“I’ll be frank with you, Alli,” he’d said, when he first asked her to marry him. “You’re not my exact ideal. You’re a little plumper than I’d like and you’re a bit free with your opinions. But you have a lovely face, a good career, and a fine professional reputation. Plus, you don’t want children and neither do I. We’re both happy devoting ourselves to our careers and not spending every spare minute together. But before we plan our union, I’d like to know what you think about our possible marriage?”
Alli had tried not to be offended by this dry little speech. She and Douglas had been dating for over a year by that time—they had matched up on a website especially for professional people with busy lives who wanted a minimal commitment. Aside from the part about her being “too plump,” she told herself that Douglas was more or less right about her.
She liked Douglas pretty well. She didn’t love him passionately, but he was generally nice to be around. And what he lacked in the bedroom, he made up for in stability and practicality in their everyday life. And if part of her—a part buried so deep she had almost forgotten about it—cried out for something more—something passionate and exciting—well, what of it? Alli could ignore that part of herself—she had been doing so since college, after all.
“I think it’s definitely doable,” she had replied, in the same businesslike tone he had used. “I do want to specify some requirements, though.”
“Name them.” Douglas had made a ‘go on’ gesture.
“Monogamy is important to me,” Alli told him. “I’m fine with a limited relationship, but if you have sex, it had better be with me and me only. Cheating is a deal breaker.”
“Understood and agreed.” Douglas had nodded at once. In truth, Alli didn’t think it would be very hard for him to comply with her demand for monogamy. Douglas just wasn’t that interested in sex. Still, it had to be said.
“Good.” She nodded. “Then I would be happy to be your wife, Douglas.”
There was no shouting or crying or excitement in their agreement and Douglas didn’t take her to an expensive restaurant or get down on one knee. It was “a sound business decision, not a publicity stunt” as he put it. Once they were legally married, they could file their taxes “Married filing Jointly” and get a much better deal than with the two of them filing separately.
Douglas didn’t even give her a ring—not at that moment, anyway. Though a few months afterwards he had presented her with a perfectly respectable, ultra-traditional diamond ring which he dutifully slipped onto her finger.
“Now we’re official,” he told her. And so they were.
“I’m home!” Alli called again, looking around the living area. “Douglas?”
She wandered into the spare bedroom, which had been converted to a two-person office with a desk at either side. Her fiancé was sitting there, tapping away industriously at his computer with an open Sam Adams on a coaster at his side. When he saw her, he got up and gave her a perfunctory peck on the cheek.
“Hello, Darling. Welcome home.”
“Hello.” Alli smiled and kissed him back—a peck on the lips. Douglas’s mouth was thin and dry—there wasn’t much to kiss. “How was your week?” she asked, settling on the edge of his desk and making sure her skirt was pulled up enough to show her legs. Douglas liked her legs and it had been a while since they’d made love. Maybe it was the crazy dreams she’d been having but Alli was beginning to feel rather…needy.
But her fiancé seemed oblivious to her hint.
“Pretty well,” he said. “Of course, we had some trouble with the Johnson account but then…”
He launched into an incredibly dry tale of tax-related problems that had Alli’s eyelids almost closing. She struggled not to yawn and did her best to nod at the important parts. But the truth was, after nights of broken rest from the awful dreams, Douglas was putting her to sleep.
“Sweetheart,” she said, when there was a momentary lull in the conversation, “I haven’t seen you all week. How about coming to bed early tonight? You know, for a conjugal visit?”
“Oh!” Douglas’s thin brows shot up. Finally he was getting the hint. “For a ‘conjugal visit’ you say?” he asked, grinning at her.
“Exactly.” Alli smiled back.
It was a little joke between them. When she’d first taken the job with the Kindred which required her to live most of the week on the Mother Ship, Douglas had joked that he would be like a prisoner, starving for physical attention from his girlfriend. This had led Alli to promise she would be back every weekend for a “conjugal visit” and so their current euphemism for sex had been established.
