The Minotaur's Kiss

by Erin St. Charles

  She licked her lips. "Mac-"

  "If you let me in, I will never walk away from you. I won't be able to. So you need to be sure before we do this."

  Diana had never been so sure of anything in her life.

  "I don't want you to walk away."

  She scooted backward on the bed, and he followed her.

  Chapter 26

  Mac had no idea what about the meeting at Pantheon that made Diana open up to him again, and at the moment, he didn't care. The past weeks had been torture for him, physically...and emotionally. She shook him up, making him feel things that went beyond what his body wanted. He was starting to need her, and he realized that the only solution to that need was to stay as close to her as he possibly could.

  He vibrated with excitement as he slid the red satin panties down her legs. He had her flat on her back, legs spread and sex completely open to him. He took her in. She still wore the bra that barely contained her magnificent breasts, and her flat stomach trembled. Her eyes held both passion and tenderness, and he realized that this was the expression he'd been waiting for. He had missed her so much.

  He hooked her legs over his elbows and with one smooth, hard motion, entered her.

  It was like stepping into a warm bath. Her pussy closed around him, firm yet yielding, tight and hot. He felt almost lightheaded from the rush of being inside her again.

  "Jesus, you're so fucking tight." He really needed to slow down. He didn't want to be too forceful and possibly hurt her.

  She looked up at him with glazed eyes. "Don't hold back," she pleaded. "I need you so much. Please fuck me."

  He pushed deeper into her, and she let out a guttural moan, making his heart skip a beat. Her breasts bobbed as he fucked her hard and deep. He shifted his hips, seeking the firm ridge of flesh at the roof of her pussy that he knew drove her crazy. He slowed his pace, grinding into her g-spot, and watching intently for her reactions. Her mouth formed an O, and he heard her mutter, "so good, so good." He continued to drag his dick over the spot, teasing her mercilessly as she thrashed beneath him, tossing her head from one side to the other, her body sucking him in, her face a study of urgent concentration. He kept a steady pace, torturing the spot until tears rolled from the corners of her eyes. He watched her mouth move with her silent words of pleasure until his hips began an involuntary jerk every few strokes, and he knew the end was near for him.

  "I missed this pussy," he grunted, picking up the pace. "So beautiful. So hot."

  She whimpered and attempted a hip wiggle. She found her voice again.

  "Make me cum. Fill me up."

  Her breathing came shallow and rough. He watched his dick slide into her and on the downstroke, her dark pussy lips clinging to him.

  "I'm going to make you scream, then fill you with my come."

  "Yes..." she grunted. "Please. Make me come. Come inside me."

  Her pleading is what did him in. His body took over from his brain, and he fucked her harder, pushing her up on the bed, her breasts spilling over the cups of her bra. The feeling of her pussy fluttering over him, her wetness sucking him in caused the last of his control to break and his strokes became erratic and out of control. Sweat covered her in a fine sheen, and her glorious red hair had loosened from her neat bun. She was right on the edge, he could tell by the way she seemed to lose all perception of the world around her and her brow furrowed. He plunged into her harder and deeper, felt himself start to get thicker and harder. He teetered, not willing to finish before she did. He reached down to where their bodies joined and ground down on her clit until she went perfectly still and screamed. Only then did he give into his own need, stroking into her hard, hitting her cervix, then going still as he released with a loud roar.

  He collapsed onto his forearms, holding her.

  "I love you," he whispered against the crook of her neck.

  He expected her body to go stiff. Or maybe she would push him away, throw her legs over the side of the bed, and walk away.

  Instead, she ran her fingertips over his shoulder, tracing his tattoo as if she had memorized its outline.

  "It's okay. I love you too."

  Chapter 27

  "Where was this one taken?"

  Diana gave Mac a wistful smile. "Brookfield Zoo. I think we were ten."

  They lay side-by-side on their backs, looking at a holograph projected onto her ceiling. Diana, Vanessa, and their mother, sitting in front of an elephant enclosure, smiling and squinting into the camera. Both girls had their mother's smile and cheekbones. The image shimmered and wavered in the way Omni images did when projected at an angle.

