by Zoe Chant
“Oh! Oh, please,” Ilie said excitedly, and he followed her over to the box of DVDs, and then to the DVD player. She let him put the disc in himself; he held it carefully in two hands, as if it were treasure.
They settled back on the couch to watch, but just like when she was narrating to him while they walked, Becca had to pause every few minutes to answer questions. She loved it, though—it was kind of crazy to be the one explaining the mysteries of the world to a guy who had been a dragon until today, but Ilie was endlessly curious.
“I’ll bet you know more than you think you do, though,” Becca said. “The stars, you said—or the weather, I bet you’re aces at predicting the weather around here.”
“Oh, well, that’s just watching,” Ilie said with a shrug. “I can see the clouds a long way out, and I can feel the way the air currents move.”
“So,” Becca said. “Predict me the weather, then.”
Ilie tilted his head. “Clear overnight, but we’ll probably get some thunderstorms tomorrow,” he decided. “They roll up the valley and the storm kind of—”
He gestured with his hands, trying to describe the way a storm system combined with the updrafts on the mountainside to stall rain clouds. “It’s amazing to fly in, there are so many currents pushing on each other, and you can feel the lightning coming, gathering in the air around you before it strikes, and…”
Ilie trailed off, shaking his head in wonder, and Becca smiled even as she felt a pang. There had obviously been so much for Ilie to enjoy in being a dragon.
She wanted to ask him if he couldn’t change back to enjoy tomorrow’s weather—Gus, after all, seemed to change back and forth at will. But Ilie had been always a dragon. Maybe it was all or nothing for him.
“Thank you,” she said softly, when he didn’t seem about to say more about thunderstorms.
He met her eyes searchingly.
“For changing for me,” she explained softly. “I’m nobody special, I don’t know why—”
“You’re my sky,” Ilie said softly, raising a hand to cup her face. His thumb brushed past the corner of her eye.
“I knew as soon as I saw you—I didn’t know what it would be, I didn’t know you would be showing me the whole universe, but I knew I wanted to know you and find out what there was to explore. Thank you for coming looking for me.”
Becca couldn’t resist the pull between them anymore. She leaned in and kissed him, and Ilie made a soft sound in his chest almost like he had for the candy. He kissed a little awkwardly at first, but he seemed to catch on to this as quickly as he did to ideas about astronomy and physics. Soon the kiss deepened, turning hot and eager.
There was another bell sound from downstairs and a door closing firmly, and they jerked apart. Only silence followed, though. Mrs. McCullough had gone out.
The ring of silver around Ilie’s eyes was almost swallowed in black now, and his cheeks were as flushed as Becca’s felt.
“Becca,” he said hoarsely. “I’ve been a dragon since I was a kid.”
“Oh,” she said, feeling a funny combination of tenderness and lust at the realization that that had been his first kiss. She had so much to show him, and he wanted to learn it from her.
“Do you… do you want to go slow?”
He smiled, showing his teeth again. “No. I want to explore. I want to know everything.”
Becca grinned. “Well, then. Where do you want to start?”
“You,” he said immediately. “Can I… can I see you? Touch you?”
“Please,” Becca breathed.
She had to lean in and kiss him. This time his hands settled on her waist, his thumbs stroking through her shirt.
Becca couldn’t help squirming into the couch. She felt so wet and hot, knowing that he wanted her, needed her, that there had never been anyone else he wanted this way. She pulled back from the kiss and peeled her shirt up and off to encourage him.
“Oh,” he breathed, his eyes riveted to the generous curves of her breasts. “Oh, God, you’re beautiful.”
His hands found her sides, stroking over her curves, lingering lovingly on every inch. He kissed her lips again and then lowered his head reverently to kiss the tops of her breasts.
“You feel so good,” he whispered. “So soft, so perfect.”
“Not just my eyes that you find persuasive now?” Becca asked, trying to keep a little humor about her to defend against the raw emotion rushing through her. She wanted him so badly, wanted him to feel everything she could give him.
