Zack nearly exploded at that moment. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut and took deep breaths, trying desperately to calm himself even as she began to caress his hot, hard flesh.
“Wouldn’t you like to touch me like this?” she whispered, leaning forward to brush the tips of her nipples against the mat of hair on his chest. She began kissing his collarbone, his shoulder, his pecs, her lips soft, tender, against his skin. “You can if you want.”
She lifted one of his hands and kissed each knuckle. Then, with her eyes locked onto his, she slid his index finger into her mouth, enveloping it. Her tongue swirled around the tip of his finger and she sucked it lightly, wetting it thoroughly. Zack watched with wide eyes, erection straining against his jeans, eager to be released.
Alix released his finger and lowered his hand to her pussy, silently urging him to cup her sex as she had his. The soft down of hair tickled his palm as he slid his index finger inside her. She moaned with pleasure and closed her eyes as he touched her, stroking her tight inner walls, circling his thumb around her clit. She leaned her forehead against his chest, breathing hard, her knees buckling. She came with a quiet gasp, trembling as he withdrew his finger.
Immediately, she sank to her knees and pulled his jeans down, releasing his cock. She slipped both of her hands around the shaft, then leaned forward and lapped at the head with the flat of her tongue, her gaze trapping his. He grabbed the edge of the counter for balance as she took him into her mouth, tongue dancing around and over, tickling as she took him deeper and deeper, until half of his cock had disappeared between her pink lips. She began to move her head back and forth while rubbing the shaft of his cock with her hands, and Zack gritted his teeth as he felt himself coming…
The cabin door slammed closed and he instantly woke up. Blinking hard, he looked up and saw Alix at the door, stomping snow off her shoes and slipping out of her coat. Thankfully, she kept her back to him. His erection was more than obvious.
“Finally, you’re awake.” Alix shivered and took off her wet shoes. “I thought you were going to sleep all day.”
Zack grabbed a throw pillow and tried to casually cover himself. His dick ached with the need to be touched. What the hell was that dream?
“Where did you go?” He managed to ask, rubbing at his eyes with the balls of his hands.
“I had to relieve myself,” she said, her tone almost as cold as the air she had allowed into the cabin. “Or do I need your permission for that?”
So we’re still arguing, Zack thought with a sigh. Great.
Alix sat down heavily beside him on the couch. The movement made him wince as he bounced. He stared into the fire intently, trying to focus all of his energy and will on making his hard-on go away. Being close enough to catch her natural scent didn’t help things.
“How long do we have to be here?” she asked, a hint of petulance in her voice.
“I don’t know,” Zack said with another grimace. Almost down. “We’ll have to wait until the storm clears.”
It had snowed heavily all through the night, adding at least another foot of snow on the ground. Roads would be impassable until the sun came out. The snow was tapering off now and there was a hint of sun peeking through the clouds. Maybe they could leave tomorrow. But where could they go?
“So what are we supposed to do until then?” Alix asked.
Zack bit his tongue to distract himself as images from that dream flooded back. There were a lot of things they could do, but they should do none of them. As much as he would like to make that dream a reality, he was afraid to do anything that might bring Vardok’s wrath down upon her. If she wasn’t a virgin, Alix could be killed. Or worse.
“I, uh, found a checkers game,” Zack said with a faint smile. “I’ll teach you how to play.”
“If there’s nothing else to do,” Alix said with a sigh. “I suppose.”
Fifteen games of checkers later, Alix was enjoying herself thoroughly. She had beaten Zack for twelve games in a row. Apparently she was a genius at strategy, Zack realized. She had been underestimated her entire life.
“Aren’t you getting tired of this?” he asked.
Alix laid out the black and red pieces on the board. “I like this game,” she said and smiled up at him.
“You’ll love chess,” Zack said, grinning. “It’s a little like this, but trickier.”
“Can you show me how to play?”
Zack hesitated before answering. She would be back in her own world before that could happen. She had no future with him here.
“Sure,” he said quietly.
Alix set up the board again for another game. “When do you think we can leave?”
“I don’t know,” Zack said with a shrug. “I think we’re snowed in for a while.”
“I don’t like snow,” Alix said with a shiver of disgust. “It’s wet and cold and awful. It never snows at home.”
“It does in the Northlands.” For a moment, Zack was lost in the memory of when he was a young pup, shivering against his mother as his father hunted in the barren, snowy land for food. He had almost never shifted to human form then; it was safer and easier to survive with the protection of fur and teeth. He thought of his family every time it snowed and felt a pang of regret that he had not been strong enough to save them.
“Zack?”
Her voice brought him out of his memories. Zack realized he had been staring blankly at the fire, a million miles away. He quickly smiled and focused on Alix again.
“Snow isn’t all bad,” he said. “It can be fun, too.”
Alix rolled her eyes. “I doubt that.”
Zack stood and extended his hand to her. “C’mere…”
Alix hesitantly took his hand and he led her to the front door. “What are you doing?” she asked, stepping back as Zack opened the door to the glittering snow-covered world. The sun was managing to break through the clouds, and the snow sparkled like diamonds. While cold, the air was dry and still.