  Diana felt loose, sated, content. He loved her, and she loved him. And it didn't hurt anything to say it.

  "Who took the photo?"

  "Not my dad, that's for sure. We had a selfie drone."

  Diana watched something flicker over his face and waited for him to say something. When, after a few beats, she cocked an eyebrow at him.

  "What?" she asked. She propped herself up on one elbow and traced a long, slender finger over the light fur covering his chest. She gave him a teasing smile.

  "What 'what'?"

  "You know what. Spill it. What were you going to say?"

  When he looked pensive, she trailed a fingertip over one of his nipples, giving him a sly smile. Then she leaned over and licked the already tight peak, making him yelp. Her dark eyes chased his as he attempted to evade her touch.

  "Hm, that was interesting. I think I'll do it again." She sat up and straddled him before he could blink. She leaned in again and licked the other nipple.

  "Hey!" he protested.

  "Hey, what?" She dipped her head again, and he held her gently but firmly by the shoulders, halting her progress. She looked down at him, her expression teasing. "You were going to say something else before. What was it?"

  He cast his head left and right, looking bemused at this turn of events.

  "Don't want to tell me?" She lifted an eyebrow. He made his patented grumpy face.

  "I bet I can make you tell me," she teased. "And I also bet I know exactly how to make you talk. Just let me touch you..."

  She craned her head forward, and this time he didn't try to stop her. He just watched her as her fingertip grazed one of his nipples, his expression stony. She replaced her finger with her tongue, circling his nipple lightly. She grinned slyly when his body tensed, and he sucked in a sharp breath.

  "I'm a Minotaur," he said. "Impervious to all manner of coercion."

  "Then what was that look?" She kept her mouth on his nipple and continued to tease the light brown circle of flesh.

  "Okay, okay." He laughed, pushing her away from him.

  He flipped her so that she was beneath him. There wasn't a lot of room for both of them in the queen-sized bed. She'd have to get a bigger bed soon.

  "Where was your dad when the photo was taken?"

  She shrugged. "Is that all you were going to ask me? He was probably working. He looked after the working girls in Back of the Yards. Always lots to do."

  He grunted. "My mom was a workaholic too." He leaned in nuzzled her neck, making her giggle.

  I guess this is what passes for pillow talk for the emotionally unavailable.

  "You'll meet her. Soon," he said, his words muffled against her skin as he kissed her neck.

  "Oh, I will?"

  "Of course. I'm your boyfriend. You're my girlfriend. Time to meet the parents."

  Her mind worked over this idea. An idle thought made her snort with laughter. He reared back and looked at her, giving her a quizzical expression.

  "Mac and Diana, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

  "I'm thinking a tree might be more comfortable than this tiny bed."

  "The bed is not tiny. You're huge."

  He stopped kissing her and gave her a cautious look. "You think so?"

  "God, don't be that way. Do you know how nice it is not to be the tallest person in the room?" she teased.

 
"No, I don't know," he said gruffly. Her eyes went wide, thinking she had offended him.

  "Mac--"

  "Relax, I'm just giving you a hard time. And I love how tall you are. I won't have to strain my neck when we slow dance." He resumed the feathery kisses along her neck, this time teasing her with his rough tongue. She shuddered.

  She thought about slow dancing with him, possibly at...their wedding, safe in the shelter of his arms.

  "I told you. I love you, and you let me in. I'm here for the long run."

  What, exactly, did he mean by the long run?

  As if reading her mind, he said, "And by that, I mean, a house with a white picket fence, two-point-five kids, the whole nine yards."

  She gasped. "Mac?"

  "We can have a big, obnoxious wedding with fifty bridesmaids, or we can go to Vegas and use a drive-through chapel. We can jump the broom in your backyard. It's up to you." He sounded rather matter-of-fact about the whole thing as if it were a foregone conclusion.

  He's asking me to marry him...or at least...telling me we're getting married.