Ilie looked up, smiling a little as he met her eyes.
“Your eyes are still the most persuasive part,” he said, his lips moving lower and lower down the curve of her breast. “But you keep getting more and more persuasive all the time.”
He stopped at the edge of her bra, and she reached behind herself to unfasten it.
Ilie’s eyes fluttered shut as he eased her bra down and off, like he was already overwhelmed. He opened them again as he cupped her breasts in his hands. He lowered his mouth reverently, flicking out the tip of his tongue to taste her tight, hard nipple.
“Oh,” Becca gasped. “Oh, more, you can—”
Ilie was a quick study, licking more firmly and then sucking, nuzzling his way to her other breast to repeat the experiment.
His hand slipped down over her belly, and he didn’t bother unfastening her jeans before his fingers were exploring between her thighs, pressing against her through denim and cotton where she was hottest.
“Yes,” Becca moaned. “Oh—a little—harder—hold right there—”
Ilie obeyed, keeping his hand in just the right place to let her rub against him. Pulses of pleasure rushed through her from her clit as his mouth continued to lavish attention at her breasts.
Becca slid one hand into his beautiful hair, winding her fingers through it and holding him to her chest while her other hand fumbled at the button and zipper of her jeans. She needed more, needed his touch on her directly.
“Ilie, please,” she moaned.
She reached down to tug at his hand, and he understood, moving it inside her jeans and panties. His fingertips slid through her wet curls, touching gently where she was most sensitive. She couldn’t help crying out a little as she arched into his touch.
His fingers slid lower, giving her his palm to rub against while his fingertips explored her folds. He pressed inside where she was so slick, and Becca threw her head back against the couch and came, gasping his name.
After a moment to breathe she opened her eyes. Ilie looked awestruck and fascinated, smiling open-mouthed.
“First lesson, A-plus,” Becca said, smiling. “Now I think it’s my turn to see you.”
Ilie slid his hand out from between her legs and tugged at her jeans. “I haven’t seen all of you yet.”
“Mm, well, I can help with that,” Becca said, feeling quite sure for once that the shape of her thighs was nothing to be ashamed of—not under Ilie’s greedy, eager gaze. “But you too, all right? You were fine being naked out in the woods.”
“So you already saw me, really,” Ilie teased, but he pulled off his shirt as Becca sat up and untied her boots. When she sat back to wiggle out of her jeans, Ilie was wiping a last streak of dried mud off his shoulder with his wadded-up shirt.
“You could take a shower,” Becca offered, but now that she was looking she could see the bulge in his jeans. She was honestly impressed that he hadn’t lost control already. He had to be aching for it.
“After.” Ilie put his hands to his jeans.
Becca leaned back invitingly against the couch to watch as he finished undressing. She wasn’t going to look politely away from his cock this time, and it would have been difficult to ignore. He was fully hard, gorgeously so, his cock standing up dusky against his pale belly.
He touched himself with just his fingertips, hesitantly.
“Let me,” Becca said, scooting closer to him on the couch. She threw one leg over his thighs as she curled her hand a
round his cock.
Ilie made a tiny whining noise at her touch. His hand came down to hold tight to her hip as though he needed to steady himself. She smoothed her hand up and down his length, letting him just feel the sensation of it, and his head tipped back. He was biting his lip already.
“Now,” Becca murmured, leaning in to kiss his throat. “We can do this a few ways. I can keep touching you with my hand, or I can use my mouth, or we can have sex. You got me all wet already…”
“Please,” Ilie gasped. “Becca, please, I just, I might—”
“You also got me off already,” Becca said, kneeling up to kiss his mouth. “I won’t complain.”
Ilie’s hands found her hips, and instinct seemed to take over; he knew just how to guide her onto his cock. Becca moaned right along with him as she took him inside. He was big, but he filled her just right, as though he was made for her.
