by Lilly Pink
“Don’t apologize,” she replied, her own voice roughened by desire. “I thought I was going to be cautious too, but I’ve since changed my mind.”
“Oh?” he asked, his eyebrow raised mischievously. “What is it that you desire, my heart? I live to serve your happiness.”
“You, Kian. Only you,” Zoe answered, wrapping her legs around his hips and her arms around his neck. He kissed her once, hot and hungry, his teeth grazing her lip as he pulled away and slid down her body, lavishing kisses on each bit of her that he passed, her chin, her throat, the hollowed indent of her collarbone. His tongue circled the peak of each breast until they were taut and hard. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed when he moved his mouth lower, kissing down her stomach until his fingers lay on the button of her jeans, and his lips pressed just under her navel with a gentleness that made her shiver. He paused and looked up at her, a question in his eyes.
Zoe nodded, smiling and reaching down to run her fingers through his hair. A moment later, he was sliding her pants down over her hips and kissing her through the thin fabric of her underpants. His breath felt almost scalding hot and she gasped as her back arched toward him in silent entreaty. Kian’s smile turned wolfish as he pulled her underwear down too, much more slowly than was necessary, his fingers tracing feather-light touches down her thighs and all the way to her feet.
When he came back to kneel between her legs, she had risen to meet him, tired of being a passive participant. She leaned in for another kiss while her hands explored down his chest and stomach, and smiled against his mouth when she felt his muscles twitch at her touch.
The slight hitch in his breath when her hands found the edge of his pants and slid inside was telling. Zoe sighed at the feeling of his smooth skin under her fingers, squeezing the taut muscles of his backside; his pants were loose enough that she could slide them off without undoing the drawstring at his waist, and Kian stood as she did so, letting the garment fall to the floor.
It was a pleasing view, seeing him standing naked before her, the sun sparking fire from his dark red hair and making his golden-brown skin nearly glow. Kian was muscled like an athlete, a swimmer or a gymnast perhaps, beautifully toned without being overbuilt. Zoe found it both somewhat funny and sad that she could tell he was unsure of himself, that even he worried that his lover might find him unlovely.
She pulled him close, wrapping her arms around his hips and kissing his stomach before turning her attention to his erect manhood, trembling alert in its nest of curls. Her fingers caressed it from root to tip, as gently as if it were made of spun sugar, and he gripped her shoulders for balance, gasping. A wicked thought made her eyes sparkle, and she slid her hands teasingly up his abdomen as she took him inside her mouth.
A strangled sound of surprise and pleasure escaped his lips. His hips rocked into her, the fingers of one hand flexing on her shoulder while the other buried itself knuckle deep in her hair. She chuckled low in her throat, and the sensation of her laughing mouth around him seemed to drive Kian wild.
He growled as he pulled away, pressing her back into the bed with a rough kiss that left her breathless. Zoe wrapped her legs around his hips as he finally entered her, both of them hissing with the intensity of sensation. The slightest movement of him within her sent prickles of heat racing through her veins, and the first thrust made her gasp. Just being near him and touching him had her so keyed up; she already felt like she was teetering on the brink.
“Zoe,” Kian moaned breathlessly. “You feel so good, you are so perfect, I…” Whatever else he might have said, she silenced with her mouth. She wanted to touch every bit of him with every bit of her. While their tongues twisted together, hot and wet, she ran her nails down his back, making him moan into her mouth once more.
He filled her perfectly and completely, and she could feel every inch of him sliding against her slick inner walls, a steady rhythm that was not quite frantic. Every time their hips met it made her think of sparking bits of flint, every thrust coming closer to setting her aflame. A warm buzzing tension coiled in her belly, a dam that was about to break. Moans started to burst from her lips, and there was now no room for kissing in between their gasping breaths.
