by Starla Night
Liam slumped over the pile of blocks. He was out cold.
Aw. Adorable.
She set her feet and hauled him up. He used to be so easy to tote, then he was too wiggly to be held, and now he slumped over her shoulder, heavy and trusting. “Rose…It’s bedtime.”
“That’s right. Brush your teeth.”
“Aw. I don’t want to.”
“You don’t want your teeth to fall out.” She carried him like a log into the bathroom, balanced him on the palatial marble counter, and brushed his teeth. He kept his eyes closed the whole time. He spat and dropped the toothbrush, then put his arms around her to be carried to bed. She skipped wiggling him into pajamas and tucked him in. “Goodnight. I love you.”
His lashes fluttered. “The bogeyman will hear you.”
Oops. She dropped to a whisper. “No way. We’re so far up right now. You’re safe.
His lips curved and his eyes sealed shut. “Love you, Rose.”
“Love you, too.” She lowered the lights in his room to a restful night-light glow.
Rose was a fighter. If the bogeyman showed up, she would kick his butt right out into space.
Chapter Seventeen
Rose returned from putting Liam to bed looking fierce and somehow even more beautiful than ever before.
Maybe because she ruled his lair, wore Jasper’s clothes, and enjoyed the materials he had collected for her. A dragon’s greatest pleasure was amassing a treasure for his chosen mate.
But maybe Rose always looked this beautiful, and she was only beginning to gain the confidence to show herself.
Good.
She touched the wall control panels. “Do you have another mini-fridge out here?”
He showed her that yes, the bedroom had snacks. Cristal champagne, Lady Godiva chocolate, and much more. “The wet bar in the lounge has alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.”
“I could kill for a glass of water.”
“No need for kills.” He led her out to the lounge, poured it for her, and handed her the thick-cut glass. “Here.”
She handled it gingerly. “And yet you hand me a glass that’s heavy enough to be a weapon...”
“It’s heavy because it’s handmade.”
“By an artist?”
“By me.”
Her brows rose to the ceiling, and she tilted it, careful of the water. “You learned how to blow glass?”
“I can, but this isn’t.” He showed her the smooth edges. “You value reusing, so I cut an old bottle and sanded the edges. It was an interesting project.”
“That’s kind of cool. Is there anything else here you handmade?”
“I used tools.”
“I mean assembled by an artist. Someone you know.”
“This ship.”
She blinked. “Really?”
“All of it.” He rested a hand on the smooth, curved, wood-faced metal wet bar. “Planned, built, and finished by my old coworkers and boss at Space Voyage Inc. I know who placed this bar, finished the trim, routed the plumbing.”
“That must be weird.”
“My proudest moment was ordering this from the factory.” He dropped beside her on the soft bench. “It’s a way to feel close to them even though we’ll never meet again.”
“Why not? You have a spaceship.”
“They wouldn’t allow me onto the grounds.”
“You couldn’t meet outside, like at a park?”
“Dragons don’t have parks.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Dragon businesses differ from human businesses. After we join, we never leave. The team is everything. And it’s for life.”
“You left.”
“It was hard. I tested into Space Voyages Inc. from the orphanage, as did most of my coworkers, and we expected to work together until death. When Mal came to me for a spaceship, I could barely source parts within his budget that would also survive a voyage. Then, he wanted me to leave with him. But how could I leave my team? They didn’t have siblings, they didn’t have choices. But they encouraged me. My coworkers, my boss. In the end, I joined Mal because they couldn’t. Because they wanted this adventure, and I was the only one who could have it.”
She listened sweetly, and it was a relief to share this long-kept truth with someone who understood.
He finished. “After we succeeded here, I asked others to come and join. There’s more freedom on Earth.”
“And sick days, and vacation.”
“Yes, and your strange expectation to pursue hobbies and have a life. I didn’t like it at first, but I do now, and they would, too. But they can’t imagine. I promised to treat them like my family, and they still won’t come. Even my boss who’s close to retirement. He’d rather die.”
“That’s sad.”
“My father worked at the mines until he died. He visited us during mechanical closures. His life would have been enriched on Earth. Theirs would be, too.”
“Yeah, I get why they’re scared. There, they have a support system, and here, they’d only have you. I’m the same. I’ve got nobody.”
“You’ve got me.”
Usually, she’d dismiss him but tonight things changed. She repeated, “I’ve got you… Hey, Jasper.” She stood and led him into the bedroom. “Before, you wanted to abduct me.”
“I reviewed Mace and don’t wish to experience it.”
“Good, because I’d rather tell you what I want.” She pushed him into a seated position on the foot of the bed, stepped back, and yanked the rope on her robe.
It parted to reveal her goddess body. Narrow shoulders, pert breasts topped by chocolate-droplet nipples he’d fantasized about tasting, a playful belly button in a waist the perfect span for his hands, rounded hips that begged for him to clench and a delicate feminine vee fringed by dark curls between lush thighs.
She rested a foot beside his knee challenging him. “I want something from you.”
His mouth went dry. “What?”
