by T. S. Ryder
"Is something wrong?"
"I was just thinking about Donna and Quin. I tried calling her today, but I couldn't get hold of her. Have you heard from Quin at all?"
Eric's face fell into its own frown. There was nothing that could be done to change Donna back from the vampire she had become, but Quin wasn't going to just give up on her. They had headed up into the mountains, far away from any human civilization, to help her adjust to her transformation. They were taking it little by little, and so far things were turning out quite well. Not good enough that Donna could return to human civilization, but Quin was hopeful that Kayla and Donna could start having supervised visits soon.
"I talked to him this morning. They both are sounding very optimistic. And I think they're finding other ways to make their isolation bearable, if you know what I mean."
Kayla relaxed, a knowing smirk crossing her face. "Oh, I know. Well, at least one good thing came from it. They're getting lots of alone time without us interrupting them… and we get alone time without Quin bursting in on us. I just wish…"
Eric squeezed her hand. "I think that they might be able to get Donna adjusted enough to be back by the end of this year, or the beginning of next."
"I hope you're right. I miss my best friend."
"I know. But in the meantime, maybe I can distract you?"
He nuzzled her neck again. Kayla laughed, wrapping an arm around his neck and tilting her head back to give him better access. He loved the feel of her fingers brushing through his hair, tugging it to the ends, the soft whisper of her fingertips against his scalp.
"You never told me about the position you wanted to try," he whispered in her ear. "You know, the one that you 'researched'… Hmm… I still wonder what you were doing researching sexual positions…"
"I think you know exactly what I was doing," Kayla moaned breathlessly as he began undoing the buttons of her blouse, still nibbling at her neck. "And unless you stop teasing me about it, maybe I'll never tell you."
He squeezed her two lush breasts, moaning in desire as she ground her backside more firmly against him. His loins tightened, sending shivers down his spine, and it took all his strength to stop himself from tearing off her clothes and taking her on all fours like animals. She didn't like it when he wrecked her clothes, even though he could easily buy her replacements. So he forced himself to be slow as he fumbled with the catch on her jeans.
Kayla giggled, still combing her fingers through his hair. "Need some help?"
"No," Eric grunted as he finally got it undone. He pushed the jeans off her hips. "There we go! Now…"
He slipped a hand between her legs. As he found her sweet spot, she arched herself from him, increasing the friction between his hand and her body. Her head fell back against his shoulder. Eric laughed, kissed her neck, and pushed her pants off her hips. He held one thigh, bringing her knee to her chest before working at her again.
"Will you tell me now?" he whispered in a low, husky voice.
Kayla groaned, digging her hands into his jeans. "Tell you what?"
"The position you're eager to try."
"Never."
Eric let her go. She cried out in protest, but he merely shifted her off his lap. Turning, he knelt between her legs as she slumped on the couch. He lowered his head; as soon as his mouth made contact, she let out a scream and her whole body jerked towards him. Eric drew back, startled by her response.
Kayla pressed her hands over her face and burst into embarrassed giggles. "I'm sorry."
"Well, that was quite a reaction… Are you sure you don't want to tell me what you want?"
"I want you to take me from behind," she mumbled, her face still hidden. "But laying down, on our sides, with you playing with my breasts."
Eric almost laughed. "That's not as scandalous as I was thinking. Come here."
He pulled her from the couch and laid her on her side. She started giggling even more, squirming in his grasp as he laid behind her. But once he took off his jeans and pressed against her, the giggles turned into a moan. He was already prepared for her, her intoxicating presence all he needed. The way her eyes fluttered as he pushed into her nearly finished him; she was so beautiful, so sexy. So perfectly formed for this.
"I love you," he whispered, holding her tight as he started up a steady rhythm. "I love your strength and kindness and intelligence… I love everything about you."
Kayla moaned in response. Her hands ran up and down his arms, her body already trembling, on the edge. Eric buried his face into the back of her neck, gritting his teeth against his arousal. He needed this to go on much longer than it had. He needed to give her the pleasure she deserved, to give her everything a woman as beautiful as she was needed.
When panting turned to grunts and grunts turned to screams of pleasure, Eric couldn’t hold it any longer. With Kayla writhing in his arms, he found his completion. Both of them grew still, gasping for breath. Kayla moaned as she rested her head back against him.
"Is it just me, or does that get better every time we do it?" she asked breathlessly.
Eric's mind was too scattered for him to recognize the words, let alone reply to them. He clung to Kayla's warmth, eventually coming back to himself enough to press a kiss to the back of her neck. "Wow."
Kayla giggled. "We're going to have to try out new positions more often."
"Yes. And maybe do some 'research' together." Eric chuckled. "And the best thing is, we have our whole lives ahead of us to find out exactly what works best for us."
"Yeah." Kayla slowly moved away from him before she rolled to press her body firmly against his with her arms around him. "And you know what else? Everything that scared me before is gone. I have no more doubts, my love. No more fears. You and I are meant to be, and I can't wait to spend every moment of the rest of my life with you."