She felt the moment he lost his last bit of control. His head fell back, and his hips crashed into hers with wild abandon, thrusting sharp and short, again and again. Her orgasm loosed itself, roaring over and through her like and avalanche of bliss, and as all her muscles contracted around him, it brought Kian over the edge as well.
He moaned out her name, and his cock spasming within her only drove her pleasure to new heights, until it seemed they rode an infinite spiral of shared ecstasy. All they could do was clutch at each other in desperation as wave after wave of pleasure nearly drowned them.
When Zoe was next able to form a coherent thought, she felt Kian withdraw from with a quiet gasp. She made a small whimper of protest as he brushed overstimulated nerves, and then sighed with contentment when he fell back into the bed next to her and pulled her close. His heartbeat thundered against her back, and for a few moments they were silent as they waited for their breath to return.
“I am sorry. That was not nearly as tender and languorous a lovemaking as I had intended,” Kian said, kissing her neck and sighing. “I was not prepared for such… intensity.”
“Are you upset about it? Because I’m not,” she replied, turning to face him and brushing her fingers along his cheek. “After all, there will be other mornings.” Zoe hoped that was true, hoped with all of her being, but she wasn’t sure she believed it yet.
Still, the look of love and happiness on Kian’s face nearly melted her heart. “Yes, my love. Many other mornings.”
CHAPTER THREE
Zoe felt she could have been content to lay beside Kian for hours, laying her head on his chest and listening to his heartbeat while he ran his fingers through her hair, but her own body betrayed those desires. They had only laid there a few minutes before her stomach growled loudly, and Kian laughed. “It seems we have woken your appetite. I suppose that means we will have to get out of bed.”
“Please tell me I won’t have to see people to get breakfast,” she grumbled. “I know I need a bath and I look like hell.”
He helped her to her feet, pulling her against his chest with a smile. “You are as beautiful as ever, no matter how unruly your hair. But to answer your question, no. I have some food and drink here, nothing extravagant, but good enough to break our fast. But if you would like, we can bathe first.” It was a more difficult decision than one might expect. Zoe was starving, but Kian showed her the bathroom, since of course she had to pee, and once she saw the tub, the urgency of breakfast waned.
No porcelain and chrome in here. Instead, there was a deep pool carved of blue and green stone which was smoothed by either magic or long use. Though the gently flowing water was currently cool, Kian explained that with magic it was simple enough to heat your bath water to whatever temperature you wanted. It was an opportunity she was not going to pass up, especially considering that Kian would be there with her.
He put his hand into the water and frowned at it. A few moments later, steam was rising from the tub; it was warm enough to loosen muscles but not hot enough to be uncomfortable, as she discovered when he scooped her up into his arms and strode into the pool without a word.
Considering the fact that they had just finished making love, it surprised Zoe how easily her desire for him was stoked. Just a kiss to the back of her neck, lingering with the scrape of his teeth, was enough to have her hips grinding back into him.
It was like being a teenager again, but better, because being with Kian lacked the awkward fumbling of youth. Now they did take their time, and when they flew into the height of ecstasy together, Zoe didn’t think she would ever feel anything more magical.
Kian washed her hair, massaging her head in firm circles that felt almost as good as the orgasm she’d had a moment earlier. He hummed with satisfa
ction when she sagged against his chest, feeling more relaxed than she had in months. “You always take such joy in simple pleasures, my heart. It remains one of my favorite things about you.”
“We’ve done this before, haven’t we?” she said, looking up into his honey-gold eyes, which were alight with love. It made her heart turn over in her chest to see his emotions so plain on his face. She didn’t know if she had enough love in her being to match it.
“Not as many times I would have liked,” he said, a soft smile gracing his features as he brushed her damp hair from her face and kissed her forehead. “And not here, precisely, but somewhere very much like it in the Dreaming.”
He paused, perhaps reminding himself that it wasn’t necessary to explain all the details. “In any case, I am sorry if it makes you uncomfortable. I know it must be difficult to feel that you have missed so many shared experiences. It is possible that we may be able to recover some of those memories, but I hope might we concentrate on making new ones as well.”