Zack stepped onto the porch while Alix folded her arms over her chest and shivered. “This isn’t fun, Zack.”
Zack scooped a handful of snow from the porch railing and made a loose snowball. He hurled it at Alix, meaning to hit her arm. Instead, it exploded in her face.
“Oh, shit…” Zack muttered.
Alix stood stock still for a few moments, snow dripping from her nose and chin, her eyes closed and mouth agape in surprise. When she looked at him again, Zack could see the spark of dragonfire in her eyes.
“You will pay for that,” she said as she swept up a mound of snow and quickly packed it into a ball. She threw it at Zack but he was already diving off the porch and into the yard. The snow was well over his knees. He laughed as he made another snowball.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, Princess.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” she said with a grin. “I will.”
She launched another snowball and caught him in the middle of the chest. Zack returned fire as he charged up to the porch and grabbed her in a bearhug, pulling her out to the deeper snow. She screamed in delight as he tossed her into a snowdrift. He lost his balance and fell on top of her, laughing as she scooped snow in her hands and dumped it on his head.
As their laughter faded, he realized how close they were.
He was fully stretched out on top of her, supporting his weight on his elbows on either side of her shoulders. Her face was so close to his that the mists of their breaths mingled. Her cheeks were bright pink, her eyes shining and bluer than the sky. In that moment, she was the happiest he had ever seen her.
The sight of her made Zack’s heart ache.
Every cell in his body urged him to kiss her, but he knew it would only end badly for both of them. They couldn’t be together, despite the fact that he loved her and had loved her for years. Fate would always keep them apart.
So why torture himself now?
He rose quickly and helped her to her feet. Both of them were caked with snow. The sun
was setting, and the air grew colder. Zack didn’t want the day to end, even though in his heart he realized that all good things ended eventually. He forced himself to keep smiling as they stomped the snow off their feet and hurried inside. The fire was dying, so Zack knelt and fed a few more logs to the flames.
“We need to get out of these wet clothes,” he said as he glanced over his shoulder to Alix.
She shrugged and grabbed the bottom of her sweater, peeling it up and over her head. Zack noticed she wore nothing beneath.
“Wrap up in a blanket,” he said as he quickly looked away. He’d forgotten how comfortable dragon shifters were with nudity. Their human forms were just human forms, nothing remarkable about them.
Unless you’re trapped in a cabin with a shifter you’ve secretly loved for years. Then it got a little sticky.
Alix joined him in front of the fire, a gray woolen blanket pulled tightly around her. Her white blonde hair hung in wavy strands around her face and her cheeks were flushed bright pink. She smiled at Zack so openly that he was a kid again, dazzled by his best friend’s little sister and not knowing what to do about it.
“You were right,” Alix said. “Snow is fun.”
“You doubted me?” Zack grinned and stood up. He dripped melting snow.
“Aren’t you going to take off your clothes?” Alix asked. “You’re shivering.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Zack crossed the cabin to the bed and grabbed another blanket. He had his shirt halfway over his head when he realized that Alix was still watching him with blatant curiosity. “You can look away, you know.”
“Why?” Alix smiled. “You have a beautiful human form, and I enjoy looking at it.”
Don’t say stuff like that, Zack thought and groaned inwardly. He felt a sudden surge of heat pulse through his body. The dream he’d had about her flashed quickly in his mind and his cock instantly stiffened. He turned away from her so she wouldn’t see.
“It’s… complicated,” he said as he undid his jeans and wrapped the blanket around himself before he stepped out of them. When the hell did I get so prim and proper? he wondered. He’d been naked in front of more than a few women over the years and he’d never felt a drop of embarrassment. So why now?
He joined her in front of the fireplace and sat beside her on the floor. For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. Zack tried to concentrate on the physicality of his surroundings: the warmth of the fire; the softness of the rug beneath them, the sound of the wind howling outside the cabin…
The heat of Alix’s naked body beneath her blanket.
“What’s your life like?” she asked, the question coming out of nowhere.
Zack smiled faintly. “What do you mean?”
“Were you happy?” Alix turned her gaze to him. “Before… this?”
“Well…” Zack took a deep breath and slowly sighed. “I don’t know, to be honest. I thought I was, once.”
“What changed?”
Zack hesitated before answering. “It just never ended,” he finally said, voice quiet. “For every asshole I got off the street, three more took their place. It didn’t seem like anything I did could stop it…”
He looked back to the fire. He felt like a coward admitting this to Alix, but at the same time he knew that she wouldn’t judge him. Rationally, he knew he was doing some good and making a small difference, but emotionally, he just felt empty.
“I started having nightmares,” he continued. “Dreams where I would be killed, or some innocent bystander. The last bust I made, I actually shifted to bring the guy down. I never did that, because I know how easy it would be to kill. But I just wanted it to be done.”
“Did you kill him?”
Zack shook his head. “No. But I wanted to. And that’s what scared me.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, each lost in their own thoughts.
