by Kali Willows
“I had fun, didn’t I?”
“You’re unbelievable. I timed you; it took all of sixty seconds.”
“They were out of shape, and a little drunk.”
“I’ve always known you could take care of yourself, but tonight, I got to see it for the first time.”
“Gimme one more minute; wait right there.” Blowing him a kiss, she ducked back inside and closed the door again.
“You did control the dragon after all,” he called out.
“Did you doubt I could?”
“No, but they did play dirty. I found your restraint impressive. You didn’t lose your temper once.”
“Well, I did a little, at the end.”
“Right, the glowing eyes. Sure made them run for cover.” The memory eased some of the worry—he might not be able to help her again, but she’d done a great job on her own.
“But I’ve never been able pull it back at that stage before.”
“This is so strange to me.”
“Well, you’ll have to narrow down which part. Everything about tonight and our situation is strange.”
Roark got up and walked around the loft, soaking up every detail of his dragoness’s lair. “To start with, being inside your apartment.” Studying her framed picture hung on the wall by her room, he admired the joy in her young face, alongside twin boys the same age—about ten years old. “I was in here the night they attacked you, but I didn’t have a chance to look around.”
“Does it count if I didn’t know you, and you crept through my window without invitation?”
“Hey! Considering you were unconscious and burning up….”
“I didn’t say I minded.” The doorknob turned and his pulse quickened.
“Are you standing right there?” she asked.
“Uh.” He bolted back to the couch and sat down. “No. I’m following orders, my lady.”
“Good, now, before I come out, promise me you will close your eyes and not look until I say so.”
He picked up the black velvet throw pillow beside him and covered his face. “I promise.” Jingling sounds filled his sensitive ears—coins maybe?
“No peeking,” she growled. He buried his face deeper in the plush barrier, his curiosity roused by a whiff of exotic, musky incense. The same scent that trailed from her apartment to his lonely post when she practiced her art.
“I can’t keep waiting.”
“One more minute. I promise, I’ll make it worth your while.”
With a deep exhale, he tried to ease his impatience. “Okay.” A click and sensual music filled the room. Pleasant sounds of plucking strings, percussion, and woodwind instruments.
Roark lowered the cushion. “I’m speechless.”
“I’m flattered.”
Barefoot, she strode across the apartment, wearing a sheer tangerine belly dancing costume. The push-up halter bra glimmered with dangling gold coins and rhinestones and the floor length skirt featured high slits on either side, giving teasing glimpses of her shapely legs as she moved.
“You’re so beautiful.”
Grinning, she walked over to the large floor iron candelabra and stood sideways, giving Roark a mischievous grin. “This is something I learned to control years ago.” She blew on the wick of the red candle, and it burst into brilliant flame. Then she set candles alight all around her loft.
While he enjoyed her show, Kaida unpacked her bag, laying out torches, a metal decanter and other items on a small mat. Then she stood up and shot him a dark, seductive gaze.
“How would you feel about me…making this even more intense?”
“What do you have in mind?”
She held up a handful of sheer white material. “A few scarves.”
“Kaida?”
“I promise I’ll be gentle, but this is something I would enjoy doing with you.” She straddled his lap.
“You would?”
“Sure, if you’re okay with it.” Kaida lifted his sweater over his head and threw it on the floor.
“You can do anything you want to me.”
Holding his wrists in front of him, he watched as she bound them with the sheer material.
“I know you could rip this off like tissue paper if you wanted to.”
“Believe me, I’ll be a good audience.”
She kissed him, then got off his lap and returned to her gear.
“Will I get the chance to return the favor?”
“That’s what I’d hoped for.” She flashed him a giddy grin. “On with the show.” Kaida smeared some clear fluid across her belly and the length of one arm and waved a torch over the flame of the candelabra, igniting it.
Swaying her hips in a figure-eight motion, she jingled the coins of her costume with every articulation of her torso. She traced the length of her arm with the lit torch, setting it on fire. The flame followed her motions, extinguishing almost as quickly as it lit. Then, she trailed the flame across her bare tummy, setting it briefly ablaze as well. Grabbing an unlit torch, she held it at her side and feet apart, kept her sinuous movements in perfect rhythm with the music. Bringing the burning one to her mouth, she dipped her head back and set her tongue ablaze.
“That’s incredible.”
Next, she brought the unlit one to her tongue, transferring the fire to it. Extinguishing the metal rods, she grabbed an elegant, black lace fan with metal trim.
“Remember I mentioned the Chinese flaming fan?”
“I do.”
Igniting the edges of the dainty item, she continued her belly dance, waiving the blazing fan around and swinging her hips in percussive movements, punctuating the beats of the music. The rippling motion of her abdomen highlighted her magnificent curves; the band of the skirt clung low to her hips. Her relaxed shimmies increased in speed and power with traveling steps over her small performance area in front of him.
With her extended legs and arms, she created beautiful lines. Pointing her toes and fingers; she spun, and twirled, mastering the flame of her fan. Dramatic kicks and head tosses, lifts and twists of her body culminated in a deep back bend, showcasing her remarkable agility.