“You studied massage? Prove it.” She put his hands on the sides of her hips. “Make me feel amazing.”
He traced the small divots at the tops of her shapely thighs. He’d always wanted her like this. Wanting him. He dug his thumbs into her soft crease.
Her eyes widened in surprise. She buckled against him, lids half-closed, lips parted in a delicate moan. “Ohhh, how do you do that?”
He leaned back and pulled her on top of him straddling his clothed erection. Her cocoa and cream views made him so hot. “Do you want the full explanation?”
“No, no. Just keep touching me.”
“I have also studied sensual massage.”
“There’s a difference?”
He changed his angle and length of his stroke, veering toward her feminine vee and away again.
She caught him with demanding claws like a tigress. Fear warred with arousal, as though she feared the dominant predator his touch awoke, but she conquered and commanded him with gorgeous power. “I want that. You. More.”
“Yes, my goddess,” he murmured.
She smiled with satisfaction, then relaxed into needy moans. He worked her body, moving from the proper massage he had studied to the sensual massage she needed, awakening her erogenous zones and opening her to him like a flower. Her intoxicating arousal made his cock harden to ship-worthy resin. He wanted her so much.
He cupped her breasts and flicked his thumbs across her nipples.
She moaned and dropped the robe off her shoulders, unleashing her bare figure to his hungry gaze. Her feminine vee straddled his cock, and she stroked him through the pants.
He rolled out from beneath her and shredded his clothes to nude.
She waited on the bed, licked her lips. Her action summoned him like a call.
He rested one knee beside her hips.
She lowered and grabbed his cock in both small, strong hands. “You did all that education. How about here?”
“I read about this.”
She worked
her slippery hands up and down his shaft. “Only reading?”
“My sexual education wasn’t hands-on.”
“Has a woman ever put your cock in her mouth?”
His cock swelled with pleasure. “No.”
“You want it?”
He nodded, his breath ragged.
Her lips curved. “Sure?”
He nodded more aggressively. “Like in the educational videos? Yes.”
She paused. “Educational videos?”
“The vast archive of humans performing sexual techniques upon one another.”
She still looked confused.
“You call it pornography.”
Her brows lifted. “Ah.”
“And based on my extensive viewing, I think I would like it very much.”
Rose dropped her head to his turgid cock. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
She was right.
Rose sucked him in, tongued his shaft, and teased his sensitive head. The feelings of having her, of all people, put his cock in her buttery mouth differed completely from any previous sensation in his entire life. Watching had been educational, but it hadn’t affected him like this.
His mind cleared and pleasure tightened in his balls. He heard the growl in his belly and she reacted by pulling back with satisfaction.
He hovered over her, his claws out and his incisors pressing on his lips.
Holding his shift in an aggressive pose was unusual for him. He never pushed, he always compromised, he squished himself into whatever mold was necessary for the success of the team. First in the orphanage, then at the spaceship factory, and now in his family company.
Rose made him want more for himself.
She pushed him to be more than a cog in a mold. Pursue his own interests, honor his desires, build a life that satisfied him and his team. Grow and become the dragon he envisioned in his dreams.
That vision included her.
Her eyes widened.
He kissed down her body, and she arched to his touch, his kiss.
His tongue teased her fragrant sex lips. Wet, sweet, and ticklish. He lifted onto an elbow. “Has a woman ever put her mouth on you here?”
“No,” she laughed, giving him the crazy eye. “Are you serious?”
“You asked the same question of me.”
She laughed harder and brushed her fingers through his dark hair. “All right, okay. You got me.” She lifted and raised a challenging eyebrow. “So, what are you going to do with me?”
He ducked his head and showed her.
With pleasure.
While she writhed beneath his ministrations, a deep core of happiness glowed within his soul.
So long as she was with him, he would be his strongest, best self and nobody would ever tear them apart. Rose was the only person who valued Jasper for his own merits. They were an unbreakable team.
Rose lost her mind.
Jasper tore sounds from her throat that she didn’t know where possible and lifted feelings from her body she didn’t know anyone could make her feel. Pounding, throbbing, aching heat. Need. This was sex, and no wonder everyone wanted it all the time.
It was exhilarating and terrifying.
She forced her legs wide so she wouldn’t clamp her thighs around Jasper’s head until she erupted. A tigress gripped her core, and Jasper matched her, fierce as she was, a force to be reckoned with, both beautiful and terrible and awesome and strong.
He slid one finger between her lips in a sweet plunging motion that liquefied her insides, and she wanted more, so much more.
She did the clamp. “Jasper. I want you inside.”
He rose up her body. Serious, dark brown glowed in his half-dragon eyes, and shadowy brown scales shimmered beneath his skin. “If we join like this, nude, we perform the act of dragon marriage. Do you accept me?”
Fear tightened again.
He was her friend, her closest companion, her champion. She’d fought against it forever, using both real and imagined problems to keep them apart, and this was the moment of truth.
She swallowed. “I do.”
A smile twitched his lips. Lengthened incisors gave the normally steady male a dangerous edge. “You can say yes. You don’t have to use human marriage vows.”
