Her Imaginary Lover

by Doris O'Connor

"Nothing."

  A sharp pinch to the side of her breast made her gasp. That sting traveled straight to her clit, and she wriggled her hips to relieve the resulting ache in her pussy.

  "Nothing, is it? I think my little munchkin needs to be reminded who's boss."

  He lifted off her, and she moaned at the loss of his body warmth. A smack to her ass ground her pelvis into the edge of the table, and she bit her lip to stop from crying out. That felt way too good. He soothed the sting with his hand, and then spanked her other cheek with considerably more force than the first swat. Macie yelped and squirmed under his hands, and his chuckle seemed to echo around the room. It only served to stoke her excitement further. Kaylom ran his hands up and down her spine and then up her arms taking them with him. He curled her fingers over the opposite edge of her small table.

  "Keep them like this and don't move, or I'll have to tie you to this table, do you hear me?"

  "Yes," she said, and all the breath left her lungs when he smacked her ass with so much force she slid further up the table.

  "Yes, what?" he asked, and this time there was no mistaking the edge of command in his voice. He yanked her head back hard, and his hot breath skittered across her sweat slicked flesh as he nipped at her lips and throat. A feminist would have a field day with her right now, but fuck her, if this display of his dominance didn't turn her on even more.

  What had he said? His kind demanded their mates to be submissive and calling him “Sir” was a token of respect.

  "Yes, Sir," she said, and he kissed her with so much passion, it took her breath away.

  "Good girl. You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that."

  She blinked back tears and held onto the edge for dear life when he grasped her hips, and pulled her down the table until her ass hung off it.

  "You're so fucking wet for me baby. You want me to fuck this sweet ass of yours, don't you?" His breath felt cool across her slick folds, and his fingers dug into her thighs as he spread her wider, and Macie lost the ability to think at the first touch of his tongue.

  He licked her from slit to clit and back again, until she was so close to coming she didn’t even know what the sounds were spilling from her mouth.

  Seconds before she reached that all elusive peak, he withdrew, and she thumped her head against the table in frustration.

  "Bastard, err, Sir."

  He laughed and then rained a series of hard swats on her ass that left her breathless and even wetter.

  "Oh your butt reddens beautifully under my hands, my sweet, and let's gets one thing straight. I will not tolerate you using cuss words. Your mouth is far too pretty for anything that nasty to come out of it. If we were in my realm I'd shove a gag inside that foul sounding mouth and then strap a vibrator inside you with just enough force to keep you on the edge without coming. How would you like that?"

  Macie shook her head and swallowed nervously.

  "No, Sir, thank you, Sir, I wouldn't like that at all."

  The air displacement gave her a second's warning before he tunneled his tongue into her pussy hole, and she climbed back up those delicious rungs of tingling bliss before he once again withdrew.

  Macie keened her disappointment, and he delivered several more open handed swats to her ass, before he attacked her swollen and sensitive pussy again.

  Macie lost count how many times he spanked her and then revved her up again before withdrawing. Time lost all meaning. All that mattered were the painful swats to her ass that morphed into blissful heat, which suffused her entire body until she felt on fire for this man.

  From far, far away she heard his voice eventually, and she flinched when something cold hit her ass crack.

  "Sorry, my sweet, this will only last a moment."

  Even in her blissful state of sensory overload, she heard the harsh edge to his voice, and she remembered that he had yet to come himself.

  Kaylom slid two lubed fingers through her nether hole, and Macie made a conscious effort to relax her muscles as he scissored them and thrust in and out of her tight ring. Two more fingers followed, and Macie bit her lip as nerve endings flared to life. He flicked her clit while continuing to thrust his fingers in and out of her ass, and Macie saw stars.

  Her long denied orgasm burst from her with a gut wrenching cry, and she lost her grip on the table when the burning in her ass briefly became unbearable and then she was full.

  "That's my girl, I'm in. I'm fucking you, baby. Making you mine."

