by Regine Abel
His frown faded, the neutral expression settling back on his face. “Why hope? You said yourself I’ve been programmed to always come back to you.”
I flinched, and then it dawned on me.
He’s testing me.
This I could handle. Pushing my shoulders back, I lifted my chin in defiance. “Yes. You were.” Kazan narrowed his eyes at me, but I didn’t let it faze me. “But since then, you’ve evolved. I wished you to love no one else but me, you chose to make me want no one else but you.”
Kazan slightly recoiled, his lips parting in surprise.
“You chose to hunt my other Wishes to improve yourself. You chose which ones were worthy and which ones were not. But I had wished them, which means, in my eyes, they were all worthy. You weren’t making yourself my greatest Wish, but giving yourself the personality of the man you wanted to be and who you believed would also sweep me off my feet. And you succeeded.”
I took a few steps towards him under his intense stare, stopping less than two feet away.
“Despite all the times I drifted away from you, instead of fading away like some of my other dreams and wishes, you chose to wait for me. You would have waited a human lifespan for me, not because I asked you to, but because you chose to. Just like you chose to find a way into my world to reach me.” I advanced one more step and placed my hands on his waist, relieved he didn’t pull away. “You’ve been here for years, becoming rich and famous, with countless beautiful woman within your grasp. Still, you chose me. And now, I hope that, in spite of everything, you came back because you chose to fight for us, to fight for me like I’m ready to fight for you.”
Kazan’s stormy eyes flicked between mine, searching, while I waited for his response with bated breath. His hands cupped my face, and his thumbs caressed my cheeks. My breath hitched.
“I will always fight for you, Jade. I have loved you my entire life, from the awkward teenage girl to the beautiful young woman you’ve become. In my years on this Mortal Plane, I could have gone for a number of other women, but none of them stir me as only you do. You are my one and only love.”
“My Kazan,” I whispered as he leaned down to capture my lips.
CHAPTER 10
Kazan
Eyes locked with my woman, I carefully laid her down on my bed, then straightened to discard the bathrobe covering my nudity. Leaning forward, I covered Jade’s skin with soft kisses while removing her clothes. No amount of time would diminish my feelings for her or how beautiful she looked to me.
Laying on top of her, I supported my weight on my forearms and brushed my lips against hers. She gazed at me with a look of pure adoration that constricted both my throat and my chest.
“Will you bind me to this realm and let me bind you to mine?” I asked.
She stiffened, a troubled expression fleeting across her face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my warning bells going off.
“Nothing,” she said, averting her eyes.
“Jade, look at me,” I ordered in a tone that brooked no argument. She complied, wariness straining her features. “Something just scared you, and it was not my request. I can feel your emotions. What’s going on?”
She gave me a pleading look. “Not now, please. Everything is fine. I’ll tell you everything but not now. I just got you back. Don’t let this spoil our reunion. Please.”
I wanted to argue, insist that she tell me the source of her deep fear, but couldn’t stand to make her beg. Normally, I would have insisted. However, I didn’t feel the presence of any imminent danger, nor did I perceive any such impression from her.
My expression must have shown my surrender because she gave me a grateful smile and drew my face to hers, crushing my lips in a searing kiss.
“Yes, Kazan, I will bind you and let you bind me. You, only you...”
Although her response pleased me, something in her words fueled my feeling of unease. Before I could dwell any further on it, Jade pushed my left shoulder, urging me to roll off of her and onto my back. She immediately climbed on top of me, covering my face, neck, and chest with kisses. It felt wrong to have her pleasing me before I’d satisfied her first, but her intense need to give me pleasure pinned me into place.
And did she ever…
Every time we made love, my human vessel made me reach new highs with the various nuances of sensation; the softness of her skin on mine, the delicious burn of her nails raking down my chest, the heat of her feverish body, the salty taste of her perspiration as she writhed beneath me, the heady scent of her musk and tart taste of her essence, the rapturous sound of her moans, the thundering of her heart… So many subtleties that had eluded me—us—in the Mist Plane.
Even now, the wet heat of her tongue tracing the lines of my abs had my abdominal muscles contracting while blood rushed to my groin. After teasing my navel, Jade’s wicked lips continued their path downwards. My body shuddered in anticipation. In her dreams of us, she’d often taken me into her mouth, but in this realm, I had not allowed it, always flipping things around on her any time she’d tried. I hadn’t trusted myself not to spill my essence inside her, binding myself to her without consent.
Today, at last, I gave myself over to my mate, a growly moan vibrating in my throat as she rubbed her face against my length with reverence. Her soft fingers caressed my shaft and my balls while her lips freely roamed all over them. The pit of my stomach had transformed into a pool of swirling lava, the heat radiating throughout my groin. When her mouth wrapped around my cock, I nearly died with pleasure. My back arched off the bed with a strangled cry as she bobbed over me, her hand stroking me in counterpoint to the movement of her lips.
The tearing sound of the bed sheet ripping in my fists could barely be heard over my panting moans. I couldn’t hold the fire ready to erupt much longer.