  "You think I'm going to give you a chance to say no?" Again with the mind reading. "After all you've put me through?"

  She remembered that Jacob, the other Minotaur she knew, had met and married his wife, Alma within weeks of meeting her. Vanessa had also mentioned something about shifters being persistent when it came to matters of mating.

  "You're so presumptuous," she said, laughing and smiling. He flipped them over again, and she was underneath him again.

  "I know you're thinking this through." He gave her an understanding nod.

  "I am both touched and annoyed that you can read my mind so well."

  He laughed out loud. "I'll let you be on top again when you say 'yes.' "

  "Mac!" she said again. She gave him a hard look. He placed her legs over his shoulders, fit himself to her, and plunged into her to the hilt.

  "Ohhhhh..." she said. She seemed to lose her train of thought, as well as her resistance, when he did that. He was balls deep but didn't move.

  "Time to show you who's in charge," he said. "I'm going to fuck you until you say yes." He set a leisurely pace, sliding into her slowly, almost mechanically, but going no faster. She attempted to tease him into a faster, orgasm-adjacent pace. He resisted, feeling powerful and in control, until she managed to shift her hips ever-so-slightly, making him go even deeper so that he felt awash in her pussy. In an instant, he was so close to the edge that he had to will his dick to get with the program.

  He paused to hold off his release. When he was back in control, he flipped them again, and she was on top. She looked a little surprised, and he decided to press his advantage, grasping her soft, round hips and punching up into her to the hilt in one fluid motion. He watched her face tense, then relax again. His girl liked it rough.

  She braced the heels of her hands on his shoulders and began to swivel her hips, taking him deep. Then she opened her eyes slowly and gave him a wistful smile.

  "If you like it, you better put a ring on it."

  He laughed at her cheekiness. He reached up, grabbed her breasts, and squeezed. He marveled at how soft her skin was and how good her large breasts felt in his hands. He slid his hands back to her hips and began to pound up inside her. She chewed on her bottom lip and moaned. Her full breasts jiggled enticingly with every thrust. He placed a hand on her lower belly. He was so deep inside her that he thought he might be able to feel his own dick sliding against her inside.

  One day, we'll put a baby in there...

  Her pussy seemed to grasp his dick and with every thrust. The sight of her dark, puffy pussy lips stretched over the pale skin of his dick while he pounded her was the most erotic thing he'd ever seen.

  But he still couldn't get deep enough.

  She fought for control even as his hips punched up into her pussy. Every stroke into her was more breathtaking than the last. Her body gleamed with sweat as she rolled her hips over him. Her pussy had a choke hold on him. He teased her nipples by pinching them and rolling them between his fingers.

  "Oh my God. That feels so good."

  "You like my dick in you?" He sure liked his dick in her. He could be with her like this forever.

  "Mac, you feel so good." Her eyes were closed again, and she seemed to go into a trance-like state, her hips rolling on their own, her eyes moving behind closed lids. Sweat sheened all over her beautiful brown skin and her auburn curls stuck out in all directions. She reached down to where they were joined and rubbed her clit. Something about the gesture made him lose his mind.

  He rolled and had her pinned beneath him. He folded her legs up to her chest and began to pound into her, the angle driving him so deep into her that he felt submerged in her pussy. His dick slid over her clit with each thrust, and he could feel her orgasm building. He slowed down and angled his hips so that he could hit her g-spot each time. "Come on my dick, baby. I want to feel you cum on me."

  As if she were waiting for his command, a dam burst, and she came screaming his name, her pussy fluttering around him. This was the trigger for his own release. He burrowed deep into her and orgasmed with a helpless grunt, wishing he could capture the feeling in a bottle. Streams of cum jetted into her body while he gasped with the force of the orgasm. He rolled onto his back, taking her with him. She rested her head on his chest, and they lay there for some time, catching their breaths.

  Mac held her close, enjoying the way she felt in his arms. He could scarcely believe she had asked for a ride home, let alone told him she loved him...he had been torn between wanting to swallow her whole and giddy elation. Diana made so many things possible. She knew him. She accepted him. He didn't have to hold anything back with her.