Alli was glad they’d found a way to talk about it. Neither she nor Douglas was all that comfortable talking about sex right out in the open, but she tended to want it a lot more than her fiancé did, and this was a good way to ask for it. Even though she knew it wouldn’t last very long, it was still better than nothing.
She took a quick shower while Douglas got ready—which usually meant he stripped down to his tighty-whities. Alli had tried to get her fiancé to wear boxer shorts or at least boxer briefs, but he preferred his plain white Fruit of the Looms and no amount of begging and pleading on her part would change that.
So when she came out of the bathroom in a silky nightshirt cut low in the front and high at the hem, her fiancé was waiting for her, wearing sagging white briefs and black business socks. The socks were another thing Alli had tried to get him to change, but Douglas claimed that he couldn’t make love with cold feet—so they stayed.
Trying not to notice that her fiancé looked slightly ridiculous, Alli smiled seductively as she held out her arms to him.
“Mmm, I’ve missed you,” she told Douglas, giving him her most alluring “come hither” bedroom eyes.
Douglas smiled back—then frowned as he took her in.
“Darling, have you gained weight?” he asked, frowning at the way the silky nightshirt clung to her hips and ass.
“What? No! I mean, I don’t think so.”
Alli looked down at herself. Had she been relaxing her diet too much lately? The Kindred Mother Ship was a terrible place to try and watch your weight. Mostly because the Kindred actually liked plus-sized women. They even had a special name for them—they called full-figured females “Elites.” In an environment like that, it was hard to say no when someone offered you a muffin or a dessert.
“Well, I think you might’ve.” Douglas’s frowned deepened. “It’s not healthy, you know,” he lectured. “And also, you do want to be sure you fit into your wedding dress next month, right? I thought most brides-to-be went on a kind of fasting and exercise routine the month before their wedding.”
Alli bit her lip and tried not to be irritated with him. She told herself Douglas only had her best interests at heart and that he was used to speaking his mind. Still, it couldn’t be denied that while she had been feeling sexy and desirable a moment ago, she was feeling neither of those things right now. But the ache between her legs remained—the lingering results of the dreams—and she was determined to scratch her itch.
“Douglas, honey—can we talk about this another time?” she asked. “This kind of conversation isn’t exactly conducive to a ‘conjugal visit.’ You know?”
“Oh…Oh, of course. I’m sorry, darling.” Douglas gave her am apologetic smile from behind his wire-rimmed glasses. “Just thinking of you on the big day, that’s all.”
“Of course you were.” Alli made herself smile at him. “Why don’t we get in bed now?”
“Certainly. Just let me turn out the lights.”
Douglas never made love with the lights on. Which, to be honest, was all right with Alli. For one thing, when she could see his face, it threw her off a little. That was because Douglas tended to go cross-eyed and make grunting noises when he was about to come, which had the unfortunate effect of making her want to laugh.
The other reason she didn’t mind was that with the lights off, she could let her imaginat
ion run wild. She knew it probably wasn’t a good thing that she was always fantasizing about someone or something else when she made love with her fiancé, but she just couldn’t help it. The minute they started, her mind began to wander to spicier subjects than Douglas in his calf-length black business socks grunting away on top of her.
Once the room was plunged into darkness, with just a few scattered moonbeams coming through the window blinds, they climbed into bed together and cuddled for a minute—but only a minute. Seriously—Alli had timed it by the luminous glow of the bedside clock several times.
One minute was the exact amount of time Douglas allocated for cuddling, even when they hadn’t seen each other all week. Personally, she would have liked this part to last a lot longer but, as with everything in his life, Douglas was all business when it came to making love.
So after Alli had rested in his arms for precisely sixty seconds, he rolled her over on her back and pulled down the top of her night shirt. Cupping her breasts in his hands, he tweaked her nipples exactly twice, which was barely enough to get her motor running.
