by Ophelia Bell
And beside him, he saw another expanse of massive wings, red instead of black, and Evie’s small body curled up asleep, safe in the other dragon’s claws. If she lived, could he find it in himself to live, too, in spite of the terrible things he’d done, the very worst of which was leading her into that trap so long ago? If he had only known, he would have accepted his human calling instead.
“You can’t fight Fate, Marcus. This was the path you were meant to travel. You are a part of me now. And as a part of me, I can’t let you die.” The deep voice he recognized as Ked’s resonated inside his head.
“It was your blood they filled me with when they bled me of my own, wasn’t it? Was that how you found me?” he asked.
“We were searching for Evie, not for you. Yet somehow, a female dragon who had no business knowing of Evie’s disappearance had information on her whereabouts. We planned her rescue as soon as we knew.”
Marcus’s grasp tightened around the large claws on either side of him. His Hail Mary of an attempt to get Evie out had worked. He never expected he would be taken with her; by now, he was resigned to his life with the Ultiori. In spite of Evie’s fervent offers of forgiveness when they’d made love the day before, he had given up hope for redemption. He deserved what Sayid had done to him. He sure as hell didn’t deserve a female as precious and perfect as Evie North.
His strength faded, the darkness seeping through him again. Marcus hoped this time it meant he might finally be granted his wish to die. He deserved nothing less than Hell.
Yet it wasn’t fire and brimstone that met him when his consciousness faded, but the beautiful, lilting song of an angel, and a sensation washing through him—one he’d once been convinced was Heavenly power.
Chapter Nine
Marcus
Brooklyn, New York
Spring, 1965
“Wow, did you feel that?” Marcus asked, still giddy from the rush of the best orgasm of his entire life.
The beauty beneath him stared back, wide-eyed and speechless.
“Evie?” he asked, her silence after her vocal reactions to his lovemaking a point of concern.
Rather than answer, she clutched him to her and he groaned, sinking back down and pressing his hips tighter against hers. His cock had gone soft inside her, but he wasn’t ready to separate, and she didn’t seem inclined for him to leave her, either.
With a swift twist he turned them both so that his back was against the bed and she was cradled in his arms. She held onto him, her eyes clenched so tightly shut he wondered whether he’d hurt her.
“Baby, talk to me. At least tell me I wasn’t the only one who felt like we just blasted through the stratosphere together. Because that was… amazing.”
Her words were barely audible, but her lips brushed against his chest as she spoke. “You weren’t the only one,” she said. She turned her head and rested her chin on his chest. Big, brown eyes peered up at him, glassy with some deep emotion he couldn’t quite fathom. “I was only kind of joking before, but I suppose you should be careful what you wish for. I am falling in love with you.”
Marcus tensed at her confession. That kind of stark revelation was so alien to him he didn’t quite know how to react, but after a second he relaxed again. To be loved by a woman as amazing as her was better than the most detailed erotic dream he’d ever had.
“I…” he began, then stopped, a hard lump lodging in his throat. Something profound had just happened between them while they fucked, and he wanted more of an acknowledgment of exactly how intense it had been. He didn’t understand it himself. He’d had sex with women before, but Evie was the first woman who he’d ever felt that with. And he’d only just met her.
“What?” she prompted.
“I’ve never felt this way making love with anyone before. That blast of—whatever—what was that?” he whispered. “Please tell me you felt it, too.”
She sat up, her sweet little ass pressing against his flaccid cock, and looked down at him.
“I felt everything.” Her mouth spread into a sly grin. “I still feel everything,” she added, pushing her ass back against his growing erection.
Before Marcus could continue the conversation, she’d lifted her hips and taken him inside her again. He lost the capacity for speech and simply moved his hips to match her tempo, holding onto her with both hands and relishing her lithe body’s writhing churn on his cock.
“Holy fuck, what are you doing to me?”
Her slender hips rocked atop him and he just tried to hold on, tried to stay focused on the sight of her in spite of how gloriously wonderful her tight, slick channel felt rhythmically clenching and releasing his cock. God, he felt so filthy at the idea of shooting his spunk inside her, but she’d objected to the condom so he’d given in. The lack of a barrier made it even harder for him to hold back. He could have come three times in her since she started fucking him, but wanted so badly to hear her sing again before he did.
The lilting melody came a moment later, and this time he was sure there were actual words to the song. They were unfamiliar to him, but unmistakably sweet, spilling from her lips. He sensed from the intensity of her shudders and her gaze that the song meant something personal to her. Before he could process the thought and voice his wonder, she clenched so tightly around him he was unable to hold back. His balls tightened and his climax exploded inside her, the hot stream of his semen pulling from somewhere even deeper inside him, as though the energy of the entire universe had chosen him as a conduit to flow through his body and into hers.
Evie’s head flew back as she worked herself atop him, her smooth neck a perfect, beautiful line undulating from the sounds still coming from deep inside her. Finally, the song faded to nothing but an echo, and then only the sounds of their heavy breathing were left in the room.
She let out a soft sigh and sank down to his chest again, humming with contentment when he wrapped his arms around her.