“S… stop J-Jade, stop! I… I can’t…”
She ignored my garbled plea, encouraged by my pelvis thrusting up with a will of its own into her voracious mouth. It struck me with blinding fury. My body seized painfully, both my seed and part of my ethereal essence pouring out of me and into Jade’s mouth in a blistering flow of ecstasy before I collapsed abruptly. My eyes rolled into the back of my head while I trembled. Dazed, it took me a moment to realize that my woman hadn’t stopped sucking me even as I wallowed in the throes of passion.
As my cock hardened again under her skillful ministrations, I watched with fascination—and utter joy—the shadow flames of my aura dancing around her head; the perfect crown for my queen. Lifting her head up, she looked at me with hooded eyes, licking her swollen lips before giving me a naughty grin. She climbed on top of me, sitting with our sexes aligned. Lifting my hands to her breasts, she rubbed her core, hot and slick with arousal against my cock, covering it with her essence. While I caressed and kneaded her breasts, she lifted herself slightly before slipping me inside of her.
The feel of her without any barriers nearly undid me again. My ethereal essence rattled and raged to fill her up and bind me to her, but I held it back. I would see Jade fall apart with pleasure before I allowed myself to topple over again. She rode me with unbridled fury, her hair bouncing in tandem with her breasts as my hands explored her body. My thumb found its way to her clit, rubbing it as she gyrated over me. Jade threw her head back with a throaty moan.
So fucking beautiful.
Despite the inferno building inside of me, I needed more. Drawing her to me, I flipped us around and interlaced my fingers with hers on each side of her face as I thrust into her. So many years I had wished for this moment. Jade was mine, I was hers, and we were one, freely claiming each other.
“I love you,” I whispered as sparks of pleasure coursed through my body. “I’m never letting you go.”
Picking up the pace, I pounded into her, covering her face with passionate kisses. Jade moaned my name in an endless litany that drove me insane with lust. Her body tensed as she crested, riding the edge, and then falling over with an almost startled
cry. I shouted as her inner walls clamped down on me, holding me with a fierce grip that had me groaning in ecstasy with each stroke.
Unable to resist any longer, I roared my release, my seed and ethereal essence erupting inside Jade. I could feel myself coursing through her, surrounded by my mate’s vessel, entwined with her every emotion and sensation. My brand tattooed above her breastbone flared and expanded, rooting itself deeper, anchoring me further to my woman and to this world.
Jade writhed beneath me, swept by a whirlwind of pleasure and pain. I took the latter away as I continued to pump in and out of her until I hardened again. Twice more I crested and climaxed in tandem with my mate, before collapsing, spent, and finally, irrevocably bound to Jade.
She snuggled against my side, her face buried in my neck, and her arm possessively wrapped around me.
“I love you, Kazan,” she whispered.
My chest tightened and so did my arms around her. She’d wished me. I’d wished us. And now both our wishes had come true.
* * *
After that vigorous romp, we got up and took a shower together. Jade insisted on washing my back for me since she’d been unable to access it when she’d bathed me earlier.
As soon as we finished, I lured her to the studio. Monica would be coming later today to pick up the paintings for the exhibit, but I wanted Jade to be the first to see the final six pieces. Discovering that she had honored my wishes and waited for me to show them to her had touched me deeply. These paintings were the culmination of our lives since I first became self-aware. Sharing that with her meant the world to me.
I prided myself on being a strong man, and yet butterflies swarmed my stomach as we approached the paintings hand in hand. Once we stopped before the first one, I turned to peer at my woman. She looked breathtaking, swallowed up in one of my white boho shirts, her lustrous red hair, messed up by my constant fiddling with it, cascading down her back. She bit her bottom lip, the red painted toes of her bare feet curling as she examined the painting.
I held my breath, fighting a surge of panic, until a smile finally stretched her lips.
“This is your dream,” she whispered.
“Yes. Ever since the Mist began, I dreamt that one day I would find your shutters opened and that you’d see me, recognize me, and welcome me,” I said, looking at the painting of me in my ethereal form pressing my palm against her bedroom window and her pressing hers over mine as we stared longingly at each other.
“Oh!” she said, looking at the second painting. “You made me look so beautiful!”
I grinned broadly, proud of her approval. “I made you the way I see you,” I said, caressing her back with a gentle stroke.
It was the first painting we had done, with Jade lying on the Roman bed, the Mistwalker towering over her at the back, the fingertips of his left hand disappearing under the waistband of her thong and the other caressing her cheek with his knuckles. Lips parted, a rapturous expression on her face, she gazed up at the Mistwalker whose yellow eyes glowed with great intensity.
Jade’s cheeks reddened as she moved to the third painting, finding herself floating horizontally in the Mist. Mouth open, head thrown back, she shouted in ecstasy as the Mistwalker buried his face between her legs, his shadowy tendrils wrapped around her naked body, like so many vines immobilizing her.
“Our first night after too many years apart,” I whispered teasingly in her ear. “Remind me to thank your sister.”