  One hand on her hip the other buried in her hair, Kaylom went wild, and Macie lost herself in the maelstrom of sensations overwhelming her. Her wrist caught fire again, and she screamed as another, much more powerful orgasm rocked through her system. His hot cum filled her ass, he bit her shoulder, and the world went dark.

  ****

  When she next became aware of her surroundings she was back on her bed, and Kaylom was gently washing her with a warm cloth. She grinned, spread her legs wider to give him better access, and moaned at the slight friction the cloth created against her oversensitive clit.

  "Minx, behave. You won't be up for another round yet."

  Macie pouted, and Kaylom laughed. He cupped her face and kissed her. A tender brush of his lips over hers that made her feel loved and cherished, and she sighed and snuggled into his embrace. With Kaylom's steady heartbeat under her ear, his body heat and strength surrounding her, she felt safe and above all loved.

  "I love you," she said, and Kaylom hugged her closer.

  "And I love you, my bratty little human."

  The reminder that he was different from her punched a hole in her bubble of happiness.

  "What happens now?" she asked.

  His deep sigh ripped that jagged hole wider, until she felt like a deflating balloon. She brought her hands up to his face to read his facial expression, and his clenched jaw added to her increasing unease.

  "Kaylom? You're scaring me here. You said your bite would change me, but I don't feel any different. Well, apart from thoroughly fucked, of course." The ghost of a smile appeared under her fingertips, and Kaylom kissed the digits and then licked the still tender area of her wrist.

  "Oh, you are different, my sweet. You're wearing my mark. It's tattooed on your wrist as it is on mine. If I put them together like this…" He moved slightly until he clasped her hand and their arms aligned. Sparks of heated awareness danced across her skin where their bodies touched, and she drew in a sharp breath at the connection that arched between them. "They are two parts of one whole. It's a sign of our commitment to each other, and also a sign that I royally fucked up. I should have anticipated this, after all our connection has always been so strong, but I never thought … with you being human and us in this realm … forgive me."

  He hugged her so tight she could scarce breathe, and that dreadful sense of foreboding increased until it swallowed her whole.

  "Kaylom, what are you saying? You sound as though this is good bye." She could sense him withdraw from her, and every cell in her body ached at the thought of losing him. There was a shift in the energy of the room, and suddenly she couldn't breathe.

  Kaylom swore and threw a cover over her nakedness as he seemed ripped out of her arms by an unseen force. Only she felt the bed dip and lift and the air warm with the body temperature of many beings. Hostility poured off the presences she sensed in her bedroom, and not caring for her state of undress she shot out of her bed, and threw herself into the general direction of the intruders, even as she sensed their withdrawal. She connected hard with hot, naked flesh, and she held on as though her life depended on it, and perhaps it did. Her feet slid from under her, and air rushed past at dizzying speed that turned her stomach. Her body floated for a suspended moment, her only contact the fingernails she dug into the tense muscles, and then she fell to the ground hard. Winded, she struggled to breathe. From far away, she heard Kaylom's beloved voice calling her name, the sounds of fighting, male grunts, and furious swear words, and rough hands tou
ching her.

  She screamed and kicked the unseen hands away, as a new horror dawned on her. Behind her closed eyelids there was a sea of light. Too bright, too intense, and she screwed her eyes shut, desperate to lock out this strange sensation.

  A booming voice next to her ear made her flinch away from the man. There was something familiar about this man's scent, and some of her panic subsided.

  "Take him away. The elders will have to decide what to do with him. I'll take care of this human." He traced her wrist, and his grip on her tightened. The air around them crackled with intensity, and he traced her jaw with calloused fingertips in a move so achingly familiar to Kaylom's that she opened her eyes and screamed.

  Chapter Six

  Over the incessant pounding in her head, softly spoken voices registered. A man and a woman argued in hushed whispers, so that she didn't catch what they were saying. At the mention of Kaylom's name her eyes flew open, and she immediately wished she'd kept them shut. Her headache increased tenfold, and her stomach churned in the glaring brightness surrounding her.