Eric pulled her tighter, his whole body feeling relaxed and warm. His eyes slid shut. "Me either. And when we're ready, we'll have more children. What do you think about three in total?"
"I don’t know about that… but what do you think about another baby in eight months?"
His eyes snapped open. He stared down at Kayla in wonderment. She grinned broadly and nodded. Eric felt a well of happiness burst inside him. With a shout of joy, he jumped to his feet and started dancing. Kayla laughed at him until he pulled her up with him. They spun in a circle, stark naked, laughing and dancing together.
*****
THE END
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading “The Shifter's Secret Baby” as much as I liked writing it. Please consider leaving an honest review here; it means a lot to me to hear from you.
T.S. Ryder
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Pregnant by the Dragon King
Description
A curvy lady knight winning every battle PLUS a Dragon King who wants his throne back PLUS a vengeful witch looking to destroy them!
Two centuries ago, a battle between dragon and witch took place in the far off land of Grizlenzadi. Carmichael, the Dragon King of the land, lost his throne to the evil queen Danasi and she cursed all dragons, into a dormant extinction.
But the time has come for revenge...
Curvy Karina, also known as the famous Black Knight, has fought every knight in the country. And won each time.
But she isn’t prepared to learn that the long-lost Dragon King himself has sought her out to end the curse once and for all.
Now, it’s up to Karina to defeat the Witch Queen and free the dragon race. But what happens when the adventure of a lifetime turns into a steamy romance between a dragon and human? Only one way to find out.
Prologue
Once, the land of Grizlenzadi w
as ruled from the heavens by the Dragon King and Queen. Caichmiorral and Morrigana watched over the three races of the land—the elves, the dragons and the humans. All was well. And so it remained, until one day, a human witch, a girl named Danasi, was born. Days after her birth, she was abandoned for her abnormal magical abilities. Feeling compassion for the child, Caichmiorral raised her with the dragon hatchlings, but as the girl grew older, she developed lustful feelings for him. When Caichmiorral refused her advances to become his mate, she ran from home, devastated and furious. Heavily laden with uncontrollable magic, Danasi nearly wiped out the faire folk and elves in one fateful night. Furious, King Caichmiorral demanded the witch leave his land and she did.
For a time, all returned to peace, until the scorned witch returned with a foreign army of enslaved undead and declared war on the dragon race. Caichmiorral accepted the war threat with a heavy heart. Ultimately, after the witch poisoned and killed his egg carrying mate, the war efforts faltered and the witch Danasi imprisoned all the dragons in the very earth itself. Danasi cursed him into his human form, adding to the pain in his heart with his freshly dead mate, she made the decree that the only way to lift it was to lay eggs with a new mate. Unfortunately, with all the dragons gone, Caichmiorral disappeared from the world, doomed to remain human for the rest of eternity.
Almost two hundred years later, the dragons still remain locked in their earthen prisons. The Dragon King is nowhere to be found and Danasi still holds onto the throne, ruling unjustly over all of Grizlenzadi.
Yet, there is hope. Caichmiorral has caught wind of a legendary jouster, known only as the Black Knight. He believes this man might just be his answer to breaking his curse, regaining his throne and destroying the witch Danasi once and for all. Death of the Witch Queen is the only other way to defeat her.
Chapter One
A hooded figure stood in a small crowd of peasants, enthralled by the upcoming joust. He looked out of place, dressed in deep purple robes embroidered with gold and clasped around the throat with a blood red gemstone. Nobility, after all, sat in the wooden stands to observe the tournament games.
Karina assumed this person was planted only to draw her curiosity. She was the Black Knight. So undefeated was she, that distractions and attempts at fixed wins against her favor were commonplace. As she stared through the slits in her obsidian colored helmet, she pondered if this stranger would try to stand in her way. Her attention was wrenched from thoughts of the stranger, to her horse, a charger black as ebony and muscled thickly, that pranced restlessly beneath her.
“Peace, Tarron. We’ll ride once the trumpeters give their call. Once more, my old friend, we are to wait for the Duke to give his speech,” she soothed, patting the charger’s thick neck with gauntleted fingers. As she spoke, the Duke of Rostlecastor approached the stands, dressed in gaudy robes of silver and red, a circlet resting just over his bushy brow.
“M’Lords! M’Dams!”
His voice carried with the wind to where even Karina could hear him, even from where she sat on top of her steed at the other end of the tourney field. Her rival this day, a man she’d yet to ride against, trotted into view behind the Duke and took his place at the opposite end of the tourney field. Already she could tell it’d be an easy set of passes. The man opposite her, even armored, was smaller than she was.
“We shall charge with victory this day, Tarron. What say you?” she asked softly, to which the massive charger shook his great head and snorted his impatience.
“This tourney is in celebration of the birth of my wee lass, Rosalyn and to give a date to my daughter, Allyson with her coming of age!” the Duke proclaimed, to which both peasantry and nobility alike cheered, save one. Karina’s eyes were drawn to where the hooded stranger stood, unresponsive. A flash of gold shone from beneath his hood and she could almost feel his eyes staring straight through her. A chill gripped her as though snowmelt ran down her spine and she tore her eyes from him with a grimace.