Extinguishing the fan, his dragoness picked up a long, thin metal sword, lit it, and swung the fiery weapon around with precision. She performed a series of movements, mimicking blocks and hits of martial arts.
“So damn sexy.” He grew impatient, desperate to touch her. Pulling at the scarf, he fought the desire to free himself; the erotic sensation of bondage magnified his longing to be inside her.
She met an emergent crescendo with faster; undulating shimmies then extinguished the sword.
“And for the finale….” She picked up the torch and the decanter of fuel. “The Dragon’s Breath.” Roark followed her upward focus, surveying the twelve-foot, metal-beamed ceiling.
Excitement washed over him as he watched her take a mouthful of gas. She held the burning torch in front of her and expelled the fluid with one big burst. The explosion of flames spanned the entire height of the loft, leaving scorch marks behind. Kaida dropped into a deep curtsey.
“That is the most spectacular display of talent I have ever witnessed in all my years.”
“Thank you.”
“I need one more favor, babe.”
“Sure?”
“Untie me so I can—” He gasped as she landed in his lap. “What have you got there?”
“A little something.” She waved the second scarf, undid his bindings, and dropped both white cloths between her legs.
“I thought, maybe you could…?” She held her wrists together in front of her.
“You want me to gag you?”
“Not hard or anything, it’s just….” She broke eye contact and tucked her chin down.
“No holds barred, I’m okay with that.” He lifted her chin with his finger, prompting her to meet his gaze again. “Don’t be embarrassed.”
“I’ve never been so turned on in my life.” Her heated breath brushed his lips.
“Oh
my.” She inched back and pointed to the protruding front of his pants. “Someone got excited.”
“That’s an understatement.” Roark grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of her head, gripped tight, and he pulled her against his hard-on. “Is this what you want?”
“More than you know.” Her lips quivered, she squeezed her thighs against the sides of his legs, pivoting her hips and rubbed against his sensitive bulge.
Roark claimed her mouth. He pinched her stiffened peaks through the sheer top.
“Sunrise, right?” He raised his brows.
“The safe word?
“Yeah, just in case.”
“Sunrise, but I won’t need to say it.”
Releasing her locks he tugged her hands behind her back. Her breathing sped up and she ground against him.
“Take me.”
Fasting her wrists together with a scarf, he reveled at the way her bosom heaved with her shivering inhales. “This turns you on?”
“It does.”
He tied the second scarf over her mouth. A muffled groan filtered through the cloth, and she closed her eyes. Roark grabbed her hair again and yanked it tight, then coaxed Kaida to bend back and ravished her spilling cleavage with his mouth. With his free hand, he tugged her top down, and let loose her sumptuous breasts, propping them up over her halter, and devoured her rigid nipples. Roark reached down and rubbed her dampened panties. “I want inside you.” He ripped the fragile lace from her body, and she cried out.
He tipped her farther back and slipped his finger deep inside her while she squealed and wiggled in his lap.
His aching hard-on pushed against his restricting pants. Consumed by urgency, he undid his jeans and inched them down enough to free his erection. “You want me to fuck you hard, Kaida?” He tugged her head up so she could look at him.
“Yes,” she muttered through her bindings, eyes pleading.
Roark slid his head along her heated wetness and swathed his cock with her juices. Positioning himself at her entrance, he gripped her hair, pulled her up to face him and shoved her onto his cock with brute force. “You like that? You like when I’m inside you?”
Shaking in his grasp she nodded and gave him complete control. The bestial side of him took over, and he descended on her neck, biting and sucking. He slammed up into her again and again, like an animal claiming its mate. He nipped at her heaving breasts and guided her hips, harder and faster. Her panting grew short and frantic.
“I wanna come inside you.” He let go of her hair, guided her backward, and held onto her. With each thrust, her voluptuous tits bounced. His thighs shook. His lower back tightened.
Kaida screamed against the cloth, the walls of her pussy contracting around his shaft.
“I’m almost there.” The tingling in the tip of his cock, spread down to his balls and started to roll out over his muscles. Roark inched onto the edge of the couched and tilted his hips up, penetrating deeper. Her juices dripped down his balls. He stiffened and convulsed into her with a chain of mind-blowing spasms.
“Kaida, oh, baby, I love you so much.” Roark gave a final jerk into her and pulled his dragoness up to face him again. Trembling, he unfastened her bindings, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Glancing to the clock on her wall, tears of saddened bliss pricked his eyes.
4:15 a.m.
He embraced her tightly, holding back the swells of emotion that filled his chest.
Don’t ruin this moment for her. How do I keep her safe from the pain when it happens? She was right. I’m a selfish bastard. I never thought she would miss me in the end.
Chapter Eight
Clad in her favorite jeans and crop top, Kaida passed a cup of steaming tea to Roark, climbed back into bed, and cozied up to him. “I have more questions, if it’s okay?”
“Ask away.” He kissed her forehead, before taking a sip of his tea.
“Why did the gargoyle population go down?”