“Wow,” he said, then chuckled at himself for his lack of any larger vocabulary at the moment.
“Stratosphere?” she asked, smiling up at him again.
“I think we must be in another galaxy entirely, after that. And that song… it was so beautiful. What did it mean?”
She shrugged, the movement causing her breasts to shift pleasantly against his chest. “Just an old song I knew from when I was a kid in Budapest.”
“It sounded like a sad song. What was it about?”
She remained quiet for a moment, then her back rose and fell as she let out a long, heavy breath.
“It’s a love song, of sorts, but a sad one. About all the things a girl would do for her old lover, if she hadn’t let him go to war and lost him.”
He only managed a short “hmm” around the sudden tightness in his chest. The war was something he’d managed thus far to avoid thinking about, in spite of the mounting protests throughout the country. The ominous clack-clack of the Draft Board’s typewriter updating his classification reverberated in his memory.
“1-A,” the new copy proclaimed, which meant, “available for military service.”
Marcus was no longer a student, having finished his degree just a few months earlier. He had few living relatives and no dependents. His mother was healthy and well-off enough on her own that it wouldn’t be a hardship for her if he were drafted. So with the situation in Vietnam escalating, it was only a matter of time. Marcus didn’t believe in the war, but he believed in honor and duty. He had intended to enlist the following week, anyway, to preempt the inevitable. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
He wrapped his arms tighter around Evie’s body, trying to ignore the dread that had settled in his gut and instead focus on how amazing it felt to have her in his arms. He’d told a little bit of a fib to her earlier—he’d been listening to her sing for weeks, but had only today worked up the courage to approach her. Still, he’d been too b
ig a coward to speak to her directly in front of the two musicians she sang with, and was supremely relieved when she divulged that they were, in fact, her brothers. He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around that. They were both large, well-built men with long, black hair. They certainly resembled each other enough for him to believe they were brothers, but compared to Evie’s delicate frame with her small features and shining brown hair, the men could have been from another planet and he’d have believed it.
“Something’s bothering you,” she whispered, sliding off him and propping her head on one hand by his side. She left her other hand resting on his sternum, toying with the thicket of coppery hair that adorned his chest. “Is it because we only just met?”
“Not at all. I was just worried that your brothers might be missing you. I don’t want to piss them off.”
Evie let out an indelicate snort. “They’re harmless. Besides, you’re bigger than them.” Her gaze drifted down his naked torso and back up.
“There are two of them, so under the circumstances, I’d prefer to stay on their good side. I should take you home before they decide to come beat down my door.”
“What you should do is tell me the truth,” she said, hooking her leg over his and nudging her knee perilously close to his genitals. “Something you should know about me is that I can spot a lie a mile away. My brothers might intimidate you, but that’s not what’s really bothering you.” She nudged his balls gently and he twitched his hips to pull away. The contact felt supremely nice, but the look in her eyes was too dangerous. Her leg tightened and she raised her eyebrows.
Marcus rolled his eyes and reached down to grip her knee. “If you want to make use of me again, be careful.”
“I’d prefer to fall in love with a man who is honest. If you can’t be, then I have no use for you.” With her knee locked tightly in his grip, she instead slid her hand down and cupped him between the legs, squeezing gently. The threat wasn’t lost on him, but her soft touch made it difficult as hell to think straight. Her eyes brightened when his cock started to stiffen again.
“Christ, fine! The song you sang, at least the meaning of it, hit home.” He rolled over and rummaged in the pocket of his backpack, hunting for his wallet. A second later he unfolded a small, cream-colored card and held it out to her. “My draft card. Your brothers are probably in the same boat, if I’m guessing their ages right. I’m not the kind of man to shy away from danger—that’s not what bothers me—but now that I’ve met you…”
Now that he’d met her, it still shouldn’t have bothered him. He barely knew her, after all. But he’d never met another woman quite like her and the thought of never having the time to explore what could be would break his heart if he let it. She was even more special than he imagined after those weeks of watching her singing in the park.
“You’ve known me for what, a few hours? Why do you think I’m so special?”
“Mm, well, what you’re doing with your hand right now is pretty special.”
Evie lifted her head up and waved the hand she’d been resting on at him. “This? It’s just a prop.” Her other hand tightened around his rigid cock and gave it a long, deliberate stroke. She grinned at the harsh groan that escaped his lips.
“I don’t know what it is about you. Something tells me you’re so much more than you seem, even beyond a knack for spectacular hand jobs.” His hips rose up to meet her steady stroking. Fuck, he was going to come again if she kept that up, which would probably be breaking some kind of record, at least for him. He’d never been so turned on so soon after an orgasm before. And this afternoon, he’d already had two back-to-back. What the fuck was she doing to him?
“Am I special enough for you to believe me when I say you don’t have to worry about my brothers? If anything, it’s my grandmother you should be afraid of.”
