’s youth, in which he was an adventurous dragon, happy to pillage anything in sight. Now the wealth wasn’t exactly pouring in anymore, and the Frost’s would have to find a new source of wealth to tap into if they wanted the relationship to last.

  “That’s fine to start, but it would be hard to keep up, unless you want to start pillaging. It’s a dangerous enterprise, but not impossible if you want to try it,” Rasenth replied.

  “We’ll find a way,” Lyshara replied. The least they could do is try to meet up with the Infernos and strike some sort of deal.

  “I wish I could be as optimistic,” Rasenth said quietly. “Go now, I am tired,” he said, and Lyshara followed his order. Tomorrow, they could visit the Inferno clan, but there was nothing to be done tonight. So Lyshara retired to her chambers, and Rasenth to his. He rose earlier than anyone, however, and he set off towards the fjord.

  Chapter 2

  Rasenth flew from the mountains in his fierce dragon form. He was a large dragon, unrivaled by size by any in his clan, and only matched by one of the fire dragons that he was going to meet. His body was nearly covered in lethal weapons to use in combat, and that was all notwithstanding his powerful freezing breath. Along his back were razor sharp spikes of ice going from the crown of his fierce head to the base of his mace ball tipped tail; on his pointed face a pair of curved, scythe shaped tusks of ice on either side of his mouth, and row upon row of fearsome teeth. Then, of course, his jagged icy claws that could hold anything fast in their grip unless Rasenth chose to let it go. He was an elder dragon, a creature to be feared. However, even as an elder, he recognized his vulnerability moving into enemy territory by himself, and so once he was about a mile from the territory that the Inferno clan claimed for itself, he changed into his vulnerable human form and approached the grounds cautiously, trying to send the message that he came in peace.

  Some sentries in their dragon forms caught his approach and flew down, b
ut they were both adolescents who could easily see that they shouldn’t pick a fight with the man in front of them--not to mention he gave them no reason to. So, they turned into their human forms as well and approached him.

  “Why are you here, Rasenth?” a boy, probably no older than fifty, asked. He was a spring chicken as far as Rasenth was concerned, but he was coming here on good faith, and so he would have to conduct himself respectfully.

  “I would like a council with Tazour,” Rasenth replied. The two sentries shot each other a glance, as if asking what they should do in this situation. Rasenth waited a moment, but they seemed flabbergasted. It was quite obvious they weren’t used to having an ice dragon in their midst.

  “If you would like, I will remain here until you can make contact with Tazour and tell him that I request an audience,” Rasenth said. “I would like to speak with him about a trade agreement,” Rasenth said, as he figured that would pique Tazour’s interest.

  “How can we trust you by yourself here?” one of the sentries asked, a bit skeptical of leaving a powerful ice dragon in their territory.

  “Because if I did try to attack, your clan would easily be able to kill me. I’m alone, and your clan has twenty dragons--five of them full grown and one an elder, if I recall. I would have no chance,” Rasenth replied, and his point was duly taken. The two sentries flew off to talk to their elder, and Rasenth sat down on the snow powdered grass and allowed himself to relax and enjoy the cold until the sentries returned.

  “Tazour says you may come, but he doesn’t want you in your dragon form,” the younger of the sentries said the Rasenth, and he simply nodded and continued his approach while the sentires ascended and began circling the skies of their territory.