“The way Gershom explained it, the war against the gargoyles began when the humans we protected turned on us. We are immortal and close to indestructible, except during our daytime slumber.”
“When you turn to stone?”
“Yes. Their charges smashed their bodies to dust, killing them out of fear.”
“Why?”
“Those who fought for power did far greater evil than occasional individuals, all to gain their crowns. Gargoyles were sworn to protect the innocent. Our enemies spread the lies that we were a danger to all humans because they didn’t want interference in their bid to control.”
“That’s horrible.” She sat up and listened.
“Some fought off the humans and fled before daylight.”
“Couldn’t they fly away?”
“Gargoyles don’t actually fly.”
“But they—you have wings?”
“We can glide downward, but we have to climb, or scale buildings.”
“Is that how you got me home that night?”
“I scooped you up with this arm.” He grabbed her and held her tight against him. “Then scaled the wall to the rooftop with this one.” He lifted his mug with a grin.
“Were you, around when they started killing them?”
“No, it all happened shortly after I was turned. Angry and depressed, I had disappeared into the steeple of an old, abandoned church in the mountains. I hibernated for about a decade, pretty much missing the war and the carnage.”
“What happened when you woke up?”
“The world had become a different place. I didn’t belong anywhere anymore.”
“That’s so sad.” She rubbed his bare chest, fighting back a yawn.
“You’re getting tired; you should get some sleep.” Roark stroked her hair and kissed her forehead again.
“I’m not going to sleep.”
“Why not?”
“I only have an hour and a half left with you.”
“Kaida, come on now, I don’t want you being there when….”
“Try and stop me.” She glared at him.
“You don’t need to see it.”
“I want to be the very last thing you see and feel before….” Her vision fogged through forming tears.
“Hey now, I am complete, because of you. But I’ve brought you pain you don’t deserve to suffer. I won’t have you there when it happens.”
“Excuse, me.” She sniffed. “You talk as though you have a choice. I may give control away during sex, but that’s where it ends.”
With a soft laugh, he reached and caressed her cheek. “If anyone should know about what a free spirit you are, it’s me.”
“Good, now that’s sorted out—”
“Listen to me.” His voice firm now, he sat up, towering over her with stern eyes. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t want you there, in case you get hurt.”
“Are we fighting about this?”
“Of course not, I need you to respect my wishes.”
“Your wishes being?” She shook her head and waited.
“I’ve only seen you sleeping through the window.”
“Creepy.” She hunched her shoulders.
“I mean, I want the last thing I experience, to be the feeling of you, sleeping in my arms. The last thing I see is the peace that fills your face, up close when you dream.”
“So, you planned on sneaking out when I dozed off?”
A deer-in-the-headlights expression filled his face.
“So you did plan to keep the one-night stand in effect after all.” She slammed her tea on the night table, spilling it, and climbed out of bed.
“It’s not that.”
“Right.” She stood with her arms crossed over her chest. “Sneaking out, after a night of sex, never to be seen again. That sounds pretty much like what we signed up for.”
“Come here. Don’t be mad at me. Watching would be morbid.”
“I will compromise, to give you part of your dying wish.” She lifted her chin with purse
d lips.
“Which would be?”
“I will sleep in your arms.”
“Wonderful.” Relief filled his eyes.
Kaida picked up her digital alarm clock and began to set it.
“What are you doing?”
“Setting it for 6:11 a.m.”
“Why?”
“I will sleep in your arms, and I will let you see me dream. But, I will also, wake up, right before, and be with you as my final wish for us.”
“You are one stubborn woman.”
“Dragon, thank you very much.”
“Point taken. Come here, beautiful.” He opened his arms, and she climbed back in, and snuggled up to him, trembling.
“You okay?”
“I suppose it depends on how you view it.”
“Meaning?”
“I’ve had, the most incredible night of my life. I found my soul mate.” He squeezed her tight. “And, I’m about to lose the one man, I’ve ever connected with, or ever will again.”
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“Shut up and hold me.” Kaida snuggled into his arms. He gave a long, tender, loving kiss that made her toes curl.
***
She couldn’t move her hands. Heavy with sleep, she struggled to force her eyes open. “Roark? What did you do?” Her wrists were bound above her head. “This isn’t funny. Undo it.”
Roark smoothed her hair back, bent down, and gave her a long, drugging kiss.
“If you want to fool around again, I’m all for it. But untie me, now.” She pleaded. “Sunrise, sunrise, stop this right now.”
With a slight smile, he slipped the second scarf over her mouth, and fastened it behind her head.
“Roa—”The alarm clock pinged and her stomach fell.
Placing a single red rose on her bed stand, he stood. “I’m out of time, my love. Sorry to leave you like this. I know it won’t take you long to free yourself.” His voice quaked. “I need to keep you here long enough for it to...I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, exactly, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Frantic, she kicked and gave a muffled scream through the cloth.
“Don’t fight it, Kaida. Consider it my final wish. I don’t want you anymore hurt than you already are. Please forgive me, for everything.” Roark leaned down and kissed her forehead. A single tear trickled down his cheek and onto hers.