“The victor of this jousting tournament will have the privilege of my dear Allyson’s hand in marriage,” the Duke announced.
As the Duke spoke, his daughter rose from her seat, eyes puffy and red with spent emotion. How could someone who claimed themselves as a father force their child into something so cruel? The very thought brought Karina’s blood to a boil and left her hand clenching against the lance at her side.
“I shall free you, lass, lest my rival’s lance pierce my breast,” she vowed in a whisper.
Of course, she had known little of family for some time now. She’d never known her father and her mother had never borne another child. The closest thing she’d had to a family after her mother had passed was the captain of the guard in a southern Grizlenzadian province and the stable owner of Rostlecastor, Flannigan.
“Many knights of the province of Rostlecastor have participated in this so grand of tourneys and now, we have come down to two final suitors. Sir IsekFlanory from the northern reaches of Grizlenzadi.”
A cheer erupted from the crowd as the fan favorite urged his horse into a canter down the tourney field and back around. Everything from his armored form to the molted mare he sat upon was smaller than Karina and her charger, to the point it was almost amusing.
“And, the nomadic renegade, known only as the Black Knight.”
Not a cheer was to be heard as Karina squeezed her knees together, wordlessly urging Tarron into a charging, powerful sprint. Indignant sounds met her ears and a few stones were hurled towards her, though none so much as glanced across her armor. She was used to such poor receptions as this, simply because she was unorthodox in the way she accepted winnings. The Black Knight was notorious for letting free a hand, rightfully won, for marriage and giving lands to serfs of the various provinces she’d jousted in.
Yet, she found her eyes drawn towards the riled crowd as she pulled Tarron to a halt. They’d once more reached their end of the field, and her eyes drifted towards the peasantry. Her green irises stayed locked onto the form pressed close to the field. The hooded figure stared at her with an intensity and rapture she’d never seen before.
The Duke had taken to his seat as Karina brooded over the stranger. Why did he stare? She shook her head impatiently. What did it matter? The same chill rolled down her spine as her soul all but split wide open under the golden gaze she was met with. It took all her willpower to look away again. The trumpeters had stood with their horns at their lips and should she continue her stare, she’d miss the fanfare signaling her charge.
Everything faded in the background, from the crowd to the stranger in the purple robes. There was a job at hand, a lady to set free. No distractions, merely Sir Isek, his mare, Tarron and her lance. Then, the trumpeters sounded the horns, signaling both Karina and Sir Isek to prepare to charge.
With a four-note fanfare, she kicked Tarron into a canter, her lance pointing high to the sky. It took mere seconds in real time, but to her, the entire world slowed. She seemed able to focus on every aspect of Sir Isek’s charge from the way his horse stumbled a step and a half before actually cantering forward, to the way he sat with his lance holding arm. His hold was too wide and his posture leaned too far to the right. It rendered his left shoulder almost fully exposed. That was her target.
She grinned as she leveled off her lance and struck the rival rider in the shoulder. The man was thrown backward from his saddle and onto the dusty ground while her lance splintered from the blow. Together with Tarron, they reached the other end of the tourney field and turned around to check on Sir Isek, who’d yet to move from where he lay sprawled on the ground. His horse, the skittish thing that it was, had raced away and was nowhere to be seen.
Angry shouts greeted her as Karina dismounted and walked over to her fallen rival. How hard had he fallen that he was still so dazed?
“You killed him!” a particularly hysterical woman shouted from the stands, but as Karina nudged Sir Isek with her armored boot, he gave a plaintive moan, but slowly sat up.
“I shall not ride again,” he croaked, shaking his head as he got up on unsteady legs.
Karina stared at him, surprised such a prestigious jouster would relinquish the tourney victory to her after a single pass. The trumpeters’ music once more filled the air as Sir Isek made a show of shaking his head, solidifying his forfeit.
The Duke didn’t look pleased in the slightest and his daughter Allyson looked even less so, as she had once more burst into tears. Yet, Karina made a show of approaching her despite her distress and the Duke’s obvious irritation. Slowly, she knelt on one knee. “M’Lady Allyson,” she began, forcing her voice deeper until it barely passed as masculine. “I have no desire to strip your honor from you by forcing you into wedlock. I grant you, as my prize, the freedom to do as your heart desires and not be trapped as a coveted possession.”
Briefly, Allyson’s tearful eyes stared straight through her helmet and locked her gaze on Karina’s own. A look of awed wonder crossed her features, but quickly her gaze broke as she offered Karina a deep bow.
“Sir Knight. You honor me with your chivalry,” she whispered as she stood once more. Dabbing at her eyes with an embroidered kerchief, she blew Karina a kiss before turning around to speak with her father.
It was only once Karina’s attention was freed that she felt the eyes of the stranger boring into her from behind.
Chapter Two
“I require your assistance, Sir Knight,” he spoke, hood covering all but his eyes. The strange, golden color of his irises was captivating and Karina felt as though the stranger could see straight to her very soul as he looked at her. Shivering, she turned away from him and snagged onto Tarron’s reins, refusing to speak.
