Wings

by Sandra R Neeley

  “I need more, Ruby,” he said, raising his eyes to hers.

  “Take all you want,” she answered, boldly meeting his eyes. “Take whatever you want.”

  “I want it all. Everything.”

  “It’s yours, take it,” she whispered. She had no idea if he truly meant he wanted all she was, all she had, all of her. But if he did, she was going to give it to him. She wanted Jaime, and all he had to offer. If he did mean everything, that was just fine with her. She could live a forever with this man and be perfectly happy. Her heart stuttered at the realization that she wanted this man, forever.

  Jaime shoved her legs forward toward her chest and buried his face between her legs. He feasted on her body until she was a quivering, sweaty pile of happy woman. Then he kissed his way up her body and waited until she finally opened her eyes to look at him where he held himself poised above her, the head of his throbbing, iron-hard cock pressing against what it considered home.

  Jaime licked his lips. “Gonna make you scream, Ruby. Gonna make you beg me to stop.”

  She was beyond all speech. She nodded, her hands grasping at his biceps.

  Jaime looked down their bodies and rolled his hips. The tip of his cock slipped inside her and her walls clenched around him. Jaime hissed and glanced up at her face.

  The intensity in his eyes, his lip caught between his teeth, the semi-snarl on his face as he looked down at her was almost enough to make her come just looking at him.

  “More,” she begged.

  Jaime twitched his nose, gave her a devil’s smile and slammed home.

  Ruby screamed, arching her back, and her body went into shiver after shiver as she convulsed around him.

  Jaime didn’t wait for her to catch her breath; he pulled almost all the way out and slammed home again, pounding into her as hard and as fast as he could.

  She closed her eyes and started to tip over the edge again, only his voice stopped her.

  “No! Do not close your eyes. Don’t you dare close your eyes. Look at me. Look at me, Ruby. Know this is me inside you. Me making you feel what you’re feeling. Me, making you mine.”

  Ruby didn’t close her eyes, she stared into Jaime’s, while he possessed her body in a way she’d never experienced.

  Jaime didn’t slow his strokes. He wasn’t even aware he’d started up a growl low in his chest. The faster and harder he thrust, the louder his growl got, until finally he threw back his head and roared as he came inside her. Filling her with stream after stream of his semen. Marking her inside as well as out as he finally brought his face back to hers, dropped his body atop hers and buried his face in her hair where it spilled across the pillow.

  Both their chests were heaving, her legs were wrapped around his waist, her hands around his biceps where they just barely held a small bit of his weight on either side of her body.

  His knees were bent, and he was still buried as deep inside her as he could get without actually becoming a part of her.

  After a few minutes of rest she clenched around him.

  He rolled his hips in response.

  Ruby rolled hers.

  “You ready?” Jaime asked.

  “Yes!” she answered.

  Jaime pulled out and pushed into her again, a little more controlled this time. But he knew she liked it rough, just like he did, so he picked up his pace, holding himself above her and smiling down at her as he gave her more and more. This time, she matched him thrust for thrust. And each time she slapped her hips against his, he snarled.

  “You like that?” she asked him.

  “No,” he answered, a smirk on his face.

  Just as her expression started to change, she was building to tell him off, he broke into a wide smile. “I fucking love it. Love everything about it.”

  Jaime looked down at where they were joined, at their hips working in unison, their bodies sweating against one another, their chests heaving, their breaths being shared. “Every fucking thing about you,” he murmured, before looking up to meet her eyes.

  Ruby was afraid she’d heard him wrong so she didn’t respond, she just pulled his head down for a kiss. When he pulled away from her kiss to drive into her harder, she said, “I want to get on top.”

  Jaime smiled at her mischievously. “Oh, hell yeah.” He wrapped one hand around her waist to hold her to him and keep them connected, then he rolled them, so that he was on his back and she was on top.

  Ruby leaned forward and braced her hands on his chest, then ground herself into him. She lifted up just enough to give herself clearance and rode him for all she was worth.