He pushed up into her in a couple of tentative thrusts, and then said, “Can I, I need to—”
Becca nodded. “Whatever you—”
She whooped a little at the sudden whirling sensation as he moved her, as if she weighed nothing, bringing her down to the couch to lie on her back. He pressed his face into her breasts, kissing wildly, as he thrust into her. Becca had her hands in his hair. She could feel a second climax building as he moved in her, and then his hand found her clit, giving her the same perfect friction as he had before.
“Quick learner,” she gasped softly, arching up under him as she came again.
Ilie let out a low cry that was almost a roar as he followed her over.
***
Ilie lay still for a while on the couch with Becca, his body covering hers. The pleasure his human body could feel was almost overwhelming. The pleasure he could bring to Becca this way was worth any sacrifice.
When she stirred under him Ilie shifted his weight off her, and he became aware again of the last bits of mud clinging to his skin. Some of it had smeared over hers, wetted with their sweat, and he tried to wipe it away with the side of his hand.
“Hmm, showers are definitely in order,” Becca said. “I don’t think we’d both fit at once, more’s the pity. You can go first.”
Ilie had a feeling it would be more chivalrous to offer her the first shower, but maybe she just didn’t want him shedding mud all over her couch. He took the hint and headed to her bathroom, and spent several fascinating minutes getting better acquainted with his adult body as he scrubbed it clean. He smelled pleasantly sweet afterward—the scents of Becca’s soap and shampoo—and he borrowed a towel to wrap around his hips when he was done.
Becca gave him a kiss on her way into the shower, and he preened a little under her appreciative gaze that took him in from head to toe.
When she was in the shower, Ilie shook out the clothes Gus had loaned him, brushing the dirt that had clung to them into the kitchen sink. He remembered again his headlong rush to get to Becca, and that reminded him of the consequences of his transformation.
He reached out. Mouse?
He could feel the dog in the woods somewhere. He wasn’t running anymore, but walking briskly. Searching. Ilie’s heart squeezed tight, as though his human body couldn’t quite contain it.
Gus? He tried next.
Ilie, Gus sounded apologetic. Mouse is looking for you. I can’t get him to stop, short of tying him up, and I’m worried he’d just try to chew his way free and maybe hurt himself.
Don’t do that, Ilie agreed. He knows his way around. I’ll find him later and try to make him understand.
That’s probably the best plan.
Ilie felt an odd little hesitation before Gus’s next words. So… do you want to bring Becca to dinner tonight? If you want to move back into your old room, it’s a long way from mine and Cara’s.
Ilie snorted. I think I’ll stay here, at Becca’s, as long as she’ll have me. But dinner would be good.
He hadn’t seen his brother when they were both in human form since they were children. It would be good to see him again.
And could we have chocolate cake? Ilie remembered to ask.
He felt Gus’s laugh all through him. Ilie was still smiling himself when Becca came back out of the shower, wrapped only in a towel, and distracted him completely.
***
Cara greeted them at the door, dressed much the same as she had been that afternoon, although she’d added a sparkly, embellished headband that was nearly a tiara. She grinned at Becca, obviously sharing her sense of déjà vu. It felt like it had been much longer than a day since Becca arrived for tea with the mayor’s wife and found out the real secrets of Gray’s Hollow.
Now one of those secrets had utterly transformed, and was at her side, holding her hand.
He was also still barefoot and wearing Gus’s borrowed clothes, rather crumpled at this point. Becca had barely been introduced to Gus—who, in his human shape looked a lot like Ilie but with his hair cut too short to curl, and going a little gray at the temples—before he took a look at his brother and said, “Why don’t I come upstairs with you while you change for dinner.”
Ilie squeezed Becca’s hand and gave her a brief kiss before he said, “I’d better do what the mayor says.”
Gus rolled his eyes and smacked Ilie lightly on the side of the head. Ilie just grinned wider. “See? If I don’t hop to it pretty quickly, the beatings start.”
“Yell if you need me to come protect you,” Becca said, and for some reason that made Cara and Gus exchange a sheepish glance.
Ilie just squeezed her hand again and trotted off upstairs with Gus.