“Yes. Yep, yep, yep. You?”
He lowered himself between her legs and positioned his thick, sexy cock that she’d tasted and enjoyed. “I do.”
She nuzzled him. “Tease.”
He kissed her hard and thorough. His cock pressed against her throbbing, hot, wet entrance.
It was too much.
Too much tenderness, too much sweetness, too much anticipation.
She rolled him over on the bed, surprising him, and ended up on top. He settled back, and she shimmied forward.
His cock entered her in one thrust.
Quick pain flashed. Like when he’d massaged her, her muscles clenched, and he mirrored the shock she felt. After all this time, their joining was a little wild and not what either expected.
He pulled back.
No.
She tugged forward, and he tried to soften the experience for her, and she reversed when he didn’t expect it. Pleasure rushed through her, and the rhythm of their dance again took them both by surprise. She was so full of him, so filled with him, so intimately and pleasurably joined. Hungry need simmered in the myriad feelings.
Because she did need him. Jasper was her rock, her lucky pebble, her secret desire. The one she wasn’t supposed to have, and the only one she wanted. He’d been here all along, and she’d almost lost him to her own fears. Life’s hurricanes had ripped so many things from her hands, she’d been too afraid to reach out and try for one more desire.
Until now.
Jasper thrust into her. His cock pressed against a pleasure spot.
She moaned and thrust against him.
He chased her pleasure, hunting and gaining it, bobbing at her pace, slipping against her wildness. His finger sought her nub, and he slid sweet pressure against her in two places. His other hand cupped her breast and tortured the taut brown bulb.
She imploded from his finger, and then his other finger, and then his cock, and the pleasure snowballed into an avalanche of release that cascaded through her body in a multicolor, multi-flavor, champagne-and-chocolates orgasm that lingered long after the explosive burst. The gush of pleasure shuddered through her whole body. She rode it and him hard.
He bucked and held, groaning with his release, and collapsed flat on the bed.
She collapsed on top of him.
The room cooled to a perfect temperature, and she considered unpeeling herself from him and going for a second bath. He was warm, radiant, and comforting. She stayed a little longer.
But all things ended. She knew that more than anyone.
Usually, they ended when she least expected it. So, she got into a habit of challenging it. “What happens tomorrow?”
“Have you found your car?”
“Not yet.”
“We’ll carpool.” He rolled her braids between his fingers.
“Liam has preschool after you start.”
“I’ll go in late.”
“And I have to talk to the administrators.”
“Then I’ll pick you up on a morning break.”
She sat up, amused. “You take breaks now?”
He shoved a hand under his dark head. “Why not? We’re on Earth, and I’m no longer employed. I can leave. We could take a vacation.”
“Fly away into the stars…” But she’d still have to worry about her family, especially Grandma. Nobody would scrub the mold. How would she get to her appointments? And Liam had school. “I don’t think the new guy’s approving vacations right now. He tried to fire us for the ones in the past.”
“He didn’t read your employment contracts.”
“Bingo.”
Jasper frowned. “I told him about the handbook, but I expected his prior experience with humans to fill any gaps. Per
haps that was an error.”
“It was an error. The others almost started a riot.”
“I’m no longer in any chain of command, but I’ll chat with him when I go in tomorrow.”
“That would be great.” Rose stood and stretched, feeling the workout in tiny, unused muscles between her thighs. Huh. She dropped onto her heels. “Now you just have to fix Briar and we can go on vacation.”
“Really?” He sat up. “Tell me about her injuries.”
“Why? Are you a doctor now?”
“My boss got treatment for his head injury. Maybe there are similarities.”
“Briar’s not a dragon.”
“I am aware.”
Rose shrugged. “Actually, there were two big injuries, then a bunch of smaller ones. The first one...Briar was in the car accident that killed our dad.”
“I’m very sorry.”
“Yeah. Life is weird.” She stretched one leg, then the other. “It was ‘Take Your Daughter to Work’ Day, and I got sick the night before, so Dad left me with Grandma. I was so jealous. Then, on the bridge to his work, a semi-truck lost its cargo of big metal tubes. Dad had nowhere to swerve. He didn’t even make it to the hospital, while Briar was banged up and bruised.” She shook her head. “After that, I tried not to get jealous of anything, because you never know. You just never know.”
“When was that?”
“Seventh grade.” Rose shrugged off the ancient history. “Briar didn’t seem that hurt, so we let her quit counseling. Then, she stopped reading because it gave her headaches, and she made friends with some real jerks. They encouraged her to break into houses. In high school, she dove in the pool. That time, we knew something was wrong, but the settlement was gone.”
“What’s ‘the settlement’?”
“The accident was a big deal,” she said. “The load wasn’t properly secured, and the truck company had to pay for everything plus punitive damages because they were so reckless. We should have lived in a nice house, done after-school activities, and attended four years of any in-state college, each, according to our lawyer, but Grandma was the administrator of the trust and my uncle conned her into giving it all to him.”
