Her dragon tongue. He loved it. Armstrong laughed and pulled Kya in for a quick hug and kiss on the cheek.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes. I didn’t know if you would show up.” He released her then claimed her hand, lacing his fingers through hers and turning toward the table where he’d left Isaiah and Nicole.
“I assume you don’t mean your eyes are literally sore.”
“I don’t, so no healing magic required.”
By the time they maneuvered around tables, diners and waiters, Nicole and Isaiah were standing. Still a little nervous but feeling better with Kya by his side, Armstrong made introductions.
Kya, at six feet, towered over the five-five Nicole, who greeted the dragon with a warm hug and a, “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“It’s definitely nice to meet you, Kya.” Isaiah shook her hand. “For a while, I thought you were a figment of my brother’s imagination. But nope, you’re as real as the rest of us.”
Kya was definitely real, just not a real human.
Armstrong held out Kya’s chair, and she sat. He followed, unable to keep his eyes off her. His dragon was stunning in her human form, and he felt lucky and honored that she’d chosen him.
When they picked up the menu to order, Armstrong realized he’d never seen Kya eat a single thing while in human form. He’d cooked them breakfast, and he’d eaten. In his happy state at having Kya in his home, Armstrong hadn’t paid attention to her lack of an appetite. He’d made reservations at the steakhouse because he knew Kya was a carnivore. But devouring a wildebeest as a twenty-five-foot dragon wasn’t the same as eating a ribeye steak as a human. Did wildebeest even count as red meat?
Hell, why didn’t any of this occur to him before now?
Kya ordered wood grilled kohlrabi steak, vegan paella, asparagus, and fennel-roasted onion.
“Where in the world did you find a vegetarian dish on a steakhouse menu?” Isaiah asked.
Armstrong tried not to gape. He was sure Kya would order the bloodiest steak allowable under the FDA.
“I only consume meat once a month. It’s all my body requires. But Armstrong insists on filling my breakfast plate with bacon, sausage, and something called scrapple. I didn’t want to know what animal scraps comprised the side dish, so I refused to ask.”
“Wait, my brother cooks you breakfast?”
“If one considers what he does cooking, then yes. It’s thoughtful but quite unnecessary.”
Isaiah and Nicole looked at each other and then burst into laughter.
“You could’ve told me you didn’t like my cooking.”
“For me to dislike your cooking, I would’ve actually had to taste the food. Which I was disinclined to do.”
His brother and sister-in-law continued to laugh, their eyes ping ponging from Kya to Armstrong.
He should stop. This wasn’t the time or place to get into an argument with his dragon.
“Do you have any idea how early I have to get up to cook for you, or how long it takes to get the scrapple just right so it’s crisp but not overcooked?”
“Yes, from start to finish, forty-five minutes.”
“That was a rhetorical question.”
“Was it?”
She damn well knew it was.
“Oh, yeah,” Isaiah began, “she’s a real introvert. I’ve never seen anyone shier.”
Under the table, Kya grabbed his hand and held it. It trembled, although none of the rest of her did. His heart constricted with love for his Bloodstone Dragon. Like he’d been earlier, Kya was nervous. Unlike Armstrong, she hid it behind a dragon’s pride.
For him, she made an effort. She smiled and talked and answered questions with as much honesty as their situation allowed. She peppered lies with the truth, which had his heart constricting for another reason. To be together, they would always have to lie.
By the end of the evening, Armstrong could sense the strain of the night on Kya. When she chose to meet him at home instead of riding in his car, he knew she needed to cast off her human shell and take to the sky in her natural form.
He didn’t take it personally when Kya slid into bed at dawn. Armstrong simply scooted to her and held his dragon close. There was still much to learn about Kya, the dragon and the human. One thing he knew about both was that Kya took comfort in physical contact.
Armstrong wondered if that was a Kya thing or a dragon thing. Something in the way she burrowed against him, her arms going around his back and caressing, even when she slept, made him think this was the way dragons showed their love and affection.
