by Ophelia Bell
“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—her mouth steadily working up and down his shaft, 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 gray 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.”
“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.
Whatever it was that made her so certain she couldn’t get pregnant would come soon enough, because he made a silent vow in that moment to never let her go. Being a father didn’t matter so much as long as he could have her.
Chapter Eleven
Evie
Somewhere Over the Pacific Ocean
Present Day
Evie drifted in and out of sleep for the duration of the journey. Sometime in midday she came awake, her breath catching in her throat at the vast expanse of nothing but ocean beneath them. She ached to shift and fly beside them—to feel the Wind flowing around her wings and body, cleansing her of the residue of confinement she felt coated in. She flexed her muscles experimentally. Her back twinged when she moved and she let out a hiss at the pain that shot through her.
“I could only heal some of your wounds with the first breath. Whatever they did to you isn’t responding as it should to my healing power.” Gavra’s voice resonated through her ears even over the rush of air. “At this rate, it will take much more healing for the other wounds. You won’t be able to fly again for quite a while, I’m afraid. If you’re willing to breathe me in now, I can give you more.”
“I’ve been earthbound for fifty years. What’s a few more weeks? But I will take more,” she said.
Once she’d taken in another lungful of his spicy breath, she shifted around in the cage of his large claws and peered beneath them. They flew so high, the clouds looked like huge, white islands floating in a crystal-clear sea. This was the world as she remembered it. Her favorite part of the world, too. The part where she’d always
been free from worry and at her very lightest. Nothing mattered up here but the state of being in between. In between the fiery sun and the earth and water. Touched by all three, but apart from them.
Except she’d been touched even deeper by fire, she realized, staring across at Ked, who flew slightly in front of the rest of the group, their bodies aligned in a V-formation.
The wind rushing over Evie’s body might have chilled her if it hadn’t been for that burn inside her. Just as it had been with Marcus, she wished for Ked’s touch now. She wished for that flame to be fed and fed to the point that it consumed her entirely the way her love for Marcus had consumed her at the end.
As he’d lain there dying in her arms, her only wish was that they had, indeed, burst into flames, reduced to pile of ashes together. She’d even fallen asleep and dreamed through her pain that it was true, that they’d immolated in their last embrace, and that something wondrous and beautiful had burst forth from their charred remains. Not cherubs, like he’d first suggested the day they’d met. No… A creature part fire, part wind, but all the best parts of them both.
* * *
Brooklyn, New York
1965
Evie’s body shuddered as much from her crying as from her orgasm. She wanted everything Marcus had suggested. More than anything. She’d dreamed for years of finding her One and having a family with him.
Marcus was so perfect. Why couldn’t it really be him? Why did she feel such a strong connection, but not the right connection to him? She suppressed a soft sob as he pulled her down to the mattress and enveloped her in his arms, shushing her gently.
“What is it, Evie? You can tell me anything.”
She snuffled and shook her head, unable to get any words out at all, which was good because she couldn’t tell him the truth anyway. If only he were the One, she could tell him, and then they could mate and have that baby he so wished for. The one she had always wished for, too.
But he wasn’t. The tingling rush of magic through her body told her as much. He was definitely human, but he’d been touched by dragons. Blessed. That meant he could never be hers. Ever. That was the nature of a Blessed human. They were rare and gifted. It explained how he seemed to know she was something beyond human. It also explained why he was so attracted to her. Her race and the dragons had very similar auras to untrained senses. It didn’t help that dragons embodied all the elements while still commanding fire as their primary. Marcus had likely been blessed by a White dragon, to be drawn so strongly to a creature like Evie—a child of the Wind.
The rush of logic didn’t stop the tears from flowing. All that remained once those thoughts faded was the one thought: he belonged to a dragon. And she’d just tried to steal him.
Even worse… they’d shared energy during all the times they’d made love so far. That meant he’d have started forging a bond with her simply by virtue of the act. He probably didn’t even have a clue what he’d done, either, or why he felt the way he did. Shit, that had to be why he suddenly wanted a baby with her.
“Evie?” Marcus gripped her shoulder and squeezed, then slid his hand up to her cheek and brushed an errant tear from her eye.
Evie sniffled. “I’m okay. I just… talking about some things is hard for me.”
“You want what I want, don’t you? But…” He paused and let his hand slide over her hip and rest on her belly. “It can’t happen, can it?”
Her throat constricted and hot tears seeped from her eyes again. “No,” she said, forcing the word past the sob that threatened to escape.
“It’s all right. Shush.” He squeezed her tighter for a moment then moved to tug a blanket over them.
She let out a heavy sigh once he snuggled back down behind her. Turning in his arms, she peered up at him through wet lashes. “You want something I can never give you. Why aren’t you sending me away?”
His lips twisted wryly. “I just met you. I’m not the kind of guy to give up after one try. Or…” He pulled out a hand and tapped the tips of his fingers. “Four? Five? I lost count. And trying is ninety percent of the fun.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
It will never happen. The thought destroyed her, but in the cocoon of his embrace she wanted so much to give him hope. Who knew how long it would take her to find her One? After all, it had been a hundred and fifty years already. It could take centuries longer, for all she knew. Why not find happiness with him for as long as she could?
