by Tl Reeve
She let out a surprised laugh. “Oh, that’s right, you’re Prince Charming. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.”
“Shh, I don’t want people to know my true identity.”
“I don’t suppose there’s a magic pumpkin carriage waiting to take me home, is there?” she asked.
“Sorry, Blondie. No glass pumpkins. But I do have the power of over three hundred horses waiting for us. Will that do?”
“You and that car,” Aubrey mumbled, but she was smiling. “I guess that will suffice, depending on where you’re taking us.”
“Wherever you want, Aubrey.” Nate was dead serious. He’d take her anywhere, so long as he got to go too. She drank her wine and watched him as he coiled the lights into small balls and dropped them into the bag he’d created from the tablecloth, all without touching a thing.
“Show off,” she teased.
“Learn any cool tricks yourself?” He was curious to know what she’d learned from Zane. What he knew about dragons was extremely limited, and probably as factual as what he learned from fairy tales as a child.
“Sure, a few things. Mostly just that I have so much more to learn. Like how to get my power back from you.”
He nodded and then realized that she was waiting for him to say something about that. “Whenever you figure that out, it’s yours to take. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know.” She looked relieved though. And gorgeous. The only light left was the moonlight. It washed across her pale skin and somehow made her seem more alive, like it lit the fire within her that now was radiating out at him with such force, he nearly took a step back. Instead he moved forward, reaching for her.
He crushed her lips to his. She met his hunger with her own, and Nate felt like he might lose all control when she opened her mouth to him. Chocolate and wine, and Aubrey. All Aubrey.
The cold night air stung the tops of his ears as he dropped the last of his magic, unable to focus a moment longer on the illusion he’d created. His entire body focused on the woman in his arms.
“It’s cold, we should go,” he said without much conviction.
“I’m not cold,” she replied. And she wasn’t. In fact, she was radiating heat. He looked at her bare feet and grinned. She should have been freezing. Any human would have been shivering. But even with his magic no longer warming the air, she was perfectly warm.
“A few more minutes then.”
Aubrey nodded in agreement before sitting on the ground. “Join me?”
Nate slid his jacket off his shoulders and snapped it out in front of him twice until the fabric fell away from the seams and he was left with a blanket that he could spread out under them. Silently they eased onto their backs, staring up at the filtered night sky between the tapestry of branches overhead. Aubrey was putting off enough heat to keep them both warm.
“Have you ever had sex out here?” she asked, startling Nate. Her breathing had been so steady and calm that he had thought she’d fallen asleep at his side.
“Here specifically, or outside?” he asked and then realized the answer for both was the same, so added, “No.”
“I grew up hearing about Festival and winter solstice, and I always imagined that it would be like this. Witches in the woods, dining, drinking, and then they’d have a big orgy.”
Nate made a show of looking around. “Hard to have an orgy with two people.”
“I guess it is, isn’t it?” She feigned disappointment. “Damn.”
“But I hate to shatter your childhood dreams. Maybe we could start small and build up to an orgy,” he teased.
“Ease into it, since it’s my first real Festival experience?” she asked, her voice heavy with need.
“Something like that, yeah.”
“Okay.”
Nate turned his face toward her and stared into those green eyes. They weren’t joking. Sassy Aubrey was serious. “Okay?”
“Yeah, I mean, if you want to.”
He rolled onto his side and bent down to kiss her throat, feeling her steady heartbeat beneath that pulsing sensation. He groaned as he dragged his hand up and down her bare arm, the hum intoxicating. Aubrey shivered under his touch.
“Nate?” she whispered, her voice breathy, and yet, also demanding.
He shifted his weight until he was leaning over her, his hands roaming down the side of her body. The lace of her dress tortured his fingers. “Yes, Blondie?”
She pulled at the bottom of his shirt, slipping her hands underneath, spreading her hands flat on his stomach. “I want you.”
“Does that mean you’ll give us a shot?” He’d worked his hand down over her hip and her leg until he had the hem of her dress hooked under the tip of his fingers.
He nudged her legs a little further apart with his thigh and then edged his fingers up her thigh. Her skin was so smooth. Electric. He could lose his mind touching her, and that didn’t bother him one bit.
“Yes.” The word was caught between a plea and moan. Nate savored the sound of it.
Aubrey lost all rational thought as soon as Nate touched her. Any doubt she’d had about chemistry went out the door. The man could kiss. He could do a lot of things, and she wished he was doing more of them just now. Her body remembered exactly how talented he was with those hands of his. But she wanted more than his fingers right now.
Lying beside her, he teased her inner thighs with slow circles, pulling his fingers away from her skin just far enough so that a spark would jump between them, and then smoothing away the sting. Aubrey heard her low moans like they belonged to someone else. She pulled him on top of her so she could more easily touch him too.
His fingers had traveled up her leg until he was grazing the edge of her underwear. She pushed back against his touch, urging him to go farther, but he continued to tease her by brushing gently against the thin skin on the wrong side of the elastic.
“I want to taste you again,” he said into her ear as she took his hand and led him exactly where she wanted him. He groaned with her when his fingers slid over her bare slit. “Shit, Aubrey, you’re so wet.”