That dinner turned into a five-year unorthodox relationship. All the Knights loved Kya, especially the children. She doted on them in that quiet yet commanding way of hers. His mother loved her but didn’t like the idea of them “shacking up without the sanctity of marriage.”
In a sense, Kya and Armstrong did live together. But his family would’ve been surprised to know how often Kya would disappear for days. Some days she couldn’t stand to be in her human form. Other days the sky and Buto called to her dragon spirit.
She always came back to him, but in pieces. Kya was never whole when she wasn’t in dragon form. Those nights, after being away, when she would return, they’d make love with so much passion Armstrong would forget how lonely he’d been without her.
Tonight was one of those nights. It was their anniversary, not that Kya cared about such milestones. Armstrong did, though. It had been thirteen years since she’d seen him in the alley outside of Knight Life Bar and sought him out in his apartment. Thirteen years of loving a dragon and five years of having the human Kya share his life.
He moved inside of her, and she felt so good. Kya always did. A year, that’s how long it had taken before they consummated their relationship. The wait had nearly killed Armstrong, especially with the way Kya liked to rub against him in her sleep. But waiting had been for the best. When they finally took their relationship to the physical level, Kya had wanted him as much as he wanted her.
“I missed you,” he whispered in her ear.
She turned her face to him and kissed Armstrong. Deep and long and with an erotic display of tongue. His dragon had mastered the art of kissing, of which Armstrong was the happy beneficiary.
“I missed you as well.” She arched in his hungry embrace. “Touch me there again, diata.”
She didn’t tire easily and was rarely winded. Yet when they made love, he managed to leave her breathless and panting for more.
He touched her where she liked, and Kya moaned into his mouth. He desired nothing more than to taste her, and now that she understood what that entailed, he slid down her body with confidence.
Mouth first found breasts and kissed. Then engorged nipples and sucked. Lips pressed into her toned stomach, kissing then licking before dipping lower. Big hands spread thighs and nose nuzzled the V of hair there.
Kya sucked in a harsh breath, and Armstrong did it again. He wouldn’t tease her. She didn’t understand or appreciate the sensual power of delayed gratification. So he sank his tongue down, around, and in. Vanilla and honey, his dragon’s signature flavor.
Delicious.
“Armstrong. Armstrong.”
He loved the way she moaned his name. Kya had never been a loud or talkative lover. She didn’t swear when she came or talk dirty. She didn’t flirt and wasn’t coy. She didn’t fake her orgasms or give him platitudes about his sexual prowess.
She did none of those things, which made Kya the best lover Armstrong had ever had. His name. How he made her feel and what they did to each other when they made love was expressed in the way she said his name.
Velvety and sentimental.
Hips lifted and a hand came to his head. “Armstrong.” She pushed her sex into his mouth, and he gladly accepted. Kya was wide open to him and the most human she would ever be. So close to her orgasm, with his tongue lapping at her clit, fingers driving in and out of her, Kya could be no more human than when on the verge of her relea
se.
“Armstrong please.” A soft plea.
He knew what she wanted, and he gave it to her. Closing his mouth around her clit, Armstrong sucked with a gentle tug. That was all it took for his dragon to explode into a rapturous release.
Seconds later, she pulled him to her and Armstrong sank into the warm wetness of his Kya.
9
“Are you sure?”
Armstrong had asked her that question five times. Kya refused to answer it again. Yes, she was sure. Yes, she’d been seen by a gynecologist. Yes, she’d gotten a second opinion.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Kya was certain she was pregnant.
She sat on the couch in the living room while Armstrong, still in his black Secret Service uniform, sans the bulletproof vest, stalked back and forth. She wished he would sit down or at least stay still. His agitation wasn’t helping nor would it change their predicament. They’d taken precautions to prevent conception. Clearly, they hadn’t been cautious enough.
