by Aidy Award
“Why are you still dressed. Oh. Do you think it will be more effective if we use strip tease as foreplay? I’m not very good at seduction, but I’ve got a sense of rhythm.” She started singing a song about leaving your hat on and unbuttoned her shirt.
Ace had to dig his claws into his hands to keep from reaching for her. “Ashmiza. I am not fucking you.”
She tilted her head to the side so adorably. “Please?”
Shit, that was hard to resist. “No.”
She undid another button and the pretty intricate fabric of the garment covering her breasts poked through.
That wasn’t the only thing poking at the moment. The second she’d told him they needed to have sex his cock had gone from its permanently hard state to dripping with pre-cum and bursting to get out of his pants.
She continued her song and danced her way over to Ace. He took a step back. He should distance himself now. He would go drown his sorrows at the Sleepy Folk. Or pie place. The fried peach pies that fit in the hand they served were almost as good as sex.
“Ay-ees.” She sang his name. “Come over here and help me take my bra off.”
Ash shoved him into a seated position on one of the tables in her lab. She’d straddled one of his legs and for the first time in his life, he was speechless. If he didn't get out of here now, this would go too far. There was only so much a man could take. He shifted to get away from her brilliant seduction plan and found himself staring into the face of the male garden gnome through the nearest window.
Douchepotato. The voice of the First Dragon resounded in his head. Your mate needs you to help her access her magic. You can't do that without claiming her. Orgasms, son. I'm talking lots and lots of orgasms. Get to it.
Ace shook his head. Was he hallucinating from all the blood draining from his brain to his cock? It was either that or he had to admit Mr. Gunderson was a voyeur. He was having curtains installed in here as soon as possible.
“I want you to claim me,” Ash sing-songed.
She didn’t really.
The weird vision or advice from a pervert gave Ace and idea though. He could give her pleasure, just like he had before, with his hands, with his mouth. He could send her soaring into bliss where she could find the power within her that fueled her magic. If all she needed was sex, he could do that without claiming her. “No, you don’t, little flame. You don’t yet know what it means or entails. You don’t understand the danger it poses to your soul if I claim and mate you.”
“What does that mean? Little flame. You keep calling me that and I heard Neo call Kady his sweet fire or something. Is it because you're fire breathing dragons? Is fire important in your language?”
Ace might have been able to keep to his plan to give her orgasms and keep his soul to himself if she wasn't so sweetly innocent. His heart wouldn’t let him. He hadn't realized just how much of his soul she'd already taken from him. “It means that you are mine and I am yours, that the world could come crashing down around us and we would still belong to each other. It means no matter how much I know I need to let you go, I can’t.”
“Let me go?” Ash paused and gasped the words.
“Never.” He may have condemned her to a fate worse than death and himself to a lifetime of despair, but he wasn’t strong enough to leave. “I'm yours forever. I love you. little flame.”
Ash stepped away from Ace. Her shirt hung down around her shoulders and there was so very little between her and them.
Would it be so bad to claim her and hope that her soul could burn out the darkness in his? Yes, if it hurt her to take a part of soul as her own. What was he doing? Destroying them all for his own selfishness.
Her skin was flushed with that lovely pink of her arousal. Ace clenched his fist to keep from touching her.
“Why would you say that to me?” Ash wrinkled her forehead with her look of consternation and crossed one arm over her body, gripping her elbow. She took a step away from him. “I get the whole biological instinct to mate. That may be coded into your DNA. But you don’t love me. No one does.”
That’s when Ace’s heart truly broke into as many pieces as there were stars in the sky. He felt the gut-wrenching pain her words belied. He saw it in the new set to her body language, the hurt in her eyes. She hadn’t said she didn’t love her because she didn’t believe he could in such a short amount of time. She didn’t think she was worthy of love.
His dragon roared inside, wanting to destroy whoever had hurt her so much that she didn’t now know she was enough. More than that, she was everything.
He would find and kill whoever had made her feel this way.
Ace would love her for the rest of his life and make sure she knew she was loved. Even if he had to face all of his own fears, he would, just to erase that look on her face. He stood and gathered Ash into his arms. “Ash-ling. You are loved, you deserve love.”
She shook her head and tears bubbled at her eyes.
“Yes. You are. Even if it wasn’t me who loved you, and have no doubt that I do, you deserve love.”
“No, no. It’s okay.” She ducked her head, and her voice was barely audible. “I learned a long time ago that’s not how life works. People say that, but it isn’t true. You don’t have to lie to me.”
“Fuck that.” Ace lifted her chin, grabbing it in his hand and kissed her, taking her mouth hungrily. It didn’t take long before the sparkle of her magic illuminated her skin. If he couldn’t convince her with his words, he would prove it with his body, worshipping hers.
He lowered his mouth to the mark on her neck he’d made earlier. He licked over the bite, then scraped his teeth across it again. Ash moaned, and a new sensation hit him right between the ribs. Her pleasure poured out of her and seeped into Ace’s mouth. Through their connection, he knew she was experienced the same thing.
She wanted more. He grabbed Ash’s hips and rocked against her, pulling her body against his in all the best ways. He took her hand and pushed it between them, helping her unbuckle his pants. It was easy to guide her hand inside and wrap her fingers around his cock.