“So,” Cara said, taking Becca’s arm. “Let me show you around a little more.”
“Am I…” Becca said, because it seemed like a crazy question, but it also seemed obvious. “Is this… meet the family? Seriously? I met Ilie today.”
“It’s more… welcome to the family,” Cara said, turning to face Becca with a serious expression.
“I mean, I came to Gray’s Hollow two months ago. I wasn’t planning on moving here. But I met Gus and I just knew. And so did he. I made my promises to him the next day.” Cara touched the heavy bracelets at her wrists as she spoke. “And we got married a month later and here I am. I know it’s nuts, but…”
“They’re dragons,” Becca said, grinning as she said it. She still couldn’t get it out with a straight face, even though she knew it was perfectly true. “I guess we have to make a few allowances for the way things work when they’re around.”
“Exactly,” Cara said approvingly. “Once people get over the surprise of Ilie in his human shape, you will hear the story about Gus and Ilie’s mom and dad choosing each other at the diner about a thousand times—I swear the diner can’t hold as many people as have told me they saw it happen.”
Becca smiled, and then realized they were standing near a painted family portrait. Gus and Cara stood together, and there was a train of brothers beside them, but none of them were Ilie.
“He’s there,” Cara assured her, following her gaze. “We had that one done while Laurence was in town for the wedding—you have to catch him when he visits, he doesn’t come often. But Ilie’s there, too, just—back in the trees, do you see?”
Becca stepped closer, searching, and then she did see—the same great black shape she had thought she saw in the woods, the same glint of silver eyes. The way all the humans in the picture were posed made a little space to look past and see him, tucked in right between Gus and Cara and the other brothers.
“Is there going to be a quiz on all these guys?” Becca asked.
Ilie had told her some stories about his younger brothers, but they had two names apiece, and she couldn’t keep them straight. He’d hardly mentioned the one Cara had spoken of—Laurence—at all.
“Laurence, the twins Radu and Sunny, and Teo, but all his brothers call him Teddy. The perils of being the youngest,” Cara said, pointing to each as she spoke.
“Teo’s sweet, you’ll like him. And you can tell Rad
u and Sunny because you can hardly get one of them to stand in a room without the other. And Laurence—you’ll know when Laurence is around because it’s an occasion.”
“I guess every family has a black sheep,” Becca said hesitantly. “Although—I can’t tell if that’s Ilie or Laurence, here.”
“Neither,” Cara said, touching her fingers lightly to the dark dragon shape of Ilie in the picture. “They’ve just… both been gone a long time, in their own ways.”
She turned a grin on Becca. “But you’ve brought Ilie back, and given me another woman in the family into the bargain. Just one question—has Ilie given you any presents? I messed that up the first time Gus tried to give me one, I didn’t even realize. Has Ilie given you anything? Even something small?”
“Candy,” Becca said at once, remembering his insistence that she take the first caramel. “Mrs. McCullough—do you know…?”
“Oh, I know,” Cara said with a smile, and Becca felt a warm kinship with her.
“She gave him some candies that were his favorites when he was little. He was so excited to have them again, but he made me take the first one, and he said particularly that it was a gift. I thought that was kind of funny because it was just a piece of candy, but…”
“Courting,” Cara explained, touching one of the necklaces at her throat. “Dragons can be very traditional that way. They like to see their ladies adorned. Ilie’s never worn jewelry himself, but I know he has his own hoard, and he’ll want to give you presents. Just… know what it means, if you decide to accept any more, or if you give him back something he gave you, okay?”
“Thanks for the tip,” Becca said.
Cara took her arm again and said, “Now, really, come and see the treasure room! This is amazing.”
***
Gus stopped Ilie at the door to his old bedroom and hugged him, and Ilie wrapped his arms around his brother and held on tight. It felt strange, to have a body that matched up so exactly to Gus’s, but this was good. This was the way it would be now. Ilie would be human for Becca, and that would mean being human to everyone else, too.