Before they became intimate physically, Kya explained about dragon-human reproduction and Kesins. Armstrong assured her he would “take care of everything.” In the weeks leading up to their first night together as lovers, Kya had learned much about human conception. Since neither of them knew how genetically human dragons became when they shifted, Armstrong was uncertain if female contraceptives would be effective or safe for Kya to use. When she’d given herself to him that first time, and every time afterward, Armstrong wore a condom.
Except, at least once, he did not. Kya’s unplanned pregnancy was the result. The sad truth wasn’t that the offspring was unwanted, despite the unexpectedness of the news. Kya and Armstrong wanted to share parenthood, desired nothing more than to create and raise a product of their love. But no offspring of their union could live among humans without revealing secrets of the Dracontias.
Armstrong dropped to his knees in front of Kya. If she were in dragon form, she would be able to smell his sadness and desperation. She didn’t need her enhanced senses, however, because everything her diata felt was in the agonized eyes that met Kya’s and in the hands that gripped hers with fierce possession.
“I should be happy. I want this. I want our child.” He kissed her lips. “But I want you more. I can’t lose you, Kya. I don’t want to go back to living my life without you.”
Kya didn’t want that either. She’d known their relationship wouldn’t last. She just never imagined it would end so soon. With a young dragon to care for, Kya wouldn’t have time to spend with Armstrong. She couldn’t leave their Kesin for days and weeks while she played human and courted her feelings for him.
“Don’t smack me or get mad. There’s another option, we should consider.”
“What option?”
He squeezed her hands. “Sometimes, when a woman becomes pregnant and isn’t ready for motherhood, she aborts the fetus. The father may want the same thing, although she’s the one who decides because it’s her body. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Abort,” she said, repeating the word and thinking about its meaning in the context of what Armstrong had just said. “Are you suggesting I abort our young before it has a chance to be birthed?” Kya withdrew her hands from Armstrong. “You want me to deny life?”
“No, not want. Dammit, Kya, I want our baby. I want you both. But if you have the baby, you’ll go away and take our child with you. If that happens, I won’t have anything.”
“I’m a healing dragon.”
“I know.”
“You don’t. What you ask is not done. Every dragon, Afiya or Kesin, is like the stone in our skulls, unique and precious. We can live without our Dracontias stone, but the power of the stone is worthless if the dragon owner of the stone dies.”
“What does that mean?”
Kya felt tears pooling, and she wiped them away. Too many uncontrolled emotions as a human and far too few ways to conceal all that she felt. They should’ve been more cautious. This is what came of losing control of one’s emotions, of being too human and less dragon.
She no more wanted to lose Armstrong than he did her. Over the years, Kya had adjusted to and adopted many human customs. But this, the aborting of her young, she couldn’t do such a thing, not even for her love of Armstrong.
“It means the might of the Dracontias aren’t our healing stones and magic. It’s not our long lifespans and armored scales. What makes us powerful and a threat to humans is our unbreakable bond and unconditional love. We’re unwavering in both. I’m a dragon, Armstrong. Abortion is not an option. I’m sorry.”
For more than he would ever know. In all that she’d explained, the implication was that she would forsake their love and him for the Dracontias. The pain and realization were there, in the eyes that lowered and the body that slumped to the floor.
She’d hurt him, and she’d hurt herself. If there were any way for them to be together as a family, Kya would do all within her Bloodstone Dragon power to give them that life. Their Kesin couldn’t stay in the land of humans, and her Armstrong couldn’t live on Buto with dragons.
Their worlds would have to stay forever separate. They’d tried to bridge the divide. For a while, they’d fooled themselves into believing in miracles. But there was no miracle to be found, not even with all the magic on Buto and within the Dracontias.
“I’m sorry.” Tears fell, and she couldn’t stop them from falling. Kya dropped to the floor beside Armstrong and pulled him to her. He came, wrapping his arms around her waist and settling his head in the crook of her neck. “I’m sorry.”
“I know. What am I going to do without you?”