At least, that was usually the case. But tonight, Alli was still thinking of the strange and frightening dream of the man with mirror eyes promising to fulfill all her darkest desires. Her fiancé’s perfunctory two tweaks actually got her going this time and she could feel how wet and hot she was getting between her legs.
“Douglas…” She shifted restlessly against him. “Could you…would you mind…going downtown tonight?”
It was another euphemism, one which she rarely used because—though Douglas had never actually come out and said it—she had the very strong feeling he didn’t exactly like this act. To be fair, he didn’t expect her to give him blow jobs much either, because he really just wasn’t that interested in sex.
This had worried Alli at first. She had tried tactfully to suggest that maybe he ought to have his testosterone levels checked, but Douglas had brushed off the idea. Everything was fine the way it was, he firmly explained. And besides, he really couldn’t take time out of his busy schedule for an unnecessary doctor’s appointment to cure what he considered was a nonexistent problem.
So that was the end of that.
“Well…I suppose I could go downtown.” Douglas’s voice was grudging in the darkness beside her. “If you really want me to.”
“I do,” Alli said, though part of her wanted to just tell him to forget it. It was hard to relax enough to enjoy this act with someone who really didn’t want to do it. “Do you mind?” she asked.
“I guess not,” Douglas replied, in a tone that clearly said otherwise. Still, he shuffled under the covers and after a great deal of fumbling, finally wound up between her legs.
Despite her fiancé’s obvious reluctance, a thrill of desire ran through Alli’s body. God, what was wrong with her? She was so hot tonight! It must be that damn dream, getting under her skin. For whatever reason, she was eager to spread her legs as Douglas finally dived in.
Well, maybe “dived in” wasn’t a very good description of what he did. It was more like he gave the slit of her pussy a few, tentative licks, like a finicky cat trying some new food it’s not sure that it likes.
Alli tried not to feel exasperated at her fiancé’s tepid performance. But God, this wasn’t what she needed at all—he wasn’t anywhere near her clit. He hadn’t even parted her outer lips to get to the place where she needed him most.
It was the same as always—Douglas always treated her vagina like it was a bomb that might blow if he handled her with too much force—or any force at all, for that matter.
She tried to concentrate on something else. As Douglas took a few more cat-like licks, images flashed behind her eyes—a picture of herself with her hands tied above her head and a blindfold over her eyes as a man with silver eyes devoured her pussy until she moaned and begged and…
Then the kinky image was gone because the licking stopped. Looking down, Alli realized that Douglas was already done. She glanced over at the glowing numbers of the bedside clock—less than a minute had elapsed.
“Douglas? Honey?” she asked, trying and failing to keep the frustration out of her voice.
“Sorry, darling,” he mumbled, coming up from beneath the covers and wiping his mouth fastidiously. “It’s just, you’re so, uh, wet tonight.”
There was mild disgust in his voice as though her natural juices were nasty somehow. Alli was reminded of a small boy saying, “icky!” and refusing to eat a new vegetable that had been placed in front of him.
“Sorry about that,” she said, trying to keep her temper. “It’s just that I’m, uh, excited to see you again. It’s been a long time.”
“Yes, it has. Well—should we get to the main event?” Douglas asked brightly.
Alli muffled a sigh. Apparently foreplay was over. Another glance at the clock let her know that less that five minutes had gone by since they had first climbed in bed together.
“Sure,” she said. “Why not?”
“Why not, indeed!” Douglas exclaimed heartily.
And, since Alli was already on her back, he simply climbed on top of her and stuck it in.
As always, it wasn’t easy to tell when he was all the way in. This was because, while Douglas didn’t exactly have a micropenis, his equipment was definitely on the small side.
Usually, Alli was a little bit dry because their abbreviated foreplay didn’t do much to warm her up and this made it easier to feel him inside her. But because she was so wet tonight, Douglas was slipping and sliding in and out like a Vienna sausage on a slip’n slide and she could honestly barely feel him at all.