“Nate, please,” she whimpered, lifting her sex to meet his hand.
“Patience, Blondie,” he murmured. He kissed her neck and then moved down the length of her body until he was placing kisses on her hipbones over the fabric of her dress while his hands pulled her underwear down her legs.
She clenched a fistful of the blanket in each hand when his tongue traced around her sex and then dipped inside her. He licked every place but the one she needed him to touch. She let go of her death grip on the blanket, and with both hands in his hair, she tried to guide him up to her clit, but he only let out a growl and continued the torture. His hands were under her ass, holding her still, keeping her from bucking up against him.
Aubrey was begging. She’d never begged for anything before, and now she was swearing up and down all the things she’d do if Nate would just keep touching her, just fuck her again. He pinched her rear and she let out a yelp.
Her entire body was tightening, building toward that moment of shattering. And with one flick of his tongue across her clit, she lost all ability to bargain, to speak, to breathe. She felt his absence dimly through the waves of pleasure, and then heard a foil packet tear open.
“I can’t wait any longer, Blondie,” he warned.
Her eyes fluttered open and the sight of Nate kneeling between her legs, his hard length in his hand, his eyes staring her down, brought her back to the edge again.
“Good,” she said, pushing up on her elbows, wishing she could see more of him. They were both still mostly clothed, which Aubrey deeply regretted. She wanted to feel him bare against her skin. Fumbling, she tried to reach the zipper of her dress.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a near laugh.
“We need less clothes,” she explained.
“Shit, yes,” he agreed. She turned her back to him so he could help her with the zipper. As she worked the dress down her body and over her hips, he str
ipped out of his shirt, giving her the perfect view of his flat stomach. Dark hair dusting his lower belly down to his hand wrapped around his thick dick. She bit her lip and grinned. This very ripped man was about to fuck her. And that sounded perfect.
With her knees bent up around his waist, Aubrey moaned when Nate’s chest pressed onto her breasts. With one hand, he held some of his weight off her while the other guided his length to her entrance. As he pushed into her, he bent his head down and took her mouth with his.
Everything else faded away as he filled her, pushing deeply with maddening slowness. She arched against him, hands cupping his ass, pulling him deeper as she thrust upward. He withdrew just as slowly, pausing when only the head of him was still inside her.
“Too slow,” she complained when he continued to draw out each thrust with deliberate measure. “Faster.”
Whatever restraint he’d been attempting to hold onto was gone. And she loved it. He hammered into her, deep and hard.
Filthy words fell from his lips as he moved. He loved her tight pussy. He was going to fuck her until she felt him while she sat her desk working on research.
Aubrey lost the ability to hear, her body so overwhelmed by the feel of him. She was making promises that weren’t entirely coherent, demanding he not stop. And then she was seizing up around him. Her nails bit into his shoulders, her legs wrapped around his hips, her feet digging into his ass. She felt the moment when his body tightened, too, when he joined her in that sweet release.
Nate slumped over her, and she took his full weight, enjoying how heavy he felt on top of her. World’s best blanket.
“Well, this night certainly turned around,” she whispered, still trying to catch her breath.
“Blondie, that was just the beginning. I have many more plans,” he assured her.
She smiled into his damp hair and closed her eyes in delight. This man. She really liked this man. Like really isn’t sufficient.
When he moved away, she let out a disgruntled noise. Man blanket needed to come back ASAP. Her new favorite thing was the feeling of Nate on top of her. He chuckled in response to her little noise. “I’ll be right back.”
He returned quickly with another blanket Aubrey was sure had at one point been his pants. She curled around him on the hard ground and breathed in the cool mountain air.
“Happy Solstice, Blondie,” he said as his fingers brushed through her hair that had come loose from its bun at some point in their tumble.
17
“Nate?” Aubrey’s voice brought him out of his slumber. The sky was still dark overhead, the moon gone behind a cloud. His feet were cold, but not as cold as they should have been. She must have been keeping them warm.
“Yes?” he replied, turning his head and talking into her hair.
“I want to show you something.”
Nate pressed a kiss onto her head and smiled. He wanted to show her some things too. “Like what, Blondie?”
She pulled out of his arms and rose to her feet. One hand extended down in an offer of assistance he didn’t really need, but he took it anyway as he got up. His back wasn’t entirely pleased that he’d passed out on the hard earth and so he rolled his shoulders a few times. With her standing a few feet from him, he rapidly became cognitive of the fact he was naked in the snowy woods in the middle of winter.
Aubrey didn’t seem to mind the cold at all. She pulled at his hand when he tried to wrap himself up in the blanket he’d made from his pants.
“Come on, I’ll show you. You won’t need that.”
“Maybe not for whatever you’ve got planned, but right now, I really do,” he replied with a chuckle. She waited impatiently while he turned them back into pants and slid them on. She apparently didn’t possess the patience necessary for him to put on his shoes and shirt.