She had no idea because she didn’t know what she would do without him.
“I love you, Armstrong Knight. I have for a very long time.”
A confession she’d pledged to never make because the repercussions for her heart would be too great. But a broken heart couldn’t break twice, and hers had fractured the moment she’d learned of her pregnancy.
She hoped telling Armstrong how she felt would help alleviate the pain of the parting to come. It didn’t. Her confession only served to deepen the wound.
“Will you at least stay until the baby arrives? You said Kesins are born human and will stay that way for a few months. If that’s all the time I have, I want every second of it.”
She lifted his chin, wiped the wetness from his cheeks and kissed him. He returned the kiss, feverish and forceful. Yanking Kya onto his lap, Armstrong deepened the kiss.
His hands tore at their clothing until they were naked and he overtop of Kya and driving into her. There was nothing gentle about their lovemaking, and she didn’t need or want it to be. But it was passionate for all the love they shared and the loss they would have to endure.
Kya would miss Armstrong Knight. A part of her would even miss her human form and all the ways her diata made her feel like a woman.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he sank deeper. His moans of pleasure, low and gruff in her ear, were among her favorite sounds. There were others, such as his rich laughter, his soft snores and his grunts of release. She would miss those, too.
And his hands that held her while she slept.
The lips that kissed her good morning and goodnight.
The cold feet she kept warm in the winter.
The fingers that dug into her hips when they were intimate. And the heart that told her she was loved, no matter her form.
“I’ll stay. Mmm, Armstrong. Do that again.”
He did, his hips grinding just the way she liked.
“We’re going to do this every day.” A harsh bite to her neck. “Every day. You’re mine, no matter where you are.”
Kya was Armstrong’s, his attempt at a claiming mark unnecessary.
“And you’re mine.”
“Damn right.”
They exhausted themselves making love, starting and stopping and then beginning again. Filling up on memories, Kya knew, for the lonely days and nights ahead.
Armstrong had told her, several times, to take one day at a time, to not ruin the present by looking too far ahead to the future. For once, she saw the merit in those words. At most, Kya and Armstrong had fourteen months before she would have to return to Buto with their Kesin.
Not much time. Not much time at all.
After two weeks on the campaign trail with the president, Armstrong couldn’t wait to see Kya and fall asleep in his bed with her by his side. The president’s reelection bid was in full swing, which meant the commander-in-chief spent a lot of time away from the White House and DC. Which amounted to Armstrong also being away from home and Kya. They didn’t have much time left, so he’d balked at the away assignment.
His supervisor had noted his displeasure and request for leave. Noted and then dismissed both. He and Kya spoke as often as they could, sometimes on the phone other times telepathically.
Her pregnancy hadn’t been easy on the dragon. Morning sickness plagued her for the first and second trimesters. She’d lost weight instead of gained, which had Armstrong concerned. Kya had assured him she and the baby were fine. Now, with about a month to go, Armstrong was torn between wanting to see his child born and wishing Kya could stay pregnant forever.
Stupid, but each month that passed was one month closer to Armstrong losing his family. He’d watched Kya grow round and big with their child. He made every doctor’s appointment he could, pampered Kya, and read to the baby. Armstrong strove to live a thousand lifetimes in the months left to them.
He’d taken dozens of pictures of Kya and her ever-growing stomach. Armstrong converted the small room he’d used as an office into a nursery and purchased bags full of baby clothing. He’d accepted donations for the baby from his siblings, and his colleagues had surprised him with a baby shower. They’d invited Kya and lavished gifts on the dragon, who had no idea how to respond beyond a polite smile and a genuine, “Thank you for your kindness.”
So much fuss over a child who, in a few months, would be a baby dragon and unable to use any of the gifts meant for a human infant. Armstrong knew he hadn’t faced his reality. Everything he’d done these past months mirrored the actions of a man who would soon become a father. He’d ignored Kya’s soft, pleading eyes for him to accept the inevitable.
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