Evie’s conscience pricked at that thought. He didn’t belong to her. He was Blessed, which meant he belonged to a dragon, and likely one from the new brood that would soon awaken. But by her math, that was still decades in the future. Would he even live that long?
Evie blinked through her tears, an idea coming to her. Blessed humans tended to live long lives, but still had normal human lifespans if they never found a dragon mate. If she kept sharing her energy with him, he would live longer. Much longer. She could keep him until the time came to give him up. Or until she found her One.
“Three for you, four for me,” she said, sinking back into him, content in her decision. His dragon blessing meant he needed that transfer of energy to prolong his life. Evie would be more than happy to give him all the magic he needed. “Let’s try to top it tomorrow.”
* * *
Evie had never found it so difficult to leave a man’s bed before. It didn’t help that Marcus seemed distinctly reluctant to let her go. He clung to her when she rolled over the next morning and sat up, hunting for her clothes. His arms wrapped around her naked hips and his cheek pressed against her thigh.
“You said we’d top yesterday.” His bright eyes peered up at her from where his head rested on her leg. He gave her navel a flirty lick and then pouted at her.
“You remember my brothers, right? They’re going to miss me.” Her brothers were probably oblivious to her absence. The truth was she’d lain awake for half the night worrying over her decision. She could see no flaw in her logic—she likely had a true mate out there somewhere waiting for her, and Marcus’s blessing would aim him at a dragon the moment the right one showed herself. But neither of those things were likely to happen anytime soon—or so she hoped.
Her grandmother always seemed to have wisdom to share when Evie was stuck in such a dilemma. She simply had to go home and talk to Nanyo to make sure she was doing the right thing before she committed to the idea.
Marcus groaned and sat up. “Your brothers are probably going to kill me, aren’t they?”
Evie looked over her bare shoulder at him and smiled. “They won’t if they know how much I like you.”
Her heart lurched in her chest at the little lie she told. She more than liked him. It took all her will not to strip back down and crawl back into the bed beside him.
She focused her energy on dressing instead, pulling her blouse over her head and tugging on her calf boots once her skirt was buttoned. She had to get out of there before he tempted her too much, but if her grandmother gave her a favorable answer, she intended to be back in this very bed as soon as she was able to.
She gave him a long, slow kiss and tried to ignore the dejected look in his eyes when she walked out his door.
When she got back to the Brooklyn row house apartment she shared with her grandmother and brothers, Evie tugged off her boots, sank down onto the worn sofa, and buried her head in a pillow. The feeling of longing hadn’t left her for the entire short trip. She was alternately elated and despairing. Marcus made her so happy, made her feel so good, but still… he wasn’t the One.
A weight settled on the end of the sofa by her feet, a warm, gentle hand resting on top of her knee.
“Welcome home. Did you have an adventure last night?” Her grandmother’s low, smooth voice always reminded her of the hoot of an owl. Both eerie and comforting depending on her mood.
“No more than my brothers did,” Evie said, pausing for
a moment as she noted the general silence in the house betraying their absence. Her brothers regularly frequented clubs after they did their duties in the park and were rarely home before dawn, either. This was the first time in several years that she’d done the same.
Her grandmother’s strong hand squeezed hers. “You had a bigger adventure than they did, I am sure.”
Evie sighed and pulled the pillow away from her face. “I met someone, Nanyo. But he isn’t… him.”
“But he means something to you.” It was a statement, not a question. Damn, the woman always knew her inside and out.
“Yes. But I can’t have him, Nanyo. I tried to believe this whole one true mate thing was utter bullshit. What if I don’t believe there is only one? It’s been so long, why hasn’t it happened already? What if I don’t believe it’s possible?” After the night she’d had, she was confused as hell, but she was fooling herself if she really thought the man she was meant to be with didn’t exist. She only hoped her conviction that Marcus wasn’t the One was an indication of how strong her feelings would be for her true mate when she finally found him.
Nanyo shifted to face her, leaning one arm on the back of the sofa, her hand sweeping in a short, graceful gesture. “If you don’t believe there is one, why not just choose this man you met?”
“I would—or I would try—except he could never belong to me. Nanyo. He is Blessed.”
Her grandmother squeezed her leg again and Evie watched as the elderly woman squared her shoulders and settled in like she did when she had something particularly wise to share. Evie was struck suddenly by the older woman’s delicate features, so at odds with her long-standing perception of the woman.
Nanyo was the steel-hardened matriarch of their family. Evie’s parents had left to pursue their dreams, trusting their children to the capable hands of the older woman. But Evie and her brothers were long grown by then. She didn’t blame her parents for their love for each other and their desire to share the majority of their lives together alone. They’d raised Evie and her brothers after a long love affair and had centuries left to spend together without the burden of parenting children who should be able to take care of themselves.