She playfully elbowed me, scrunching her face with embarrassment. I chuckled, remembering how much she had resented her treacherous body for yielding so readily. It had only been one month, yet it felt like a lifetime ago.
Jade shuddered upon seeing the fourth one. I tucked her under my arm, and she placed her palm on my stomach. In a loose representation of the attack after our first date, I’d represented the Mistwalker under the yellowish light of a streetlamp in a deserted street otherwise plunged in darkness. Face snarling, razor sharp claws extended in a menacing pose, he faced off with a faceless, brutish enemy with a giant blade while Jade hid behind the shadowy cape of the Mistwalker. Although still shaken by the incident, the absence of fear emanating from her reassured me I hadn’t made a mistake including this instant.
“I love this. It’s so beautiful,” Jade said as we stepped in front of the fifth painting.
It represented our first night together in the Mortal Plane. The Mistwalker lay on his back in Jade’s bed, my shadowy aura spreading over the mattress like a dark pool while Jade rode me. Her luminescent skin lit by the moonlight seeping in through the window, and her windblown red hair contrasted sharply with my obsidian silhouette.
“Oh, Kazan,” Jade said, her eyes misting as she gazed upon the last painting.
A shadowy boy sat next to a redheaded teenage girl on a toppled over locker. With one hand holding hers, he caressed her hair with the other while she slept on his shoulder. The only light in the dark and dusty room they sat in came from the open trapdoor at the top of the staircase behind them. Mist trickled in, surrounding an older version of the young girl. The woman, sitting at the top of the stairs also slept, her head resting on the chest of the Mistwalker lying on the landing and who had wrapped a protective arm over her shoulders.
She turned to face me, lips quivering and eyes blinking rapidly to keep her tears at bay. “I don’t deserve you.”
Pulling her into my embrace, I brushed my lips against hers, happier than I ever believed possible. “Nobody deserves me more than you. Thanks for making my dreams come true.”
She gave me a trembling smile, and I leaned forward to kiss her. As I parted my lips to deepen it, the rumbling sound of her stomach growling had my eyes pop open in surprise.
“Oops,” she said with a sheepish grin, holding her tummy with both hands.
I threw my head back and burst out laughing.
“Wow! Way to ruin a romantic moment, young lady,” I said teasingly before grabbing her hand and leading her out of the studio. “Come on then. Let’s go feed you.”
With only a few minutes till noon, I decided to make us a light meal. Later, we could order in for supper since all the meat I had sat in the freezer and would never thaw in time for my mate not to die of hunger.
My hand resting on top of the open fridge door, I perused its contents then looked over my shoulder at Jade, sitting at the breakfast counter.
“I’m afraid the choices are limited, but I can make you an omelet with hash browns, a garnished bagel, or a BLT sandwich,” I said.
She stiffened. The haunted look that crossed her features reminded me of the one she’d worn earlier when she asked me not to press her yet.
“What is it, Jade?” I asked.
“Bagel. Garnished bagel will be fine,” she said, too quickly.
My eyes narrowed at her, but I held my tongue. Whatever troubled my mate would likely upset me. Not wanting to get into an argument with Jade all but starving, I quickly made her a toasted bagel with chive cream cheese, avocado, tomatoes and bacon, then made myself two BLT sandwiches. The way she frowned at my meal when I laid it on the breakfast counter didn’t go unnoticed. After serving us each a tall glass of iced tea, I settled on the stool next to her, and we both dug in.
Until that first bite, I hadn’t realized how hungry my vessel was.
How hungry I was.
Now that I was bound to Jade, I would become more and more human with time. Feeding from emotions would no longer suffice as human food would become my main form of sustenance. I needed to start thinking of this body as me instead of a vessel hosting me.
We made small talk during the meal, and Jade drilled me about the upcoming exhibit, asking whether or not I would show myself this time. I never had. While the media considered it my artistic eccentricity, others wondered if I suffered from some kind of deformity which drove me to hide from the public and refuse to have my picture taken or even send one I’d taken myself.
The latter was closer to the truth.
As I planned to make Jade my wife, showing myself with her on my arm at the grand opening would be a nice way to reveal myself and the six centerpieces featuring her. I could already hear Monica’s screams once I’d tell her those six were not for sale. The mere fact that they featured the artist’s ‘fiancé’ would significantly increase their value. However, while I didn’t mind selling our fantasies, our life wasn’t for sale.
Cleaning up after us once we finished our light meal, I asked Jade if she wanted some cookies for dessert. Despite her sweet tooth, she declined, stating she needed to be good while tapping her stomach.
I shook my head and smiled. Jade wasn’t fat. I loved her body and especially that she had some meat, contrary to the skinny models who usually posed for me. Leading her by the hand, I took her to the living room and sat her next to me on the couch. That I hadn’t pulled Jade onto my lap or spooned with her should make it clear we had something serious to talk about.
She turned her beautiful green eyes towards me, filled with worry.
“I believe you have something to tell me, Jade,” I said in a firm but gentle tone.
She licked her lips nervously, and her fingers fiddled with the hem of my shirt covering her. That made me even more concerned.