“I’m scared of getting married,” she finally said, her voice so soft Zack could barely hear her. “I never thought I’d ever have to be married.” Alix smiled humorlessly. “I was supposed to be the queen, after all. And queens don’t have to do anything they don’t want to do.”
“You don’t want to be married… to anyone?”
“I just wanted to be able to make my own decision about it. Father always pressed for me to join our kingdom with someone’s, but I never thought he’d actually…” Her voice trailed away.
“Well…” Zack cleared his throat. “Being forced to marry someone like Vardok would be terrifying for anyone. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid.”
“Not just that…” Alix finally looked at him again. “I’m scared about… mating.”
Alix shifted, turning to face him fully. Her blanket slipped slightly and he could see the swell of her breasts. His mouth went dry and he tried to make himself look away. He met Alix’s eyes and saw the real worry in them, and suddenly his lustful thoughts were extinguished. She was truly frightened.
“I know what the process is,” Alix said, oblivious to his awkwardness. “The human male places his penis into the human female’s vagina. Mother told me about that ages ago.”
Zack nodded slowly. “That, ah, that is the process.”
“And she told me that, in human form, sometimes it’s painful for the female her first time. Is that true?”
“It can be, I suppose.” Zack cleared his throat. Was it getting hotter? “I guess it depends.”
Alix fixed him with a no-nonsense look. “How many times have you mated?”
“Mated?” Zack half-smiled. “As in, purposely trying to have offspring?”
Alix nodded.
“Then… none.” His smile widened. “But if you’re asking how many times I’ve had sex, then… I’ve had my share of experiences.”
“Did you enjoy them?” Alix leaned against the back of the couch, propping her head up with her hand. She held her blanket loosely around her breasts, her shoulders and arms bare. Zack shifted uneasily beside her.
“Well… yeah, of course.” Zack thought of the many women he had taken home, the interchangeable faces and bodies, the emptiness he’d felt after it was over. When he was younger, he’d thought it was the greatest thing on earth, to be able to have a different woman every night. Now he remembered those days with a pang of regret. All of those faceless women were just place keepers for the one he’d wanted most.
“I’ve heard stories about what it’s like,” Alix said softly. “My friends used to tell me everything. It all sounded so… strange and unpleasant.”
Zack laughed. “Well… maybe your friends were doing it wrong.”
Alix smiled faintly. “I just don’t like the idea of being so…”
“Vulnerable?”
“Helpless,” she continued. “My friends said they would scream and carry on and make absolute fools of themselves. And then they couldn’t do anything but talk about their mates. Everything they did was for them. Every word out of their mouth was foolishness about how much they loved them.”
“You don’t think it’s possible to love somebody?”
“Oh, I’m sure some do.” Alix glanced away from him. “Mother and father love each other. Casey and Braydon. They love each other very much.”
“But…?”
Alix shrugged. “I don’t know… it just all seems so messy and complicated. One of my friends thought she had found her mate and she was so happy for a while… until she caught him mating with another female. She cried for weeks over it. It hurt her so much.”
“And you don’t want to be put in that position,” Zack said. He wished he could just pull her into his arms and convince her to give him the chance to prove her wrong, but he didn’t dare. “I know what you mean.”
“And what if I told someone I loved him, and he didn’t feel the same way?” She glanced quickly at him and looked down to her lap. “That would be horrible.”
Zack frowned faintly. Was she trying to tell him something here? He was almost afraid to hope.
“I
think it would be worse,” he said quietly, “if a person missed the opportunity to tell someone how they felt.”
Her eyes met his again. “Would you do it? If you loved somebody?”
“I…” Zack felt speechless for a moment. Now would be the time to tell her how he felt. The perfect moment. The words were on the tip of his tongue and the urge to spill it all out was so strong he almost trembled. But he couldn’t do it.
And the moment passed.
“I don’t know what I have to do, anyway.” Alix looked down to her lap as a wry, almost bitter smile curled her lips. “Mating, I mean.”
“You’ll know when the moment comes.” Zack wanted to reach out to her, to take her hand and give her whatever strength she needed, but he didn’t. He didn’t trust himself to touch her.
“Would you…” Her voice faded, and she cleared her throat as she brought her gaze back to his again. “Would you tell me… what does it feel like to mate?”
9
Alix
It was a simple question, but Zack acted as if she had asked him how to travel to the moon. Alix watched him as he shifted uncomfortably, keeping his eyes on the fire and away from her. She knew, of course, the mechanics of mating in human form and dragon form, but having never done it herself, she felt like there were millions of nuances that she didn’t understand. Her mother had discussed it with her years before, when Alix was becoming aware of such things, but the thought of mating had disappeared into the back of her mind as she grew older and more occupied with thoughts of eventually taking the throne and leading the kingdom.
Besides that, the males in her kingdom kept a distance from her, as if even talking to her would result in punishment. No one wanted the scrutiny of being with the king’s daughter. She watched as her friends paired off and began families, growing more alienated with each wedding she attended. Eventually, she accepted the fact that she would never find a mate and would rule the kingdom alone.
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