Ace whispered into her ear. “Do you feel how hard my cock is for you, Ash? It’s not because you’re beautiful, although you are. You’re the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen, with your lush body.”
He slid their hands up and down his shaft, urging Ash to stroke him while he continued to speak the soft words of truth to her. “It’s not because you’re smart, and it’s not because you can help us defeat the shadow demons and the Cult of the Dead.”
He stared deep into Ash’s eyes. “Listen to me, mate. Take my words into your heart. I love you. I want you, I need you.”
She whimpered so sweetly.
“My cock is hard for you because I love you and want to claim you for my own. There is not one without the other. There is no claiming without love.” He hadn't known that until he said it. He'd seen the way Jett loved Yvaine, and how Neo loved Katie, but he didn't understand how intricately the bonding of their souls through the mating ritual was intertwined with that purest of emotions from his heart.
“But—”
Ace cut her off. “No buts. This is unconditional. You need proof. I understand that. Love can’t be put on a chart or a graph. You can’t put it in a box to study. The only proof I can give you is my words, my actions, and my body.”
Ace laid Ash out on the table. He wished they had a soft bed. Next time. Her body quivered in what he hoped was anticipation and not fear. He wouldn’t give her enough time to think about it. Enough of words. Time for the action he'd had spoken of.
He ripped the lace and cotton panties she wore under her clothes down her legs and threw them over his shoulder. There would be no more of those. “Spread your legs. Let me see your ripe pussy. I can smell your arousal, mate. I want to see it. Taste you.”
Ash moved her knees a fraction of a centimeter before Ace got impatient and ran his palm down the inside of her thigh, pushing her legs open for her.
Her wet pink pussy lips, the little tuft of hair, and the tiny nub of her clit poking up were so fucking perfect. He swiped his tongue over her clit and wrapped his arms around her hips as she bucked at the sensation.
Mmm. Salted honey. Her flavor exploded into his mouth. He would come in his own fucking pants without a touch, just from licking her hot cunt.
He took a quick breath to calm himself. “I’m going fuck your pussy with my mouth, Ash. Do you know why?”
She shook her head.
“Because it’s mine. Forever.”
Screw doing the right thing. For once in his life, he was going to do the right thing for himself.
Claimed by the Dragon
Ash
Ash had never lost her mind. Through every trial and tribulation. Foster homes from hell, her torrid teenaged years, not even when she’d had a totally inappropriate crush on her quantum nanophysics professor had she ever failed to keep her brain on the right track.
Her mind was a big ole steaming pile of mush at the moment. Ace loved her. She didn’t understand how that could be, but it didn’t matter, because she knew her brain wasn’t working right anyway. Because if it had been, she wouldn’t be lying on a table being pleasured by the sexy dragon shifter warrior whom she never wanted to let go.
Every experience she’d had in life, from never knowing her parents, her Saturday morning beatings, to the fumbling excuses for sexual experiences she’d had all pointed to this being all wrong for her.
She was tired of wrong.
This felt right.
As soon as she had that thought sparks of light and energy, her magic floated into the air all around her, swirling like a snow globe filled with an electrical storm surrounding her and her man.
Yes. He was hers.
Ace lifted his head and stared up at the magical light reflected back in the fire in his eyes. “That’s right, Ash. Let your magic out. You’re safe with me, let it flow.”
A part of her thought she should really be paying attention to what was happening to her body, with her magic. She should take notes. The other, newer part of her that had emerged from its shell since meeting Ace, the part that was much closer to the real her, knew that all she needed to do right now was feel, enjoy, and love.
Love.
Love.
Ash wanted to tell him. She loved him too. A new burst of glimmering magic spun into the air.
Ace pushed his head back between her legs and kissed her lower lips, teased her, suckled at her. drove her crazy. It was too much and not enough.
He flicked his tongue over her clit and then sucked it into his mouth, pulling and lashing at it. He thrust his tongue into her core, in and out imitating what she wished he was doing with his cock.
She pushed one hand into Ace’s hair, holding him close to her, showing him she wanted him there. She'd never had the guts to do anything other than lie there before, hoping her partner would just know what felt good. Being with Ace gave her courage. “Yes, please deeper. I need more of you.”
Ace growled into her pussy in a low sensual rumble that was ten times better than any damn battery-operated boyfriend. He fucked her pussy, filling her not just with his talented tongue, but then his fingers joined in too. He set a mathematically perfect rhythm that had her body singing in seconds.
Her body wound tighter, magic and the zings of bliss mixed with something new. It wasn’t only her twinkling light of magic floating in their cocoon, but new lights, a sliver of shadow joined in and danced with hers zips of electricity in time to the throbbing of her body.
Ash cried out, the orgasm pulsing so damn close. The lights exploded around her in bursts that she recognized as colors that matched the eyes of Ace's dragon exactly. Her body trembled on the edge and she couldn’t control her moans, even with Ace punishing her with his tongue.
The sensation took over and in that infinitesimal moment before she came, time stopped all around them. For everyone in the world except the two of them.