  Jaime loved it, it gave him the freedom to caress her breasts, pinch her nipples and flick her clit. When he was so worked up, he couldn't take it anymore, he grabbed her hips and started slamming her down on top of him, fucking himself with her body.

  She screamed with every stroke, her nipples were pebbled and hard and her body was drenching his.

  He flipped her before she even realized what he was doing and hammered into her until they were both screaming, then he buried his face in her neck and bit her. He bit her! At the same damn time his fingers dug into the cheeks of her ass.

  “Ouucchhhh!” she screamed, before biting him back hard enough to draw blood.

  Jaime howled his own pain loud enough for anyone to hear, then thrust inside of her again until she gave him one last orgasm. He rode her through it until she was relaxed and pliant in his arms again. Then he kissed her and hovered there until she opened her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, baby. I got carried away.”

  “It’s fine. Future reference, though. No biting, not that hard.”

  Jaime nodded. Then started to smooth her hair away. “Let me see. Did I break the skin?”

  “I don’t think so.” She turned her head to the side for him to see.

  Yep. Sure as hell did. He grinned to himself. And didn’t he just think that was the best fucking thing. He leaned forward and soothed the bite with his tongue. A semi-circle of human teeth, with tiny little pin pricks where his fangs broke the skin. Jaime suckled the slightly bruised skin again, soothing it with his tongue. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. But I think I really got you good,” she answered. “You’re bleeding.”

  Jaime tilted his head to the side, trying to see. He could see a little blood smeared on his shoulder, but that was it.

  “Here, let me up and I’ll clean it up. I’m so sorry, Jaime. I didn’t mean to hurt you. You bit, so I bit.”

  Jaime was smiling, his entire face lit up.

  “Why do you think it’s so funny?” she asked, her hand propped on her hip.

  “Come back to bed, I’ll tell you everything,” Jaime said patting the mattress he still lay on.

  Ruby brought her towel back to bed and used the still damp edge to clear away the little bit of blood that was on his neck. “Yeah, you definitely have a mark. Might even have a small scar. I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You’re not? Why not? I hurt you!” she said.

  “And I bit you, too. Marked you. Even put my mark on your ass,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “That’s my ass, now!”

  “What?” she asked, looking back over her own shoulder to look down at her ass.

  “Oh my gosh! What did you do?”

  “Used my nails, left my mark on ‘dat ass!” Jaime crowed proudly. He looked down at his hands, and thankfully, the claws that he’d been sure were there moments ago, were once again human.

  “You scratched me with your nails! What is wrong with you?” she screeched at him.

  “No more than is wrong with you. You scratched trails up and down my back. Don’t hear me complaining.”

  “I did not!” she defended.

  “You did!” he insisted, turning over for her to see the marks she’d left up and down his back. “I’m damn proud of them, too!”

  “We clearly should not have sex again,” she said, sitting beside him in the bed, shaking her head.r />
  “I’m sorry, what?” he asked, sitting up, too.

  “We hurt each other!” she shouted.

  “Nah. We marked each other. Staked our claims,” he explained.

  Ruby looked at him like he was nuts. “I don’t understand.”

  Jaime lay back down on her bed, putting his arm out for her to curl into and put her head on his chest. “Come lie back down with me, Ruby. I’ll explain everything. Just promise me you’ll hear me out before you react, okay? There’s a lot to explain.”

  Ruby looked deep into his eyes, realized he wasn’t teasing her. He was as sincere as she’d been when she’d told him she trusted him. And she’d meant it. “Okay,” she said, turning her body and lying down against his, her head on his chest, his arm curling around her to hold her close while he told her about himself. His family and how he came to be raised by his aunt.

  “To start with, let me be clear. There will be no other for you, or for me. If we have sex, it’s with each other, or not at all,” Jaime said, matter-of-factly.

  “Yeah, you told me you don’t share, so I’m yours while I’m here,” Ruby said, while she drew little designs on his chest as she spoke.