The comment might normally have ruined the mood, but Evie punctuated it by leaning down and taking him in her mouth. Marcus lost it completely then, hips bucking up hard into her. He reached out and grabbed at her thigh, sliding his hand up between her legs to find her slick and wet. She hummed around his girth when he slipped two fingers deep into her. He wanted more of her. Sweet Jesus, he didn’t think he would ever get enough of her. With a squeeze and tug of her thigh, he urged her to move so that her knees were braced against his shoulders and her sweet snatch was poised and dripping over his mouth. He gripped her ass and spread her wide open, lifting his head to delve in.
His worry about her family disappeared, and the looming threat of the war became a hazy shadow at the back of his mind. All he knew in that moment was pure, delicious sensation—of her mouth steadily working up and down his shaft, of her wet, velvet folds sliding against his lips and tongue. He may only have these few hours with her. For all he knew, tomorrow would be the day the letter came, and by this time next year, he might be in a jungle on the far side of the world. He resolved to make this time worthwhile—to find out all her secrets, not just what made her sing with pleasure, but what made her laugh or cry, what foods she liked, whether she were ticklish or loved the autumn as much as he did.
But at the moment, Marcus just wanted to exhaust himself with the pleasure part of the equation. To have her in as many ways as possible. Suddenly the idea of filling her with his hot seed was more alluring. Maybe angels really couldn’t get pregnant, but if he had to leave her, he could leave her with a piece of him and hope that when the war was over and he returned, she would remember him by what he’d given her. It would give him a reason to fight, to live, to come home.
He knew now that he would need that, too, because what else did he have? His family was so sparse as to be nonexistent. His mother was an only child and her parents were dead. She still regularly drank herself into oblivion over some old lover who had appeared after his dad had died in that long-ago war. Whoever that stranger was had taken advantage of a lonely, recently widowed, and very pregnant young woman, and had disappeared just as quickly.
A child… an entire family… had been a distant, elusive fantasy to Marcus, and for the first time in his life, he let himself want it.
Except this particular position, as much as he loved the feel of Evie’s mouth wrapped around his cock, was not ideal for that purpose.
He dropped his head back to the pillow with a groan and rolled her off him.
“What is it?” she asked, wiping her mouth delicately and staring at him with those beautiful, big brown eyes. Goddamn, she destroyed him. She was so much more than a pretty face and voice.
“I need to fuck you again. From behind this time. Turn around.”
“Oh? In a hurry to try every position? We still have the rest of the night, you know. I’m not planning to fly away anytime soon.”
His face grew warm at her teasing, and even more at the secret wish that had come upon him a moment ago. Yet she complied with a pleased smile, crawling to him on hands and knees and leaning in to give him a lingering kiss. When she pulled away she leaned down, wrapping her arms around a pillow with her ass poised in the air, legs spread.
“I’m all yours, all night, Marcus. Any way you want me.”
He shifted around behind her and couldn’t resist pressing his mouth to her glistening, pink folds again. He squeezed her ass with both hands and slid his tongue all the way to her clit, flicking at it until he heard her gasp and her body quivered. Then he licked the other direction, teasing higher and higher, aiming for the rosy pucker between those two perfect mounds of soft flesh.
Evie’s quick pants halted, her entire body growing abruptly still. Marcus was afraid he’d crossed a line, until she pressed back harder against him.
“Hmm, you like that? I’d love to have this pretty ass, too, but right now I just want to fill your hot cunt with my come. I hope you were lying when you said angels couldn’t get pregnant. We’d make beautiful babies. Little cherubs with wings and chubby thighs.”
&
nbsp; “Ohhh,” Evie moaned when he entered her again. The sound was both melodic and heart-wrenching. It seeped into his ears, sank into his bones, inundated his soul with a kind of sadness that made him want to make love to her until the song she sang was no longer bittersweet, but filled with joy.
He slid his hands down the smooth curve of her arched back as his hips worked his cock in and out of her at a maddeningly slow pace. He’d been so close to coming into her mouth, he needed to go slowly and work back up to climax again. Bending over her, he placed his lips at her ear.
“Would you like that? If we could, would you like me to put a baby in you?”
“Marcus, please! Oh, don’t say that. It can’t happen.”
He pressed his lips to her shoulder, slipping his hand beneath her chest. She was so small and his hand so large he could easily span both breasts with one hand and tease her nipples.
“Maybe not, but a man can dream,” he said, teasing his tongue along the sweat-coated back of her neck. “Just tell me you want it. At least tell me you’d like a future with me, because I can’t imagine a life with any other woman besides you.”
Evie’s muscles clenched tight around him, so tight he had to stop moving lest he lose control too soon. At the same time, she let out a low, mournful moan followed by a single word that spilled from her lips in the wake of a sob.
“Yes!”
Her ass bucked against him and she reared back, still solidly encompassing his plunging cock. He wrapped his arms around her, reveling in the ecstatic repetition of that same word. Yes, yes, yes, please fuck me, come in me again. Please!
The sound of the words were as instrumental in his dive into oblivion as her clenching muscles when her own shuddering orgasm took over. He had one arm wrapped around her chest, his other hand between her thighs, rubbing her hot, throbbing clit in time with his thrusts. The power of his orgasm sent his entire soul through the end of his cock and into her. He wished all it would take was the desire to make it happen, but her reaction told him she hadn’t been lying before. He forced the thought away.