Her mate pushed her over the edge, nipping her clit between his teeth and pulling the juices from her pussy with one hand and pushing another soaked finger into the tight ring of her ass.
She exploded for them, seeing stars and galaxies detonate along with her body. She cried out unintelligible words, and her muscles clenched from her toes to her heart. She was lost in sensation.
Ace picked her up from the table, cradling her in his arms. He laid them down on the floor together, wrapping his body around her, keeping her safe and warm, protected and loved.
He softly stroked her body and crooned sweet nothings and sweeter everythings to her, until her body relaxed, and she could breathe again. Then he started pleasuring her all over again.
Her back was pressed against his hard chest and she so wanted to see the fire in his eyes. She turned her head, and he kissed the side of her mouth. “Spread your legs for me again, little flame. I'm going to fuck you and claim your body once and for all.”
He rolled her to the floor and got up on his knees. Quickly, he grabbed the cushions off the two closest chairs and slid on under her chest and head and the other under her thighs. She'd never had sex in this position before and the excitement of not being able to see what he would do next put a new layer on her arousal.
Ace pushed her knees open wide and laid his big body over hers. He didn't crush her as she expected. He was more like the warmest, sexiest weighted blanket.
“My dragon demands I take you in the ancient way when I claim you. Show me you want this, mate. Show me your wet pussy.” He growled into her ear and pressed his cock against her thigh.
“I want you, Ace. Please, I need to feel you filling me up. Claim me. claim me now.” She raised her bottom just the barest of inches and Ace groaned as her wet folds pushed against his cock.
“Don't move Ash-ling. I'm at the very edge of my control and I want to make this good for you.” He pressed the head of his cock into her channel, then slowly into her until he was fully inside. He roared out as their bodies became one. “Fuu-uck.”
The magic that had danced around them before rose up again swirling together frenetically as if begging them to give more of themselves. She'd already given Ace her heart, now he wanted nothing less than her soul. Something she didn't even believe in until him.
Ash pushed back against Ace. “Claim me, Ace. Don't hold back. Give me everything you are. I want you, I need you.”
He grabbed her hips and bit into her shoulder at the same time. His body took over and claimed her with each stroke, brutally, beautifully. He was everything she'd ever wanted, and she could finally let go of the part of her she kept hidden from anyone and everyone. She let her true self out and gave it to him.
As Ace poured his seed and his fire into her, she released the secret part of herself, the magic she kept carefully checked out into the world and together they combusted into the fire, the flame, and the creation of the universe itself. Her magic mixed with Ace's and became bigger, stronger, and more powerful.
Her body shook and convulsed with the intensity of her full body, soul, and magical orgasm, going higher and higher as the magic slipped between her legs, inside of her and bonded the two of them for all time.
Ace whispered in her ear even as his cock still pulsed inside of her. “I claim you for my mate, you wear my mark, and you are mine, as I am yours.”
In that moment with him the old wounds of her heart healed, and she didn't feel pain anymore. Only love.
He kissed his way across the back of her neck and licked the spot over her mark. “That was amazing. You touched my soul. I’ve never felt anything like it.”
Then he nibbled his way back and murmured into the other ear. “The way you grabbed onto my souls and danced with it…I’ve never even imagined anything so sensual.”
Ash reveled in the fact that it wasn’t only her that had gotten pleasure out of this part of their mating ritual. Her body felt well and truly claimed by him.
She fell asleep in their
arms watching the bits of glittery magic fall like tiny meteorites all around them. She wished on each and every one like they were shooting stars, asking the universe to keep her spell of love and life a little longer.
A churning image of a giant mass of fiery hot plasma invaded her dream-like state. It surrounded a shadow demon, which beat against the barrier. Ash reached out, zips of magical electricity super heating the field surrounding the being, trying to make it stop.
It did. The demon froze and for the first time, she could see the anguish, hatred, and pure terror on the face of the being.
She woke with a start and gasp.
“Mate, are you okay?” Ace’s gravelly voice sounded like he’d been asleep too.
“Yes, I’m fine. I know what to do.” She tugged her arms and legs out from the tangle his.
Ace sat up, setting her free. “What do you mean you know what to do?”
Ash waved him off and found the multi-use instrument she’d scanned Kady, Neo and the shadow warrior with earlier. Please, please let it have recorded the data and images. She flicked several buttons and scrolled past a menu. Yes. There. That’s what she was looking for.
Ace joined her and stared at the screen. “What is it, love?”
“I understand why the spectral couldn’t penetrate Kady’s magic. Look. It’s similar in make-up to plasma.” She touched a button making the screen move to another view with different data. “I’ve been operating on the theory that the non-photonic being was the absence of light. But I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s…” She got lost in thoughts for a moment. “Holy Fritz Zwicky. I think it’s non-baryonic dark light, you know, like dark matter. I know that’s not a thing, yet. Is that what shadow really is?”
Ace stroked her hair and tugged on one thick strand that had fallen in her face when she was going on and on about her science stuff. He probably didn’t want to hear about her weirdo hypothesis.
“I love your brain, mate. The way it’s working all the time, and how excited you get about the things most of us will never even think about.” His voice was filled with both love and reverence.