  She moaned and screwed them shut again. What was this insanity? A cool hand on her brow forced her eyes open again, and she flinched and blinked rapidly.

  "There, my dear, take it easy. You're bound to feel a little queasy after that entrance." Cool liquid touched her lips, and she drank eagerly. Instantly her headache receded into the background, and after more furious blinking, shapes crystallized in her vision. "There, that should make you feel a bit better." The softly spoken, melodic female voice wrapped itself around her, and she croaked a hoarse, "Thank you."

  "That's quite all right, my dear. How are you feeling now?" The woman that lilting voice belonged to touched her wrist briefly, and Macie jerked it away from her.

  "Kaylom, where is he? What have they done to him? I want to see him. He's done nothing wrong. Where is he? Where the fuck am I?"

  The words tumbled out of her and with it the realization that she could see. The blinding light separated into pixels of color and shapes, and she drew in a sharp breath, as her vision cleared, and she focused on the woman sitting on the side of her bed. Straight, long, silver blonde hair framed a face so beautiful it hurt to look at her. Despite the lines showing her advanced years, this woman shone with an inner beauty and serenity that manifested itself in a warm golden glow around her slim form. Macie's gaze snared at the diamond encrusted collar she wore around her neck, and the woman's lips curled up into a smile. Long elegant fingers brushed a strand of her hair away, and her brilliant blue eyes held a shimmering warmth and affection that bathed Macie in her approval, though what she had done to deserve that she wasn't quite sure.

  "It does you credit to ask after your mate at a time like this. I told you Kaylom chose well, Arich."

  A furious growl from the other side of the bed made Macie look over there, and she immediately wished she hadn't. The man stood there watching the scene in front of him from under hooded eyelids, looked just like she imagined Kaylom to look. Shoulder length black hair, peppered with strands of grey framed a harsh, proud face with an angular jaw, covered in several days' worth of scruff. The man's full lips sat in a grim line, and the veins stood out on a thick neck, sat on massive shoulders. His equally enormous and muscled arms were crossed over his chest, fists clenched. In fact his entire body looked coiled for action, and suspicion and mistrust surrounded him like a heavy, black cloak.

  Macie instinctively dropped her gaze under his fierce stance, and immediately wished she hadn't. Her cheeks heated, taking in the way his thighs strained against the clingy fabric that covered them, and there was no missing the heavy bulge in his groin, even with the long tunic covering it. This had to be Kaylom's father, and it was all kinds of wrong to notice these details, but she couldn't help but look again anyway.

  The woman next to her laughed, as though she'd read Macie's thoughts.

  "Kaylom takes after his father, as you will have noticed."

  Macie shook her head and groaned. Can you say busted? Sheesh, these were Kaylom's parents, and she was acting as though she'd never seen a man before, which was strictly speaking true, but made the whole situation even more awkward.

  "I—I…" She gave up and simply stared at her clasped hands. If she didn't look around then she wouldn't get herself into trouble, and it also helped with the pounding in her temples. Being confronted with so much visual stimuli made her feel queasy.

  "I'm Lycille, by the way and Kaylom's mother, as I'm sure you must have guessed by now. I would like to say I'm pleased to meet you, but your presence here has caused considerable uproar, already, and it means my son is currently sitting in a prison cell, so—"

  "He what? Why?" Macie interrupted the other woman and glared at her. She yanked at the downy soft blanket covering her and for the first time realized that she was dressed. The long tunic like dress skimmed the top of her breasts and was the most beautiful deep blue. It echoed Lycille's clothing, minus the corset that cinched the older woman's curves in, and gave her a beautiful shape. A thigh-high slit exposed bare legs, which ended in silver sandals that wrapped around her ankles with leather straps. It reminded her of descriptions of ancient Rome she'd read about as a child.

  "Don't pretend you don't know what you've done, human." Arich's clipped tones held a world of censure and anger, but it was the hurt behind them that spoke to Macie, and meant she held back the angry words bubbling on her tongue.