Alli locked her ankles around her fiancé’s skinny hips, trying to pull him in deeper—trying to get some kind of sensation to scratch the itch that so desperately needed scratching. Unfortunately, this added stimulation only had the effect of making Douglas ejaculate prematurely.
Usually he was good for at least a minute and a half—sometimes two whole minutes. But tonight Alli felt him jerking and flopping like a fish against her while he grunted in her ear after only thirty seconds. A moment later he pulled out and shot his scanty load on her belly before rolling over on his back, gasping as though he’d just run a marathon.
“Well! That was something!” Douglas sounded quite pleased with their brief (five minutes and forty-five seconds long—Alli knew because she checked) encounter.
“Yes,” she said dully. She felt sticky and unhappy and completely unsatisfied. Her body still ached with unfulfilled longing and the place between her legs where Douglas had been only a moment before felt more like she’d been swabbed by a Q-tip than like she’d been properly fucked.
Alli sighed. Well, maybe they could go again in a couple of minutes and he would last longer. Maybe—
A snore from Douglas’s side of the bed popped her hopeful thought bubble before it even had a chance to get fully formed.
I didn’t even get a chance to get off on a fantasy, she thought resentfully. Plus, now she had to go get herself cleaned up before she could get to sleep. If she could get to sleep. The unfulfilled longing between her legs still nagged at her—an itch that needed to be scratched.
She could always finish herself off by hand—she usually did, to be honest, Alli admitted to herself. She preferred her vibrator, but it was kind of noisy and she was shy about using it around Douglas and possibly waking him up with its noise.
She could ‘rub one out’ as they used to say in college, but it wasn’t the same as being filled—really filled—that was what she wanted—what she craved.
And what she was never going to get from Douglas and his skinny three and a half inches, she admitted to herself with a sigh. Well, she might as well get up and wipe herself down before turning in.
She just hoped she wouldn’t have any more disturbing dreams tonight. After the day she’d had, Alli had no more patience for the shadow man with the silver mirror eyes.
Just to be on the safe side, she tied the red ribbon
around her left wrist. She would be ready if the dreams struck again. She would look at her wrist, see that there was no ribbon there, and know that she was dreaming. Then she would end the dream before it could really get started.
That was the plan anyway. But somehow, when the man with the mirror eyes came to her, things went very differently.
Five
“You’re throbbing, aren’t you?” The man’s black and silver eyes flashed, mirroring Alli’s face back to her.
“What?” She sat up, looking at him. What was he doing in her bedroom? They had always met in the hall of shadows before. He had often invaded her dreams but never in this setting. And he was so big—seven feet tall at least. He seemed to fill the small space beside her bed with his muscular presence.
“You’re throbbing between your legs, Allisandra,” he rumbled softly, his eyes flashing. “Because this sorry excuse for a male can’t satisfy you.”
He nodded at the other side of the bed and Alli saw that Douglas was in the dream with them. Her fiancé’s face was slack in sleep, his mouth half open in a snore. That was odd—Douglas had never come into the dreams before, just as her bedroom had never been the setting for the nighttime encounters.
“That’s all right, baby.” The shadow man’s voice was a soft, caressing growl. “I’m going to take you home with me and wash his stink off you and teach you how it feels to really be taken care of. I’m going to satisfy all your darkest desires.”
Finally, Alli found her voice.
“I…I don’t have any desires,” she told him breathlessly.
“Little liar.” His eyes flashed. “I’ve been watching you—seeing into you for months now. You want your pussy licked, don’t you? And that’s just to start with. Well, don’t worry, baby—I’m going to lick you. Going to taste all that sweet honey you make until you can’t stand it anymore and you beg me to let you come.” He gave her a slow, cruel smile. “But I won’t let you. Not until you learn to be a good girl for me, Allisandra.”
Dark and Light: A Kindred Tales DUET Novel. Contains: Saved by the Drake AND Captured by the Kru'ell One Page 15