  “Yeah, it’s changed. You’re mine. Always. Not gonna ever change, no matter where you go or why.”

  Her body tensed as she tried to sit up.

  Jaime held her to him. “And I’m yours just the same way. It’s done, finished. Can’t be undone, and I don’t want it undone. It’s the only damn thing in my life that’s ever felt right, Ruby.”

  Jaime felt Ruby’s body relax marginally against him at his admission. “I don’t have all the answers, hon. But I’ll give you all I’ve got. Just be patient, I’ll tell you all I know.”

  Ruby nodded against him. “Okay. I’m listening. Tell me.”

  Chapter 11

  “My name is Rufus Jamisey Claremont. My…”

  “You’re kidding!” Ruby said, sitting up suddenly to smile down at him.

  “No. I’m not. And you said you’d let me finish before you reacted,” he complained, a scowl on his face.

  “Oh, sorry. I will. But…” she turned around patting the covers around them, finally diving her upper body over the edge of the bed and shouting ‘Aha!’ before righting herself beside him again and holding out an obviously very old, very worn, very well-loved stuffed bat to him. “Meet Rufus the bat. He’s my security snuggly.”

  Jaime stared at the bat for a moment before dissolving into laughter. He reached out for the bat and took it gently from her. “Rufus the bat,” he said, smiling, shaking his head. “Did Rufus come first, and then the bats, or the bats and then Rufus?”

  “Rufus came first, then the bats,” she answered. She took Rufus back from him and shyly raised her eyes to him. “And now I have my very own real live Rufus?” she spoke it like a statement, but put inflection on the last word to turn it into a question.

  Jaime reached out a hand to cup her face. “You do. You certainly do, Ruby.”

  Ruby nodded, her smile huge and gathered Rufus close to her as she laid down against Jaime, her head on his chest. “Okay, Rufus Jamisey Claremont, tell me. I’m listening.”

  Jaime snuggled her close and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t really know where to start so I’m going for the obvious first. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Ruby answered.

  “Mildred is my aunt. Her brother was my father. By all reports he was a good man, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that.”

  “Why?” she whispered.

  “Because he abandoned me. He took my mother, my twin brother and went to live with her people. They left me in the desert to die alone. I wasn’t worthy of being raised as part of their family. If it wasn’t for Clarence finding me and bringing me back to Mildred, I’d have died in the sun, in the desert, alone.”

  “Oh my gosh! Jaime! Why would any parent do that? I mean, mine don’t particularly like me, but even they wouldn’t leave me to die! ”

  Jaime didn’t answer for several minutes. Finally when he spoke it was to warn her. “You’re mine, now, Ruby. If you leave me, I will find you.”

  “Jaime — I’m not going anywhere. Why would you say that?”

  “I’ve never told anyone this. There have always been rumors, but I never confirmed or denied them. Once I tell you, I can’t take it back. If you don’t accept me, my mate, I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t know what you’ll do, because I can’t let you go now.” He stopped talking, held her more tightly to him. “I should have told you first, before I claimed you. So you could have run if you wanted to.”

  Ruby sat up, so she could look down at his face. “Jaime? Just tell me. It can’t be that bad.”

  Jaime locked eyes with her. He held her hand in his. The pain on his face was almost more than she could take.

  “Just say it,” she encouraged.

  “They didn’t want me because I look human. I looked like my father, rather than like my mother. And to her people, I’m an atrocity. So they kept my brother because he looked like them, and left me to die. They couldn’t even be bothered to bring me to my aunt, they just discarded me.”

  Ruby’s face was a mask of confusion, her mouth opening and closing, her brows brought down tight over her eyes. “I don’t understand. What are they if they aren’t human?”

  “Chireop is what they call themselves. The Chireop. They’re bats, Ruby. The giant, humanoid bats you’ve heard tales of. They’re not just legends. They are my people. And I’m not good enough to live among them because I look like my human father. Apparently, judging by their actions from when I was an infant, I’m not good enough to live at all.”