  These were Kaylom's parents, and they must be as worried about him as she was. Every fiber in her body urged her to get out of this bed, and to find him. She sensed his distress, and it cut ribbons of fear into her heart.

  "Where is he? I need to see him," she said, and tried to get out bed, but the room swayed, and she sat back down again with a yelp.

  Instantly Lycille was at her side.

  "That wouldn't be wise. You're not strong enough. The air is thinner in our dimension, and you will need to get used to it before you can storm off to see him."

  "Aren't you forgetting one rather important thing, Lycille?" Arich interrupted his wife. "Kaylom is under heavy guard and will more than likely be executed for his crimes, so I fail to see why we are welcoming the cause of all his troubles into our home like some long lost relative."

  Lycille sighed and looked as though she was going to say something, but Macie pushed herself to her feet, and after a hairy moment of almost falling flat on her face, she managed a few shaky steps toward Kaylom's father.

  She glared up at him, and his eyes lit up in grudging respect.

  "Kaylom is no criminal. He didn't do anything wrong. Why is falling in love such a crime? Are humans so below your attention that it makes it a crime to sleep with them? Or are we just there to be convenient sport for you Athurons? Good enough to fuck but not good enough to mate with, is that it?"

  She took another step toward Arich and poked him in the chest for good measure. At least he had the good grace to look slightly uncomfortable. She could see Lycille step up with a big grin on her face, which seemed rather at odds with the situation. The shadows behind Arich moved, and Macie's throat went dry as a bunch of lethal looking Athurons suddenly materialized and formed a circle around them.

  Arich put a hand up, which stalled their approach, and they proceeded to glare at her. One of them had angry red scratch marks on his biceps, and Macie realized why their menacing presence seemed so familiar. These were the guards, and she realized that's what they had to be from their protective stance and the weapons they carried, who had snatched Kaylom out of her arms. The one with the scratches must be the one she held onto for her ride into this dimension.

  On instinct she thrust her wrist out. An intricate swirling design of what looked like the roots of a tree, interspersed with symbols, circled her wrist and crept into her fingers. It was similar to the one she spotted on Arich's and Lycille's wrists, and judging by the murmur that went through the circle surrounding them, they knew that, too.

  "I know this means somethi
ng to you guys. I also know that Kaylom did not expect this to happen, but it has, and I'm his, and I'll not let you take him away from me. If you want to punish anyone then concentrate on those that cause harms to humans in my realm."

  Another murmur filled the room, and Macie smiled grimly.

  "Yes, I know about them. I've always sensed you lot. I just didn't know who those presences were, until Kaylom explained it to me."

  "He had no right to do that. He knows the rules better than anyone. He's my son. He will be one of the elders one day. It's his duty to mate with an Athuron female, not—"

  "Not a pathetic little human like me, you mean. Well, tough luck to you and your rules. He did, and I'm here, and I'm not leaving without him, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it."

  Macie barely resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him and to stamp her foot for good measure. Such childish actions would not help her now, she knew that, but it was too damn infuriating. Her wrist throbbed and her heart ached, and she blinked back tears of frustration. What use was it to be here in this world, and being able to see, when she was still as helpless as ever? She couldn't fight these beings. There were too many and they were too strong, but she had to make them see sense somehow.

  "So, you will have him forsake his race, his family, his destiny, to be with you, is that it, little human? And you profess to be his mate? That is laughable."

  "Arich, you're being too harsh." Lycille intervened and pulled a shaking Macie into an embrace. "The girl is barely recovered from her entry into this world, an entry which shouldn't be physically possible for a mere human, and she bears his mark. A mark that inscribed itself in our archives, I might add, and is the only reason you could pin down Kaylom's location. That has got to mean something. Only a true mating is recorded in such a manner, and you know Kaylom. He would not act against the will of the elders, and he would never jeopardize our kind. For this to have happened, for Macie to bear not only his mark, but also our family crest means this was pre-ordained and meant to happen."