“Of course,” Zoe replied, and she wanted it to be true. With every fiber of her being, she wanted to make a life with him, but she didn’t think it was possible. She didn’t trust this perfect world; it couldn’t be real.
Almost as if he could hear her thoughts, Kian winced, an expression of pain tightening around his eyes before being suppressed. On the one hand, it made Zoe feel awful knowing she was hurting him, but on the other hand, it made her a bit angry. What was she supposed to think? How could he expect her to just take all of this at face value?
An awkward silence persisted for several moments, seeming to stretch out into eternity as Zoe dressed herself in the clothes Kian had given her. First came a sleeveless cotton underdress and shorts, and over that went a robe of midnight blue embroidered silk. It fastened with ties at her hips and armpits and then was held closed by a wide silver sash and a knotted blue cord. There was a pair of silver slippers that went with the outfit, and Zoe knew she shouldn’t be surprised that they fit perfectly, but she was.
It was when she was trying to drag a brush through her knotted hair that she felt Kian’s hands on her shoulders. “Allow me to help you,” he said, a statement that he spoke as a question, his voice low and rough. Zoe handed him the brush wordlessly, watching him in the mirror of polished crystal. He worked to undo the knots with his fingers as much as with the brush, his movements gentle and deliberate.
She knew the frown that creased his forehead was not due to the hair, and guilt pricked at her again. It was hard to hold onto her own anger when she knew things must be equally difficult for him, and all she wanted to do was smooth the worries away with her fingers. To kiss the smile back onto his face.
“Kian, I…” she began, unsure what she was actually going to say but unwilling to leave things as they were.
“It is I who should be sorry, jãné del-am,” he said, preempting any apology she might have offered. “I have placed so many burdens upon you, and asked you to accept much on faith alone. I should have brought you here long ago, but I was afraid. Afraid I would fail, or worse, in my mind, afraid you would refuse. Now, I suppose I fear I have left it too late, and that you will never forgive me for leaving you so long in ignorance.”
“How long have we known each other?” she asked, turning to face him. He couldn’t quite meet her eyes then, and she knew it must have been a long time. “Sometimes, it feels like we’ve always been together, and other times, everything seems new and fresh.”
“I cannot be certain how long you would say it was, because time flows strangely in the Dreaming. You have not changed very much since I first saw you, so I suspect it has been no more than a year or two, but for me it has been much longer. When I first saw you in my dreams, I had barely entered manhood, and though I didn’t approach you right away, still… I am ashamed to admit the truth of how many years have passed since I first held you in my arms.”
“It can’t have been that long ago,” she said with a chuckle. “You don’t look any older than I am.”
“I am not, if one’s age were to be calculated as a fraction of one’s predicted lifespan. In fact, I suppose I would be quite a bit younger,” he said with a wry smirk. “But the passage of time does not affect the people here as it does your own. I am over a hundred years old, and should nothing untoward befall me, I may live thousands more. I have been in love with you for nearly half of my life.”
“Fifty years?” she said in a hoarse whisper. “How is that even possible? Does that mean when I die, it will only seem like a few months has passed for you?” It was such a wild idea that Zoe couldn’t even begin to assign an emotion to it. Sadness, anger, even a little fear, they were all roiling around in her thoughts.
“No. On that one fact I can reassure you. Now that you are here, you can expect to live just as long as I do, if fate permits.” He hung his head. “I am sorry, Zoe. It took me many years to find the right spell, to make sure it would work, and then when I was finally ready…. I lost my nerve. You seemed… happy, in your world, for the most part, and I knew you had almost no memories of our time together.
It felt cruel to pull you from your life, and, as I said, I was terrified that you would refuse. But I never expected…” his eyes strayed to her abdomen, though she knew he couldn’t actually see anything. The slight bump was hardly noticeable even without several layers of clothing. “I couldn’t leave you alone then,” he continued, his voice now barely above a whisper.