He stumbled through the woods after her, trying his best to match her path so he wasn’t stepping on sharp rocks, or sticks, or thorns. How she managed to move so quickly and gracefully through what seemed like nature’s minefield of horror he didn’t know.
She came to an abrupt stop when the woods thinned. From over her shoulder, Nate saw the shine of water. She’d brought them to a small natural spring.
“Blondie,” he asked cautiously. “What exactly is the plan here?”
“We’re going swimming.”
“Oh, no. I think I’m good. Ice baths aren’t really my thing.”
“I don’t like them either. But the water will be warm. Promise.” She took off toward the water before he could protest further.
“I didn’t know there were hot springs in this area,” he said as she walked into the water in front of him. Steam rose around her ankles.
She turned and he was sure she was grinning when she said, “There aren’t.”
“Right, okay.” He edged closer to the water. Was it just that she couldn’t feel the cold? Or was she actually going to heat this body of water for them to swim?
“What’s wrong? You don’t trust me?” Her tone was all mocking. Nate laughed and forged ahead until he was standing with warm water up to his chest, Aubrey a few feet from him.
“This is pretty awesome.”
“Right?” she asked excitedly.
“Yeah, really awesome.” He relaxed back until he was floating in the water.
“Riley taught me this.”
“What else have you learned in the three days since I last saw you?”
Aubrey stopped treading water and moved toward him. “I don’t yet know how to get my magic back, if that’s what you were wondering.”
“Not really what I was thinking about.” Nate caught her around her waist and pulled her flush against him. He’d have thought she’d burn him given the warmth of the water, but she actually felt cooler to the touch than normal. “I don’t know, maybe you learned to breathe fire, or fly.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed. “Dragons don’t fly.”
“Good to know.”
“And I haven’t mastered breathing fire yet.”
“Well, then really you’re just a one-trick dragon at this point,” he teased.
“Pretty much,” she said before kissing a searing kiss onto his collarbone.
“Teaching me a lesson about taunting a dragon?”
“You’ve got to be careful playing with a fire demon.” She kissed him again, but this time without the added heat.
“Fire demon? I didn’t sign up for dating a fire demon.” Nate acted like he was pulling away from her as he said, “Well, this has been fun, but I’ve got to go.”
Sharp claws dug into his skin as she grabbed his arm. “Whoa, I don’t think so.”
“Fire breathing dragons I can handle. Fire demons are bit much for me,” he explained.
“Glad you draw the line somewhere.”
He wrapped his arms around her again and bit her bottom lip. “Yeah, I’ve got standards.”
“Earlier, you said we could work up to that orgy in the woods.”
“Yes, I do remember this agreement. I also can conjure many wondrous things, but a condom from thin air is not one of them, sadly,” Nate admitted as she wrapped her legs around his waist, her hot center resting just above the head of his hard cock.
“Well, I’m clean and on the pill.”
“Me too. Clean, I mean, not on the pill.”
Her hands wandered up over his chest, and when they came to the scar-tissue, he groaned. A jolt went from her palm through his chest. It was nearly too much. Aubrey let out a little yelp and pulled her hand away.
Nate caught her before she could pull away entirely. “You okay, Blondie?”
“Me? Yes, but what about you?” She ran her fingers along the skin just around the scar. Her touch was searing, but also so damn good. He took her hand in his and sucked two of her fingers into his mouth. Her lids fluttered shut as she let out a low moan.
“I’m great,” he replied when he released her hand. He lifted her in the water with one hand, using his
free hand to guide his length to her entrance. With a growl, he thrust into her, his hands digging into her hips as he held her close. “So fucking great.”
Getting traction in the water was a little difficult. He settled into a slow rocking, never fully pulling out before sliding deep inside. Aubrey ground her hips against him, arched back away from him, presenting her breasts for worship. Nate was happy to comply, sucking one blush nipple into his mouth where he could suck it taut.
“Nate,” she begged, grinding harder on his dick. He felt her inner muscles tightening, milking him.
“Yeah, Blondie, that’s it.” He lapped at her other nipple, following the curve of her breast with his tongue before giving the pebbled tip a playful nip.
In a silent cry, her body tightened around him, threatening to take him over the top with her. Holding her hips firmly, he picked up the pace of his thrusts while she clung to him. The water temperature around them increased to hot bath status before she went limp against him, her pussy continuing to pulse around him, pushing him past all control.
“Happy Solstice,” Aubrey whispered in his ear as he came apart.
18
A buzzing woke Aubrey, but not the buzzing in her skin. That gentle hum had been constant throughout the night, and she now hardly noticed it. It was like a necklace that was worn day in and day out, only to be noticed when it was gone. This new buzzing was an electronic kind and it was incessant.
“Nate,” she whispered, nudging his thick thigh with her foot. “Phone.”
Sure enough, when he rolled away, she felt the absence of his skin like a breath knocked out from behind. Her eyes flashed open and she watched him cross his bedroom, gloriously naked. They’d made it back to his apartment just as the light crested the horizon earlier that morning.
That is a backside I will never tire of looking at. She propped herself up on one elbow and grinned when he bent down to pick up his jeans he’d abandoned to the floor.