  And he wanted to know everything about her. But his eyelids felt heavy, and her breathing slowed as well. Right now, nothing could be better than holding her in his arms.

  When the doorbell rang, she frowned.

  "Are you expecting anyone?"

  She shook her head no.

  "Maybe it's Amanda."

  "Maybe it is," she said. She rolled off him and grabbed her red kimono. "I'll get it. She may not want to come in if she sees you first."

  Mac grabbed his jeans and pulled them on. He had no idea where his underwear was.

  "I'm right behind you." He didn't want to take chances--since the changeling was still on the loose, and the investigation into Julie Wheeler's disappearance was still in flux.

  The doorbell rang again just as they reached the door. Diana yanked the door open to find a statuesque woman in her fifties standing there. He was confused until Diana said, "Mom!"

  Chapter 28

  If a half-dressed man appearing at her daughter's front door surprised Leona Miller, she was damned good at hiding it. Diana's mother stepped over the threshold, took in her daughter's half-dressed state, then breezed into the living room. She wore her trademark jeans and t-shirt and carried an understated designer handbag. Where was she when she'd called that morning? At the airport?

  Although she must have just come in from Chicago, some nine hundred miles away, she carried the amount of accouterment one would expect of a woman going to the mall for the afternoon.

  "Uh, hi Mom." Diana tugged at edges of her kimono self-consciously. She should have returned her mother's Omni calls earlier. Mac looked confused, and really, who wouldn't be? He recovered and held out his hand while Diana looked on, thinking that she and Mac seemed to be cursed to endure awkward situations like this one.

  "Baby, why didn't you tell me your mother would be in town?" Maybe because I didn't know?

  Her mother smiled up at him, making eye contact as if he weren't a bare-chested hunk of man meat.

  "Mom, this is Mac." Diana placed a reassuring hand on his arm and smiled at him. "Mac is my, uh-"

  "I'm her boyfriend, ma'am." He gave her mother one of his rare charismatic smiles and Leona's face lit up with interest.

  My boyfriend. That made her inside
s turn into fondue, even though her mother's sudden appearance made Diana nervous. Whatever she wants, I'm not going to like it.

  Mac poured on the gentlemanly Southern charm with Leona, which belied the fact that he'd just spent a good part of the day fucking her daughter into the mattress. He looked calm and unflappable, the type of emotional self-management Diana chalked up to his Minotaur heritage.

  "Mom, we were just-" Diana gestured vaguely towards the back of the house.

  Her mother gave her a shrewd look. "Diana I was married to your father for twenty-three years. I'm pretty sure I know what you were doing."

  Diana tensed, realizing her mother wasn't going to let her unresponsive daughter off the hook. Vanessa had probably told their mother about Mac.

  Mac spoke up. "We were just getting dressed. If you don't mind, could you please have a seat and we'll be right back?"

  Diana cast Mac a grateful look, then followed him into the bedroom. "I am so sorry." Diana poked around in her closet looking for something to wear. Her cassock was torn beyond repair, and the crotch of her leggings was completely soaked. She watched as Mac pulled his t-shirt over his head. He shrugged.

  "Why? I want to meet your family." She frowned.

  "I wasn't expecting her. I've actually been sort of dodging her phone calls..."

  "I thought you were close with your family."

  "I am," she said hastily. "You know I've-we've been busy with work lately. And my mom can be really pushy -- in case that wasn't obvious to you."

  "She seems nice."

  "That's not exactly how I would put it."

  She took in his now puzzled expression, trying to think of a good way to describe her mother. Overbearing? Domineering? She sighed while pulling clean jeans from her closet.

  "My sister and I have a birthday coming up. She wants to see us married."

  "Hey! Perfect timing!"

  She glared at him. Her mother had a way of looking at you and knowing your truth, as well as the truth. She had made the decision to let Mac back into her bed but introducing him to her mother--even if only by accident--felt like too much intimacy.