  Ruby sat beside him, stunned, her heart breaking for the man she just so recently allowed into her heart, into her life. She looked at Rufus, the stuffed one in her hand. Gently, deliberately, she laid him down, away from her on the bed.

  Jaime watched her, and misread her action. He thought she was putting him away from her because he was a bat, and she no longer had a fascination for them. He sat up, reaching for her, a warning in his voice — a desperate, pleading warning. “Ruby…”

  Ruby looked from the stuffed bat on the bed back to Jaime’s face. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears. Her face contorted with pain. Her lower lip trembled.

  “Ruby, hon…” Jaime said, prepared to convince her he was just the same as he’d been ten minutes before he told her who he really was. The same man she’d accepted. Only he didn’t get the chance.

  She threw herself into his arms, holding him so tightly to her that she almost strangled him with both her arms around his neck, while she climbed into his lap. “I hate them, Jaime. I hate them all. I hate that you had to start life that way, and that all your life you’ve had this inside you, and I hate them for doing it to you.”

  Jaime had been sure that she was about to reject him, too. Her words and her actions caught him completely off guard. Slowly he recovered his senses and put his arms around her, holding her tight, turning his head just enough to kiss the side of her head, her ear, her hair. He snuggled her closer and pressed his nose into her hair, taking in her scent. The goofy smile on his face said it all. He was home. This… this is what he’d been made for. All the rest suddenly didn’t matter anymore. He’d been a fool to avoid her when she first arrived. He’d wasted precious hours being the asshole he thought he needed to be to keep everyone at a distance, when he could have had her in his arms the whole time.

  “We need to drag them out into the sunlight and let them shrivel-up while we laugh at them. I want to tell them all what fucking idiots they are!”

  “Baby, I don’t think the sunlight will be enough to kill them. They don’t like it much, but it won’t kill them.”

  “Then, we’ll… I don’t know, we’ll find a way to make them suffer.”

  Jaime chuckled. “I don’t need them to suffer. Just need you. I’m enough for you, then I’m enough. ‘’S’all I need.”

  Ruby loose
ned her arms enough to be able to lean back and look at him. “You’re more than enough. You’re all I want. Well, now that I have my shower, that is. Couldn’t possibly want anything else.”

  Jaime smiled at her, then pressed his lips to hers, kissing her once, then twice, before pulling her close again and just basking in holding her body to his. He loved the feel of her heartbeat against his chest. Knowing that this woman was his, only his and… fuck. The prophecy. He’d not told her of the prophecy. “Baby? There’s more. I need you to know everything.”

  Ruby was kissing his neck. “Doesn’t matter,” her muffled voice replied.

  “Kinda does. You need to let me tell you.”

  Ruby huffed. “Okay. If you need to.”

  She made no move to lie back down, so he just started talking, holding her like they were. “The Chireop are a people steeped in tradition, rules and duty. There is a ruling class and the others follow those rules. The ruler of the Chireop people is called the Most High Prime. The title is handed down through the family, and near the end of the Prime’s time, he chooses a successor from among his descendents to take his place. The Chireop have been in existence for thousands of years, and it’s always been that way. There was a time that some of them moved among the humans here in town. In fact some of the people you know are Chireop. But now, it is forbidden by their Most High Prime to interact with the humans, or those who live with the humans in any way. He’s become fanatical and has gone so far as to kill families and friends of those who break his rules and fraternize with the town.”

  “That’s horrible. They should rise up and fight him. Wait, I know some of them? Were they cast out, too?”

  “Some. They looked human and were given to families who would raise them. But some left the colony because they just couldn’t find happiness there. A human appearance is not considered attractive among those of them who have the classic features of the Chireop. It would be hard to find a mate among them. So, they left there and joined standard society.”

  Ruby listened to his words, then loosened her arms again, sitting back so she could see him. “Who?”

  “Clarence for one.”