“I knew you would be confused and frightened. As bad as it was being without you, I could justify it to myself if I could say that you were doing well on your own, and clearly that was no longer true. But more than that, the idea that I would never hold our child, that you would have to go through everything alone, not even remembering that I existed… It was more than I could bear.”
Zoe leaned into him, sighing and kissing his chest before looking up into his face with a tentative smile. “I’m glad that you came for me, Kian. This is a lot for me to process, and you keep adding more and more weirdness to it. But no matter what I think of everything else, I believe in you. I love you, so much, and that’s why I agreed to come with you in the first place.”
“And I love you,” he answered, nearly crushing her in his embrace. “I will try to be more patient with you,” he added as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Now let us find the food I promised, before I am remiss in even the most simple acts of caring for you.”
***
Breakfast was fruit, cheese, and brown bread with honey. Simple, maybe, but when you were used to eating mostly processed junk, real, wholesome food tasted heavenly. “After eating, I thought I would introduce you to some of the others who live here, if you are not too tired.”
“Do they know about me?” she asked with a nervous swallow, not actually sure what answer she would prefer to hear.
“They know that you exist, yes, although how many of them believe I have invented you out of desperate loneliness, I could not say,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “Most simply know that I have found someone in the Dreaming, and that I intend to attempt to bring them over. I have a few close friends that know more details. None of them have met you, if that is what you are asking. Even if I had been inclined to share my time with you, which I was not,” he said, his eyes glinting in a way that made Zoe chuckle. “It would take more power to guide another that way than I am willing to waste just to satisfy curiosity.”
That was something of a relief to her. “Do your people bring visitors here often? From my world, or from others?”
“No. You are the only one in my lifetime. It takes years of training to be able to consciously travel the Dreaming, and it is not a particularly popular area of study.” He smiled, gripping her hand from across the table. “Everyone will be delighted to meet you, Zoe. You’ll see.”
For Kian’s sake, she tried not to add this to her growing list of anxieties. Besides, if this is only a dream, it hardly matters if his friends don’t like you. Unhelpf
ul as it was, the thought reassured her enough that she smiled when he asked if she was ready to leave.
He led her out onto a balcony so huge that she couldn’t fathom what it might be used for, but she was so stunned by the view that she didn’t spend much time thinking about it. Sky as far as she could see, with only high wisps of cloud marring the unbroken expanse of blue. Snow-capped mountains marched into the distance, and Zoe approached the edge with caution, intending to see what lay below.
The wind gusted alarmingly, whipping her hair and pulling at her clothes, actually pushing her toward the ledge before her, which, she now realized, had no railing. She scrambled backwards with a stifled shriek, and Kian put a steadying arm on her shoulder.
“I would not let you fall,” he said reassuringly, though she could tell he found her reaction amusing. “But it is wise to be cautious. The winds here can be unpredictable.”
“What is this place even for? The view is amazing but it seems too big and dangerous to be useful,” she said, leaning into his chest for warmth and comfort as her breathing returned to normal.
He raised an eyebrow. “It is for flying. More specifically, for taking off. This is my private dwelling, and it is only reachable by air.”
“Oh,” she replied, feeling a thrill of excitement as well as fear. “Am I going to ride on you?”
Kian’s mouth quirked into a half-smile, and she could almost hear the naughty joke that he was holding back. “You could, though I doubt that would be very comfortable for a long period. However, I presumed you would prefer to fly yourself.”
“You mean,” she said with a sharply indrawn breath. “You weren’t kidding about the whole dragon thing? You want me to turn into a dragon. Won’t that, um.. take a while?”
“No, on both points. Your dragon form is not a skill that must be learned so much as something inside you that must be awakened. It does take some getting used to, but that can only be learned by doing. This is not a shape you are taking like a costume that you take on and off. It is you, just a part of you that lies dormant.
